A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16

by Robert Kerr

The bad weather which now came on, did not, however, hinder the natives from visiting us daily; and, in such circumstances, their visits were very advantageous to us. For they frequently brought us a tolerable supply of fish, when we could not catch any ourselves with hook and line; and there was not a proper place near us where we could draw a net. The fish which they brought us were either sardines, or what resembled them much; a small kind of bream; and sometimes small cod.

On the 11th, notwithstanding the rainy weather, the main-rigging was fixed and got over head; and our employment, the day after, was to take down the mizen-mast, the head of which proved to be so rotten, that it dropped off while in the slings. In the evening we were visited by a tribe of natives whom we had never seen before, and who, in general, were better-looking people than most of our old friends, some of whom attended them. I prevailed upon these visitors to go down into the cabin for the first time, and observed, that there was not a single object that fixed the attention of most of them for a moment; their countenances marking, that they looked upon all our novelties with the utmost indifference. This, however, was not without exception; for a few of the company shewed a certain degree of curiosity.

In the afternoon of the next day, I went into the woods with a party of our men, and cut down a tree for a mizen-mast. On the day following, it was brought to the place where the carpenters were employed upon the fore-mast. In the evening the wind, which had been, for some time, westerly, veered to S.E., and increased to a very hard gale, with rain, which continued till eight o'clock the next morning, when it abated, and veered again to the W.

The fore-mast being by this time finished, we hauled it alongside; but the bad weather prevented our getting it in till the afternoon; and we set about rigging it with the greatest expedition, while the carpenters were going on with the mizen-mast on shore. They had made very considerable progress in it on the 16th, when they discovered that the stick upon which they were at work was sprung, or wounded, owing, as supposed, to some accident in cutting it down. So that all their labour was thrown away, and it became necessary to get another tree out of the woods, which employed all hands above half a day. During these various operations, several of the natives, who were about the ships, looked on with an expressive silent surprise, which we did not expect; from their general indifference and inattention.

On the 18th, a party of strangers, in six or eight canoes, came into the cove, where they remained, looking at us, for some time, and then retired, without coming alongside either ship. We supposed, that our old friends, who were more numerous at this time about us, than these new visitors, would not permit them to have any intercourse with us. It was evident, upon this and several other occasions, that the inhabitants of the adjoining parts of the Sound engrossed us entirely to themselves; or if, at any time, they did not hinder strangers from trading with us, they contrived to manage the trade for them in such a manner, that the price of their commodities was always kept up; while the value of ours was lessening every day. We also found, that many of the principal natives, who lived near us, carried on a trade with more distant tribes, in the articles they had procured from us. For we observed that they would frequently disappear for four or five days at a time, and then return with fresh cargoes of skins and curiosities, which our people were so passionately fond of, that they always came to a good market. But we received most benefit from such of the natives as visited us daily. These, after disposing of all their little trifles, turned their attention to fishing; and we never failed to partake of what they caught. We also got from these people a considerable quantity of very good animal oil, which they had reserved in bladders. In this traffic some would attempt to cheat us, by mixing water with the oil; and, once or twice, they had the address to carry their imposition so far, as to fill their bladders with mere water, without a single drop of oil. It was always better to bear with these tricks, than to make them the foundation of a quarrel; for our articles of traffic consisted, for the most part, of mere trifles; and yet we were put to our shifts to find a constant supply even of these. Beads, and such other toys, of which I had still some left, were in little estimation. Nothing would go down with our visitors but metal; and brass had, by this time, supplanted iron, being so eagerly sought after, that before we left this place, hardly a bit of it was left in the ships, except what belonged to our necessary instruments. Whole suits of clothes were stripped of every button; bureaus of their furniture; and copper-kettles, tin-cannisters, candle-sticks, and the like, all went to wreck; so that our American friends here got a greater medley and variety of things from us, than any other nation whom we had visited in the course of the voyage.

After a fortnight's bad weather, the 19th proving a fair day, we availed ourselves of it, to get up the top-masts and yards, and to fix up the rigging. And, having now finished most of our heavy work, I set out the next morning to take a view of the Sound. I first went to the W. point, where I found a large village, and, before it, a very snug harbour, in which was from nine to four fathoms water, over a bottom of fine sand. The people of this village, who were numerous, and to most of whom I was well known, received me very courteously; every one pressing me to go into his house, or rather his apartment; for several families live under the same roof. I did not decline the invitations, and my hospitable friends, whom I visited, spread a mat for me to sit down upon, and shewed me every other mark of civility. In most of the houses were women at work, making dresses of the plant or bark before mentioned, which they executed exactly in the same manner that the New Zealanders manufacture their cloth. Others were occupied in opening sardines. I had seen a large quantity of them brought on shore from canoes, and divided by measure amongst several people, who carried them up to their houses, where the operation of curing them by smoke-drying is performed. They hang them on small rods, at first, about a foot from the fire; afterward they remove them higher and higher, to make room for others, till the rods, on which the fish hang, reach the top of the house. When they are completely dried, they are taken down and packed close in bales, which they cover with mats. Thus they are kept till wanted; and they are not a disagreeable article of food. Cod, and other large fish, are also cured in the same manner by them; though they sometimes dry these in the open air, without fire.

From this village I proceeded up the west side of the Sound. For about three miles, I found the shore covered with small islands, which are so situated as to form several convenient harbours, having various depths of water, from thirty to seven fathoms, with a good bottom. Two leagues within the Sound, on this west side, there runs in an arm in the direction of N.N.W.; and two miles farther, is another nearly in the same direction, with a pretty large island before it. I had no time to examine either of these arms; but have reason to believe, that they do not extend far inland, as the water was no more than brackish at their entrances. A mile above the second arm, I found the remains of a village. The logs or framings of the houses were standing; but the boards that had composed their sides and roofs did not exist. Before this village were some large fishing wears; but I saw nobody attending them. These wears were composed of pieces of wicker-work made of small rods, some closer than others, according to the size of the fish intended to be caught in them. These pieces of wicker-work (some of whose superficies are, at least, twenty feet by twelve), are fixed up edgewise in shallow water, by strong poles or pickets, that stand firm in the ground. Behind this ruined village is a plain of a few acres extent, covered with the largest pine-trees that I ever saw. This was more remarkable, as the elevated ground, on most other parts of this west side of the Sound, was rather naked.

From this place, I crossed over to the other, or east side of the Sound, passing an arm of it that runs in N.N.E., to appearance not far. I now found, what I had before conjectured, that the land, under which the ships lay, was an island; and that there were many smaller ones lying scattered in the Sound on the west side of it. Opposite the north end of our large island, upon the main land, I observed a village, and there I landed. The inhabitants of it were not so polite as those of the other I had just visited. But this cold reception seemed, in a great measure, if not entirely, owing to one surly chief, who would not let me enter their houses, following me wherever I went; and several times, by expressive signs, marking his impatience that I should be gone. I attempted in vain to sooth him by presents, but though he did not refuse them, they did not alter his behaviour. Some of the young women, better pleased with us than was their inhospitable chief, dressed themselves expeditiously in their best apparel, and, assembling in a body, welcomed us to their village, by joining in a song, which was far from harsh or disagreeable.

The day being now far spent, I proceeded for the ships, round the north end of the large island; meeting, in my way, with several canoes laden with sardines, which had been just caught, somewhere in the east corner of the Sound. When I got on board, I was informed, that, while I was absent, the ships had been visited by some strangers, in two or three large canoes, who, by signs, made our people understand that they had come from the S.E., beyond the bay. They brought several skins, garments, and other articles, which they bartered. But what was most singular, two silver table-spoons were purchased from them, which, from their peculiar shape, we supposed to be of Spanish manufacture. One of these strangers wore them round his neck, by way of ornament. These visitors also appeared to be more plentifully supplied with iron than the inhabitants of the Sound.

The mizen-mast being finished, it was got in, and rigged, on the 21st; and the carpenters were set to work to make a new fore-top-mast, to replace the one that had been carried away some time before.