So I resolved to take advantage of this lucky encounter to obtain from an eye-witness an insight into Hawaiian customs before the arrival of Europeans.
A hut of pandanus had been prepared for me upon the lava by the care of a missionary.

I made the old man enter, and invited him to partake of my repast of poi,[2] cocoa-nut, raw fish, and roast dog.

While eating the poi with full fingers, Kanuha assured me that he had lived under King Alapai, and had been his runner, as well as the courier of Kalaniopuu, his successor.

So great had been Kanuha's strength in his youth that, at the command of his chiefs, he had in a single day accomplished the distance from Hoopuloa to Hilo, more than forty French leagues.

When Cook died, in 1779, the little children of Kanuha's children had been born.