had made this excursion.

The place we went to was a village, most delightfully situated on the
bank of the inlet, where all, or most of the principal persons of the
island reside, each having his house in the midst of a small plantation,
with lesser houses, and offices for servants. These plantations are
neatly fenced round; and, for the most part, have only one entrance.
This is by a door, fastened on the inside by a prop of wood, so that a
person has to knock before he can get admittance. Public roads, and
narrow lanes, lie between each plantation, so that no one trespasseth
upon another. Great part of some of these inclosures is laid out in
grass-plots, and planted with such things as seem more for ornament than
use; but hardly any were without the _kava_ plant, from which they make
their favourite liquor. Every article of the vegetable produce of the
island abounded in others of these plantations; but these, I observed,
are not the residence of people of the first rank. There are some large
houses near the public roads, with spacious smooth grass-plots before
them, and uninclosed. These, I was told, belonged to the king; and
probably they are the places where their public assemblies are held. It
was to one of these houses, as I have already mentioned, that we were
conducted soon after our landing at this place.

About noon, the next day, this Mareewagee, of whom we had heard so much,
actually came to the neighbourhood of our post on shore, and with him a
very considerable number of people of all ranks. I was informed, that he
had taken this trouble on purpose to give me an opportunity of waiting
upon him; having probably heard of the displeasure I had shewn on my
disappointment the day before. In the afternoon, a party of us,
accompanied by Feenou, landed, to pay him a visit. We found a person
sitting under a large tree near the shore, a little to the right of the
tent. A piece of cloth, at least forty yards long, was spread before
him, round which a great number of people of both sexes were seated. It
was natural to suppose that this was the great man, but we were
undeceived by Feenou, who informed us that another, who sat on a piece
of mat, a little way from this chief, to the right hand, was Mareewagee,
and he introduced us to him, who received us very kindly, and desired us
to sit down by him. The person who sat under the tree, fronting us, was
called Toobou; and, when I have occasion to speak of him afterward,