eir clothing of native cloth,
those present wore old and ragged mats; those of the king being the
raggedest, and "might have served his great-grandfather on some such like
occasion."

July 5th proved dark and cloudy, with heavy showers of rain, and the
observations were unsatisfactory, especially as the clouds came up
thickly in the middle of the eclipse, and the sun was seen no more for
the rest of the day. This failure was not of great importance, for the
longitude had already been satisfactorily ascertained by several very
good lunar observations, so as soon as the eclipse was over everything
was sent on board the ships, including the sheep which had been presented
to Mariwaggee. No one had taken any notice of them since they were
landed, and Cook felt sure they would be killed by the dogs as soon as
the ships left.

A NATIVE CEREMONY.

As the wind proved contrary, and it was understood that the king's son
was to be initiated into the estate of manhood, eating with his father
for the first time, Cook determined to remain a few days longer. A party
of the officers went over to the island of Moa, where the ceremony was to
be held, and found the king in a very dirty enclosure, drinking kava; and
as the method of preparing this beverage was uninviting to Europeans,
they went for a walk till about ten o'clock. Finding large numbers of
people assembling in an open space near a large building they rejoined
the king, taking off their hats and untying their hair, "that we might
appear the more decent" in the eyes of the natives. The proceedings
consisted of marching of men laden with yams tied on to sticks, of
considerable speech-making, and various performances of which the
signification could not be understood, and then the prince made his
appearance. He seated himself with a few of his friends on the ground,
and some women wound a long piece of cloth round them, and after some
more speech-making and mysterious pantomime with sticks representing
yams, the proceedings ended for the day. As there were signs that so many
white onlookers was not altogether acceptable to the natives, some of the
party returned to the ships; but Cook resolved to see it out, and joined
the king at supper, and the latter enjoyed some brandy and water so much
that Cook says "he went to bed quite grogish. "

After breakfast Cook paid a visit to the prince and presented him was
enough English cloth to make a suit, receiving native cloth in return.