o the
voyagers the poetical fables of Arcadia.

The reception Captain Wallis met with from these people was in the first
instance very different from that which Captain Cook and his companions
now received. No sooner did the Dolphin, which the savages called a
huge canoe without an outrigger, appear, than several thousand people,
in canoes laden with stones, came off and attacked her. Not until they
had been repeatedly fired on, and many of their number had been killed,
did they retire. Several shots were fired at the crowds on shore before
they would disperse. The people then saw that it would be hopeless to
contend with the strangers, and with green boughs in their hands sued
for peace. After this, Captain Wallis was treated with great attention,
especially by a female chief, whom he called a queen or princess, and
who lived in a house much larger than any others in the neighbourhood.
On Captain Cook's arrival, no trace of her house was to be found, and
the princess herself had disappeared. Indeed, the voyagers were
convinced that as yet they had seen none of the leading chiefs of the
island. The next day, however, two persons of greater consequence than
any who had yet appeared came off, called Matahah and Tootahah; the
first fixing on Mr Banks as his friend, and the latter on Captain Cook.
The ceremony consisted in the natives taking off a great part of their
clothing, and putting on that of their white friends. A similar
ceremony exists among some of the tribes of North America. The dress of
the natives was formed from cloth made of the bark of the paper-mulberry
tree.

Captain Cook, Mr Banks, and others accompanied these chiefs on shore,
where they met another chief, Tubourai Tamaide, and formed a treaty of
friendship with him. He invited them to his house, and gave them a
feast of fish, bread-fruit, cocoanuts, and plantains, dressed after the
native fashion. The natives ate some of the fish raw, a feat the
Englishmen could not accomplish. The general harmony was interrupted by
Dr Solander and Mr Monkhouse finding that their pockets had been
picked, the one of an opera glass, the other of his snuff-box. Mr
Banks on this started up and struck the butt end of his musket violently
on the ground. On this, most of the people ran away, but the chief
remained. To show his concern, and that he had nothing to do with the
theft, he offered Mr Banks several pieces of native cloth as a
compensation. When Mr