Feenou had taken up his residence in our neighbourhood; but he was no longer the leading man.  However we still found him to be a person of consequence, and we had daily proofs of his opulence and liberality, by the continuance of his valuable presents.  But the king was equally attentive in this respect, for scarcely a day passed without receiving from him some considerable donation.  We now heard that there were other great men of the island whom we had not as yet seen.  Otago and Toobou, in particular, mentioned a person named Mareewagee, who, they said, was of the first consequence in the place, and held in great veneration, nay, if Omai did not misunderstand them, superior even to Poulaho, to whom he was related; but being old, lived in retirement, and therefore would not visit us.  Some of the natives even hinted that he was too great a man to confer that honour upon us.  This account exciting my curiosity, I this day mentioned to Poulaho that I was very desirous of waiting upon Mareewagee; and he readily agreed to accompany me to the place of his residence the next morning.

Accordingly, we set out pretty early in the pinnace, and Captain Clerke joined me in one of his own boats.  We proceeded round, that is, to the eastward of the little isles that form the harbour, and then, turning to the S., according to Poulaho’s directions, entered a spacious bay or inlet, up which we rowed about a league, and landed amidst a considerable number of people, who received us with a sort of acclamation, not unlike our huzzaing.  They immediately separated, to let Poulaho pass, who took us into a small inclosure, and shifted the piece of cloth he wore for a new piece, neatly folded, that was carried by a young man.  An old woman assisted in dressing him, and put a mat over his cloth, as we supposed, to prevent its being dirtied when he sat down.  On our now asking him where Mareewagee was, to our great surprise, he said he had gone from the place to the ship just before we arrived.  However, he desired us to walk with him to a malaee, or house of public resort, which stood about half a mile up the country.  But when we came to a large area before it, he sat down in the path, and desired us to walk up to the house.  We did so, and seated ourselves in front, while the crowd that followed us filled up the rest of the space.  After sitting a little while, we repeated our enquiries, by means of Omai, Whether we were to see Mareewagee?  But receiving no satisfactory information, and suspecting that the old chief was purposely concealed from us, we went back to our boats much piqued at our disappointment; and when I got on board I found that no such person had been there.  It afterward appeared, that in this affair we had laboured under some gross mistakes, and that our interpreter Omai had either been misinformed, or, which is more likely, had misunderstood what was told him about the great man, on whose account we had made this excursion.