a horse and a mare; besides a couple of rabbits, which produced young before the ships sailed. A young boar and three young sows, of the English breed, were also left here. A cape ram and two ewes were set apart for Mareewagee; but as he paid no attention to them, they were taken on board, and afterwards left at Eooa. The chiefs were informed, through Omai, of the great value of these animals, the trouble and expense of bringing them such a distance, the importance of refraining from killing them till they were multiplied, and the duty of remembering that they were indebted for them to the English nation.
Among the numerous presents made to Poulaho, was a pewter plate, which he purposed to apply to very singular uses. When he had occasion to visit any other island, he left something to represent him at Tongataboo, to which the people paid the same obeisance as to himself; and whereas this honour had hitherto been conferred on a wooden bowl in which he washed his hands, he would now put the pewter plate in its stead. The bowl had likewise been employed to detect theft, by a curious sort of ordeal. When any thing was stolen, and the thief not discovered, an assembly was held, at which the King washed his hands in water in this vessel; and after it was cleaned, the whole multitude came forward, one by one, to do obeisance to it, as they did usually to his feet. If the guilty person presumed to touch it, he was expected to die immediately by the hand of Providence; so that the individual who refused to touch it, through fear of instant death, was known to be the thief. In this important service also, the plate was to be substituted for the wooden bowl.
