At night, we were entertained with the bomai, or night dances, on a space before Feenou’s temporary habitation.  They lasted about three hours; in which time we had about twelve of them performed, much after the same manner as those at Hepaee.  But, in two, that were performed by women, a number of men came and formed a circle within their’s.  And, in another, consisting of twenty-four men, there were a number of motions with the hands, that we had not seen before, and were highly applauded.  The music was, also, once changed, in the course of the night; and in one of the dances, Feenou appeared at the head of fifty men who had performed at Hepaee, and he was well dressed with linen, a large piece of gauze, and some little pictures hung round his neck.  But it was evident, after the diversions were closed, that we had put these poor people, or rather that they had put themselves, to much inconvenience.  For being drawn together on this uninhabited part of their island, numbers of them were obliged to lie down and sleep under the bushes, by the side of a tree, or of a canoe; nay, many either lay down in the open air, which they are not fond of, or walked about all the night.

The whole of this entertainment was conducted with far better order, than could have been expected in so large an assembly.  Amongst such a multitude, there must be a number of ill-disposed people; and we, hourly, experienced it.  All our care and attention did not prevent their plundering us, in every quarter; and that in the most daring and insolent manner.  There was hardly any thing that they did not attempt to steal; and yet, as the crowd was always so great, I would not allow the sentries to fire, lest the innocent should suffer for the guilty.  They once, at noon day, ventured to aim at taking an anchor from off the Discovery’s bows; and they would certainly have succeeded, if the flook had not hooked one of the chain-plates in lowering down the ship’s side, from which they could not disengage it by hand; and tackles were things they were unacquainted with.  The only act of violence they were guilty of, was the breaking the shoulder-bone of one of our goats, so that she died soon after.  This loss fell upon themselves, as she was one of those that I intended to leave upon the island; but of this, the person who did it was ignorant.

Early in the morning of the 18th, an incident happened, that strongly marked one of their customs.  A man got out of a canoe into the quarter gallery of the Resolution, and stole from thence a pewter bason.  He was discovered, pursued, and brought alongside the ship.  On this occasion, three old women, who were in the canoe, made loud lamentations over the prisoner, beating their breasts and faces in a most violent manner, with the inside of their fists; and all this was done without shedding a tear.  This mode of expressing grief is what occasions the mark which almost all this people bear on the face, over the cheek-bones.  The repeated blows which they inflict upon this part, abrade the skin, and make even the blood flow out in a considerable quantity; and when the wounds are recent, they look as if a hollow circle had been burnt in.  On many occasions, they actually cut this part of the face with an instrument, in the same manner as the people of Otaheite cut their heads.