her many things which I
thought would be of great use to her, and some for ornament; she
silently accepted of all, but took little notice of any thing. About ten
o'clock we had got without the reef, and a fresh breeze springing up,
our Indian friends, and particularly the queen, once more bade us
farewell, with such tenderness of affection and grief, as filled both my
heart and my eyes.'

The tender passion had certainly caught hold of one or both of these
worthies; and if her Majesty's language had been as well understood by
Captain Wallis, as that of Dido was to AEneas, when pressing him to stay
with her, there is no doubt it would have been found not less pathetic--

Nec te noster amor, nec te data dextera quondam,
Nec moritura tenet crudeli funere Dido?

This lady, however, did not sink, like the 'miserrima Dido,' under her
griefs; on the contrary, we find her in full activity and animation, and
equally generous, to Lieut. Cook and his party, under the name of
_Oberea_, who, it now appeared, was no queen, but whose husband they
discovered was uncle to the young king, then a minor, but from whom she
was separated. She soon evinced a partiality for Mr. Banks, though not
quite so strong as that for Wallis, but it appears to have been mutual,
until an unlucky discovery took place, that she had, at her command, a
stout strong-boned _cavaliere servente_; added to which, a theft, rather
of an amusing nature, contributed for a time to create a coolness, and
somewhat to disturb the good understanding that had subsisted between
them. It happened that a party, consisting of Cook, Banks, Solander, and
three or four others, were benighted at a distance from the anchorage.
Mr. Banks, says Lieut. Cook, thought himself fortunate in being offered
a place by Oberea, in her own canoe, and wishing his friends a good
night, took his leave. He went to rest early, according to the custom of
the country; and taking off his clothes, as was his constant practice,
the nights being hot, Oberea kindly insisted upon taking them into her
own custody, for otherwise, she said, they would certainly be stolen.
Mr. Banks having, as he thought, so good a safeguard, resigned himself
to sleep with all imaginable tranquillity; but awakening about eleven
o'clock, and wanting to get up, he searched for his clothes where he had
seen them carefully deposited by Oberea, when he lay down to sleep, and
perceived to his sorrow and surprise, that they