Note 80 — Chapter VI
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On one of his visits to New Zealand of his second voyage, Cook, to be quite certain of the cannibalism of the New Zealanders, steeled himself to seeing them cook and eat the flesh of a young man who had been killed on the beach (apparently for that purpose). Many of the seamen with him who witnessed this disgusting spectacle were literally sick at the sight, but the person most affected was Oedidi, a youth from Tahiti, who had come with Cook as an interpreter, and who nearly went out of his mind with disgust, horror, and rage, extending his indignation to the white men who had allowed such a spectacle to take place in order to satisfy their curiosity.