The Inside of a Hippah in New Zealand.
After breakfast, I went with the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, over to the north side of the bay, to take a view of the country, and two fortified villages which we had discovered at a distance. We landed near the smallest of them, the situation of which was the most beautifully romantic that can be imagined; it was built upon a small rock, detached from the main, and surrounded at high water. The whole body of this rock was perforated by an hollow or arch, which possessed much the largest part of it; the top of the arch was above sixty feet perpendicular above the sea, which at high water flowed through the bottom of it: the whole summit of the rock above the arch was fenced round after their manner; but the area was not large enough to contain more than five or six houses: it was accessible only by one very narrow and steep path, by which the inhabitants, at our approach, came down, and invited us into the place; but we refused, intending to visit a much more considerable fort of the same kind at about a mile’s distance. We made some presents however to the women, and in the mean time we saw the inhabitants of the town which we were going to, coming towards us in a body, men, women, and children, to the number of about one hundred: when they came near enough to be heard, they waved their hands and called out Horomai; after which they sat down among the bushes near the beach; these ceremonies we were told were certain signs of their friendly disposition. We advanced to the place where they were sitting, and when we came up, made them a few presents, and asked leave to visit their Heppah; they consented with joy in their countenances, and immediately led the way. It is called Wharretouwa, and is situated upon a high promontory or point, which projects into the sea, on the north side, and near the head of the bay: two sides of it are washed by the sea, and these are altogether inaccessible; two other sides are to the land: up one of them, which is very steep, lies the avenue from the beach; the other is flat and open to the country upon the hill, which is a narrow ridge: the whole is inclosed by a pallisade about ten feet high, consisting of strong pales bound together with withes. The weak side next the land is also defended by a double ditch, the innermost of which has a bank and an additional pallisade: the inner pallisades are upon the bank next the town, but at such a distance from the top of the bank as to leave room for men to walk and use their arms, between them and the inner ditch; the outermost pallisades are between the two ditches, and driven obliquely into the ground, so that their upper ends incline over the inner ditch: the depth of this ditch, from the bottom to the top or crown of the bank, is four-and-twenty feet. Close within the innermost pallisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad; it is supported by strong posts, and is intended as a station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which lay ready for use. Another stage of the same kind commands the steep avenue from the beach, and stands also within the pallisade; on this side of the hill, there are some little outworks and huts, not intended as advanced posts, but as the habitations of people who, for want of room, could not be accommodated within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, desirous of placing themselves under their protection. The pallisades, as has been observed already, run round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the sea as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a mount, they have reduced it not to one level, but to several, rising in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is inclosed within its separate pallisade; they communicate with each other by narrow lanes, which might easily be stopt up, so that if an enemy should force the outward pallisade, he would have others to carry before the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be obstinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a narrow passage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the steep ascent from the beach: it passes under one of the fighting stages, and though we saw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be considered as a place of great strength, in which a small number of resolute men may defend themselves against all the force which a people with no other arms than those that are in use here could bring against it. It seemed to be well furnished for a siege with every thing but water; we saw great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and dried fish piled up in heaps; but we could not perceive that they had any fresh water nearer than a brook, which runs close under the foot of the hill: whether they have any means of getting it from this place during a siege, or whether they have any method of storing it within the works in gourds or other vessels, we could not learn; some resource they certainly have with respect to this article, an indispensable necessary of life, for otherwise the laying up dry provisions could answer no purpose. Upon our expressing a desire to see their method of attack and defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting stage, which they call Porava, and another went into the ditch: both he that was to defend the place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war-song, and danced with the same frightful gesticulations that we had seen used in more serious circumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of that mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is the necessary prelude to a battle; for dispassionate courage, a strength of mind that can surmount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal spirits by which it is extinguished, seems to be the prerogative of those who have projects of more lasting importance, and a keener sense of honour and disgrace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few pains or pleasures besides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose but to provide for the day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an insult: they will march against each other indeed in cool blood, though they find it necessary to work themselves into passion before they engage; as among us there have been many instances of people who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a project which they formed when they were sober, but which, while they continued so, they did not dare to undertake.
On the side of the hill, near this inclosure, we saw about half an acre planted with gourds and sweet potatoes, which was the only cultivation in the bay: under the foot of the point upon which this fortification stands, are two rocks, one just broken off from the main, and the other not perfectly detached from it: they are both small, and seem more proper for the habitations of birds than men; yet there are houses and places of defence upon each of them. And we saw many other works of the same kind upon small islands, rocks, and ridges of hills, on different parts of the coast, besides many fortified towns, which appeared to be much superior to this.
The perpetual hostility in which these poor savages, who have made every village a fort, must necessarily live, will account for there being so little of their land in a state of cultivation; and, as mischiefs very often reciprocally produce each other, it may perhaps appear, that there being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their living in perpetual hostility. But it is very strange, that the same invention and diligence which have been used in the construction of places so admirably adapted to defence, almost without tools, should not, when urged by the same necessity, have furnished them with a single missile weapon except the lance, which is thrown by hand; they have no contrivance like a bow to discharge a dart, nor any thing like a sling to assist them in throwing a stone; which is the more surprising, as the invention of slings, and bows and arrows, is much more obvious than of the works which these people construct, and both these weapons are found among much ruder nations, and in almost every other part of the world. Besides the long lance and Patoo-patoo, which have been mentioned already, they have a staff about five feet long, sometimes pointed like a Serjeant’s halberd, sometimes only tapering to a point at one end, and having the other end broad, and shaped somewhat like the blade of an oar. They have also another weapon, about a foot shorter than these, pointed at one end, and at the other shaped like an axe. The points of their long lances are barbed, and they handle them with such strength and agility, that we can match them with no weapon but a loaded musquet.
After taking a slight view of the country, and loading both the boats with celery, which we found in great plenty near the beach, we returned from our excursion, and about five o’clock in the evening got on board the ship.
On the 15th, I sailed out of the bay, and at the same time had several canoes on board, in one of which was our friend Toiava, who said, that as soon as we were gone he must repair to his Heppah or fort, because the friends of the man who had been shot by Mr. Gore on the 9th, had threatened to revenge his death upon him, whom they had reproached as being our friend. Off the north point of the bay, I saw a great number of islands, of various extent, which lay scattered to the north-west, in a direction parallel with the main as far as I could see. I steered north-east for the north-easternmost of these islands, but the wind coming to the north-west, I was obliged to stand out to sea.
To the bay which we had now left I gave the name of Mercury Bay, on account of the observation which we had made there of the transit of that planet over the sun. It lies in latitude 36° 47ʹ S.; and in the longitude of 184° 4ʹ W.: there are several islands lying both to the southward and northward of it, and a small island or rock in the middle of the entrance: within this island the depth of water no where exceeds nine fathom; the best anchoring is in a sandy bay, which lies just within the south head, in five and four fathom, bringing a high tower or rock, which lies without the head, in one with the head, or just shut in behind it. This place is very convenient both for wooding and watering, and in the river there is an immense quantity of oysters and other shell-fish: I have for this reason given it the name of Oyster River. But for a ship that wants to stay here any time, the best and safest place is in the river at the head of the bay; which, from the number of mangrove trees about it, I have called Mangrove River. To sail into this river, the south shore must be kept all the way on board. The country on the east side of the river and bay, is very barren, its only produce being fern, and a few other plants that will grow in a poor soil. The land on the north-west side is covered with wood, and the soil being much more fertile would doubtless produce all the necessaries of life with proper cultivation: it is not however so fertile as the lands that we have seen to the southward, nor do the inhabitants, though numerous, make so good an appearance: they have no plantations; their canoes are mean, and without ornament; they sleep in the open air; and say, that Teratu, whose sovereignty they do not acknowledge, if he was to come among them, would kill them. This favoured our opinion of their being out-laws; yet they told us, that they had Heppahs, or strongholds, to which they retired in time of imminent danger.
We found, thrown upon the shore, in several parts of this bay, great quantities of iron sand, which is brought down by every little rivulet of fresh water that finds its way from the country; which is a demonstration that there is ore of that metal not far inland: yet neither the inhabitants of this place, or any other part of the coast that we have seen, know the use of iron, or set the least value upon it; all of them preferring the most worthless and useless trifle, not only to a nail, but to any tool of that metal.
Before we left the bay, we cut upon one of the trees near the watering-place the ship’s name, and that of the commander, with the date of the year and month when we were there; and after displaying the English colours, I took a formal possession of it in the name of his Britannic Majesty King George the Third.