t kill
us, he said, but he assured us that we should be able to procure no
victuals among them; and indeed we had seen no bread-fruit since we set
out.

After rowing a few miles, we landed in a district, which was the
dominion of a chief called _Maraitata_, the burying-place of men, whose
father's name was _Pahairedo_, the stealer of boats. Though these names
seemed to favour the account that had been given by Tituboalo, we soon
found that it was not true. Both the father and the son received us with
the greatest civility, gave us provisions, and, after some delay, sold
us a very large hog for a hatchet A crowd soon gathered round us, but we
saw only two people that we knew; neither did we observe a single bead
or ornament among them that had come from our ship, though we saw
several things which had been brought from Europe: In one of the houses
lay two twelve-pound shot, one of which was marked with the broad arrow
of England, though the people said they had them from the ships that lay
in Bougainville's harbour.

We proceeded on foot till we came to the district which was immediately
under the government of the principal chief, or king of the peninsula,
Waheatua. Waheatua had a son, but whether, according to the custom of
Opoureonu, he administered the government as regent, or in his own
right, is uncertain. This district consists of a large and fertile
plain, watered by a river so wide, that we were obliged to ferry over it
in a canoe; our Indian train, however, chose to swim, and took to the
water with the same facility as a pack of hounds. In this place we saw
no house that appeared to be inhabited, but the ruins of many, that had
been very large. We proceeded along the shore; which forms a bay, called
_Oaitipeha_, and at last we found the chief sitting near some pretty
canoe awnings, under which, we supposed, he and his attendants slept. He
was a thin old man, with a very white head and beard, and had with him a
comely woman, about five-and-twenty years old, whose name was
_Toudidde_. We had often heard the name of this woman, and, from report
and observation, we had reason to think that she was the _Oberea_ of
this peninsula. From this place, between which and the isthmus there are
other harbours, formed by the reefs that lie along the shore, where
shipping may lie in perfect security, and from whence the land trends
S.S.E. and S. to the S.E. part of the island, we were accompanied by
_Tearee_, the son of Wahe