he greatest veneration; and I should not be surprised
if, one day or other, divine honours should be paid to it. They still
believe Capt. Cook is living; and their seeing Mr. Bentham our purser,
whom they perfectly recollected as having been the voyage with him, and
spoke their language, will confirm them in that opinion.

The harbour was surveyed by Mr. Geo. Passmore, the master, an able and
experienced officer.

Our officers here, as at Rio Janeiro, showed the most manly and
philanthropic disposition, by giving up their cabins, and sacrificing
every comfort and convenience for the good of mankind, in accommodating
boxes with plants of the Bread-fruit tree, that the laudable intentions
of government might not be frustrated from the loss of his majesty's ship
_Bounty_.

We had now completed our water from an excellent spring, out of a rock
close to the water's edge, at Offaree.

King Ottoo, and his queen Edea, came on board, and were very importunate
in their solicitations to Capt. Edwards, requesting him to take them to
England with him. Aeredy, the concubine, likewise requested the same
favour; but she more generously begged they might all three go together.
But Oripai, and the other chiefs, remonstrated against his going, as they
were on the eve of a war.

We were now perfectly ready for sea; and as Capt. Cook's picture is
presented to all strangers, it is customary for navigators to write their
observations on the back of it; so our arrival and departure was notified
upon it.

The ship was filled with cocoa-nuts and fruit, as many pigs, goats, and
fowls, as the decks and boats would hold. The dismal day of our departure
now arrived. This I believe was the first time that an Englishman got up
his anchor, at the remotest part of the globe, with a heavy heart, to go
home to his own country. Every canoe almost in the island was hovering
round the ship; and they began to mourn, as is customary for the death of
a near relation. They bared their bodies, cut their heads with shells,
and smeared their breasts and shoulders with the warm blood, as it
streamed down; and as the blood ceased flowing, they renewed the wounds
in their head, attended with a dismal yell.

Ottoo now took leave of us; and, with the tears trickling down his
cheeks, begged to be remembered to King George. The tender was put in
commission, and the command of her given to Mr. Oliver the master's mate,
Mr. Renouard a midshipman, James Dodds a quart