After breakfast I walked with Tinah to Matavai to see the cattle and the gardens.  Tinah had already taken so large a dose of the Ava that he was perfectly stupefied.  Iddeah however was with us, and she is one of the most intelligent persons I met with at Otaheite.  We went first to Poeeno’s house and saw the bull and cow together in a very fine pasture.  I was informed that the cow had taken the bull; so that if no untoward accident happens there is a fair chance of the breed being established.  In the garden near Poeeno’s house many things had failed.  The Indian corn was in a fine state and I have no doubt but they will cultivate it all over the country.  A fig-tree was in a very thriving way, as were two vines, a pineapple plant, and some slips of a shaddock-tree.  From this place we walked to the garden at Point Venus, but I had the mortification to find almost everything there destroyed by the hogs.  Some underground peas and Indian corn had escaped, and likewise the caliloo green and ocra of Jamaica.

We returned to the ship, and after dinner I was not a little surprised to hear Tinah seriously propose that he and his wife should go with me to England.  He said he would only take two servants; that he much wished to see King George who he was sure would be glad to see him.  Tinah and many of his countrymen were become extremely eager to get a knowledge of other countries, and were continually enquiring about the situations of the islands which we told them of in these seas.  To quiet his importunity I was obliged to promise that I would ask the king’s permission to carry them to England if I came again; that then I should be in a larger ship an could have accommodations properly fitted up.  I was sorry to find that Tinah was apprehensive he should be attacked by his enemies as soon as our ship left Otaheite, and that if they joined they would be too powerful for him.  The illness of Teppahoo, with whom he was on good terms, gave him much uneasiness, Teppahoo’s wife being a sister of Otow’s and aunt to Tinah.  They have no children as has been before related, and if Teppahoo were to die he would be succeeded as Earee of the district of Tettaha by his brother who is an enemy to Tinah.  I have on every occasion endeavoured to make the principal people believe that we should return again to Otaheite and that we should revenge any injury done in our absence to the people of Matavai and Oparre.

The wife of Oedidee is likewise an aunt to Tinah, and sister to Otow.  His native place is Ulietea, where he has some property, but which I imagine is not of such consequence to him as the countenance of the chiefs with whom he is connected at Otaheite.

CHAPTER 10.

The Ship’s Cable cut in the Night.  Coolness with the Chiefs on that Account.  Visit to an old Lady.  Disturbance at a Heiva.  Tinah’s Hospitality.  A Thief taken and punished.  Preparations for sailing.