happai_, whose name was
_Outou_, and who, as before has been observed, was a minor. Whappai,
Oamo, and Tootahah, were brothers: Whappai was the eldest, and Oamo the
second; so that, Whappai having no child but Outon, Terridiri, the son
of his next brother Oamo, was heir to the sovereignty. It will, perhaps,
seem strange that a boy should be sovereign during the life of his
father; but, according to the custom of the country, a child succeeds
to a fathers title and authority as soon as it is born: A regent is then
elected, and the father of the new sovereign is generally continued in
his authority, under that title, till his child is of age; but, at this
time, the choice had fallen upon Tootahah, the uncle, in consequence of
his having distinguished himself in a war. Oamo asked many questions
concerning England and its inhabitants, by which he appeared to have
great shrewdness and understanding.

SECTION XIV.

_An Account of the Circumnavigation of the Island, and various Incidents
that happened during the Expedition; with a Description of a
Burying-place and Place of Worship, called, a Morai._

On Monday the 26th, about three o'clock in the morning, I set out in the
pinnace, accompanied by Mr Banks, to make the circuit of the island,
with a view to sketch out the coast and harbours. We took our route to
the eastward, and about eight in the forenoon we went on shore, in a
district called _Oahounue_, which is governed by _Ahio_, a young chief,
whom we had often seen at the tents, and who favoured us with his
company to breakfast. Here also we found two other natives of our old
acquaintance, _Tituboalo_ and _Hoona_, who carried us to their houses,
near which we saw the body of the old woman, at whose funeral rites Mr
Banks had assisted, and which had been removed hither from the spot
where it was first deposited, this place having descended from her by
inheritance to Hoona, and it being necessary on that account that it
should lie here. We then proceeded on foot, the boat attending within
call, to the harbour in which Mr Bougainville lay, called _Ohidea_,
where the natives shewed us the ground upon which his people pitched
their tent, and the brook at which they watered, though no trace of them
remained, except the holes where the poles of the tent had been fixed,
and a small piece of potsheard, which Mr Banks found in looking
narrowly about the spot. We met, however, with _Orette_, a chief who
was their principal f