# Voyage in Search of La Pérouse/Volume 2/Chapter 12

CHAP. XII.
1st March.
We set sail from Adventure Bay about eight in the morning, with hard squalls from the south-west, which soon carried us beyond Cape Pillar, behind which we saw several fires ​kindled by the savages. We then steered toward the north, where we were in sight of the coast about sixteen leagues distant, leaving Oyster Bay to the west, and then we directed our course for the Friendly Islands.
At day-break, on the 13th, we made the islands called the Three Kings.
About eight o'clock, being in longitude 169° 56′ east, we set the middle island of the group north, distant one league, and ascertained its latitude to be 34° 20′ south.
We saw three principal rocks, of a moderate height, nearly in the same parallel, at no great distance from each other, and surrounded by other rocks that were much smaller. Notwithstanding the fog that had just come on, we distinguished some more toward the north, making a part of the same cluster. They were very bare, and we did not suppose them to be inhabited: but a large column of smoke, arising from the easternmost islet, informed us that there were savages on it. No doubt they chose this place of residence, because it afforded them an opportunity of procuring fish with ease among the shoals.
About three quarters after ten we made the land of New-Zealand, which we approached by steering easterly, under favour of a breeze from the west-north-west.
​The natives had kindled a large fire on the loftiest of the hills that skirt the sea, and which extend to Cape North. At half after five we were a very little way from the Cape, when two canoes came off from the shore, and paddled toward us. They soon came up with us, but remained some time astern of the ship before they ventured alongside. Judging rightly of our disposition toward them, however, they approached with confidence; aware, no doubt, that the Europeans, who had visited them, had never been the aggressors when any dispute arose. They immediately showed us bundles of the New-Zealand flax (phormium tenax), shaking them, in order that we might observe all their beauty, and offering to barter with us. The stuffs of different colours we gave them were received with marks of great satisfaction, and they always delivered to us, with the most scrupulous exactness, the price on which we had agreed.
Iron they decidedly preferred to every thing else that we offered them. This metal is so valuable in the eyes of these warlike people, that expressions of the most lively joy burst from them when they found we had some. Though at first we showed it them only at a distance, they knew it perfectly well, from the sound two pieces gave when struck against each other.
​In exchange for our articles, these people gave us almost every thing they had in their canoes; and, which we considered as a mark of the greatest confidence, they made not the least difficulty at disposing of all their weapons to us.
The largest of the spears they gave us were not above five yards long, and an inch and half thick: the smallest were only half that length. They were all made of a single piece of very hard wood, which they had rendered perfectly smooth.
They gave us fishing lines, and hooks of different shapes; to the end of some of which feathers were fastened, which they use as a bait for voracious fishes. Several of these lines were of great length, and had at the end a piece of hard serpentine, to make them sink very deep in the water. We admired the fine polish they had given this stone, which was of a spherical form, surmounted with a small protuberance, in which they had made a hole, to pass a string through. It must be very difficult to these savages to bore a stone of such hardness, and no doubt requires a great deal of time; but they have much leisure for such employments, for their wants are few, and the sea supplies them with food in abundance. They sold us a great deal of fish, which they had just caught; and there is such a quantity along the coast, that, during the short time we lay to, ​ Girl of New Zealand.Man of New Zealand. ​we saw several numerous shoals, which, rising to the surface of the sea, agitated it for a considerable space at different times, producing nearly the same appearance as a current passing over a shallow in calm weather.
These savages even stripped themselves of their clothes in order to barter with us.
Some of the young men had drops at their ears, made with a serpentine of great hardness. They were cut of an oval figure, and for the most part near four inches long.
The men of riper years wore, as a kind of trophy, a little piece of the large bone of the forearm of a man, which hung at the breast by a little string that passed round the neck. (See Plate XXV.) They set a great value on this ornament.
It is well known that these people are greedy devourers of human flesh; and every thing that recals to their minds the idea of such food, seems to give them the greatest pleasure. A sailor on board offered one of them a knife; and, to shew him the use of it, imitated the action of cutting off one of his fingers, which he immediately carried to his mouth, and pretended to eat. The cannibal, who watched all his motions, expressed great joy, laughing heartily for some time, and ​rubbing his hands. They were all very tall, and of a muscular make. Soon after sun-set they left us.
At the same moment a third canoe arrived from the nearest shore, with twelve of the islanders in it, who immediately demanded hatchets in exchange for their goods. One of them had already obtained a hatchet, when another addressed himself to us in a rough voice, bawling out with all his strength etoki (a hatchet), and was not silent till he had obtained one.
It was now night, and the Esperance was so far distant as to be out of sight; accordingly we let off a few small quantities of powder, to induce her to make known to us her situation: but we observed with surprise, that the natives, far from displaying any dread of the effects of gunpowder, continued their barter nevertheless. It had been dark for more than an hour, when they paddled away to the shore.
As we lay to, we hove the lead several times, and always found a bottom of fine sand, and from thirty-six to fifty fathoms water.
24th. The faint breeze that set off from the land during the night, was succeeded toward daybreak by a north-west wind. We were still very near the coast, and we might easily have come to ​an anchor in Lauriston Bay, but the fatal disasters that befell Captain Marion, and afterwards Furneaux, made the General resolve to pass on.
I thought it my duty, however, to represent to him, how important an object it was, to procure from New Zealand the liliaceous plant known by the name of phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, in order to convey it to Europe, where it would thrive in perfection. The fibres obtained from the leaves of this plant are much superior in strength to any other vegetable production employed for making ropes, and cables made of it would bear the greatest strain. No one could be more sensible of all the benefits our navy might derive from this plant, than the Commander in Chief of our expedition; yet we held on our course for the Friendly Islands, continuing to steer north-east.
There would have been this advantage, likewise, in stopping at the northern extremity of New Zealand, that it would have afforded us an opportunity of verifying our observations, which led us to place Cape North 36′ more to the eastward than it is laid down by Wales. It will be granted, however, that we have sufficient reason to give our observations the preference, when it is considered, that the English astronomer determined the situation of this point only ​from the longitude observed in Ship Cove, and the distance run along the coast by Captain Cook: and it must be remembered, that this celebrated navigator had no time-keeper on board during his first voyage, an instrument indispensably necessary to ascertain with precision the distance run upon a coast, where the currents are very rapid and irregular.
17th. About four in the afternoon, the man at the mast-head called out, that he had sight of a large rock to the north-north-east; and we were soon surrounded by a great number of sea-fowl, among which we noticed many boobies and gulls. It was night when we passed about six hundred yards to leeward of this shoal, from which we heard the screams of several of these birds; and by the favour of a fine moon-light night, we distinguished on the most prominent points a whiteness, which we ascribed to their excrement.
This rock, which is in latitude 31° 33′ 20″ south, longitude 179° east, is not much above half a mile in circumference, and seventy or eighty yards high. Toward its west end some reefs were observed.
As we passed to leeward of this shoal, we were in completely smooth water, so that if there had been any sunken rock in our course, we should ​not have been informed of our danger till the vessel struck upon it. If we had doubled the rock to windward, or even to leeward at a proper distance, we should not have run this risk.
18th. Next morning at day-break we made Curtis's Islands. These are two very small isles, near four leagues distant from each other. The southernmost is about a mile long only from north to south, steep, very bare, and interspersed with a great number of rocks, the summits of the highest of which reach about a hundred yards above the level of the sea. Their whitish colour led me to presume, that they were of a calcareous nature, like most of the lands found in these seas.
The other island is tolerably rounded, covered with verdure, and as high as the former. Its sides are steep almost every where, yet you may land upon it toward the west. It is in the latitude of 30° 18′ 26″ south, longitude 179° 38′ east.
About six in the evening we perceived at a great distance to the north-north-west, a new island, which induced us to lay to all night.
19th. The next morning, when day broke, we had sight of the same island toward the north, and still upwards of ten leagues distance; but about five in the afternoon we were close in with it, and had already seen the whole of its circum​ference, the extent of which might be about three leagues.
To this island, the latitude of which is 29° 20′ 18″ south, longitude 179° 55′ east, we gave the name of Recherche. Its figure is nearly triangular. Toward the middle the land rises to the height of about five hundred yards above the level of the sea. On the east the earth had crumbled down in a few places of no great extent, where a boat might land.
In all the perpendicular cliffs we could clearly distinguish the arrangement of the thin, parallel, and horizontal strata of a whitish, and no doubt calcareous stone, of which the island is formed. In the interior part of the island we saw considerable precipices, and there were trees to the very summit of the highest places.
There is a shoal almost close to the shore on the north-west, which extends at least six hundred yards in that direction.
Eight rocks, a few hundred yards distant from each other, stretch out into the sea for the space of a league to the east-south-east.
Between the west and north-west points, we observed a small bight, where probably very good ground would be found, and which affords complete shelter from the easterly winds.
Between the north-west and south-east points ​we saw a little rivulet, which runs into the sea; and at a little distance from it, in a perpendicular cliff, we observed a large patch of earth, of a tolerably deep red colour, perhaps a sort of clay, which appeared incrusted by the calcareous stone.
On the 23d, about nine in the evening, we entered the Torrid Zone, in the longitude of 184° east. This was the fourth time of our passing the Tropic of Capricorn.
24th. The next day, at one o'clock in the afternoon, we made Eooa, one of the Friendly Islands, bearing from us north-west, distant about fourteen leagues; and it was not long before we had a pretty near view of it. The beautiful verdure with which it was every where covered, proclaimed the fertility of the soil. The land is of a moderate height.
It was half after six when we brought to, to wait for the Esperance, and we spent the night in plying to windward.
On the 25th, at seven o'clock in the morning, we were about six leagues only from Tongataboo, and yet we could not easily distinguish it, because the land is so low. We soon got pretty near in with the eastern coast, standing toward the north and north-west, that we might not miss the opening that leads to the harbour, which is to be entered only by passing between ​some reefs, which are so close together that the break between them is not to be distinguished at a little distance.
As soon as we were about the middle of this channel, several canoes with out-riggers came to meet us, laden with fruit, hogs, and poultry, which they offered us. Each had two or three natives on board, seldom four. One of them coming toward us with too much speed, her out-rigger gave way; and we had the sorrow to see the three rowers fall into the water. They seemed less disconcerted, however, than we should have imagined, and swam to the nearest shore, dragging with them their canoe, which was soon set afloat again. These canoes are so slight that they must frequently be exposed to such accidents; and, indeed, their countrymen, who passed close by, seemed scarcely to notice it.
All these canoes had eatables on board, one excepted, in which we observed none, and which, therefore, we imagined, had nothing to offer us. But we were mistaken: it was navigated by two men, whose countenances expressed much gaiety, while they pointed out to us two women, who were paddling with them; and the signs they made left us no room to doubt, that they were making us very gallant proposals.
At a distance we saw some large sailing canoes.
​About half after eleven, being in the narrowest part of the channel, where it did not appear to us to be above four hundred yards over, we had bottom near the middle at six fathoms.
Just as we were on the point of entering into it, a large canoe came to meet us, and the people in her invited us to follow them in a much wider channel, which was on the larboard of it; but when they saw us take another course, they returned, and continued some time a-head of us, willing to instruct us how to steer.
At length we reached the road of Tongataboo, and after making several tacks to fetch the anchorage, brought up a mile to the south-west of Pangaïmotoo, in eleven fathoms and a half of water, on a bottom of very fine grey sand.
One of the western points of Tongataboo bore west 3° north; the western extremity of Pangaïmotoo, north 24° east; and the extremity of the reefs on that side, north 20° west.
We were immediately surrounded by the natives, who came on board in such numbers, that the deck was soon covered with them. Several came in double canoes, of the shape represented in Plate XXVIII.
One of these people, followed by several others, who appeared to pay him great respect, announced himself as one of the chiefs of the island. He ​desired to see the Commander of the vessel, and immediately ordered a hog to be brought, of which he made him a present. This person expressed much gratitude on receiving a hatchet from the General's own hands.
In less than an hour we procured, by way of barter, a dozen hogs, the smallest of which was at least a hundred weight. For each a hatchet, of a middling size, was given.
The General had given orders to one of his officers to treat with the islanders for what provision they could furnish; and to prevent all competition, which might have been injurious to the supply of our ships, he had forbidden every other person to make any exchange. But it was impossible to see these orders executed to the letter; and it was difficult to resist the eagerness of the natives to dispose of their wares, which each endeavoured to display to the best advantage. We were much amused to see them holding their little pigs under their arms, and every now and then pulling them by the ears to make them squeal, that we might know they had them to sell.
A chief of the warriors, named Feenou, came on board about five in the afternoon. He was a man about forty-five years of age, of a middling stature, and very fat. Like the rest of the ​ Man of Van Diemen's Land.Finau, chief of the warriors of Tongatabou. ​natives, he had altogether the features of an European. His body was covered with scars in various places, and he pointed out to us two on the breast, which, he said, were from wounds received by spears in different battles against the people of Feejee.
The portrait of this warrior, Plate VIII. Fig. 2, is a very faithful resemblance. His hair, powdered with lime, was dressed in such a way, that he might be supposed to have worn a wig.
He seated himself on the bench on the quarter-deck, with four of the natives, and ordered all the rest to squat down: some of them, however, he permitted to sit on the arm-chest. I know not whether these were great personages; but we remarked among them a man advanced in years, accompanied by a young girl, who employed all his eloquence to tempt such of us as came near her.
Feenou made a present to the General of the largest hog that we had yet seen since we had been at anchor. He gave him likewise two very fine clubs, made of casuarina wood, inlaid with plates of bone, some cut round, others in stars, and others in the shape of birds, of which, however, they were but poor resemblances. This chief appeared well satisfied when the General gave him a hatchet, a large piece of red stuff, and a few nails. To testify his gratitude, he took ​each of these articles in his left hand, and touched the left side of his forehead with it.
Towards sun-set we requested him to send out of the ship all the natives, the crowd of whom was become immense. We were desirous that not one should remain, as we did not wish to have the trouble of watching them during the night: but perhaps his authority did not extend to them all; for, after he had driven away the greatest part only, he left us, and returned towards the western shore of Tongataboo.
The step he took to rid our ship of these islanders, by whom we were incommoded to an excessive degree, could not easily be guessed. He drove them out with his club, which he handled so vigorously, that they had no way to escape the rude blows of this weapon, but by leaping into the sea.
Almost all their clubs are made with the wood of the casuarina, which is extremely hard; yet we saw a few of bone, somewhat more than a yard long. As these islanders have no quadruped capable of furnishing a bone of such length, there can be no doubt but it must belong to some large animal of the whale genus.
Beside many fowls, they sold us pigeons of the species called columba aenea (nutmeg pigeon), bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, yams, and several varieties of plaintain, of a delicious flavour.
​We desired all the natives to go ashore before night, for several had not come for the purpose of satisfying their curiosity merely, or selling us their goods; as we soon discovered that they had stolen several articles from us. All the canoes, however, were gone, and there were still six of the islanders left on board; who, having no means of getting on shore but by swimming, requested us to let them pass the night upon deck, one excepted, who chose rather to swim ashore, though we were a mile from the nearest land. We admired the facility with which he executed all his movements. He swam constantly on the belly, his neck being entirely out of water, and making very short strokes with his left hand, which he kept constantly before him, while he gave a great spread to his right hand, which he carried to the thigh on the same side at every stroke. The body was at the same time a little inclined to the left, which increased the rapidity, with which it cut the water. I never saw an European swim with such confidence, or with such speed.
​26th. Feenou returned the next morning, and spent a few hours on board. He was singularly amused by an ape belonging to one of our gunners, to the slightest actions of which he was attentive.
The tents of the observatory were pitched on the south-west shore of Pangaïmatoo, and to the same place were conveyed stuffs of different colours, with a great many articles of hardware, to exchange for fresh provision. As the inhabitants brought us a great many hogs, the General resolved to make an addition to our salt stores; and Citizen Renard, one of our surgeons, offered to superintend the salting in of the pork.
An enclosure was marked out by a rope, fastened to the ends of some stakes, which were stuck into the ground at four or five yards distance from each other. This barrier was intended to keep out the natives, day and night, above two thousand of whom, most of them from Tongataboo, were already gathered round us.
Futtafaihe, one of the sons of the late King Poulaho, repaired early to the same place. He took upon himself to preserve order among the natives; and accordingly our trade was carried on with the greatest peaceableness: but we saw with regret that, to make himself obeyed, he employed means as barbarous with respect to them, ​as laborious to himself; or if any one of them dared to pass the enclosure that was traced out, by a few hand's-breadths only, he immediately threw at him the first thing that came to hand, as a warning for him to retire, without paying any regard to the injury that might be done by it. A young man, who advanced a little too far, had nearly lost his life by his inattention to the orders of Futtafaihe, who immediately threw at him with violence a large log of wood, but he was fortunate enough to avoid the blow.
We were obliged to cross this numerous circle to penetrate into the interior part of the island; and it was not easy to avoid treading on the feet or legs of the natives, who sat on the ground very close together, all with their legs across; yet, far from being angry, they held out their hands to assist us when, for fear of hurting them, we knew not where to set our feet. A few of them followed us.
We found many of the people employed in constructing huts, in order to remain on the island of Pangaïmotoo; whither they were attracted by our making choice of this little island as a market place for the provision, with which they could supply us. Several of these huts were already finished. The islanders, whom we met with in ​them, received us with various testimonies of great affection.
The ground occupied by each of these habitations was not, in general, above sixteen feet long, and ten feet wide. The roof, about six feet and a half high in the middle, sloped down to the ground. In one of its sides an opening was made, sometimes the whole length of the hut, but so low, that there was no entering, without stooping so much, as to be obliged to creep on all fours. On the opposite side we observed another opening, still lower and narrower, which seemed intended to promote the circulation of air. In others a greater number of openings were seen, but smaller, and made even in the ends of the huts. We admired the fine texture of the mats, which were spread upon the ground. The roofs were covered with the leaves of the cocoa-tree, or of the mountain palm (corypha umbraculifera), sometimes too with grass or rushes. Under such a roof there is no standing, except in the middle; but these people commonly squat on the ground, so that they can fit tolerably near to the sides.
In the neighbourhood of these tranquil dwellings we frequently met with very obliging though stout men, who took care to inform strangers of the favourable reception they might meet with ​from the fair-sex in these fortunate islands. Their offers, no doubt, were in some measure owing to their wish to oblige; but it appeared that they had an eye to their own interest at the same time, as they never forgot to ask some recompense in return for their information.
We walked some time along the borders of the shore, on which we saw a great number of bread-fruit trees in full vigour, though their roots were bathed with brackish water. But soon the water rising with the flood-tide, obliged us to go farther within the land, where we traversed thick woods, in the shade of which grew the tacca pinnatifida, saccharum spontaneum, mussænda frondosa, abrus precatorius (Jamaica wild liquorice), the species of pepper tree which they use for making kava, &c. We then walked over grounds employed partly in the culture of the sweet potatoe, partly in that of the species of yam called dioscorea alata; we saw, too, young plants of vacoua, or pandanus odoratissima (sweet scented screw-pine), the leaves of which are used for making mats. Farther on we found plantations of the paper mulberry tree, cultivated for the sake of its bark, of which they fabricate stuff for garments. The hibiscus tiliaceus grew spontaneously on the borders of these cultivated spots, and close by the sea. Its bark likewise furnishes them with materials for making ​a kind of stuff, but much inferior in beauty to that of the paper mulberry tree.
Some of the natives, who followed us very close, affected the appearance of having no other design, but that of being useful to us: yet we caught some of them now and then putting their hands into our pockets, to steal what they could find; and when we discovered them, we always obliged them to return what they had taken. One of them, however, having seized a knife, that belonged to one of the crew, took to his heels with all speed, and disappeared amid the wood.
It was not long before we fell in with a company of the islanders, who were preparing to drink kava. They invited us to sit down by them, and we remained all the time they were preparing their beverage. They give the same name to the species of pepper tree, which constitutes its chief ingredient, and the long, fleshy, and very tender roots of which are often more than four inches thick. These they first cleaned with the greatest care. They then chewed them, so as to reduce them to a kind of paste, of which they formed balls, nearly four inches in circumference. As fast as these balls were made, they were put into a large wooden vessel; and when the bottom was covered with them, standing about four inches ​distant from each other, they filled up the vessel with water. The liquor was then shaken, and served out in cups to all the guests. Some drank out of cocoa-nut shells, others made themselves cups on the occasion from the leaves of the plantain tree.
The large roots, with which the kava was made, had, in the direction of their length, very slender woody fibres, which subsided to the bottom of the liquor. These fibres, the person who served it out, collected in one of his hands, and used as a sponge, to fill the cups.
We were invited to take a share of this beverage; but our seeing it prepared was sufficient to make us decline the civil offer. The chaplain of our ship, however, had the courage to swallow a bumper of it. For my part, as I was desirous also of tasting the flavour of the root, I preferred chewing a bit of it myself, and found it acrid and stimulant. Each of the company afterwards ate some yams, fresh roasted under the embers, and plaintains; no doubt to take off the heat, which the stomach must feel from this intoxicating liquor.
These people set much store by the pepper tree, from which they procure it. Its stalk, frequently bigger than the thumb, is tolerably straight, and requires no support. They cut off ​several pieces in the spaces between the knots, and made us a present of them, informing us, that they set them thus in the ground, in order to propagate the plant.
We were not far from the tents of the observatory, when some others of the natives invited us to eat fruit, among which we had the pleasure of seeing that of the spondias cytherea (pommes de cythère). Every one sat down: Citizen Riche just laid down a pole-axe, when a native crept slily behind him, took it up, and ran off as fast as he could. We immediately pursued him, but he had too far the start for us to come up with him. A chief, who was then near us, would make the thief restore the pole-axe, and ran after him likewise; but he soon returned, and appeared very sorry, that he could not overtake the fugitive.
We soon arrived within the enclosure where the traffic was carried on. Futtafaihe was still there. We were informed that he had caused a sabre, and several other things belonging to different persons of the crew, which had been stolen by the natives, to be returned. Riche accordingly applied to him, in order to procure his pole-axe again; but the inquiries of Futtafaihe were to no purpose.
27th. A great many canoes surrounded our ​ships, though the General had given orders to oblige them to keep off; but they disposed of their merchandize to better advantage here, than at the market on shore: for there little was sold but eatables, the price of which was fixed; while on board they frequently received a high price for objects of fancy. Besides, these canoes carried on another sort of trade, still more rigorously prohibited by the orders of General Dentrecasteaux: but the sentries not being very strict in this point, many young girls easily evaded their notice, and were creeping in at the port-holes every moment.
We went ashore very early at the nearest place, where we had the pleasure to see that these islanders were in possession of the sugar-cane. They offered us some very large ones, which we accepted. They sold us several birds, and among others a beautiful species of lory, which they informed us had been brought to them from Feejee; a fine species of dove, remarkable for a red spot on the head, and known by the name of columba purpurata; the Philippine rail, rallus philippensis; the pigeon called columba pacifica, &c. Several had the lizard known by the appellation of lacerta amboinensis, which they offered us as very good to eat.
The natives, who followed us, were very troublesome to us by their number, and even by their ​eagerness to oblige us. Seeing us collect plants, several pulled up indiscriminately all they found, made them up into large bundles, brought them to us, and then wanted to load us with them. Others, observing us collect insects, were incessantly asking whether they were not to feed the birds we had just purchased. But most put on a semblance of having the greatest affection for us, while they were purloining our things. Several times we endeavoured in vain to get rid of them, the methods we took being unquestionably too mild, for people accustomed to be treated so roughly by their chiefs.
Futtafaihe, accompanied by another chief, had been to dine with the General, who presented one with a scarlet suit of clothes, the other with a blue. Adorned with this new dress, which they had put on over their own clothes, they were in one of the tents of the observatory, when Feenou made his appearance at the entrance of it, and displayed great jealousy at seeing them thus equipped. He retired with an air of great discontent, saying, that every body passed themselves off for chiefs (egui), and went to drink kava with some others. We did not know what to think of Feenou's precipitate retreat; but we presumed; that he was less powerful than Futtafaihe, and declined appearing before him, that he might not ​be under the necessity of paying him the honours due to his rank.
The officer entrusted with the purchase of provision had a very laborious task to fulfil: for, though he had fixed a regular value on every article, the natives, still in hopes of selling them dearer, never parted with their goods till they had disputed a long time about their price.
Pressed by hunger, we retired into the tent, where the provision purchased in the course of the day was deposited; and were followed by two natives, whom we took for chiefs. One of them shewed the greatest eagerness to select for me the choicest fruit: I had laid my hat on the ground, thinking it a place of security; but these two thieves were not inattentive to their trade; he that was behind me was adroit enough, to hide my hat under his clothes, and went away, without my perceiving it; and the other quickly followed him. I was the less apprehensive of such a trick, as I did not suppose that they would have ventured upon an article of such bulk, at the risk of being caught within the enclosure, into which we had permitted them to enter: besides, a hat could be of very little use to people who commonly go bare-headed. The address they displayed in robbing me, convinced us that it was not their first attempt; and led us to presume, ​that they frequently rob one another. The chiefs, too, might have some interest in the thefts committed on us; for we frequently saw them seize what they found in the hands of their subjects, whom they plundered very openly.
We were extremely unwilling to proceed to extremities with these knaves; but it was high time to check their boldness, which impunity served only to encourage. With this view, we proposed to let them see the effect of our fire-arms on a cock, which we tied to the end of a long pole. But the person, who fired at it, was so incautious, as to take a double-barrelled gun, which had been exposed to the dampness of the air all the preceding night; in consequence of which, the first time it flashed in the pan, the next it hung fire; so that he was obliged to take another piece to bring down the cock. Accordingly the natives appeared to retain a much higher idea of their weapons than of ours, when one of them, with a long arrow, furnished with three diverging points, shot another cock, fixed at the end of the same pole. In order to take aim at the bird, having placed himself just under it, he raised himself as high as he could on tiptoe, so that the point of his arrow was not above four yards from the cock. All the rest had their eyes fixed upon him, and kept the most profound silence; but the ​moment he hit the object, their shouts of admiration gave us to understand that they did not in general succeed so well, even at so short a distance.
The arrow used upon this occasion was near three yards long; but they have others of inferior dimensions, which they likewife carry in quivers of bamboo.
28th. Two sentries kept guard day and night at the post we had established on the Island of Pangaïmotoo, who were sufficient to keep off such of the natives as might endeavour to steal into it secretly, to carry off the articles we had deposited there. Undoubtedly no apprehensions had been entertained, that they would break into it by force, for no precautions had been taken to guard against an assault. A native, however, took advantage of a heavy fall of rain, which came on just as day was breaking, to get behind one of our sentries, and gave him such a violent stroke on the head with his club, that he knocked him down, though his helmet-cap warded off much of the violence of the blow. The assassin immediately made off with his musket; and the other sentry instantly gave notice of it to those of us, who were sleeping in the tents. The alarm was great, and several moved nearer to the shore, that they might be able to reach the long-boat, if the ​islanders should fall upon us in great number. The cry of alarm was heard on board the Esperance, that ship having come within hail of the shore the preceding evening, and immediately a few muskets were fired from her, to give notice of it to the Recherche: but our fear of a general attack from the natives did not continue long, for we quickly assured ourselves, that most of them were still fast asleep round our post, and those, who had been awakened, had fled. An officer, too, who arrived from the interior of the island, almost at the instant of the assassination, reported, that he had seen a great many of the natives, all of whom appeared to him to be in a profound sleep.
The Commander of our expedition went on shore about six o'clock, with a detachment well armed, and gave orders to strike the tents immediately, and carry them aboard, with every thing that had been left at the post for the purpose of barter.
Our removal much grieved several of the chiefs, who came to the General to express the sorrow they felt at this disagreeable affair. They loudly expressed their disapprobation of this cowardly piece of treachery, saying, that the culprit deserved death, and should not long escape the due reward of his crime. At the same time they did ​every thing in their power to prevail on us to continue our barter as before.
Our detachment having advanced a little way into the island, to examine the disposition of the natives, found near a thousand, who had slept in the neighbourhood of our post, and requested them to remove to a greater distance; which they all did, except a small party of armed men, who, lifting up their clubs and spears, refused to retire a single step. Perhaps it would have been proper to have punished their audacity, which led us to consider them as accomplices of the assassin: but a chief, named Toobou, one of the king's relations, fell upon them with fury, and quickly dispersed them by heavy blows with his club.
The General, before he got into the boat to return on board, made a few presents to the different chiefs, who were collected around him. He also required them to deliver up the assassin, and return the musket he had stolen, with the sabre that had been taken from our gunner the day before; informing them, that he would allow the barter to be renewed on these conditions alone.
All the natives retired when our long boat put off from the shore; but as soon as it arrived alongside the vessel, several of them went to the spot ​we had quitted, and examined it very carefully, to see whether we had not left something or other behind us. We observed one, who had the dexterity to pull out the nail by which one of our clocks had been hung up to a post.
Feenou came on board in the afternoon, and made the General a present of some bread-fruit, yams, plantains, and a pig. In return he received a saw, a hatchet, and several chisels: but we perceived, that he gave the hatchet a decided preference to the other tools. After having paid the greatest attention to the account we gave him of the attack made on our sentry by one of the natives, he promised to return the musket the next day; and told us, that he would bring the assassin to us, and do justice on him in our presence. He desired to see the gunner, who had received a large wound in the head, but happily not dangerous, as the helmet-cap he wore had deadened the blow. Feenou displayed much sensibility on seeing the wound, and presented the gunner with a piece of the stuff fabricated of the bark of the paper mulberry tree, to use in dressing the wound. In fact the properties of this stuff render it well adapted to such a purpose.
Feenou having ordered several of the natives, who attended him, to make kava, these immedi​ately began to chew some large roots of the species of pepper tree, to which they give that name, and the liquor was soon prepared. He drank of it first, and the rest was shared among the other natives, who, as well as Feenou, ate plantains after it. Out of respect to him, they all squatted on the deck, while he sat on the watch bench.
We showed this chief several engravings in the voyages of Captain Cook. It was with the greatest respect that he several times pronounced the name of that celebrated navigator, which he called Toote. It is remarkable, that though we could pronounce words of their language with great facility, they could not do so with ours: for instance, when they wished to pronounce the word François, they said Palançois; instead of Beaupré, they said Beaupélé, &c. Feenou talked to us of Otaheite, and said, that he had seen Omai at Anamooka. Perhaps this is the same Feenou who was particularly intimate with Cook in his last voyage, though that navigator says he was a tall man.
His attendants said a great deal to us about King Toobou, of whose power they made great boast; and to point out to us his superiority, they raised the right arm very high, pronouncing his name at the same time, and then touched it near the elbow with the left hand, to mark the inferi​ority of Feenou. He himself assented to this preeminence of Toobou, who, he said, was to be on board us the next day.
29th. I had intended to spend this day on the island of Tongataboo, with some of my shipmates; but the General desired us to postpone this excursion, till the chiefs had given us a proof, that they were really determined to put an end to the depredations committed by their subjects.
Several canoes surrounded our vessels, but no one was permitted to come alongside. Many of their people, weary of their situation, as they could not carry on any kind of traffic, amused themselves with fishing. Their nets were nearly nine yards long, about a yard and a half deep, and the meshes were about an inch square. From the shape of these nets, several of which we had already purchased, we imagined that they used them as we do seines, hauling them up on the beach; but we were much astonished to see them throw them out in the open road, much in the same manner as we do a casting-net. On the lower side were fastened pieces of coral, which sunk the net rapidly to the bottom; and the fishermen immediately dived, to bring the two ends together by means of small lines fastened to them; thus enclosing the fish, which they put into their canoes. It is obvious that fish must be ​very plenty, for them to be caught in this manner in the open sea. No doubt the fishermen would not have taken all this trouble, had not their hunger been extremely craving; for, as they had no means of dressing their fish in their canoes, they did not hesitate to devour it raw.
About nine in the morning three chiefs came on board, to acquaint us that Toobou, the supreme chief (egui laï) of Tongataboo, Vavao, Anamooka, &c. was coming to pay us a visit, and that he would deliver into our hands the assassin we demanded, and restore the musket that had been stolen. In fact, it was scarcely eleven o'clock when Toobou arrived, with several chiefs. The assassin was at his feet, lying on his belly with his hands bound behind his back. He ordered him on board immediately, and then directed the musket, with its bayonet fixed, which had been taken from one of our sentries, to be brought. Two pieces of stuff, made of the bark of the paper mulberry, so large, that each, if spread out, would have completely covered our vessel, two hogs, and several very large mats, composed the present which he brought to the Commander of our expedition. The warrior Feenou, not disdaining to perform the office of executioner, lifted up his club, to beat out the brains of the culprit, and it was somewhat diffi​cult to prevent him from doing justice on the prisoner before our eyes. At length, however, he delivered him into the hands of the General, imagining, no doubt, that he was desirous of keeping him, to inflict on him himself the punishment due to his crime. The prisoner too, supposing that his last hour was come, already stretched out his neck, when our sentry, whom he had knocked down, begged the life of the offender. On this he was dismissed, with a few stripes on the back with a rope's end: but Feenou, thinking this punishment far too little, again raised his club, to put an end to his existence. The General bawled out as loud as he could, icaï maté, (that he should grant him his life); but Feenou declared, nevertheless, that he should not escape the punishment he deserved. As we were examining several marks on his head, from blows this man had received with a club, before he had been brought to us, we were informed, that these had been given to him when he was taken. The General ordered our surgeon to dress his wounds, and then removed him to the Esperance, intending to set him ashore in the night, to endeavour to save his life.
King Toubou received as a present from the General's hands a suit of scarlet, in which he dressed himself immediately, and a large hatchet. ​Feenou, too, received a scarlet suit, with a hatchet of much smaller dimensions; and a few small hatchets were distributed among the other chiefs. They were all on the deck, forming a circle round Toobou, who sat on the watch bench, with Feenou on his right hand, and another chief, named Omalaï, on his left.
Toobou appeared to us to be at least sixty years old. He was of a middling height, and still much more corpulent than Feenou. His garments were made in the same shape as those of the other natives, differing only in the fineness of their texture. He wore a very beautiful mat, fastened round him by means of a girdle, fabricated of the bark of the paper mulberry tree.
When Toobou gave orders for making kava, we requested some of the chiefs to take upon themselves its preparation, and chew the roots of the kava pepper tree, which we offered them; but they uniformly refused, with an air of disdaining an occupation beneath them. It was entrusted to men of an inferior class (mouas), who were seated near the middle of the circle formed by the chiefs.
The rain, which had come on in the mean time, increasing rapidly, we imagined that every one of them would have sought shelter; but they all braved the weather, without quitting their ​places, except the king, who withdrew into the General's cabin, with Feenou, and Toobou-Foa, one of the royal family. Kava was carried to them in cups, which had just been made of plantain leaves, and then plantains were offered to them. The General invited them all three to dinner; but the king did not permit either of the chiefs to sit at the same table with him. He tasted all the dishes, refused most of them, and ate very little of those that he did not appear to dislike, sugar excepted. The General had made him a present of a bird-organ, with which he was wonderfully amused, and on which he played almost all dinner time.
These islanders shave with the edge of a shell, and the operation takes up a great deal of time. They were struck with astonishment, when they saw how quickly our barber took off the beards of several of our crew, and every one was desirous of experiencing his skill. Among the rest, he had the honour of shaving his majesty himself.
About half after three, the king giving us notice of his intention to depart, an offer was made to put him ashore in the barge, which he accepted. He was attended by a great number of canoes, and soon arrived at the island of Pangaïmotoo, with most of the chiefs who had accompanied him on board. As soon as he landed, he ​ordered some yams, a bread-fruit, some pork and plantains, to be brought; and we were much surprised to see him eat with a very hearty appetite; for we imagined that he was not hungry, as he had done so little honour to our General's table. We had no reason to suppose, that our dishes had not been to his taste, since the other natives were perfectly satisfied with them. Perhaps it is a point of etiquette, for his majesty not to indulge his appetite when he accepts an invitation, particularly from strangers. He afterwards made a speech, in which, no doubt, he expressed our friendly disposition toward them, and our intention to punish all who should be guilty of robbing us; and then he repaired to the island of Tongataboo.
Just before night Feenou brought the sabre which had been taken from one of our gunners. He returned it to the General, and made him a present of a very large fish, of the perch genus, the perca guttata (the hind of Catesby). Before he left us, he informed the canoes around, that we should begin to trade with them again the next day.
30th. Very early the next morning our boat was sent on shore to the island of Pangaïmotoo, with a quantity of stuffs and hardware. The canoes round our ship were several times desired ​in vain to repair to the market, which had just been re-established on that little island. We fancied, however, that we had discovered effectual means of driving them away from our ships, when we saw them take flight with precipitancy, on some water being spouted on them from an engine; but the success of this mode was of short duration; for soon finding that they ran no risk but of a wetting, we might play the engine on them as long as we pleased, and they would not stir. Dauribeau, the captain of the Recherche, then gave orders, to upset them when any of our boats went ashore; and presently the launch was sent off for the nearest part of the island, with various instruments for making astronomical observations. Accordingly our people pulled away, steering directly for a canoe which had three men and two girls on board; and, as they carried away the out-rigger, we should soon have had the vexation of seeing these two pretty lasses tumbled into the water; but to prevent this accident, the men jumped overboard, and two of them steadied the canoe, while the third set the out-rigger to rights, and then they paddled away for Tongataboo without delay. The other canoes, warned of their danger, had the address to avoid such of our boats as afterwards endeavoured to upset them.
​Feenou came on board very early in the morning, with Toobou, the king's brother. These two chiefs invited the General to a feast, which the King intended to give him the next day but one, in the island of Tongataboo. Having requested us to let them see the effects of our swivels and carronades, we gratified them with a specimen, at which they showed equal marks of affright and admiration.
When we arrived on shore, we observed with surprise, that the market was very well supplied, though there were not a fourth as many of the natives present, as on the preceding days. Every thing there was going on with the greatest order.
The same officer (Lagrandière) had still the management of the traffic with them for victualling the ships. He was singularly delighted with the thought of having procured some ends of iron hoops, to be cut into the shape of carpenter's chissels, and of having turned them to good account in dealing with the natives. Yet we had on board a great number of very good tools, which had been brought from Europe, to give them; and we could not conceive how it was possible, that the satisfaction he must have felt at procuring them durable instruments, should not have been of more weight with him, than any other consideration.
​Traversing the interior of the island, we saw a barber employed in shaving one of the chiefs, after their fashion. The chief sat with his back leaning against his hut. The barber's razor consisted of the two shells of the solen radiatus (violet-coloured, or radiated razor-sheath), one of which he held firmly against the skin with the left hand, while with the right he applied the edge of the other to the hair, as near the root as he could, and by repeated scraping, brought it away, scarcely more than a hair at a time. We were astonished at so much patience, and left him, as might be supposed, long before he had finished his operation.
The art of the potter has made no great progress among these people. We saw in their possession some very porous earthen vessels, which they had baked indeed, but very slightly. In these they kept fresh water, which would have quickly filtered through them, if they had not taken the precaution to give them a coating of resin. Vessels thus made, could be of no use to them in dressing victuals. The natives showed us some of a tolerably elegant form, which they said had been brought from Feejee. (See Plate XXXI. Fig. 8.) We saw them drinking in companies out of cups of this sort, round which they put a net of a pretty large mesh, to be able to ​ Effects of the Inhabitants of the Friendly Islands. ​carry them about easily. When they had emptied a few of them, they went to fill them again out of little holes, which they had dug in the ground, that the water might flow into them. Though these holes were about a hundred and fifty toises only from the shore, the water was scarcely to be called brackish. As we found it necessary to replace what we had expended since leaving Adventure Bay, we dug a hole in the ground, more than a yard deep, and at a good distance from the shore, and it was presently supplied with very drinkable water. With this we filled small casks, which the natives of the toua class were very ready to carry on their shoulders to the boat: but the part on which the iron hoops of the cask rested being bare, was soon galled, and they gave up their work. We had on board, however, a little cart, which we had brought from Europe, and on this they readily consented to draw the barrels down to the shore. The touas, twelve in number, sung to mark the time of uniting their efforts in pulling. These twelve soon increased to twenty, and at first required no addition to the pay we had agreed upon for each turn, which was twelve glass beads: a few days after, however, they demanded a higher price for their labour. They assured us that we should not find water at Tongataboo, except in ​ponds, or by digging holes in the ground as at Pangaïmatoo; but that very good spring-water was to be procured at Kao, a small island near Tofoa.
I had not yet seen a dog since we had been at anchor. In the afternoon a native brought one to sell us, assuring us that its flesh was very good eating. They give the name of kouli to this animal, which in these islands is commonly of a sallow colour, small, and pretty nearly resembling the Pomeranian dog.
Citizen Riche informed us, that the assassin, who was mentioned above, having been conveyed to the western coast of Pangaïmotoo the preceding night, by one of the Esperance's boats, had hesitated some time about going on shore, and had inquired of the boat's crew, with an air of great uneasiness, which way Feenou had gone, when he went on shore in the evening. At last he ventured to land, but crawled along the beach on his hands and knees for more than three hundred paces, before he durst proceed into the interior part of the island.
Close by the market, to which the natives brought their different kinds of provision, we observed a woman of extraordinary corpulence, at least fifty years of age, round whom the natives formed a very numerous circle. Some of them ​paid her their respects in our presence, by taking her right foot and placing it on their head, making a very low bow: others came and touched the sole of her right foot with their right hands. Several chiefs, whom we knew, paid her other marks of their reverence. We were informed that this lady was Queen Tiné. Her hair, cut to the length of about two inches and half, was covered, as well as part of her forehead, with a reddish powder.
After having expressed her inclination to go on board the Recherche, to see the Commander of our expedition, she invited us to accompany her, and immediately set off with part of her court. She presented General Dentrecasteaux with several very fine mats, a hog, and some yams; and he gave her in return various pieces of stuff, on which she appeared to set a great value.
Desirous of knowing what effect our vocal music, accompanied by a violin and cittern, would have on these people, we entertained them with a specimen, and had the pleasure of perceiving that it was pleasing to them; but a few tunes on a bird-organ obtained more striking marks of their applause.
Queen Tiné, unwilling to remain in our debt, ordered some young girls of her suite to sing. ​One of the prettiest immediately rose, and we did not fail to applaud her performance. She sang, indeed, nothing but which she continued repeating for half an hour at least; but she displayed so much grace in the action with which she accompanied this air, that we were sorry she finished so soon. She moved her arms forward, one after the other, following the measure, and at the same time raised her feet alternately, though without quitting her place: the time she marked with her fore-finger, which, after having been bent by the thumb, was let go against the middle finger; and sometimes by moving the thumb against the fore and middle fingers. The beauty of these movements depended greatly on the fine shape of the hand and arm, which is so common among these people, and was striking in this young woman. Soon after two other young girls repeated the same air, which they sung in parts, one singing uniformly a fifth to the other; and several men rose to dance to the music of their melodious voices. These marked the time by movements analogous ​to those of the young women, at first with their feet, and frequently carrying one of their hands to the opposite arm.
We took the words of this air (apou lelley, charming evening) as a compliment from the islanders, congratulating themselves on spending the afternoon with us.
The queen tasted the different dishes we offered her, but she gave a particular preference to preserved bananas. Our maître-d'hotel stood behind her in readiness to remove her plate, but she saved him the trouble, by keeping both it and the table-cloth for herself.
Tiné was extremely tenacious of the honours, which the chiefs could not refuse to pay when they met her; and hence some of them avoided her presence. Feenou, and the brother of King Toobou were on board, and had just promised to stay and dine with us when she arrived. They immediately intreated, with great earnestness, that she might not be permitted to come upon deck; but she came on board at once without ceremony, and the two chiefs hastened into their canoes, because otherwise they would have been obliged, as many of the natives assured us, to come and take her right foot, and carry it very respectfully to their heads, as a token of their inferiority. The queen informed us with an air ​of satisfaction, that King Toobou himself was bound to pay her these marks of respect, because it was from her he derived his dignity.
After having informed us that she purposed to take up her abode in the island of Pangaïmotoo, as long as we staid in the road, she invited the General to come and reside on shore, and sleep in her house. I do not imagine that the old lady had any other intention, than to procure him a more pleasant and healthy residence than he had on board: but the General had no opportunity of ascertaining with precision her motive for this obliging offer, for he did not accept her invitation.
One of our sailors had in his hand a bit of bacon, which he was going to eat, when Féogo, one of Tiné's maids of honour, appeared desirous of tasting it. He offered it to her, and she received it with thankfulness: but as she could not think of eating it in the royal presence, the Queen had the complaisance to go and sit about twelve paces off, that her attendant might be at a distance from her; yet before she quitted her place, she had received from the young lady the same marks of respect, as others of the natives had already paid her in our presence.
Two hours before sun-set, Tiné expressed a wish to return to the island of Pangaïmotoo, and ​soon after went in our barge with part of her attendants.
We had seen in Bligh's narrative, that, just as he was preparing to quit the island of Tofoa, the sailor, whom he had sent on shore to cast off the mooring of the launch, was killed by one of the natives. The people of Tongataboo informed us that the murder was committed by a chief named Moudoulalo; but we could not learn the motive which had induced him to this excessive barbarity. All of us were astonished at the coolness with which the natives told the tale.
We had already seen several knives of English manufacture in the hand of the natives; and this morning early Feenou brought us a bayonet that he had received from Captain Cook, the point of which he requested us to sharpen, as it was blunted.
In the afternoon we visited some islets, lying at a very little distance from each other between Tongataboo and Pangaïmotoo. They are all connected together by a shoal, which is almost wholly dry at low water.
We first arrived at a bank of sand, lately emerged from the water, on which, however, a commencement of vegetation already appeared. From this, called by the natives Iniou, we proceeded to the little isle of Manima; to reach which we were ​obliged to cross a tolerably rapid current, not above six feet deep soon after the tide had begun to make in, and the water of which was warmed by passing over a beach strongly heated by the rays of the sun. Here we found one of the Queen's maids of honour; to whom we presented a few beads; and immediately she sent to catch a couple of fowls to offer us. These we took the trouble of carrying, lest she should have been chagrined at our refusal of them. She was very careful to let us know that she did not give them by way of barter; affecting to repeat with an air of dignity ikaï fokatau, and to inform us by the word adoupé, that she made us a present of them. Indeed the chiefs never offered to barter their articles for ours; they made us presents, and received whatever we thought proper to give.
It is remarkable that the natives brought to our market several cocks, but very seldom any hens. These they kept to hatch chickens, and of course they sold us but few eggs likewise.
The two fowls now given us were hens, and had been caught in our sight with the same kind of net, as we had seen employed to take fish in the open road.
The soil of the island of Manima is little cultivated; we saw in it, however, a few fields of yams, cocoa trees, and plantains.
​After crossing a channel as shallow as the preceding, we arrived at Oneata. Having the curiosity to examine the inside of a habitation, constructed with much art, we were greatly surprized to see a chief, who, sitting very gravely near the middle of the hut, permitted a foremast-man of our ship to take the greatest freedoms with one of the prettiest girls in the island. He informed us, on offering some cocoa nuts, that he could not allow us to drink their liquor within his dwelling. We could not have supposed that the witness of the party, we had just happened to interrupt under his roof, would have been so rigid to persons who came thither merely to quench their thirst; but we made a point of not disputing the matter with him.
Two natives arrived in the mean time, bringing in their hands some very ripe cocoa nuts opened, and with these we saw them prepare a dish, of which they appeared to be very fond. With shells, fixed in a piece of wood by way of handle, they scraped out the nuts, which they bruised with a very hot stone, so as to make a pulp of it; this they reduced to the consistence of a pudding, after mixing it with some fresh roasted bread-fruit; which done, they formed it into balls; and these they ate immediately.
Under a large shed we saw a double canoe, ​forty feet long, placed there by the natives to preserve it against the injuries of the weather.
We were not far from the little island called Nougou Nougou, when some of the natives pointed out to us an islet, by the name of Mackaha, very near Pangaïmotoo. We proceeded toward the last island, and, as the tide was rising, we were obliged to wade up to our middles, to reach it. We soon reached the place, where the queen kept a regular court. It was under the shade of a very bushy bread-fruit tree, at a small distance from our market. There she was giving a concert of vocal music, in which Futtafaihe sung, he regulating the time, which all the musicians followed with the greatest accuracy. Some performed their parts by accompanying the simple melody of the rest with various modulations. In these we occasionally noticed discords, which seemed to be highly agreeable to the ears of the natives.
During this concert we saw a great number of people arrive, each carrying a long pole on his shoulder, at the ends of which hung fish and yams; and with these they immediately formed the base of a quadrangular pyramid, which they built up nearly to the height of two yards. This was a present for General Dentrecasteaux, to whom Tiné was giving an entertainment. ​She warned us against the danger of walking alone about the island in the evening, telling us, that thieves might take advantage of the darkness, to knock us down with their clubs, and then rob us.
On the 1st of April, at six in the morning, the General set off, agreeably to the invitation of King Toobou, who meant to give him an entertainment in the island of Tongataboo. We accompanied him, with almost all the officers of the expedition, and a detachment well armed.
Some of the natives, who followed us in their canoes, made us coast along shore toward the west for some time, in order to conduct us to a place, where, they informed us, we should find a great number of the natives assembled with several of their chiefs. As soon as we landed, Feenou came to meet the General, and accompany him into the midst of a large assembly of the natives, with Omalaï at their head. This chief invited him to sit down on his left hand, after having ordered the natives, to arrange themselves in a circle round him. We rested ourselves a moment on some mats spread on the ground, under the shade of several trees, some of which were the cerbera manghas (Indian mango tree), others the hernandia ovigera (ovigerous jack-in-the-box tree), the fruit of which is used ​by these people as an ornament. Soon after we went to see a very lofty shed, which served as a shelter to a war canoe, eighty-feet long, the inside of which was strengthened by very stout knees, placed about a yard distant from each other. Feenou, after having made us admire the construction of this double canoe, informed us, that he had taken it in an engagement, which he had fought with the people of the Feejee Islands.
As we proceeded toward the west, we crossed a spacious enclosure, formed of palisades, the posts of which, placed in an oblique direction, were tolerably near to each other, within this grew bread-fruit trees, plantain trees, the corypha umbraculifera (great fan palm), &c. Farther on, in an enclosure of much less extent, we found a small hut, of a conical figure, in which, we were informed, were deposited the remains of a chief lately dead; and a caution was given us, that entering into it was prohibited.
After this we walked on near a quarter of an hour in a narrow path, bounded on each side by palisades, till we reached an extensive esplanade, where King Toobou was soon to arrive (See Plate XXVI.).
We were invited by Omalaï, to take the cool air under a shed, the shape of which was nearly half an oval, twelve yards in length, by five in ​ Entertainment given to General Dentrecasteaux, by Tournau, King of the Friendly Islands. ​breadth. The roof, covered with the leaves of the vacoua, which rendered it impenetrable to the heaviest shower, had an elevation of about five yards and a half, and descended within three quarters of a yard of the ground, on which some fine mats were spread. The floor was raised six or eight inches higher than the surrounding earth, which secured it from all danger of being overflowed; and the roof was supported by ten pillars.
At length Toobou arrived with two of his daughters, who had poured on their hair an abundance of cocoa-nut oil, and wore each a necklace, made with the pretty seeds of the abrus precatorius.
The natives formed a great concourse on all sides. According to our estimation, at least four thousand of them were present.
The place of honour, no doubt, was on the king's left hand, for it was there he invited the General to sit, who immediately ordered the presents, which he intended for Toobou, to be brought forward. The king expressed much thankfulness for them; but, of all that was offered him, nothing so much excited the admiration of this numerous assembly, as a piece of crimson damask, the lively colour of which produced from all sides an exclamation of eho! eho! which they continued repeating a long time, with an appear​ance of the greatest surprise. They uttered the same exclamation, when we unrolled a few pieces of ribbon, in which red was the predominant colour. The General then presented a she-goat with kid, a he-goat, and a couple of rabbits, one a buck, the other a doe, of which the king promised to take the greatest care, and to let them breed and multiply in the island.
Omialaï, who, Toobou told us, was his son, also received some presents from the General, as did several other chiefs.
On our right, toward the north-east, were thirteen musicians, seated under the shade of a bread-fruit tree, which was loaded with a prodigious quantity of fruit. They sung together in different parts. Four of them held in their hands a bamboo of a yard, or a yard and a half long, with which they beat time on the ground; the longest of these bamboos sometimes serving to mark the measure. The sounds these instruments gave approached tolerably near those of the tambourin, and the following were their proportions to each other. Two bamboos of the middle length were in unison, the longest was a note and a half below them, and the shortest was two notes and a half above. The musician, that sung the counter-tenor, made his voice be heard much above the rest, though it was a little hoarse; and ​at the same time he accompanied it by beating with two little sticks of cassuarina on a bamboo six yards long, cleft throughout its whole length. Three musicians placed before the others expressed the subject of their song by action also, which no doubt they had thoroughly studied, for their gestures were performed all together, and in the same manner. Every now and then they turned toward the king, making not ungraceful motions with their arms: sometimes they bowed their heads quickly, till the chin touched the breast, and shook them several times, &c.
In the mean time Toobou presented the General with some pieces of stuff fabricated with the bark of the paper mulberry tree, causing them to be spread abroad with a great deal of ostentation, that we might be sensible of all the value of the gift.
One of his ministers, who sat on his right hand, ordered kava to be prepared, and presently a wooden bowl, of an oval shape, and a yard long (See Plate XXXI, Fig. 9), was brought in full of this liquor.
The musicians, no doubt, had reserved their choicest pieces for this instant; as now, at every pause they made, the cry of mâli, mâli, resounded from every quarter, and the reiterated applauses ​of the natives informed us, that this music made a very strong and pleasing impression upon them.
The kava was then distributed to the different chiefs, by him who had given orders for its preparation. He sent it to them in cups, which were made on the spot with the leaves of the plantain, and every time he offered a cup, he pronounced, in a pretty loud voice, the name of him for whom it was intended. Feenou he served first, saying mayé maa Feenou; and he did the same to the other chiefs, all whose names we could easily pronounce. Some of these, perhaps, the reader will not be displeased to hear: they were Nufatoa, Fefé, Mafi, Famouna, Fatoumona, &c.
We may presume, it was necessary, that some of the chiefs should judge of the goodness of the liquor, before the king drank, for it was not offered to him till it came to the fourth cup. None was sent to his daughters; and indeed it always appeared to us, that this liquor was reserved entirely for the men.
Notwithstanding the presence of the General, the king very soon fell asleep, and snored aloud, with his legs crossed, and his head bowed down almost to his knees. When he awoke, we showed him a drawing of a cow, and asked if that given to King Poulaho by Captain Cook had bred. ​He knew the animal perfectly well, which he called boakka toote, and told us, there were none now at Tongataboo, but there were at Hapaee. Several of the natives, however, assured us, imitating at the same time tolerably well their lowing, that there were some at Tongataboo, though others denied it. Thus we were unable to learn what had become of the bull and cow, which Captain Cook had left on the island; and it was the same with regard to the horse and mare, which he had given to Feenou. Perhaps they were afraid that we should require some of these animals from them.
Quitting the assembly, we walked toward the east, ascending a gentle slope. At first we passed along paths bordered with palisadoes; but we soon reached the end of these, and came to fields of yams fully cropped. Farther on, the ground, recently turned up, exhibited every appearance of fertility.
We soon reached a delightful spot on the top of a little hill, where the natives had formed a sort of rotunda, about four yards wide, with palisades, and some shrubs cut with art. Under this rotunda we still saw the remains of kava roots, that had been chewed; and round it were twenty-four small huts, constructed in a circle of fifteen or sixteen yards diameter. These huts were all ​covered with cocoa leaves, interlaced together; their shape was nearly that of half an oval, three yards long by two broad; and they were divided at the top, throughout their whole length, by a very narrow slit, which was the only opening in them, though there was no entering without separating its edges. We were informed by some of the natives, who had followed us, that the king frequently came to this place, to drink kava, with several of the chiefs of the island, and that then each went to take a nap in these sort of huts.
On returning toward the place of entertainment, we went round the largest circle formed by the natives; in the midst of which we saw several egui's wives. The wife of Futtafaihe attracted almost every eye by her beauty; but she took care, from time to time, to acquaint us, that it was her duty to preserve her fidelity to her husband. This she expressed with great simplicity, by taboo mitzi mitzi, words of which I cannot give a literal translation, as may be seen by the vocabulary of the language of the Friendly Islands, which will be found at the end of this work.
We observed in the hands of one lady, who appeared to be of some consideration, a sort of mat, about two feet square, and of a white colour, made of the hair of a horse's tail. Pos​sibly they were obtained from those which Cook left on the island; but she would not satisfy our curiosity on this head.
The King had ordered his subjects to bring the presents which he intended for the General; and ever since half after ten we had seen many arrive at intervals, each of them carrying on his shoulder a bamboo two yards long, at the ends of which hung small fishes of the scarus and chætodon genera, most of them ready dressed, and wrapped in cocoa-leaves; others brought bread-fruit, yams, &c.; and presently, by laying their bamboos across each other, they raised two portions of triangular pyramids, one of them two yards high, the other one yard only. The raw fish already began to stink very much.
About one o'clock in the afternoon Toobou went away, without saying a word to any person. We then left the assembly, and were accompanied to the place where we landed by Feenou and Omalaï, who ordered a whole hog just dressed, some fish, yams, and bread-fruit, to be brought us, and invited us to sit down to our repast; but their hog not being half ready, for such is their usual mode of cookery, we preferred going on board to dinner.
They then requested us to accept these different articles of provision, which they ordered ​to be carried into our long-boat, while others of the natives, in obedience to the orders of Toobou, were filling it with the eatables taken from the pyramids, that had been erected for our Commander. In a very little time, every thing was ready for our departure.
Our boats having been obliged to push off from the shore, on account of the low water, we could not reach them but by crossing a coral bank covered with water for more than three hundred paces: but we found the natives extremely civil; for, that we might not be wetted, they carried us to some rocks just above water, to which others came with their canoes to fetch us, and conveyed us to our boats.
The men who carried us appeared well satisfied with the articles we gave them for their trouble; but in this short passage others contrived to gain still more, by robbing us at their ease, after having crept slily behind us, while their countrymen had us on their backs. All these pickpockets, however, did not meet with equal success, for we gave chace to some, whom we forced to restore what they had taken.
As soon as we got on board, the commanding officer informed us that, during our absence, he had caused a native to be seized, at the moment when he was going off with several articles of ​hardware, which he had stolen between decks; and that Futtafaihe, reprobating the habit of pilfering, of which the natives were every day guilty towards us, had affected to say publicly, that the culprit should be punished with death. But this, they soon perceived, was all artifice on the part of the chief: for, as soon as they began to inflict the punishment of the rope's end on the pilferer, he interceded for his pardon, which, however, was not granted; and Futtafaihe seemed to be greatly affected at his receiving the five-and-twenty stripes, which he had been condemned to suffer.
2d. Pretty early the next morning, we received a visit from Tonga, who accompanied his father Toobou, the King's brother. They both took a great deal of trouble to explain to us all the dignities of their family.
Tonga several times gave us proofs of great intelligence, in particular when we showed him a chart of the Friendly Islands constructed by Captain Cook. He first glanced his eye rapidly over the archipelago; and then, stopping at Tongataboo, he observed to us, that several reefs of rocks had been laid down which did not exist; informing us that, to the north-west we should find a passage, through which we might easily carry our vessels into the open sea. This infor​mation was the more important to us, because we had supposed, that we must get out of the road through the narrow channel by which we had entered; and in which we should probably have had to work out, against the prevailing winds, which would be extremely favourable to our passing out through the new channel. Tonga offered to show it us, and would sleep on board that night, to conduct to it Citizen Beaupré, our engineer-geographer, who would ascertain its position.
On an excursion we made into the country nearest the anchoring place, we found among a group of the natives a young person, who had all the characteristics of an albino, and who was in other respects of a very sickly complexion, as is commonly the case, for this deviation from nature is owing to a state of disease.
3d. In the morning of the third, having surprised some of the natives, who were making off to the coast of Tongataboo with some articles, which they had just stolen from our ship, the commanding officer sent some of our people in pursuit of them; when one of the party, who had caused himself to be announced as a chief, said, that he would punish them himself, and would bring us the next day the things that had been stolen. But it appeared, that he was con​nected with the thieves, for he took care never to return on board again.
When we went ashore, Omalai accompanied us, and admired the boat's rudder for a long time. He was desirous of steering himself, and did so with great skill. These people use nothing but paddles for steering their canoes.
The ladies, in dressing their hair, made use of cocoa-nut oil, previously perfumed with a small seed, which they call langa kali, and which is gathered on the island of Tongataboo. On examining a little of the oil, we observed, that some of the bruised nut, which in their language is called mou, was mixed with it. They exposed the nuts to the sun, after having spread them on mats, in order to dry them, before they press out the oil, with which the women anoint the upper parts of the body, no doubt to preserve the suppleness of the skin, and to prevent too copious perspiration. They preserve the oil in the seed-pod of the melodinus scandens, after having taken out the seed. When we bought some of these little phials, a representation of which may be seen in Plate XXXI, Fig. 14, we frequently threw away the oil, lest it should run out in our pockets; but the women, seeing us with regret waste an article which they much value, commonly came forward to receive it on their heads, and then, ​with their hands, they spread it over their shoulders and arms.
The natives had already sold us a great number of clubs of various forms, and fashioned with skill, as may be seen in Plate XXXIII: and we saw several who were employed in cutting out others with shark's teeth fixed at the extremity of a piece of wood (Plate XXXII, Fig. 23). We were astonished to see them cut with a chisel like this the wood of the casuarina, notwithstanding its extreme hardness. Others already handled the iron tools they had obtained from us with considerable dexterity. All these workmen had a little bag of matting, containing pumice-stones, with which they polished their work.
I observed several cotton-plants of the species called gossipium religiosum, growing in uncultivated places; and I saw, with surprise, that the fine cotton, which might be procured from it in abundance, was not used by the natives in any of their works.
About nine in the evening we perceived a canoe close by one of our buoys. Apprehensive that the people in her would cut the buoy-rope, we sent one of our boats in chace of her; but the boat had scarcely put off from the ship's side, when somebody was heard to fall into the water. Our men immediately hastened to the person's ​ Effects of the Inhabitants of the Friendly Islands. ​assistance; when seeing him swim away, without speaking a word, we had no doubt but it was a thief making off with his booty. He was pursued immediately, frequently escaped by diving, and was not taken at last till he had been wounded in the thigh with a boat-hook, which was employed to catch hold of him. As soon as he was brought on board, he was secured upon deck, where he remained all night. He confessed that, having taken several things out of our launch, he had conveyed them to the canoe, which was in waiting for them near our buoy, and had made off without delay. In half an hour afterwards, we fancied we saw her slowly approaching our ship astern, in search of the native whom we had seized. The men in our yawl immediately pulled away toward her, and when they came up with her, they found in her only one man and two paddles: but they soon discovered that she had brought us another thief, who had roamed about the ship till the arrival of another canoe, that came to convey him ashore. As soon as our people got sight of her, they gave her chace, but the natives in her paddled away with such speed, that it was impossible to overtake them.
4th. At three o'clock in the morning Citizen Beaupré returned with Tonga, after having ex​amined the passage toward the north-west, of which Tonga had given us information. They had run along very close to Attata, which they had left on the larboard, as they sailed from our anchorage. Kepa, the chief of this little island, had come to meet them, and received them with great civility. In the morning he came to see us, and inquired after Captain Cook, who, he told us, was his friend. On being informed of his death, he could not refrain from tears, and took out of his girdle a shark's tooth, with which he was going to wound his cheeks, in order to express the violence of his grief, if we had not prevented him.
The art of physic is practised among those people with a parade of mystery. One of crew, who had accompanied us along the beach, having hurt his wrist by an exertion, a native offered to ease the pain, and succceded pretty quickly by squeezing and pressing the part injured, (en massant la partie blessée); at the same time he blew upon it repeatedly, intending, no doubt, that we should ascribe the cure to his breath.
On the sea-side we saw several natives occupied in squaring some large stones of the calcareous kind, which, we were informed, were intended to be employed in burying a chief, who was re​lated to Futtafaihe. They first removed the earth from them, and then separated them by breaking them with a volcanic pebble, round which, near the middle, they took the precaution to wrap pieces of matting, to prevent the splinters from flying into their eyes. They were scarcely below the surface of the earth, and arranged in strata about four inches thick.
We had before observed among these people a game with the hands, which they call léagui, and which requires great attention. Two play at it, and it consists in one's endeavouring instantly to repeat the signs made by the other, while the former makes signs in his turn, which the other is to repeat in like manner. We saw two in a party at no great distance from our market, who were so quick at this exercise, that our eyes were scarcely able to follow their motions.
Citizen Legrand, who had been sent the day before to discover some passages to leeward of our anchorage, returned in the evening, after having found two towards the north.
5th. Early in the morning I set off, with all the other naturalists of our expedition, for the island of Tongataboo. Some of the natives would carry us thither in their little canoes, but most of us, not being sufficiently careful in preserving our equilibrium, upset them as soon as they put off. ​We then determined to go in their double canoes, which they managed very skilfully, and soon set us ashore, making the passage under sail. The mast was set up in that canoe which was to leeward.
We were obliged to get out of the canoes more than six hundred paces from the shore, on account of the shallowness of the water, through which the natives carried us on their backs. They then showed us the dwelling of Toobou, the king's brother, where we stopped; and the gardener made him a present of several kinds of seeds, that were brought from Europe, chiefly of culinary vegetables, which the chief promised us to cultivate with care. We left him, to strike into the woods, the soil of which was of a calcareous nature; and we observed in different places heaps of madrepores, which proved that the waters of the sea had long covered the ground. On the trees we observed many large bats, of the species called vespertilio vampyrus (the vampire bat), which the inhabitants told us were very good food.
We were near the middle of the wood, when a native, who had crept behind one of our party, snatched out of his hands a pair of pincers, which he used for catching insects. The thief instantly took to his heels; but he had scarcely run four-​score paces, when, finding himself briskly and closely pursued, he placed himself behind a tree, round which he turned several times, to avoid being caught. Our companion, however, laid held of his clothes, and fancied himself on the point of recovering his pincers, as he imagined he had the thief fast: but what was his surprise, when the other loosened his girdle, and left his clothes behind him, to escape with the article he had stolen!
We soon got into the fields, where we saw the property of each individual divided into small enclosures, surrounded by palisades, and completely cultivated. The Indian cole, arum esculentum, grew there vigorously among many other vegetables, which I have already mentioned, and which equally with it are used as food by the natives. The sugar-canes we saw there, were planted at a pretty considerable distance from each other, under the shade of the inocarpus edulis, the fruit of which these people roast and eat, its flavour much resembling that of the chesnut. In the same enclosure, we saw several of the orange-leaved Indian mulberry trees (morinda citrifolia), loaded with ripe fruit, which is much esteemed by the natives. They brought us a great quantity of this fruit for a few days when we first an​chored here, but we refused it on account of its insipidity.
After proceeding some way to the eastward, we stopped, to examine two little huts, erected in an enclosure of small extent, and shadowed by some fine shaddock trees, loaded with fruit, and several casuarina trees. Some natives informed us, that the remains of two chiefs of Toobou's family had been deposited in them. We lifted up the mat, which closed the entrance of the larger. The surface of the ground within was covered with sand, and toward the middle we observed an oblong square, formed of small pebbles of different colours. None of the natives who were with us, would gather any of the shaddocks, no doubt from respect to the dead, though we desired to buy some of them. They said that they could not sell them to us.
In a short time we returned to the house of Toobou, to whom we made a complaint against the stealer of the pincers. He promised to return them to us the next day; and he kept his word. This chief pressed us to spend the night in his habitation; but we would not accept his offer, left our absence should occasion any uneasiness on board.
These people are accustomed to geld their pigs, ​with a view to render the flesh more delicate. We saw this operation performed on a very young pig, which one of the natives laid on the back, after having tied his legs, while another made an incision into the scrotum with the edge of a piece of bamboo, and removed the testicles, separating them from the parts to which they adhered, with all the dexterity of an anatomist.
Toobou treated us with fowls broiled on the coals; yams, plantains, and bread-fruit, roasted under the ashes; and the liquor of the cocoa-nut to drink.
Three of the daughters of this chief came to keep us company. They talked a great deal; and though we were very hungry, they did not scruple to interrupt us frequently, by forcing us to answer their questions, which related chiefly to the customs of the French, particularly those of the women. As they observed our seamen address every one indiscriminately, they enquired with earnestness, whether the women were not tabooed in France; that is to say, whether they enjoyed the same liberty as most of those in their island.
The answer, by which we endeavoured to convey to them an idea of our customs, pleased them highly. They informed us, that the eguis (chiefs) of Tongataboo had several wives; and asked how many wives a French egui usually had. When ​they understood that each had but one, they burst out into a laugh; and we had great trouble to persuade them, that the egui lai (kings) of Europe, had no more, which gave them no very high idea of their power.
Of all the articles with which we presented the ladies, odoriferous waters were most esteemed. They appeared to us as passionately fond of perfumes, as most of the inhabitants of warm climates: and yet their bodies were partly besmeared with cocoa-nut oil, which diffused a disagreeable odour.
One of the finest girls in this party having the little finger of the left hand wrapped round with a piece of stuff of the paper mulberry, which appeared bloody, we begged to see the wound. Another immediately took down from the roof, under which we sat, a piece of a plantain leaf, out of which she drew the first two joints of the little finger of the young girl, who had them very lately cut off, in order to cure her, as she told us, of a severe disease. She showed us the hatchet, made of a volcanic stone, which had been used for the operation; and informed us, that the edge had first been placed at the extremity of the third phalanx of the finger, and then the operator struck a smart blow on the head of this hatchet with the handle of another.
​This young person soon left us; but, before she went away, she kissed Toobou's daughters after the manner of the inhabitants of the Friendly Islands, which is by touching with the tip of the nose the nose of the person you salute. It is remarkable, that these islanders, who pretty much resemble Europeans, have, notwithstanding, the extremity of the nose a little flattened: this slight deformity may very probably be owing to the custom, of which I have just spoken.
Toobou's daughters changed names with us; an established custom among these people, to testify their affection. They then played a very monotonous duet on flutes made of bamboo: but we were much amused at seeing them blow with the nose into a hole at the extremity of the instrument, in order to make it sound. We received from them as a present some combs of a very elegant shape, represented in Plate XXXII. Fig. 21.
The natives, who formed a circle round us, having stolen several of our things, we complained of it to Toobou's daughters, who soon after left us without saying a word, probably to go in search of their father, and request him to come and put an end to these pilferings; but, as we could not wait till their return, we soon began to walk toward the island of Pangaïmotoo. The tide being ​very low, we easily passed over the shoals, which connect the islets with the principal island. We stopped about half way at a hut, where we were witnesses of the manner, in which a woman was eating her meal, that appeared to us laughable enough. Sitting near a post, and motionless as a statue, she opened her mouth from time to time, to receive morsels of bread-fruit, which another woman put into it. We were informed, that it was not allowable for her to to touch any kind of food with her own hands, because a few days before she had washed the body of a deceased chief.
When we arrived at Pangaïmotoo, Queen Tiné, sitting under a shed covered with cocoa-leaves, and erected under the shade of several fine bread-fruit trees, was giving an entertainment to General Dentrecasteaux. She first ordered some young persons of her attendants to dance, which they did with infinite gracefulness, singing at the same time, while Futtafaihe, who was standing, directed their movements, and animated them by his voice and gestures. (See Plate XXVII.)
After this we had a grand concert, which differed little from that the King had given us a few days before, only on the present occasion the expression of joy was much more lively.
The Queen was surrounded by women, while a great number of men kept at a little distance ​opposite to her, forming a circle round the musicians.
When the women had ceased dancing, several men rose up, each holding in his hand a little club, nearly of the shape of a paddle. These they brandished about, keeping time with much precision, and making different movements with their feet. The musicians, after they had sung some tunes in very slow time, sung often very quick, which gave this sort of pyrrhic dance a very animated action, that we admired for a long while. The subject of this dance excited our curiosity; but we soon found, that its object was to celebrate the great deeds of some of their warriors. The women occasionally united their voices with those of the men, accompanying their song with very graceful movements.
One of the armourers of the Esperance was much surprized to see among these dancers, and not far from Futtafaihe, the native who had stolen his sabre; this chief having always assured us that he could never find out the thief. It appeared to us, however, that it was one of his attendants: but he retired with precipitation as soon as he perceived that he was known.
During this time a pyramid of bamboos had been erected, to which were suspended different ​fruits, designed as a present to the General from Queen Tiné.
We expressed a strong desire to see some of the natives engage in a wrestling match; but we were told that a spectacle of this sort was never exhibited before the Queen.
This entertainment had attracted a great number of the natives, among whom were several thieves, whose impudence was continually increasing. They had already taken several articles from some or other of us by open force, and run off with them into the woods.
More than thirty of us were assembled together, and we were quenching our thirst with the delicious liquor of the cocoa-nuts, which Tiné had just presented to the General, when a native had the audacity to snatch a knife out of one of our hands. Indignant at such effrontery, several of our party immediately ran after the thief, and pursued him as far as the island of Tongataboo; but, finding themselves surrounded by a great number of the natives, they presently returned toward our anchoring place. The smith of the Recherche, however, a German by birth, thought it was proper to show more courage than the rest, by venturing farther and farther among the natives. These soon faced about, pursued him in their ​turn, as soon as they found him inclined to make off, and even attempted to strike him with their clubs: but he kept them at bay a long time, by presenting to the most forward a bad pistol, which he several times attempted to fire. Being now about seven hundred yards only from our ships, he fancied himself secure from any attempt on their part, when one of them laid open his skull with a club, and another threw a spear at his back. A great number of them fell upon him, and continued their blows till they thought he was dead. One of them tried repeatedly to shoot him with his own pistol, which they had seized, but fortunately the priming was gone. They were already dividing his clothes, when they were observed from the Esperance, and a cannon was immediately fired, the ball of which passed very near the assassins, and quickly dispersed them. We ran from all quarters to the assistance of the unfortunate smith. One of the crew, having come along the beach to his succour, was attacked by a native, who knocked out two of his teeth with his club; but the assault cost him his life, for he was instantly shot dead. Our smith was soon raised from the ground, and, though his head was laid open at the left frontal sinus to a considerable extent, and he had other very dangerous wounds, ​he had still sufficient courage to walk to the boat, supported only by the arms.
A few guns loaded with langrage were fired, to protect such of us as were on shore. The natives fled on all sides, and collected in very numerous bodies in different parts of the island: and, to endeavour to disperse them, and to bring off those of our people, who were still in the interior of the island, a detachment was sent on shore well armed.
Several chiefs, assembled close by our market with some of us, were rising to depart; but they yielded to our invitation not to quit the place.
Presently we saw a launch manned and armed coming from the Esperance, under the command of Trobriant, her First-Lieutenant. Knowing very little of the occasion of the alarm, and supposing that all the natives were preparing to fall upon us, he ordered his party to seize upon a double canoe, just as she was coming to the shore, totally ignorant of all that had passed. Most of the natives in her immediately leaped into the sea; but the chief, to whom she belonged, remaining on the deck, Trobriant sent one of the crew to seize him. On his attempting to strike the chief with a club the chief disarmed him; they laid hold of each other; and Trobriant thought proper to fire on ​the chief, whom he shot dead. We were all extremely grieved at this misfortune.
Another native, witnessing what passed, leaped from the canoe's mast-head into the sea, not daring to come down upon deck: and immediately a negro, whom we had taken on board at Amboyna, pursued him with a pike, which he had in his hand, but fortunately could not overtake him.
The rage of these barbarians was not yet appeased. A marine, by birth a German, whom likewise we shipped at Amboyna, perceiving the daughter of the unfortunate chief, who had concealed herself in the bottom of the canoe, had already raised his sabre to run her through, when a gunner belonging to the Recherche, Citizen Avignon, caught hold of the madman's arm. He then threw himself between him and the poor girl, whose mother soon gained the shore, distracted at the death of her husband. The daughter, too, wept bitterly for the loss of her father, and we saw her beating herself violently with the fist on the checks and breast.
We detained as hostages the son of the king, and Titifa, chief of the island of Pangaïmotoo: but we all remarked with sorrow, the dejection into which this confinement threw the king's son, whom we had often seen issue his commands with such haughtiness to the subjects of ​his father. He frequently repeated that he was our friend, and that he could wish to accompany us to France. Titifa, on the contrary, expressed not the least fear.
These two chiefs spent the night in the great cabin of the Recherche. Each had brought with him a wooden pillow, of the shape of that represented in Plate XXXIII. Fig. 35, on which, after lying down, they laid the back part of their head, according to the custom of these people, which is no doubt the cause of the very perceptible flattening observed in that part.
During the night we saw a greater number of fires on the north coast of Tongataboo, than we had ever perceived before.
The next morning at day-break we were awakened by the piercing cries of two women, who were making their lamentations, as they went round our ship in their canoe. They cried alternately one after the other, no doubt that their voices might be distinguished by Titifa, who knew them immediately. These women were his wife and daughter, who, in their grief, beat their cheeks and breast with their fists. He immediately ran upon deck, but could not quiet their alarm, till he had given them an account of the good treatment he had received on board: and when he told them that he should soon re​turn on shore, they were transported with joy. A short time after he and King Toobou's son were both sent ashore in our barge, to the Island of Pangaïmotoo. The wife and daughter of Titifa followed us in their canoe, when, as they were passing close by the Esperance, a blunderbuss went off by accident, and hit their canoe, which they were obliged to quit, as in consequence she presently filled. We took them into our boat, and expressed our great sorrow at this mischance; but they soon forgot the danger they had run, for they were with Titifa, and thought of nothing more but the pleasure of seeing him set at liberty. We made them a present of a few articles of hardware, among which a hatchet gave them great satistaction. Titifa told us, he should employ this in constructing another canoe, so that he should soon repair the loss he had just experienced.
When we landed, most of the natives retired from the shore, and were proceeding into the interior part of the island: but Titifa desired them to return, and ordered them to range themselves in a circle, which they immediately did. Our trade then recommenced with the greatest order imaginable. This chief would not quit us the whole time; but Toobou's son disappeared as soon as he set his foot on shore.
​The chief, who had been killed the day before by Trobriant, appeared to be greatly loved by the natives, for several displayed much sensibility in lamenting his death.
For fear they should endeavour to make reprisals on us, the General ordered every person belonging to our ships, to remain within the place where the trade was carried on.
Our ships were sufficiently stocked with all such provision as these people could furnish. As we had now nothing more to apprehend from the consequences of competition, some articles of hardware were distributed among the crew, that they might procure a few things for themselves. On this the natives raised their demands for their goods to a very high price, frequently asking ten times as much as before they had been contented to take.
We saw in their possession an iron hook, which they had had skill enough to form like those which they fabricate of bone, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, and other animal substances, the figure of which may be seen in Plate XXXII, Fig. 27 and 28. The line, to which it was fixed, was intended, undoubtedly, to fish in very deep water, for a pretty large piece of alabaster, cut into a conical shape, was fastened to it. (See Plate XXXII, Fig. 25 and 26).
​ Effects of the Inhabitants of the Friendly Islands. ​ Woman of Amboyna.Woman of the Friendly Islands. ​Titifa and several other chiefs were not without anxiety, on account of the hostile intentions of some of the natives toward us. They imparted to us their apprehensions, and persuaded us to return on board before the close of the day; their authority, no doubt, being insufficient to control them.
At night-fall we perceived, that our rudder chains had been taken away.
7th. We observed on shore several young girls, who had cut their hair to the length of an inch, except round the head, and afterwards powdered it with lime, for the purpose, we were told, of making it grow of a light colour. We saw several others, whose hair was of this complexion already.
Most of the women did not desist from asking us for glass rings and beads, with which they adorned themselves, as soon as they obtained them. Their request was always accompanied with a pleasing smile, and at the same time they inclined their head, laying one of their hands on the breast, in the manner represented Plate XXX, Fig. 1.
Titifa brought us some nutmegs, which were tolerably round, and as large again as those of the cultivated nutmeg, but they were destitute of aromatic flavour. The mace was covered with a pretty thick down. The natives, observing we ​received these with pleasure, quickly brought us more.
These people have invented a kind of flute, differing from that called in Europe Pan's reed only in the proportion of the tones. All the pipes gave full notes, and of little extent; and the highest is a fourth to the lowest. We purchased several of these flutes.
I obtained of our Commander a large box, to hold some young bread-fruit plants, for the purpose of enriching our colonies with that useful vegetable; and it was placed upon the larboard quarter gallery. Some of the natives procured me a great number of suckers, and I planted them in very good mould, which they brought me, and which they called kelé kelé. I also took some roots and cuttings of this valuable tree, which I buried in loam, cummea in their language, placing them horizontally. These cuttings were so many shoots, which I intended to plant on our arrival at the Isle of France.
8th. Queen Tiné came on board, just as Feenou was in the cabin with the General, to whom he had brought as a present a diadem, made with the beautiful red feathers of the tropic-bird, with some other very small feathers of a brilliant red colour. When he went out of the cabin, to return ashore, he endeavoured to avoid the sight of ​the queen; but the moment she perceived him, she made him come to her, and held out to him her right foot, which he took hold of immediately, and placed on the hind part of his head, making a profound bow, in testimony of the respect he owed the queen. He dared not refuse her these honours, though it appeared to us, that he was deeply affected by it. The General had just made him a present of several iron tools, and we observed with pleasure, that he appeared to know the value of this metal, giving it a very decided preference to the bones and volcanic stones, of which most of the hatchets of these islanders are made.
We were afterwards visited by different chiefs, who repeated to us, what several others had already informed us, respecting the reigning family. They employed for the purpose playing cards, with which we furnished them. These they first spread on the table, and then they assigned to each the name of one of the persons of the family; which did not appear to us to bear one common surname, as Captain Cook imagined (that of Futtafaihe, at present the name of the son of Poulaho); for Poulaho's father was named Taibouloutou. Taibouloutou married a wife, whose name was Toobouhou, by whom he had four children; two sons, Poulaho, who succeeded ​him, and Futtafaihe; and two daughters, the one named Tiné, the other Nanatchi. When Poulaho died, he left a son very young, named Futtafaihe, whose uncle then took into his hands the reins of government: but he did not long survive his brother, and then the sovereignty devolved upon Tiné, the elder sister. She held all the honours of it, without exercising the authority, however; with which it appears a female cannot be invested: the power, therefore, passed into the hand of a chief named Toobou, brother to Tiné's mother. This queen had married Ovea, one of the chiefs of Tofoa; and he had divorced her, after having had two sons by her, Veaïcou, and Veatchi.
Thus it appears, that the succession to the throne devolves first on the brothers, then on the sisters, of the prince who has reigned, before it comes to his sons; and when a woman succeeds to the royal title, the sovereign authority is exercised by one of her mother's nearest relations, though only during the life of the queen. The family of Toobou will retain the power during the reign of Tiné; and Futtafaihe, the son of Poulaho, will not ascend the throne, till after the death of both his aunts. The royal family, at this time divested of the sovereign power, nevertheless enjoyed the regal honours, and even received the homage of those, by whom the autho​rity was exercised, as we observed on several occasions.
Vouacécé, one of the chiefs of Feejee, had arrived at Tongataboo, soon after we anchored there. We were frequently visited by him, and he affirmed to us, what he had said several times, that it would take him three days sailing, in his double canoe, with a south-east wind, to reach Feejee, the situation of which he pointed out to the north-west. Hence we reckoned, that this island, which is very lofty, and of the fertility of which he boasted much, was about a hundred and fifty leagues from Tongataboo. This is an immense voyage for people, who, having no instruments, steer only by observing the sun and stars with the naked eye, as soon as they are out of sight of land: but it is still more difficult to conceive, how they can reach Tongataboo from such a distance, when they have to work up against the south-east winds; and they must be very sure of their marks in the heavens, not to miss the land, after being obliged to ply to windward, as they are sometimes, for more than a month.
The people of Tongataboo informed us, that the natives of the Feejee Islands were cannibals; but Vouacécé endeavoured to exculpate himself from this accusation, by assuring us, that the lower class of people only, the touas, ate human ​flesh. It appeared to us, however, from what we learned on other occasions, that the chiefs ate it likewise: indeed, as these people eat their enemies only, and commit this savage act solely to glut their rage, it may be presumed the people of Tongataboo did not impose upon us when they assured us that the Feejee chiefs themselves were cannibals.
Unquestionably the reader will be astonished to hear, that, notwithstanding this mark of ferociousness, the arts are much farther advanced at Feejee than at the Friendly Islands; the inhabitants of which never failed to inform us that the finest articles they sold us came from Feejee, being careful to give us to understand that they were very decidedly superior to those which they fabricated themselves.
Vouacécé displayed much greater desire of acquiring knowledge than any native of the Friendly Islands, most of whom visited us solely from motives of interest, and examined all parts of our ship with the greatest attention. He was very well made, and his physiognomy was strikingly expressive of character (see Plate XXIX. Fig. 2). His hair, on the fore-part of the head, was ornamented with red powder.
The natives of Feejee are frequently at war with those of Tongataboo; but, as soon as ​
The General received as a present from Futtafaihe a little canoe with an out-rigger, which was immediately stowed near the main-chains. It was near ten feet long, a foot wide, and capable of carrying only two persons. These canoes are decked for about a fifth part of their length at each end, which is sufficient for them to navigate with security within the reefs; but their double canoes, being intended for the open sea, are decked throughout their whole length, except toward the middle, where a little opening is left for a man to go down and bale out the water when it is necessary.
I saw with admiration that these people had consulted nature in constructing their canoes for speed. The bottom nearly resembles the under part of a fish of the cetaceous kind, which swims with the greatest swiftness, darting along by bounds on the surface of the water, the delphinus delphis, the dolphin.
9th. King Toobou having heard that we were soon to quit the island, came to intreat us to postpone our departure, and appeared extremely sorry when he found us determined to go.
The natives imagined, no doubt, that we wished to lay in a great stock of bread-fruit, for they ​brought much more than usual to our market: but this fruit would not keep long without rotting, unless we had cut it into slices and dried it, or fermented it, as the natives do, much in the same manner as is done in Europe with several species of culinary vegetables. Ever since we had been at anchor we had sufficient for our daily consumption: and we ate it with pleasure, relinquishing for it without regret our biscuit, and even the small allowance of fresh bread, which was usually served out to us every day, though this was of a very good quality. We preferred the bread-fruit to yams; but the natives, who came to dine with us, seemed to eat them almost indiscriminately. Our cook commonly boiled it for us; yet it would have tasted much better had he taken the trouble to bake it in the oven.
This fruit is nearly of an oval shape, about a foot long, and eight inches thick. The whole is eatable, except a very thin rind, with which it is covered, and a small portion at the centre, where the cells terminate. These contain no seeds, but are full of a very nutritious pulp, easy of digestion, sufficiently agreeable to the taste, and which we always ate with fresh pleasure. During eight months of the year this tree produces its fruits, which, ripening one after another, ​thus afford the natives an abundance of wholesome food. I shall not describe it here, as this has been done already by skilful botanists. The want of seeds, no doubt, arises from propagating the tree by suckers; and in this respect it differs remarkably from the wild species, the fruit of which is much smaller, not very numerous, and full of large kernels, which are difficult of digestion.
The natives brought us a few bits of yellow sanders, and to render its smell more powerful, they took care to rub it strongly with a rasp made of the skin of the ray, such as is represented in Plate XXXII. Fig. 24. They told us, that they procured it from the Feejee Islands, whence they call it haï-feejee: and they said that they had frequently endeavoured to transplant some of the trees to their own island, but they could not succeed.
The canoes round our ship left us when night was coming on, returning to the nearest part of the shore, as was customary; and our men were still very merry, when the young women, who had found means to get between decks, gave them notice of their departure, saying to them aloud, bongui bongui, mitzi mitzi. These words I shall not attempt to translate; but from the vocabulary of the language of these people, given ​toward the end of the present work, it may be seen, that the girls were not ashamed to publish what had passed between them and the crew, at the same time that they promised them to come again the next day.
Early the next morning several chiefs came to see us, and announced to the natives, who were already assembled round our vessel in their canoes, that we were on the point of quitting their island: when we were much surprised to see a number of young women immediately falling into tears, and uttering piercing cries. No doubt their sorrow was very acute, but it was of short duration; for soon after we saw them merry enough with their companions.
Futtafaihe requested us to sharpen for him a couple of hatchets, which had been given him by Captain Cook, and which he had had reforged on board the Esperance. This chief was accompanied by his wife, who amused herself a long while by playing with a sort of cup and ball, invented by these islanders. This toy consisted of a ball of wood, which she threw up into the air, and then endeavoured to let fall through a very small semicircle of shell, to which the ball was fastened by means of a long string. We were admiring her address, when Futtafaihe, seized with a fit of jealousy at seeing in her hands some ​presents which she had just received from one of our officers, began to abuse her; and though his suspicions were without foundation, she had a great deal of difficulty to persuade him of his mistake. This chief was with his father-in-law. We made them some presents just as the son of king Toobou arrived, and they immediately hid them in their girdles: but Toobou perceived it, and we had soon a fresh proof that if the royal family enjoyed the honours of sovereignty, the family of Toobou reaped all its profits. Toobou searched the girdles of the two chiefs, and seized every thing they had just received. Futtafaihe had no other means of revenge but by preventing his eating in his presence, not suffering him to sit by his side, and placing his foot on his head: accordingly he presented his foot to him soon after, and Toobou paid him the homage due to a person of superior rank.
We had many times seen the chiefs openly taking to themselves things that belonged to people of the lower class; and we always remarked with surprise that this species of oppression by no means diminished the unalterable gaiety of their dispositions. When they were assembled together, you would hear them every moment burst out into great peals of laughter. Their government appeared to us, as it did to ​Captain Cook, to have a considerable affinity to the feudal system.
Several natives requested to embark with us, in order to accompany us to France; and Captain Huon allotted a birth on board the Esperance to Kové, a son of the queen. This chief, to convince us that he was prompted only by the wish to accompany us, would not accept any of the articles we offered him. The General, whom he came to see, set before him the principal inconveniencies attendant on long voyages; yet he persisted in his resolution, and returned on board the Esperance. Just as he was sitting down to dinner, however, several natives came to intreat him to go on shore to see his family at least once more, before he undertook a voyage of such a length. He complied with their intreaties, and never returned on board again. Some of the natives informed us, that he was unable to resist the prayers and tears of nine wives and several children, whom he was going to leave, perhaps never to see more; and that he had promised not to quit them. Kové had a fine countenance, but not the gaiety of the other natives. Perhaps some domestic uneasiness had been one of the chief causes of his desire to leave his country. Had he carried his design into execution, he would many times have regretted the delicious ​fruits of his native isle, when reduced, like us, to feed on worm-eaten biscuit.
At the beginning of the night we fired off ten or a dozen muskets, and immediately we heard the shouts of a great number of the natives, which were repeated from different places along the shore.
Our stay at the Friendly Islands contributed greatly to restore the health of our crew. We found there plenty of vegetables, and laid in a great stock. The pork was excellent, which must be attributed in part to the good quality of the roots and fruits with which the natives feed their hogs. We took on board as many as our stye would contain; and we were convinced, in the sequel, that they could bear a long voyage, though Captain Cook informs us that he experienced the contrary with respect to those which he procured at the Friendly Islands in the different visits he paid them. We purchased upwards of four hundred while we lay at anchor, the greater part of which we salted. We adopted the process recommended by Cook in his third voyage, which consists in using a strong brine, with a sufficient quantity of vinegar to dissolve the salt. This we could do the more easily, as a great part of our wine was turned sour.
A small quantity of pork was salted by our ​butcher with salt alone; and though under the Torrid Zone, it kept as well as what we prepared after Cook's manner, and tasted even better. The fat preserved in the brine made with vinegar was disgusting on account of its extreme softness, and it had a very strong taste of the vinegar, which no one liked.
Our coops were filled with fowls.
During the whole time of our lying at anchor, the quicksilver in the barometer did not rise above 28 inches two lines, French measure, and its variation was about one line.
The thermometer in the shade on shore had not risen higher than 25° 4-10ths, though we felt excessive heat.
The winds had varied from the south-east to the north-east, blowing but faintly.
Our observatory was in 21° 8′ 19″ S. lat., and 180° 29′ 38″ E. long.
The variation of the needle was 10° E.
The spring-tides rose five feet; and it was high water about half after six on the days of new and full moon.
From the accounts given us of the ships that had anchored in this archipelago, by very intelligent natives, we were convinced that La Pérouse had never put in to any of these islands. Besides, they assured us, that no accident had ​happened to any vessel that had stopped at them, except to Bligh's launch; the affair of which they related without disguise, as I have mentioned above. The indifference with which they told us this story, convinced us, that if these people be not naturally ferocious, they are at least strangers to sentiments of humanity. The blows with clubs, or logs of wood, with which the chiefs usually accompany their orders, are an additional proof of this. They well remembered the different periods at which they had seen Captain Cook; and, to acquaint us with the intervals, they reckoned them by harvests of yams, giving two of these to each year. Several of the natives, particularly those of the royal family, pronounced the name of Cook with enthusiasm: but the great severity of that celebrated navigator had prevented many others from bearing him in memory with equal pleasure; they spoke of him only with complaints of the rigorous treatment they had experienced at his hands. In fact, though in his last voyage he speaks only of one man wounded by a ball in the thigh, we saw another who had been shot through the shoulder; and he assured us ​that he had received this wound during Cook's last visit to Tongataboo.
The natives of the Friendly Islands are in general tall and well made; for which they are principally indebted, no doubt, to the abundance and good quality of their food. The fine shape of these people is not degraded by excessive toil. The muscles being strongly marked, we presumed they must have great strength; but the idle life they lead renders them very little capable of great exertion: accordingly, when they tried their strength against our sailors, they were almost always worsted.
The men, as well as the women, are accustomed to cut off one or two joints of the little finger, and sometimes of the finger next to it, in the hope of obtaining a cure from severe diseases.
Most of them are tatooed on all parts of the body. We saw a great number, whose skin was covered with a scurfy eruption; which perhaps is owing to their not being accustomed to wipe themselves, or wash themselves with fresh water, after having been into the sea.
We observed no symptoms of the venereal disease among the natives; one of our seamen, ​however, caught a gonorrhœa there, but from a woman, who had kept company with a man belonging to the Esperance, that had long laboured under the complaint. Have these people been fortunate enough, for the disease to have become naturally extinct among them, after having run through its several stages with rapidity? since, from the testimony of Captain Cook, there can be no doubt but it has formerly made great ravages in these islands.
The skin of the people of the Friendly Islands is tawny, because they frequently expose themselves to the heat of the sun; but the women, who remain pretty constantly within doors, or in the shade of their trees, have very fair complexions. The countenances of the women are in general very pleasing, and highly animated; and the good state of health they enjoy is particularly owing to their extreme cleanliness, and the good quality of their diet.
* ↑ A somewhat similar mode of swimming, I believe, is not unfrequent among expert swimmers in England; at least I have often seen it practised by others, and have had recourse to it myself, when engaged in a contest of speed—Translator.
* ↑ In the account of Cook's last voyage, now before me, it is expressly said, that the man was shot through the shoulder, the ball having entered a little above the inner part of the collar bone, and passed out obliquely backward. How Labillardiere was led into this mistake, I cannot say.—Translator.