While we were on shore, we found that Tupia had commended them beyond their merit, when he said that they would not steal; for one of them was detected in the fact. But when he was seized by the hair, the rest, instead of running away, as the people at Otaheite would have done, gathered round, and inquired what provocation had been given: but this also may be accounted for without giving them credit for superior courage; they had no experience of the consequence of European resentment, which the people at Otaheite had in many instances purchased with life. It must, however, be acknowledged, to their honour, that when they understood what had happened, they showed strong signs of disapprobation, and prescribed a good beating for the thief, which was immediately administered.
We now made sail for the island of Ulietea, which lies S. W. by W. distant seven or eight leagues from Huaheine, and at half an hour after six in the evening, we were within three leagues of the shore, on the eastern side. We stood off and on all night, and when the day broke the next morning, we stood in for the shore: we soon after discovered an opening in the reef which lies before the island, within which Tupia told us there was a good harbour. I did not, however, implicitly take his word; but sent the master out in the pinnace to examine it: he soon made the signal for the ship to follow; we accordingly stood in, and anchored in two-and-twenty fathom, with soft ground.
The natives soon came off to us in two canoes, each of which brought a woman and a pig. The woman we supposed was a mark of confidence, and the pig was a present; we received both with proper acknowledgments, and complimented each of the ladies with a spike nail and some beads, much to their satisfaction. We were told by Tupia, who had always expressed much fear of the men of Bolabola, that they had made a conquest of this island; and that, if we remained here, they would certainly come down to-morrow, and fight us. We determined, therefore, to go on shore without delay, while the day was our own.
I landed in company with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and the other gentlemen, Tupia being also of the party. He introduced us by repeating the ceremonies which he had performed at Huaheine, after which I hoisted an English jack, and took possession of this and the three neighbouring islands, Huaheine, Otaha, and Bolabola, which were all in sight, in the name of his Britannic Majesty. After this, we took a walk to a great Morai, called Tapodeboatea. We found it very different from those of Otaheite; for it consisted only of four walls, about eight feet high, of coral stones, some of which were of an immense size, inclosing an area of about five-and-twenty yards square, which was filled up with smaller stones: upon the top of it many planks were set up on end, which were carved in their whole length: at a little distance we found an altar, or Ewhatta, upon which lay the last oblation or sacrifice, a hog of about eighty pounds weight, which had been offered whole, and very nicely roasted. Here were also four or five Ewharre-no-Eatua, or houses of God, to which carriage poles were fitted, like that which we had seen at Huaheine. One of these Mr. Banks examined by putting his hand into it, and found a parcel about five feet long and one thick, wrapped up in mats: he broke a way through several of these mats with his fingers, but at length came to one which was made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut, so firmly plaited together that he found it impossible to tear it, and therefore was forced to desist; especially as he perceived, that what he had done already gave great offence to our new friends. From hence we went to a long house, not far distant, where, among rolls of cloth, and several other things, we saw the model of a canoe, about three feet long, to which were tied eight human jaw-bones: we had already learnt that these, like scalps among the Indians of North America, were trophies of war. Tupia affirmed that they were the jaw-bones of the natives of this island: if so, they might have been hung up, with the model of a canoe, as a symbol of invasion, by the warriors of Bolabola, as a memorial of their conquest.
Night now came on apace, but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander continued their walk along the shore, and at a little distance saw another Ewharre-no-Eatua, and a tree of the fig kind, the same as that which Mr. Green had seen at Otaheite, in great perfection, the trunk, or rather congeries of the roots of which was forty-two paces in circumference.
On the 21st, having dispatched the master in the long-boat to examine the coast of the south part of the island, and one of the mates in the yawl, to sound the harbour where the ship lay, I went myself in the pinnace, to survey that part of the island which lies to the north. Mr. Banks and the gentlemen were again on shore, trading with the natives, and examining the products and curiosities of the country; they saw nothing, however, worthy notice, but some more jaw-bones, of which they made no doubt but that the account they had heard was true.
On the 22d and 23d, having strong gales and hazy weather, I did not think it safe to put to sea; but on the 24th, though the wind was still variable, I got under sail, and plied to the northward within the reef, with a view to go out at a wider opening than that by which I had entered; in doing this, however, I was unexpectedly in the most imminent danger of striking on the rock: the master, whom I had ordered to keep continually sounding in the chains, suddenly called out “two fathom.” This alarmed me, for though I knew the ship drew at least fourteen feet, and that therefore it was impossible such a shoal should be under her keel; yet the master was either mistaken, or she went along the edge of a coral rock, many of which, in the neighbourhood of these islands, are as steep as a wall.
This harbour, or bay, is called by the natives Oopoa, and taken in its greatest extent, it is capable of holding any number of shipping. It extends almost the whole length of the east side of the island, and is defended from the sea by a reef of coral rocks: the southernmost opening in this reef, or channel into the harbour, by which we entered, is little more than a cable’s length wide; it lies off the easternmost part of the island, and may be known by another small woody island, which lies a little to the south-east of it, called by the people here Oatara. Between three and four miles north west from this island, lie two other islets, in the same direction as the reef, of which they are a part, called Opururu and Tamou; between these lies the other channel into the harbour, through which I went out, and which is a full quarter of a mile wide. Still farther to the north-west are some other small islands, near which I am told there is another small channel into the harbour; but this I know only by report.
The principal refreshments that are to be procured at this part of the island are, plantains, cocoa-nuts, yams, hogs, and fowls; the hogs and fowls, however, are scarce; and the country, where we saw it, is neither so populous, nor so rich in produce as Otaheite, or even Huaheine. Wood and water may also be procured here; but the water cannot conveniently be got at.
We were now again at sea, without having received any interruption from the hostile inhabitants of Bolabola, whom, notwithstanding the fears of Tupia, we intended to visit. At four o’clock in the afternoon of the 25th, we were within a league of Otaha, which bore N. 77 W. To the northward of the south end of that island, on the east side of it, and something more than a mile from the shore, lie two small islands, called Toahoutu and Whennuaia; between which, Tupia says, there is a channel into a very good harbour, which lies within the reef, and appearances confirmed his report.