His Name Was Geogy, And They Gave Him The
Title Of Areeke.
He was very old, but had a merry open countenance.
He wore
round his waist a broad red-and-white chequered belt, the materials and
manufacture of which seemed the same as that of Otaheite cloth; but this
was hardly a mark of distinction. He had with him a son, not less than
forty-five or fifty years of age. A great number of people were at this
time at the landing-place, most of them from distant parts. The behaviour
of many was friendly; while others were daring and insolent, which I
thought proper to put up with, as our stay was nearly at an end.
On the 17th, about ten o'clock, I went ashore, and found in the crowd old
Geogy and his son, who soon made me understand that they wanted to dine
with me; and accordingly I brought them and two more on board. They all
called them Areekees (or kings); but I doubt if any of them had the least
pretensions to that title over the whole island. It had been remarked, that
one of these kings had not authority enough to order one of the people up
into a cocoa-nut tree, to bring him down some nuts. Although he spoke to
several, he was at last obliged to go himself, and, by way of revenge, as
it was thought, left not a nut on the tree, taking what he wanted himself,
and giving the rest to some of our people.
When I got them on board, I went with them all over the ship, which they
viewed with uncommon surprise and attention. We happened to have for their
entertainment a kind of pie or pudding made of plantains, and some sort of
greens which we had got from one of the natives. On this and on yams they
made a hearty dinner; for, as to the salt beef and pork, they would hardly
taste them. In the afternoon, having made each of them a present of a
hatchet, a spike-nail, and some medals, I conducted them ashore.
Mr Forster and I then went over to the other side of the harbour, and,
having tried, with Fahrenheit's thermometer, the head of one of the hot
springs, we found that the mercury rose to 191 deg.. At this time the tide was
up within two or three feet of the spring, so that we judged, it might, in
some degree, be cooled by it. We were mistaken however, for on repeating
the experiment next morning, when the tide was out, the mercury rose no
higher than 187 deg.; but, at another spring, where the water bubbled out of
the sand from under the rock at the S.W. corner of the harbour, the mercury
in the same thermometer rose to 202 deg.-1/2, which is but little colder than
boiling water. The hot places before mentioned are from about three to four
hundred feet perpendicular above these springs, and on the slope of the
same ridge with the volcano; that is, there are no vallies between them,
but such as are formed in the ridge itself; nor is the volcano on the
highest part of the ridge, but on the S.E. side of it.
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