go 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