A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 by Robert Kerr

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In the evening our people returned from their excursion, and came down
to the beach, upon which I put the queen and her attendants into the
boats, and sent them on shore. As she was going over the ship's side,
she asked, by signs, whether I still persisted in my resolution of
leaving the island at the time I had fixed; and when I made her
understand that it was impossible I should stay longer, she expressed
her regret by a flood of tears, which for a while took away her speech.
As soon as her passion subsided, she told me that she would come on
board again the next day; and thus we parted.

SECTION VII.

_An Account of an Expedition to discover the Inland Part of the Country,
and our other Transactions, till we quitted the Island to continue our
Voyage_.

After the mate came on board, he gave me a written account of his
expedition, to the following effect:

"At four o'clock in the morning of Saturday the 25th of June, I landed,
with four midshipmen, a Serjeant and twelve marines, and twenty-four
seamen, all armed, besides four, who carried hatchets and other articles
of traffic, and four who were loaded with ammunition and provisions, the
rest being left with the boat: Every man had his day's allowance of
brandy, and the hatchet-men two small kegs, to give out when I should
think proper."

"As soon as I got on shore, I called upon our old man, and took him with
us: We then followed the course of the river in two parties, one
marching on each side. For the first two miles it flowed through a
valley of considerable width, in which were many habitations, with
gardens walled in, and abundance of hogs, poultry, and fruit; the soil
here seemed to be a rich fat earth, and was of a blackish colour. After
this the valley became very narrow, and the ground rising abruptly on
one side of the river, we were all obliged to march on the other. Where
the stream was precipitated from the hills, channels had been cut to
lead the water into gardens and plantations of fruit-trees: In these
gardens we found an herb which had never been brought down to the
water-side, and which we perceived the inhabitants eat raw. I tasted it,
and found it pleasant, its flavour somewhat resembling that of the West
Indian spinnage, called _Calleloor_, though its leaf was very different.
The ground was fenced off so as to make a very pretty appearance; the
bread-fruit and apple-trees were planted in rows on the declivity of the
hills, and the cocoa-nut and plantain, which require more moisture, on
the level ground: Under the trees, both on the sides and at the foot of
the hills, there was very good grass, but no underwood. As we advanced,
the windings of the stream became innumerable, the hills on each side
swelled into mountains, and vast crags every where projected over our
heads. Travelling now became difficult, and when we had proceeded about
four miles, the road for the last mile having been very bad, we sat down
to rest ourselves, and take the refreshment of our breakfast; we ranged
ourselves upon the ground under a large apple tree, in a very pleasant
spot; but just as we were about to begin our repast, we were suddenly
alarmed by a confused sound of many voices, and a great shouting, and
presently, afterwards saw a multitude of men, women, and children, upon
the hill above us; our old man seeing us rise hastily, and look to our
arms, beckoned to us to sit still, and immediately went up to the people
that had surprised us. As soon as he joined them they were silent, and
soon after disappeared; in a short time, however, they returned, and
brought with them a large hog ready roasted, with plenty of bread-fruit,
yams, and other refreshments, which they gave to the old man, who
distributed them among our people. In return for this treat, I gave them
some nails, buttons, and other things, with which they were greatly
delighted. After this we proceeded up the valley as far as we could,
searching all the runs of water, and all the places where water had run,
for appearances of metal or ore, but could find none, except what I have
brought back with me. I shewed all the people that we met with, the
piece of saltpetre which had been picked up in the island, and which I
had taken with me for that purpose, but none of them took any notice of
it, nor could I learn from them any thing about it. The old man began
now to be weary, and there being a mountain before us, he made signs
that he would go home: Before he left us, however, he made the people
who had so liberally supplied us with provisions, take the baggage, with
the fruit that had not been eaten, and some cocoa-nut shells full of
fresh water, and made signs that they should follow us up the side of
the mountain. As soon as he was gone, they gathered green branches from
the neighbouring trees, and with many ceremonies, of which we did not
know the meaning, laid them down before us: After this they took some
small berries with which they painted themselves red, and the bark of a
tree that contained a yellow juice, with which they stained their
garments in different parts. We began to climb the mountain while our
old man was still in sight, and he, perceiving that we made our way with
difficulty through the weeds and brush-wood, which grew very thick,
turned back, and said something to the natives in a firm loud tone; upon
which twenty or thirty of the men went before us, and cleared us a very
good path; they also refreshed us with water and fruit as we went along,
and assisted us to climb the most difficult places, which we should
otherwise have found altogether impracticable. We began to ascend this
hill at the distance of about six miles from the place where we landed,
and I reckoned the top of it to be near a mile above the river that runs
through the valley below. When we arrived at the summit, we again sat
down to rest and refresh ourselves. While we were climbing we flattered
ourselves that from the top we should command the whole island, but we
now saw mountains before us so much higher than our situation, that with
respect to them we appeared to be in a valley; towards the ship indeed
the view was enchanting: The sides of the hills were beautifuly clothed
with wood, villages were every where interspersed, and the vallies
between them afforded a still richer prospect; the houses stood thicker,
and the verdure was more luxuriant. We saw very few habitations above
us, but discovered smoke in many places ascending from between the
highest hills that were in sight, and therefore I conjectured that the
most elevated parts of the country are by no means without inhabitants.
As we ascended the mountain, we saw many springs gush from fissures on
the side of it, and when we had reached the summit, we found many houses
that we did not discover as we passed them. No part of these mountains
is naked; the summits of the highest that we could see were crowned with
wood, but of what kind I know not: Those that were of the same height
with that which we had climbed, were woody on the sides, but on the
summit were rocky and covered with fern. Upon the flats that appeared
below these, there grew a sedgy kind of grass and weeds: In general the
soil here, as well as in the valley, seemed to be rich. We saw several
bushes of sugar-cane, which was very large and very good, growing wild,
without the least culture. I likewise found ginger and turmerick, and
have brought samples of both, but could not procure seeds of any tree,
most of them being in blossom. After traversing the top of this mountain
to a good distance, I found a tree exactly like a fern, except that it
was 14 or 15 feet high. This tree I cut down, and found the inside of it
also like a fern: I would have brought a piece of it with me, but found
it too cumbersome, and I knew not what difficulties we might meet with
before we got back to the ship, which we judged to be now at a great
distance. After having recruited our strength by refreshment and rest,
we began to descend the mountain, being still attended by the people to
whose care we had been recommended by our old man. We kept our general
direction towards the ship, but sometimes deviated a little to the right
and left in the plains and vallies, when we saw any houses that were
pleasantly situated, the inhabitants being every where ready to
accommodate us with whatever they had. We saw no beasts except a few
hogs, nor any birds, except parrots, parroquets, and green doves; by the
river, however, there was plenty of ducks, and every place that was
planted and cultivated, appeared to flourish with great luxuriance,
though in the midst of what had the appearance of barren ground. I
planted the stones of peaches, cherries, and plumbs, with a great
variety of garden: seeds, where I thought it was most probable they
would thrive, and limes, lemons, and oranges, in situations which
resembled those in which they are found in the West Indies. In the
afternoon, we arrived at a very pleasant spot, within about three miles
of the ship, where we procured two hogs and some fowls, which the
natives dressed for us very well, and with great expedition. Here we
continued till the cool of the evening, and then made the best of our
way for the ship, having liberally rewarded our guides, and the people
who had provided us so good a dinner. Our men behaved through the whole
day with the greatest decency and order, and we parted with our Indian
friends in perfect good humour with each other."

About 10 o'clock the next morning, the queen came on board according to
her promise, with a present of hogs and fowls, but went on shore again
soon afterwards. This day, the gunner sent off near thirty hogs, with
great plenty of fowls and fruit. We completed our wood and water, and
got all ready for sea. More inhabitants came down to the beach, from the
inland country, than we had seen before, and many of them appeared, by
the respect that was paid them, to be of a superior rank. About three
o'clock in the afternoon, the queen came again down to the beach, very
well dressed, and followed by a great number of people. Having crossed
the river with her attendants and our old man, she came once more on
board the ship. She brought with her some very fine fruit, and renewed
her solicitation, that I would stay ten days longer, with great
earnestness, intimating that she would go into the country and bring me
plenty of hogs, fowls, and fruit. I endeavoured to express a proper
sense of her kindness and bounty, but assured her that I should
certainly sail the next morning. This, as usual, threw her into tears,
and after she recovered, she enquired by signs when I should return: I
endeavoured to express fifty days, and she made signs for thirty: But
the sign for fifty being constantly repeated, she seemed satisfied. She
stayed on board till night, and it was then with the greatest difficulty
that she could be prevailed upon to go on shore. When she was told that
the boat was ready, she threw herself down upon the arm-chest, and wept
a long time with an excess of passion that could not be pacified; at
last, however, though with great reluctance, she went into the boat, and
was followed by her attendants and the old man. The old man had often
intimated that his son, a lad about fourteen years of age, should go
with us, and the boy seemed to be willing: He had, however, now
disappeared for two days; I enquired after him when I first missed him,
and the old man gave me to understand that he was gone into the country
to see his friends, and would return time enough to go with us; but I
have reason to think that, when the time drew near, the father's courage
failed, and that to keep his child he secreted him till the ship was
gone, for we never saw him afterwards.

At break of day, on Monday the 27th, we unmoored, and at the same time I
sent the barge and cutter to fill the few water-casks that were now
empty. When they came near the shore, they saw, to their great surprise,
the whole beach covered with inhabitants, and having some doubt whether
it would be prudent to venture themselves among such a multitude, they
were about to pull back again for the ship. As soon as this was
perceived from the shore, the queen came forward, and beckoned them; at
the same time guessing the reason of what had happened, she made the
natives retire to the other side of the river; the boats then proceeded
to the shore, and filled the casks; in the mean time she put some hogs
and fruit on hoard, and when they were putting off would fain have
returned with them to the ship. The officer, however, who had received
orders to bring off none of the natives, would not permit her; upon
which she presently launched a double canoe, and was rowed off by her
own people. Her canoe was immediately followed by fifteen or sixteen
more, and all of them came up to the ship. The queen came on board, but
not being able to speak, she sat down and gave vent to her passion by
weeping. After she had been on board about an hour, a breeze springing
up, we weighed anchor and made sail. Finding it now necessary to return
into her canoe, she embraced us all in the most affectionate manner, and
with many tears; all her attendants also expressed great sorrow at our
departure. Soon after it fell calm, and I sent the boats a-head to tow,
upon which all the canoes returned to the ship, and that which had the
queen on board came up to the gunroom port, where her people made it
fast. In a few minutes she came into the bow of her canoe, where she sat
weeping with inconsolable sorrow. I gave her many things which I thought
would be of great use to her, and some for ornament; she silently
accepted of all, but took little notice of any thing. About 10 o'clock
we were got without the reef, and a fresh breeze springing up, our
Indian friends, and particularly the queen, once more bade us farewell,
with such tenderness of affection and grief, as filled both my heart and
my eyes.[53]

At noon, the harbour from which we sailed bore S.E. 1/2 E. distant about
twelve miles. It lies in latitude 17 deg. 30' S., longitude 150 deg. W., and I
gave it the name of Port Royal Harbour.

[Footnote 53 1: Of this queen, as Captain W. calls her, the reader will
see more particulars in the account of Cook's visit to this island. Her
name was Oberea. She was wife to Oammo, who governed the greater part of
Otaheite in behalf of his son, according to the custom of the place; but
at the time of Wallis's arrival, she cohabited with Toopaeea, a native of
Ulietea, and remarkable among these islanders for his wisdom and
information.--E.]

SECTION VIII.

_A more particular Account of the Inhabitants of Otaheite, and of their
domestic Life, Manners, and Arts_.

Having lain off this island from the 24th of June to the 27th of July, I
shall now give the best account of its inhabitants, with their manners
and arts, that I can; but having been in a very bad state of health the
whole time, and for great part of it confined to my bed, it will of
necessity be much less accurate and particular than I might otherwise
have made it.

The inhabitants of this island are a stout, well-made, active, and
comely people. The stature of the men, in general, is from five feel
seven to five feet ten inches, though a few individuals are taller, and
a few shorter; that of the women from five feet to five feet six. The
complexion of the men is tawney, but those that go upon the water are
much redder than those who live on shore. Their hair in general is
black, but in some it is brown, in some red, and in others flaxen, which
is remarkable, because the hair of all other natives of Asia, Africa,
and America, is black, without a single exception. It is generally tied
up, either in one bunch, in the middle of the head, or in two, one on
each side, but some wear it loose, and it then curls very strongly: In
the children of both sexes it is generally flaxen. They have no combs,
yet their hair is very neatly dressed, and those who had combs from us,
made good use of them. It is a universal custom to anoint the head with
cocoa-nut oil, in which a root has been scraped that smells something
like roses. The women are all handsome, and some of them extremely
beautiful. Chastity does not seem to be considered as a virtue among
them, for they not only readily and openly trafficked with our people
for personal favours, but were brought down by their fathers and
brothers for that purpose: They were, however, conscious of the value of
beauty, and the size of the nail that was demanded for the enjoyment of
the lady, was always in proportion to her charms. The men who came down
to the side of the river, at the same time that they presented the girl,
shewed a stick of the size of the nail that was to be her price, and if
our people agreed, she was sent over to them, for the men were not
permitted to cross the river. This commerce was carried on a
considerable time before the officers discovered it, for while some
straggled a little way to receive the lady, the others kept a look-out.
When I was acquainted with it, I no longer wondered that the ship was in
danger of being pulled to pieces for the nails and iron that held her
together, which I had before puzzled myself to account for in vain, the
whole ship's company having daily as much fresh provision and fruit as
they could eat. Both men and women are not only decently but gracefully
clothed, in a kind of white cloth, that is made of the bark of a shrub,
and very much resembles coarse China paper. Their dress consists of two
pieces of this cloth: One of them, a hole having been made in the middle
to put the head through hangs down from the shoulders to the mid leg
before and behind; another piece, which is between four and five yards
long, and about one yard broad, they wrap round the body in a very easy
manner. This cloth is not woven, but is made, like paper, of the
macerated fibres of an inner bark spread out and beaten together. Their
ornaments are feathers, flowers, pieces of shells, and pearls: The
pearls are worn chiefly by the women, from whom I purchased about two
dozen of a small size: They were of a good colour, but were all spoiled
by boring. Mr Furneaux saw several in his excursion to the west, but he
could purchase none with any thing he had to offer. I observed, that it
was here a universal custom both for men and women to have the hinder
part of their thighs and loins marked very thick with black lines in
various forms. These marks were made by striking the teeth of an
instrument, somewhat like a comb, just through the skin, and rubbing
into the punctures a kind of paste made of soot and oil, which leaves an
indelible stain. The boys and girls under twelve years of age are not
marked: But we observed a few of the men whose legs were marked in
chequers by the same method, and they appeared to be persons of superior
rank and authority. One of the principal attendants upon the queen
appeared much more disposed to imitate our manners than the rest; and
our people, with whom he soon became a favourite, distinguished him by
the name of Jonathan. This man, Mr Furneaux clothed completely in an
English dress, and it sat very easy upon him. Our officers were always
carried on shore, it being shoal water where we landed, and Jonathan,
assuming new state with his new finery, made some of his people carry
him on shore in the same manner. He very soon attempted to use a knife
and fork at his meals, but at first, when he had stuck a morsel upon his
fork, and tried to feed himself with that instrument, he could not guide
it, but by the mere force of habit his hand came to his mouth, and the
victuals at the end of the fork went away to his ear.

Their food consists of pork, poultry, dog's flesh, and fish,
bread-fruit, bananas, plantains, yams, apples, and a sour fruit, which,
though not pleasant by itself, gives an agreeable relish to roasted
bread-fruit, with which it is frequently beaten up. They have abundance
of rats, but, as far as I could discover, these make no part of their
food. The river affords them good mullet, but they are neither large nor
in plenty. They find conchs, mussels, and other shellfish on the reef,
which they gather at low-water, and eat raw with bread-fruit before they
come on shore. They have also very fine cray-fish, and they catch with
lines, and hooks of mother-of-pearl, at a little distance from the
shore, parrrot-fish, groopers, and many other sorts, of which they are
so fond that we could seldom prevail upon them to sell us a few at any
price. They have also nets of an enormous size, with very small meshes,
and with these they catch abundance of small fish about the size of
sardines; but while they were using both nets and lines with great
success, We could not catch a single fish with either. We procured some
of their hooks and lines, but for want of their art we were still
disappointed.

The manner in which they dress their food is this: They kindle a fire by
rubbing the end of one piece of dry wood, upon the side of another, in
the same manner as our carpenters whet a chissel; then they dig a pit
about half a foot deep, and two or three yards in circumference: They
pave the bottom with large pebble stones, which they lay down very
smooth and even, and then kindle a fire in it with dry wood, leaves, and
the husks of the cocoa-nut. When the stones are sufficiently heated,
they take out the embers, and rake up the ashes on every side; then they
cover the stones with a layer of green cocoa-nut tree leaves, and wrap
up the animal that is to be dressed in the leaves of the plantain; if it
is a small hog they wrap it up whole; if a large one they split it. When
it is placed in the pit, they cover it with the hot embers, and lay upon
them bread-fruit and yams, which are also wrapped up in the leaves of
the plantain: Over these they spread the remainder of the embers, mixing
among them some of the hot stones, with more cocoa-nut tree leaves upon
them, and then close all up with earth, so that the heat is kept in.
After a time proportioned to the size of what is dressing, the oven is
opened, and the meat taken out, which is tender, full of gravy, and, in
my opinion, better in every respect than when it is dressed any other
way. Excepting the fruit, they have no sauce but salt water, nor any
knives but shells, with which they carve very dexterously, always
cutting from them. It is impossible to describe the astonishment they
expressed when they saw the gunner, who, while he kept the market, used
to dine on shore, dress his pork and poultry by boiling them in a pot.
Having, as I have before observed, no vessel that would bear the fire,
they had no idea of hot water or its effects: But from the time that the
old man was in possession of an iron pot, he and his friends eat boiled
meat every day. The iron pots which I afterwards gave to the queen and
several of the chiefs, were also in constant use, and brought as many
people together, as a monster or a puppet-show in a country fair. They
appeared to have no liquor for drinking but water, and to be happily
ignorant of the art of fermenting the juice of any vegetable, so as to
give it an intoxicating quality: They have, as has been already
observed, the sugar-cane, but they seemed to make no other use of it
than to chew, which they do not do habitually, but only break a piece
off when they happen to pass by a place where it is growing.

Of their domestic life and amusements, we had not sufficient opportunity
to obtain much knowledge; but they appear sometimes to have wars with
each other, not only from their weapons, but the scars with which many
of them were marked, and some of which appeared to be the remains of
very considerable wounds, made with stones, bludgeons, or some other
obtuse weapon: By these scars also they appear to be no inconsiderable
proficients in surgery, of which indeed we happened to have more direct
evidence. One of our seamen, when he was on shore, run a large splinter
into his foot, and the surgeon being on board, one of his comrades
endeavoured to take it out with a penknife; but after putting the poor
fellow to a good deal of pain, was obliged to give it over. Our good old
Indian, who happened to be present, then called over one of his
countrymen that was standing on the opposite side of the river, who,
having looked at the seaman's foot, went immediately down to the beach,
and, taking up a shell, broke it to a point with his teeth; with this
instrument, in little more than a minute, he laid open the place, and
extracted the splinter; in the mean time the old man, who, as soon as he
had called the other over, went a little way into the wood, returned
with some gum, which he applied to the wound upon a piece of the cloth
that was wrapped round him, and in two days time it was perfectly
healed. We afterward learned that this gum was produced by the apple
tree, and our surgeon procured some of it, and used it as a vulnerary
balsam with great success.