A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

ARRANGED IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER: FORMING A COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN
AND PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION, DISCOVERY, AND COMMERCE, BY SEA AND LAND,
FROM THE EARLIEST AGES TO THE PRESENT TIME.

BY ROBERT KERR; F.R.S. & F.A.S. EDIN.

ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND CHARTS.

VOL. XIII.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH: AND T. CADELL, LONDON. MDCCCXXIV.

CONTENTS OF VOL. XIII.

* * * * *

PART III.--BOOK I.

CHAP. IV.

SECT. XVII.

A particular Description of the Island of Otaheite; its Produce and
Inhabitants; their Dress, Habitation, Food, Domestic Life and
Amusements.

SECT. XVIII.

Of the Manufactures, Boats, and Navigation of Otaheite.

XIX.

Of the Division of Time at Otaheite; Numeration, Computation of
Distance, Language, Diseases, Disposal of the Dead, Religion, War,
Weapons, and Government; with some general Observations for the Use of
future Navigators.

XX.

Description of the several Islands in the Neighbourhood of Otaheite,
with various Incidents; a Dramatic Entertainment; and many Particulars
relative to the Customs and Manners of the Inhabitants.

XXI.

The Passage from Oteroah to New Zealand; Incidents which happened in
going ashore there, and while the Ship lay in Poverty Bay.

SECT. XXII.

A Description of Poverty Bay, and the Face of the adjacent Country. The
Range from thence to Cape Turnagain, and back to Tolaga, with some
Account of the People and the Country and several Incidents that
happened on that Part of the Coast.

XIII.

The Range from Tolaga to Mercury Bay, with an Account of many Incidents
that happened both on board and ashore: A Description of several Views
exhibited by the Country, and of the Hippahs, or fortified Villages of
the Inhabitants.

XXIV.

The Range from Mercury Bay to the Bay of Islands: An Expedition up the
River Thames: Some Account of the Indians who inhabit its Banks, and the
fine Timber that grows there: Several Interviews with the Natives on
different Parts of the Coast, and a Skirmish with them upon an Island.

XXV.

Range from the Bay of Islands round North Cape to Queen Charlotte's
Island; and a Description of that Part of the Coast.

XXVI.

Transactions in Queen Charlotte's Sound; Passage through the Streight
which divides the two Islands, and back to Cape Turnagain: Horrid Custom
of the Inhabitants: Remarkable Melody of Birds: A Visit to a Hippah, and
many other Particulars.

XXVII.

Range from Cape Turnagain along the eastern Coast of Poenammoo, round
Cape South, and back to the Entrance of Cook's Streight, which completed
the Circumnavigation of the Country; with a Description of the Coast,
and of Admiralty Bay: The Departure from New Zealand, and various
Particulars.

XXVIII.

The Run from New Zealand to Botany Bay, on the East Coast of New
Holland, now called New South Wales; various Incidents that happened
there; with some Account of the Country end its Inhabitants.

SECT. XXIX.

The Range from Botany Bay; with a farther Account of the Country, and
its Inhabitants and Productions.

XXX.

Dangerous Situation of the Ship in her Course from Trinity Bay to
Endeavour River.

XXXI.

Transactions while the Ship was refitting in Endeavour River: A
Description of the adjacent Country, its Inhabitants and Productions.

XXXII.

Departure from Endeavour River; a particular Description of the Harbour
there, in which the Ship was refitted, the adjacent Country, and several
Islands near the Coast; the Range from Endeavour River to the Northern
Extremity of the Country, and the Dangers of that Navigation.

XXXIII.

Departure from New South Wales; a particular Description of the Country,
its Products, and People: A Specimen of the Language, and some
Observations on the Currents and Tides.

XXXIV.

The Passage from New South Wales to New Guinea, with an Account of what
happened upon landing there.

XXXV.

The Passage from New Guinea to the Island of Semau, and the Transactions
there.

XXXVI.

A particular Description of the Island of Savu, its Produce, and
Inhabitants, with a Specimen of their Language.

XXXVII.

The Run from the Island of Savu to Batavia, and an Account of the
Transactions there while the Ship was refitting.

XXVIII.

Some Account of Batavia, and the adjacent Country; with the Fruits,
flowers, and other Productions.

XXXIX.

Some Account of the Inhabitants of Batavia, and the adjacent Country,
their Manners, Customs, and Manner of Life.

XL.

The Passage from Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope, Some Account of
Prince's Island and its Inhabitants. Our Arrival at the Cape of Good
Hope. Some Remarks on the Run from Java Head to that Place, and to Saint
Helena. The Return of the Ship to England.

APPENDIX

An Abstract of the Voyage round the World, performed by Lewis de
Bougainville, Colonel of Foot, and Commander of the Expedition, in the
Frigate La Boudeuse, and the Storeship L'Etoile, in the Years 1766-7-8,
and 9, drawn up expressly for this Work.

A GENERAL HISTORY AND COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

* * * * *

PART III--BOOK I.

* * * * *

CHAP, IV.

SECTION XVII.

_A particular Description of the Island of Otaheite; its Produce and
Inhabitants; their Dress, Habitations, Food, Domestic Life and
Amusements._

We found the longitude of Port Royal bay, in this island, as settled by
Captain Wallis, who discovered it on the 9th of June, 1767, to be within
half a degree of the truth. We found Point Venus, the northern extremity
of the island, and the eastern point of the bay, to lie in the longitude
of 149 deg.13', this being the mean result of a great number of observations
made upon the spot. The island is surrounded by a reef of coral rock,
which forms several excellent bays and harbours, some of which have been
particularly described, where there is room and depth of water far any
number of the largest ships. Port Royal bay, called by the natives
Matavai which is not inferior to any in Otaheite, may easily be known,
by a very high mountain in the middle of the island, which bears due
south from Point Venus. To sail into it; either keep the west point of
the reef that lies before Point Venus, close on board, or give it a
birth of near half a mile, in order to avoid a small shoal of coral
rocks, on which there is but two fathoms and a half of water. The best
anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is sixteen and
fourteen fathom upon an oosy bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine
sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any
number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the
only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of fruit-trees,
which must be purchased of the natives, or all hope of living upon good
terms with them given up.

The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the
sea, is very uneven; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of
the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance
of sixty miles: Between the foot of these ridges and the sea, is a
border of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places
where the ridges rise directly from the sea: The border of low land is
in different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile
and a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is
extremely rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of
excellent water, and covered with fruit-trees of various kinds, some of
which are of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form, one
continued wood; and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they
are bare, and burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their
produce.

The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and
some of the vallies, are the only parts of the island that are
inhabited, and here it is populous; the houses do not form villages or
towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about
fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the
tree which furnishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to
Tupia's account, who certainly knew, could furnish six thousand seven
hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants
may easily, be computed.[1]

[Footnote 1: It is questionable if the whole existing population of the
island amount to the number now mentioned. Such has been the decrease of
its interesting but licentious inhabitants since the time of Cook, to
which, it is melancholy to be obliged to say, their intercourse with
Europeans has most rapidly contributed. The reader is referred, for some
information on this point, to the account of Turnbull's voyage,
published in 1805. A few particulars as to the appearance of Otaheite,
on the authority of subsequent accounts, may be given with satisfaction
to the reader. The island, which consists of two peninsulas connected by
a low neck or isthmus covered with trees and shrubs but quite
uninhabited, presents a mountainous aspect, rising high in the centre,
with narrow valleys of romantic but luxuriantly pleasing scenery, and
well watered, studding its verdant surface. The lofty and clustering
hills of which the greater part of the island is formed, and which,
however steep of ascent, or abrupt in termination, are clothed to the
very summit with trees of very various colours and sizes, are encircled
with a rich border of low land, the proper seat of the inhabitants, who
seem to realize, in its fertility and beauty, all that human imagination
can conceive requisite for animal enjoyment. The soil of this border,
and of the valleys, is a blackish mould; that of the hills is different,
changing as you ascend them into variously coloured earth and marl. The
beds of the streams and rivers, which swell into torrents during the
rainy season, consist of stones and gravel, often of a flinty nature,
and often also containing particles of iron. Some basaltic appearances
in one of the districts into which the island is divided, and several
precipices among the mountains, evidently produced by sudden violence,
indicate the volcanic origin of this highly favoured country. There is
plenty of good water to be had over all the island. The weather from
March till August is usually mild and pleasant. During the rough season,
which lasts from December till March, the wind often blows very hard
from the west, and is attended with rain.--E.]

The produce of this island is bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas of
thirteen sorts, the best we had ever eaten; plantains; a fruit not
unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant; sweet potatoes,
yams, cocoas, a kind of _Arum_ fruit known here by the name of
_Jambu_, and reckoned most delicious; sugar-cane, which the inhabitants
eat raw; a root of the salop kind, called by the inhabitants _Pea_; a
plant called _Ethee_, of which the root only is eaten; a fruit that
grows in a pod, like that of a large kidney-bean, which, when it is
roasted, eats very much like a chesnut, by the natives called _Ahee_; a
tree called _Wharra_, called in the East Indies _Pandanes_, which
produces fruit, something like the pine-apple; a shrub called _Nono_;
the _Morinda_, which also produces fruit; a species of fern, of which
the root is eaten, and sometimes the leaves; and a plant called _Theve_,
of which the root also is eaten: But the fruits of the _Nono_, the fern,
and the _Theve_, are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of
scarcity. All these, which serve the inhabitants for food, the earth
produces spontaneously, or with so little culture, that they seem to be
exempted from the first general curse, that "man should eat his bread in
the sweat of his brow." They have also the Chinese paper mulberry,
_morus papyrifera_, which they call _Aouto_; a tree resembling the wild
fig-tree of the West Indies; another species of fig, which they call
_Matte_; the _cordia sebestina orientalis_, which they call _Etou_; a
kind of Cyprus grass, which they call _Moo_; a species of
_tournefortia_, which they call _Taheinoo_; another of the _convolvulus
poluce_, which they call _Eurhe_; the _solanum centifolium_, which they
call _Ebooa_; the _calophyllum mophylum_, which they call _Tamannu_; the
_hibiscus tiliaceus_, called _Poerou_, a frutescent nettle; the _urtica
argentea_, called _Erowa_; with many other plants which cannot here be
particularly mentioned: Those that have been named already will be
referred to in the subsequent part of this work.

They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse, or legumes, nor grain
of any kind.

Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry; neither is there
a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a
few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any
serpent. But the sea supplies them with great variety of most excellent
fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their
principal labour.[2]

[Footnote 2: It was no doubt a work of supererogation in the
missionaries, to attempt to augment the stock of animal provision in
this island, to which nature had been so bountiful in dispensing her
favours. This however they did, but with little success. The natives
were too amply furnished with pleasant and wholesome aliment, to
undertake the care of cattle, which accordingly either perished from
neglect, or were suffered to turn wild in their mountains. The
imperfection too of their cookery operations not a little tended to
bring beef and mutton into contempt. Instead of dressing them in some of
the European methods, they treated them, as they did their dogs and
hogs, by the process of burning. The consequence was, the skin became as
tough as leather, and the taste very offensive. These were formidable
difficulties, to people of such nice sense as the Otaheitans, who were
therefore readily induced to revert to their own stock. See account of
the missionary voyage, for a good deal of information on the subjects
alluded to in this note.--E.]

As to the people, they are of the largest size of Europeans. The men are
tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw
was a man upon a neighbouring island, called _Huaheine_, who measured
six feet three inches and a half. The women of the superior rank are
also in general above our middle stature, but those of the inferior
class are rather below it, and some of them are very small. This defect
in size probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only
thing in which they differ from their superiors, that could possibly
affect their growth.

Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or _brunette_,
which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In those
that are exposed to the wind and sun, it is considerably deepened, but
in others that live under shelter, especially the superior class of
women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately
smooth and soft; they have no tint in their cheeks, which we distinguish
by the name of colour. The shape of the face is comely, the cheek-bones
are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent; The
only feature that does not correspond with our ideas of beauty is the
nose, which, in general, is somewhat flat; but their eyes, especially
those of the women, are full of expression, sometimes sparkling with
fire, and sometimes melting with softness; their teeth also are, almost
without exception, most beautifully even and white, and their breath
perfectly without taint.[3]

[Footnote 3: The missionary account speaks less favourably of the
comeliness of these islanders. But this being a matter of taste, will of
course be very variously considered. The reader may amuse himself by
comparing the following quotation with the text, and forming his own
opinion. He will at all events readily admit, that nature has done more
for these people than art, and that the predominance of fashion is
amongst them, as it is sometimes elsewhere, accomplished at the expence
of beauty. "The natural colour of the inhabitants is olive, inclining to
copper. Some are very dark, as the fishermen, who are most exposed to
the sun and sea; but the women, who carefully clothe themselves, and
avoid the sun-beams, are but a shade or two darker than a European
brunette. Their eyes are black and sparkling; their teeth white and
even; their skin soft and delicate; their limbs finely turned; their
hair jetty, perfumed and ornamented with flowers; but we did not think
their features beautiful, as by continual pressure from infancy, which
they call _tourooma_, they widen the face with their hands, distend
their mouth, and flatten the nose and forehead, which gives them a too
masculine look; and they are in general large, and wide over the
shoulders; we were therefore disappointed in the judgment, we had formed
from the report of preceding visitors; and though here and there was to
be seen a living person who might be esteemed comely, we saw few who in
fact could be called beauties; yet they possess eminent feminine graces:
Their faces are never darkened with a scowl, or covered with a cloud of
sullenness or suspicion." This account fully concurs in what follows as
to the manners and behaviour of the Otaheitans.--E.]

The hair is almost universally black, and rather coarse; the men have
beards, which they wear in many fashions, always, however, plucking out
great part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat. Both
sexes also eradicate every hair from under their arms, and accused us of
great uncleanness for not doing the same. In their motions there is at
once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal,
and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and
courteous. In their dispositions also, they seemed to be brave, open,
and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty, or revenge;
so that we placed the same confidence in them as in our best friends,
many of us, particularly Mr Banks, sleeping frequently in their houses
in the woods, without a companion, and consequently wholly in their
power. They were, however, all thieves; and when that is allowed, they
need not much fear a competition with the people of any other nation
upon earth. During our stay in this island we saw about five or six
persons like one that was met by Mr Banks and Dr Solander on the 24th of
April, in their walk to the eastward, whose skins were of a dead white,
like the nose of a white horse; with white hair, beard, brows, and
eyelashes; red, tender eyes; a short sight, and scurfy skins, covered
with a kind of white down; but we found that no two of these belonged to
the same family, and therefore concluded, that they were not a species,
but unhappy individuals, rendered anomalous by disease.[4]

[Footnote 4: In the opinion here expressed the Editor has already
acquiesced. He would remark by the bye, that although two or more
persons had been of the same family, no sufficient argument could have
been adduced, as to the peculiar affection depending on circumstances
adequate to constitute a species; for it is very clear that hereditary
diseases do not necessarily imply essential distinctions, and there
seems no reason to alter the laws of logic in favour of the
Albinos.--E.]

It is a custom in most countries where the inhabitants have long hair,
for the men to cut it short, and the women to pride themselves in its
length. Here, however, the contrary custom prevails; the women always
cut it short round their ears, and the men, except the fishers, who are
almost continually in the water, suffer it to flow in large waves over
their shoulders, or tie it up in a bunch on the top of their heads.

They have a custom also of anointing their heads with what they call
_monoe, an oil expressed from the cocoa-nut, in which some sweet herbs
or flowers have been infused: As the oil is generally rancid, the smell
is at first very disagreeable to a European; and as they live in a hot
country, and have no such thing as a comb, they are not able to keep
their heads free from lice, which the children and common people
sometimes pick out and eat; a hateful custom, wholly different from
their manners in every other particular; for they are delicate and
cleanly almost without example, and those to whom we distributed combs,
soon delivered themselves from vermin, with a diligence which showed
that they were not more odious to us than to them.[5]

[Footnote 5: This remark is scarcely consistent with what is related in
the missionary account, by which it appears that these vermin are
considered by the Otaheitans much in the same light as certain animals
were once in our own land, viz. royal property. The passage is too
curious to be omitted. It displays a very remarkable instance of that
ease and elegance, with which crowned heads can occasionally employ
themselves for the good of their subjects. "The mode of carrying the
king and queen is with their legs hanging down before, seated on the
shoulders and leaning on the head of their carriers, and very frequently
amusing themselves with picking out the vermin which there abound. It is
the singular privilege of the queen, that of all women, she alone may
eat them; which privilege she never fails to make use of." Such hunting
excursions are surely much more commendable, because much more innocent
in their own nature and more beneficial in their results, than those
practised amongst ourselves, at the risque of neck and limbs, and to the
still more important detriment of the farmer's gates and fences. The
point of privilege, perhaps, is less capable of defence--admitting,
however, for a moment, that pre-eminence of station and office entitles
the holder to singularity of inclination and conduct, as it is certainly
allowed to do in the case of some other sovereigns, the question then
becomes a mere matter of taste, and it is ungenerous to deny the
Otaheitan queen the benefit of the old maxim, _de gustibus non est
disputandum_.--E.]

They have a custom of staining their bodies, nearly in the same manner
as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call
_tattowing_. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a
small instrument, something in the form of a hoe; that part which
answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and
is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut
into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty,
according to its size: When this is to be used, they dip the teeth into
a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from
an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water; the teeth,
thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they
are fastened being struck, by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to
the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the
puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain. The
operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed.
It is performed upon the youth of both sexes when they are about twelve
or fourteen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various
figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of
the party. The women are generally marked with this stain, in the form
of a Z, on every joint of their fingers and toes, and frequently round
the outside of their feet: The men are also marked with the same figure,
and both men and women have squares, circles, crescents, and
ill-designed representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other
devices impressed upon their legs and arms, some of which we were told
had significations, though we could never learn what they were. But the
part on which these ornaments are lavished with the greatest profusion,
is the breech: This, in both sexes, is covered with a deep black; above
which, arches are drawn one over another as high as the short ribs. They
are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are not straight
lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are shewn both by
men and women with a mixture of ostentation and pleasure; whether as an
ornament, or a proof of their fortitude and resolution in bearing pain,
we could not determine. The face in general is left unmarked; for we saw
but one instance to the contrary. Some old men had the greatest part of
their bodies covered with large patches of black, deeply indented at the
edges, like a rude imitation of flame; but we were told, that they came
from a low island, called _Noouoora_, and were not natives of Otaheite.

Mr Banks saw the operation of _tattowing_ performed upon the backside of
a girl about thirteen years old. The instrument used upon this occasion
had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of which at least a hundred were
made in a minute, drew an ichor or serum a little tinged with blood. The
girl bore it with most Stoical resolution for about a quarter of an
hour; but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had received in
that time then became intolerable: She first complained in murmurs, then
wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the
operator to desist. He was, however, inexorable; and when she began to
struggle, she was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and
sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her
a smart blow. Mr Banks staid in a neighbouring house an hour, and the
operation was not over when he went away; yet it was performed but upon
one side, the other having been done some time before; and the arches
upon the loins, in which they most pride themselves, and which give more
pain than all the rest, were still to be done.