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After this a party of officers from both ships made an excursion into the interior, with muskets and ammunition, and a number of articles for barter, but the natives stripped them of everything. The officers made application, through Omai, for restitution, and this caused the king, Feenou, and other chiefs hastily to go off.
The king had a son, Fattafaihe, to whom great respect was paid. His mother was the daughter of an old chief, of large possessions and great influence, called Mareewagee, and Feenou was his son. That chief was, therefore, brother-in-law to the king, and uncle to the heir-apparent.
Feenou then directed Taipa to proclaim to the people that the strangers were going to remain five days, and that they were to bring hogs, fowls, and fruit to the ships; that they were not to steal, but to behave in every way politely and courteously. After this, it was suggested by Taipa that a present should be made to Earoupa, the chief of the island.
Hapaee consists of four islands, of inconsiderable elevation. Immediately the ships came to an anchor, on the 17th, they were crowded with natives, who brought off all sorts of provisions. A house had been brought down to the beach, and on Captain Cook's going on shore, he and Omai, with Feenou, took their seats within it, the other chiefs and people forming a circle outside.
Captain Cook, on the 19th, made a distribution of the animals which he had selected as presents for the principal men of the island. To Poulaho, the king, he gave a young English bull and cow, together with three goats; to Mareewagee, a chief of consequence, a Cape ram and two ewes; and to Feenou a horse and a mare.
On one occasion, when Feenou was on board the Resolution, an inferior chief ordered all the people to retire from the post occupied on shore by the English. Some ventured to return, when the chief took up a stick and beat them most unmercifully.
From this resolution, however, he was diverted, at the instance of Feenou, who warmly recommended in preference to it, an island, or rather a group of islands, called Hapaee, lying to the north-east. There, he assured our voyagers, they could be plentifully supplied with every refreshment, in the easiest manner; and he enforced his advice by engaging to attend them thither in person.
Feenou, however, was a chief of great note and influence. By Poulaho Captain Cook was invited to pass over to Tongataboo, which request he complied with after he had touched, for two or three days, at Annamooka. In the passage, the Resolution was insensibly drawn upon a large flat, on which lay innumerable coral rocks of different depths below the surface of the water.
One of the first pair gave in within a minute, but the second fought on till separated by two old women. The greatest good humour prevailed, however, though many severe blows were received. Feenou now explained that one-third of the presents were for Omai, and the others for Captain Cook, who made the handsomest returns he could.
The great navigator here gives utterance to the genuine feelings of his heart, for such were undoubtedly the principles which animated him. He little dreamed that those friendly natives, of whom he had thought so highly, and whom he had praised as among the most humane people on earth, had, headed by Feenou, laid a plot for his destruction, and that of all his followers.
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