The first day of our arrival at Annamooka, one of the natives had stolen out of the ship a large junk axe. I now applied to Feenou to exert his authority to get it restored to me; and so implicitly was he obeyed, that it was brought on board while we were at dinner. These people gave us very frequent opportunities of remarking what expert thieves they were. Even some of their chiefs did not think this profession beneath them. On the 9th, one of them was detected carrying out of the ship, concealed under his clothes, the bolt belonging to the spun-yarn winch, for which I sentenced him to receive a dozen lashes, and kept him confined till he paid a hog for his liberty. After this we were not troubled with thieves of rank. Their servants, or slaves however, were still employed in this dirty work; and upon them a flogging seemed to make no greater impression than it would have done upon the mainmast. When any of them happened to be caught in the act, their masters, far from interceding for them, would often advise us to kill them. As this was a punishment we did not choose to inflict, they generally escaped without any punishment at all; for they appeared to us to be equally insensible of the shame and of the pain of corporal chastisement. Captain Clerke at last hit upon a mode of treatment which we thought had some effect. He put them under the hands of the barber, and completely shaved their heads; thus pointing them out as objects of ridicule to their countrymen, and enabling our people to deprive them of future opportunities for a repetition of their rogueries, by keeping them at a distance.
Feenou was so fond of associating with us, that he dined on board ever day, though sometimes he did not partake of our fare. On the 10th, some of his servants brought a mess which had been dressed for him on shore. It consisted of fish, soup, and yams. Instead of common water to make the soup, cocoa-nut liquor had been made use of, in which the fish had been boiled or stewed, probably in a wooden vessel with hot stones; but it was carried on board in a plantain leaf. I tasted of the mess, and found it so good, that I afterwards had some fish dressed in the same way. Though my cook succeeded tolerably well, he could produce nothing equal to the dish he imitated.
Finding that we had quite exhausted the island of almost every article of food that it afforded, I employed the 11th in moving off from the shore the horses, observatories, and other things that we had landed, as also the party of marines who had mounted guard at our station, intending to sail as soon as the Discovery should have recovered her best bower anchor. Feenou understanding that I meant to proceed directly to Tongataboo, importuned me strongly to alter this plan, to which he expressed as much aversion as if he had some particular interest to promote by diverting me from it. In preference to it he warmly recommended an island or rather a group of islands called Hapaee, lying to the north-east. There he assured us we could be supplied plentifully with every refreshment in the easiest manner; and to add weight to his advice, he engaged to attend us thither in person. He carried his point with me; and Hapaee was made choice of for our next station. As it had never been visited by any European ships, the examination of it became an object with me.
View at Annamooka
The 12th and the 13th were spent in attempting the recovery of Captain Clerke’s anchor, which, after much trouble, was happily accomplished; and on the 14th in the morning we got under sail, and left Annamooka.
This island is somewhat higher than the other small isles that surround it; but still it cannot be admitted to the rank of those of a moderate height, such as Mangeea and Wateeoo. The shore, at that part where our ships lay, is composed of a steep, rugged coral rock, nine or ten feet high, except where there are two sandy beaches, which have a reef of the same sort of rock extending cross their entrance to the shore, and defending them from the sea. The salt-water lake that is in the centre of the island is about a mile and a half broad; and round it the land rises like a bank, with a gradual ascent. But we could not trace its having any communication with the sea. And yet the land that runs across to it from the largest sandy beach being flat and low, and the soil sandy, it is most likely that it may have formerly communicated that way. The soil on the rising parts of the island, and especially toward the sea, is either of a reddish clayey disposition, or a black loose mould; but there is no where any stream of fresh water.
The island is very well cultivated, except in a few places; and there are some others which, though they appear to lie waste, are only left to recover the strength exhausted by constant culture; for we frequently saw the natives at work upon these spots to plant them again. The plantations consist chiefly of yams and plantains. Many of them are very extensive, and often inclosed with neat fences of reed, disposed obliquely across each other, about six feet high. Within these we often saw other fences of less compass surrounding the houses of the principal people. The bread-fruit and cocoa-nut trees are interspersed with little order, but chiefly near the habitations of the natives; and the other parts of the island, especially toward the sea, and about the sides of the lake, are covered with trees and bushes of a most luxuriant growth; the last place having a great many mangroves, and the first a vast number of the faitanoo trees already mentioned. There seem to be no rocks or stones of any kind about the island that are not coral, except in one place to the right of the sandy beach, where there is a rock twenty or thirty feet high, of a calcareous stone of a yellowish colour, and a very close texture. But even about that place, which is the highest part of the land, are large pieces of the same coral rock that composes the shore.
Besides walking frequently up into the country, which we were permitted to do without interruption, we sometimes amused ourselves in shooting wild ducks not unlike the widgeon, which are very numerous upon the salt lake, and the pool where we got our water. In these excursions we found the inhabitants had often deserted their houses to come down to the trading place, without entertaining any suspicion that strangers rambling about would take away or destroy any thing that belonged to them. But though, from this circumstance, it might be supposed that the greater part of the natives were sometimes collected at the beach, it was impossible to form any accurate computation of their number, as the continual resort of visitors from other islands mixing with them might easily mislead one. However, as there was never to appearance, about a thousand persons collected at one time, it would perhaps be sufficient to allow double that number for the whole island.
To the north and north-east of Annamooka, and in the direct tract to Hapaee, whither we were now bound, the sea is sprinkled with a great number of small isles. Amidst the shoals and rocks adjoining to this group, I could not be assured that there was a free or safe passage for such large ships as ours, though the natives sailed through the intervals in their canoes. For this substantial reason, when we weighed anchor from Annamooka, I thought it necessary to go to the westward of the above islands, and steered north north-west, towards Kao[[179]] and Toofoa, the two most westerly islands in sight, and remarkable for their great height. Feenou and his attendants remained on board the Resolution till near noon, when he went into the large sailing canoe which had brought him from Tongataboo, and stood in amongst the cluster of islands above mentioned, of which we were now almost abreast, and a tide or current from the westward had set us, since our sailing in the morning, much over toward them.