These people, besides the cultivation of ground, have few other arts worth mentioning. They know how to make a coarse kind of matting, and a coarse cloth of the bark of a tree, which is used chiefly for belts. The workmanship of their canoes, I have before observed, is very rude; and their arms, with which they take the most pains in point of neatness, come far short of some others we had seen. Their weapons are clubs, spears, or darts, bows and arrows, and stones. The clubs are of three or four kinds, and from three to five feet long. They seem to place most dependence on the darts, which are pointed with three bearded edges. In throwing them they make use of a becket, that is, a piece of stiff plaited cord about six inches long, with an eye in one end and a knot at the other. The eye is fixed on the fore-finger of the right hand, and the other end is hitched round the dart, where it is nearly on an equipoise. They hold the dart between the thumb and remaining fingers, which serve only to give it direction, the velocity being communicated by the becket and fore-finger. The former flies off from the dart the instant its velocity becomes greater than that of the hand, but it remains on the finger ready to be used again. With darts they kill both birds and fish, and are sure of hitting a mark, within the compass of the crown of a hat, at the distance of eight or ten yards; but, at double that distance, it is chance if they hit a mark the size of a man’s body, though they will throw the weapon sixty or seventy yards. They always throw with all their might, let the distance be what it will. Darts, bows and arrows, are to them what muskets are to us. The arrows are made of reeds pointed with hard wood: some are bearded and some not, and those for shooting birds have two, three, and sometimes four points. The stones they use are, in general, the branches of coral rocks from eight to fourteen inches long, and from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter. I know not if they employ them as missive weapons; almost every one of them carries a club, and besides that, either darts, or a bow and arrows, but never both: those who had stones kept them generally in their belts.
I cannot conclude this account of their arms without adding an entire passage out of Mr. Wales’s journal. As this gentleman was continually on shore amongst them, he had a better opportunity of seeing what they could perform than any of us. The passage is as follows: “I must confess I have been often led to think the feats which Homer represents his heroes as performing with their spears a little too much of the marvellous to be admitted into an heroic poem; I mean when confined within the streight stays of Aristotle. Nay, even so great an advocate for him as Mr. Pope acknowledges them to be surprising. But since I have seen what these people can do with their wooden spears, and them badly pointed, and not of a very hard nature, I have not the least exception to any one passage in that great poet on this account. But, if I see fewer exceptions, I can find infinitely more beauties in him; as he has, I think, scarce an action, circumstance, or description of any kind whatever, relating to a spear, which I have not seen and recognised among these people; as their whirling motion, and whistling noise, as they fly; their quivering motion, as they stick in the ground when they fall; their meditating their aim, when they are going to throw; and their shaking them in their hand as they go along, &c. &c.”
I know no more of their cookery, than that it consists of roasting and baking; for they have no vessel in which water can be boiled. Nor do I know that they have any other liquor but water and the juice of the cocoa-nut.
We are utter strangers to their religion; and but little acquainted with their government. They seem to have chiefs among them; at least some were pointed out to us by that title; but, as I before observed, they appeared to have very little authority over the rest of the people. Old Geogy was the only one the people were ever seen to take the least notice of; but whether this was owing to high rank or old age I cannot say. On several occasions I have seen the old men respected and obeyed. Our friend Paowang was so; and yet I never heard him called chief, and have many reasons to believe that he had not a right to any more authority than many of his neighbours, and few, if any, were bound to obey him, or any other person in our neighbourhood; for if there had been such a one, we certainly should, by some means, have known it. I named the harbour Port Resolution, after the ship, she being the first which ever entered it. It is situated on the north side of the most eastern point of the island, and about E. N. E. from the volcano; in the latitude of 19° 32ʹ 25ʺ 1⁄2 South, and in the longitude of 169° 44ʹ 35ʺ East. It is no more than a little creek running in S. by W. 1⁄2 W. three quarters of a mile, and is about half that in breadth. A shoal of sand and rocks lying on the east side makes it still narrower. The depth of water in the harbour is from six to three fathoms, and the bottom is sand and mud. No place can be more convenient for taking in wood and water; for both are close to the shore. The water stunk a little after it had been a few days on board, but it afterwards turned sweet; and, even when it was at the worst, the tin machine would, in a few hours, recover a whole cask. This is an excellent contrivance for sweetening water at sea, and is well known in the navy.
Mr. Wales, from whom I had the latitude and longitude, found the variation of the needle to be 7° 14ʹ 12ʺ East, and the dip of its south end 45° 21⁄3ʹ. He also observed the time of high water, on the full and change days; to be about 5 h. 45m., and the tide to rise and fall three feet.
CHAP. VII.
THE SURVEY OF THE ISLANDS CONTINUED, AND A MORE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THEM.
As soon as the boats were hoisted in, we made sail, and stretched to the eastward, with a fresh gale at S. E., in order to have a nearer view of Erronan, and to see if there was any land in its neighbourhood. We stood on till midnight, when, having passed the island, we tacked, and spent the remainder of the night making two boards. At sunrise on the 21st, we stood to S. W. in order to get to the south of Tanna, and nearer to Annattom, to observe if any more land lay in that direction; for an extraordinary clear morning had produced no discovery of any to the east. At noon having observed in latitude 20° 33ʹ 30ʺ, the situation of the lands around us was as follows. Port Resolution bore 86° West, distant six and a half leagues; the island of Tanna extended from S. 88° West, to N. 64° West; Traitor’s Head N. 58° West, distant twenty leagues; the island of Erronan N. 86° East, distant five leagues; and Annattom from S. 1⁄2 E. to S 1⁄2 W. distant ten leagues. We continued to stretch to the south till two o’clock P. M. when, seeing no more land before us, we bore up round the S. E. end of Tanna; and, with a fine gale at E. S. E. ran along the south coast at one league from shore. It seemed a bold one, without the guard of any rocks; and the country full as fertile as in the neighbourhood of the harbour, and making a fine appearance. At six o’clock the high land of Erromango appeared over the west end of Tanna in the direction of N. 16° West; at eight o’clock we were past the island, and steered N. N. W. for Sandwich Island, in order to finish the survey[[7]] of it, and of the isles to the N. W. On the 22d, at four o’clock P. M., we drew near the S. E. end, and ranging the south coast, found it to trend in the direction of West and W. N. W. for about nine leagues. Near the middle of this length, and close to the shore, are three or four small isles, behind which seemed to be a safe anchorage. But not thinking I had any time to spare to visit this fine island, I continued to range the coast to its western extremity, and then steered N. N. W. for the S. E. end of Mallicollo, which, at half past six o’clock next morning, bore N. 14° East, distant seven or eight leagues, and Three-Hills Island S. 82° East. Soon after, we saw the islands Apee, Paoom, and Ambrym. What we had comprehended under the name of Paoom appeared now to be two isles, something like a separation being seen between the hill and the land to the west of it. We approached the S. W. side of Mallicollo to within half a league, and ranged it at that distance. From the S. E. point, the direction of the land is west, a little southerly, for six or seven leagues, and then N. W. by W. three leagues, to a pretty high point or head-land, situated in latitude 16° 29ʹ, and which obtained the name of South-West Cape. The coast, which is low, seemed to be indented into creeks and projecting points; or else, these points were small isles lying under the shore. We were sure of one, which lies between two and three leagues east of the Cape. Close to the west side or point of the Cape lies, connected with it by breakers, a round rock or islet, which helps to shelter a fine bay, formed by an elbow in the coast, from the reigning winds.
The natives appeared in troops on many parts of the shore, and some seemed desirous to come off to us in canoes; but they did not; and, probably, our not shortening sail was the reason. From the South-West Cape, the direction of the coast is N. by W., but the most advanced land bore from it N. W. by N. at which the land seemed to terminate. Continuing to follow the direction of the coast, at noon it was two miles from us; and our latitude, by observation, was 16° 22ʹ 30ʺ South. This is nearly the parallel to Port Sandwich, and our never-failing guide, the watch, showed that we were 26ʹ W. of it; a distance which the breadth of Mallicollo cannot exceed in this parallel. The South-West Cape bore S. 26° East, distant seven miles; and the most advanced point of land, for which we steered, bore N. W. by N. At three o’clock, we were the length of it, and found the land continued, and trending more and more to the north. We coasted it to its northern extremity, which we did not reach till after dark, at which time we were near enough the shore to hear the voices of people, who were assembled round a fire they had made on the beach. There we sounded, and found twenty fathoms and a bottom of sand; but, on edging off from the shore, we soon got out of sounding, and then made a trip back to the south till the moon got up. After this we stood again to the north, hauled round the point, and spent the night in Bougainville’s passage; being assured of our situation before sunset, by seeing the land, on the north side of the passage, extending as far as N. W. 1⁄2 W.
The south coast of Mallicollo, from the S. E. end to the S. W. Cape, is luxuriantly clothed with wood, and other productions of nature, from the sea-shore to the very summits of the hills. To the N. W. of the Cape the country is less woody, but more agreeably interspersed with lawns, some of which appeared to be cultivated. The summits of the hills seemed barren; and the highest lies between Port Sandwich and the S. W. Cape. Farther north, the land falls insensibly lower, and is less covered with wood. I believe it is a very fertile island, and well inhabited; for we saw smoke by day, and fire by night, in all parts of it.
Next morning at sunrise, we found ourselves nearly in the middle of the passage, the N. W. end of Mallicollo extending from S. 30° East, to S. 58° West; the land to the north from N. 70° West, to N. 4° East; and the Isle of Lepers bearing N. 30° East, distant eleven or twelve leagues. We now made sail, and steered N. by E., and afterwards north, along the east coast of the northern land, with a fine breeze at S. E. We found that this coast, which at first appeared to be continued, was composed of several low woody isles, the most of them of small extent, except the southernmost, which, on account of the day, I named St. Bartholomew. It is six or seven leagues in circuit, and makes the N. E. point of Bougainville’s Passage. At noon the breeze began to slacken. We were, at this time, between two and three miles from the land, and observed, in latitude 15° 23ʹ, the Isle of Lepers bearing from E. by N. to E. by S., distant seven leagues; and an high bluff-head, at which the coast we were upon seemed to terminate, N. N. W. 1⁄2 W., distant ten or eleven leagues; but from the mast-head we could see land to the east. This we judged to be an island, and it bore N. by W. 1⁄2 W.