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Mutiny on the Bounty
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.