ther, appropriated to their chiefs, and used on
ceremonious occasions, consisting of a feathered cloak and helmet, which,
in point of beauty and magnificence, is perhaps nearly equal to that of any
nation in the world. As this dress has been already described with great
accuracy and minuteness, I have only to add, that these cloaks are made of
different lengths, in proportion to the rank of the wearer, some of them
reaching no lower than the middle, others trailing on the ground. The
inferior chiefs have also a short cloak, resembling the former, made of the
long tail-feathers of the cock, the tropic and man-of-war birds, with a
broad border of the small red and yellow feathers, and a collar of the
same. Others again are made of feathers entirely white, with variegated
borders. The helmet has a strong lining of wicker-work, capable of breaking
the blow of any warlike instrument, and seems evidently designed for that
purpose.

These feathered dresses seemed to be exceedingly scarce, appropriated to
persons of the highest rank, and worn by the men only. During the whole
time we lay in Karakakooa Bay, we never saw them used but on three
occasions; in the curious ceremony of Terreeoboo's first visit to the
ships; by some chiefs, who were seen among the crowd on shore when Captain
Cook was killed, and afterward when Eappo brought his bones to us.

The exact resemblance between this habit, and the cloak and helmet formerly
worn by the Spaniards, was too striking not to excite our curiosity to
enquire, whether there were any probable grounds for supposing it to have
been borrowed from them. After exerting every means in our power of
obtaining information on this subject, we found that they had no immediate
knowledge of any other nation whatever, nor any tradition remaining among
them of these islands having been ever visited before by such ships as
ours. But, notwithstanding the result of these enquiries, the uncommon form
of this habit appears to me a sufficient proof of its European origin,
especially when added to another circumstance, that it is a singular
deviation from the general resemblance in dress, which prevails amongst all
the branches of this tribe, dispersed through the South Sea. We were driven
indeed, by this conclusion, to a supposition of the shipwreck of some
Buccaneer, or Spanish ship, in the neighbourhood of these islands. But when
it is recollected, that the course of the Spanish trade from Acapulco to
th