On the 29th, we received a visit from our old man, whose name we found to be Topāa, and three other natives, with whom Tupia had much conversation. The old man told us, that one of the men who had been fired upon by the officer who had visited their hippah, under pretence of fishing, was dead; but to my great comfort I afterwards discovered that this report was not true, and that if Topāa’s discourses were taken literally, they would frequently lead us into mistakes. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were several times on shore during the last two or three days, not without success, but greatly circumscribed in their walks, by climbers of a most luxuriant growth, which were so interwoven together as to fill up the space between the trees about which they grew, and render the woods altogether impassable. This day, also, I went on shore again myself, upon the western point of the inlet, and from a hill of considerable height I had a view of the coast to the N. W. The farthest land I could see in that quarter was an island which has been mentioned before, at the distance of about ten leagues, lying not far from the main: between this island and the place where I stood, I discovered, close under the shore, several other islands, forming many bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage for shipping. After I had set off the different points for my survey, I erected another pile of stones, in which I left a piece of silver coin, with some musket balls and beads, and a piece of an old pendant flying on the top. In my return to the ship, I made a visit to several of the natives, whom I saw along the shore, and purchased a small quantity of fish.
On the 30th, early in the morning, I sent a boat to one of the islands for celery, and while the people were gathering it, about twenty of the natives, men, women, and children, landed near some empty huts: as soon as they were on shore, five or six of the women sat down upon the ground together, and began to cut their legs, arms, and faces, with shells, and sharp pieces of talc or jaspar, in a terrible manner. Our people understood that their husbands had lately been killed by their enemies: but, while they were performing this horrid ceremony, the men set about repairing the huts, with the utmost negligence and unconcern.
The carpenter having prepared two posts to be left as memorials of our having visited this place, I ordered them to be inscribed with the ship’s name, and the year and month: one of them I set up at the watering-place, hoisting the Union-flag upon the top of it; and the other I carried over to the island that lies nearest to the sea, called by the natives Motuara. I went first to the village or hippah, accompanied by Mr. Monkhouse and Tupia, where I met with our old man, and told him and several others, by means of Tupia, that we were come to set up a mark upon the island, in order to show to any other ship which should happen to come thither, that we had been there before. To this they readily consented, and promised that they never would pull it down: I then gave something to every one present; and to the old man I gave a silver three-pence, dated 1736, and some spike-nails, with the king’s broad arrow cut deep upon them; things which I thought most likely to remain long among them: I then took the post to the highest part of the island, and, after fixing it firmly in the ground, I hoisted upon it the Union-flag, and honoured this inlet with the name of Queen Charlotte’s Sound; at the same time taking formal possession of this and the adjacent country, in the name and for the use of his Majesty King George the Third. We then drank a bottle of wine to her Majesty’s health, and gave the bottle to the old man who had attended us up the hill, and who was mightily delighted with his present.
While the post was setting up, we enquired of the old man concerning the passage into the eastern sea, the existence of which he confirmed; and then asked him about the land to the S. W. of the streight, where we were then situated: this land, he said, consisted of two whennuas or islands, which may be circumnavigated in a few days, and which he called Tovy Poenammoo: the literal translation of this word is, “the water of green talc;” and probably if we had understood him better, we should have found that Tovy Poenammoo was the name of some particular place where they got the green talc or stone of which they make their ornaments and tools, and not a general name for the whole southern district: he said there was also a third whennua, on the east side of the streight, the circumnavigation of which would take up many moons: this he called Eaheinomauwe; and to the land on the borders of the streight he gave the name of Tiera Witte. Having set up our post, and procured this intelligence, we returned on board the ship, and brought the old man with us, who was attended by his canoe, in which, after dinner, he returned home.
On the 31st, having completed our wooding, and filled all our water-casks, I sent out two parties, one to cut and make brooms, and another to catch fish. In the evening we had a strong gale from the N. W., with such a heavy rain, that our little wild musicians on shore suspended their song, which till now we had constantly heard during the night, with a pleasure which it was impossible to lose without regret.
On the 1st, the gale increased to a storm, with heavy gusts from the high land, one of which broke the hawser that we had fastened to the shore, and obliged us to let go another anchor. Towards midnight, the gale became more moderate, but the rain continued with such violence, that the brook which had supplied us with water overflowed its banks, and carried away ten small casks which had been left there full of water, and, notwithstanding we searched the whole cove, we could never recover one of them.
On the 3d, as I intended to sail the first opportunity, I went over to the hippah on the east side of the Sound, and purchased a considerable quantity of split and half-dried fish, for sea-stores. The people here confirmed all that the old man had told us concerning the streight and the country, and about noon I took leave of them: some of them seemed to be sorry, and others glad, that we were going: the fish which I had bought they sold freely, but there were some who showed manifest signs of disapprobation. As we returned to the ship, some of us made an excursion along the shore to the northward, to traffic with the natives for a farther supply of fish; in which, however, they had no great success. In the evening we got every thing off from the shore, as I intended to sail in the morning, but the wind would not permit.
On the 4th, while we were waiting for a wind, we amused ourselves by fishing, and gathering shells and seeds of various kinds; and early in the morning of the 5th, we cast off the hawser, hove short on the bower, and carried the kedge-anchor out, in order to warp the ship out of the cove, which having done, about two o’clock in the afternoon, we hove up the anchor and got under sail; but the wind soon failing, we were obliged to come to an anchor again a little above Motuara. When we were under sail, our old man, Topāa, came on board to take his leave of us; and as we were still desirous of making farther enquiries whether any memory of Tasman had been preserved among these people, Tupia was directed to ask him whether he had ever heard that such a vessel as ours had before visited the country. To this he replied in the negative; but said that his ancestors had told him there had once come to this place a small vessel, from a distant country, called Ulimaroa, in which were four men, who, upon their coming on shore, were all killed: upon being asked where this distant land lay, he pointed to the northward. Of Ulimaroa we had heard something before, from the people about the Bay of Islands, who said that their ancestors had visited it; and Tupia had also talked to us of Ulimaroa, concerning which he had some confused traditionary notions, not very different from those of our old man, so that we could draw no certain conclusion from the accounts of either.
Soon after the ship came to an anchor the second time, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went on shore, to see if any gleanings of natural knowledge remained; and by accident fell in with the most agreeable Indian family they had seen, which afforded them a better opportunity of remarking the personal subordination among these people than had before offered. The principal persons were a widow, and a pretty boy about ten years old: the widow was mourning for her husband with tears of blood, according to their custom, and the child, by the death of its father, was become proprietor of the land where we had cut our wood. The mother and the son were sitting upon mats, and the rest of the family, to the number of sixteen or seventeen, of both sexes, sat round them in the open air, for they did not appear to have any house, or other shelter from the weather, the inclemencies of which custom has probably enabled them to endure without any lasting inconvenience. Their whole behaviour was affable, obliging, and unsuspicious: they presented each person with fish, and a brand of fire to dress it, and pressed them many times to stay till the morning, which they would certainly have done if they had not expected the ship to sail, greatly regretting that they had not become acquainted with them sooner, as they made no doubt but that more knowledge of the manners and disposition of the inhabitants of this country would have been obtained from them in a day than they had yet been able to acquire during our whole stay upon the coast.
On the 6th, about six o’clock in the morning, a light breeze sprung up at north, and we again got under sail; but the wind proving variable, we reached no farther than just without Motuara; in the afternoon, however, a more steady gale at N. by W. set us clear of the Sound, which I shall now describe.