Section 2 of 28 - Table of Contents
Lieutenant Furneaux, on the next morning, landed, without opposition,
close to a fine river that fell into the bay--stuck up a staff on which
was hoisted a pendant,--turned a turf,--and by this process took
possession of the island in the name of his Majesty, and called it _King
George the Third's Island_. Just as he was embarking, an old man, to
whom the Lieutenant had given a few trifles, brought some green boughs,
which he threw down at the foot of the staff, then retiring, brought
about a dozen of his countrymen, who approached the staff in a
supplicating posture, then retired and brought two live hogs, which they
laid down at the foot of the staff, and then began to dance. After this
ceremony the hogs were put into a canoe and the old man carried them on
board, handing up several green plantain leaves, and uttering a sentence
on the delivery of each. Some presents were offered him in return, but
he would accept of none.
Concluding that peace was now established, and that no further attack
would be made, the boats were sent on shore the following day to get
water. While the casks were filling, several natives were perceived
coming from behind the hills and through the woods, and at the same time
a multitude of canoes from behind a projecting point of the bay. As
these were discovered to be laden with stones, and were making towards
the ship, it was concluded their intention was to try their fortune in a
second grand attack. 'As to shorten the contest would certainly lessen
the mischief, I determined,' says Captain Wallis, 'to make this action
decisive, and put an end to hostilities at once.' Accordingly a
tremendous fire was opened at once on all the groups of canoes, which
had the effect of immediately dispersing them. The fire was then
directed into the wood, to drive out the islanders, who had assembled in
large numbers, on which they all fled to the hill, where the women and
children had seated themselves. Here they collected to the amount of
several thousands, imagining themselves at that distance to be perfectly
safe. The captain, however, ordered four shot to be fired over them, but
two of the balls, having fallen close to a tree where a number of them
were sitting, they were so struck with terror and consternation, that,
in less than two minutes, not a creature was to be seen. The coast being
cleared, the boats were manned and armed, and all the carpenters with
their axes were sent on shore, with directions to destroy every canoe
they could find; and we are told this service was effectually performed,
and that more than fifty canoes, many of which were sixty feet long, and
three broad, and lashed together, were cut to pieces.
This act of severity must have been cruelly felt by these poor people,
who, without iron or any kind of tools, but such as stones, shells,
teeth, and bones supplied them with, must have spent months and probably
years in the construction of one of these extraordinary double boats.
Such was the inauspicious commencement of our acquaintance with the
natives of Otaheite. Their determined hostility and perseverance in an
unequal combat could only have arisen from one of two motives--either
from an opinion that a ship of such magnitude, as they had never before
beheld, could only be come to their coast to take their country from
them; or an irresistible temptation to endeavour, at all hazards, to
possess themselves of so valuable a prize. Be that as it may, the dread
inspired by the effects of the cannon, and perhaps a conviction of the
truth of what had been explained to them, that the 'strangers wanted
only provisions and water,' had the effect of allaying all jealousy; for
from the day of the last action, the most friendly and uninterrupted
intercourse was established, and continued to the day of the _Dolphin's_
departure; and provisions of all kinds, hogs, dogs, fruit, and
vegetables, were supplied in the greatest abundance, in exchange for
pieces of iron, nails, and trinkets.
As a proof of the readiness of these simple people to forgive injuries,
a poor woman, accompanied by a young man bearing a branch of the
plantain tree, and another man with two hogs, approached the gunner,
whom Captain Wallis had appointed to regulate the market, and looking
round on the strangers with great attention, fixing her eyes sometimes
on one and sometimes on another, at length burst into tears. It appeared
that her husband and three of her sons had been killed in the attack on
the ship. While this was under explanation, the poor creature was so
affected as to require the support of the two young men, who from their
weeping were probably two more of her sons. When somewhat composed, she
ordered the two hogs to be delivered to the gunner, and gave him her
hand in token of friendship, but would accept nothing in return.
Captain Wallis was now so well satisfied that there was nothing further
to apprehend from the hostility of the natives, that he sent a party up
the country to cut wood, who were treated with great kindness and
hospitality by all they met, and the ship was visited by persons of both
sexes, who by their dress and behaviour appeared to be of a superior
rank. Among others was a tall lady about five and forty years of age, of
a pleasing countenance and majestic deportment. She was under no
restraint, either from diffidence or fear, and conducted herself with
that easy freedom which generally distinguishes conscious superiority
and habitual command. She accepted some small present which the captain
gave her, with a good grace and much pleasure; and having observed that
he was weak and suffering from ill health, she pointed to the shore,
which he understood to be an invitation, and made signs that he would go
thither the next morning. His visit to this lady displays so much
character and good feeling, that it will best be described in the
captain's own words.
'The next morning I went on shore for the first time, and my princess or
rather queen, for such by her authority she appeared to be, soon after
came to me, followed by many of her attendants. As she perceived that my
disorder had left me very weak, she ordered her people to take me in
their arms, and carry me not only over the river, but all the way to her
house; and observing that some of the people who were with me,
particularly the first lieutenant and purser, had also been sick, she
caused them also to be carried in the same manner, and a guard, which I
had ordered out upon the occasion, followed. In our way, a vast
multitude crowded about us, but upon her waving her hand, without
speaking a word, they withdrew, and left us a free passage. When we
approached near her house, a great number of both sexes came out to meet
her; these she presented to me, after having intimated by signs that
they were her relations, and taking hold of my hand she made them kiss
it.
'We then entered the house, which covered a piece of ground three
hundred and twenty-seven feet long, and forty-two feet broad. It
consisted of a roof thatched with palm leaves, and raised upon
thirty-nine pillars on each side, and fourteen in the middle. The ridge
of the thatch, on the inside, was thirty feet high, and the sides of the
house, to the edge of the roof, were twelve feet high; all below the
roof being open. As soon as we entered the house, she made us sit down,
and then calling four young girls, she assisted them to take off my
shoes, draw down my stockings, and pull off my coat, and then directed
them to smooth down the skin, and gently chafe it with their hands. The
same operation was also performed on the first lieutenant and the
purser, but upon none of those who appeared to be in health. While this
was doing, our surgeon, who had walked till he was very warm, took off
his wig to cool and refresh himself: a sudden exclamation of one of the
Indians, who saw it, drew the attention of the rest, and in a moment
every eye was fixed upon the prodigy, and every operation was suspended.
The whole assembly stood some time motionless, in silent astonishment,
which could not have been more strongly expressed, if they had
discovered that our friend's limbs had been screwed on to the trunk. In
a short time, however, the young women who were chafing us, resumed
their employment, and having continued for about half an hour, they
dressed us again, but in this they were, as may easily be imagined, very
awkward; I found great benefit, however, from the chafing, and so did
the lieutenant and the purser.
'After a little time our generous benefactress ordered some bales of
Indian cloth to be brought out, with which she clothed me, and all that
were with me, according to the fashion of the country. At first I
declined the acceptance of this favour, but being unwilling not to seem
pleased with what was intended to please me, I acquiesced. When we went
away, she ordered a very large sow, big with young, to be taken down to
the boat, and accompanied us thither herself. She had given directions
to her people to carry me, as they had done when I came, but as I chose
rather to walk, she took me by the arm, and whenever we came to a plash
of water or dirt, she lifted me over with as little trouble as it would
have cost me to have lifted over a child, if I had been well.'
The following morning Captain Wallis sent her a present by the gunner,
who found her in the midst of an entertainment given to at least a
thousand people. The messes were put into shells of cocoa-nuts, and the
shells into wooden trays, like those used by our butchers, and she
distributed them with her own hands to the guests, who were seated in
rows in the open air, round the great house. When this was done, she sat
down herself upon a place somewhat elevated above the rest, and two
women, placing themselves, one on each side of her, fed her, she opening
her mouth as they brought their hands up with the food. From this time,
provisions were sent to market in the greatest abundance. The queen
frequently visited the captain on board, and always with a present, but
she never condescended to barter, nor would she accept of any return.
One day, after visiting her at her house, the captain at parting made
her comprehend by signs, that he intended to quit the island in seven
days: she immediately understood his meaning, and by similar signs,
expressed her wish that he should stay twenty days; that he should go
with her a couple of days' journey into the country, stay there a few
days, return with plenty of hogs and poultry, and then go away; but on
persisting in his first intention, she burst into tears, and it was not
without great difficulty that she could be pacified. The next time that
she went on board, Captain Wallis ordered a good dinner for her
entertainment and those chiefs who were of her party; but the queen
would neither eat nor drink. As she was going over the ship's side, she
asked, by signs, whether he still persisted in leaving the island at the
time he had fixed, and on receiving an answer in the affirmative, she
expressed her regret by a flood of tears; and as soon as her passion
subsided, she told the captain that she would come on board again the
following day.
Accordingly, the next day she again visited the ship twice, bringing
each time large presents of hogs, fowls, and fruits. The captain, after
expressing his sense of her kindness and bounty, announced his intention
of sailing the following morning. This, as usual, threw her into tears,
and after recovering herself, she made anxious inquiry when he should
return; he said in fifty days, with which she seemed to be satisfied.
'She stayed on board,' says Captain Wallis, '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, with the greatest reluctance,
she was prevailed upon to go into the boat, and was followed by her
attendants.'
The next day, while the ship was unmooring, the whole beach was covered
with the inhabitants. The queen came down, and having ordered a double
canoe to be launched, was rowed off by her own people, followed by
fifteen or sixteen other canoes. She soon made her appearance on board,
but, not being able to speak, she sat down and gave vent to her passion
by weeping. Shortly after a breeze springing up, the ship made sail; and
finding it now necessary to return into her canoe, 'she embraced us
all,' says Captain Wallis, 'in the most affectionate manner, and with
many tears; all her attendants also expressed great sorrow at our
departure. 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 ten
o'clock we had 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.'
The tender passion had certainly caught hold of one or both of these
worthies; and if her Majesty's language had been as well understood by
Captain Wallis, as that of Dido was to AEneas, when pressing him to stay
with her, there is no doubt it would have been found not less pathetic--
Nec te noster amor, nec te data dextera quondam,
Nec moritura tenet crudeli funere Dido?
This lady, however, did not sink, like the 'miserrima Dido,' under her
griefs; on the contrary, we find her in full activity and animation, and
equally generous, to Lieut. Cook and his party, under the name of
_Oberea_, who, it now appeared, was no queen, but whose husband they
discovered was uncle to the young king, then a minor, but from whom she
was separated. She soon evinced a partiality for Mr. Banks, though not
quite so strong as that for Wallis, but it appears to have been mutual,
until an unlucky discovery took place, that she had, at her command, a
stout strong-boned _cavaliere servente_; added to which, a theft, rather
of an amusing nature, contributed for a time to create a coolness, and
somewhat to disturb the good understanding that had subsisted between
them. It happened that a party, consisting of Cook, Banks, Solander, and
three or four others, were benighted at a distance from the anchorage.
Mr. Banks, says Lieut. Cook, thought himself fortunate in being offered
a place by Oberea, in her own canoe, and wishing his friends a good
night, took his leave. He went to rest early, according to the custom of
the country; and taking off his clothes, as was his constant practice,
the nights being hot, Oberea kindly insisted upon taking them into her
own custody, for otherwise, she said, they would certainly be stolen.
Mr. Banks having, as he thought, so good a safeguard, resigned himself
to sleep with all imaginable tranquillity; but awakening about eleven
o'clock, and wanting to get up, he searched for his clothes where he had
seen them carefully deposited by Oberea, when he lay down to sleep, and
perceived to his sorrow and surprise, that they were missing. He
immediately awakened Oberea, who, starting up and hearing his complaint,
ordered lights, and prepared in great haste to recover what had been
lost. Tootahah (the regent) slept in the next canoe, and being soon
alarmed, he came to them and set out with Oberea in search of the thief.
Mr. Banks was not in a condition to go with them, as of his apparel
scarcely any thing was left him but his breeches. In about half an hour
his two noble friends returned, but without having obtained any
intelligence of his clothes or of the thief. Where Cook and Solander had
disposed of themselves he did not know; but hearing music, which was
sure to bring a crowd together, in which there was a chance of his
associates being among them, he rose, and made the best of his way
towards it, and joined his party, as Cook says, 'more than half naked,
and told us his melancholy story.'
It was some consolation to find that his friends were fellow-sufferers,
Cook having lost his stockings, that had been stolen from under his
head, though he had never been asleep, and his associates their jackets.
At day-break Oberea brought to Mr. Banks some of her country clothes;
'so that when he came to us,' says Cook, 'he made a most motley
appearance, half Indian and half English.' Such an adventure must have
been highly amusing to him who was the object of it, when the
inconvenience had been removed, as every one will admit who knew the
late venerable President of the Royal Society. He never doubted,
however, that Oberea was privy to the theft, and there was strong
suspicion of her having some of the articles in her custody. Being aware
that this feeling existed, she absented herself for some time, and when
she again appeared, she said a favourite of hers had taken them away,
whom she had beaten and dismissed; 'but she seemed conscious,' says
Cook, 'that she had no right to be believed; she discovered the
strongest signs of fear, yet she surmounted it with astonishing
resolution, and was very pressing to be allowed to sleep with her
attendants in Mr. Banks's tent; in this, however, she was not
gratified.' Sir Joseph might have thought that, if he complied with her
request, his breeches might be in danger of following the other articles
of his dress.
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