A native of this country divides every thing in common with his friend, and the extent of the word friend, by them, is only bounded by the universe, and was he reduced to his last morsel of bread, he cheerfully halves it with him; the next that comes has the same claim, if he wants it, and so in succession to the last mouthful he has. Rank makes no distinction in hospitality; for the king and beggar relieve each other in common.
The English are allowed by the rest of the world, and I believe with some degree of justice, to be a generous, charitable people; but the Otaheiteans could not help bestowing the most contemptuous word in their language upon us, which is, Peery Peery, or Stingy.
In becoming the Tyo, or friend of a man, it is expected you pay him a compliment, by cherishing his wife; but, being ignorant of that ceremony, I very innocently gave high offence to Matuara, the king of York Island, to whom I was introduced as his friend: a shyness took place on the side of his Majesty, from my neglect to his wife; but, through the medium of Brown the interpreter, he put me in mind of my duty, and on my promising my endeavours, matters were for that time made up. It was to me, however, a very serious inauguration: I was, in the first place, not a young man, and had been on shore awhole week; the lady was a woman of rank, being sister to Ottoo, the king of Otaheitee, and had in her youth been beautiful, and named Peggy Ottoo. She is the right hand dancing figure so elegantly delineated in Cook's Voyages. But Peggy had seen much service, and bore away many honourable scars in the fields of Venus. However, his Majesty's service must be done, and Matuara and I were again friends. He was a domesticated man, and passionately fond of his wife and children; but now became pensive and melancholy, dreading the child should be Piebald; though the lady was six months advanced in her pregnancy before we came to the island.
The force of friendship amongst those good creatures, will be more fully understood from the following circumstance: Churchhill, the principal ringleader of the mutineers, on his landing, became the Tyo, or friend, of a great chief in the upper districts. Some time after the chief happening to die without issue, his title and estate, agreeable to their law from Tyoship, devolved on Churchhill, who having some dispute with one Thomson of theBounty, was shot by him. The natives immediately rose, and revenged the death of Churchhill their chief, by killing Thomson, whose skull was afterwards shown to us, which bore evident marks of fracture.
Oedidy, although perfectly devoted to our interest, on being appointed one of the guides in the expedition against the mutineers, expressed great horror at the act he was going to commit, in betraying his friend, being Tyo to one of them.
They are much less addicted to thieving than when Capt. Cook visited them; and when things were stolen, by applying to the magistrate of the district, the goods were immediately returned; for, like every other well regulated police, the thief and justice were of one gang.
Sometimes we slightly punished the offenders, bycutting off their hair. A beautiful young creature, who lived at the Observatory with one of our young gentlemen, slipped out of bed from him in the night, and stole all his linen. She was punished for the theft, by shaving one of her eye-brows, and half of the hair off her head. She immediately run into the woods, and used to come once or twice a day to the tent, to request looking at herself in the glass; but the grotesque figure she cut, with one side entirely bald, made her shriek out, and run into the woods to shun society.
With respect to agriculture, in a soil where nature has done so much, little is left to human industry; but had there been occasion for it, abilities would not be wanting. It is much to be lamented, that the endeavours of the philanthropic Sir Joseph Banks were frustrated, by their razing of every thing which he took so much pains to rear amongst them, a few shaddocks excepted. Tobacco and cotton have escaped their ravage; and they are much mortified that they cannot eradicate it from their grounds: but were a handloom on a simple construction, as used by the natives of Java, introduced amongst them, they could soon turn their cotton to good account. An instance of their ingenuity and imitative powers in matting, was a thing perfectly unknown amongst them till Captain Cook introduced it from Anamooka, one of the Friendly Isles: but in that branch of manufacture they now far surpass their original. They have likewise abundance of fine sugarcanes, growing spontaneously all over the island, from which rum and sugar might be extracted. Indeed an attempt was made by Coleman, the armourer of theBounty, who made a still, and succeeded; but, dreading the effects of intoxication, both amongst themselves and the natives, very wisely put an end to his labours by breaking the still.
Captain Bligh has likewise planted Indian corn, fromwhich much may be expected. On our landing, as soon as public business of more importance would permit, our gentlemen were indefatigable in laying out a piece of garden ground, and ditching it round. Lemons, oranges, limes, pine-apples, plants of the coffee tree, with all the lesser class of things, as onions, lettuces, peas, cabbages, and every thing necessary for culinary purposes, were planted.
In order that they might not meet the same fate of the things planted by Sir Joseph Banks, Captain Edwards made use of every stratagem to make the chiefs fond of the oranges and limes, by dipping them in sugar, to cover the acid before it be presented to them to eat. Messrs. Corner and Hayward were equally zealous in using the most persuasive arguments with the chiefs to take care of our garden, and rear and propagate the plants when we were gone; to all which they lent a deaf ear, and treated the subject with much levity, saying, they might be very good to us, but that they were already plentifully supplied with every thing they wished or wanted, and had not occasion for more. But on the Lieutenant's representing, that if, on our return, they could supply us with plenty of such articles as we left with them, they in exchange would receive hatchets, knives, and red cloth, they seemed more favourably inclined to our project; and I have no doubt but that some after navigators will reap the benefit of their industry.
The Bread-fruit, although the most delicate and nourishing food upon earth, is, with people like them, liable to inconveniencies; for in such a group or Archipelago of islands, whose inhabitants are in such various gradations of refinement, from the gentle and polished Otaheitean, to the savage and cannibal Feegee, a war amongst them is often attended with devastation as well as famine. By cutting round the bark of the Bread-fruit tree, a wholecountry may be laid waste for four or five years, young trees not bearing in less time. Crops, such as Indian corn, English wheat and peas, that have been left amongst them, can in time of war be stored in granaries on the top of their almost inaccessible mountains.
While speaking of the Bread-fruit tree, I can exemplify my subject from what happened to an island contiguous to Otaheite, whose coast abounded with fine fish; and the Otaheitans, being themselves too lazy to catch them, destroyed all the Bread-fruit trees on this little island; by which act of policy, they are obliged to send over boats with fish regularly to market, to be supplied with bread in barter from Otaheite. To this island they likewise send their wives, thinking they become fair by living on fish, and low diet. They also send boys for the same reason, whom they keep for abominable purposes.
As to the religion of this country, it is difficult for me to define it. Their tenets, although equally ignorant of heathen mythology or theological intricacies, seem to partake of both; and, like other nations in the early ages of society, are rendered subservient to political purposes, as by the machinery of deification the person of the king is sacred and inviolable. Notwithstanding the king be a broad shouldered strapping fellow, three sturdy stallions ofcecisbeos, or lords in waiting, are kept for the particular amusement of the queen, when his majesty is in his cups. Yet the royal issue is always declared to be sprung from the immortal Gods; and the heir-apparent, during his minority, is put under the tuition of the high priest. Their God is supposed to be omnipresent, and is worshipped in spirit, idolatry not being known amongst them. The sacred mysteries are only known to the priests or augurs, the king, princes, and great chiefs, the common people only serving as victims, or to fill up the pageantry of a religious procession. One ofour gentlemen expressing a wish to the high priest, of carrying from amongst them that God whose altars craved so much human blood, he, like a true priest, had his subterfuge ready, by saying, there were more of the same family in the other islands, from whence they could easily be supplied. On all great occasions, each district sends a male victim; and the island containing forty districts, it may be presumed the mortality is great. Between the sacrifices and the ravages of war, a preponderating number of females must have taken place; to counteract which, a law passed, that every other female child should be put to death at birth; and the husband always officiating as acoucheur to his wife, the child is destroyed as soon as the sex is discovered.
The absurdity of this inhuman law is now pretty evident. Women are become more scarce, and set a higher value on their charms, which occasions many desperate battles amongst them. Some with fractured skulls were sent on board of us, which had been got in amorous affrays of that kind.
It may naturally be supposed, that people of such gentle natures make no conspicuous figure in the theatre of war.
Their war-canoes are very large, on which a platform is placed, capable of containing from a hundred and fifty to two hundred men. But their taste in decorating the prow of their men of war, plainly indicates they are more versed in the fields of Venus than Mars, every man of war having a figure head of the god Priapus, with a preposterous insignia of his order; the sight of which never fails to excite great glee and good humour amongst the ladies.
It is customary with those nations at war, that the treaty of peace be confirmed by the conquerors sending a certain number of their women to cohabit with thenation that is vanquished, in order to conciliate their affection by a bond more lasting than wax and parchment. It was the unhappy lot of Otaheite to be overcome by a nation whose women were too masculine for them; they being accustomed to the amorous dalliance of their own beautiful females, were averse to familiar intercourse with strangers. The ladies returned with all the rage of disappointed women, and the war was renewed with all its horrors.
They are well acquainted with the bow and arrow, but use it as an amusement. The only missive weapons they use are the sling and spear. They have now amongst them about twenty stand of arms, and two hundred rounds of powder and ball. They can take a musket to pieces, and put it up again; are good marksmen, take proper care of their arms and ammunition; and are highly sensible of the superior advantage it gives them over the neighbouring nations.
In the preparing and printing their cloth, the women display a great share of ingenuity and good taste. Many of their figures were exactly the patterns which prevailed, as fashionable, when we left England, both striped and figured. They print their figured cloth by dipping the leaves in dye-stuffs of different colours, placing them as their fancy directs. Their cloth is of different texture of fineness, from a stuff of the same nature in quality as the slightest India paper, to a kind as durable as some of our cottons; but they will not bear water, and of course become troublesome and expensive. They are generally made up in bales, running about two yards broad, and twenty or thirty yards long. We had some thousands of yards of it sent on board as presents.
Their sumptuary laws, at first sight, may appear severe towards the fair sex, who are not permitted to eat butchermeat, nor to eat at all, in the presence of theirhusbands. It certainly does not convey the most delicate ideas, to a mind impressed with much sensibility, to see a fine woman devouring a piece of beef; and those voluptuaries, who may be said to exist only by their women, would naturally endeavour to remove the possibility of presupposing a disgusting idea in that object in which all their happiness centres.
Every woman, the queen and royal family excepted, on the approach of the king, is denuded down to the waist, and continues so whilst his majesty is in sight. Should the king enter a woman's house, it is immediately pulled down. The king is never permitted to help himself with meat or drink, which makes him a very troublesome visitor, as he is never quiet whilst a bottle is in sight till he has had the last drop of it.
Their houses are well adapted to the temperate climate they inhabit, and generally consist of three chambers, the interior one of which the chief retires to, after he has drank his cava. A profound silence is observed during his repose; for should they be suddenly awaked, it produces violent vomiting, and a train of uneasy sensations; but, otherwise, if undisturbed, it proves a safe anodyne, creates amorous dreams, and a powerful excitement to venery. In the adjoining chamber, his fair spouse waits, with eager expectation, to avail herself of the happy moment when her lord should awake, which is by slow degrees; and he is roused from Elysium, by her gentle offices, in tenderly embracing every part of his body, until his ideal scenes of bliss are realised; and when fully sated with the luscious banquet, they retire to the bath, to gather fresh vigour for a renewal of similar joys. In this mazy round of chaste dissipation, the hours glide gently on, and the evening is spent in dancing to the music of Pan's pipes, the flute, and hæva drum. They then go to the bath again, and the festivity of the evening is concluded witha repast of fruit, and young cocoanut milk. The whole village indiscriminately join the feast; and the demon of rank and precedence, with their appendages malevolence and envy, has never yet disturbed their happy board.
Happy would it have been for those people had they never been visited by Europeans; for, to our shame be it spoken, disease and gunpowder is all the benefit they have ever received from us, in return for their hospitality and kindness. The ravages of the venereal disease is evident, from the mutilated objects so frequent amongst them, where death has not thrown a charitable veil over their misery, by putting a period to their existence.
A disease of the consumptive kind has of late made great havoc amongst them; this they call the British disease, as they have only had it since their intercourse with the English.
In this complaint they are avoided by society, from a supposition of its being contagious; and in every old out-house, you will find miserable objects, for want of medical assistance, abandoned to their wretched fate. From what we could learn, it generally terminates fatally in ten or twelve months; but I am led to believe, that in many cases it originates from the venereal disease.[117-1]
The voice of humanity honour, and justice, calls upon us as a nation to remedy those evils, by sending some intelligent surgeon to live amongst them. They at present pant for the pruning-hand of civilization and the arts; love and adore us as beings of a superior nature, but gently upbraid us with having left them in the same abject state they were at first discovered.
We had buoyed many of them up with the hopes of carrying them to England with us, in order to secure theirfidelity and honesty, especially those who were most useful in our domestic concerns; but on explaining to them that even bread was not to be obtained in England without labour, they lost hopes of their favourite voyage.
Large presents were now brought us for our sea-store; and notwithstanding Mr. Bentham our purser having most liberally supplied the ship with four pounds of fresh pork per man each day, it made no apparent scarcity; beside salting some thousand weight, and a prodigious number of goats, fowls, and other things. Could we have made it convenient to have staid another week, some cows were promised to have been sent us from a neighbouring island. Capt. Cook had left with them a horse and mare, a cow with calf, and a bull; but, from some mistake, they killed a horse instead of one of the cows, and found it very tough, disagreeable eating, by which means they were disgusted with all the horned cattle, and drew an unfavourable conclusion that their meat was all of the same texture. Had some pains been taken with them, to get the better of a dislike they have to milk, and explained to them how variously it might be employed as food, I have no doubt but they would have paid more attention to the horned cattle. They used to persist in saying that milk was urine; but on pointing to a woman that was suckling her child, and pushing their own argument, they seemed convinced of their error. We have left them a goose and a gander, which they take a great delight in.
Edea, the Queen, endeavoured to conquer that absurd dislike, and at last became fond of milk in her tea.
A painting of Capt. Cook, done in oil by Webber, which had been delivered to Capt. Edwards on his first landing, was now returned to them. It is held by them in the greatest veneration; and I should not be surprised if, one day or other, divine honours should be paid to it. They still believe Capt. Cook is living; and their seeingMr. Bentham our purser, whom they perfectly recollected as having been the voyage with him, and spoke their language, will confirm them in that opinion.
The harbour was surveyed by Mr. Geo. Passmore, the master, an able and experienced officer.
Our officers here, as at Rio Janeiro, showed the most manly and philanthropic disposition, by giving up their cabins, and sacrificing every comfort and convenience for the good of mankind, in accommodating boxes with plants of the Bread-fruit tree, that the laudable intentions of government might not be frustrated from the loss of his majesty's shipBounty.
We had now completed our water from an excellent spring, out of a rock close to the water's edge, at Offaree.
King Ottoo, and his queen Edea, came on board, and were very importunate in their solicitations to Capt. Edwards, requesting him to take them to England with him. Aeredy, the concubine, likewise requested the same favour; but she more generously begged they might all three go together. But Oripai, and the other chiefs, remonstrated against his going, as they were on the eve of a war.
We were now perfectly ready for sea; and as Capt. Cook's picture is presented to all strangers, it is customary for navigators to write their observations on the back of it; so our arrival and departure was notified upon it.
The ship was filled with cocoa-nuts and fruit, as many pigs, goats, and fowls, as the decks and boats would hold. The dismal day of our departure now arrived. This I believe was the first time that an Englishman got up his anchor, at the remotest part of the globe, with a heavy heart, to go home to his own country. Every canoe almost in the island was hovering round the ship; and they began to mourn, as is customary for the death of a near relation. They bared their bodies, cut their headswith shells, and smeared their breasts and shoulders with the warm blood, as it streamed down; and as the blood ceased flowing, they renewed the wounds in their head, attended with a dismal yell.
Ottoo now took leave of us; and, with the tears trickling down his cheeks, begged to be remembered to King George. The tender was put in commission, and the command of her given to Mr. Oliver the master's mate, Mr. Renouard a midshipman, James Dodds a quartermaster; and six privates were put on board of her. She was decked, beautifully built, and the size of a Gravesend boat.
FOOTNOTES:[91-1]First printed at Berwick in 1793.[96-1]Afternoon entertainments.[117-1]Compare the ravages of the great Lila (wasting sickness) in Fiji, and the accounts of similar visitations following on the first visit of an European ship to an insular people. (The Fijians, p. 243).
[91-1]First printed at Berwick in 1793.
[91-1]First printed at Berwick in 1793.
[96-1]Afternoon entertainments.
[96-1]Afternoon entertainments.
[117-1]Compare the ravages of the great Lila (wasting sickness) in Fiji, and the accounts of similar visitations following on the first visit of an European ship to an insular people. (The Fijians, p. 243).
[117-1]Compare the ravages of the great Lila (wasting sickness) in Fiji, and the accounts of similar visitations following on the first visit of an European ship to an insular people. (The Fijians, p. 243).
Witha pleasant breeze, on the evening of the 8th of May, passed Emea or York Island, contiguous to, and in sight of Otaheite. It is governed by Matuara, brother-in-law to Ottoo. It is a pleasant romantic looking spot, with very high hills upon it, and about twelve miles in circumference. They were lately attacked by some neighbouring power, and Matuara requested the lend of a musket from his friend and ally. When peace was restored, Ottoo sent for his musket. Matuara represented, that as a man, from a sense of honour, he wished to return it; but that as a king, the love he bore his subjects prevented him complying with the request. That single musket, and a few cartridges, gives him no small degree of consequence, and are retained as the royal dower of his wife.
Next morning we reached Huaheine, and sent the boats on shore in Owharre Bay. As Oedidy the chief requested to go with us to Whytutakee, he went on shore with the officers, in their search for intelligence of the mutineers; but they returned without success.
Here we learned the fate of Omai, the native of Otaheite, whom Captain Cook brought from England. On his return here he had wealth enough to obtain every fine woman on the island; and at last fell a martyr to Venus,having finished his career by the venereal disease, two years after his landing. His house and garden are still standing; but his musket occasioned a war after his death, and was found in the possession of a native of Ulitea. His servant was on board of us, but had not retained a single article of his property.
On the 10th, we examined Ulitea and Otaha, interchanged presents with the natives, and landed in Chamanen's Bay; but got no information.
We examined Bolobola on the 11th; and Tatahu, the king, honoured us with a visit. The people of this island are of a more warlike disposition than any other of the Society Islands; and on account of that national ferocity of character, are much caressed by the Otaheitans and neighbouring islands. They are sensible of their pre-eminence, and boast of their country, in whatever island you meet them. They are tatooed in a particular manner; and whether they may have spread their conquests, or other nations imitated them, I could not learn; but a prodigious number, in islands we afterwards visited, were tatooed in their fashion. What was most singular, we saw some with the glans of the penis entirely tatooed; and our men, from being tatooed in the legs, arms, and breast, places of much less sensation, were often lame for a week, from the excruciating torture of the operation. Tatahu likewise informed us there were no white men on Tubai, a small island to the northward of Bolobola, and under his jurisdiction; nor upon Mauruah, another island in sight, and to the westward of Bolobola. He also mentioned another island, which he called Mopehah. Here Oedidy went on shore; but getting drunk in meeting some of his old friends, he fell asleep, and lost his passage. On the 12th we left Mauruah, and on the 13th lost sight of the Society Islands.
Here one of the prisoners begged to speak with theCaptain, and gave information of Mr. Christian's intended rout.
We now shaped our course to fall in to the eastward of Whytutakee, an island discovered by Capt. Bligh, and on the 19th made the island. We sent the boat on shore, covered by the tender, to examine it; but found it a thing impossible for theBountyto have been there; and the natives said they had seen no white people. They were very shy, and we could not coax them on board. One of them recollected having seen Lieut. Hayward on board theBounty. Here we purchased from the natives a spear of most exquisite workmanship. It was nine feet long, and cut in the form of a Gothic spire, all its ornaments being executed in a kind of alto relievo; which, from the slow progress they made with stone tools, must have been the labour of a man's whole life.
Here nature begins to assume a ruder aspect; and the silken bands of love gives way to the rustic garniture of war. The natives of either sex wear no cloathing, but a girdle of stained leaves round their middle, and the men a gorget, of the exact shape and size as at present wore by officers in our service. It is made of the pearl oyster-shell. The centre is black, and the transparent part of the shell is left as an edge or border to it, which gives it a very fine effect. It is slung round their neck with a band of human hair, or the fibres of cocoa nut-shell, of admirable texture, and a rose worked at each corner of the gorget, the same as the military jemmy of the present day.
We now began to discover, that the ladies of Otaheite had left us many warm tokens of their affection.
Instructions were given to the commander of the tender to be particular in guarding against surprise, and a rendezvous established, in case of separation; and on Sunday, the 22nd of May, made Palmerston's Islands.
The tender's signal was made to cover the boats inlanding; and some natives were seen rowing across the lagoon to a considerable distance. Soon after their landing, Lieut. Corner and his party discovered a yard and some spars markedBounty, and the broad arrow upon them. When this intelligence was communicated to the ship, a signal was made to the party on shore to advance with great circumspection, and to guard against surprise. Mr. Rickards, the master's mate, went in the cutter, and made a circuit of the island.
Lieuts. Corner and Hayward landed on the different isles with cork-jackets; but the surf running very high all round, rendered it exceedingly dangerous, and in many places impracticable. Had they not been expert swimmers, in duty of this kind, they must have certainly been drowned, as they had not only themselves and the party to take care of, but the arms and ammunition to land dry.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Sival the midshipman came on board in the jolly-boat, and brought with him several very curious stained canoes, representing the figure of men, fishes, and beasts. He had committed some mistake in the orders he was sent to execute, and was ordered to return immediately to rectify it; but the boat did not come back again. A few minutes after she left the ship, the weather became thick and hazy, and began to blow fresh; so that, even with the assistance of glasses, they could not see whether she made the shore or not. It continued to blow during the night, so as to prevent the party on shore from coming on board. They had been employed during the day in searching all the islands with particular attention, having every reason to suspect the mutineers were there, from finding theBounty'syard and spars. But at last, wore out with fatigue in marching, and swimming through so many reefs, and having no victuals the whole day, in the evening they began toforage for something to eat. The gigantic cockle was the only thing that presented. Of the shell of one they made a kettle, to boil some junks of it in. (It may be necessary here to remark, for the information of those who are not acquainted with it, that there are some of them larger than three men can carry.) Of this coarse fare, and some cocoa-nuts, they made shift, with the assistance of a good appetite, to make a tolerable hearty supper; they then set the watch, and went to sleep. They had thrown a large nut on the fire before they lay down, and forgot it; but in the middle of the night, the milk of the cocoa-nut became so expanded with the heat, that it burst with a great explosion. Their minds had been so much engaged in the course of the day with the enterprise they were employed in, expecting muskets to be fired at them from every bush, that they all jumped up, seized their arms, and were some time before they could undeceive themselves that they were really not attacked.
In the morning the boats returned; and we were much concerned to hear that they had seen nothing of the jolly-boat. The tender received a fresh supply of provisions and ammunition; at the same time they had orders to cruise in a certain direction, to look for the jolly-boat; and Palmerston's Isles was appointed as a rendezvous to meet again. Lieut. Corner now came on board, in a canoe not much bigger than a butcher's tray. The cutter was sent a second time to search the reefs, but returned without success. We then run down with the ship in the direction the wind had blown the preceding day, in hopes of finding the boat; but after a whole day's run to leeward, and working up again by traverses to the isles, saw nothing of her. The tender hove in sight in the evening, and we again searched the isles without success. All further hopes of seeing her were given up, and we proceeded on our voyage. It may be difficult to surmisewhat has been the fate of these unfortunate men. They had a piece of salt-beef thrown into the boat to them on leaving the ship; and it rained a good deal that night and the following day, which might satiate their thirst. It is by these accidents the Divine Ruler of the universe has peopled the southern hemisphere.[126-1]
Here are innumerable islands in perpetual growth. The coral, a marine vegetable, with which the South Seas in every part abounds, is continually shooting up from the bottom to the surface, which at first forms lagoon islands; and the water in the centre is evaporated by the heat of the sun, till at last a terra firma is completed. In this state it would for ever remain a barren sand, had not Divine Providence given birth to the cocoa-nut tree, whose fruit is so protected with a hard shell, that after floating about for a twelve-month in the sea, it will vegetate, take root, and grow in those salt marshes, lagoons, incipient islands, or what you please to call them. Their roots serve to bind the surface of the coral; and the annual shedding of their leaves, in time creates a soil which produces a verdure or undergrowth. This affords a favourite resting-place to sea-fowls, and the whole feathered race, who in their dung drop the seeds of shrubs, fruits, and plants; by which means all the variety of the vegetable kingdom is disseminated. At last the variegated landscape rises to the view; and when thedivine Architect has finished his work, it becomes then a residence for man.
From the various accidents incident to man in the early stages of society, their wants, and the restless spirit inherent in their natures, they are tempted to dare the elements, either in fishing, commerce, or war; and from their temerity are often blown to remote and uninhabited islands. Distressing accidents of this nature often happening to inhabitants of the South Seas, they now seldom undertake any hazardous enterprise by water without a woman, and a sow with pig, being in the canoe with them; by which means, if they are cast on any of those uninhabited islands, they fix their abode.
Their remote situation from European powers has deprived them of the culture of civilised life, as they neither serve to swell the ambitious views of conquest, nor the avarice of commerce. Here the sacred finger of Omnipotence has interposed, and rendered our vices the instruments of virtue; and although that unfortunate man Christian has, in a rash unguarded moment, been tempted to swerve from his duty to his king and country, as he is in other respects of an amiable character and respectable abilities, should he elude the hand of justice, it may be hoped he will employ his talents in humanizing the rude savages; so that, at some future period, a British Ilion may blaze forth in the south with all the characteristic virtues of the English nation, and complete the great prophecy, by propagating the Christian knowledge amongst the infidels. As Christian has taken fourteen beautiful women with him from Otaheite, there is little doubt of his intention of colonising some undiscovered island.
On the 6th day of June, we discovered an island, which was named the Duke of York's island. Lieuts. Corner and Hayward were sent out to examine it in the twoyauls, covered by the tender. Some huts being discovered by the ship, a signal was immediately made for the party on shore to be on their guard, and to advance with caution.
Soon after their arrival on shore, a ship's wooden buoy was discovered. On searching the huts, nets of different sizes were found hanging in them, and a variety of fishing utensils. Stages and wharfs were likewise discovered in different parts of the creek, which led us to imagine it was only an island resorted to in the fishing season by some neighbouring nation. The skeleton of a very large fish, supposed to be a whale, was found near the beach; and a place of venerable aspect, formed entirely by the hand of Nature, and resembling a Druidical temple, commanded their attention. The falling of a very large old tree, formed an arch, through which the interior part of the temple was seen, which heightened the perspective, and gave a romantic solemn dignity to the scene. At the extreme end of the temple, three altars were placed, the centre one higher than the other two, on which some white shells were piled in regular order.[128-1]
After traversing the island, they returned to the huts, and hung up a few knives, looking-glasses, and some little articles of European manufacture, that the natives, on their return, might know the island had been visited.
On the 12th, we discovered another island, which was named the Duke of Clarence's island. In running along the land, we saw several canoes crossing the lagoons. The tender's signal was made, to cover the boats in landing, and Lieuts. Corner and Hayward sent to reconnoitre the beach, to discover a landing-place. In this duty they came pretty near some of the natives in their canoes, who made signs of peace to them; but, either from fear or business,avoided having any intercourse with us. Morais, or burying-places, were likewise found here, which indicated it to be a principal residence. Here they find some old cocoa trees hollowed longitudinally, as tanks or reservoirs for the rain water.
On the 18th, we discovered an island of more considerable extent than any island that has hitherto been discovered in the south; and as there were many collateral circumstances which might hereafter promise it to be a discovery of national importance, in honour of the first lord of the admiralty, it was called Chatham's Island. It is beautifully diversified with hills and dales, of twice the extent of Otaheite, and a hardy warlike race of people. The natives described a large river to us, which disembogued itself into a spacious bay, that promises excellent anchorage.[129-1]Here we learned the death of Fenow, king of Anamooka, from one of his family of the same name, who had a finger cut off in mourning for him. After trading a whole day with the natives, who seemed fair and honourable in their dealings, we examined it without success, and proceeded on our voyage.
On the 21st we discovered a very considerable island, of about forty miles long. It was named by the natives Otutuelah. Capt. Edwards gave no name to it; but should posterity derive the advantages from it which it at present promises, I presume it may hereafter be called Edwards's island.[129-2]
It is well wooded with immense large trees, whose foliage spreads like the oak; and there is a deal of shrubbery on it, bearing a yellow flower. The natives are remarkably handsome. Some of them had their skins tinged with yellow, as a mark of distinction, which at first led us to imagine they were diseased. Neither sex wear anycloathing but a girdle of leaves round their middle, stained with different colours. The women adorn their hair with chaplets of sweet-smelling flowers and bracelets, and necklaces of flowers round their wrists and neck.
On their first coming on board, they trembled for fear. They were perfectly ignorant of fire-arms, never having seen a European ship before. They made many gestures of submission, and were struck with wonder and surprise at every thing they saw. Amongst other things, they brought us some most remarkable fine puddings, which abounded with aromatic spiceries, that excelled in taste and flavour the most delicate seed-cake. As we have never hitherto known of spices or aromatics being in the South Seas, it is certainly a matter worthy the investigation of some future circumnavigators. We traded with them the whole day, and got many curiosities. Birds and fowls, of the most splendid plumage, were brought on board, some resembling the peacock, and a great variety of the parrot kind.
One woman amongst many others came on board. She was six feet high, of exquisite beauty, and exact symmetry, being naked, and unconscious of her being so, added a lustre to her charms; for, in the words of the poet, "She needed not the foreign ornaments of dress; careless of beauty, she was beauty's self."
Many mouths were watering for her; but Capt. Edwards, with great humanity and prudence, had given previous orders, that no woman should be permitted to go below, as our health had not quite recovered the shock it received at Otaheite; and the lady was obliged to be contented with viewing the great cabin, where she was shewn the wonders of the Lord on the face of the mighty deep. Before evening, the women went all on shore, and the men began to be troublesome and pilfering. The third lieutenant had a new coat stole out of his cabin; and theywere making off with every bit of iron they could lay hands on.
It now came on to blow fresh, and we were obliged to make off from the land. Those who were engaged in trade on board were so anxious, that we had got almost out of sight of their canoes before they perceived the ship's motion, when they all jumped into the water like a flock of wild geese; but one fellow, more earnest than the rest, hung by the rudder chains for a mile or two, thinking to detain her.
This evening, at five o'clock, we unfortunately parted company, and lost sight of our tender. False fires were burnt, and great guns and small arms were fired without success, as it came on thick blowing weather.
We cruised for her all the 23rd and 24th, near where we parted company, which was off a piece of remarkable high land. What was most unfortunate, water and provisions were then on deck for her, which were intended to have been put on board of her in the morning. She had the day before received orders, in case of separation, to rendezvous at Anamooka, and to wait there for us. A small cag of salt, and another of nails and iron-ware, were likewise put on board of her, to traffic with the Indians, and the latitudes and longitudes of the places we would touch at, in our intended rout. She had a boarding netting fixed, to prevent her being boarded, and several seven-barrelled pieces and blunderbusses put on board of her.
As we proceeded to the eastward, we saw another island, which we knew to be one of the navigator's isles, discovered by Mons. Bougainville. On the 28th, in the morning, saw the Happai Islands, discovered by Capt. Cook, and before noon, the group of islands to the eastward of Anamooka, and sailed down between Little Anamooka and theFallafageeIsland.
On the 29th, we anchored in the road of Anamooka. Immediately on our arrival, a large sailing canoe was hired, and Lieut. Hayward and one private sent to the Happai and Feegee Islands,[132-1]to make inquiry after theBountyand our tender; but received no intelligence. Here they found an axe, which had been left by Capt. Cook, and bartered with the natives of the different islands for hogs, yams, &c.
The people of Anamooka are the most daring set of robbers in the South Seas; and, with the greatest deference and submission to Capt. Cook, I think the name of Friendly Isles is a perfect misnomer, as their behaviour to himself, to us, and to Capt. Bligh's unfortunate boat at Murderer's Cove, pretty clearly evinces. Indeed Murderer's Cove, in the Friendly Isles, is saying a volume on the subject.
Two or three of the officers were taking a walk on shore one evening, who had the precaution to take their pistols with them. They seemed to crowd round us with more than idle curiosity; but, on presenting the pistols to them, they sheered off. The Captain soon joined us, and brought his servant with him, carrying a bag of nails, and some trifling presents, which he meant to distribute amongst them; but he took the bag from him, and dispatched him with a message to the boat, on which the crowd followed him. As soon as he got out of our sight, they stripped him naked, and robbed him of his cloaths, and every article he had, but one shoe, which he used for concealing his nakedness. At this juncture Lieut. Hayward arrived from his expedition, and called the assistance of the guard in searching for the robbers. We saw the natives all running, and dodging behind the trees, which led us to suspect there was some mischief brewing; but we soon discovered the great Irishman, with his shoefull in one hand, and a bayonet in the other, naked and foaming mad with revenge on the natives, for the treatment he had received. Night coming on, we went on board, without recovering the poor fellow's cloathes.
Next day we were honoured with a visit from Tatafee, king of Anamooka, who was of lineal descent from the same family that reigned in the island when discovered by Tasman, the Dutch circumnavigator; and the story of his landing and supplying them with dogs and hogs, is handed down, by oral tradition, to this day.[133-1]
Here society may be said to exist in the second stage with respect to Otaheite. As land is scarcer, private property is more exactly ascertained, and each man's possession fenced in with a beautiful Chinese railing. Highways, and roads leading to public places, are neatly fenced in on each side, and a handsome approach to their houses by a gravel-walk, with shubbery planted with some degree of taste on each side of it. Many of them had rows of pine apples on each side of the avenue. Messrs. Hayward and Corner, with their usual benevolence, took much pains in teaching them the manner of transplanting their pine-apples; which hint they immediately adopted, and were very thankful for any advice, either in rearing their fruit, or cultivating their ground. The shaddocks are superior in flavour to those of the West Indies; and they will soon have oranges from what we have left amongst them.
The women here are extremely beautiful; and although they want that feminine softness of manners which the Otaheite women possess in so eminent a degree, their matchless vivacity, and fine animated countenances, compensate the want of the softer blandishments of their sister island.
There is a favourite amusement of the ladies here, (thecup and ball), such as children play at in England. It serves to give them a dégagé kind of air, by which means you have a more elegant display of their charms. They are well aware of their fascinating powers, and use them with as much address as our fine women do notting, and other acts of industry. Trade went briskly on. They brought abundance of hogs, and several ton weight of very excellent yams. We found that the pork took salt, and was cured much better here than at Otaheite.
Many beautiful girls were brought on board for sale by their mothers, who were very exorbitant in their demands, as nothing less than a broad axe would satisfy them; but after standing their market three days,la pucelagefell to an old razor, a pair of scissors, or a very large nail. Indeed this trade was pushed to so great a height, that the quarter-deck became the scene of the most indelicate familiarities. Nor did the unfeeling mothers commiserate with the pain and suffering of the poor girls, but seemed to enjoy it as a monstrous good thing. It is customary here, when girls meet with an accident of this kind, that a council of matrons is held, and the noviciate has a gash made in her fore finger. We soon observed a number of cut fingers amongst them; and had the razors held out, I believe all the girls in the island would have undergone the same operation.
A party was sent on shore to cut wood for fuel, and grass for the sheep; but they would not permit a blade of grass to be cut till they were paid for it.
The watering party shared the same fate; and notwithstanding a guard of armed men were sent to protect the others whilst on that duty, the natives were continually harassing them, and commiting depredations. One of them came behind Lieut. Corner, and made a blow at him with his club, which luckily missed his head, and only stunned him in the back of the neck; and,while in that state, snatched his handkerchief from him; but Mr. Corner recovering before the thief got out of sight, levelled his piece and shot him dead.
Tatafee[135-1]the king was going to collect tribute from the islands under his jurisdiction, and went in the frigate to Tofoa; but previous to our sailing, a letter was left to Mr. Oliver, the commander of the tender, should he chance to arrive before our return, with Macaucala, a principal chief. In the night, the burning mountain on Tofoa exhibited a very grand spectacle; and in the morning two canoes were sent on shore, to announce the arrival of those two great personages, Tatafee and Toobou, who went on shore in thePandora'sbarge, to give them more consequence; but the tributary princes came off in canoes, to do homage to Tatafee before he reached the shore. They came alongside the barge, lowered their heads over the side of the canoe, and Tatafee, agreeable to their custom, put his foot upon their heads. When on shore, what presents he had received from us, he distributed amongst his subjects, with a liberality worthy of a great prince.
Some of the people were here who behaved with such savage barbarity to Capt. Bligh's boat at Murderer's Cove. They perfectly recollected Mr. Hayward, and seemed to shrink from him. Captain Edwards took much pains with Tatafee, the king, to make him sensible of his disapprobation of their conduct to Capt. Bligh's boat. But conciliatory and gentle means were all that could be enjoined at present, lest our tender should fall in amongst them.