Mark's Pages

"During their absence, Cook had gone ashore to Reo's house, where a feast of roast pork and fermented mahi (breadfruit paste) had been prepared. His officers brought several bottles of wine, and after the meal Reo tossed off his Madeira with the best of them. They found this very surprising, because most of the islanders detested strong liquor, preferring to drink the 'ava (the beverage made from the chewed root of the kava plant) which young Porea had begun to serve to visitors in the Great Cabin, often getting himself intoxicated in the process. After this meal, the officers distributed some of their pork to the young women who were present, but insisted that they should remove one item of clothing for each piece of pork that they were given. One of the gentlemen had a small padlock with him, and when one of these women begged for it, he clasped it in her pierced ear and threw away the key. She found the padlock too heavy but could not remove it from her ear, and wept bitterly until another key was found, and she was released from her burden. When they returned to the Resolution that afternoon, a man who was caught stealing shirts from the ship was tied up to the shrouds and punished with two dozen lashes. According to William Bayly, such punishments had already been instituted on board the Adventure. After Johann Forster's criticisms of Cook's 'lenity', the Resolution's officers were evidently determined to take a tough line with local offenders." — Anne Salmond, The Trial of the Cannibal Dog