In order to be present the whole time, I dined ashore. The king sat down with us; but he neither ate nor drank. I found that this was owing to the presence of a female, whom, at his desire, I had admitted to the dining party; and who, as we afterward understood, had superior rank to himself. As soon as this great personage had dined, she stepped up to the king, who put his hands to her feet, and then she retired. He immediately dipped his fingers into a glass of wine, and then received the obeisance of all her followers. This was the single instance we ever observed of his paying this mark of reverence to any person. At the king’s desire, I ordered some fire-works to be played off in the evening; but, unfortunately, being damaged, this exhibition did not. answer expectation.
CHAP. VIII.
SOME OF THE OFFICERS PLUNDERED BY THE NATIVES.—A FISHING PARTY.—A VISIT TO POULAHO.—A FIATOOKA DESCRIBED.—OBSERVATIONS ON THE COUNTRY ENTERTAINMENT AT POULAHO’S HOUSE.—HIS MOURNING CEREMONY.—OF THE KAVA PLANT, AND THE MANNER OF PREPARING THE LIQUOR.—ACCOUNT OF ONEVY, A LITTLE ISLAND.—ONE OF THE NATIVES WOUNDED BY A SENTINEL.—MESSRS. KING AND ANDERSON VISIT THE KING’S BROTHER.—THEIR ENTERTAINMENT.—ANOTHER MOURNING CEREMONY.—MANNER OF PASSING THE NIGHT.—REMARKS ON THE COUNTRY THEY PASSED THROUGH.—PREPARATIONS MADE FOR SAILING.—AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN, IMPERFECTLY OBSERVED.—MR. ANDERSON’S ACCOUNT OF THE ISLAND, AND ITS PRODUCTIONS.
As no more entertainments were to be expected, on either side, and the curiosity of the populace was by this time pretty well satisfied; on the day after Poulaho’s haiva, most of them left us. We still, however, had thieves about us; and, encouraged by the negligence of our own people, we had continual instances of their depredations.
Some of the officers, belonging to both ships, who had made an excursion into the interior parts of the island, without my leave, and, indeed, without my knowledge, returned this evening, after an absence of two days. They had taken with them their muskets, with the necessary ammunition, and several small articles of the favourite commodities; all which the natives had the dexterity to steal from them, in the course of their expedition. This affair was likely to be attended with inconvenient consequences. For our plundered travellers upon their return, without consulting me, employed Omai to complain to the king of the treatment they had met with. He, not knowing what step I should take, and, from what had already happened, fearing lest I might lay him again under restraint, went off early the next morning. His example was followed by Feenou; so that we had not a chief, of any authority, remaining in our neighbourhood. I was very much displeased at this, and reprimanded Omai for having presumed to meddle. This reprimand put him upon his metal to bring his friend Feenou back; and he succeeded in the negotiation; having this powerful argument to urge, that he might depend upon my using no violent measures to oblige the natives to restore what had been taken from the gentlemen. Feenou, trusting to this declaration, returned toward the evening; and, encouraged by his reception, Poulaho favoured us with his company the day after.
Both these chiefs, upon this occasion, very justly observed to me, that if any of my people at any time wanted to go into the country, they ought to be acquainted with it; in which case they would send proper people along with them; and then they would be answerable for their safety. And I am convinced, from experience, that by taking this very reasonable precaution, a man and his property may be as safe among these islanders, as in other parts of the more civilized world. Though I gave myself no trouble about the recovery of the things stolen upon this occasion, most of them, through Feenou’s interposition, were recovered; except one musket, and a few other articles of inferior value. By this time also, we had recovered the turkey-cock, and most of the tools, and other matters, that had been stolen from our workmen.
On the 25th, two boats, which I had sent to look for a channel, by which we might most commodiously get to sea, returned. The masters, who commanded them, reported that the channel to the north, by which we came in, was highly dangerous, being full of coral rocks from one side to the other; but that, to the eastward, there was a very good channel; which, however, was very much contracted in one place by the small islands; so that a leading wind would be requisite to get through it; that is, a westerly wind, which we had found did not often blow here. We had now recruited the ships with wood and water; we had finished the repairs of our sails; and had little more to expect from the inhabitants of the produce of their island. However, as an eclipse of the sun was to happen upon the 5th of the next month, I resolved to defer sailing till that time had elapsed, in order to have a chance of observing it.
Having, therefore, some days of leisure before me, a party of us, accompanied by Poulaho, set out early next morning in a boat, for Mooa, the village where he and the other great men usually reside. As we rowed up the inlet, we met with fourteen canoes fishing in company; in one of which was Poulaho’s son. In each canoe was a triangular net, extended between two poles; at the lower end of which was a cod to receive and secure the fish. They had already caught some fine mullets; and they put about a dozen into our boat. I desired to see their method of fishing; which they readily complied with. A shoal of fish was supposed to be upon one of the banks, which they instantly inclosed in a long net like a seine, or set-net. This the fishers, one getting into the water out of each boat, surrounded with the triangular nets in their hands; with which they scooped the fish out of the seine, or caught them as they attempted to leap over it. They showed us the whole process of this operation (which seemed to be a sure one), by throwing in some of the fish they had already caught; for, at this time, there happened to be none upon the bank that was inclosed.
Leaving the prince and his fishing party, we proceeded to the bottom of the bay, and landed where we had done before, on our fruitless errand to see Mareewagee. As soon as we got on shore, the king desired Omai to tell me, that I need be under no apprehensions about the boat, or any thing in her, for not a single article would be touched by any one; and we afterward found this to be the case. We were immediately conducted to one of Poulaho’s houses not far off, and near the public one, or malaee, in which we had been when we first visited Mooa. This, though pretty large, seemed to be his private habitation, and was situated within a plantation. The king took his seat at one end of the house, and the people, who came to visit him, sat down as they arrived, in a semicircle at the other end. The first thing done, was to prepare a bowl of kava, and to order some yams to be baked for us. While these were getting ready, some of us, accompanied by a few of the king’s attendants, and Omai as our interpreter, walked out to take a view of a fiatooka, or burying-place, which we had observed to be almost close by the house, and was much more extensive, and seemingly of more consequence, than any we had seen at the other islands. We were told, that it belonged to the king. It consisted of three pretty large houses, situated upon a rising ground, or rather just by the brink of it, with a small one at some distance, all ranged longitudinally. The middle house of the three first was by much the largest, and placed in a square, twenty-four paces by twenty-eight, raised about three feet. The other houses were placed on little mounts, raised artificially to the same height. The floors of these houses, as also the tops of the mounts round them, were covered with loose fine pebbles, and the whole was inclosed by large flat stones[[188]] of hard coral rock, properly hewn, placed on their edges; one of which stones measured twelve feet in length, two in breadth, and above one in thickness. One of the houses, contrary to what we had seen before, was open on one side; and within it were two rude wooden busts of men; one near the entrance, and the other farther in. On inquiring of the natives who had followed us to the ground, but durst not enter here, what these images were intended for, they made us as sensible as we could wish, that they were merely memorials of some chiefs who had been buried there, and not the representations of any deity. Such monuments, it should seem, are seldom raised; for these had probably been erected several ages ago. We were told that the dead had been buried in each of these houses, but no marks of this appeared. In one of them was the carved head of an Otaheite canoe, which had been driven ashore on their coast, and deposited here. At the foot of the rising ground was a large area, or grass-plot, with different trees planted about it; amongst which were several of those called etoa, very large. These, as they resemble the cypress, had a fine effect in such a place. There was also a row of low palms near one of the houses, and behind it a ditch, in which lay a great number of old baskets.
After dinner, or rather after we had refreshed ourselves with some provisions which we had brought with us from our ship, we made an excursion into the country, taking a pretty large circuit, attended by one of the king’s ministers. Our train was not great, as he would not suffer the rabble to follow us. He also obliged all those whom we met upon our progress, to sit down till we had passed; which is a mark of respect due only to their sovereigns. We found by far the greatest part of the country cultivated, and planted with various sorts of productions; and most of these plantations were fenced round. Some spots, where plantations had been formerly, now produced nothing, lying fallow; and there were places that had never been touched, but lay in a state of nature; and yet, even these were useful in affording them timber, as they were generally covered with trees. We met with several large uninhabited houses, which we were told belonged to the king. There were many public and well-beaten roads, and abundance of foot-paths leading to every part of the island. The roads being good and the country level, travelling was very easy. It is remarkable, that when we were on the most elevated parts, at least a hundred feet above the level of the sea, we often met with the same coral rock which is found at the shore, projecting above the surface, and perforated and cut into all those inequalities which are usually seen in rocks that lie within the wash of the tide. And yet these very spots, with hardly any soil upon them, were covered with luxuriant vegetation. We were conducted to several little pools, and to some springs of water; but in general, they were either stinking or brackish, though recommended to us by the natives as excellent. The former were mostly inland, and the latter, near the shore of the bay, and below high-water mark; so that tolerable water could be taken up from them only when the tide was out.