In our return to the ship, we put ashore at a place where, in the corner of a house, we saw four wooden images, each two feet long, standing on a shelf, having a piece of cloth round their middle, and a kind of turban on their heads, in which were stuck long feathers of cocks.  A person in the house told us they were Eatua no te Toutou, gods of the servants or slaves.  I doubt if this be sufficient to conclude that they pay them divine worship, and that the servants or slaves are not allowed the same gods as men of more elevated rank; I never heard that Tupia made any such distinction, or that they worshipped any visible thing whatever.  Besides, these were the first wooden gods we had seen in any of the isles; and all the authority we had for their being such, was the bare word of perhaps a superstitious person, and whom, too, we were liable to misunderstand.  It must be allowed that the people of this isle are in general more superstitious than at Otaheite.  At the first visit I made the chief after our arrival, he desired I would not suffer any of my people to shoot herons and wood-peckers; birds as sacred with them as robin-red-breasts, swallows, &c. are with many old women in England.  Tupia, who was a priest, and well acquainted with their religion, customs, traditions, &c. paid little or no regard to these birds.  I mention this, because some amongst us were of opinion that these birds are their Eatuas, or gods.  We indeed fell into this opinion when I was here in 1769, and into some others still more absurd, which we had undoubtedly adopted, if Tupia had not undeceived us.  A man of his knowledge and understanding we have not since met with, and consequently have added nothing to his account of their religion but superstitious notions.

On the 31st, the people knowing that we should sail soon, began to bring more fruit on board than usual.  Among those who came was a young man who measured six feet four inches and six-tenths; and his sister, younger, than him, measured five feet ten inches and a half.

1774 June

A brisk trade for hogs and fruit continued on the 1st of June.  On the 2d, in the afternoon, we got intelligence that, three days before, two ships had arrived at Huaheine.  The same report said, the one was commanded by Mr Banks, and the other by Captain Furneaux.  The man who brought the account said, he was made drunk on board one of them, and described the persons of Mr Banks and Captain Furneaux so well, that I had not the least doubt of the truth, and began to consider about sending a boat over that very evening with orders to Captain Furneaux, when a man, a friend of Mr Forster, happened to come on board and denied the whole, saying it was wa warre, a lie.  The man from whom we had the intelligence was now gone, so that we could not confront them, and there were none else present who knew any thing about it but by report; so that I laid aside sending over a boat till I should be better informed.  This evening we entertained the people with fire-works, on one of the little isles near the entrance of the harbour.