several of their friends. None of them came empty;
but Oo-oo-rou brought a pretty large present, this
being his first and only visit. I distributed
amongst them almost every thing I had left. The
very hospitable manner in which I had ever been received
by these people, had endeared them to me, and given
them a just title to everything in my power to grant.
I questioned them again about the ships at Huaheine;
and they all, to a man, denied that any were there.
During the time these people remained on board, they
were continually importuning me to return. The
chief, his wife and daughter, but especially the two
latter, scarcely ever ceased weeping. I will not
pretend to say whether it was real or feigned grief
they shewed on this occasion. Perhaps there was
a mixture of both; but were I to abide by my own opinion
only, I should believe it was real. At last, when
we were about to weigh, they took a most affectionate
leave. Oree’s last request was for me to
return; when he saw he could not obtain that promise,
he asked the name of my Marai (burying-place).
As strange a question as this was, I hesitated not
a moment to tell him Stepney; the parish in which I
live when in London. I was made to repeat it
several times over till they could pronounce it; then,
Stepney Marai no Toote was echoed through an
hundred mouths at once. I afterwards found the
same question had been put to Mr Forster by a man
on shore; but he gave a different, and indeed more
proper answer, by saying, no man, who used the sea,
could say where he should be buried. It is the
custom, at these isles, for all the great families
to have burial-places of their own, where their remains
are interred. These go with the estate to the
next heir. The Marai at Oparee in Otaheite,
when Tootaha swayed the sceptre, was called Marai
no Tootaha; but now it is called Marai no Otoo.
What greater proof could we have of these people esteeming
us as friends, than their wishing to remember us,
even beyond the period of our lives? They had
been repeatedly told that we should see them no more;
they then wanted to know where we were to mingle with
our parent dust. As I could not promise, or even
suppose, that more English ships would be sent to those
isles, our faithful companion Oedidee chose to remain
in his native country. But he left us with a
regret fully demonstrative of the esteem he bore to
us; nor could any thing but the fear of never returning,
have torn him from us. When the chief teased
me so much about returning, I sometimes gave such
answers as left them hopes. Oedidee would instantly
catch at this, take me on one side, and ask me over
again. In short, I have not words to describe
the anguish which appeared in this young man’s
breast when he went away. He looked up at the
ship, burst into tears, and then sunk down into the
canoe. The maxim, that a prophet has no honour
in his own country, was never more fully verified
than in this youth. At Otaheite he might have