This weather continued all the next day; and the sea ran so high, that we had no manner of communication with our party on shore; and even the natives themselves durst not venture out to the ships in their canoes. In the evening, I sent the master in a boat up to the S.E. head, or point of the island, to try if he could land under it. He returned with a favourable report; but it was too late, now, to send for our party till the next morning; and thus they had another night to improve their intercourse with the natives.
Encouraged by the master's report, I sent a boat to the S.E. point, as soon as day-light returned, with an order to Mr Gore, that, if he could not embark his people from the spot where they now were, to march them up to the point. As the boat could not get to the beach, one of the crew swam ashore, and carried the order. On the return of the boat, I went myself with the pinnace and launch up to the point, to bring the party on board; taking with me a ram-goat and two ewes, a boar and sow-pig of the English breed, and the seeds of melons, pumpkins, and onions, being very desirous of benefiting these poor people, by furnishing them with some additional articles of food. I landed with the greatest ease, under the west side of the point, and found my party already there, with some of the natives in company. To one of them, whom Mr Gore had observed assuming some command over the rest, I gave the goats, pigs, and seeds. I should have left these well-intended presents at Atooi, had we not been so unexpectedly driven from it.
While the people were engaged in filling four water-casks, from a small stream occasioned by the late rain, I walked a little way up the country, attended by the man above-mentioned, and followed by two others carrying the two pigs. As soon as we got upon a rising ground, I stopped to look round me, and observed a woman, on the opposite side of the valley where I landed, calling to her countrymen who attended me. Upon this, the chief began to mutter something which I supposed was a prayer; and the two men, who carried the pigs, continued to walk round me all the time, making, at least, a dozen circuits before the other had finished his oration. This ceremony being performed; we proceeded, and presently met people coming from all parts, who, on being called to by my attendants, threw themselves prostrate on their faces, till I was out of sight. The ground, through which I passed, was in a state of nature, very stony, and the soil seemed poor. It was, however, covered with shrubs and plants, some of which perfumed the air, with a more delicious fragrancy than I had met with at any other of the islands visited by us in this ocean. Our people, who had been obliged to remain so long on shore, gave me the same account of those parts of the island which they had traversed. They met with several salt ponds, some of which had a little water remaining, but others had none; and the salt that was left in them was so thin, that no great quantity could have been procured. There was no appearance of any running stream; and though they found some small wells, in which the fresh water was tolerably good, it seemed scarce. The habitations of the natives were thinly scattered about; and it was supposed, that there could not be more than five hundred people upon the island, as the greatest part were seen at the marketing-place of our party, and few found about the houses by those who walked up the country. They had an opportunity of observing the method of living amongst the natives, and it appeared to be decent and cleanly. They did not, however, see any instance of the men and women eating together; and the latter seemed generally associated in companies by themselves. It was found, that they burnt here the oily nuts of the dooe dooe for lights in the night, as at Otaheite; and that they baked their hogs in ovens, but, contrary to the practice of the Society and Friendly Islands, split the carcases through their whole length. They met with a positive proof of the existence of the taboo (or, as they pronounce it, the tafoo), for one woman fed another who was under that interdiction. They also observed some other mysterious ceremonies; one of which was performed by a woman, who took a small pig, and threw it into the surf, till it was drowned, and then tied up a bundle of wood, which she also disposed of in the same manner. The same woman, at another time, beat with a stick upon a man's shoulders, who sat down for that purpose. A particular veneration seemed to be paid here to owls, which they have very tame; and it was observed to be a pretty general practice amongst them, to pull out one of their teeth;[4] for which odd custom, when asked the reason, the only answer that could be got was, that it was teeha, which was also the reason assigned for another of their practices, the giving a lock of their hair.
After the water-casks had been filled and conveyed into the boat, and we had purchased from the natives a few roots, a little salt, and some salted fish, I returned on board with all the people, intending to visit the island the next day. But, about seven o'clock in the evening, the anchor of the Resolution started, and she drove off the bank. As we had a whole cable out, it was some time before the anchor was at the bows; and then we had the launch to hoist up alongside, before we could make sail. By this unlucky accident, we found ourselves, at day-break next morning, three leagues to the leeward of our last station; and, foreseeing that it would require more time to recover it than I chose to spend, I made the signal for the Discovery to weigh and join us. This was done about noon, and we immediately stood away to the northward, in prosecution of our voyage. Thus, after spending more time about these islands than was necessary to have answered all our purposes, we were obliged to leave them before we had completed our water, and got from them such a quantity of refreshments as their inhabitants were both able and willing to have supplied us with. But, as it was, our ship procured from them provisions, sufficient for three weeks at least; and Captain Clerke, more fortunate than us, got, of their vegetable productions, a supply that lasted his people upward of two months. The observations I was enabled to make, combined with those of Mr Anderson, who was a very useful assistant on all such occasions, will furnish materials for the next section.
Footnote 1:[ (return) ]
One can scarcely help smiling at the mode Dr Kippis uses to express his abhorrence of this man's conduct. It may be seen in his account of this voyage, given in the Biog. Brit. "If I knew the rascal's name," says he, "I would hang it up, as far as lies in my power, to everlasting infamy!" Undoubtedly it richly deserved such treatment, but there was no necessity for the doctor exhibiting such keenness for the office of executioner.—E.
Footnote 2:[ (return) ]
It is matter of real curiosity to observe, how very extensively the predilection for red feathers is spread throughout all the islands of the Pacific Ocean; and the additional circumstance, mentioned in this paragraph, will, probably, be looked upon by those who amuse themselves in tracing the wonderful migrations of the same family, or tribe, as a confirmation of that hypothesis, (built indeed on other instances of resemblance,) which considers New Guinea, and its neighbouring East India islands, from whence the Dutch bring their birds of Paradise, as originally peopled by the same race, which Captain Cook found at every island from New Zealand to this new group, to which Atooi belongs.
What Mr Sonnerat tells us, about the bird of Paradise, agrees perfectly with the account here given of the preserved red-birds. Speaking of the Papous, he proceeds thus: "Ils nous présenterent plusieurs especes d'oiseaux, aussi élégants par leur forme, que brillants par l'éclat de leur couleurs. La dépouille des oiseaux sert à la parure des Chefs, qui la portent attachée à leurs bonnets en forme d'aigrettes. Mais en preparant les peaux, ils coupent les pieds. Les Hollandois, qui trafiquent sur ces cotes, y achetent de ces peaux ainsi préparées, les transportent en Perse, à Surate, dans les Indes, où ils les vendent fort chère aux habitans riches, qui en font des aigrettes pour leurs turbans, et pour le casque des guerriers, et qui en parent leur chevaux. C'est de là qu'est venue l'opinion, qu'une de ces especes d'oiseaux (l'oiseau de pardis) n'a point de pattes. Les Hollandois ont accrédité ces fables, qui, en jettant du merveilleux sur l'objet dont ils traffiquoient, étoient propres à le rendre plus précieux, et á en rechausser la valeur."—Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée, p. 154.—D.
Footnote 3:[ (return) ]
Of this there can be no doubt, if the assertions of those who have tried it be entitled to credit. When the reluctance, then, to use it is once overcome, there is no reason to think it would ever be abandoned, if it could be safely and conveniently procured. We have instances of this on record. Some persons necessitated, let us allow, to have recourse to it, have continued the practice, where the doing so required the repeated commission of murder. We formerly alluded to instances of this kind, and we see in the case of the people before us, that hunger is not the only motive for so abominable a repast. Admitting even that it were the original one, we should expect the practice to be relinquished whenever other food was to be had in sufficient quantity. But this we know by many proofs is not the case; and perhaps, indeed, it will be found, that this odium is fully as prevalent in savage countries, where nature has been bountiful, as in those where a more stinted hand has inflicted poverty on the inhabitants. The causes, then, and the remedies of this most shocking enormity, are to be looked for in other circumstances than the scarcity or the profusion of food. Here we may be allowed to join in opinion with Dr Robertson. "Human flesh was never used as common food in any country, and the various relations concerning people who reckoned it among the stated means of subsistence, flow from the credulity and mistakes of travellers. The rancour of revenge first prompted men to this barbarous action." In addition to his opinion and that of the authors quoted by him, in his History of America, lib. 4, the reader may advantageously consult Dr Forster's Observations. If the sentiments maintained by these writers be correct, we may expect to find cannibalism in almost every country where the spirit of revenge is not curbed by principle, or directed by the authority of a well-organized government. Here the evidence of these voyages and of others which we could mention, must be allowed considerable importance. There is the strongest reason, indeed, to believe that the inhabitants of all the South Sea islands are now chargeable with this inhumanity, or are but recently recovered from its dominion. We might easily enlarge on this subject, but what has been said, it is probable, is sufficient to direct the attention of the reader, which is all we could find, room to do in the narrow compass of a note. But it is probable, that to most persons, the observations of a late navigator, Captain Krusenstern, will be admitted as decisive of the question of fact, without further enquiry. They may have another effect too, viz. to destroy that delusion which many persons labour under as to the innocence and amiableness of mankind in a state of nature. "Notwithstanding," says he, "the favourable account in Captain Cook's voyages of the Friendly, the Society, and the Sandwich islands, and the enthusiasm with which Forster undertakes their defence against all those who should make use of any harsh expression with regard to them, I cannot refrain from declaring the inhabitants of all the islands of this ocean to be savages, but as ranking generally, perhaps with a very trifling exception, with those men who are still one degree below the brute creation. In a word, they are all cannibals: We need only recollect the islanders who have already been proved to belong to this class;—for instance, the New Zealanders, the cruel inhabitants of Fidji, the Navigateur, the Mendoza, Washington, the Tolomon, and Sandwich islands, the islands of Louisiade and New Caledonia. The good name which the inhabitants of the Friendly islands had acquired has suffered very much by the affair of Captain Bligh, and the visit of D'Entrecasteaux, and it may now be maintained, with some degree of certainty, that they have in this respect the same taste as their neighbours in the Fidji islands, and the Isles des Navigateurs." He has more to the same effect, and is particular in shewing how even the Society islanders, whom he admits to be the most humane and civilized of all the natives of this region, are notwithstanding deformed with horrid crimes, from which the passage to cannibalism is very easy, supposing even that certain suspicious circumstances do not warrant the opinion that they are but recently emerged from it. And as to the people of New Caledonia, again, of whom Cook spoke so highly, he alludes to the more recent information of D'Entrecasteaux, as giving indisputable proof of their being addicted to the same abominable enormity.—E.
Footnote 4:[ (return) ]
It is very remarkable, that, in this custom, which one would think is so unnatural, as not to be adopted by two different tribes, originally unconnected, the people of this island, and Dampier's natives on the west side of New Holland, at such an immense distance, should be found to agree.—D.