The Sun.
London, England, 1850-04-19 00:00:00

LONDON,

FRIDAY

THE DISCOVERIES OF H.M.S.
HAVANNAU.
(From the Portsmouth Times.)
EXTRACT or A LETTER, DATED SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH
WALES, OCTOBER 24th, 1819.—" I will now give you a
brief account since we left Auckland, which we did,
June 18th, taking with us boxes of presents of various
descriptions, as presents from Sir G. Grey to the chiefs
of the various islands that may be thought worthy of
them. The islands adjacent So New Zealand are under
his jurisdiction, should his interference be !aspired.
" We made a very good run to the Bay of Islands,
having arriied there the next day; this place was the
seat of the disturbance during the war in New Zealand;
prior to being destroyed, as it was, by the natives, it
was the largest English settlement in New Z..aland,
having been commenced as early as 1814; now there
are only a few houses; not many natives reside here
generally; we, however, were very fortunate in arriving
in finie to witness the preparation for a general feast,
at which all the natives of the north of the country
were expected to attend. In the churchyard are the
nl:I/ins of the English who perished in the various
engagements; the tablet to their memory was new ly
painted by us. The place is very delightfully situated
for a site of a town, has a beautiful harbour, and is
well surrounded by hills; it enjoys the finest climate
of any place in New Zealand. Captain Williams, of the
Acheron, was hero surveying; he and several of our
officers went to visit some of the " Palls" which are so
numerous here; they were said t be well fortified, and
generally situated at the top of a bill; over the top of
each entrance were emblems of figures of various de-
vices, each party generally have their own; we had some
good amusements here, boat racing with the soldiers
who are stationed here. We left this June 25th, and on
the 28th were off the French Rock; found bottom in 65
fathoms.

"July 6th.—Sighted and hove too off Savage Island;
it is very low, and nothing is known of any anchorage.
Cook tried to land there i❑ 1774, and failed, others
have done the same; the former named the island
from the appearance of the inhabitants. A canoe
came off with four natives, loaded with spears and
war-clubs; they had no covering of any description.
and were covered with flies, just as you see a horse on a
hot day; they jumped from the canoe, and swam to the
ship, stayed on board some time, got all they could, and
then went away, not without stealing a carpenter's
chisel; they bit sugar cane the same as a dog would do.
" July Bth—Laid too off Mahowarah, one of the
Navigator's islands ; one of the finest sights I ever
witnessed was to see the beautiful trees and foliage of
this island : the cocoa nut trees were in beautiful
groves along the beach. The centre is very lofcy—l
wish I could picture to you the general character of
these islands. A party went on shore fully preparod
to buy anything, but suffered disappointment, the mis-
sionary who is here having so far established some kind
of religion, as to prevent anything of the sort. They
are a very fine race of men, quiet and civil. A
nnmber of whalers, principally American, visit these
seas; some reside on this island, and this tends a great
deal to make the natives sociable; the natives keep
whoever stops among them, fur nothing, as it enables
them to barter with their fowls, goats, and pigs. They
wear a cloth round their waists, and smear their bodies
with cocoa nut oil. The missionary here stated he
landed at Savage Island by mistake; the natives got
excited, with difficulty ha escaped, or he surely would
have been eaten. Nine of the Navigator's Islands are
cannibals.

" July 9th—Arrived and anchored in Panquo Paqo
harbour ; we laid off some hours, and were piloted
in by A native of the Sandwich Islands ; the passage
is most intricate, and the anchorage is a beautiful bay,
the most beautiful of any we have seen, small, and
surrounded by land whica runs up to a very great
height, some say 400 feet, groves of cocoa nut trees
extend around the whole bay; the natives are nume-
rous, and speak English tolerably well, and came off
in great numbers; their dress is a cloth round their
waists, made of the fibres of the cocoa nut tree, called
tents; the women wear a piece over their shoulders
and breast, loose, and a large hole to put their head
through ; girls have none of this. Four missionaries
are residents here, the natives all converted, except a
small portion in another part of the island; their
general conduct is good in the extreme ; their huts
are something of the shape and make of a beehive, on
a large scale; women do all the work, make mats,
fans, and baskets, besides tappa; the men cultivate
yams; every one appeared enjoyed if we sat down in
their huts ever so short a time, and immediately the
children would fetch cocoa nuts to eat, which we learned
to do almost as well as they did ; every native that
came to the ship (and during meal time we were lull)
brought something to sell. They were all fine young
men, the women not so good ; the former would nut
allow the latter to come on board. A number of
English reside here. Eliphantisses is a common
disease here. The Chief and his Prime Minister were
gratified with the sight of seeing the men exercise on
shore ; the Marines attracted their attention most.
Cook generally landed these during his voyages. They
have a great horror of the French—they are said to
have massacred some, as fur back as 1788. We sailed
from this on the 12th, and arrived at Assia, Isle of
Repolo, on the 13th: this is the finest island of the
whole group; here we learnt the native name is ' Swan-
sea,' instcad of Navigator's Island, it is so described
in the American Expedition under Commander
Wilks. The harbour is dangerous to enter, being nearly
surrounded by reefs of coral, which rose suddenly when
the Juno was here some time since. A great number
of English and Americans reside bore ; it is one of
the largest whaling stations in this part of the world;
Mr. Pritchard, who was at Tahiti, is Consul-Gene-
ral hero ; he is the same person the French took pri-
soner in 1844. Mr. Williams, son of the unfortunate
missionary who was murdered and eaten at Eno-
maligns, is the American consul, both are missionaries
bred; the resident missionary was brought up to the
medical profession, he is accoucher-general here.
There are two missionary chapels, one built of cast-
iron, the other of native manufacture; it was very
pleasant staying here; a college is established in the
esland, twelve miles from here; there is a printing-
office, and a journal which is published once in six
months. Two-thirds of the natives are converted, the
remainder heathen, separated by a wall of their own
construction ; they cover their heads with slacked
lime, to alter the colour of their hair. An American
Whaler arrived during our stay. We sailed from here
July 25th, after experiencing a heavy squall the day
before ; on the 29th sighted " Vevona,' the entrance
to the harbour is very narrow, and which as soon as
passed displays greater difficulties than ever I men-
tioned when speaking of the Bay of Islands, there
were not so many there as hi another place we visited;
the Islands are small, lofty, steep at the sides as to
render landing scarcely possible, covered with sandal-
wood and cocoa-nut tress; there are forty of them; from
the entrance to the anchorage was about six miles ;
no vessel of war had ever been here before, and, of
course, natives came off in great numbers, many could
speak English fluently, and were well acquainted with
the value of money, for which they gave us yams,
poupas, and cocoanuts in great plenty : one curious cir-
cumstance I must not forget to mention—the natives
have not a drop of water but what is collected from
rain, and none of them tattooed; their canoes are of
great length—two, 75 feet long, capable of holding
180 men; five Missionaries are resident here, all of
them came off, and also one Chief who came to take
passage to " Luluca. From light winds we were
detained from sailing hence till the 31st, when we were
fortunate enough to have a fair wind, and sighted
Lefuca" August Ist, several small islands at the
same time were in sight, but all were very low, and
here we were surrounded by reefs, among several of
the islands the reefs afford a means of communica-
tion;
we saw several of the natives wedding; we an-
chored only in 5 fathoms; in the same place Captain
Cook died. This was the first of the Friendly Islands
we had been at; the natives are quite a different race
from those we had seen—more ferocious in appearance,
and not so well clad, evidently wanting the source of
communication with white people which the others had
enjoyed; these natives are always at war with the na-
tives of the Fegee Islands, their cargoes and war weapons
are obtained from Tongataboo. His Majesty the King of
the Friendly Islands came on board next day with his sun,
a lad of seven years of age. The men went to quartets,
and the gunner put on the diving dress, all those things
very much amused him, bnt he could not understand the
latter; ho was dressed in a shirt and a piece of tappa
round his waist; his dominions comprise the whole of
the Friendly Islands, about 160 in number, he resides
in the larger ones about 2 months at a time, and in re-
gular turns, he is friendly with the Missionaries and
treats all white people with respect, it is said he is a con-
vert, at
all events ho has 10 wives, if that is any criterion;
he was accompanied by a reverend when he came:on
board. We sailed on the 4th, having a native pilot on
board ; as we sailed along numerous islands were seen
of various sizes, one of them, " Tofoa " had a volcano
on it, which noticed by Captain Cook in his voy-
ages ; on the 6th Tongataboo was seen, but not till
late, and from the numerous reef and small islands
in and near the entrance, we did not attempt to go
into the bay formed by these islands till the 7th ; this
bay is from seven to eighth miles in extent, a very
large canoe was seen just as wo entered the bay, with
I dare say 160 persons on board, who yelled frightfully
as she neared ns. The Island of Tongataboo is a long
narrow piece of land, very low, the highest point on it,
and on which a church is placed, is not more than
70 feet; there are a good number of nice houses along
the beach, some very English looking, a number of
missionaries are here and a French Catholic priest, all
the islands are not as yet converted, but the greatest
numbers are. There is no water on the island, it is
obtained from a small island in the bay; the island is
surrounded by a reef which can be approached only in
the place where we were. Several went to see the
place here the " Favourite" had an engagement with
the natives in 1840, and Captain Crocker was killed.
Sailed on the 9th; on the 12th arrived at the Fejee
Islands " Ovalu," sighted a great number of smaller
islands on our passage, of various sizes
and forms;
reefs run out a great distance into the sea which are
frightful to behold, and, strange to say, few losses of
ships are known, perhaps this may be from the few that
visit these parts, and their fear from the very imperfect
knowledge that can be obtained of them: we arrived in
the afternoon, and the pilot came off, who conducted us
through an immense reef which surrounds the island,
he was accompanied by the native chief of the islands
only and a few of his attendants, his head was dressed
with a piece of " tappa" in the shape of a turban,
and a small piece round his waist, this formed his
fine man, young, has twenty-
dress; he was a very
three wives, but lives with one only. The anchorage
was near the shore, and soon a great number
of the natives came off, especially as we hoisted our boats
out for watering next day; a small, but very good stream
was found, but the men were obliged to be guarded
by marines, armed, to prevent them from being mur-
dered. The island is desolate in appearance, and
mountainous, thickly covered with trees, and these