[Footnote 2:  Let the reader keep this intimation in mind, when he comes to judge of the melancholy transactions which issued in the death of Cook.  It is most clear, that these people were disposed to be on good terms with their visitors; but that they were equally sensible, on the other hand, of the burden which so many half-starved guests had imposed on their hospitality.  Even this, however, it would seem, they were willing to bear, provided only they had had time to make arrangements to do so, in a manner consistent with their own notions of good cheer.  It is perfectly easy then to understand, that when, instead of the necessary absence of the strangers till the next season of plenty, there elapsed a few days only, as we shall find, it was impossible for them to form any other conception of the nature or object of the visit, than what served to give a very different direction to their feelings.  And yet perhaps we shall be induced to believe, that all their surprise and uneasiness would have quietly subsided, if an unfortunate, and, in fact, merely partial altercation had not excited it beyond its original intensity, and produced a momentary determination to get rid by any means of such troublesome encroachers.—­E.]

We were this day much diverted, at the beach, by the buffooneries of one of the natives.  He held in his hand an instrument, of the sort described in the last volume; some bits of sea-weed were tied round his neck, and round each leg a piece of strong netting, about nine inches deep, on which a great number of dogs’ teeth were loosely fastened in rows.  His style of dancing was entirely burlesque, and accompanied with strange grimaces, and pantomimical distortions of the face, which, though at times inexpressibly ridiculous, yet, on the whole, was without much meaning or expression.  Mr Webber thought it worth his while to make a drawing of this person, as exhibiting a tolerable specimen of the natives; the manner in which the maro is tied; the figure of the instrument before mentioned, and of the ornaments round the legs, which, at other times, we also saw used by their dancers.

In the evening, we were again entertained with wrestling and boxing-matches; and we displayed, in return, the few fireworks we had left.  Nothing could be better calculated to excite the admiration of these islanders, and to impress them with an idea of our great superiority, than an exhibition of this kind.  Captain Cook has already described the extraordinary effects of that which was made at Hapaee; and though the present was, in every respect, infinitely inferior, yet the astonishment of the natives was not less.