Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/142

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84
OTAHITE
Chap. V

I signed to him that the man should be punished to-morrow if he would only clearly explain the offence, which made him so angry that his signs were almost unintelligible. He grew cooler, and showed me that the butcher had taken a fancy to a stone hatchet lying in his house; this he offered to purchase for a nail; his wife who was there, refused to part with it, upon which he took it up and, throwing down the nail, threatened to cut her throat if she attempted to hinder him. In evidence of this the hatchet and nail were produced, and the butcher had so little to say in his defence that no one doubted of his guilt; after this we parted and he appeared satisfied, but did not forget to put me in mind of my promise that the butcher should to-morrow be punished.

This day we found that our friends had names, and they were not a little pleased to discover that we had them likewise. For the future Lycurgus will be called Tubourai Tamaide, his wife Tamio, and the three women who commonly came with him, Terapo, Teraro, and Omie. As for our names, they make so poor a hand at pronouncing them that I fear we shall each be obliged to take a new one for the occasion.

After breakfast Jno. Molineux came ashore, and the moment he entered the tent, fixed his eyes upon a woman who was sitting there, and declared that she had been the queen when the Dolphin was here. She also instantly acknowledged him as a person whom she had seen before. Our attention was now entirely diverted from every other object to the examination of a personage we had heard of so much of in Europe; she appeared to be about forty, tall, and very lusty, her skin white and her eyes full of meaning; she might have been handsome when young, but now few or no traces of it were left.

As soon as her Majesty's quality was known to us, she was invited to go on board the ship, where no presents were spared that were thought to be agreeable to her in consideration of her services to the Dolphin. Among other things a child's doll was given to her, of which she seemed very