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canoe. They feemed afraid to touch thefe things, and put the piece of wood afidewithout untying them. This, however, might arife from fuperflition ; for Omai toldus, that when they faw us offering them prefents, they alked fomething for their Eatooa,or god. He alfo, perhaps improperly, put the queftion to them, Whether they evereat human flefh ? which they anfwered in the negative, with a mixture of indignationand abhorrence. One of them, whofe name was Mourooa, being afked how he came bya fear on his forehead, told us, that it was the confequeuce of a wound he had got infighting with the people of an ifland, which lies to the north-eaftward, who fometimescame to invade them. They afterward took hold of a rope. Still, however, theywould not venture on board; but told Omai , who underftood them pretty well, thattheir countrymen on fhore had given them this caution, at the fame time direftingthem to inquire, from whence our (hip came, and to learn the name of the captain.On our part, we inquired the name of the ifland, which they called Mangya or Man-geea; and fometimes added to it Nooe, nai, naiwa. The name of their chief, theyfaid, was Orooaeeka.
Mourooa was lufty and well made, but not very tall. His features were agreeable,and his difpofition feemingly no lefs fo ; for he made feveral droll gefliculations, whichindicated both good-nature and a (hare of humour. He alfo made others which feemedof a ferious kind, and repeated fome words with a devout air, before he ventured tolay hold of the rope at the (hip’s ftern; which was probably to recommend himfelf tothe protection of fome divinity. His colour was nearly of the fame call with thatcommon to the mod; fouthern Europeans. The other man was not fo handfome. Bothof them had llrong, flraight hair, of a jet colour, tied together on the crown of thehead with a bit of cloth. They wore fuch girdles as we had perceived about thofe onIhore, and we found they were a fubftance made from the morus papyrifera, in thefame manner as at the other iflands of this ocean. It was glazed like the fort ufed bythe natives of the Friendly iflands; but the cloth on their heads was white, like thatwhich was found at Otaheite . They had on.a kind of fandals, made of a graflfy fub-ftance interwoven, which we alfo obferved were worn by thofe who flood upon thebeach; an^l, as we fuppofed, intended to defend their feet againft: the rough coralrock. THeir beards were long, and the infide of their arms, from the fhoulder to theelbow, and fome other parts, were pun&ured or tatooed, after the manner of the in-habitants of almoft all the other iflands in the South-Sea. The lobe of their ears waspierced, or rather flit, and to fuch a length, that one of them (luck there a knife andfome beads, which he had received from us ; and the fame perfon had two polifh e f-pearl-fhells, and a bunch of human hair, loofely twilled, hanging about his neck, whichwas the only ornament we obferved. The canoe they came in (which was the onlyone we faw) was not above ten feet long, and very narrow j but both firong anneatly made. The fore-part had a flat board faflened over it, and projecting out, toprevent the fea getting in on plunging, like the i'tnall evaas at Otaheite ; but it haan upright ftern, about five feet high, like fome in New Zealand ; and the upper endof this Itern-pofl was forked. The lower part of the canoe was of a white wood }but the upper was black, and their paddles, made of wood of the fame colour, ^above three feet long, broad at one end, and blunted. They paddled either end of thecanoe forward indifferently; and only turned about their faces to paddle the con-trary way.
We now flood off and on; and as foon as the (hips were in a proper flation, aboutten o clock I ordered two boats, one of them from the Difcovery, to found the coa »and to endeavour to find a landing-place. With this view, I went in one of th e j^