All these islands are extremely fertile, and very thickly peopled. Ojalava surpasses any that I have seen, even Tahaiti itself, in luxuriant beauty. The landscape of Pola is majestic; the whole island is one large, high, round mountain, which strikingly resembles the Mauna-roa upon the island of Owahy: it is not quite so lofty indeed as the latter, but its altitude is about the same as that of the Peak of Teneriffe.
All the islands of the South Sea are more or less formed of coral reefs, which make secure harbours; the Navigators' Islands only are not indebted to these active little animals for this advantage. We sailed round all their coasts, and could find but one open bay, which runs far inland in the island of Maouna, opposite the small island already noticed off its north-east point.
The inhabitants of these islands are still far less civilized than were the Tahaitians when first discovered by Wallis. Those of Maouna especially are perhaps the most ferocious people to be met with in the South Sea. It was they who murdered Captain de Langle, the commander of the second ship under La Pérouse, the naturalist Laman, and fourteen persons from the crews of both ships, on their venturing ashore; although they had loaded the natives with presents.
These savages attacked them with showers of stones; and the muskets of the Europeans after the first discharge, which unfortunately did but little execution, could not be reloaded speedily enough for their protection. Triumphing in their inhuman victory, they mangled and plundered the remains of their unfortunate victims.
We sailed to the scene of this dreadful occurrence, since called Massacre Bay. The appearance of the country was inviting; the shores were bordered with cocoa-trees, and the freshest vegetation enlivened the interior, but nothing betrayed that the island was inhabited; no smoke arose, and no canoe was to be seen; this was the more remarkable, as on La Pérouse's arrival, his ship, as soon as perceived by the natives, was surrounded by several hundred canoes laden with provisions. A small canoe, carrying only three men, at length rowed towards us; we laid to, and by signs gave permission to the savages to come on board; this they could not resolve upon; but one of them climbed the ship's side high enough to see over the deck, and handed to us a few cocoa-nuts, all the provisions they had brought; a piece of iron, which we gave him in return, he pressed to his forehead in sign of thankfulness, and then bowed his head. He examined the deck a long time with prying and suspicious glances, without speaking a word; then suddenly commenced a long pathetic harangue, growing more and more animated as he proceeded, and pointing with passionate gestures, alternately to the ship and the land. His eloquence was quite thrown away on us; but the silence with which we listened, might probably lead him to suppose that we attached some importance to it. His confidence gradually increased, and he would perhaps have spoken longer, had not his attention been arrested by the approach of several canoes.
We were soon surrounded by the descendants of the barbarian murderers; perhaps some of the actors in the atrocious deed might even themselves be amongst the crowd which now assembled around us. This wild troop appeared timid at first, but our orator having encouraged them, they became so impudent and daring, that they seemed disposed to storm the ship. I ranged my sailors fully armed round the deck, to keep off such disagreeable visitants, but with strict orders to avoid hurting them. It was, however, only the bayonets and lances which prevented the multitude from climbing into the ship; and some of the most daring, by patiently enduring heavy and repeated blows, even succeeded in reaching the deck; they grasped with both hands any object they could cling to, so pertinaceously, that it required the united efforts of several of our strongest sailors to throw them overboard. Except a few cocoa-nuts, they brought us no kind of provisions, but by pantomimic gestures invited us to land; endeavouring to signify that we should be richly provided on shore with every thing we wanted. The savages had probably destined for us the fate of De Langle and his companions; they appeared unarmed, but had artfully concealed clubs and short lances in their canoes.
A very few of them, whom we permitted to remain on deck, behaved as impudently as if they had been masters of the ship; they snatched from my hands some little presents I was about to distribute among them, exhibiting them to their companions in the canoes below. This excited amongst the latter a terrific rage, and, with noise and gestures resembling madness, they endeavoured to frighten us into compliance with their desire to come on board. Only one among them received the presents we made him, with any appearance of modesty or thankfulness; the others seemed to consider them as a tribute due to them. This more decorous personage bowed towards me in almost an European fashion, pressed the articles given him several times to his forehead, and then, turning to me, rubbed the point of his nose pretty roughly against mine. This young savage was probably a person of rank, who had received a particularly good education; he was of a cheerful temper, examined every thing very closely, and made many remarks to those in the canoes, which were apparently considered extremely witty, for he was always answered by bursts of laughter. The rest of his countrymen who remained on board, became very troublesome; like the beasts of the deserts, scarcely more wild than themselves, they tried to seize by main force whatever we would not willingly give them. One of them was so tempted by the accidental display of a sailor's bare arm, that he could not help expressing his horrible appetite for human flesh;—he snapt at it with his teeth, giving us to understand by unequivocal signs, that such food would be very palatable to him. This proof that we were in communication with cannibals, needed not the picture presently conjured up by our imagination, of the detestable meal which the unfortunate Frenchmen had doubtlessly afforded to their murderers, to complete our disgust and aversion, and to accelerate the expulsion of the remaining savages from our vessel.
The inhabitants of many of the South Sea islands are still cannibals, and most of them, even where this abominable propensity does not prevail, are of so artful and treacherous a character, that none should venture among them without the greatest precaution. Their friendliness arises from fear, and soon vanishes when they think themselves the strongest, and are not exposed to vengeance. I would not even advise placing too much confidence in the inhabitants of Radack, who are certainly among the best of these islanders. It is only when ideas of right and wrong are steadily fixed, that man becomes really rational; before this, he is like other animals, the mere slave of his instincts.
The inhabitants of Maouna are probably the worst of these tribes; those we saw were at least five feet and a half in height, slender, their limbs of a moderate size, and strikingly muscular; I should have thought their faces handsome, had they not been disfigured by an expression of wildness and cruelty; their colour is dark brown; some let their long, straight, black hair hang down unornamented over neck, face, and shoulders; others wore it bound up, or frizzed and crisped by burning, and entangled like a cap round the head: these caps are coloured yellow, and make a striking contrast with the heads which remain black. Some, again, coloured their hair red, and curled it over their shoulders like a full-bottomed wig. A great deal of time must be required for this mode of dressing, a proof that vanity may exist even among cannibals. The glass beads they obtained from us they immediately hung over their neck and ears, but had previously no ornaments on either. Most of them were quite naked; only a few had aprons made of the leaves of some kind of palm unknown to us, which from their various colours and red points resemble feathers. Since the time of La Pérouse, the fashion in tattooing appears to have very much altered: he found the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands so tattooed over the whole body, as to have the appearance of being clothed;—now most of them are not tattooed at all; and those few who are, not with various drawings as formerly, but merely stained blue from the hip to the knee, as though they had on short breeches.
In the canoes we saw a few women who were all very ugly: these disagreeable creatures gave us to understand that we should by no means find them cruel—a complaisance which did not render them the less disgusting. La Pérouse here describes some attractive females: these were as brown as the men, and as little dressed; their hair was cut short off, with the exception of two bunches stained red, which hung over their faces.