RI WELCOME.

I was much amused with the punctilios used in the visit of ceremony paid
to King George. Hongi, accompanied by about a dozen of his chiefs,
advanced towards our settlement, leaving their guns and hatchets behind
them; as they approached, all our tribe discharged their pieces in the
air. When they met, all rubbed noses (a ceremony never to be dispensed
with on formal occasions). They were then conducted by King George to his
huts on the beach, and in the enclosure in front of them the warriors
squatted on the ground. Hongi, being tabooed, or under the immediate
protection of their Atua, or God, still sat apart. Then the mother of
George, called Tururo, or the Queen, and who is regarded quite as a sybil
by the whole tribe, approached Hongi with the greatest respect and
caution, and seated herself some paces from his feet. She then began,
with a most melancholy cadence (her eyes streaming with tears and fixed
upon the ground), the song of welcome. All their meetings of ceremony or
friendship begin with the shedding of copious floods of tears; and as
Hongi's visit was such an unhoped for and unexpected honour, so much
greater in proportion was the necessity for their lamentations. This
woeful song lasted half an hour, and all the assembly were soon in tears;
and though at first I was inclined to turn it into ridicule, I was soon
in the same state myself. The pathetic strain, and the scene altogether,
was most impressive. As the song proceeded, I was informed of the nature
of the subject, which was a theme highly calculated to affect all
present. She began by complimenting the wounded warrior, deploring the
incurable state of his wound, and regretting that God was wanting him,
and was about so soon to take him from his friends! Then she recounted
some of his most celebrated deeds of valour, naming and deploring the
number of his friends who had fallen bravely in the wars, and lamenting
that the enemies who had killed them were still living! This part seemed
to affect them powerfully; and when Tururo ceased her song (being quite
exhausted) they all rose, thus demonstrating their respect and
approbation.

This was followed by a general attack upon the good things King George
had prepared for them. The slaves came flocking in, bearing baskets of
hot kumaras, potatoes, and fish. I observed their tears had not spoiled
their appetites; they ate voraciously. After having done great honour to
the feast, they all star