Amongst our occasional visitors, was a chief named Kahoora, who, as I was informed, headed the party that cut off Captain Furneaux’s people, and himself killed Mr. Rowe, the officer who commanded. To judge of the character of Kahoora, by what I heard from many of his countrymen, he seemed to be more feared than beloved amongst them. Not satisfied with telling me that he was a very bad man, some of them even importuned me to kill him; and, I believe, they were not a little surprised that I did not listen to them; for, according to their ideas of equity, this ought to have been done. But if I had followed the advice of all our pretended friends, I might have extirpated the whole race; for the people of each hamlet or village, by turns, applied to me to destroy the other. One would have almost thought it impossible, that so striking a proof of the divided state in which this miserable people live, could have been assigned. And yet I was sure that I did not misconceive the meaning of those who made these strange applications to me; for Omai, whose language was a dialect of their own, and perfectly understood all that they said, was our interpreter. On the 15th, I made an excursion in my boat to look for grass, and visited the Hippah, or fortified village, at the south-west point of Motuara, and the places where our gardens had been planted on that island. There were no people at the former; but the houses and pallisades had been rebuilt, and were now in a state of good repair; and there were other evident marks of its having been inhabited not long before. It would be unnecessary, at present, to give a particular account of this Hippah, sufficient notice having been taken of it in the Account of my first Voyage, to which I refer.[159] When the Adventure arrived first at Queen Charlotte’s Sound, in 1773[160], Mr. Bayly, fixed upon this place for making his observations; and he, and the people with him, at their leisure hours, planted several spots with English garden seeds. Not the least vestige of these now remained. It is probable that they had been all rooted out to make room for buildings, when the village was re-inhabited; for, at all the other gardens then planted by Captain Furneaux, although now wholly over-run with the weeds of the country, we found cabbages, onions, leeks, purslain, radishes, mustard, &c. and a few potatoes. These potatoes, which were first brought from the Cape of Good Hope, had been greatly improved by change of soil; and, with proper cultivation, would be superior to those produced in most other countries. Though the New Zealanders are fond of this root, it was evident that they had not taken the trouble to plant a single one (much less any other of the articles which we had introduced); and if it were not for the difficulty of clearing ground where potatoes had been once planted, there would not have been any now remaining.