to accompany him with a present of
provisions to a party of the Arreoys, a society described in the accounts
of the former voyages: in this ceremony he made me the principal person.
Our way to the place where the offering was to be made was by the side of
a river along the banks of which I had always walked before this time;
but on the present occasion a canoe was provided for me and dragged by
eight men. On arriving at the landing-place I saw a large quantity of
breadfruit with some hogs ready dressed and a quantity of cloth. At about
forty yards distant sat a man who, I was informed, was a principal
Arreoy. A lane being made by the crowd he was addressed by one of Tinah's
people, standing on the canoe, in a speech composed of short sentences
which lasted about a quarter of an hour. During this a piece of cloth was
produced, one end of which I was desired to hold, and five men, one with
a sucking pig and the others having each a basket of breadfruit, prepared
to follow me. In this order we advanced to the Arreoy and laid the whole
down before him. I then spoke several sentences dictated to me by Tinah,
the meaning of which I did not understand and, my pronunciation not being
very exact, caused a great deal of mirth. This speech being finished I
was shown another Arreoy, who had come from Ulietea, and to him likewise
I was required to deliver an oration. Tinah understanding from me that I
had children in my own country he desired me to make one more offering on
their account. There still remained three baskets of breadfruit, a small
pig, and another piece of cloth: with these, assisted as before, I made
the offering in favour of my children to the man whom I had first
addressed. He made no reply to all my fine speeches but sat with great
gravity and received everything as a matter of right and not of courtesy.

All that I could make out of this strange ceremony was that the Arreoys
are highly respected and that the society is chiefly composed of men
distinguished by their valour or some other merit, and that great trust
and confidence is reposed in them; but I could not comprehend what this
had to do with my children or why it should be imagined that an offering
made on their account to a society of men who destroy all their children
should be propitious. I learnt from Tinah, in talking about his children,
that his first-born child was killed as soon as it came into the world,
he being then an Arreoy; but before his secon