I. ■ ;■ ? *• ods ho 1930 The Three Voyages of ^ <^ ^ (^ a LU a o ' a ! cr ; Ln i O ! ru = ■ OD IS iO iii^; .J!F^.. r . 'i^ O^n^^a^'iU^MU'^. t^c>'n^',/i4???K^tnt-^y^yi^yS-2t^/Cy^^^^ ^^i^yl:''^''an\ CM'TIIN . . the emersion, ---------3148(1 The second external contact, or total emer- Y | sion, 3 32 loj < The latitude of the observatory was found to be 17° ^9' 15'\ and the longitude 149° 32' SO'' W. of Greenwich. A more particular account will appear by the tables, for which the reader is referred to the Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. Ixi. part 2. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 143 page 397* ^t seq.^ where they are illustrated by a cut. But if we had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the success of our observation, we had scarce less cause to regret the diligence with which that time had been improved by some of our people to another purpose. While the attention of the officers was engrossed by the transit of Venus, some of the ship's company broke into one of the store-rooms, and stole a quantity of spike-nails, amounting to no less than one hundred weight : this was a matter of public and serious concern ; for these nails, if cir- culated by the people among the Indians, would do us irreparable injury, by reducing the value of iron, our staple commodity. One of the thieves was de- tected, but only seven nails were found in his custody. He was punished with two dozen lashes, but would impeach none of his accomplices. 144 cook's first voyage juke, CHAP. XIV. THE CEREMONIES OF AN INDIAN FUNERAL PARTICULARLV DESCRIBED : GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBJECT : A CHARACTER FOUND AMONG THE INDIANS TO WHICH THE ANCIENTS PAID GREAT VENERATION,: A ROBBERY AT THE FORT, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES : WITH A SPECIMEN OF IN- DIAN COOKERY, AND VARIOUS INCIDENTS. On the 5th, we kept his Majesty's birth-day ; for though it is the 4th, we were unwilling to celebrate it during the absence of the two parties who had been sent out to observe the transit. We had several of the Indian chiefs at our entertainment, who drank his Majesty's health by the name of Kihiargo, which was the nearest imitation they could produce of King George. About this time died an old woman of some rank, who was related to Tomio, which gave us an oppor- tunity to see how they disposed of the body, and confirmed us in our opinion that these people, con- trary to the present custom of all other nations now known, never bury their dead. In the middle of a small square, neatly railed in with bamboo, the awn- ning of a canoe was raised upon two posts, and un- der this the body was deposited upon such a frame as has before been described : it was covered with fine cloth, and near it was placed bread-fruit, fish, and other provisions : we supposed that the food was placed there for the spirit of the deceased, and, con- sequently, that these Indians had some confused notion of a separate state ; but upon our applying for further information to Tubourai Tamaide, he told us, that the food was placed there as an offering to their gods. They do not, however, suppose that the 0 17()9* HOUND THE WOI^LD. 145 gods eat, any more than the Jews suppose that Jeho- vah could dwell in a house : the offering is made here upon the same principle as the temple was built at Jerusalem, as an expression of reverence and grati- tude, and a solicitation of the more immediate pre- sence of the Deity. In the front of the area was a kind of stile, where the relations of the deceased stood, to pay the tribute of their sorrow ; and under the awning were innumerable small pieces of cloth, on which the tears and blood of the mourners had been shed ; for in their paroxysms of grief it is a universal custom to wound themselves with the shark's tooth. Within a few yards two occasional houses were set up, in one of which some relations of the deceased constantly resided, and in the other the chief mourner, who is always a man, and who keeps there a very singular dress in which a ceremony is performed that will be described in its turn. Near the place where the dead are thus set up to rot the bones are afterwards buried. What can have introduced among these people the custom of exposing their dead above ground till the ilesh is consumed by putrefaction, and then burying the bones, it is, perhaps, impossible to guess ; but it is remarkable, that ^lian and ApoUonius Rhodius impute a similar practice to the ancient inhabitants of Colchis, a country near Pontus, in Asia, now called Mingrelia ; except that among them this manner of disposing of the dead did not extend to both sexes : the women they buried ; but the men they wrapped in a hide, and hung up in the air by a chain. This practice among the Colchians is referred to a religious cause. The principal objects of their worship were the earth and the air; and it is supposed that, in consequence of some superstitious notion, they de- voted their dead to both. Whether the natives of Otaheite had any notion of the same kind, we were never able certainly to determine; but we soon dis- covered, that the repositories of their dead were also VOL. I. L 146 cook's first voyage june, places of worship. Upon this occasion it may be ob- served, that nothing can be more absurd than the no- tion that the happiness or misery of a future life depends, in any degree, upon the disposition of the body when the state of probation is past; yet that nothing is more general than a solicitude about it. However cheap we may hold any funeral rites which custom has not familiarized, or superstition rendered sacred, most men gravely deliberate how to prevent their body from being broken by the mattock and devoured by the worm, when it is no longer capable of sensation ; and purchase a place for it in holy ground, when they believe the lot of its future exist- ence to be irrevocably determined. So strong is the association of pleasing or painful ideas with certain opinions and actions which affect us while we live, that we involuntarily act as if it was equally certain that they would affect us in the same manner when we are dead, though this is an opinion that nobody will maintain. Thus it happens, that the desire of preserving from reproach even the name that we leave behind us, or of procuring it honour, is one of the most powerful principles of action, among the inha- bitants of the most speculative andenlightenednations. Posthumous reputation, upon every principle, must be acknowledged to have no influence upon the dead ; yet the desire of obtaining and securing it, no force of rea- son, no habits of thinking, can subdue, except in those whom habitual baseness and guilt have rendered in- different to honour and shame while they lived. This, indeed, seems to be among the happy imperfections of our nature, upon which the general good of society in a certain measure depends ; for as some crimes are supposed to be prevented by hanging the body of the criminal in chains after he is dead, so in consequence of the same association of ideas, much good is pro- cured to society, and much evil prevented, by a de- sire of preventing disgrace or procuring honour to a name, when nothing but a name remains. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 147 Perhaps no better use can be made of reading an account of manners altogether new, by which the follies and absurdities of mankind are taken out of that particular connection in which habit has recon- ciled them to us, than to consider in how many in- stances they are essentially the same. When an ho- nest devotee of the church of Rome reads, that there are Indians on the banks of the Ganges who believe that they shall secure the happiness of a future state bv dvino; with a cow's tail in their hands, he iau":hs at their folly and superstition ; and if these Indians were to be told, that there are people upon the continent of Europe, who imagine that they shall derive the same advantage from dying with the slipper of St. Francis upon their foot, they would laugh in their turn. But if, when the Indian heard the account of the Catholic, and the Catholic that of the Indian, each was to reflect, that there was no difference between the absurdity of the slipper and of the tail; but that the veil of prejudice and custom, which covered it in their own case, was withdrawn in the other, they would turn their know- ledge to a profitable purpose. Flaving observed that bread-fruit had for some days been brought in less quantities than usual, we enquired the reason ; and were told, that there being a great show of fruit upon the trees, they had been thinned all at once, in order to make a kind of sour paste, which the natives call Mahie, and which, in consequence of having undergone a fermentation, wdll keep a considerable time, and supply them with food when no ripe fruit is to be had. On the 10th the ceremony was to be performed, in honour of the old woman whose sepulchral taber- nacle has just been described, by the chief mourner ; and Mr. Banks had so great a curiosity to see all the mysteries of the solemnity, that he determined to take a part in it, being told, that he could be present upon no other condition. In the evening, therefore, L 2 ]48 cook's first voyage .tune, • he repaired to the place where the body lay, and was received by the daughter of the deceased, and several other persons, among whom was a boy about fourteen years old, who were to assist in the ceremony. Tu- bourai Tamaide was to be the principal mourner ; and his dress, which was extremely fantastical, though^ not unbecoming, is represented by a figure in one of the plates. Mr. Banks was stripped of his European clothes, and a small piece of cloth being tied round his middle, his body was smeared with charcoal and water, as low as the shoulders, till it was as black as that of a negro : the same operation was performed upon several others, among whom were some women, who were reduced to a state as near to nakedness as himself; the boy was blacked all over, and then the procession set forward. Tubourai Tamaide uttered something, which was supposed to be a prayer, near the body ; and did the same when he came up to his own house : when this was done, the procession was continued towards the fort, permission having been obtained to approach it upon this occasion. It is the custom of the Indians to fly from these processions with the utmost precipitation, so that as soon as those who were about the fort saw it at a distance they hid themselves in the woods. It proceeded from the fort along the shore, and put to flight another body of Indians, consisting of more than a hundred, every one hiding himself under the first shelter that he could find: it then crossed the river, and entered the woods, passing several houses, all which were de- serted, and not a single Indian could be seen during the rest of the procession, which continued more than half an hour. The office that Mr. Banks performed, was called that of the Nineveh, of which there were two besides himself; and the natives having all dis- appeared, they came to the chief mourner, and said, Imatata, there are no people ; after which the com- pany was dismissed to wash themselves in the river, and put on their customary apparel. 1769. HOUND THE WORLD. 149 On the 12th, complaint being made to me, by some of the natives, that two of the seamen had taken from them several bows and arrows, and some strings of plaited hair, I examined the matter, and finding the charge well supported, I punished each of the criminals with two-dozen lashes. Their bows and arrows have not been mentioned before, nor were they often brought down to the fort. This day, however, Tubourai Tamaide brought down his, in consequence of a challenge which he had received from Mr. Gore. The chief supposed it was to try who could send the arrow farthest ; Mr. Gore, who best could hit a mark ; and as Mr. Gore did not value himself upon shooting to a great dis- tance, nor the chief upon hitting a mark, there was no trial of skill between them. Tubourai Tamaide, however, to show us what he could do, drew his bow, and sent an arrow, none of which are feathered, two hundred and seventy-four yards, which is some- thing more than a seventh, and something less than a sixth part of a mile. Their manner of shooting is somewhat singular; they kneel down, and the moment the arrow is discharged drop the bow. Mr. Banks, in his morning walk this day, met a number of the natives, whom, upon enquiry, he found to be travelling musicians ; and having learnt where they were to be at night, we all repaired to the place. The band consisted of two flutes and three drums, and we found a great number of people assembled upon the occasion. The drummers ac- companied the music with their voices, and, to our great surprise, we discovered that we were generally the subject of the song. We did not expect to have found among the uncivilized inhabitants of this se- questered spot a character, which has been the sub- ject of such praise and veneration where genius and knowledge have been most conspicuous ; yet these were the bards or minstrels of Otaheite. Their song was unpremeditated, and accompanied with music j L 3 150 cook's first VOVAGE JUNE, they were continually going about from place to place, and they were rewarded by the master of the house, and the audience, wuth such things as one wanted and the other could spare. On the 14th, we were brought into new difficulties and inconvenience by another robbery at the fort. In the middle of the night, one of the natives con- trivea to steal an iron coal-rake, that was made use of for the oven. It happened to be set up against the inside of the wall, so that the top of the handle was visible from without ; and we were informed that the thief, who had been seen lurking there in the evening, came secretly about three o'clock in the morning, and, watching his opportunity when the sentinel's back was turned, very dexterously laid hold of it with a long crooked stick, and drew it over the wall. I thought it of some consequence, if possible, to put an end to these practices at once, by doing something that should make it the common interest of the natives themselves to prevent them. I had given strict orders that they should not be fired upon, even when detected in these attempts, for which I had many reasons : the common sentinels were by no means fit to be intrusted with a power of life and death, to be exerted whenever they should think fit, and I had already experienced that they were ready to take away the lives that were in their power upon the slightest occasion ; neither, indeed, did I think that the thefts which these people committed against us were, in them, crimes worthy of death : that thieves are hanged in England, I thought no reason why they should be shot in Otaheite ; because, with respect to the natives, it would have been an execution by a law ex 2^ost facto. They had no such law among themselves, and it did not appear to me that we had any right to make such a law for them. That they should abstain from theft, or be punished with death, was not one of the conditions under which they claimed the advantages of civil society. 176'9. ROUND THE WORLD. 151 as it is among us ; and as I was not willing to ex- pose them to fire-arms, loaded with shot, neither could I perfectly approve of firing only with pow- der. At first, indeed, the noise and the smoke would alarm them, but when they found that no mischief followed, they would be led to despise the weapons themselves, and proceed to insults, which would make it necessary to put them to the test, and from which they would be deterred by the very sight of a gun, if it was never used but with effect. At this time an accident furnished me with what I thought a happy expedient. It happened that above twenty of their sailing canoes were just come in with a sup- ply of fish : upon these I immediately seized, and bringing them into the river behind the fort, gave public notice, that except the rake, and all the rest of. the things which from time to time had been stolen, were returned, the canoes should be burnt. This menace I ventured to publish, though I had no design to put it into execution, making no doubt but that it was well known in whose possession the stolen goods were, and that as restitution was thus made a common cause, they would all of them in a short time be brought back. A list of the things was made out, consisting principally of the rake, the musket which had been taken from the marine when the Indian was shot ; the pistols which Mr. Banks lost with his clothes at Atahourou ; a sword belong- ing to one of the petty officers, and the water-cask. About noon, the rake was restored, and great solicit- ation was made for the release of the canoes ; but I still insisted upon my original condition. The next day came, and nothing farther was restored, at which I was much surprised, for the people were in the ut- most distress for the fish, which in a short time would be spoilt ; I was, therefore, reduced to a disagreeable situation, either of releasing the canoes, contrary to what I had solemnly and publicly declared, or to de- tain them, to the great injury of those who were in- L 4 152 cook's first voyage junk nocent, without answering any good purpose to our- selves : as a temporary expedient, I permitted them to take the fish ; but still detained the canoes. This very licence, however, was productive of new con- fusion and injury ; for, it not being easy at once to distinguish to what particular persons the several lots offish belonged, the canoes were plundered, under favour of this circumstance, by those who had no right to any part of their cargo. Most pressing instances were still made that the canoes might be restored ; and I having now the greatest reason to believe, either that the things for which I detained them were not in the island, or that those who suf- fered by their detention had not sufficient influence over the thieves to prevail upon them to relinquish their booty, determined at length to give them up, not a little mortified at the bad success of my pro- ject. Another accident also about this time was, not- withstanding all our caution, very near embroiling us with the Indians^. I sent the boat on shore with an officer to get ballast for the ship, and not imme- diately finding stones convenient for the purpose, he began to pull down some part of an enclosure where they deposited the bones of their dead. This the In- dians violently opposed, and a messenger came down to the tents to acquaint the officers that they would not suffer it. Mr. Banks immediately repaired to the place, and an amicable end was soon put to the dispute by sending the boat's crew to the river, where stones enough were to be gathered without a possibility of giving offence. It is very remarkable, that these Indians appeared to be much more jealous of what was done to the dead than the living. This was the only measure in which they ventured to op- pose us, and the only insult that was offered to any individual among us was upon a similar occasion. Mr. Monkhouse, happening one day to pull a flower from u tree which grew in one of their sepulchral 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 153 enclosures, an Indian, whose jealousy had probably been upon the watch, came suddenly behind him, and struck him. Mr. Monkhouse laid hold of him, but he was instantly rescued by two more, who took hold of Mr. Monkhouse's hair, and forced him to quit his hold of their companion, and then ran away with- out offering him any farther violence. In the evening of the 19th, while the canoes were still detained, we received a visit from Oberea, which surprised us not a little, as she brought with her none of the things that had been stolen, and knew that she was suspected of having some of them in her custody. She said, indeed, that her favourite Obadee, whom she had beaten and dismissed, had taken them away ; but she seemed conscious, that she had no right to be believed. She discovered the strongest signs of fearj yet she surmounted it with astonishing resolu- tion ; and was very pressing to sleep wdth her attend- ants in Mr. Banks's tent. In this, however, she was not gratified ; the affair of the jacket was too recent, and the tent was besides filled w^ith other people. Nobody else seemed willing to entertain her, and she, therefore, with great appearance of mortification and disappointment, spent the night in her canoe. The next morning early, she returned to the fort with her canoe, and every thing that it contained, putting herself wholly into our power, with some- thing like greatness of mind, which excited our won- der and admiration. As the most effectual means to bring about a reconciliation, she presented us with a hog, and several other things, among which was a dog. We had lately learnt, that these animals were esteemed by the Indians as more delicate food than their pork -, and upon this occasion we determined to try the experiment. The dog, which was very fat, we consigned over to Tupia, who undertook to per- form the double office of butcher and cook. He killed him by holding his hands close over his mouth 154 cook's i-IIlST VOYAGE JUNE, and nose, an operation which continued above a quarter of an hour. While this was doing, a hole was made in the ground about a foot deep, in which a fire was kindled, and some small stones placed in layers alternately with the wood to heat ; the dog was then singed, by holding him over the fire, and, by scraping him with a shell, the hair taken off as clean as if he had been scalded in hot water : he was then cut up with the same instrument, and his en- trails, being taken out, were sent to the sea, where, being carefully washed, they w^ere put into cocoa-nut shells, with what blood had come from the body. When the hole was sufficiently heated, the fire was taken out, and some of the stones, which were not so hot as to discolour any thing that they touched, be- ing placed at the bottom, were covered with green leaves. The dog, with the entrails, was then placed upon the leaves, and other leaves being laid upon them, the whole was covered with the rest of the hot stones, and the mouth of the hole close stopped with mould. In somewhat less than four hours it was again opened, and the dog taken out excellently baked, and we all agreed that he made a very good dish. The dogs which are here bred to be eaten taste no animal food, but are kept wholly upon bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, yams, and other vegetables of the like kind : all the flesh and fish eaten by the inhabitants is dressed in the same way. On the 21st we were visited at the fort by a chief, called Oamo, whom we had never seen before, and who was treated by the natives with uncommon re- spect ; he brought with him a boy about seven years old, and a young woman about sixteen : the boy was carried upon a man's back, which we considered as a piece of state, for he was as well able to walk as any present. As soon as they were in sight, Oberea, and several other natives who were in the fort, went out to meet them, having first uncovered their heads and bodies as low as the waist : as they came on, the same I 1769. ROUND THE WORLD* 155 ceremony was performed by all the natives who were without the fort. Uncovering the body, therefore, is in this country probably a mark of respect ; and as all parts are here exposed with equal indifference, the ceremony of uncovering it from the waist down- wards, which was performed by Oorattooa, might be nothing more than a different mode of compliment, adapted to persons of a different rank. The chief came into the tent, but no entreaty could prevail upon the young woman to follow him, though she seemed to refuse contrary to her inclination. The natives with- out were, indeed, all very solicitous to prevent her, sometim.es, when her resolution seemed to fail, ahuost using force : the boy also they restrained in the same manner ; but Dr. Solander, happening to meet him at the gate, took him by the hand, and led him in before the people were aware of it. As soon, however, as those that were within saw him, they took care to have him sent out. These circumstances having strongly excited our curiosity, w^e inquired who they were, and were in- formed, that Oamo was the husband of Oberea, though they had been a long time separated by mu- tual consent ; and that the young woman and the boy were their children. We learnt also, that the boy, whose name was Terridiri, was heir-apparent to the sovereignty of the island, and that his sister was in- tended for his wife, the marriage being deferred only till he should arrive at a proper age. The sovereign at this time was a son of Whappai, w^hose name was OuTou, and who, as before has been observed, was a minor. Whappai, Oamo, and Tootahah, were brothers : Whappai was the eldest, and Oamo the se- cond ; so that, Whappai having no child but Outou, Terridiri, the son of his next brother Oamo, was heir to the sovereignty. It will, perhaps, seem strange that a boy should be sovereign during the life of his father ; but, according to the custom of the country, a child succeeds to a father's title and authority 156 cook's first voyage juneJ as soon as it is born : a regent is then elected, and the father of the new sovereign is generally con- tinued in his authority, under that title, till his child is of age ; but, at this time, the choice had fallen upon Tootahah, the uncle, in consequence of his having distinguished himself in a war. Oamo asked many questions concerning England and its inhabit- ants, by which he appeared to have great shrewd- ness and understanding. 176 D. ROUND THE WORLD. 157 CHAP. XV. AN ACCOUNT OF THE CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE ISLAND, AND VARIOUS INCIDENTS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE EXPEDI- TION ; WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A BURYING-PLACE AND PLACE OF WORSHIP, CALLED A MORAL On Monday, the 26th, about three o'clock in the morning, I set out in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. Banks, to make the circuit of the island, with a view to sketch out the coast and harbours. We took our route to the eastward, and about eight in the forenoon we went on shore, in a district called Oa- HOUNUE, which is governed by Ahio, ,a young chief^ whom we had often seen at the tents, and who fa- voured us with his company to breakfast. Here also we found two other natives of our old acquaintance, TiTUBOALO and Hoona, who carried us to their houses, near which we saw the body of the old woman, at whose funeral rites Mr. Banks had assisted, and which had been removed hither from the spot where it was first deposited, this place having descended from her by inheritance to Hoona, and it being ne- cessary on that account that it should lie here. We then proceeded on foot, the boat attending within call, to the harbour in which Mr. Bougainville lay, called Ohidea, where the natives showed us the ground upon which his people pitched their tent, and the brook at which they watered, though no trace of them remained, except the holes where the poles of the tent had been fixed, and a small piece of pot- sheard, which Mr. Banks found in looking narrowly about the spot. We met, however, with Orette, a chief who was their principal friend, and whose brother, Outorrou, went away with them. This harbour lies on the west side of a great bay, 1.58 COOK S FIRST VOYAGE JUNE, under shelter of a small island called Boourou, near "which is another called Taawii?rii ; the breach in the •reefs is here very large, but the shelter for the ships is not the best. Soon after we had examined this place, we took boat, and asked Tituboalo to go with us to the other side of the bay; but he refused, and advised us not to go, for he said the country there was inhabited by people who were not subject to Tootahah, and who would kill both him and us. Upon receiving this in- telligence, we did not, as may be imagined, relinquish our enterprise ; but we immediately loaded our pieces with ball : this was so well understood by Tituboalo as a precaution which rendered us formidable, tluit he now consented to be of our party. Having rowed till it was dark, we reached a low neck of land, or isthmus, at the bottom of the bay, that divides the island into two peninsulas, each of which is a district or government wholly independent of the other. From Port-Royal, where the ship was at anchor, the coast trends £. by S. and E. S. E. ten miles, then S. bv E. and S. eleven miles to the isthmus. In the first direction, the shore is in .Q;eneral open to the sea ; but in the last it is covered by reefs of rocks, which form several good harbours, with safe anchor- age, in 16, 18, 20, and 24 fathom of water, with other conveniences. As we had not yet got into our enemy's country, we determined to sleep on shore. We landed, and though we found but few houses, we saw several double canoes, whose owners were well known to us, and who provided us with supper and lodging ; of which Mr. Banks was indebted for his share to Ooratooa, the lady who had paid him her compliments in so singular a manner at the fort. In the morning we looked about the country, and found it to be a marshy flat, about two miles over, across which the natives haul their canoes to the cor- responding bay on the other side. We then prepared to continue our route for what Tituboalo called the 176[>. ROUND THE WORLD. 159 other kingdom ; he said that the name of it was TiARRABou, or Otaheite Ete ; and that of the chief who governed it Waheatua. Upon this occasion, also, we learnt that the name of the peninsula where we had taken our station was Opoureonu, or Otaheite Nue. Our new associate seemed to be now in better spirits than he had been the day before : the people in Tiarrabou would not kill us, he said ; but he assured MS that we should be able to procure no victuals among them ; and, indeed, we had seen no bread-fruit since we set out. After rowing a few miles, we landed in a district, which was the dominion of a chief called Maraitata, the burying-place of men, whose father's name was Pahairedo, the stealer of boats. Though these names seemed to favour the account that had been given by Tituboalo, we soon found that it was not true. Both the father and the son received us with the greatest civility, gave us provisions, and, after some delay, sold us a very large hog for a hatchet. A crowd soon gathered round us, but we saw only two people that we knew ; neither did we observe a single bead or ornament among them that had come from our ship, though we saw several things which had been brought from Europe. In one of the houses lay two twelve-pound shot, one of which was marked with the broad arrow of England, though the people said they had them from the ships that lay in Bougain- ville's harbour. We proceeded on foot till we came to the district which was immediately under the government of the principal chief, or king of the peninsula, Waheatua. Waheatua had a son, but whether, according to the custom of Opoureonu, he administered the govern- ment as regent, or in his own right, is uncertain. This district consists of a large and fertile plain, wa- tered by a river so wide, that we were obliged to ferry over it in a canoe : our Indian train, however, chose to swim, and took to tlie water with the same faci- 160 cook's first voyage JUNE, lity as a pack of liounds. In this place we saw no house that appeared to be inhabited, but the ruins of many that had been very large. We proceeded along the shore, which forms a bay, called Oaitipeha, and at last we found the chief sitting near some pretty canoe awnings, under which, we supposed, he and his attendants slept. He was a thin old man, with a very white head and beard, and had with him a comely woman, about five-and-twenty years old, whose name was^TouDiDDE. We had often heard the name of this woman, and, from report and observ- ation, we had reason to think that she was the Oberea of this peninsula. From this place, between which and the isthmus there are other harbours, formed by the reefs that lie along the shore, where shipping may lie in perfect security, and from whence the land trends S. S. E. and S. to the S. E. part of the island, we were accompanied by Tearee, the son of Wa- heatua, of whom we had purchased a hog, and the country we passed through appeared to be more cul- tivated than any we had seen in other parts of the island : the brooks were every where banked into narrow channels with stone, and the shore had also a facing of stone, where it was washed by the sea. The houses were neither large nor numerous, but the ca- noes that were hauled up along the shore were almost innumerable, and superior to any that we had seen before, both in size and make ; they were longer, the sterns were higher, and the awnings were supported by pillars. At almost every point there was a sepulchral building, and there were many of them also inland. They were of the same figure as those in Opoureonu, but they were cleaner and better kept, and deco- rated with many carved boards, which were set up- right, and on the top of which were various figures of birds and men. On one in particular, there was the representation of a cock, which was painted red and yellow, to imitate the feathers of that animal, and rude images of men were, in some of tliem, 13 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. l6l placed one upon the head of another. But in this part of the country, however fertile and cultivated, we did not see a single bread-fruit : the trees were entirely bare ; and the inhabitants seemed to subsist principally upon nuts, which are not unlike a chesnut, and which they call Ahee, When we had walked till we were weary, we called up the boat, but both our Indians, Tituboalo and Tua- how, were missing : they had, it seems, stayed be- hind at Waheatua's, expecting us to return thither, in consequence of a promise which had been extorted from us, and which we had it not in our power to fulfil. Tearee, however, and another, embarked with us, and we proceeded till we came abreast of a small island called Otooareite ; it being then dark, we determined to land, and our Indians conducted us to a place where they said we might sleep : it was a de- serted house, and near it was a little cove, in which the boat might lie with great safety and convenience. We were, however, in want of provisions, having been very sparingly supplied since we set out ; and Mr. Banks immediately went into the woods to see whether any could be procured. As it was dark, he met with no people, and could find but one house that was inhabited : a bread-fruit and a half, a few ahees, and some fire, were all that it afforded ; upon which, with a duck or two, and a few curlieus, we made our supper, which, if not scanty, was disagreeable, by the want of bread, with which we had neglected to furnish ourselves, as we depended upon meeting with bread-fruit, and took up our lodging under the awning of a canoe belonging to Tearee, which fol- lowed us. The next morning, after having spent some time in another fruitless attempt to procure a supply of provisions, we proceeded round the south-east point, part of which is not covered by any reef, but lies open to the sea j and here the hill rises directly from VOL. I. M 162 cook's first voyage JUtlE, the shore. At the southernmost part of the island, the shore is again covered by a reef, which forms a good harbour ; and the land about it is very fertile. We made this rout partly on foot, and partly in the boat : when we had walked about three miles, we ar- rived at a place where we saw several large canoes, and a number of people with them, whom we were agreeably surprised to find were of our intimate ac- quaintance. Here, with much difficulty, we pro- cured some cocoa-nuts, and then embarked, taking with us Tuahow, one of the Indians who had waited for us at Waheatua's, and had returned the night be- fore, long after it was dark. When we came abreast of the south-east end of the island, we went ashore, by the advice of our Indian guide, who told us that the country was rich and good. The chief, whose name was Mathiabo, soon came down to us, but seemed to be a total stranger both to us and to our trade : his sub- jects, however, brought us plenty of cocoa-nuts, and about twenty bread-fruit. The bread-fruit we bought at a very dear rate, but his excellency sold us a pig for a glass-bottle, which he preferred to every thing else that we could give him. We found in his possession a goose and a turkey-cock, which, we were informed, had been left upon the island by the Dolphin : they were both enormously fat, and so tame that they fol- lowed the Indians, who were fond of them to excess, wherever they went. In a long house in this neighbourhood, we saw what was altogether new to us. At one end of it, fastened to a semicircular board, hung fifteen human jaw-bones : they appeared to be fresh ; and there was not one of them that wanted a single tooth. A sight so extraor- dinary, strongly excited our curiosity, and we made many enquiries about it ; but at this time could get no information, for the people either could not, or would not, understand us. 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. l63 When we left this place, the chief, Mathiabo, de- sired leave to accompany us, which was readily granted. He continued with us the remainder of the day, and proved very useful, by piloting us over the shoals. In the evening, we opened the bay on the north-west side of the island, which answered to that on the south-east, so as at the isthmus, or carrying place, almost to intersect the island, as I have ob- served before ; and when we had coasted about two- thirds of it, we determined to go on shore for the night. We saw a large house at some distance, which Mathiabo informed us belonged to one of his friends ; and soon after several canoes came off to meet us, having on board some very handsome wo- men, who, by their behaviour, seemed to have been sent to entice us on shore. As we had before re- solved to take up our residence here for the night, little invitation was necessary. We found that the house belonged to the chief of the district, whose name was Wiverou : he received us in a very friendly manner, and ordered his people to assist us in dress- ing our provision, of which we had now got a toler- able stock. When our supper was ready, we were conducted into that part of the house where Wiverou was sitting, in order to eat it : Mathiabo supped with us ; and Wiverou calling for his supper at the same time, we ate our meal very sociably, and with great good humour. When it was over, we began to en- quire where we were to sleep, and a part of the house was shown us, of which we were told we might take possession for that purpose. We then sent for our cloaks, and Mr. Banks began to undress, as his cus- tom was, and, with a precaution which he had been taught by the loss of the jackets at Atahourou, sent his clothes aboard the boat, proposing to cover him- self with a piece of Indian cloth. When Mathiabo perceived what was doing, he also pretended to want a cloak ; and, as he had behaved very well, and done us some service, a cloak w^as ordered for him. We M 2 1 64 cook's first voyage JUNE, lay down, and observed that Mathiabo was not with us ; but we supposed that he was gone to bathe, as the Indians always do before they sleep. We had not waited long, however, when an Indian, who was a stranger to us, came and told Mr. Banks, that the cloak and Mathiabo had disappeared together. This man had so far gained our confidence, that w^e did not at first believe the report ; but it being soon after confirmed by Tuahow, our own Indian, we knew no time was to be lost. As it was impossible for us to pursue the thief with any hope of success, without the assistance of the people about us, Mr. Banks started up, and telling our case, required them to recover the cloak ; and to enforce this requisition^ showed one of his pocket-pistols, which he always kept about him. Upon the sight of the pistol, the whole company took the alarm, and, instead of as- sisting to catch the thief, or recover what had been stolen, began with great precipitation to leave the place : one of them, however, was seized ; upon which he immediately offered to direct the chase : I set out, therefore, with Mr. Banks ; and though we ran all the way, the alarm had got before us ; for in about ten minutes we met a man bringing back the cloak, which the thief had relinquished in great ter- ror ; and as we did not then think fit to continue the pursuit, he made his escape. When we returned, we found the house, in which there had been between two and three hundred people, entirely deserted. It being, however, soon known that we had no resent- ment against any body but Mathiabo, the chief, Wiverou, our host, with his wife, and many others, returned, and took up their lodgings with us for the night. In this place, however, we were destined to more confusion and trouble ; for about five o'clock in the morning our sentry alarmed us, with an account that the boat was missing : he had seen her, he said, about half an hour before, at her grappling, which was not above fifty yards from the shore ; but, upon 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. l65 hearing the sound of oars, he had looked out again, and could see nothing of her. At this account we started up greatly alarmed, and ran to the water-side : the morning was clear and starlight, so that we could see to a considerable distance, but there was no ap- pearance of the boat. Our situation was now such as might justify the most terrifying apprehensions : as it was a dead calm, and we could not therefore suppose her to have broken from her grappling, we had great reason to fear that the Indians had attacked her, and finding the people asleep, had succeeded in their enterprise : we were but four, with only one musket and two pocket pistols, without a spare ball or charge of powder for either. In this state of anxiety and distress we remained a considerable time, expecting the Indians every moment to improve their advantage, when, to our unspeakable satisfaction, we saw the boat return, which had been driven from her grappling by the tide ; a circumstance to which, in our confusion and surprise, we did not advert. As soon as the boat returned, we got our breakfast, and were impatient to leave the place, lest some other vexatious accident should befall us. It is situated on the north side of Tiarrabou, the south-east peninsula, or division, of the island, and at the distance of about five miles south-east from the isthmus, having a large and commodious harbour, inferior to none in the island, about which the land is very rich in produce. Notwithstanding we had had little communication with this division, the inhabitants every where re- ceived us in a friendly manner : we found the whole of it fertile and populous, and, to all appearance, in a more flourishing state than Opoureonu, though it is not above one-fourth part as large. The next district in which we landed was the last in Tiarrabou, and governed by a chief, whose name we understood to be Omoe. Omoe was building a house, and being therefore very desirous of procur- ing a hatchet, he would have been glad to have pur- M 3 166 COOK^S FIRST VOYAGE JUNE, chased one with any thing that he had in his posses- sion ; it happened, however, rather unfortunately for him and us, that we had not one hatchet left in the boat. We offered to trade with nails, but he would not part with any thing in exchange for them ; we therefore reimbarked, and put off* our boat, but the chief being unwilling to relinquish all hope of ob- taining something from us that would be of use to him, embarked in a canoe, with his wife Whanno- ouDA, and followed us. After some time, we took them into the boat, and when we had rowed about a league, they desired we would put ashore : we imme- diately complied with his request, and found some of his people, who had brought down a very large hog. We were as unwilling to lose the hog, as the chief was to part with us, and it was indeed worth the best axe we had in the ship ; we therefore hit upon an expedient, and told him, that if he would bring his hog to the fort at Matavai, the Indian name for Port Royal bay, he should have a large axe, and a nail into the bargain for his trouble. To this pro- posal, after having consulted with his wife, he agreed, and gave us a large piece of his country cloth as a pledge that he would perform his agreement, which, however, he never did. At this place we saw a very singular curiosity : it was the figure of a man, constructea of basket-work, rudely made, but not ill designed ; it was something more than seven feet high, and rather too bulky in proportion to its height. The wicker skeleton was completely covered with feathers, which were white where the skin was to appear, and black in the parts which it is their custom to paint or stain, and upon the head, where there was to be a representation of hair : upon the head also were four protuberances, three in front and one behind, which we should have called horns, but which the Indians dignified with the name of Tate Ete, little men. The image was called Manioe, and was said to be the only ope of I 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. I67 the kind in Otaheite. They attempted to give us an explanation of its use and design, but we had not then acquired enough of their language to understand them. We learnt, however, afterwards, that it was a representation of Mauwe, one of their Eatuas, or gods of the second class. After having settled our affairs with Omoe, we pro- ceeded on our return, and soon reached Opoureonu, the north-west peninsula. After rowing a few miles, we went on shore again, but the only thing we saw worth notice was a repository for the dead, uncom- monly decorated : the pavement was extremely neat, and upon it was raised a pyramid, about five feet high, which was entirely covered with the fruits of two plants, peculiar to the country. Near the pyra- mid was a small image of stone, of very rude work- manship, and the first instance of carving in stone that we had seen among these people. They appear- ed to set a high value upon it, for it was covered from the weather by a shed, that had been erected on purpose. We proceeded in the boat, and passed through the only harbour, on the south side of Opoureonu, that is fit for shipping. It is situated about five miles to the westward of the isthmus, between two small islands that lie near the shore, and about a mile dis- tant from each other, and affords good anchorage in eleven and twelve fathom water. We were now not far from the district called Paparra, which belonged to our friends Oamo and Oberea, where we proposed to sleep. We went on shore about an hour before night, and found that they were both absent, having left their habitations to pay us a visit at Matavai : this, however, did not alter our purpose, we took up our quarters at the house of Oberea, which, though small, was very neat, and at this time had no inhabi- tant but her father, who received us with looks that bid us welcome. Having taken possession, we were willing to improve the little day-light that was left M 4 1G8 cook's first voyase june, us, and therefore walked out to a point, upon which we had seen, at a distance, trees that are here called Etoa, which generally distinguish the places where these people bury the bones of their dead : their name for such burying-grounds, which are also places of worship, is Moral We were soon struck with the sight of an enormous pile, which, we were told, was the morai of Oamo and Oberea, and the principal piece of Indian architecture in the island. It was a pile of stone work, raised pyramidically, upon an ob- long base, or square, two hundred and sixty-seven feet long, and eighty-seven wide. It was built like the small pyramidal mounts upon which we some- times ^^ the pillar of a sun-dial, where each side is a flight of steps ; the steps, however, at the sides, were broader than those at the ends, so that it terminated, not in a square of the same figure with the base but in a ridge, like the roof of a house: there were eleven of these steps, each of which was four feet high, so that the height of the pile was forty-four feet ; each step was formed of one course of white coral stone, which was neatly squared and polished ; the rest of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure, seemed to have been wrought. Some of the coral stones were very large ; we measured one of them, and found it three feet and a half by two feet and a half. The foundation was of rock stones, which were also squared ; and one of them measured four feet seven inches by two feet four. Such a structure, raised without the assistance of iron tools to shape the stones, or mortar to join them, struck us with astonishment : it seemed to be as compact and firm as it could have been made by any workman in Europe, except that the steps, which range along its greatest length, are not perfectly strait, but sink in a kind of hollow in the middle, so that the whole sur- face, from end to end, is not a right line, but a curve. The quarry stones, as we saw no quarry in the neigh- 1709. ROUND THE WORLD. l69 bourhood, must have been brought from a consider- able distance ; and there is no method of conveyance here but by hand : the coral must also have been fished from under the water, where, though it may be found in plenty, it lies at a considerable depth, never less than three feet. Both the rock stone and the coral could be squared only by tools made of the same substance, which must have been a work of in- credible labour ; but the polishing was more easily effected by means of the sharp coral sand, which is found every where upon the sea-shore in great abun- dance. In the middle of the top stood the image of a bird, carved in w^ood ; and near it lay the broken one of a fish, carved in stone. The whole of this pyramid made part of one side of a spacious area or square, nearly of equal sides, being three hundred and sixty feet by three hundred and fifty-four, which was walled in with stone, and paved with flat stones in its whole extent ; though there were growing in it, notwithstanding the pavement, several of the trees which they call Etoa^ and plantains. About an hun- dred yards to the west of this building was another paved area or court, in which were several small stages raised on wooden pillars, about seven feet high, which are called by the Indians Ewattas, and seem to be a kind of altars, as upon these are placed provisions of all kinds as offerings to their gods : we have since seen whole hogs placed upon them, and we found here the skulls of above fifty, besides the skulls of a great number of dogs. The principal object of ambition among these people is to have a magnificent morai, and this was a striking memorial of the rank and power of Oberea. It has been remarked, that we did not find her in- vested with the same authority that she exercised when the Dolphin was at this place, and we now learnt the reason of it. Our way from her house to the morai lay along the sea-side, and we observed every where under our feet a great number of human 170 cook's first voyage JULY, bones, chiefly ribs and vertebrae. Upon enquiring into the cause of so singular an appearance, we were told, that in the then last month of Owarahew, which answered to our December, I768, about four or five months before our arrival, the people of Tiarrabou, the S. E. peninsula which we had just visited, made a descent at this place, and killed a great number of people, whose bones were those that we saw upon the shore : that, upon this occasion, Oberea, and Oamo, who then administered the government for his son, had fled to the mountains ; and that the con- querors burnt all the houses, which were very large, and carried away the hogs, and what other animals they found. We learnt also, that the turkey and goose, which we had seen when we were with Mathia- bo, the stealer of cloaks, were among the spoils : this accounted for their being found among people with whom the Dolphin had little or no communication ; and upon mentioning the jaw-bones, which we had seen hanging from a board in a long house, we were told, that they also had been carried away as trophies, the people here carrying away the jaw-bones of their enemies, as the Indians of North America do the scalps. After having thus gratified our curiosity, we re- turned to our quarters, where we passed the night in perfect security and quiet. By the next evening we arrived at Atahourou, the residence of our friend Tootahah, where, the last time we passed the night under his protection, we had been obliged to leave the best part of our clothes 'behind us. This adven- ture, however, seemed now to be forgotten on both sides. Our friends received us with great pleasure, and gave us a good supper and a good lodging, where we suffered neither loss nor disturbance. The next day, Saturday, July the 1st, we got back to our fort at Matavai, having found the circuit of the island, including both peninsulas, to be about thirty leagues. Upon our complaining of the want 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. I7I of bread-fruit, we were told, that the produce of the last season was nearly exhausted ; and that what was seen spioutingupon the trees, would not be fit to use in less than three months : this accounted for our having been able to procure so little of it in our route. While the bread-fruit is ripening upon the flats, the inhabitants are supplied in some measure from the trees which they have planted upon the hills to preserve a succession ; but the quantity is not suf- ficient to prevent scarcity : they live therefore upon the sour paste, which they call Mahie^ upon wild plantains, and ahee-nuts, which at this time are in perfection. How it happened that the Dolphin, which was here at this season, found such plenty of bread-fruit upon the trees I cannot tell, except the season in which they ripen varies. At our return, our Indian friends crowded about us, and none of them came empty-handed. Though T had determined to restore the canoes which had been detained to their owners, it had not yet been done ; but I now released them as they were applied for. Upon this occasion L could not bat remark with concern, that these people were capable of practising petty frauds against each other, with a deliberate dishonesty, which gave me a much worse opinion of them than I had ever entertained from the robberies they committed, under the strong temptation to which a sudden opportunity of enriching themselves with the inestimable metal and manufactures of Europe exposed them. Among others who applied to me for the release of a canoe, was one Potattow, a man of some conse- quence, well known to us all. I consented, suppos- ing the vessel to be his own, or that he applied on the behalf of a friend : he went immediately to the beach, and took possession of one of the boats, which, with the assistance of his people, he began to carry off. Upon this, however, it was eagerly claimed by 172 cook's first voyage JULY, the right owners, who, supported by the other In- dians, clamorously reproached him for invading their property, and prepared to take the canoe from him by force. Upon this, he desired to be heard, and told them, that the canoe did, indeed, once belong to those who claimed it ; but that I, having seized it as a forfeit, had sold it to him for a pig. This silenced the clamour: the owners, knowing that from my power there was no appeal, acquiesced ; and Po- tattow would have carried ofFhis prize, if the dispute had not fortunately been overheard by some of our people, who reported it to me. I gave orders im- mediately that the Indians should be undeceived ; upon which the right owners took possession of their canoe, and Potattow was so conscious of his guilt, that neither he nor his wife, who was privy to his knavery, could look us in the face for some time afterwards. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 17^ CHAP. XVI. AN EXPEDITION OF MR. BANKS TO TRACE THE RIVER: MARKS OF SUBTERRANEOUS FIRE : PREPARATIONS FOR LEAVING THE ISLAND : AN ACCOUNT OF TUPIA. On the 3d, Mr. Banks set out early in the morning with some Indian guides, to trace our river up the valley from which it issues, and examine how far its banks were inhabited. For about six miles they met with houses, not far distant from each other, on each side of the river, and the valley was every where about four hundred yards wide from the foot of the hill on one side to the foot of that on the other ; but they were now shown a house which they were told was the last that they would see. When they came up to it, the master of it offered them refreshments of cocoa-nuts and other fruits, of which they accepted. After a short stay, they walked forward for a con- siderable time : in bad way it is not easy to compute distances, but they imagined that they had walked about six miles farther, following the course of the river, when they frequently passed under vaults, formed by fragments of the rock, in which they were told people who were benighted frequently passed the night. Soon after they found the river banked by steep rocks, from which a cascade, falling with great violence, formed a pool, so steep, that the In- dians said they could not pass it. They seemed, in- deed, not much to be acquainted with the valley beyond this place, their business lying chiefly upon the declivity of the rocks on each side, and the plains which extended on their summits, where they found plenty of wild plantain, which they called Vae, The way up these rocks from the banks of the river was in every respect dreadful : the sides were nearly per- pendicular, and in some places one hundred feet 174 cook's first voyage JULY, high : they were also rendered exceedingly slippery by the water of innumerable springs which issued from the fissures on the surface : yet up these preci- pices a way was to be traced by a a succession of long pieces of the bark of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, which serv^ed as a rope for the climber to take hold of, and assisted him in scrambling from one ledge to another, though upon these ledges there was footing only for an Indian or a goat. One of these ropes was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides of- fered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recom- mended another at a little distance lower down, as less difficult and dangerous. They took a view of this " better way," but found it so bad that they did not choose to attempt it, as there was nothing at the top to reward their toil and hazard, but a grove of the wild plantain or vae tree, which they had often seen before. During this excursion, Mr. Banks had an excellent opportunity to examine the rocks, which were almost every where naked, for minerals ; but he found not the least appearance of any. The stones every where, like those of Madeira, showed manifest tokens of having been burnt ; nor is there a single specimen of any stone, among all those that were collected in the island, upon which there are not manifest and in- dubitable marks of fire ; except, perhaps, some small pieces of the hatchet-stone, and even of that, other fragments were collected which were burnt almost to a pumice. Traces of fire are also manifest in the very clay upon the hills ; and it may, therefore, not unreasonably be supposed, that this and the neigh- bouring islands are either shattered remains of a continent, which some have supposed to be necessary in this part of the globe, to preserve an equilibrium of its parts, which were left behind when the rest sunk by the mining of a subterraneous fire, so as to give a passage to the sea over it ; or were torn from rocks, which, from the creation of the world, had 17t)9. ROUND THE WORLD. 175 been the bed of the sea, and thrown up in heaps, to a height which the waters never reach. One or other of these suppositions will perhaps be thought the more probable, as the water does not gradually grow shallow as the shore is approached, and the islands are almost every where surrounded by reefs, which appear to be rude and broken, as some violent con- cussion would naturally leave the solid substance of the earth. It may also be remarked upon this oc- casion, that the most probable cause of earthquakes seems to be the sudden rushing in of water upon some vast mass of subterraneous fire, by the instantaneous rarefaction of which into vapour the mine is sprung, and various substances, in all stages of vitrification, with shells, and other marine productions, that are now found fossil, and the strata that covered the furnace, are thrown up ; while those parts of the land which were supported upon the broken shell give way, and sink into the gulf. With this theory the phaenomena of all earthquakes seem to agree : pools of water are frequently left where land has subsided ; and various substances, which manifestly appear to have suffered by the action of fire, are thrown up. It is indeed true, that fire cannot subsist without air ; but this cannot be urged against there being fire below that part of the earth which forms the bed of the sea ; because there may be innumerable fissures by which a communication between those parts and the external air may be kept up, even upon the highest mountains, and at the greatest distance from the sea- shore. On the 4th, Mr. Banks employed himself in plant- ing a great quantity of the seeds of water melons, oranges, lemons, limes, and other plants and trees which he had collected at Rio de Janeiro. For these he prepared ground on each side of the fort, with as many varieties of soil as he could choose 5 and there is little doubt but that they will succeed. He 176 cook's first voyage jqly, also gave liberally of these seeds to the Indians, and planted many of them in the woods : some of the melon seeds having been planted soon after our ar- rival, the natives showed him several of the plants which appeared to be in the most flourishing condi- tion, and were continually asking him for more. We now began to prepare for our departure, by bending the sails and performing other necessary operations on board the ship, our w^ater being already on board, and the provisions examined. In the mean time we had another visit from Oamo, Oberea, and their son and daughter ; the Indians expressing their respect by uncovering the upper parts of their body as they had done before. The daughter, whose name we understood to be Toimata, was very de- sirous to see the fort, but her father would by no means suffer her to come in. Tearee, the son of Wa- heatua, the sovereign of Tiarrabou, the south-east peninsula, was also with us at this time ; and we re- ceived intelligence of the landing of another guest, whose company was neither expected nor desired : this was no other than the ingenious gentleman who contrived to steal our quadrant. We were told, that he intended to try his fortune again in the night ; but the Indians all offered very zealously to assist us against him, desiring that, for this purpose, they might be permitted to lie in the fort. This had so good an effect, that the thief relinquished his enter- prise in despair. On the yth, the carpenters were employed in tak- ing down the gates and pallisadoes of our little for- tification, for firewood on board the ship ; and one of the Indians had dexterity enough to steal the staple and hook upon which the gate turned: he was immediately pursued, and after a chace of six miles, he appeared to have been passed, having con- cealed himself among some rushes in the brook ; the rushes were searched, and though the thief had 1769. jROirND THE WORLD. 177 escaped, a scraper was found which had been stolen from the ship some time before ; and soon after our old friend Tubourai Tamaide brought us the staple. On the 8th and 9th, we continued to dismantle our fort, and our friends still flocked about us j some, I believe, sorry at the approach of our departure, and others desirous to make as much as they could of us while we staid. We were in hopes that we should now leave the island, without giving or receiving any other offence ; but it unfortunately happened otherwise. Two foreign seamen having been out with my permission, one of them was robbed of his knife, and endeavour- ing to recover it, probably with circumstances of great provocation, the Indians attacked him, and dangerously wounded him with a stone ; they wounded his companion also slightly in the head, and then fled into the mountains. As I should have been sorry to take any farther notice of the affair, I was not displeased that the offenders had escaped ; but I was immediately involved in a quarrel which I very much regretted, and which yet it was not possible to avoid. In the middle of the night between the 8th and 9th, Clement AVebb and Samuel Gibson, two of the marines, both young men, went privately from the fort, and in the morning were not to be found. As public notice had been given, that all hands were to go on board on the next day, and that the ship would sail on the morrow of that day or the day following, I began to fear that the absentees intended -to stay behind. I knew that I could take no effectual steps to recover them, without endangering the harmony and good-will which at present subsisted among us ; and therefore determined to wait a day for the chance of their return. On Monday morning the 10th, the marines, to my great concern, not being returned, an enquiry was made after them of the Indians, who frankly told us, VOL. I, , N 1.78 cook's first voyage JULY, that they did not intend to return, and had taken re- fuge in the mountains, where it was impossible for our people to find them. They were then requested to assist in the search, and after some deliberation, two of them undertook to conduct such persons as I should think proper to send after them to the place of their retreat. As they were known to be without arms, I thought two would be sufficient, and ac- cordingly dispatched a petty officer, and the cor- poral of the marines, with the Indian guides, to fetch them back. As the recovery of these men was a mat- ter of great importance, as I had no time to lose, and as the Indians spoke doubtfully of their return, tell- ting us, that they had each of them taken a wife, and were become inhabitants of the country, it was inti- mated to several of the chiefs who were in the fort with their wom.en, among whom were Tubourai Ta- maide, Tomio, and Oberea, that they would not be permitted to leave it till our deserters were brought back. This precaution I thought the more necessary, as, by concealing them a few days, they might com- pel me to go without them ; and I had the pleasure to observe, that they received the intimation with very little signs either of fear or discontent ; assuring me that my people should be secured and sent back as soon as possible. While this was doing at the fort, I sent Mr. Hicks in the pinnace to fetch Tootahah on board the ship, which he did, without alarming either him or his people. If the Indian guides proved faithful and in earnest, I had reason to ex- pect the return of my people with the deserters be- fore evening. Being disappointed, my suspicions in- creased ; and night coming on, I thought it was not safe to let the people whom I had detained as host- ages continue at the fort, and I therefore ordered Tubourai Tamaide, Oberea, and some others, to be taken on board the ship. This spread a general alarm, and several of them, especially the women, expressed their apprehensions with great emotion 2 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 179 and many tears when they were put into the boat. I went on board with them, and Mr. Banks remained on shore, with some others whom I thought it of less consequence to secure. About nine o'clock, Webb was brought back by some of the natives, who declared, that Gibson, and the petty officer and corporal, would be detained till Tootahah should be set at liberty. The tables were now turned upon me ; but I had proceeded too far to retreat. I immediately dispatched Mr. Hicks in the long-boat, with a strong party of men, to rescue the prisoners, and told Tootahah that it behoved him to send some of his people with them, witb orders to afford them effectual assistance, and to de- mand the release of my men in his name, for that I should expect him to answer for the contrary. He readily complied : this party recovered my men without the least opposition ; and about seven o'clock in the morning returned with them to the ship, though they had not been able to recover the arms which had been taken from them when they were seized : these, however, were brought on board in less than half an hour, and the chiefs were imme- diately set at liberty. When I questioned the petty officer concerning what had happened on shore, he told me, that neither the natives who went with him, nor those whom they met in their way, would give them any intelligence of the deserters ; but, on the contrary, became very troublesome : that, as he was returning for further orders toi;he ship, he and his comrade were suddenly seized by a number of armed men, who having learnt that Tootahah was confined, had concealed them- selves in a wood for that purpose, and who, having taken them at a disadvantage, forced their weapons out of their hands, and declared, that they would detain them till their chief should be set at liberty. He said, however, that the Indians were not unani- mous in this measure; that some were for setting N g 180 cook's first voyage JULY, them at liberty, and others for detaining them ; that an eager dispute ensued, and that from words they came to blows, but that the party for detaining them at length prevailed ; that soon after Webb and Gibson were brought in by a party of the natives, as prisoners, that they also might be secured as hostages for the chief; but that it was, after some debate, resolved to send Webb to inform me of their resolution, to assure me that his companions were safe, and direct me where I might send my answer. Thus it appears, that, whatever were the disadvantages of seizing the chiefs, I should never have recovered my men by any other method. When the chiefs were set on shore from the ship, those at the fort were also set at liberty, and, after staying with Mr. Banks about an hour, they all went away. Upon this occasion, as they had done upon another of the same kind, they expressed their joy by an undeserved liberality, strongly urging us to accept of four hogs. These we absolutely refused as a present, and they as absolutely refusing to be paid for them, the hogs did not change masters. Upon examining the deserters, we found that the account which the Indians had given of them was true : they had strongly attached themselves to two girls, and it was their intention to conceal themselves till the ship had sailed, and take up their residence upon the island. This night every thing was got oiF from the shore, and every body slept on board. Among the natives who were almost constantly with us, was Tupia, whose name has been often mentioned in this narrative. He had been, as I have before observed, the first minister of Oberea, when she was in the height of her power : he was also the chief Tahowa or priest of the island, consequently well acquainted with the religion of the country, as well with respect to its ceremonies as principles. He had also great experience and knowledge in naviga- tion, and was particularly acquainted with the number 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 181 and situation of the neighbouring islands. This man had often expressed a desire to go with us, and on the 12th in the morning, having, with the other natives, left us the day before, he came on board, with a boy about thirteen years of age, his servant, and urged us to let him proceed with us on our voyage. To have such a person on board was certainly desir- able for many reasons; by learning his language, and teaching him ours, we should be able to acquire a much better knowledge of the customs, policy, and religion of the people, than our short stay among them could give us, I therefore gladly agreed to receive them on board. As we were prevented from sailing to-day, by having found it necessary to make new stocks to our small and best bower anchors, the old ones having been totally destroyed by the worms, Tupia said, he would go once more on shore, and make a signal for the boat to fetch him off in the evening. He went accordingly, and took with him a miniature picture of Mr. Banks, to shew his friends, and several little things to give them as parting presents. After dinner, Mr. Banks being desirous to procure a drawing of the Moral belonging to Tootahah at Eparre, I attended him thither, accompanied by Dr. Solander, in the pinnace. As soon as we landed, many of our friends came to meet us, though some absented themselves in resentment of what had happened the day before. We immediately pro- ceeded to Tootahah's house, where we were joined by Oberea, with several others who had not come out to meet us, and a perfect reconciliation was soon brought about ; in consequence of which they pro- mised to visit us early the next day, to take a last farewell of us, as we told them we should ceirtainly set sail in the afternoon. At this place also we found Tupia, who returned with us, and slept this night on board the ship for the first time. On the next morning, Thursday the 13th of July, N O 18^ cook's first voyage JULY, the ship was very early crowded with our friends, and surrounded by a multitude of canoes, which were filled with the natives of an inferior class. Between eleven and twelve we weighed anchor, and as soon as the ship was under sail, the Indians on board took their leaves, and wept, with a decent and silent sorrow, in which there was something very striking and tender : the people in the canoes, on the con- trary, seemed to vie with each other in the loudness of their lamentations, which we considered rather as affectation than grief. Tupia sustained himself in this scene with a firmness and resolution truly ad- mirable : he wept, indeed, but the effort that he made to conceal his tears, concurred, with them, to do him honour. He sent his last present, a shirt, by Otheothea, to Potomai, Tootahah's favourite mistress, and then went with Mr. Banks to the mast- head, waving to the canoes as long as they continued in sight. Thus we took leave of Otaheite, and its inhabitants, after a stay of just three months ; for much the greater part of the time we lived together in the most cordial friendship, and a perpetual reciproca- tion of good offices. The accidental differences which now and then happened, could not be more sincerely regretted on their part than they were on ours : the principal causes were such as necessarily resulted from our situation and circumstances, in conjunction with the infirmities of human nature, from our not being able perfectly to understand each other, and from the disposition of the inhabitants to theft, which we could not at all times bear with or prevent. They had not, however, except in one instance, been attended with any fatal consequence ; and to that accident were owing the measures that I took to prevent others of the same kind. I hoped, indeed, to have availed myself of the impression which had been made upon them by the lives that had been sacrificed in their contest with the Dolphin, so as 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 18^ that the intercourse between us should have been carried on wholly without bloodshed ; and by this hope all my measures were directed during the whole of my continuance at the island ; and I sincerely wish, that whoever shall next visit it, may be still more fortunate. Our traffic here was carried on with as much order as in the best regulated market in Europe. It was managed principally by Mr. Banks, who was indefatigable in procuring provisions and refreshments while they were to be had ; but during the latter part of our time they became scarce, partly by the increased consumption at the fort and ship, and partly by the coming on of the season in which cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit fail. All kind of fruit we purchased for beads and nails ; but no nails less than fortypenny were current : after a very short time we could never get a pig of more than ten or twelve pounds for less than a hatchet j because, though these people set a high value upon spike-nails, yet these being an article with which many people in the ship were provided, the women found a much more easy way of procuring them than by bringing down provisions. The best articles for traffic here are axes, hatches, spikes, large nails, looking-glasses, knives, and beads ; for some of which, every thing that the natives have may be procured. They are indeed fond of fine linen cloth, both white and printed ; but an axe worth half-a-crown will fetch more than a piece of cloth worth twenty shillings. N 4 184: cook's first voyage 1769. CHAP. XVII. A PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND; ITS PRODUCE AND INHABITANTS ; THEIR DRESS, HABITATIONS, FOOD, DO- MESTIC LIFE, AND AMUSEMENTS. We found the longitude of Port-Royal bay, in this island, as settled by Captain Walh's, who discovered it on the 9th of June, I767, to be within half a degree of the truth. We found Point Venus, the northern extremity of the island, and the eastern point of the bay, to lie in the longitude of 149° IS', this being the mean result of a great number of observations made upon the spot. The island is surrounded by a reef of coral rock, which forms several excellent bays and harbours, some of which have been particularly described, where there is room and depth of water for any number of the largest ships. Port-Royalbay, called by the natives Matavai, which is not inferior to any in Otaheite, may easily be known by a very high mountain in the middle of the island, which bears due south from Point Venus. To sail into it, either keep the west point of the reef that lies before Point Venus close on board, or give it a birth of near half a mile, in order to avoid a small shoal of coral rocks, on which there is but two fathom and a half of water. The best anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is sixteen and fourteen fathom upon an ousey bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any number of ships may water here without incommoding each other ; but the only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of fruit trees, which must be purchased of the natives, or all hope of living upon good terms with them given up. There are some harbours to the westward of this bay 1769' ROUND THE WORLD. 185 which have not been mentioned ; but, as they are contiguous to it, and laid down in the plan, a de- scription of them is unnecessary. The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the sea, is very uneven ; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance of sixty miles : between the foot of these ridges and the sea is a border of low land, surround- ing the whole island, except in a few places where the ridges rise directly from the sea : the border of low land is in different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile and a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is extremely rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivu- lets of excellent water, and covered with fruit trees of various kinds, some of which are of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form one con- tinued wood ; and even the tops of the ridges, though in general they are bare, and burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their produce. The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and some of the valleys, are the only parts of the island that are inhabited, and here it is populous : the houses do not form villages or towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the tree which fur- nishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to Tupia's account, who certainly knew, could fur- nish six thousand seven hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants may easily be computed. The produce of this island is bread-fruit, cocoa- nuts, bananas, of thirteen sorts, the best we had ever eaten ; plantains ; a fruit not unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant; sweet potatoes, yams, cocoas, a kind of Arum; a fruit known here by the name ofJambu, and reckoned most delicious ; sugar. 186 cook's first voyage 1769. cane, which the inhabitants eat raw ; a root of the Salop kind, called by the inhabitants Pea ; a plant called Ethee, of which the root only is eaten ; a fruit that grows in a pod, like that of a large kidney-bean, which, when it is roasted, eats very much like a chesnut, by the natives called AJiee ; a tree called TVharra, called in the East Indies Pandanes, which produces fruit, something like the pine-apple ; a shrub called Nono ; the Morinda, which also produces fruit ; a species of fern, of which the root is eaten, and sometimes the leaves ; and a plant called Theve, of which the root also is eaten : but the fruits of the Nono, the fern, and the Theve, are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of scarcity. All these, which serve the inhabitants for food, the earth pro- duces spontaneously, or with so little culture, that they seem to be exempted from the first general curse, that " man should eat his bread in the sweat of his brow." They have also the Chinese paper mulberry, morus papyrifera, which they call Aouta ; a tree resembling the wild fig-tree of the West Indies ; another species of fig, which they call Matte ; the cordia sebestina orientalis, which they call Eton ; a kind of Cyperus grass, which they call Moo ; a spe- cies of tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo ; an- other of the convolvulus poluce, which they call Eurhe; the solanum centifolium, which they call Ebooa ; the calophyllum mophylum, which they call Tamannu ; the hibiscus tiliaceus, called Poerou, sl frutescent nettle ; the urtica argentea, called Erowa ; with many other plants which cannot here be particularly mentioned : those that have been named already will be referred to in the subsequent part of this work. They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse, or legumes, nor grain of any kind. Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry ; neither is there a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 187 any serpent. But the sea supplies them witli great variety of most excellent fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their principal labour. As to the people they are of the largest size of Eu- ropeans. The men are tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw was a man upon a neighbouring island, called Huaheine, who measured six feet three inches and a half. The women of the superior rank are also in general above our middle stature, but those of the inferior class are rather below it, and some of them are very small. This defect in size probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only thing in which they differ from their superiors, that could possibly affect their growth. Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or hrunette, which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In those that are exposed to the wind and sun, it is considerably deepened, but in others that live under shelter, espe- cially the superior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately smooth and soft : they have no tint in their cheeks, which we distinguish by the name of colour. The shape of the face is comely, the cheek-bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent: the only feature that does not correspond with our ideas of beauty is the nose, which, in general, is somewhat flat ; but their eyes, especially those of the women, are full of expression, sometimes sparkling with fire, and sometimes melting with softness ; their teeth also are, almost without exception, most beauti- fully even and white, and their breath perfectly with- out taint. The hair is almost universally black, and rather coarse : the men have beards, which they wear in many fashions, always, however, plucking out great part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat. Both sexes also eradicate every hair from 188 cook's first voyage 17^9. under their arms, and accused us of great uncleanli- ness for not doing the same. In their motions there is at once vigour and ease ; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and courteous. In their dispositions, also, they seemed to be brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or treach- ery, cruelty or revenge ; so that we placed the same confidence in them as in our best friends, many of us, particularly Mr. Banks, sleeping frequently in their houses in the woods, without a companion, and consequently wholly in their power. They were, however, all thieves ; and when that is allowed, they need not much fear a competition with the people of any other nation upon earth. During our stay in this island, we saw about fiwe or six persons, like one that was met by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander on the 24th of April, in their walk to the eastward, whose skins were of a dead white, like the nose of a white horse ; with white haii', beard, brows, and eye-lashes; red, tender eyes; a short sight, and scurfy skins, covered with a kind of white down ; but we found that no two of these belonged to the same family, and therefore concluded, that they were not a spe- cies, but unhappy individuals, rendered anomalous by disease. It is a custom in most countries where the inhabit- ants have long hair, for the men to cut it short, and the women to pride themselves in its length. Here, however, the contrary custom prevails ; the women always cut it short round their ears, and the men, ex- cept the fishers, who are almost continually in the water, suffer it to flow in large waves over their shoulders, or tie it up in a bunch on the top of their heads. They have a custom, also, of anointing their heads, with what they call Monoe, an oil expressed from the cocoa-nut, in which some sweet herbs or flowers have been infused : as the oil is generally rancid, the 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 189 smell is at first very disagreeable to a European ; and as they live in a hot country, and have no such thing as a comb, they are not able to keep their heads free from lice, which the children and common people sometimes pick out and eat ; a hateful custom, wholly different from their manners in every other particular ; for they are delicate and cleanly almost without example ; and those to whom we distributed combs soon delivered themselves from vermin, with a diligence which showed that they were not more odious to us than to them. They have a custom of staining their bodies, near- ly in the same manner as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call Tattowing, They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a small instrument, something in the form of a hoe ; that part which answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and is from a quar- ter of an inch to an inch and a half wide ; the edge is cut into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty, according to its size : when this is to be used, they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water ; the teeth, thus prepared, are placed up- on the skin, and the handle to which they are fasten- ed being struck, by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain. The operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed. It is performed upon the youth of both sexes when they are about twelve or fourteen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of the party. The women are generally marked with this stain, in the form of a Z, on every joint of their fingers and toes, and fre- quently round the outside of their feet : the men are 190 cook's first voyage 1769. also marked with the same figure, and both men and women have squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other devices impressed upon their legs, and arms, some of which, we were told, had significations, though we could never learn what they were. But the part on which these ornaments are lavished with the greatest profusion is the breech : this, in both sexes, is covered with a deep black ; above which, arches are drawn one over another as high as the short ribs. They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are not sraight lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are shown both by men and women with a mixture of ostentation and plea- sure ; whether as an ornament, or a proof of their fortitude and resolution in bearing pain, we could not determine. The face in general is left unmarked : for we saw but one instance to the contrary. Some old men had the greatest part of their bodies covered with large patches of black, deeply indented at the edges, like a rude imitation of flame ; but we were told, that they came from a low island, called NoouooRA, and were not natives of Otaheite. Mr. Banks saw the operation of tattowing per- formed upon the backside of a girl about thirteen years old. The instrument used upon this occasion had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of which at least a hundred were made in a minute, drew an ichor or serum a little tinged with blood. The girl bore it with most stoical resolution for about a quarter of an hour ; but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had received in that time then became intolerable: she first complained in murmurs, then wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the oper- ator to desist. He was, however, inexorable ; and when she began to struggle, she was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her a smart blow. Mr. Banks staid in 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 191 a neighbouring house an hour, and the operation was not over when he went away ; yet it was performed but upon one side, the other having been done some time before ; and the arches upon the loins, in which they most pride themselves, and which give more pain than all the rest, were still to be done. It is strange that these people should value them- selves upon what is no distinction ; for I never saw a native of this island, either man or woman, in a state of maturity, in whom these marks were wanting : possibly they may have their rise in superstition, especially as they produce no visible advantage, and are not made without great pain ; but though we enquired of many hundreds, we could never get any account of the matter. Their clothing consists of cloth or matting of dif- ferent kinds, which will be described among their other manufactures. The cloth which will not bear wetting they wear in dry weather, and the matting when it rains : they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads them ; for in their garments nothing is cut into shape, nor are any two pieces sewed together. The dress of the better sort of women consists of three or four pieces : one piece, about two yards wide, and eleven yards long, they wrap several times round their waist, so as to hang down like a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg, and this they call Parou : two or three other pieces, about two yards and a half long, and one wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon another, and then putting the head through the holes, they bring the long ends down before and behind ; the others remain open at the sides, and gi\e liberty to the arms : this, which they call the Tebuta, is gathered round the waist, and confined with a girdle or sash of thinner cloth, which is long enough to go many times round them, and exactly resembles the garment worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili, which the Spaniards call Poncho. The dress of the 192 cook's first voyage 1769» men is the same, except that, instead of suffering the cloth that is wound about the hips to hang down like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs so as to have some resemblance to breeches, and it is then called Ma?^o, This is the dress of all ranks of people, and being universally the same as to form, the gen- tlemen and ladies distinguish themselves from the lower people by the quantity ; some of them will wrap round them several pieces of cloth, eight or ten yards long, and two or three broad ; and some throw a large piece loosely over their shoulders, in the manner of a cloak ; or perhaps two pieces, if they are very great personages, and are desirous to appear in state. The inferior sort, who have only a small allowance of cloth from the tribes or families to which they belong, are obliged to be more thinly clad. In the heat of the day, they appear almost naked, the women having only a scanty petticoat, and the men nothing but the sash that is passed be- tween their legs and fastened round the waist. As finery is always troublesome, and particularly in a hot country, where it consists in putting one covering upon another, the women of rank always uncover themselves as low as the waist in the evening, throw- ing off all that they wear on the upper part of the body, with the same negligence and ease as our ladies would lay by a cardinal or double handkerchief. And the chiefs, even when they visited us, though they had as much cloth round their middle as would clothe a dozen people, had frequently the rest of the body quite naked. Upon their legs and feet, they wear no covering ; but they shade their faces from the sun with little bonnets, either of matting or of cocoa-nut leaves, which they make occasionally in a few minutes. This, however, is not all their head-dress ; the women sometimes wear little turbans, and sometimes a dress which they value much more, and which, indeed, is much more becoming, called Tomou : the tomou 1769' ROUND THE WORLD. 19S consists of human hair, plaited in threads, scarcely thicker than sewing silk. Mr. Banks has pieces of it above a mile in length, without a knot. These they wund round the head in such a manner as produces a very pretty effect, and in a very great quantity ; for I have seen five or six such pieces wound about the head of one woman : among these threads they stick flowers of various kinds, particularly the Cape- jessamine, of which they have great plenty, as it is always planted near their houses. The men sometimes stick the tail-feather of the Tropic-bird upright in their hair, which, as I have observed before, is often tied in a bunch upon the top of their heads : some- times they wear a kind of whimsical garland, made of flowers of various kinds, stuck into a piece of the rind of a plantain ; or of scarlet peas, stuck with gum upon a piece of wood : and sometimes they wear a kind of wig, made of the hair of men or dogs, or perhaps of cocoa-nut strings, woven upon one thread, which is tied under their hair, so that these artificial honours of their head may hang down behind. Their personal ornaments, besides flowers, are few ; both sexes wear ear-rings but they are placed only on one side : when we came they consisted of small pieces of shell, stone, berries, red peas, or some small pearls, three in a string ; but our beads very soon supplanted them all. The children go quite naked : the girls till they are three or four years old ; and the boys till they are six or seven. The houses, or rather dwellings, of these people, have been occasionally mentioned before : they are all built in the wood, between the sea and the moun- tains, and no more ground is cleared for each house than just sufficient to prevent the dropping of the branches from rotting the thatch with which they are covered ; from the house, therefore, the inhabitant steps immediately under the shade, which is the most delightful that can be imagined. It consists of VOL. I. o 194 cook's first voyage 1769. groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, without under- wood, which are intersected, in all directions, by the paths that lead from one house to the other. Nothing can be more grateful than this shade in so warm a climate, nor any thing more beautiful than these walks. As there is no underwood, the shade cools without impeding the air ; and the houses, having no walls, receive the gale from whatever point it blows. I shall now give a particular description of a house of a middling size, from which, as the structure is universally the same, a perfect idea may be formed both of those that are bigger and those that are less. The ground which it covers is an oblong square, four-and-twenty feet long, and eleven wide ; over this a roof is raised, upon three rows of pillars or posts, parallel to each other, one on each side, and the other in the middle. This roof consists of two flat sides inclining to each other, and terminating in a ridge, exactly like the roofs of our thatched houses in England. The utmost height within is about nine feet, and the eaves on each side reach to within about three feet and a half of the ground : below this, and through the whole height, at each end, it is open, no part of it being inclosed with a wall. The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and the floor is covered, some inches deep, with soft hay ; over this are laid mats, so that the whole is one cushion, upon which they sit in the day, and sleep in the night. In some houses, however, there is one stool, which is wholly appropriated to the master of the family ; besides this, they have no furniture, except a few little blocks of wood, the upper side of which is hollowed into a curve, and which serves them for pillows. The house is indeed principally used as a dor- mitory; for, except it rains, they eat in the open air, under the shade of the next tree. The clothes that they wear in the day serve them for covering in the night : the floor is the common bed of the 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 19-5 whole household, and is not divided by any partition. The master of the house and his wife sleep in the middle, next to them the married people, next to them the unmarried women, and next to them, at a little distance, the unmarried men : the servants, or Toiitous, as they are called, sleep in the open air, except it rains, and in that case they come just within the shade. There are, however, houses of another kind be- longing to the chiefs, in which there is some de- gree of privacy. These are much smaller, and so constructed as to be carried about in their canoes from place to place, and set up occasionally like a tent : they are enclosed on the sides with cocoa-nut leaves, but not so close as to exclude the air, and the chief and his wife sleep in them alone. There are houses also of a much larger size, not built either for the accommodation of a single chief, or a single family; but as common receptacles for all the people of a district. Some of them are two hundred feet long, thirty broad, and, under the ridge, twentv feet hi9' ROUND THE WORLD. 205 Of these verses our knowledge of tlie lano^uage is too imperfect to attempt a translation. They fre- quently amuse themselves by singing such couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families, especially after it is dark ; for though they need no fires, they are not without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bedtime. Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them ; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it ; the second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of the rest : some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour after it is dark ; liut when they have strangers who sleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours. Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been said already; especially as I shall have occasion more particularly to mention them when 1 relate our adventures upon another island. In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know ; and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connection with the other sex ; but here it is just contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood, accompanied by words, which, 5 206 cook's first voyage 1769. if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best per- formers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put these liopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the dance. It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much estimation. It might be ex- pected that sisters and daughters would be offered to strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife, should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as indeed is the case; but there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose manners have been re- corded from the beginning of the world to the pre- sent hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive. A very considerable number of the principal peo- ple of Otaheite, of both sexes, have formed them- selves into a society, in which every woman is com- mon to every man ; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days. These societies are distinguished by the name of Arreoy ; and the members have meetings, at whicii no other is present, where the men amuse themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to de- sires which it is said are frequently gratified upon the spot. This, however, is comparatively nothing. If any of the women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less frequently than if 17^9. ROUND THE* WORLD. "207 they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor in- fant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt tlie mother in the pleasures of her diaboHcal prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion which prompts a woman to enter into this society is sur- mounted when she becomes a mother, by that instinc- tive affection which nature has given to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring ; but even in this case she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except she can find a man who will patronise it as his child : if this can be done, the murder is prevented ; but both the man and woman, being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of the Arreoy for the future ; the woman from that time being distinguished by the term MOiammxcnow, " bearer of children," which is here a term of reproach ; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the man from the brute. It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon slight evi- dence, but I have such as abundantly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so far from concealing their connection with such a society as a disgrace, that they boast of it as a pri- vilege ; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when par- ticular persons have been pointed out to us as mem- bers of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have a-cknowledged that they had long been of this accursed society, that they belonged to it at that time, and that several of their children had been put to death. But I must not conclude my account of the do- mestic life of these people without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the good 208 cook's first voyage 1769. of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanli- ness is a virtue : the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in run- ning water three times every day ; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a distance. I have already ob- served, that they wash not only the mouth but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel ; and their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or stain ; so that in a large company of these people nothing is suffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest as- sembly in Europe. 1769* ROUND THE WORLD. * f09 CHAP. XVIIL OF THE MANUFACTURES, BOATS, AND NAVIGATION OF OTAHEITE. If necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have been much exerted where the li- berality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost superfluous ; yet there are many instances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both. Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be more minute. Their cloth is of three kinds ; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which re- sembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies. The finest and whitest is made of the paper mul- berry, Aouta ; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooi^oo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people ; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper ; this, though it is less pleasing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable, because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this, which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed, and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress. All these trees are propagated with great care, par- ticularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part VOL. I. p 210 cook's first voyage 17^>9. of the cultivated land, and is not fit for use after two or three years growth, when it is about six or eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man's thumb ; its excellence is to be thin, straight, tall, and with- out branches : the lower leaves, therefore, are care- fully plucked off, with their germs, as often as there is any appearance of their producing a branch. But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all manufactured in the same manner ; I shall, therefore, describe the process only in the fine sort, that is made of the mulberry. When the trees are of a proper size, they are drawn up, and stripped of their branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these rods being then slit up longitudinally is easily drawn off, and, when a proper quantity has been procured, it is carried down to some running water, in which it is deposited to soak, and secured from floating away by heavy stones: when it is supposed to be sufficiently soft- ened, the women servants go down to the brook, and stripping themselves, sit down in the water, to sepa- rate the inner bark from the green part on the out- side ; to do this they place the under side upon a flat smooth board, and with the shell, which our dealers call tyger's tongue, telUna gargadia, scrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening ; and in this part of the work there appears to be some difficulty, as the mistress of the family always superintends the doing of it: they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the side of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other : care is taken that the cloth shall be in all parts of an equal thickness, so that if the bark happens to be thinner in any parti- cular part of one layer than the rest, a piece that is somewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 211 the next. In this state it remains till the morning, when great part of the water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or evapo- rated, and the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole maybe raised from the ground in one piece. It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of wood, prepared for the pur- pose, and beaten by the women servants, with instru- ments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hardwood which they callEtoa, The shape of this instrument is not unlike a square razor strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its four sides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or furrows, of different degrees of fineness ; those on one side being of a width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal to sewing silk. They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mal- let, keeping time like our smiths ; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly however in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the ap- pearance of threads ; it is successively beaten with the other sides, last with the finest, and is then fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made still thin- ner, by beating it with the finest side of the mallet, after it has been several times doubled : it is then called Hoboo, and is almost as thin as a muslin ; it becomes very white by being bleached in the air, but is made still whiter and softer by being washed and beaten again after it has been worn. Of this cloth there are several sorts, of different degrees of fineness, in proportion as it is more or less beaten without being doubled: the other cloth also differs in proportion as it is beaten; but they differ from each other in consequence of the different mate- rials of which they are made. The bark of the bread- fruit is not taken till the trees are considerably longer and thicker than those of the fig, the process after- wards is the same. p 2 212 cook's first voyage 1769. When cloth is to be washed after it has been worn, it is taken dovvn to the brook, and left to soak, being kept fast to tlie bottom, as at first, by a stone ; it is then gently wrung or squeezed ; and sometimes se- veral pieces of it are laid one upon another, and beaten together with the coarsest side of the mallet, and they are then equal in thickness to broad-cloth, and much more soft and agreeable to the touch, after they have been a little while in use, though when they come immediately from the mallet, they feel as if they had been starched. This cloth sometimes breaks in the beating, but is easily repaired by past- ing on a patch with a gluten that is prepared from the root of the Pea, which is done so nicely that it cannot be discovered. The women also employ them- selves in removing blemishes of every kind, as our ladies do in needle-work or knotting ; sometimes when their work is intended to be very fine, they will paste an entire covering of hoboo over the whole. The principal excellencies of this cloth are its cool- ness and softness ; and its imperfections, its being pervious to water like paper, and almost as easily torn. The colours with which they dye this cloth are principally red and yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say a brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe ; that which approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr. Banks's natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of Vermil- lion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright color, but we have many as good. The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that hue. One is a species of fig called here Matte, and the other the Cordia Sebestina, or Eton ; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the Cordia the leaves. The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small gooseberry ; and each of them. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 213 Upon breaking off the stalk very close, produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs, of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water : to prepare a gill of cocoa-nut water will re- quire between three and four quarts of these little figs. When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Eton are well wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned about till they become more and more flaccid, and then the}^ are gently squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break them ; as the flaccidity in- creases, and they become spungy, they are supplied with more of the liquor ; in about five minutes the colour begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a little more, they are perfectly saturated with it : they are then squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained at the same time that it is expressed. For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quan- tity of the Moo, by drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a thin web of the fibres onlv remains ; in this the leaves of the Etou are inveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is pressed out of them than they have imbibed : when they have been once emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed, till the quality which tinctures the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted, they are then thrown away ; but the Moo, being deeply stained with the colour, is preserved, as a brush, to lay the dye upon the cloth. The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the plantain leafi whether from a no- tion that it has any quality favourable to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do not know. p 3 214 cook's first voyage 1769* Of" the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface ; the liquor is indeed used rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side only, with the fibres of the Moo; and though I have seen of the thin cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour has not had the same richness and lustre, as when it has been applied in the other manner. Though the leaf of the Etou is generally used in this process, and probably produces the finest colour, yet the juice of the figs will produce a red by a mix- ture with the species of Tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo, the Pohuc, the Eurhe, or Convolvulus Brasiliensis, and a species of Solanum called Ebooa ; from the use of these different plants, or from diffe- rent proportions of the materials, many varieties are observable in the colours of their cloth, some of which are conspicuously superior to others. The beauty, however, of the best is not perma- nent ; but it is probable that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable employ- ment : our present most valuable dyes afford sufficient encouragement to the attempt ; for by the mere in- spection of indigo, woad, dyer's weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered. Of this Indian red 1 shall only add, that the women who have been employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a great ornament. The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the Morinda citrifbUa, called Nono, by scraping and in- fusing it in water ; after standing some time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 215 dipped into it. The Morinda, of which this is a spe- cies, seems to be a good subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his history of Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye brown ; and Rumphius says of the Bancuda Angustifolia, which is nearly allied to our Nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East Indian is- lands, as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it particularly agrees. The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the Tamanu ; but how the colour is ex- tracted, we had no opportunity to discover. They have also a preparation with which they dye brown and black ; but these colours are so indifferent, that the me- thod of preparing them did not excite our curiosity. Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds ; some of which is finer, and better, in every respect, than any we have in Europe : the coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather. With the fine, of which there are also two sorts, much pains is taken, espe- cially with that made of the bark of the Poerou, the Hibiscus tiliaceus of Linnaeus, some of which is as fine as a coarse cloth ; the other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call Vamie ; it is white, glossy, and shining, and is made of the leaves of their Whar- rouy a species of the Pandanus, of which we had no' opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit : they have other matts, or as they call them Moeas, to sit. or to sleep upon, which are formed of a great variety of rushes and grass, and which they make, as they do every thing else that is plaited, with amazing fa- cility and dispatch. They are also very dexterous in making basket and wicker work ; their baskets are of a thousand diffe- rent patterns, many of them exceedingly neat ; and the making them is an art that every one practises, both men and women : they make occasional baskets and panniers of the cocoa-nut leaf in a few minutes> p 4 2l6 cook's first voyage 1769. and the women who visited us early in a morning used to send, as soon as the sun was high, for a few of the leaves, of which they made little bonnets to shade their faces, at so small an expence of time and trou- ble, that, when the sun was again low in the even- ing, they used to throw them away. These bonnets, however, did not cover the head, but consisted only of a band that went round it, and a shade that pro- jected from the forehead. Of the bark of the Poerou, they make ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch to the size of a small packthread: with these they make nets for fish- ing : of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread, for fastening together the several parts of their ca- noes, and belts, either round or flat, twisted or plaited; and of the bark of the Erowa, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather scarce, they make the best fishing lines in the world : with these they hold the strongest and most active fish, such as Bonetas and Albicores, which would snap our strongest silk lines in a minute, though they are twice as thick. They make also a kind of seine, of a coarse broad grass, the blades of which are like flags ; these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from sixty to eighty fathom long : this they haul in shoal smooth water, and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that scarcely a single fish can escape. In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly ingenious ; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood, which in their hands strike fish more effectually, than those which are headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes place, though it does not mortally wound him. Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their construction as well to the purpose 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 21? they are to answer, as to the materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call Wittee Witteey is used for towing. The shank is made of mother-of-pearl, the most glossy that can be got : the inside, which is naturally the brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog's or hog's hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish ; these implements, therefore, are both hook and bait, and are used with a rod of bamboo, and line oi' Erowa, The fisher, to secure his success, watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the Bonetas when they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize. The other kind of hook is also made of mother-of- pearl, or some other hard shell : they cannot make them bearded like our hooks ; but to effect the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish with great success. The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own artificer : the shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file ; a hole is then bored in the middle ; the drill being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner : this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate-mill ; when the shell is perforated, and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour. Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the reader has already formed some idea from the ac- count that has been given of the Morais, or reposi- tories of the dead : the other most important article of building and carving is their boats ; and perhaps^ 218 cook's first voyage 1769. to fabricate one of their principal vessels with their tools is as great a work, as to build a British man of war with ours. They have an adze of stone ; a chissel, or gouge of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow ; a rasp of coral ; and the skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher. This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber. The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of Basaltes, of a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness : they are formed of different sizes ; some, that are intended for felling, weigh from six to eight pounds ; others, that are used for carving, not more than so many ounces ; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost every minute ; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut shell full of water are always at hand. Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any other, is felling a tree : this requires many hands, and the constant labour of several days. When it is down, they split it, with the grain, into planks from three to four inches thick, the whole length and breadth of the tree, many of which are eight feet in the girt, and forty to the branches, and nearly of the same thickness throughout. The tree generally used is, in their language, called Avie, the stem of which is tall and straight ; though some of the smaller boats are made of the bread-fruit tree, which is a light spongy wood, and easily wrought. They smooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes, and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank with- out missing a stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the canoe, whether hollow or flat, is shaped by hand. The canoes, or boats, which are used by the inha- bitants of this and the neighbouring islands, may be 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 219 divided into two general classes ; one of which they call IvahahSy the other Pahies. The Ivahah is used for short excursions to sea, and is wall-sided and flat-bottomed ; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-sided and sharp-bot- tomed. The Ivahas are all of the same figure, but of different sizes, and used for different purposes : their length is from seventy-two feet to ten, but the breadth is by no means in proportion ; for those of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah, the fishing Ivahah, and the travelling Ivahah; for some of these go from one island to another. The fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and stern are considerably raised above the body, in a semicircular form ; particularly the stern, which is sometimes seventeen or eighteen feet high, though the boat itself is scarcely three. These never go to sea single ; but are fastened together, side by side, at the distance of about three feet, by strong poles of wood, which are laid across them and lashed to the gunwales. Upon these, in the forepart, a stage or platform is raised, about ten or twelve feet long, and somewhat wider than the boats, which is supported by pillars about six feet high : upon this stage stand the fighting men, whose missile weapons are slings and spears ; for, among other singularities in the manners of these people, their bows and arrows are used only for diversion, as we throw quoits : below these stages sit the rowers, who receive from them those that are wounded, and furnish fresh men to ascend in their room. Some of these have a plat- form of bamboos or other light wood, through their whole length, and considerably broader, by means of which they will carry a great number of men ; but we saw only one fitted in this manner. The fishing Ivahahs vary in length from about forty feet to the smallest size, whicn is about ten ; all that are of the length of twenty-five feet and up- 220 cook's first voyage 1769. wards, of whatever sort, occasionally carry sail. The travelling Ivahah is always double, and furnished with a small neat house, about five or six feet broad, and six or seven feet long, which is fastened upon the fore-part for the convenience of the principal people, who sit in them by day, and sleep in them at night. The fishing Ivahahs are sometimes joined together, and have a house on board ; but this is not common. Those which are shorter than five and twenty feet, seldom or never carry sail ; and, though the stern rises about four or five feet, have a flat head, and a board that projects forward about four feet. The Pahie is also of different sizes, from sixty to thirty feet long ; but, like the Ivahah, is very narrow. One that 1 measured was fifty-one feet long, and only one foot and a half wide at the top. In the widest part, it was about three feet ; and this is the general proportion. It does not, however, widen by a gra- dual swell ; but the sides being straight and parallel, for a little way below the gunwale, it swells abruptly, and draws to a ridge at the bottom ; so that a trans- verse section of it has somewhat the appearance of the mark upon cards called a Spade, the whole being much wider in proportion to its length. These, like the largest Ivahahs, are used for fighting ; but prin- cipally for long voyages. The fighting Pahie, which is the largest, is fitted with the stage or platform, which is proportionably larger than those of the Iva- hah, as their form enables them to sustain a much greater weight. Those that are used for sailing are generally double ; and the middle size are said to be the best sea-boats. They are sometimes out a month together, going from island to island ; and sometimes, as we were credibly informed, they are a fortnight or twenty days at sea, and could keep it longer if they had more stowage for provisions, and conveniencies to hold fresh water. When any of these boats carry sail single, they make use of a log of wood, which is fastened to the 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 221 end of two poles that He cross the vessel, and project from six to ten feet, according to the size of the vessel, beyond its side, somewhat like what is used by the flying Proa of the Ladrone Islands, and called in the account of Lord Anson's Voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the shrouds are fastened, and it is essentially necessary in trimming the boat when it blows fresh. Some of them have one mast, and some two ; they are made of a single stick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the mast is some- what less than five-and-twenty ; it is fixed to a frame that is above the canoe, and receives a sail of matting about one-third longer than itself: the sail is pointed at the top, square at the bottom, and curved at the side ; somewhat resembling what we call a shoulder of mutton sail, and used for boats belonging to men of war : it is placed in a frame of wood, which sur- rounds it on every side, and has no contrivance either for reefing or furling ; so that, if either should be- come necessary, it must be cut away, which, how- ever, in these equal climates, can seldom happen. At the top of the mast are fastened ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely for- . wards ; the shape and position of which will be con- ceived at once from the figure, in one of the cuts. The oars or paddles that are used with these boats, have a long handle and a flat blade, not unlike a baker's peel. Of these every person in the boat has one, except those that sit under the awning; and they push her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit so much water at the seams, that one person at least is continually era- ployed in throwing it out. The only thing in which they excel is landing, and putting off from the shore in a surf : by their great length and high sterns they land dry, when our boats could scarcely land at all ; and have the same advantages in putting off by the height of the head. 222 cook's first voyage 1769. The Ivahahs are the only boats that are used by the inhabiants of Otaheite ; but we saw several Pa- hies that came from other islands. Of one of these I shall give the exact dimensions from a careful ad- measurement, and then particularly describe the manner in which they are built. Feet. Inches. Extreme length from stem to stern, not reckoning the bending up of either 51 0 Breadth in the clear of the top forward 1 2 Breadth in the midships - - 1 6 Breadth aft .... 13 In the bilge forward - •; 2 8 In the midships - - - 2 11 Aft - - - .-29 Depth in the midships - - 3 4 Height from the ground on which she stood 3 6 Height of her head from the ground, without the figure - - - - 4 4 Height of the figure - - - 0 11 Height of the stern from the ground 8 9 Height of the figure - - 2 0 To illustrate my description of the manner in which these vessels are built, it will be necessary to ^ -^ ^v ^ refer to the figure ; &- SX 1/ h in which a a is the ^^ // first seam, h h the se- \:^^ ** cond, and c c the third. The first stage or keel, under a a, is made of a tree hollowed out like a trough ; for which the longest trees are chosen that can be got, so that there are never more than three in the whole length : the next stage, under h b, is formed of straight plank, about four feet long, fifteen inches broad, and two inches thick : the third stage, under c c, is, like the bottom, made of trunks, hollowed into its bilging form ; the last is also cut out of trunks, so that the moulding is of one piece with the upright. To form 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. ^^3 these parts separately, without saw, plane, chissel, or any other iron tool, may well be thought no easy task ; but the great difficulty is to join them to- gether. When all the parts are prepared, the keel is laid upon blocks, and the planks being supported by stanchions, are sewed or clamped together with strong thongs of plaiting, which are passed several times through holes that are bored with a gouge or auger of bone, that has been described already ; and the nicety with which this is done, may be inferred from their being sufficiently water-tight for use with- out caulking. As the platting soon rots in the water, it is renewed at least once a-year ; in order to which, the vessel is taken entirely to pieces. The head and stern are rude with respect to the design ; but very neatly finished, and polished to the highest degree. These Pahies are kept with great care in a kind of house built on purpose for their reception ; the houses are formed of poles set upright in the ground, the tops of which are drawn towards each other, and fastened together with their strongest cord, so as to form a kind of Gothic arch, which is completely thatched quite to the ground, being open only at the ends ; they are sometimes fifty or sixty paces long. As connected with the navigation of these people, I shall mention their wonderful sagacity in foretelling the weather, at least the quarter from which the wind shall blow at a future time ; they have several ways of doing this, of which however I know but one. They say, that the Milky- way is always curved later- ally ; but sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another : and that this curvature is the effect of its being already acted upon by the wind, and its hollow part therefore towards it ; so that, if the same curvature continues a night, a corresponding wind certainly blows the next day. Of their rules, I shall not pretend to judge ; but I know that, by whatever 224 cook's first voyage I769. means, they can predict the weather, at least the wind, with much greater certainty than we can. In their longer voyages, they steer by the sun in the day, and in the night by the stars ; all of which they distinguish separately by names, and know in what part of the heavens they will appear in any of the months during which they are visible in their horizon ; thev also know the time of their annual appearing and disappearing with more precision than will easily be believed by an European astronomer. 17(^>9. ROUND THE WORLD. 225 CHAP. XIX. OF THE DIVISION OF TIME IN OTAHEITE ; NUMERATION, COMPUTATION OF DISTANCE, LANGUAGE, DISEASES, DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD, RELIGION, WAR, WEAPONS, AND GOVERN- MENT ; WITH SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS FOR THE USE OF FUTURE NAVIGATORS. W E were not able to acquire a perfect idea of their method of dividing time ; but observed, that in speaking of it, either past or to come, they never used any term but Malama, which signifies Moon. Of these moons they count thirteen, and then begin again ; which is a demonstration that they liave a notion of the solar year : but how they compute their months so that thirteen of them shall be commen- surate with the year, we could not discover ; for they say that each month has twenty-nine days, including one in which the moon is not visible. They have names for them separately, and have frequently told us the fruits that would be in season, and the weather that would prevail, in each of them ; and they have indeed a name for them collectively, though they use it only when they speak of the mysteries of their re- ligion. Every day is subdivided into twelve parts, each of two hours, of which six belong to the day, and six to the night. At these divisions they guess pretty nearly by the height of the sun while he is above the horizon ; but there are few of them that can guess at them, when he is below it, by the stars. In numeration they proceed from one to ten, the number of fingers on both hands ; and though they have for each number a different name, they gener- ally take hold of their fingers one by one, shifting from one hand to the other till they come to the number they want to express. And in other in- VOL.I. Q 2^G cook's first voyage 1769. stances, we observed that, when they were conversing with each other, they joined signs to their words, which were so expressive that a stranger might easily apprehend their meaning. In counting from ten they repeat the name of that number, and add the word more ; ten, and one more, is eleven ; ten, and two more, twelve : and so of the rest, as we say one and twenty, two and twenty. When they come to ten and ten more, they have a new denomination, as we say a score ; and by these scores they count till they get ten of them, when they have a denomination for two hundred ; and we never could discover that they had any denomination to express a greater number : neither, indeed, do they seem to want any ; for ten of these amount to two thousand, a greater number than they can ever apply. . . ^ ^ ^ . In measuring distance they are much more deficient than in computing numbers, having but one term, which answers to fathom ; when they speak of dis- tances from place to place, they express it, like the Asiatics, by the time that is required to pass it. Their language is soft and melodious ; it abounds w^ith vowels, and we easily learnt to pronounce it : but found it exceedingly difficult to teach them to pronounce a single word of ours ; probably not only from its abounding in consonants, but from some pe- culiarity in its structure ; for Spanish and Italian words, if ending in a vowel, they pronounced with great facility. Whether it is copious, we were not sufficiently ac- quainted with it to know ; but it is certainly very imperfect, for it is almost totally without inflexion, both of nouns and verbs. Few of the nouns have more than one case, and few of the verbs more than one tense ; yet we found no great difficulty in mak- ing ourselves mutually understood, however strange it may appear in speculation. They iav^ however, certain qffixay which, though 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 227 but few in number, are very useful to them, and puzzled us extremely. One asks another, Havre hea ? " Where are you going ?" The other answers, Ivahinera, " To my wives;" upon which the first, re- peating the answer interrogatively, " To your wives?" is answered, Ivaliinereira ; " Yes, I am going to my " wives." Here the suffixa era and eira save several words to both parties. I have inserted a few of their words, from whicli, perhaps, some idea may be formed of the language. Pupo, the head. Mia, bananas. Ahewh, the nose. Poe, beads. Roourou, the hair. Poe matawi evvwe, pearl. Outou, the mouth. Ahou, a garment. Niheo, the teeth. Avee, afr uit like apples. Arrero, the tongue. Ahee, another Ukechesnuts, Meu-eumi, the heard. Ewharre, a house. Tiarraboa, the throat. Whennua, a high island. Tuamo, the shoulders. Motu, a low island. Tuah, the back. Toto, blood. Oama, the breast. Aeve, bone. Eu, the nipples. Aeo, ^flesh. Oboo, the belly. Mae, fat. Rema, the arm. Tuea, lean. Vaee, wild plantains. Huru-huru, hair. Oporema, the hand. Eraow, a tree. Manneow, the fingers. Am a. a branch. Mieu, the nails. Tiale, afiower. Touhe, the buttocks. Huero, fruit. Hoouhah, the thighs. Etummoo, the stem. Avia, the legs. Aaa, the root. Tapoa, the feet. Eiherre, herbaceous plants. Booa, a hog. Ooopa, a pigeon. Moa, afi)wl. Avigne, a paroquet. Euree, a dog. A-a, another species. Eure-eure, iron. Mannu, a bird. Ooroo, bread-fruit. Mora, a dvch. Hearee, cocoa-nuts. Mattow, afish'hook. Q 2 2^8 cook's first voyage i 1769. To lira, a rope. Timahah, heavy. Mow, a shark. Mama, light. Mahi-mahi , a dolphin. Poto, short. Mattera, a fishing-rod. Roa, tall. Eupea, a net. Nehenrie, sweet. Malianna, the sun. Mala-mala, bitter. Mai a ma, the moon. Whanno, to gofiir. Whettu, a star. Harre, to go. WhettLi-eu phe, a comet. Arrea, to stay. Erai, the sky. En oho. to remain. Eatta, a cloud. Rohe rohe. to be tired. Miti, good. Maa, to eat, ■ Eno, had. Inoo, to drink. A, yes. Ete, to understand, \ I ma, no. Warrido, to steal. Paree, ugly. Worridde, to be angry. Paroree, hungry. Teparahi, to beat. Pia, full. i Among people whose food is so simple, and who in general are seldom drunk, it is scarcely necessary to say, that there are but few diseases ; we saw no critical disease during our stay upon the island, and but few instances of sickness, which were accidental fits of the colic. The natives, however, are afflicted with the erysipelas, and cutaneous eruptions of the scaly kind, very nearly approaching to a leprosy. Those in whom this distemper was far advanced, lived in a state of seclusion from all society, each in a small house built upon some unfrequented spot, where they were supplied with provisions : but whether they had any hope of relief, or languished out the remainder of their lives in solitude and de- spair, we could not learn. We observed also a few who had ulcers upon different parts of their bodies, some of which had a very virulent appearance ; yet they seemed not much to be regarded by those who were afflicted with them, for they were left entirely without application even to keep off the flies. 1 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. ' 229 Where intemperance produces no diseases, there will be no physicians by profession ; yet where there is suiFerance, there will always be attempts to relieve ; and where the cause of the mischief and the remedy are alike unknown, these will naturally be directed by superstition : thus it happens, that in this country, and in all others which are not further injured by luxury, or improved by knowledge, the management of the sick falls to the lot of the priest. The method of cure that is practised by the priests of Otaheite, consists chiefly of prayers and ceremonies. When he visits his patient he repeats certain sentences, which appear to be set forms contrived for the occasion, and at the same time plats the leaves of the cocoa- nut into different figures very neatly ; some of these he fastens to the fingers and toes of the sick, and often leaves behind him a few branches of the tJiespecia popuhiea, which they call E^midho : these ceremonies are repeated till the patient recovers or dies. If he recovers, they say the remedies cured him ; if he dies, they say the disease was incurable; in which perhaps they do not much differ from the custom of other countries. If we had judged of their skill in surgery from the dreadful scars which we sometimes saw, we should have supposed it to be much superior to the art, not only of their physicians, but of ours. We saw one man whose face was almost entirely destroyed, his nose, including the bone, was perfectly flat, and one cheek and one eye were so beaten in, that the hollow would almost receive a man's fist, yet no ulcer remained; and our companion, Tupia, had been pierced quite through his body by a spear, headed with the bone of the sting-ray, the weapon having entered his back, and come out just under his breast; but except in reducing dislocations and fractures, the best surgeon can contribute very little to the cure of a wound ; the blood itself is the best vulnerary balsam, and when the juices of the body are pure, and the Q 3 230 cook's first voyage 1769. patient is temperate, nothing more is necessary as an aid to nature in the cure of the worst wound, than the keeping it clean. Their commerce with the inhabitants of Europe has, however, already entailed upon them that dread- ful curse which avenged the inhumanities committed by the Spaniards in America, the venereal disease. As it is certain that no European vessel besides our own, except the Dolphin, and the two that were under the command of Mons. Bougainville, ever visited this island, it must have been brought either by one of them or by us. That it was not brought by the Dolphin, Captain Wallis has demonstrated in the account of her voyage, (Vol. I. p. 323, 324.), and nothing is more certain than that when we arrived, it had made most dreadful ravages in the island. One of our people contracted it within five days after we went on shore, and by the enquiries among the natives, which this occasioned, we learnt, when we came to understand a little of their language, that it had been brought by the vessels which had been there about fifteen months before us, and had lain on the east side of the island. They distinguished it by a name of the same import with rotte7i7iess, but of a more extensive signification, and described, in the most pathetic terms, the suiferings of the first victims to its rage, and told us that it caused the hair and the nails to fall off, and the flesh to rot from the bones : that it spread a universal terror and con- sternation among them, so that the sick were aban- doned by their nearest relations, lest the calamity should spread by contagion, and left to perish alone in such misery as till then had never been known among them. We had some reason, however, to hope that they had found out a specific to cure it : during our stay upon the island we saw none in whom it had made a great progress, and one who went from us infected, returned after a short time in perfect health ; and by this it appeared either that the disease had cured 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 231 itself, or that they were not unacquainted with the virtues of simples, nor implicit dupes to the super- stitious follies of their priests. We endeavoured to learn the medical qualities which they imputed to their plants, but our knowledge of their language was too imperfect for us to succeed. If we could have learnt their specific for the venereal disease, if such they have, it would have been of great advantage to us, for when we left the island it had been contracted by more than half the people on board the ship. It is impossible but that, in relating incidents, many particulars with respect to the customs, opinions, and works of these people should be anticipated ; to avoid repetition, therefore, I shall only supply de- ficiencies. Of the manner of disposing of their dead, much has been said already. I must more explicitly observe, that there are two places in which the dead are deposited ; one a kind of shed, where the flesh is suffered to putrify ; the other an enclosure, with erections of stone, where the bones are afterwards buried. The sheds are called Tupapow, and the en- closures Moral The Morals are also places of worship. As soon as a native of Otaheite is know^n to be dead, the house is filled with relations, who deplore their loss, some by loud lamentations, and some by less clamorous, but more genuine expressions of grief. Those who are in the nearest degree of kindred, and are really affected by the event, are silent ; the rest are one moment uttering passionate exclamations in a chorus, and the next laughing and talking without the least appearance of concern. In this manner the remainder of the day on w^hich they assemble is spent, and all the succeeding night. On the next morning the body is shrouded in their cloth, and conveyed to the sea-side upon a bier, which the bearers support upon their shoulders, attended by the priest, who, having prayed over the body, repeats his sentences during the procession. When it arrives at Q 4 232 cook's first voyage 1769- the water's edge, it is set down upon the beach ; the priest renews his prayers, and taking up some of the water in his hands, sprinkles it towards the body, but not upon it. It is then carried back forty or fifty yards, and soon after brought again to the beach, where the prayers and sprinkling are repeated : it is thus removed backwards and forwards several times, and while these ceremonies have been performing a house has been built, and a small space of ground railed in. In the centre of this house, or Tupapow, posts are set up to support the bier, which is at length conveyed thither, and placed upon it, and here the body remains to putrify till the flesh is wholly wasted from the bones. These houses of corruption are of a size propor- tioned to the rank of the person whose body they are to contain ; those allotted to the lower class are just sufficient to cover the bier, and have no railing- round them. The largest we ever saw was eleven yards long, and such as these are ornamented according to the abilities and inclination of the surviving kindred, who never fail to lay a profusion of good cloth about the body, and sometimes almost cover the outside of the house. Garlands of the fruit of the palm-nut or "pandanus, and cocoa-leaves, twisted by the priests in mysterious knots, with a plant called by them, Ethee no Moral, which is particularly consecrated to funeral solemnities, are deposited about the place ; provision and water are also left at a little distance, of which, and of other decorations, a more particular descrip- tion has been given already. As soon as the body is deposited in the Tupapow, the mourning is renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door by the nearest relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several times into the crown of her head : the blood copiously follows, and is carefully received upon pieces of linen, which are thrown under the bier. The rest of the women follow this example, and the ceremony is repeated at the inter- 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 233 val of two or three days, as long as the zeal and sorrow of the parties hold out. The tears also which are shed upon these occasions, are received upon pieces of cloth, and offered as oblations to the dead : some of the younger people cut off their hair, and that is thrown under the bier with the other offerings. This custom is founded upon a notion that the soul of the deceased, which they believe to exist in a separate state, is hovering about the place where the body is deposited : that it observes the actions of the survivors, and is gratified by such testimonies of their affection and grief. Two or three days after these ceremonies have been commenced by the women, during which the men seem to be wholly insensible of their loss, they also begin to perform their part. The nearest relations take it in turn to assume the dress, and perform the office, which have already been particularly described in the account of Tubourai Tamaide*s having acted as chief mourner to an old woman, his relation, who died while we were in the island. One part of the ceremony, however, which accounts for the running away of the people as soon as this procession is in sight, has not been mentioned. The chief mourner carries in his hand a long flat stick, the edge of which is set with shark's teeth, and in a phrenzy, which his grief is supposed to have inspired, he runs at all he sees, and if any of them happen to be overtaken, he strikes them most unmercifully with this indented cudgel, which cannot fail to wound them in a dangerous manner. These processions continue at certain intervals for five moons, but are less and less frequent, by a gradual diminution, as the end of that time ap- proaches. When it is expired, what remains of the body is taken down from the bier, and the bones having been scraped and washed very clean, are buried, according to the rank of the person, either within or without a Morai. If the deceased was an 234 cook's first voyage 17^9. Earee, or chief, his skull is not buried with the rest of the bones, but is wrapped up in fine cloth, and put in a kind of box made for that purpose, which is also placed in the Morai. This coffer is called Ewharre no te Orometua, the house of a teacher or master. After this the mourning ceases, except some of the women continue to be really afflicted for the loss, and in that case they will sometimes suddenly wound themselves with the shark's tooth wherever they hap- pen to be : this perhaps will account for the passion of grief in which Terapo wounded herself at the fort ; some accidental circumstance might forcibly revive the remembrance of a friend or relation whom she had lost, with a pungency of regret and tender- ness which forced a vent by tears, and prompted her to a repetition of the funeral rite. The ceremonies, however, do not cease with the mourning : prayers are still said by the priest, who is well paid by the surviving relations, and offerings made at the Morai. Some of the things, which from time to time are deposited there, are emblematical : a young plantain represents the deceased, and the bunch of feathers the deity who is invoked. The priest places himself over against the symbol of the god, accompanied by some of the relations, who are furnished with a small offering, and repeats his oraison in a set form, consisting of separate sen- tences ; at the same time weaving the leaves of the cocoa-nut into different forms, which he afterwards deposits upon the ground where the bones have been interred ; the deity is then addressed by a shrill screech, which is used only upon that occasion. When the priest retires, the tuft of feathers is re- moved, and the provisions left to putrify, or be devoured by the rats. Of the religion of these people, we were not able to acquire any clear and consistent knowledge : we found it like the religion of most other countries, involved in mystery, and perplexed with apparent 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. ^35 inconsistencies. The religious language is also here, as it is in China, different from that which is used in com- mon, so that Tupia, who took great pains to instruct us, having no words to express his meaning which we understood, gave us lectures to very little purpose : what we learnt, however, I will relate with as much perspicuity as I can. Nothing is more obvious to a rational being, how- ever ignorant or stupid, than that the universe and its various parts, as far as they fall under his notice, were produced by some agent inconceivably more powerful than himself; and nothing is more difficult to be conceived, even by the most sagacious and knowing, than the production of them from nothing, which among us is expressed by the word Creation. It is natural, therefore, as no Being apparently capable of producing the universe is to be seen, that he should be supposed to reside in some distant part of it, or to be in his nature invisible, and that he should have originally produced all that now exists in a manner similar to that in which nature is renovated by the succession of one generation to another ; but the idea of procreation includes in it that of two persons, and from the conjunction of two persons these people imagine every thing in the universe, either originally or derivatively, to proceed. The Supreme Deity, one of these two first beings, they call Taroataihetoomoo, and the other, whom they suppose to have been a rock, Tepapa. A daughter of these was Tettowmatatayo, the year, or thirteen months collectively, which they never name but upon this occasion, and she, by the common father, pro- duced the months, and the months, by conjunction with each other, the days ; the stars they suppose partly to be the immediate offspring of the first pair, and partly to have increased among themselves ; and they have the same notion with respect to the dif- ferent species of plants. Among other progeny of Taroataihetoomoo and Tepapa, they suppose an in- 236 cook's first voyage I769. ferior race of deities, whom they call Eatuas. Two of these Eatuas, they say, at some remote period of time, inhabited the earth, and were the parents of the first man. When this man, their common ancestor, was born, they say that he was round like a ball, but that his mother, with great care, drew out his limbs, and having at length moulded him into his present form, she called him Eothe, which signifies Ji7iished. That being prompted by the universal instinct to pro- pagate his kind, and being able to find no female but his mother, he begot upon her a daughter, and upon the daughter other daughters for several gene- rations, before there was a son ; a son, however, being at length born, he, by the assistance of his sisters, peopled the world. Besides their daughter Tettowmatatayo, the first progenitors of nature had a son, whom they called Tane. Taroataihetoomoo, the supreme deity, they emphatically style the causer of earthquakes ; but their prayers are more generally addressed to Tane, whom they suppose to *take a greater part in the affairs of mankind. Their subordinate deities, or Eatuas, which are numerous, are of both sexes : the male are wor- shipped by the men, and the female by the women ; and each have Morais to which the other sex is not admitted, though they have also Morais common to both. Men perform the office of priest to both sexes, but each sex has its priests, for those who officiate for one sex, do not officiate for the other. They believe the immortality of the soul, at least its existence in a separate state, and that there are two situations of different degrees of happiness, some- what analogous to our heaven and hell : the superior situation they call Tavirua Verai, the other Tiahoboo. They do not, however, consider them as places of reward and punishment, but as receptacles for dif- ferent classes ; the first, for their chiefs and principal people, the other for those of inferior rank, for 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. ^3? they do not suppose that their actions here in the least influence their future state, or indeed that they come under the cognizance of their deities at all. Their religion, therefore, if it has no influence upon their morals, is at least disinterested ; and their ex- pressions of adoration and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from a humble sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable excellence of divine perfection. The character of the priest or Tahowa, is heredi- tary : the class is numerous, and consists of all ranks of people ; tlie chief, however, is generally the younger brother of a good family, and is respected in a degree next to their kings. Of the little know- ledge that is possessed in this country, the priests have the greatest share ; but it consists principally in an acquaintance with the names and ranks of the different Eatuas or subordinate divinities, and the opinions concerning the origin of things, which have been traditionally preserved among the order in de- tached sentences, of which some will repeat an in- credible number, though but very few of the words that are used in their common dialect occur in them. The priests, however, are superior to the rest of the people in the knowledge of navigation and as- tronomy ; and, indeed, the name Tahowa signifies no- thing more than a man of knowledge. As there are priests of every class, they officiate only among that class to which they belong : the priest of the inferior class is never called upon by those of superior rank, nor will the priest of the superior rank officiate for any of the inferior class. Marriage in this island, as appeared to us, is no- thing more than an agreement between the man and woman, with which the priest has no concern. Where it is contracted, it appears to be pretty well kept, though sometimes the parties separate by mutual consent, and in that case a divorce takes place with as little trouble as the marriage. 238 cook's first voyage 17^9. But though the priesthood has laid the people un- der no tax for a nuptial benediction, there are two operations which it has appropriated, and from which it derives considerable advantages. One is tattowing, and the other circumcision, though neither of them have any connection with religion. The tattowing has been described already. Circumcision has been adopted merely from motives of cleanliness ; it can- not indeed properly be called circumcision, because the prepuce is not mutilated by a circular wound, but only slit through the upper part to prevent its contracting over the glans. As neither of these can be performed by any but a priest, and as to be with- out either is the greatest disgrace, they may be con- sidered as a claim to surplice fees like our marriages and christenings, which are cheerfully and liberally paid, not according to any settled stipend, but the rank and abilities of the parties or their friends. The Morai, as has already been observed, is at once a burying-ground and a place of worship, and in this particular our churches too much resemble it. The Indian, however, approaches his Morai with a reverence and humility that disgraces the Christian, not because he holds any thing sacred that is there, but because he there worships an invisible divinity, for whom, though he neither hopes for reward, nor fears punishment at his hand, he always expresses the profoundest homage and most humble adoration. I have already given a very particular description both of the Morais and the altars that are placed near them. When an Indian is about to worship at the Morai, or brings his offering to the altar, he always uncovers his body to the waist, and his looks and at- titude are such as sufficiently express a correspond- ing disposition of mind. It did not appear to us that these people are, in any instance, guilty of idolatry ; at least they do not worship any thing that is the work of their hands, nor any visible part of the creation. This island, in- 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. ^39 deed, and the rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron, and others a king's-fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and concerning which they have some superstitious notions with re- spect to good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and robin-red-breast, giving them the name of Eatua, and by no means killing or molesting them ; yet they never address a petition to them, or ap- proach them with any act of adoration. Though I dare not assert that these people, to whom the art of writing, and consequently the re- cording of laws, are utterly unknown, live under a regular form of government ; yet a subordination is established among them, that greatly resembles the early state of every nation in Europe under the feu- dal system, which secured liberty in the most licen- tious excess to a few, and entailed the most abject slavery upon the rest. Their orders are, Earee rahie, which answers to king ; Earee, baron ; Manahouni, vassal ; and Tou- tou, villain. The Earee rahie, of which there are two in this island, one being the sovereign of each of the peninsulas of which it consists, is treated with great respect by all ranks, but did not appear to us to be invested with so much power as was exercised by the Earees in their own districts j nor, indeed, did we, as I have before observed, once see the sovereign of Obereonoo while we were in the island. The Earees are lords of one or more of the districts into which each of the peninsulas is divided, of which there may be about one hundred in the whole island ; and they parcel out their territories to the Manahounies, who cultivate each his part which he holds under the baron. The lowest class, called Toutous, seem to be nearly under the same circumstances as the vil- lains in feudal governments : these do all the laborious work ; they cultivate the land under the Manahounies, who are only nominal cultivators for the lord, they fetch wood and water, and, under the direction of ^240 cook's first voyage 1769. the mistress of the family, dress the victuals : they also catch the fish. Each of* the P]arees keeps a kind of* court, and has a great number of attendants, chiefly the younger brothers of their own tribe ; and among these some hold particular offices, but of what nature exactly we could not tell. One was called the Eowa no VEaree, and another the TVhanno no VEaree, and these were frequently dispatched to us with mes- sages. Of all the courts of these Earees, that of Tootahah was the most splendid, as indeed might reasonably be expected, because he administered the government for Outou, his nephew, who was Earee rahie of Obereonoo, and lived upon his estate. The child of the baron or Earee, as well as of the sovereign or Earee rahie, succeeds to the title and honours of the father as soon as it is born : so that a baron, who was yesterday called Earee, and was approached with the cermony of lowering the garments, so as to un- cover the upper part of the body, is to day, if his wife was last night delivered of a child, reduced to the rank of a private man, all marks of respect being transferred to the child, if it is suffered to live, though the father still continues possessor and administrator of his estate : probably this custom has its share, among other inducements, in forming the societies called Arreoy. If a general attack happens to be made upon the island, every district under the command of an Earee, is obliged to furnish its proportion of soldiers for the common defence. The number furnished by the principal districts, which Tupia recollected, when added together, amounted, as 1 have observed before, to six thousand six hundred and eighty. Upon such occasions, the united force of the whole island is commanded in chief by the Earee rahie. Private difi'erences between two Earees are decided by their own people, without at alf disturb- ing the general tranquillity. 1769, ROUND THE WORLD. 241 Their weapons are slings, which they use with great dexterity, pikes headed with the stings of sting- rays, and clubs, of about six or seven feet long, made of a very hard heavy wood. Thus armed, they are said to fight with great obstinacy, which is the more likely to be true, as it is certain that they give no quarter to either man, woman, or child, who is so unfortunate as to fall into their hands during the battle, or for some hours afterwards, till their passion, which is always violent, though not lasting, has subsided. The Earee rahie of Obereonoo, while we were here, was in perfect amity with the Earee rahie of Tiarre- boo, the other peninsula, though he took himself the title of king of the whole island : this, however, pro- duced no more jealousy in the other sovereign, than the title of king of France, assumed by our sovereign, does in his most Christian Majesty. In a government so rude, it cannot be expected that distributive justice should be regularly adminis- tered, and indeed, where there is so little opposition of interest, in consequence of the facility with which every appetite and passion is gratified, there can be but few crimes. There is nothing like money, the common medium by which every want and every wish is supposed to be gratified by those who do not possess it; there is no apparently permanent good which either fraud or force can unlawfully obtain ; and when all the crimes that are committed by the inhabitants of civilized countries, to get money, are set out of the account, not many will remain : add to this, that where the commerce with women is re- strained by no law, men will seldom be under any temptation to commit adultery, especially as one woman is always less preferred to another, where they are less distinguished by personal decorations, and the adventitious circumstances which are pro- duced by the varieties of art, and the refinements of sentiment. That they are thieves is true ; but as VOL. I. R ^4f2 cook's FIRST VOYAGE 1769» among these people no man can be much injured or benefited by theft, it is not necessary to restrain it by such punishments, as in other countries are abso- lutely necessary to the very existence of civil society. Tupia, however, tells us, that adultery is sometimes committed as well as theft. In all cases where an injury has been committed, the punishment of the offender lies with the sufferer : adultery, if the parties are caught in the fact, is sometimes punished with death in the first ardour of resentment ; but w^ithout circumstances of immediate provocation, the female sinner seldom suffers more than a beating. As punish- ment, however, is enforced by no law, nor taken into the hand of any magistrate, it is not often inflicted, except the injured party is the strongest ; though the chiefs do sometimes punish their immediate de- pendents, for faults committed against each other, and even the dependents of others, if they are ac- cused of any offence committed in their district. Having now given the best description that I can of the island in its present state, and of the people, with their customs and manners, language and arts, I shall only add a few general observations, which may be of use to future navigators, if any of the ships of Great Britain should receive orders to visit it. As it produces nothing that appears to be con- vertible into an article of trade, and can be used only by affording refreshments to shipping in their pas- sage through these seas, it might be made to answer this purpose in a much greater degree, by transport- ing thither sheep, goats, and horned cattle, with European garden-stuff, and other useful vegetables, which there is the greatest reason to suppose will flourish in so fine a climate, and so rich a soil. Though this, and the neighbouring islands lie within the tropic of Capricorn, yet the heat is not troublesome, nor did the winds blow constantly from the east. We had frequently a fresh gale from the S. W. for two or three days, and sometimes, 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 243 though very seldom, from the N. W. Tupia reported, that south westerly winds prevail in October, No- vember, and December, and we have no doubt of the fact. When the winds are variable, they are always accompanied by a swell from the S. W. or W. S. W. ; there is also a swell from the same points when it is calm, and the atmosphere loaded with clouds, which is a sure indication that the winds are variable, or westerly out at sea, for with the settled trade-wind the weather is clear. The meeting with westerly winds, within the general limits of the eastern trade, has induced some navigators to suppose that they were near some large track of land, of which, however, I think they are no indication. It has been found, both by us and the Dolphin, that the trade-wind, in these parts, does not extend farther to the south than twenty degrees, beyond which, we generally found a gale from the westward ; and it is reasonable to suppose, that when these winds blow strong, they will drive back the easterly wind, and consequently encroach upon the limits within which they constantly blow, and thus necessarily produce variable winds, as either happens to prevail, and a south-westerly swell. This supposition is the more probable, as it is well known that the trade-winds blow but faintly for some distance within their limits, and therefore may be more easily stopped or repelled by a wind in the contrary direction : it is also well known, that the limits of the trade-winds vary not only at different seasons of the year, but sometimes at the same season, in different years. There is therefore no reason to suppose that south- westerly winds, within these limits, are caused by the vicinity of large tracts of land, especially as they are always accompanied with a large swell, in the same direction in which they blow ; and we find a much greater surf beating upon the shores of the south- west side of the islands that are situated just withip R 2 244 cook's first voyage I769. the limits of the trade-wind, than upon any other part of them. The tides about these islands are perhaps as in- considerable as in any part of the world. A south or S. by W. moon, makes high water in the bay of Matavai at Otaheite ; but the water very seldom rises perpendicularly above ten or twelve inches. The variation of the compass I found to be 4° 46' easterly, this being the result of a great number of trials made with four of Dr. Knight's needles, adapted to azimuth compasses. These compasses I thought the best that could be procured, yet when applied to the meridian line, I found them to dilier, not only one from another, sometimes a degree and an half, but the same needle, half a degree from itself in dif- ferent trials made on the same day ; and I do not re- member that I have ever found two needles which exactly agreed at the same time and place, though I have often found the same needle agree with itself^ in several trials made one after the other. This im- perfection of the needle, however, is of no conse- quence to navigation, as the variation can always be found to a degree of accuracy, more than sufficient for all nautical purposes. 1769. KOUND THE WORLD. 245 CHAP. XX. A DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL OTHER ISLANDS IN THE NEIGH- BOURHOOD OF OTAHEITE, WITH VARIOUS INCIDENTS ; A DRAMATIC entertainment; AND MANY PARTICULARS REr LATIVE TO THE CUSTOMS AND MANNERS OF THE INHA- BITANTS. After parting with our friends, we made an easy sail, with gentle breezes and clear weather, and were informed by Tupia, that four of the neighbouring islands, which he distinguished by the names of Hua- HEiNE, Ulietea, Otaha, and Bolabola, lay at the distance of between one and two days sail from Ota- heite ; and that hogs, fowls, and other refreshments, with which we had of late been but sparingly sup- plied, were there to be procured in great plenty ; but having discovered from the hills of Otaheite, an island lying to the northward, which he called Te- thuroa, I determined first to stand that way, to take a nearer view of it. It lies N. J W. distant eight leagues from the northern extremity of Otaheite, upon which we had observed the transit, and to which we had, for that reason, given the name of Point Venus. We found it to be a small low island, and were told by Tupia, that it had no settled inhabitants, but was occasionally visited by the inhabitants of Otaheite, who sometimes went thither for a few days to fish ; we therefore determined to spend no more time in a farther examination of it, but to go in search of Huaheine and Ulietea, which he described to be well peopled, and as large as Otaheite. At six o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the westermost part of Eimeo, or York Island, bore S. E. i S. and the body of Otaheite E. ^ S. At noon, the body of York Island bore E. by S. J S. j and Port- R S 246 cook's first voyage july, Royal bay, at Otaheite, S. 70° 45' E. distant 61 miles ; and an island, which we took to be Saunders's Island, called by the natives Tapoamanao, bore S. S. W. We also saw land bearing N. W. ^ W. which Tiipia said was Huaheine. On the 15th, it was hazy, with light breezes and calms succeeding each other, so that we could see no land, and made but little way. Our Indian, Tu- pia, often prayed for a wind to his god Tane, and as often boasted of his success, which indeed he took a very effectual method to secure, for he never began his address to Tane, till he saw a breeze so near that he knew it must reach the ship before his oraison was well over. On the l6th, we had a gende breeze ; and in the morning about eight o'clock, being close in with the north-west part of the island Huaheine, we sounded, but had no bottom with 80 fathom. Some canoes very soon came ofli but the people seemed afraid, and kept at a distance till they discovered Tupia, and then they ventured nearer. In one of the canoes that came up to the ship's side, was the king of the island and his wife. Upon assurances of friendship, frequently and earnestly repeated, their majesties and some others came on board. At first they were struck with astonishment, and wondered at every thing that was shewn them ; yet they made no inquiries, and seeming to be satisfied with what was offered to their notice, they made no search after other objects of curiosity, with which it was natural to suppose a building of such novelty and magnitude as the ship must abound. After some time, they became more familiar. I was given to understand, that the name of the king was Oree, and he proposed, as a mark of amity, that we should exchange names. To this I readily consented ; and he was Cookee, for so he pronounced my name, and I was Oree, for the rest of the time we were together. We found these people to be very nearly the sauie with those of Otaheite, in 1769' ROUND THE WORLD. S47 person, dress, language, and every other circum- stance, except, if Tupia might be believed, that they would not steal. Soon after dinner, we came to an anchor in a small but excellent harbour on the west side of the island, which the natives call Owharre, in eighteen fathom water, clear ground, and secure from all winds. I went immediately ashore, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Mr. Monkhouse, Tupia, King Cookee, and some other of the natives who had been on board ever since the morning. The mo- ment we landed, Tupia stripped himself as low as the waist, and desired Mr. Monkhouse to do the same : he then sat down before a great number of the natives, who were collected together in a large house or shed ; for here, as well as at Otaheite, a house consists only of a roof supported upon poles ; the rest of us, by his desire, standing behind. He then began a speech or prayer, which lasted about a quarter of an hour, the king, who stood over against him, every now and then answering in what appeared to be set responses. In the course of this harangue, he delivered, at different times, two handkerchiefs, a black silk neckcloth, some beads, two small bunches of feathers, and some plantains, as presents to their Eatua, or God. In return for these, he received for oilr Eatua, a hog, some young plantains, and two small bunches of feathers, which he ordered to be carried on board the ship. After these ceremonies, which we supposed to be the ratification of a treaty between us, every one was dismissed to go whither he pleased ; and Tupia immediately repaired to ofier his oblations at one of the Morais. The next morning, we went on shore again, and walked up the hills, where the productions were ex- actly the same as those of Otaheite, except that the rocks and clay appeared to be more burnt. The houses were neat, and the boat-bouses remarkably large 5 one that we measured was fifty paces long, R 4* 24<8 cook's first voyage july, ten broad, and twenty-four feet high, the whole formed a pointed arch, like those of our old cathe- drals, which was supported on one side by twenty- six, and on the other by thirty pillars, or rather posts, about two feet high, and one thick, upon most of which were rudely carved the heads of men, and several fanciful devices, not altogether unlike those which we sometimes see printed from wooden blocks, at the beginning and end of old books. The plains, or flat part of the country, abounded in bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut trees ; in some places, however, there were salt swamps and lagoons, which would produce neither. We went again a-shore on the ISth, and would have taken the advantage of Tupia's company, in our perambulation ; but he was too much engaged with his friends : we took, however, his boy, whose name w^as Tayeto, and Mr. Banks went to take a farther view of what had much engaged his atten- tion before ; it was a kind of chest or ark, the lid of which was nicely sewed on, and thatched very neatly with palm-nut leaves : it was fixed upon two poles, and supported on little arches of wood, very neatly carved ; the use of the poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of our sedan chairs : in one end of it was a square hole, in the middle of which was a ring touching the sides, and leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole within a square one. The first time Mr. Banks saw this coffer, the aperture at the end was stopped with a piece of cloth, which, lest he should give offence, he left untouched ; probably there was then some- thing within, but now the cloth was taken away, and, upon looking into it, it was found empty. The general resemblance between this repository and the Ark of the Lord among the Jews is remarkable -, but it is still more remarkable, that upon inquiring of the boy what it was called, he said, Ewharr^e no EatiiUy the house of the God : he could however give no ac- 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 249 count of its signification or use. We had commenced a kind of trade with the natives, but it went on slowly ; for when any thing was offered, not one of them would take it upon his own judgment, but col- lected the opinions of twenty or thirty people, which could not be done without great loss of time. We got, however, eleven pigs, and determined to try for more the next day. The next day, therefore, we brought out some hatchets, for which we hoped we should have had no occasion, upon an island which no European had ever visited before. These procured us three very large hogs ; and as we proposed to sail in the after- noon. King Oree and several others came on board to take their leave. To the king I gave a small plate of pewter, on which was stamped this inscrip- tion, ** His Britannic-Majesty's ship. Endeavour, Lieutenant Cook, Commander, l6th July, 1769, Hua- heine.'' I gave him also some medals or counters, resembling the coin of England, struck in the year 1761, with some other presents ; and he promised that with none of these, particularly the plate, he would ever part. I thought it as lasting a testimony of our having first discovered this island, as any we could leave behind ; and having dismissed our visi- tors well satisfied, and in great good-humour, we set sail, about half an hour after tv/o in the afternoon. The island of Huaheine, or Huahene, is situated in the latitude of 16° 43' S. and longitude 152° 52' W. from Greenwich : it is distant from Otaheite about thirty-one leagues, in the direction of N. 58 W. and is about seven leagues in compass. Its surface is hilly and uneven, and it has a safe and commodious harbour. The harbour, which is called by the na- tives OwALLE, or OwHARRE, lics ou the west side, under the northernmost high land, and within the north end of the reef, which lies along that side of the island ; there are two inlets or openings, by which it may be entered, through the reef, about a mile 250 cook's first voyage j-uly, and a half distant from each other ; the southernmost is the widest, and on the south side of it lies a very small sandy island. Huaheine seems to be a month forwarder in its j3roductions than Otaheite, as we found the cocoa- nuts full of kernel, and some of the new bread-fruit fit to eat. Of the cocoa-nuts the inhabitants make a food which they call Poe, by mixing them with yams; they scrape both fine, and having incorporated the powder, they put it into a wooden trough, with a number of hot stones, by which an oily kind of hasty- pudding is made, that our people relished very w^ell^ especially when it was fried. Mr. Banks found not more than eleven or twelve new plants ; but he ob- served some insects, and a species of scorpion which he had not seen before. The inhabitants seem to be larger made, and more stout, than those of Otaheite. Mr. Banks measured one of the men, and found him to be six feet three inches and an half high ; yet they are so lazy, that he could not persuade any of them to go up the hills with him : they said, if they were to attempt it, the fatigue would kill them. The women were very fair, more so than those of Otaheite ; and in general, we thought them more handsome, though none that were equal to some individuals. Both sexes seemed to be less timid, and less curious : it has been ob- served, that they made no inquiries on board the ship ; and when we fired a gun, they were frighted indeed, but they did not fall down, as our friends at Otaheite constantlv did when we first came amons: them. For this difference, however, we can easily account upon other principles ; the people at Hua- heine had not seen the Dolphin, those at Otaheite had. In one, the report of a gun was connected with the idea of instant destruction ; to the other, there was nothing dreadful in it but the appearance and the sound, as they had never experienced its power of dispensing death. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 251 While we were on shore, we found that Tupia had commended them beyond their merit, when he said that they would not steal; for one of them was de- tected in the fact. But when he w^as seized by the hair, the rest, instead of running away, as the peo- ple at Otaheite would have done, gathered round, and inquired what provocation had been given : but this also may be accounted for without giving them credit for superior courage ; they had no experience of the consequence of European resentment, which the people at Otaheite had in many instances pur- chased with life. It must, however, be acknowledged, to their honour, that when they understood what had happened, they showed strong signs of disapproba- tion, and prescribed a good beating for the thief, which was immediately administered. We now made sail for the island of ULiETEr\, which lie's S. W. by W. distant seven or eight leagues from Huaheine, and at half an hour after six in the even- ing, we were within three leagues of the shore, on the eastern side. We stood off and on all night, and when the day broke the next morning, we stood in for the shore : we soon after discovered an opening in the reef which lies before theishmd, Avithin which Tupia told us there was a good harbour. I did not, however, implicitly take his word ; but sent the mas- ter out in the pinnace to examine it : he soon made the signal for the ship to follow ; we accordingly stood in, and anchored in two-and-twenty fathom, with soft ground. The natives soon came off to us in two canoes, each of which brought a woman and a pig. The woman we supposed was a mark of confidence, and the pig was a present ; we received both with proper acknow- ledgments, and complimented each of the ladies with a spike nail and some beads, much to their satisfac- tion. We were told by Tupia, who had always ex- pressed much fear of the men of Bolabola, that they had made a conquest of this island ; and that, if we 252 cook's first voyage july^ remained here, they would certainly come down to- morrow, and fight us. We determined, therefore, to go on shore without delay, while the day was our own. 1 landed in company with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solan- der, and the other gentlemen, Tupia being also of the party. He introduced us by repeating the cere- monies which he had performed at Huaheine, after which I hoisted an English jack, and took possession of this and the three neighbouring islands, Huaheine, Otaha, and Bolabola, which were all in sight, in the name of his Britannic Majesty. After this, we took a walk to a great Morai, called Tapodeboatea. We found it very different from those of Otaheite ; for it consisted only of four walls, about eight feet high, of coral stones, some of which were of an immense size, inclosing an area of about five-and-twenty yards square, which was filled up with smaller stones : upon the top of it many planks were set up on end, which were carved in their whole length : at a little distance we found an altar, or Ewhatta, upon which lay the last oblation or sacrifice, a hog of about eighty pounds weight, which had been offered whole, and very nicely roasted. Here were also four or five Ewharre- no-Eatua, or houses of God, to which carriage poles were fitted, like that which we had seen at Huaheine. One of these Mr. Banks examined by putting his hand into it, and found a parcel about five feet long and one thick, wrapped up in mats : he broke a way through several of these mats with his fingers, but at length came to one which was made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut, so firmly plaited together that he found it impossible to tear it, and therefore was forced to desist; especially as he perceived, that what he had done already gave great offence to our new friends. From hence we went to a long house, not far distant, where, among rolls of cloth, and se- veral other things, we saw the model of a canoe, about three feet long, to which were tied eight hu- 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 253 man jaw-bones : we had already learnt that these, like scalps among the Indians of North America, were trophies of war. Tupia affirmed that they were the jaw-bones of the natives of this island : if so, they might have been hung up, with the model of a canoe, as a symbol of invasion, by the warriors of Bolabola, as a memorial of their conquest. Night now came on apace, but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander continued their walk along the shore, and at a little distance saw another Evvharre-no-Eatua, and a tree of the fig kind, the same as that which Mr. Green had seen at Otaheite, in great perfec- tion, the trunk, or rather congeries of the roots of which was forty-two paces in circumference. On the 2ist, having dispatched the master in the long-boat to examine the coast of the south part of the island, and one of the mates in the yawl, to sound the harbour where the ship lay, I went myself in the pinnace, to survey that part of the island which lies to the north. Mr. Banks and the gentle- men were again on shore, trading with the natives, and examining the products and curiosities of the country ; they saw nothing, however, worthy notice, but some more jaw-bones, of which they made no doubt but that the account they had heard was true. On the 22d and 23d, having strong gales and hazy weather, I did not think it safe to put to sea ; but on the 24th, though the wind was still variable, I got under sail, and plied to the northward within the reef, with a view to go out at a wider opening than that by which I had entered j in doing this, however, I was unexpectedly in the most imminent danger of striking on the rock : the master, whom I had ordered to keep continually sounding in the chains, suddenly called out " two fathom." This alarmed me, for though I knew the ship drew at least fourteen feet, and that therefore it was impos- sible such a shoal should be under her keel ; yet the master was either mistaken, or she went along the 254 cook's first v^oyage july, edge of a coral rock, many of which, in the neigh- bourhood of these islands, are as steep as a wall. This harbour, or bay, is called by the natives OoPOA, and taken in its greatest extent, it is capable of holding any number of shipping. It extends al- most the whole length of the east side of the island, and is defended from the sea by a reef of coral rocks : the southernmost opening in this reef, or channel into the harbour, by which we entered, is little more than, a cable's length wide ; it lies off the easternmost part of the island, and may be known by another small woody island, which lies a little to the south-east of it, called by the people here Oatara. Between three and four miles north west from this island, lie two other islets, in the same direction as the reef, of which they are a part, called Opururu and Tamou ; be- tween these lies the other channel into the harbour, through which I went out, and which is a full quar- ter of a mile wide. Still farther to the north-west are some other small islands, near which I am told there is another small channel into the harbour ; but this I know only by report. The principal refreshments that are to be procured at this part of the island are, plantains, cocoa-nuts, yams, hogs, and fowls ; the hogs and fowls, however, are scarce ; and the country, where we saw it, is neither so populous, nor so rich in produce as Ota- heite, or even Huaheine. Wood and w^ater may also be procured, here ; but the water cannot conveniently be got at. We were now again at sea, without having received any interruption from the hostile inhabitants of Bo- labola, whom, notwithstanding the fears of Tupia, we intended to visit. At four o'clock in the after- noon of the 25th, we were within a league of Otaha, which bore N. 77 W. To the northward of the south end of that island, on the east side of it, and some- thing more than a mile from the shore, lie two small islands, called Toahoutu and Whennuaia j between 17 4; t m ^k % 1769- ROUND THE WORLD. 255 which, Tupia says, there is a channel into a very good harbour, which lies within the reef, and appearances confirmed his report. As I discovered a broad channel between Otaha and Bolabola, I determined rather to go through it, than run to the northward of all ; but the wind being right a-head, I got no ground. Between five and six in the evening of the 26th, as I was standing to the northward, I discovered a small low island, lying N. by W. or N. N. W. distant four or ^ve leagues from Bolabola. We were told by Tupia that the name of this island isTuBAi; that it produces nothing but cocoa-nuts, and is inhabited only by three families ; though it is visited by the in- habitants of the neighbouring islands, who resort thi- ther to catch fish, with which the coast abounds. On the 27th, about noon, the peak of Bolabola bore N. 25 W, and the north end of Otaha, N. 80 W. distant three leagues. The wind continued contrary all this day and the night following. On the 28th, at six in the morning, we were near the entrance of the harbour on the east side of Otaha, which has been just mentioned ; and finding that it might be examined without losing time, I sent away the master in the long-boat, with orders to sound it ; and, if the wind did not shift in our favour, to land upon the island, and traffic with the natives for such refresh- ments as were to be had. In this boat went Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who landed upon the island, and before night purchased three hogs, twenty-one fowls, and as many yams and plantains as the boat would hold. Plantains we thought a more useful re- freshment even than pork ; for they were boiled and served to the ship's company as bread, and were now the more acceptable as our bread was so full of ver- min, that notwithstanding all possible care, we had sometimes twenty of them in our mouths at a time, everyone of which tasted as hot as mustard. The island seemed to be more barren than Ulietea, but the pro- 0^6 cook's first voyage JULY. duce was of the same kind. The people also exactlj' resembled those that we had seen at the other islands; they were not numerous, but they flocked about the boat wherever she went from all quarters, bringing with them whatever they had to sell. They paid the strangers, of whom they had received an account from Tupia, the same compliment which they used towards their own kings, uncovering their shoulders, and wTapping their garments round their breasts ; and were so solicitous to prevent its being neglected by any of their people, that a man was sent with them, who called out to every one they met, telling him what they were, and what he was to do. In the mean time, I kept plying off and on, wait- ing for the boat's return ; at half an hour after ^ve, not seeing any thing of her, I fired a gun, and after it was dark hoisted a light ; at half an hour after eight, we heard the report of a musquet, which we answered with a gun, and soon after the boat came on board. The master reported, that the harbour was safe and commodious, with good anchorage from twenty-five to sixteen fathom water, clear ground. As soon as the boat was hoisted in, I made sail to the northward, and at eight o'clock in the morning of the 29th, we were close under the Peak of Bola- bola, which was high, rude, and craggy. As the is- land was altogether inaccessible in this part, and we found it impossible to weather it, we tacked and stood off, then tacked again, and after many trips did not weather the south end of it till twelve o'clock at night. At eight o'clock the next morning, we dis- covered an island, which bore from us N. 63° W. dis- tant about eight leagues ; at the same time the Peak of Bolabola bore N. J E. distant three or four leagues. This island Tupia called Maurua, and said that it was small, wholly surrounded by a reef, and without any harbour for shipping ; but inhabited, and bearing the same produce as the neighbouring islands : the 17^^1)- ROUND THE WORLD. 25^ middle of it rises in a high round hill, that may be seen at the distance of ten leagues. When we were off Bolabola, we saw but few people on the shore, and were told by Tupia that many of the inhabitants were gone to Ulietea. In the after- noon we found ourselves nearly the length of the south end of Ulietea, and to windward of some har- bours that lay on the west side of this island. Into one of these harbours, though we had before been ashore on the other side of the island, I intended to put, in order to stop a leak which we had sprung in the powder room, and to take in more ballast, as I found the ship too light to carry sail upon a wind. As the wind was right against us, we plied off one of the harbours, and about three o'clock in the after- noon on the 1st of August, we came to an anchor in the entrance of the channel leading into it, in four- teen fathom water, being prevented from working in, by a tide which set very strong out. We then car- ried out the kedge-anchor, in order to warp into the harbour ; but when this was done, we could not trip the bower-anchor with all the purchase we could make ; we were therefore obliged to lie still all night, and in the morning, when the tide turned, the ship going over the anchor, it tripped of itself, and we warped the ship into a proper birth with ease, and moored in twenty-eight fathom, with a sandy bottom. While this was doing, many of the natives came off to us with hogs, fowls, and plantains, which they parted with at an easy rate. When the ship was secured, I went on shore to look for a proper place to get ballast and water, both which I found in a very convenient situation. This day Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander spent on shore, very much to their satisfaction : every body seemed to fear and respect them, placing in them at the same time the utmost confidence, behaving as if conscious that they possessed the powder of doing them mischief j without any propensity to make use VOL. I. s 258 cook's first voyage august, of it. Men, women, and children, crowded round them, and followed them wherever they went ; but none of them were guilty of the least incivility : on the contrary, whenever there happened to be dirt or water in the way, the men vied with each other to carry them over on their backs. They were con- ducted to the houses of the principal people, and were received in a manner altogether new : the peo- ple, who followed them while they were in their way, rushed forward as soon as they came to a house, and went hastily in before them, leaving however a lane sufficiently wide for them to pass. When they en- tered, they found those who had preceded them ranged on each side of a long matt, which was spread upon the ground, and at the farther end of which sat the family : in the first house they entered, they found some very young women or children, dressed with the utmost neatness, who kept their station, ex- pecting the strangers to come up to them and make them presents, which they did with the greatest plea- sure ; for prettier children, or better dressed, they had never seen. One of them was a girl about six years old ; her gown or upper garment was red ; a large quantity of platted hair was wound round her head, the ornament to which they give the name of Tamou, and which they value more than any thing they pos- sess. She sat at the upper end of a matt thirty feet long, upon which none of the spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the crowd ; and she leaned upon the arm of a well-looking woman about thirty, who was probably her nurse. Our gentlemen walked up to her, and as soon as they approached, she stretched out her hand to receive the beads which they offered her, and no princess in Europe could have done it with a better grace. The people were so much gratified by the presents which were made to these girls, that when Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander returned, they seemed atten- tive to nothing but how to oblige them : and in one 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 259 of the houses, they were, by order of the master, en* tertained with a dance different from any that they had seen. It was performed by one man, who put upon his head a large cylindrical piece of wicker- work, or basket, about four feet long and eight inches in diameter, which was faced with feathers, placed perpendicularly, with the tops bending forwards, and edged round with shark's teeth, and the tail feathers of tropic birds : when he had put on this head-dress, which is called a WhoWy he began to dance, moving slowly, and often turning his head so as that the top of his high wicker-cap described a circle, and some- times throwing it so near the faces of the spectators as to make them start back : this was held among them as a very good joke, and never failed to produce a peal of laughter, especially when it was played off upon one of the strangers. On the 3d, we went along the shore to the north- ward, which was in a direction opposite to that of the route Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had taken the day before, with a design to purchase stock, which we always found the people more ready to part with, and at a more easy price, at their houses than at the market. In the course of our walk, we met with a company of dancers, who detained us two hours, and during all that time afforded us great entertain- ment. The company consisted of two women dancers, and six men, with three drums ; we were informed by Tupia, that they were some of the most consider- able people of the island, and that, though they were continually going from place to place, they did not, like thelittle strolling companies of Otaheite, take any gratuity from the spectators. The women had upon their heads a considerable quantity of Tamou, or platted hair, which was brought several times round the head, and adorned in many parts with the flowers of the cape-jessamine, which were stuck in with much taste, and made a head-dress truly elegant. Their necks, shoulders, and arms, were naked 5 so s 2 OQO cook's first voyage ' AUGUST, were the breasts also, as low as the parting of the arm ; below that, they were covered with black cloth, which set close to the body ; at the side of each breast, next the arm, was placed a small plume of black feathers, much in the same manner as our ladies now wear their nosegays or bouquets ; upon their hips rested a quan- tity of cloth plaited very full, which reached up to the breast, and fell down below into long petticoats, which quite concealed their feet, and which they managed with as much dexterity as our opera dancers could have done : the plaits above the waist were brown and white alternately, the petticoats below were all white. In this dress they advanced sideways in a measured step, keeping excellent time to the drums, which beat briskly and loud ; soon after they began to shake their hips, giving the folds of cloth that lay upon them a very quick motion, which was in some degree continued through the whole dance, though the body was thrown into various postures, sometimes stand- ing, sometimes sitting, and sometimes resting on their knees and elbows, the fingers also being moved at the same time with a quickness scarcely to be im- agined. Much of the dexterity of the dancers, how- ever, and the entertainment of the spectators, con- sisted in the wantonness of their attitudes and ges- tures, which was, indeed, such as exceeds all de- scription. One of these girls had in her ear three pearls ; one of them was very large, but so foul that it was of little value ; the other two were as big as a middling pea ; these were clear, and of a good colour and shape, though spoiled by the drilling. Mr. Banks would fain have purchased them, and offered the owner any thing she would ask for them, but she could not be persuaded to part with them at any price : he tempted her with the value of four hogs, and whatever else she should choose, but without success ; and indeed they set a value upon their pearls very nearly 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 26l equal to what they would fetch among us, except they could be procured before they are drilled. Between the dances of the women, the men per- formed a kind of dramatic interlude, in which there was dialogue as well as dancing ; but we were not sufficiently acquainted with their language to under- stand the subject. On the 4th, some of our gentlemen saw a much more regular entertainment of the dramatic kind, which was divided into four acts. Tupia had often told us that he had large posses- sions in this island, which had been taken away from him by the inhabitants of Bolabola, and he now pointed them out in the very bay where the ship was at anchor. Upon our going on shore, this was con- firmed by the inhabitants, who showed us several dis- tricts or Whennuas, which they acknowledged to be his right. On the 5th, I received a present of three hogs, some fowls, several pieces of cloth, the largest we had seen, being fifty yards long, which they unfolded and displayed so as to make the greatest show possi- ble ; and a considerable quantity of plantains, cocoa- nuts, and other refreshments, from Opoony, the for- midable king, or, in the language of the country, Earee rahie, of Bolabola, with a message that he was at this time upon the island, and that the next day he intended to pay me a visit. In the mean time Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went upon the hills, accompanied by several of the Indians, who conducted them by excellent paths, to such a height, that they plainly saw the other side of the island, and the passage through which the ship had passed the reef between the little islands of Opu- ruru and Tamou, when we landed upon it the first time. As they were returning, they saw the Indians exercising themselves at what they call Erowhaw, which is nothing more than pitching a kind of light lance, headed with hard wood, at a mark : in this s 3 262 cook's first voyage august, amusement, though they seem very fond of it, they do not excel, for not above one in twelve struck the mark, which was the bole of a plantain tree, at about twenty yards distance. On the 6th, we all staid at home, expecting the visit of the great king, but we were disappointed ; we had, however, much more agreeable company, for he sent three very pretty girls to demand some- thing in return for his present : perhaps he was un- willing to trust himself on board the ship, or perhaps he thought his messengers would procure a more valuable return for his hogs and poultry than he could himself ; be that as it may, we did not regret his absence, nor his messengers their visit. In the afternoon, as the great king would not come to us, we determined to go to the great king. As he was lord of the Bolabola men, the conquerors of this, and the terror of all the other islands, we expected to see a chief young and vigorous, with an intelligent countenance, and an enterprising spirit : we found, however, a poor feeble wretch, withered and decrepit, half blind with age, and so sluggish and stupid that he appeared scarcely to have understand- ing enough left to know that it was probable we should be gratified either by hogs or women. He did not receive us sitting, or with any state or formality as the other chiefs had done : we made him our present, which he accepted, and gave a hog in return. We had learnt that his principal residence was at Otaha ; and upon our telling him that we intended to go thither in our boats the next morning, and that we should be glad to have him along with us, he pro- mised to be of the party. Early in the morning, therefore, I set out both with the pinnace and long-boat for Otaha, having some of the gentlemen with me ; and in our way we called upon Opoony, who was in his canoe, ready to join us. As soon as we landed at Otaha, I made him a present of an axe, which 1 thought might induce 4 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 268 him to encourage his subjects to bring us such provision as we wanted ; but in this we found our- selves sadly disappointed ; for after staying with him till noon, we left him without being able to procure a single article. I then proceeded to the north point of the island, in the pinnace, having sent the long- boat another way. As I went along, I picked up half a dozen hogs, as many fowls, and some plantains and yams. Having viewed and sketched the harbour on this side of the island, I made the best of my way back with the long-boat, which joined me soon after it was dark ; and about ten o'clock at night we got on board the ship. In this excursion Mr. Banks was not with us : he spent the morning on board the ship, trading with the natives, who came off in their canoes, for pro- visions and curiosities ; and, in the afternoon, he went on shore with his draughtsmen, to sketch the dresses of the dancers which he had seen a day or two before. He found the company exactly the same, except that another woman had been added to it : the dancing also of the women was the same, but the interludes of the men were somewhat varied ; he saw five or six performed, which were different from each other, and very much resembled the drama of our stage dances. The next day, he went ashore again, with Dr. Solander, and they directed their course towards the dancing company, which, from the time of our second landing, had gradually moved about two leagues in their course round the island. They saw more dancing, and more interludes, the interludes still varying from each other : in one of them the performers, who were all men, were divided into two parties, which were distinguished from each other by the colour of their clothes, one being brown, and the other white. The brown party represented a master and servants, and the white party a company of thieves : the master gave a basket of meat to the rest of his party> with a charge to take care of it : the s 4< 264 cook's first voyage august, dance of the white party consisted of several ex- pedients to steal it, and that of the brown party in preventing their success. After some time, those who had charge of the basket placed themselves round it upon the ground, and, leaning upon it, appeared to go to sleep ; the others, improving this opportunity, came gently upon them, and lifting them up from the basket, carried off their prize : the sleepers, soon after awaking, missed their basket, but presently fell a dancing, without any farther regard- ing their loss ; so that the dramatic action of this dance was, according to the severest laws of criticism, one, and our lovers of simplicity would here have been gratified with an entertainment perfectly suited to the chastity of their taste. On the 9th, having spent the morning in trading with the canoes, we took the opportunity of a breeze, which sprung up at east, and having stopped our leak, and got the fresh stock which we had purchased on board, we sailed out of the harbour. When we were sailing away, Tupia strongly urged me to fire a shot towards Bolabola, possibly as a mark of his resent- ment, and to show the power of his new allies : in this I thought proper to gratify him, though we were seven leagues distant. While we were about these islands, we expended very little of the ship's provisions, and were very plentifully supplied with hogs, fowls, plantains and yams, which we hoped would have been of great use to us in our course to the southward ; but the hogs would not eat European grain of any kind, pulse, or bread-dust, so that we could not preserve them alive ; and the fowls were all very soon seized with a dis- ease that affected the head so, that they continued to hold it down between their legs till they died : much dependence, therefore, must not be placed in live stock taken on board at these places, at least not till a discovery is made of some food that the hogs will eat, and some remedy for the disease of the poultry. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 265 Having been necessarily detained at Ulietea so long, by the carpenters, in stopping our leak, we de- termined to give np our design of going on shore at Bolabola, especially as it appeared to be difficult of access. To these six islands, Ulietea, Otaha, Bolabola, Huaheine, Tubai, and Maurua, as they lie contiguous to each other, I gave the names of Society Islands, but did not think it proper to distinguish them se- parately by any other names than those by which they were known to the natives. They are situated between the latitude of 16° 10' and IG"" 55' S,, and between the longitude of 150° 5T and 152° W. from the meridian of Greenwich. Ulietea and Otaha lie within about two miles of each other, and are both inclosed within one reef of coral rocks, so that there is no passage for shipping between them. This reef forms several excellent harbours ; the entrances into them, indeed, are but narrow, yet when a ship is once in, nothing can hurt her. The harbours on the east side have been described already ; and on the west side of Ulietea, which is the largest of the two, there are three. The northern- most, in which we lay, is called Ohamaneno : the channel leading into it is about a quarter of a mile wide, and lies between two low sandy islands, which are the northernmost on this side ; between, or just within the two islands, there is good anchorage in twenty-eight fathom, soft ground. This harbour, though small, is preferable to the others, because it is situated in the most fertile part of the island, and where fresh water is easily to be got. The other two harbours lie to the southward of this, and not far from the south end of the island : in both of them there is good anchorage, with ten, twelve, and fourteen fathom. They are easily known by three small woody islands at their entrance. The southern- most of these two harbours lies within, and to the southward of the southernmost of these islands, and 266 cook's first voyage august, the other h'es between the two northernmost. I was told that there were more harbours at the south end of this island, but I did not examine whether the report was true. Otaha affords two very good harbours, one on the east side, and the other on the west. That on the east side is called Ohamene, and has been mentioned already ; the other is called Oherurua, and lies about the middle of the south-west side of the island ; it is pretty large, and affords good anchorage in twenty and twenty-five fathom, nor is there any want of fresh water. The breach in the reef, that forms a channel into this harbour, is about a quarter of a mile broad, and, like all the rest, is very steep on both sides : in general there is no danger here but what is visible. The island of Bolabola lies N. W. and by W. from Otaha, distant about four leagues *, it is surrounded by a reef of rocks, and several small islands, in compass together about eight leagues. 1 was told, that, on the south-west side of the island, there is a channel through the reef into a very good harbour, but I did not think it worth while to examine it, for the reasons that have been just assigned. This island is rendered very remarkable by a high craggy hill, which appears to be almost perpendicular, and terminates at the top in two peaks, one higher than the other. The land of Ulietea and Otaha is hilly, broken, and irregular, except on the sea-coast, yet the hills look green and pleasant, and are, in many places, clothed with wood. The several particulars in which these islands, and their inhabitants, differ from what we had observed, at Otaheite, have been mentioned in the course of the narrative. We pursued our course without any event worthy of note till the 13th, about noon, when we saw land bearing S. E., which Tupia told us was an island called Oheteroa. About six in the evening, we were within two or three leagues of it, upon which I shortened sail, and stood off and on all night j the 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 9G^ next morning stood in for the land. AVe ran to lee- ward of the island, keeping close in shore, and saw several of the natives, though in no great numbers, upon the beach. At nine o'clock I sent Mr. Gore, one of my lieutenants, in the pinnace, to endeavour to land upon the island, and learn from the natives whether there was anchorage in a bay then in sight, and what land lay farther to the southward. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander accompanied Mr. Gore in this expedition, and as they thought Tupia might be useful, they took him with them. As the boat approached the shore, those on board perceived the natives to be armed with long lances : as they did not intend to land till they got round a point which runs out at a little distance, they stood along the coast, and the natives, therefore, very pro- bably thought they were afraid of them. They bad now got together to the number of about sixty, and all of them sat down upon the shore, except two, who were dispatched forward to observe the motions of those in the boat. These men, after walking abreast of her some time, at length leaped into the water, and swam towards her, but were soon left behind; two more then appeared, and attempted to board her in the same man- ner, but they also were soon left behind ; a fifth man then ran forward alone, and having got a good way a-head of the boat before he took to the water, easily reached her. Mr, Banks urged the officer to take him in, thinking it a good opportunity to get the confidence and good-will of a people, who then certainly looked upon them as enemies, but he ob- stinately refused ; this man, therefore, was left behind like the others, and so was a sixth, who followed him. When the boat had got round the point, she per- ceived that all her followers had desisted from the pursuit : she now opened a large bay, at the bottom of which appeared another body of men, armed with long lances like the first. Here our people prepared to 268 cook's first voyage august, land, and pushed towards the shore, a canoe at the same time putting off to meet them. As soon as it came near them, they lay upon their oars, and calling out to them, told them that they were friends, and, that if they would come up, they would give them nails, which were held up for them to see: after some hesitation they came up to the boat's stern, and took some nails that were offered them with great seeming satisfaction ; but in less than a minute they appeared to have formed a design of boarding the boat, and making her their prize : three of them suddenly leaped into it, and the others brought up the canoe, which the motion in quitting her had thrown off a little, manifestly with a design to follow their associates, and support them in their attempt. The first that boarded the boat, entered close to Mr. Banks, and instantly snatched his powder-horn out of his pocket : Mr. Banks seized it, and with some difficulty wrenched it out of his hand, at the same time pressing against his breast in order to force him over-board, but he was too strong for him, and kept his place : the officer then snapped his piece, but it missed fire, upon which he ordered some of the people to fire over their heads ; two pieces were accordingly discharged, upon which they all instantly leaped into the water : one of the people, either from cowardice or cruelty, or both, levelled a third piece at one of them as he was swimming away, and the ball grazed his forehead ; happily, however, the wound was very slight, for he recovered the canoe, and stood up in her as active and vigorous as the rest. The canoe immediately stood in for the shore, where a great number of people, not less than two hundred, were now assembled. The boat also pushed in, but found the land guarded all round with a shoal, upon which the sea broke with a considerable surf; it was, therefore, thought advisable by the officer to proceed along shore in search of a more con- venient landing-place : in the mean time, the people 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 269 on board saw the canoe go on shore, and the natives gather eagerly round her to enquire the particulars of what had happened. Soon after, a single man ran along the shore, armed with his lance, and when he came a-breast of the boat, he began to dance, brandish his weapon, and call out in a very shrill tone, which Tupia said was a defiance from the people. The boat continued to row along the shore, and the champion followed it, repeating his defiance by his voice and his gestures ; but no better landing-place being found than that where the canoe had put the natives on shore, the officer turned back with a view to attempt it there, hoping, that if it should not be practicable, the people would come to a conference either on the shoals or in their canoes, and that a treaty of peace might be concluded with them. As the boat rowed slowly along the shore back again, another champion came down, shouting de- fiance, and brandishing his lance : his appearance was more formidable than that of the other, for he wore a large cap made of the tail feathers of the tropic bird, and his body was covered with stripes of different coloured cloth, yellow, red, and brown. This gentleman also danced, but with much more nimbleness and dexterity than the first ; our people therefore, considering his agility and his dress, dis- tinguished him by the name of Harlequin. Soon after a more grave and elderly man came down to the beach, and hailing the people in the boat, in- quired who they were, and from whence they came ; Tupia answered in their own language, from Ota- heite : the three natives then walked peaceably along the shore till they came to a shoal, upon which a few people were collected ; here they stopped, and after a short conference, they all began to pray very loud : Tupia made his responses, but continued to tell us that they were not our friends. When their prayer, or, as they call it, their FQorah^ was over, our people entered into a parley with them, telling them, that. TJO cook's first voyage august, if they would lay by their lances and clubs, for some had one and some the other, they would come on shore, and trade with them for whatever they would bring : they agreed, but it was only upon condition that we would leave behind us our musquets : this was a condition which, however equitable it might appear, could not be complied with, nor indeed would it have put the two parties upon an equality, except their numbers had been equal. Here then the ne- gociation seemed to be at an end ; but in a little time they ventured to come nearer to the boat, and at last came near enough to trade, which they did very fairly, for a small quantity of their cloth and some of their weapons ; but as they gave our people no hope of provisions, nor indeed any thing else, ex- cept they would venture through a narrow channel to the shore, which, all circumstances considered, they did not think it prudent to do, they put off the boat and left them. With the ship and the boat we had now made the circuit of the island, and finding that there was neither harbour nor anchorage about it, and that the hostile disposition of the people would render land- ing impracticable, without bloodshed, I determined not to attempt it, having no motive that could justify the risk of life. The bay which the boat entered lies on the west side of the island, the bottom was foul and rocky, but the water so clear that it could plainly be seen at the depth of five and twenty fathom, which is one hundred and fifty feet. This island is situated in the latitude of 22° 27' S. and in the longitude of 150° 4?" W. from the meri- dian of Greenwich. It is thirteen miles in circuit, and rather high than low, but neither populous nor fertile in proportion to the other islands that we had seen in these seas. The chief produce seems to be the tree of which they make their weapons, called in their language Etoa ; many plantations of it were 17(39. ROUND THE WORLD. 271 seen along the sliore, which is not surrounded, like the neighbouring islands, by a reef. The people seemed to be lusty and well made, rather browner than those we had left : under their arm-pits they had black marks about as broad as the hand, the edges of which formed not a straight but an indented line : they had also circles of the same colour, but not so broad, round their arms and legs, but were not marked on any other part of the body. Their dress was very different from any that we had seen before, as well as the cloth of which it was made. The cloth was of the same materials as that which is worn in the other islands, and most of that which was seen by our people was dyed of a bright but deep yellow, and covered on the outside with a composition like varnish, which was either red, or of a dark lead-colour ; over this ground it was again painted in stripes of many different patterns, w^ith wonderful regularity, in the manner of our striped silks in England : the cloth that was painted red was striped with black, and that which was painted lead- colour with white. Their habit was a short jacket of this cloth, which reached about as low as their knees ; it was of one piece, and had no other making than a hole in the middle of it, stitched round with long stitches, in which it differed from all that we had seen before : through this hole the head was put, and what hung down was confined to their bodies by a piece of yellow cloth or sash, which, passing round the neck behind, was crossed upon the breast, and then collected round the waist like a belt, which passed over another belt of red cloth, so that they made a very gay and warlike appearance ; some had caps of the feathers of the tropic bird, which have been before described, and some had a piece of white or lead-coloured cloth wound about the head like a small turban, which our people thought more be- coming. Their arms were long lances, made of the Etoa, oy2 cook's first voyage august, the wood of which is very hard ; they were well poHshed and sharpened at one end : some were near twenty feet long, though not more than three fingers thick : they had also a weapon, which was both club and pike, made of the same wood, about seven feet long ; this also was well polished, and sharpened at one end into a broad point. As a guard against these weapons, when they attack each other, they have matts folded up many times, which they place under their clothes from the neck to the waist : the weapons themselves indeed are capable of much less mischief than those of the same kind which we saw at the other islands, for the lances were there pointed with the sharp bone of the stingray that is called the sting, and the pikes were of much greater weight. The other things that we saw here were all superior in their kind to any we had seen before ; the cloth was of a better colour in the dye, and painted with greater neatness and taste ; the clubs were better cut and polished, and the canoe, though a small one, was very rich in ornament, and the carving was executed in a better manner : among other decorations pecu- liar to this canoe, was a line of small white feathers, which hung from the head and |stern on the outside, and which, when we saw them, were thoroughly wetted by the spray. Tupia told us, that there were several islands lying at difterent distances, and in different directions from this, between the south and the north west ; and that, at the distance of three days' sail to the north-east, there was an island called Manua, Bird-island : he seemed, however, most desirous that we should sail to the westward, and described several islands in that direction which he said he had visited : he told us that he had been ten or twelve days in going thither, and thirty in coming back, and that the Pa- hie in which he had made the voyage, sailed much faster than the ship : reckoning his Pahie therefore to go at the rate of forty leagues a day, which, from 17n9. ROUND THE WORLD. 273 my own observation, I Imve great reason to think these boats will do, it would make four hundred leagues in ten days, which I compute to be the distance of* Boscawen and Keppel's Islands, discovered by Cap- tain Wallis, westward of Ulietea, and therefore think it very probable that they were the islands he had visited. The farthest island that he knew any thing of to the southward, he said, lay at the distance of about two days' sail from Oteroah, and was called MouTOU ; but he said that his father had told him there were islands to the southward of that : upon the whole, I was determined to stand southward in search of a continent, but to spend no time in search- ing for islands, if we did not happen to fall in with them during our course. VOL, L 274 cook's first voyage august. BOOK II. CHAP. I. THE PASSAGE FROM OTEROAH TO NEW ZEALAND ; INCIDENTS WHICH HAPPENED ON GOING A-SHORE THERE, AND WHILE THE SHIP LAY IN POVERTY BAY. We sailed from Oteroah on the 15th of August, and on Friday the 25th we celebrated the anniver- sary of our leaving England, by taking a Cheshire cheese from a locker, where it had been carefully treasured up for this occasion, and tapping a cask of porter, which proved to be very good, and in excel- lent order. On the 29th, one of the sailors got so drunk, that the next morning he died : we thought at first that he could not have come honestly by the liquor, but we afterwards learnt that the boatswain, whose mate he was, had, in mere good-nature, given him part of a bottle of rum. On the 30th, we saw the comet ; at one o'clock in the morning, it was a little above the horizon in the eastern part of the heavens ; at about half an hour after four it passed the meridian, and its tail sub- tended an angle of forty-two degrees. Our latitude was 38° 20' S., our longitude, by log, 147° & W., and the variation of the needle, by the azimuth, 7° 9' E. Among others that observed the comet, was Tupia, who instantly cried out, tliat as soon as it should be seen by the people of Bolabola, they would kill the inhabitants of Ulietea, who would, with the ut- most precipitation, fly to the mountains. On the 1st of September, being in the latitude of 40° 22' S., and longitude 147° 29' W., and there not being any signs of land, with a heavy sea from 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. ^15 the westward, and strong gales, I wore, and stood back to the northward, fearing that we might receive such damage in our sails and rigging, as would hin- der the prosecution of the voyage. On the next day, there being strong gales to the westward, I brought to, with the ship's head to the northward ; but in the morning of the 3d, the wind being more moderate, we loosened the reef of the main-sail, set the top-sails, and plied to the westward. We continued our course till the 19th, when our latitude being 29° and our longitude 159° 29', we observed the variation to be 8° 32' E. On the 24th, bein^ in latitude 33° 18', longitude 162° 51', we ob- served a small piece of sea-weed, and a piece ot wood covered with barnacles: the variation here was 10° 48' E. On the 27th, being in latitude 28° 59', longitude 169° 5', we saw a seal asleep upon the water, and several bunches of sea-weed. The next day we saw more sea-weed in bunches, and on the 29th, a bird, which we thought a land-bird; it somewhat resembled a snipe, but had a short bill. On the 1st of Octo- ber, we saw birds innumerable, and another seal asleep upon the water ; it is a general opinion, that seals never go out of soundings, or far from land, but those that we saw in these seas prove the con- trary. Rock- weed is, however, a certain indication that land is not far distant. The next day, it being calm, we hoisted out the boat, to try whether there was a current, but found none. Our latitude was 37° 10; longitude 172° 54' W. On the 3d, being in latitude S^° 5ij\ longitude 173° ^7', we took up more sea-weed, and another piece of wood covered with barnacles. The next day, we saw two more seals, and a brown bird, about as big as a raven, with some white feathers under the wing. Mr. Gore told us, that birds of this kind were seen in great numbers about Falkland's Islands, and our people gave them the name of Port-Egmont hens. T 2 276 cook's first voyage OCT. On the 5th, wc thought the water changed colour, but, upon casting the lead, had no ground with 180 fathom. In the evening of this day, the variation was 12° 50' E., and, while we were going nine leagues, it increased to 14° 2'. On the next day, Friday, October the 6th, we saw land from the mast-head, bearing W. by N., and stood directly for it ; in the evening, it could just be dis- cerned from the deck, and appeared large. The variation this day was, by azimuth and amplitude, 15° 4i' E., and by observation made of the sun and moon, the longitude of the ship appeared to be ISO"" 55' W., and by the medium of this and subsequent observations, there appeared to be an error in the ship's account of longitude during her run from Ota- heite of 3° 16', she being so much to the westward of the longitude resulting from the log. At midnight, I brought to and sounded, but had no ground with one hundred and seventy fathom. On the 7thj it fell calm, we therefore approached the land slowly, and in the afternoon, when a breeze sprung up, we were still distant seven or eight leagues. It appeared still larger as it was more dis- tinctly seen, with four or five ranges of hills, rising one over the other, and a chain of mountains above all, which appeared to be of an enormous height. This land became the subject of much eager convers- ation ; but the general opinion seemed to be that we had found the Terra austraUs incognita. About ^ve o'clock, we saw the opening of a bay, which seemed to run pretty far inland, upon which we hauled our wind and stood in for it ; we also saw smoke ascend- ing from different places onshore. When night came on, however, we kept plying off and on till day-light, when we found ourselves to the leeward of the bay, the wind being at north : we could now perceive that the hills were clothed with wood, and that some of the trees in the valleys were very large. By noon we fetched in with the south-west point ; but not being 7 176y. HOUND THE WORLD. '^77 able to weather it, tacked and stood otF: at this time we saw several canoes standing cross the bay, which, in a little time, made to shore, without seeming to take the least notice of the ship ; we also saw some houses, which appeared to be small, but neat ; and near one of them a considerable number of the people collected together, who were sitting upon the beach, and who, we thought, were the same that we had seen in the canoes. Upon a small peninsula, at the north-east head, we could plainly perceive a pretty high and regular paling, which inclosed the whole top of a hill ; this was also the subject of much spe- culation, some supposing it to be a park of deer, others an inclosure for oxen and sheep. About four o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored on the north- west side of the bay, before the entrance of a small river, in ten fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, and at about half a league from the shore. The sides of the bay are white cliffs of a great height ; the mid- dle is low^ land, with hills gradually rising behind, one tow^ering above another, and terminating in the chain of mountains, which appeared to be far inland. In the evening 1 went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with the pinnace and yawl, and a party of men. We landed abreast of the ship, on the east side of the river, which was here about forty yards broad ; but seeing some natives on the west side whom I wished to speak with, and find- ing the river not fordable, I ordered the yawl in to carry us over, and left the pinnace at the entrance. When we came near the place where the people were assembled, they all ran away ; however, we landed, and leaving four boys to take care of the yawl, we walked up to some huts which were about two or three hundred yards from the water-side. When we had got some distance from the boat, four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and run- ning up to attack the boat, would certainly have cut her ofii if the people in the pinnace had not dis- t3 278 cook's first voyage oct. covered them, and called to the boys to drop down the stream : the boys instantly obeyed ; but being closely pursued by the Indians, the Cockswain of the ])innace, who had the charge of the boats, fired a musket over their heads ; at this they stopped and looked round them, but in a few minutes renewed the pursuit, brandishing their lances in a threatening manner : the Cockswain then fired a second musket over their heads, but of this they took no notice ; and one of them lifting up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, which shot him dead. When he fell, the other three stood motionless for some minutes, as if petrified with astonishment; as soon as they recovered, they went back, dragging after them the dead body, which however they soon left, that it might not encumber their flight. At the report of the first musket, we drew together, having straggled to a little distance from each other, and made the best of our way back to the boat ; and crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead upon the ground. Upon examining the body, we lound that he had been shot through the heart : he was a man of the middle size and stature ; his com- plexion was brow^n, but not very dark ; and one side of his face was tattowed in spiral lines of a very regu- lar figure : he was covered with a fine cloth, of a manufacture altogether new to us, and it was tied on exactly according to the representation in Valentyn's Account of Abel Tasman's Voyage, vol. iii. part 2. page 50. : his hair also was tied in a knot on the top of his head, but' had no feather in it. We returned immediately to the ship, where we could hear the people on shore talking with great earnestness, and in a very loud tone, probably about what had hap- pened, and what should be done. In the morning, we saw several of the natives where they had been seen the night before, and some walking with a quick pace towards the place where we had landed, most of them unarmed ; but three or 1709. ROUND THB WORLD. OTf^ four with long pikes in their hands. As I was de- sirous to establish an intercourse with them, I ordered three boats to be manned with seamen and marines, and proceeded towards the shore, accompanied oy Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, the other gentlemen, and Tupia ; about fifty of them seemed to wait for our our landing, on the opposite side of the river, which we thought a sign of fear, and seated themselves upon the ground : at first, therefore, myself, with only Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia, landed from the little boat, and advanced towards them ; but we had not proceeded many paces before they all started up, and every man produced either a long pike, or a small weapon of green Talc, extremely well polished, about a foot long, and thick enough to weigh four or five pounds : Tupia called to them in the language of Otaheite ; but they answered only by flourishing their weapons, and making signs to us to depart ; a musket was then fired wide of them, and the ball struck the water, the river being still between us ; they saw the effect, and desisted from their threats : but we thought it prudent to retreat till the marines could be landed. This was soon done ; and they marched, with a jack carried before them, to a little bank, about fifty yards from the water-side ; here they were drawn up, and I again advanced, with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander ; Tupia, Mr. Green, and Mr. Monkhouse, being with us. Tupia was again directed to speak to them, and it was with great pleasure that we perceived he was perfectly under- stood, he and the natives speaking only different dialects of the same language. He told them that we wanted provision and water, and would give them iron in exchange, the properties of which he ex- plained as well as he was able. They were willing to trade, and desired that we would come over to them for that purpose : to this we consented, pro- vided they would lay by their arms ; which, however, they could by no means be persuaded to do. During T '1? 280 cook's first voyage oct. this conversation, Tupia warned us to be upon our guard, for that they were not our friends : we then pressed them in our turn to come over to us ; and at last one of them stripped himself, and swam over without his arms : he was almost immediately fol- lowed by two more, and soon after by most of the rest, to the number of twenty or thirty ; but these brought their arms with them. We made them all presents of iron and beads ; but they seemed to set little value upon either, particularly the iron, not hav- ing the least idea of its use ; so that we got nothing in return but a few feathers : they offered indeed to exchange their arms for ours, and, when we refused, made many attempts to snatch them out of our hands. As soon as they came over, Tupia repeated his declaration, that they were not our friends, and again warned us to be upon our guard ; their at- tempts to snatch our weapons, therefore, did not succeed ; and we gave them to understand by Tupia, that we should be obliged to kill them, if they offered any farther violence. In a few minutes, however, Mr. Green happening to turn about, one of them snatched away his hanger, and retiring to a little dis- tance, waved it round his head, with a shout of ex- ultation : the rest now began to be extremely inso- lent, and we saw more coming to join them from the opposite side of the river. It was therefore become necessary to repress them, and Mr. Banks fired at the man who had taken the hanger, with small shot, at the distance of about fifteen yards : when the shot struck him, he ceased his cry ; but instead of return- ing the hanger, continued to flourish it over his head, at the same time slowly retreating to a greater dis- tance. Mr. Monkhouse seeing this, fired at him with ball, and he instantly dropped. Upon this the main body, who had retired to a rock in the middle of the river upon the first discharge, began to re- turn ; two that were near to the man who had been killed, ran up to the body, one seized his weapon of 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 281 green Talc, and the other endeavoured to secure the hanger, which Mr. Monkhouse had but just time to prevent. As all that had retired to the rock were now advancing, three of us discharged our pieces, loaded only with small shot, upon which they swam back for the shore ; and we perceived, upon their landing, that two or three of them were wounded. They retired slowly up the country, and we reim- barked in our boats. As we had unhappily experienced, that nothing was to be done with these people at this place ; and finding the water in the river to be salt, I proceeded in the boats round the head of the bay in search of fresh water, and with a design, if possible, to surprise some of the natives, and take them on board, where, by kind treatment and presents I might obtain their friendship, and by their means establish an amicable correspondence with their countrymen. To my great regret, I found no place where I could land, a dangerous surf every where beating upon the shore ; but I saw two canoes coming in from the sea, one under sail, and the other worked with paddles. I thought this a favourable oppor- tunity to get some of the people into my possession without mischief, as those in the canoe were pro- bably fishermen, and without arms, and I had three boats full of men. I therefore disposed the boats so as most effectually to intercept them in their way to the shore ; the people in the canoe that was paddled perceived us so soon, that, by making to the nearest land with their utmost strength, they escaped us ; the other sailed on till she was in the midst of us with- out discerning what we were ; but the moment she discovered us, the people on board struck their sail, and took to their paddles, which they plied so briskly that she out-ran the boat. They were however with- in hearing, and Tupia called out to them to come along-side, and promised for us that they should come to no hurt : they chose, however, rather to trust to 282 cook's first voyage oct* their paddles than our promises, and continued to make from us with all their power. I then ordered a musket to be fired over their heads, as the least exceptionable expedient to accomplish my design, hoping it would either make them surrender, or leap into the water. Upon the discharge of the piece, they ceased paddling ; and all of them, being seven in number, began to strip, as we imagined, to jump overboard ; but it happened otherwise. They im- mediately formed a resolution not to fly, but to fight ; and when the boat came up, they began the attack with their paddles, and with stones and other offen- sive weapons that were in the boat, so vigorously, that we were obliged to fire upon them in our own defence ; four were unhappily killed, and the other three, who were boys, the eldest about nineteen, and the youngest about eleven, instantly leaped into the water ; the eldest swam with great vigour, and re- sisted the attempts of our people to take him into the boat by every effort that he could make : he was however at last overpowered, and the other two were taken up with less difficulty. I am conscious that the feeling of every reader of humanity will censure me for having fired upon these unhappy people, and it is impossible that, upon a calm review, I should approve it myself. They certainly did not deserve death for not chusing to confide in my promises ; or not consenting to come on board my boat, even if they had apprehended no danger ; but the nature of my service required me to obtain a knowledge of their country, which I could no otherwise effect than by forcing my way into it in a hostile manner, or gaining admission through the confidence and good- will of the people. I had already tried the power of presents without effect ; and I was now prompted, by my desire to avoid further hostilities, to get some of them on board, as the only method left of convinc- ing them that we intended them no harm, and had it in our power to contribute to their gratificatioa 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 283 and convenience. Thus far my intentions certainly were not criminal ; and though in the contest, w^hich T had not the least reason to expect, our victory might have been complete without so great an ex- pence of life ; yet in such situations, when the com- mand to fire has been given, no man can restrain its excess, or prescribe its effect. As soon as the poor wretches whom we had taken out of the water were in the boat, they squatted down, expecting no doubt instantly to be put to death : we made haste to convince them of the contrary, by every method in our power ; we furnished them with clothes, and gave them every other testimony of kindness that could remove their fears and engage their good-will. Those who are acquainted with hu- man nature will not wonder, that the sudden joy of these young savages at being unexpectedly delivered from the fear of death, and kindly treated by those whom they supposed would have been their instant executioners, surmounted their concern for the friends they had lost, and was strongly expressed in their countenances and behaviour. Before we reached the ship, their suspicions and fears being wholly removed, they appeared to be not only reconciled to their situ- ation but in high spirits, and upon being offered some bread when they came on board, they devoured it with a voracious appetite. They answered and asked many questions, with great appearance of pleasure and curiosity ; and when our dinner came, they ex- pressed an inclination to taste every thing that they saw : they seemed best pleased with the salt pork, though we had other provisions upon the table. At sun-set, they eat another meal with great eagerness, each devouring a large quantity of bread, and drink- ing above a quart of water. We then made them beds upon the lockers, and they went to sleep with great seeming content. In the night, however, the tumult of their minds having subsided, and given way to reflection, they sighed often and loud. Tu- 284 cook's first voyage oct. pia, who was always upon the watch to comfort them, got up, and by soothing and encouragement made them not only easy but cheerful ; their cheerfulness was encouraged so that they sung a song with a de- gree of taste that surprised us : the tune was solemn and slow, like those of our Psalms, containing many notes and semi-tones. Their countenances were in- telligent and expressive, and the middlemost, who seemed to be about fifteen, had an openness in his aspect, and an ease in his deportment, which were very striking : we found that the two eldest were brothers, and that their names were Taahourange and Koikerange; the name of the youngest was Maragovete. As we were returning to the ship, after having taken these boys into the boat, we picked up a large piece of pumice-stone floating upon the water ; a sure sign that there either is, or has been a volcano in this neighbourhood. In the morning, they all seemed to be cheerful, and ate another enormous meal ; after this we dressed them, and adorned them with bracelets, anclets, and necklaces, after their own fashion, and the boat be- ing hoisted out, they were told that we were going to set them ashore : this produced a transport of joy ^ but upon perceiving that we made towards our first landing-place near the river, their countenances changed, and they entreated with great earnestness that they might not be set ashore at that place, be- cause they said, it was inhabited by their enemies, who would kill them and eat them. This was a great disappointment to me ; because I hoped the report and appearance of the boys would procure a favour- able reception for ourselves. I had already sent an officer on shore with the marines and a party of men to cut wood, and I was determined to land near the place ; not, however, to abandon the boys, if, when we got ashore, they should be unwilling to leave us j but to send a boat with them in the evening to that part of the bay to which they pointed, and which 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 285 they call their home. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia, were with me, and upon our landing with the boys, and crossing the river, they seemed at first to be unwilling to leave us ; but at length they suddenly changed their mind, and, though not without a ma- nifest struggle, and some tears, they took their leave: when they were gone, we proceeded along a swamp, with a design to shoot some ducks, of which we saw great plenty, and four of the marines attended us, walking abreast of us upon a bank that overlooked the country. After we had advanced about a mile, these men called out to us and told us, that a large body of the Indians was in sight, and advancing at a great rate. Upon receiving this intelligence, we drew together, and resolved to make the best of our way to the boats ; we had scarcely begun to put this into execution, when the three Indian boys started sud- denly from some bushes, where they had concealed themselves, and again claimed our protection : we readily received them, and repairing to the beach as the* clearest place, we walked briskly towards the boats. The Indians were in two bodies ; one ran along the bank which had been quitted by the ma- rines, the other fetched a compass by the swamp, so that we could not see them : when they perceived that we had formed into one body, they slackened their pace, but still followed us in a gentle walk ; that they slackened their pace, was for us, as well as for them, a fortunate circumstance ; for when we came to the side of the river, where we expected to find the boats that were to carry us over to the wooders, we found the pinnace at least a mile from her station, having been sent to pick up a bird which had been shot by the officer on shore, and the little boat was obliged to make three trips before we could all get over to the rest of the party. As soon as we were drawn up on the other side, the Indians came down, not in a body as we expected, but by two or three at a time, all armed, and in a short time their number increased 286 cook's first voyage oct. to about two hundred : as we now despaired of making peace with them, seeing that the dread of our small arms did not keep them at a distance, and that the ship was too far off to reach the place with a shot, we resolved to re-imbark, lest our stay should em- broil us in another quarrel, and cost more of the In- dians their lives. We therefore advanced towards the pinnace, which was now returning, when one of the boys suddenly cried out, that his uncle was among the people who had marched down to us, and desired us to stay and talk with them : we complied, and a parley immediately commenced between them and Tupia ; during which the boys held up every thing we had given them as tokens of our kindness and li- berality ; but neither would either of the boys swim over to them, or any of them to the boys. The body of the man who had been killed the day before, still lay exposed upon the beach ; the boys seeing it lie very near us, went up to it, and covered it with some of the clothes that we had given them ; and soon after a single man, unarmed, who proved to be the uncle of Maragovete, the youngest of the boys, swam over to us, bringing in his hand a green branch, which we supposed, as well here as at Otaheite, to be an emblem of peace. We received his branch by the hands of Tupia, to whom he gave it, and made him many presents ; we also invited him to go on board the ship, but he declined it ; we therefore left him, and expected that his nephew, and the two other young Indians would have staid with him, but to our great surprise, they chose rather to go with us. As soon as we had retired, he went and gathered another green branch, and w^ith this in his hand, he ap- proached the dead body which the youth had co- vered with part of his clothes, walking sideways, with many ceremonies, and then throwing it towards him. When this was done, he returned to his com- panions, who had sat down upon the sand to observe 17^0. ROUND THE WORLD. 287 the issue of his negociation : they immediately ga- thered round him, and continued in a body above an hour, without seeming to take any farther notice of us. We were more curious than they, and observ- ing them with our glasses from on board the ship, we saw some of them cross the river upon a kind of raft, or catamarine, and four of them carry off the dead body which had been covered by the boy, and over which his uncle had performed the ceremony of the branch, upon a kind of bier, between four men : the other body was still suffered to remain where it had been first left. After dinner, I directed Tupia to ask the boys, if they had now any objection to going ashore, where we had left their uncle, the body having been car- ried off, which we understood was a ratification of peace : they said, they had not ; and the boat being ordered, they went into it with great alacrity : when the boat, in which I had sent two midshipmen, came to land, they went willingly ashore ; but soon after she put off, they returned to the rocks, and wading into the w^ater, earnestly entreated to be taken on board again ; but the people in the boat, having positive orders to leave them, could not comply. We were very attentive to what happened on shore, and keeping a constant watch with our glasses, we saw a man pass the river upon another raft, and fetch them to a place where forty or fifty of the natives were assembled, who closed round them, and con- tinued in the same place till sun-set : upon looking again, when we saw them in motion, we could plainly distinguish our three prisoners, who separated them- selves from the rest, came down to the beach, and having waved their hands three times towards the ship, ran nimbly back, and joined their companions, who walked leisurely away towards that part which the boys had pointed to as their dwelling-place ; we had therefore the greatest reason to believe that 288 cook's first voyage oct. no mischief would happen to them, especially as we perceived that they went off in the clotlies we had given them. After it was dark, loud voices were heard on shore in the bottom of the bay as usual, of which we could never learn the meaning. 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. ^89 CHAP. II. A DESCRIPTION OF POVERTY BAY, AND THE FACE OF THE ADJACENT COUNTRY. THE RANGE FROM THENCE TO CAPE TURNAGAIN, AND BACK TO TOLAGA, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PEOPLE AND THE COUNTRY, AND SEVERAL INCIDENTS THAT HAPPENED ON THAT PART OF THE COAST. 1 HE next morning, at six o'clock, we weighed, and stood away from this unfortunate and inhospitable place, to which I gave the name of Poverty Bay, and which by the natives is called Taoneroa, or Long Sand, as it did not afford us a single article that we wanted, except a little wood. It lies in lati- tude 38^ 42' S. and longitude 181° 3& W. ; it is in the form of an horse-shoe, and is known by an island lying close under tlie north-east point: the two points which form the entrance are high, with steep white cliffs, and lie a league and a half, or two leagues from each other, N. E. by E. and S. W. by W. ; the depth of water in the bay is from twelve to five fa- thom, with a sandy bottom and good anchorage ; but the situation is open to the wind between the south and east: boats can go in and out of the liveratany time of the tide in fine weatlier ; but as there is a bar at the entrance, no boat can go either in or out when the sea runs high : tlie best place to attempt it, is on the north-east side, and it is there practicable when it is not so in any other part. The shore of the bay, a little within its entrance, is a low flat sand ; behind which, at a small distance, the face of the country is finely diversified by hills and valleys, all clothed with wood, and covered with verdure. The country also appears to be well inhabited, especially in the valleys leading up from the bay, where we VOL. I. u ^290 cook's first voyage oct» daily saw smoke rising in clouds one behind another, to a great distance, till the view terminated in moun- tains of a stupendous height. The south-west point of the bay 1 named Young Nick's Head, after Nicholas Young, the boy who first saw the land ; at noon, it bore N. W. by W. dis- tant about three or four leagues, and we were then about three miles from the shore. The main land extended from N. E. by N. to south, and I proposed to follow the direction of the coast to the southward as far as the latitude of 40 or 41 ; and then, if I met with no encouragement to proceed farther, to return to the northward. In the afternoon we lay becalmed, which the peo- ple on shore perceiving, several canoes put off, and came within less than a quarter of a mile of the vessel ; but could not be persuaded to come nearer, though Tupia exerted all the powers of his lungs and his eloquence upon the occasion, shouting, and promising that they should not be hurt. Another canoe was now seen coming from Poverty Bay, with only four people on board, one of whom we well remembered to have seen in our first interview upon the rock. This canoe, without stopping or taking the least no- tice of the others, came directly alongside of the ship, and with very little persuasion, we got the In- dians on board. Their example was soon followed by the rest, and we had about us seven canoes, and about fifty men. We. made them all presents with a liberal hand ; notwithstanding which, they were so desirous to have more of our commodities, that they sold us every thing they had, even the clothes from their backs, and the paddles from their boats. There were but two weapons among them, these were the instruments of green talc, which were shaped some- what like a pointed battledore, with a short handle and sharp edges ; they were called Patoo-patoo, and were well contrived for close-fighting, as they would certainly split the thickest skull at a single blow. 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 291 When tliese people had recovered from the first im- pressions of fear, which, notwithstanding their reso- lution in coming on board, had manifestly thrown them into some confusion, we inquired after our poor boys. The man who first came on board immediately answered, that they were unhurt and at home ; ad- ding, that he had been induced to venture on board by the account which they had given him of the kindness with which they had been treated, and the wonders which were contained in the ship. While they were on board they showed every sign of friendship, and invited us very cordially to go back to our old bay, or to a small cove which they pointed out, that was not quite so far off; but I chose rather to prosecute my discoveries than go back, hav- ing reason to hope that I should find a better harbour than any 1 had yet seen. About an hour before sun-set, the canoes put off from the ship with the few paddles they had reserved, which were scarcely sufficient to set them on shore ; but by some means or other three of their people were left behind : as soon as we discovered it, we hailed them ; but not one of them would return to take them on board : this greatly surprised us ; but we were surprised still more to observe that the de- serted Indians did not seem at all uneasy at their situation, but entertained us with dancing and sing- ing after their manner, eat their suppers, and went quietly to bed. A light breeze springing up soon after it was dark, we steered along the shore under an easy sail till mid- night, and then brought to, soon after which it fell calm ; we were now some leagues distant from the place where the canoes had left us, and at day-break, when the Indians perceived it, they were seized with consternation and terror, and lamented their situation in loud complaints, with gestures of despair and many tears. Tupia, with great difficulty, pacified them ; and about seven o'clock in the morning, a light breeze u 2 29S cook's first voyage oct. springing up, we continued to stand soutli-west along the shore. Fortunately for our poor Indians, two canoes came off about this time, and made towards the ship : they stopped, however, at a little distance, and seemed unwilling to trust themselves nearer. Our Indians were greatly agitated in this state of un- certainty, and urged their fellows to come alongside of the ship, both by their voice and gestures, with the utmost eagerness and impatience. Tupia inter- preted what they said, and we were much surprised to find, that, among other arguments, they assured the people in the canoes, we did not eat men. We now began seriously to believe that this horrid custom prevailed among them ; for what the boys had said, w^e considered as a mere hyperbolical expression of their fear. One of the canoes, at length, ventured to come under the ship's side ; and an old man came on board, who seemed to be a chief from the finery of his garment, and the superiority of his weapon, which was a Patoo-patoo, made of bone, that, as he said, had belonged to a whale. He staid on board but a short time, and when he went away, he took with him our guests, very much to the satisfaction both of them and us. At the time when we sailed, we were abreast of a point, from which the land trends S. S. W. and which on account of its figure, I called Cape Table. This point lies seven leagues to the southward of Poverty Bay, in latitude 39° T S. and longitude 181° S& W. ; it is of a considerable height, makes a sharp angle, and appears to be quite flat at the top. In steering along the shore to the southward of the Cape, at the distance of two or three miles, our soundings were from twenty to thirty fathom, having a chain of rocks between us and the shore, which ap- peared at different heights above the water. At noon. Cape Table bore N. 20 E. distant about four leagues, and a small island, which was the south- ernmost land in sight, bore S. 7^ W. at the distance ^7^9. ROUND THE WORLD. ^JS of about three miles. This island, which the natives call Teahowray, 1 named the Island of Portland, from its very great resemblance to Portland, in the English Channel : it lies about a mile from a point on the main ; but there appears to be a ridge of rocks, extending nearly, if not quite, from one to the other. N. 57 E. two miles from the south point of Port- land, lies a sunken rock, upon which the sea breaks with great violence. We passed between this rock and the land, having from seventeen to twenty fathom. In sailing along the shore, we saw the natives as- sembled in great numbers as well upon Portland is- land as the main : w^e could also distinguish several spots of ground that were cultivated ; some seemed to be fresh turned up, and lay in fiuTows like ploughed land, and some had plants upon them in different stages of their growth. We saw also in two places, high rails upon the ridges of hills, like what we had seen upon the peninsula at the north-east head of Po- verty Bay : as they were ranged in lines only, and not so as to inclose an area, we could not guess at their use, and therefore supposed they might be the work of superstition. About noon another canoe appeared, in which were four men ; she came within about a quarter of a mile of us, where the people on board seemed to perform divers ceremonies : one of them who was in the bow, sometimes seemed to ask and to offer peace, and sometimes to threaten war, by brandishing a weapon that he held in his hand : sometimes also he danced, and sometimes he sung. Tupia talked much to him, but could not persuade him to come to the ship. Between one and two o'clock we discovered land to the westward of Portland, extending to the south- ward as far as we could see ; and as the ship was hauling round the south end of the island, she sud- denly fell into shoal water and broken ground : we u 3 '294' COOK S FIRST VOYAGE OCT. had indeed always seven fathom or more, but the soundings were never twice the same, jumping at once from seven fathom to eleven -, in a short time, however, we got clear of all danger, and had again deep water under us. At this time the island lay within a mile of us, making in white cliffs, and a long spit of low land running from it towards the main. On the sides of these cliffs sat vast numbers of people, looking at us with a fixed attention, and it is probable that they perceived some appearance of hurry and confusion on board, and some irregularity in the working of the ship, while we were getting clear of the shallow water and broken ground, from which they might infer that we were alarmed or in distress: we thought that they wished to take advantage of our situation, for five canoes were put off with the utmost expedi- tion, full of men, and well armed : they came so near, and showed so hostile a disposition by shout- ing, brandishing their lances, and using threatening gestures, that we were in some pain for our small boat, which was still employed in sounding : a mus- ket was therefore fired over them, but finding it did them no harm, they seemed rather to be provoked than intimidated, and I therefore fired a four-pounder, charged with grape-shot, wide of them : this had a better effect ; upon the report of the piece they all rose up and shouted, but instead of continuing the chace, drew altogether, and after a short consult- ation, went quietly away. Having got round Portland, we hauled in for the land N. W. having a gentle breeze at N. E. which about iave o'clock died away, and obliged us to an- chor 'y we had one-and-twenty fathom, with a fine sandy bottom : the south point of Portland bore S. E. ^ S. distant about two leagues, and a low point on the main bore N. ^ E. In the same direction with this low point, there runs a deep bay, behind the land of which Cape Table is the extremity, so as to make 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 295 this land a peninsula, leaving only a low narrow neck between that and the main. Of this peninsula, which the natives call Terakaco, Cape Table is the north point, and Portland the south. While we lay at anchor, two more canoes came off to us, one armed, and the other a small fishing boat, with only four men in her ; they came so near that they entered into conversation with Tupia ; they an- swered all the questions that he asked them with great civility, but could not be persuaded to come on board ; they came near enough, however, to receive several presents that were thrown to them from the ship, with which they seemed much pleased, and went away. During the night many fires were kept upon shore, probably to show us that the inhabitants were too much upon their guard to be surprised. About five o'clock in the morning of the 13th, a breeze springing up northerly, we weighed, and steered in for the land. The shore here forms a large bay, of which Portland is the north-east point, and the bay, that runs behind Cape Table, an arm. This arm I had a great inclination to examine, because there appeared to be safe anchorage in it, but not be- ing sure of that, and the wind being right an end, I was unwilling to spare the time. Four-and-twenty fathom was the greatest depth within Portland, but the ground was every where clear. The land near the shore is of a moderate height, with white cliffs and sandy beaches ; within, it rises into mountains, and upon the whole the surface is hilly, for the most part covered with wood, and to appearance pleasant and fertile. In the morning nine canoes came after the ship, but whether with peaceable or hostile in- tentions we could not tell, for we soon left them be- hind us. In the evening we stood in for a place that had the appearance of an opening, but found no harbour ; we therefore stood out again, and were soon followed by a large canoe, with eighteen or twenty men, all u 4 290 cook's first voyage oct. armed, who, though they could not reach us, shouted defiance, and brandished their weapons, with many gestures of menace and insult. In the morning we had a view of* the mountains inland, upon which the snow was still lying: the country near the shore was low and unfit for culture, but in one place we perceived a patch of somewhat yellow, which had greatly the appearance of a corn- field, yet was probably nothing more than some dead flags, which are not uncommon in swampy places : at some distance we saw groves of trees, which ap- peared high and tapering, and being not above two leagues from the south-west cod of the great bay, in which we had been coasting for the two last days, I hoisted out the pinnace and long-boat to search forfresh water; but just as they were about to put off, we saw several boats full of people coming from the shore, and, tlierefore, I did not think it safe for them to leave the ship. About ten o'clock, five of these boats having drawn together, as if to hold a consult- ation, made towards the ship, having on board between eighty and ninety men, and four more followed at some distance, as if to sustain the attack : when the first five came within about a hundred yards of the ship, they began to sing their war-song, and brandish- ing their pikes, prepared for an engagement. We had now no time to lose, for if we could not prevent the attack, we should come under the unhappy necessity of using our fire-arms against them, which we were very desirous to avoid. Tupia, was therefore, ordered to acquaint them that we had weapons which, like thunder, would destroy them in a mo- ment ; that we would immediately convince them of their power by directing their effect so that they should not be hurt ; but that if they persisted in any hostile attempt, we should be obliged to use them for our defence : a fou^-pounder, loaded with grape- shot, was then discharged wide of* them, which pro- duced the desired eflect ; the report, the flash, and 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 297 above all, the shot, which spread very far in the water, so intimidated them, that they began to paddle away with all their might : Tupia, however, calling after them, and assuring them that if they would come unarmed, they should be kindly received ; the people in one of the boats put their arms on board of another, and came under the ship's stern ; we made them several presents, and should certainly have prevailed upon them to come on board, if the other canoes had not come up, and again threatened us, by shouting and brandishing their weapons : at this the people who had come to the ship unarmed, ex- pressed great displeasure, and soon after they all went away. In the afternoon we stood over to the south point of the bay, but not reaching it before it was dark, we stood off and on all night. At eight the next morning, being a-breast of the point, several fishing boats came off to us, and sold us some stinking fish : it was the best they had, and we were willing to trade with them upon any terms : these people behaved very well, and we should have parted good friends if it had not been for a large canoe, with two-and- twenty armed men on board, which came boldly up along-side of the ship. We soon saw that this boat had nothing for traffic, yet w^e gave them two or three pieces of cloth, an article which they seemed very fond of. I observed that one man had a black skin thrown over him, somewhat resembling that of a bear, and being desirous to know what animal was its first owner, I offered him for it a piece of red baize, and he seemed greatly pleased with the bar- gain, immediately pulling off the skin, and holding it up in the boat ; he would not, however, part with it till he had the cloth in his possession, and as there could be no transfer of property, if with equal cau- tion I had insisted upon the same condition, I or- dered the cloth to be handed down to him, upon which, with amazing coolness, instead of sending up c;ook's first voyage oct. tlie skin, he began to pack up both that and the baize, which he had received as the purchase of it, in a basket, without paying the least regard to my demand or remonstrances, and soon after, with the iishing boats, put off from the ship ; when they were at some distance, they drew together, and after a short consultation returned ; the fishermen offered more fish, which, though good for nothing, was pur- chased, and trade was again renewed. Among others who were placed over the ship's side to band up what we bought, was little Tayeto, Tupia's boy ; and one of the Indians, watching his opportunity, suddenly seized him, and dragged him down into the canoe ; two of them held him down in the fore- part of it, and the others, with great activity, pad- dled her off, the rest of the canoes following as fast as they could ; upon this the marines, who were un- der arms upon deck, were ordered to fire. The shot was directed to that part of the canoe which was farthest from the boy, and rather wide of her, being willing rather to miss the rowers than to hurt him : it happened, however, that one man dropped, upon which the others quitted their hold of the boy, who instantly leaped into the water, and swam towards the ship ; the large canoe immediately pulled round and followed him, but some musquets, and a great gun being fired at her, she desisted from the pursuit. The ship being brought to, a boat was lowered, and the poor boy taken up unhurt, though so terrified, that for a time he seemed to be deprived of his senses. Some of the gentlemen who traced the canoes to shore with their glasses, said, that they saw three men carried up the beach, who appeared to be either dead, or wholly disabled by their wounds. To the cape off which this unhappy transaction happened, I gave the name of Cape Kidnappers. It lies in latitude 39° 43', and longitude 182° 24' W., and is rendered remarkable by two white rocks like hay stacks, and the high white clifls on each side. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. - 299 It lies S. W. by W. distant thirteen leagues from the isle of Portland ; and between them is the bay of which it is the south point, and which, in honour of Sir Edward Hawke, then First Lord of the Admi- ralty, I called Hawke's Bay. We found in it from twenty-four to seven fathom, and good anchorage. From Cape Kidnappers the land trends S. S. W., and in this direction we made our run along the shore, keeping at about a league distance, with a steady breeze and clear weather. As soon as Tayeto recovered from his fright, he brought a fish to Tupia, and told him that he in- tended it as an offering to his Eatua, or god, in gra- titude for his escape ; Tupia commended his piety, and ordered him to throw the fish into the sea, which was accordingly done. About two o'clock in the afternoon, we passed a small but high white island lying close to the shore, upon which we saw many houses, boats, and people. The people we concluded to be fishers, because the island was totally barren ; we saw several people also on shore, in a small bay upon the main, within the island. At eleven, we brought to till day-light, and then made sail to the southward, along the shore. About seven o'clock we passed a high point of land, which lies S. S. W. twelve leagues from Cape Kid- nappers : from this point the land trends three-fourths of a point more to the westward 5 at ten, we saw more land open to the southward, and at noon, the southernmost land that was in sight, bore S. 39 W. distant eight or ten leagues, and a high bluff head, with yellowish cliffs, bore W. distant about two miles : the depth of water was thirty- two fathom. In the afternoon we had a fresh breeze at west, and during the night variable light airs and calms : in the morning a gentle breeze sprung up between the N. W. and N. E., and having till now stood to the southward, without seeing any probability of meet- 300 cook's first voyage oct. ing with a harbour, and the country manifestly al- tering for the worse, 1 thought that standing farther in that direction would be attended with no advan- tage, but on the contrary would be a lossof time that might be employed with a better prospect of success in examining the coast to the northward ; about one, therefore, in the afternoon, I tacked, and stood north, with a fresh breeze at west. Th« high bluff head, with yellowish cliffs, which we were abreast of at noon, I called Cape Turnagain, because here we turned back. It lies in latitude 40° 34/ S. longitude 182^ 55' W., distant eighteen leagues S. S. W. and S. S. W. i W. from Cape Kidnappers. The land betw^een them is of a very unequal height ; in some places it is lofty next the sea with white cliffs, in others low, with sandy beaches : the face of the country is not so well clothed with wood as it is about Hawke's bay, but looks more like our high downs in England : it is, however, to all appearance, well in- habited ; for as we stood along the shore, we saw several villages, not only in the valleys, but on the tops and sides of the hills, and smoke in many other places. The ridge of mountains which has been mentioned before, extends to the southward farther than we could see, and was then every where che- quered with snow. At night we saw two fires, in- land, so very large, that we concluded they must have been made to clear the land for tillage ; but however that be, they are a demonstration that the part of the country where they appeared is inhabited. On the 18th, at four o'clock in the morning. Cape Kidnappers bore N. S% W. distant two leagues : in this situation we had sixty-two fathom, and when the cape bore W. by N. distant three or four leagues, we had forty-five fathom : in the mid- way between the isle of Portland and the cape we had sixty-five fathom. In the evening, being abreast of the pen- insula, within Portland island, called Tekakako, a 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. SOI canoe came oiF from that shore, and with much dif- ficulty overtook the ship ; there were on board five people, two of whom appeared to be chiefs, and the other three servants : the chiefs, with very little in- vitation, came on board, and ordered the rest to re- main in their canoe. We treated them with great kindness, and they were not backward in expressing their satisfaction ; they went down into the cabin, and after a short time told us that they had deter- mined not to go on shore till the next morning. As the sleeping on board was an honour which we neither expected nor desired, I remonstrated strongly against it, and told them, that on their account it would not be proper, as the ship would probably be at a great distance from v/here she was then, the next morning : they persisted, however, in their resolution, and as I found it impossible to get rid of them without turning them by force out of the ship, I complied : as a pro- per precaution, however, I proposed to take their servants also on board, and hoist their canoe into the ship ; they made no objection, and this was accord- ingly done. The countenance of one of these chiefs was the most open and ingenuous of all I have ever seen, and I very soon gave up every suspicion of his having any sinister design : they both examined every thing they saw with great curiosity and at- tention, and received very thankfully such little pre- sents as we made them ; neither of them, however, could be persuaded either to eat or drink, but their servants devoured every thing they could get with great voracity. We found that these men had heard of our kindness and liberality to the natives who had been on board before, yet we thought the confidence they placed in us, an extraordinary instance of their fortitude. At night I brought to till day-light, and then made sail ; at seven in the morning, I brought to again under Cape Table, and sent away our guests with their canoe, who expressed some surprise at seeing themselves so far from home, but landed 302 cook's first voyage OCT. abreast of the ship. At this time I saw other canoes putting oif from the shore, but I stood away to the northward without waiting for their coming up. About three, I passed a remarkable head-land, wliich I called Gable-End-Foreland, from the very great likeness of the white cliif at the point, to the gable-end of a house : it is not more remarkable for its figure, than for a rock which rises like a spire at a little distance. It lies from Cape Table N. 24 E. distant about twelve leagues. The shore between them forms a bay, within which lies Poverty Bay, at the distance of four leagues from the head-land, and eight from the Cape. At this place three canoes came oif to us, and one man came on board ; we gave him some trifles, and he soon returned to his boat, which, with ail the rest, dropped astern. In the morning I made sail in shore, in order to look into two bays, which appeared about two leagues to the northward of the Foreland ; the southernmost I could not fetch, but I anchored in the other about eleven o'clock. Into this bay we were invited by the people on board many canoes, who pointed to a place where they said there was plenty of fresh water : I did not find so good a shelter from the sea as I expected ; but the natives who came about us, appearing to be of a friendly disposition, I was determined to try whether I could not get some knowledge of the country here before I proceeded farther to the north- ward. In one of the canoes that came about us as soon as we anchored, we saw two men, who by their ha- bits appeared to be chiefs : one of them was dressed in a jacket, which was ornamented, after their man- ner, with dog's skin ; the jacket of the other was al- most covered with small tufts of red feathers. These men I invited on board, and they entered the ship with very little hesitation : I gave each of them about four yards of linen, and a spike-nail j with the linen 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 303 they were much pleased, but seemed to set no value upon the nail. We perceived that they knew what had happened in Poverty Bay, and we had there- fore no reason to doubt but that they would behave peaceably ; however, for further security, Tupia was ordered to tell them for what purpose we came thither, and to assure them that we would offer them no injury, if they offered none to us. In the mean time those who remained in the canoes traded with our people very fairly for what they happened to have with them : the chiefs, who were old men, staid w^ith us till we had dined, and about two o'clock I put off with the boats, manned and armed, in order to go on shore in search of water, and the two chiefs went in- to the boat with me. The afternoon was tempes- tuous, with much rain, and the surf every where ran so high, that although we rowed almost round the bay, we found no place where we could land : I de- termined therefore to return to the ship, which be- ing intimated to the chiefs, they called to the people on shore, and ordered a canoe to be sent off for them- selves ; this was accordingly done, and they left us, promising to come on board again in the morning, and bring us some fish and sweet potatoes. In the evening, the weather having become fair and moderate, the boats were again ordered out, and I landed, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solan- der. We were received with great expressions of friendship by the natives, who behaved with a scru- pulous attention not to give offence. In particular, they took care not to appear in great bodies : one family, or the inhabitants of two or three houses only, were generally placed together, to the number of fifteen or twenty, consisting of men, women, and children. These little companies sat upon the ground, not advancing towards us, but inviting us to them, by a kind of beckon, moving one hand towards the breast. We made them several little presents ; and 4n our walk round the bay found two small 7 SM cook's first voyage OCT. streams of fresh water. This convenience, and the friendly heliaviour of tlie people, determined me to stay at least a day, that I might fill some of my empty casks, and give Mr. Banks an opportunity of examin- ing the natural produce of the country. In the morning of, the$ 21st, I sent lieutenant Gore on shore, to superintend the watering, with a strong party of men ; and they were soon followed by Mr, Banks and Dr. Solander, w^th Tupia, Tayeto, and four others. The natives sat by our people, and seemed pleased to observe them ; but did not intermix with them : they traded, however, chiefly for cloth, and after a short time applied to their ordinary occupations, as if no stranger had been among them. In the fore- noon, several of their boats went out a-fishing, and at dinner time every one repaired to his respective dwelling ; from which, after a certain time, he re- turned. These fair appearances encouraged Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to range the bay with very little precaution, where they found many plants, and shot some birds of exquisite beauty. In their walk, they visited several houses of the natives, and saw something of their manner of life ; for they showed, without any reserve, every thing w^iich the gentle- men desired to see. They were sometimes found at their meals, which the approach of the strangers never interrupted. Their food at this season con- sisted of fish, with which, instead of bread, they eat the root of a kind of fern, very like that which grows upon our commons in England. These roots they scorch over the fire, and then beat with a stick, till the bark and dry outside fall ofi'; what remains is a soft substance, somewhat clammy and sweet, not un- pl easing to the taste, but mixed with three or four times its quantity of strings and tibres, which are very disagreeable ; these were swallowed by some, but spit out by the far greater number, who had baskets under them to receive the rejected part of 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 305 what had been chewed, which had an apjiearance very hke that of tobacco in the same state. In other seasons they have certainly plenty of excellent vege- tables ; but no tame animals were seen among them except dogs, which were very small and ugly. Mr. Banks saw some of their plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even in the gardens of the most curious people among us : in these spots were sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed both in the East and West Indies, and some gourds : the sweet potatoes were planted in small hills, some ranged in rows, and others in quincunx, all laid by a line with the greatest regularity : the coccos were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground ; and the gourds were set in small hollows, or dishes, much as in England. These plantations were of different extent, from one or two acres to ten : taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to ^00 acres in cultivation in the whole bay, though we never saw an hundred people. Each district was fenced in, generally with reeds, which were placed so close together that there was scarcely room for a mouse to creep between. The women were plain, and made themselves more so by painting their faces w^ith red ochre and oil, which, being generally fresh and wet upon their cheeks and foreheads, was easily transferred to the noses of those who thought fit to salute them ; and that they were not wholly averse to such familiarity, the noses of several of our people strongly testified : they were, however, as great coquets as any of the most fashionable ladies in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly : each of them wore a petticoat, under which there was a girdle, made of the blades of grass highly perfumed, and to the girdle was fastened a small bunch of the leaves of some fragrant plant, which served their modesty as its innermost vejDi. The faces of the men were VOL. I. X SOC) cook's first voyage OCT. not so generally painted, yet we saw one whose whole body, and even his garments, were rubbed over with dry ochre, of which he kept a piece constantly in his hand, and was every minute renewing the decor- ation in one part or another, where he supposed it was become deficient. In personal delicacy they were not equal to our friends at Otaheite, for the coldness of the climate did not invite them so often to bathe ; but we saw among them one instance of cleanliness in which they exceeded them, and of which perhaps there is no example in any other In- dian nation. Every house, or every little cluster of three or four houses, was furnished with a privy, so that the ground was every where clean. The offals of their food, and other litter, were also piled up in regular dunghills, which probably they made use of at a proper time for manure. In this decent article of civil economy they were beforehand with one of the most considerable na- tions of Europe ; for I am credibly informed, that, till the year I76O, there was no such thing as a privy in Madrid, the metropolis of Spain, though it is plen- tifully supplied with water. Before that time it was the universal practice to throw the ordure out of the windows, during the night, into the street, where numbers of men were employed to remove it, with shovels, from the upper parts of the city to the lower, where it lay till it was dry, and was then carried away in carts, and deposited without the gates. His present Catholic Majesty, having determined to free his capital from so gross a nuisance, ordered, by pro- clamation, that the proprietor of every house should build a privy, and that sinks, drains, and common sewers should be made at the public expense. The Spaniards, though long accustomed to an arbitrary government, resented this proclamation with great spirit, as an infringement of the common rights of mankind, and made a vigorous struggle against its being carried into execution. Every class devised 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 307 some objection against it, but the physicians bid the fairest to interest the king in the preservation of the ancient privileges of his people ; for they remon- strated that if the filth was not, as usual, thrown into the streets, a fatal sickness would probably ensue, be- cause the putrescent particles of the air, which such filth attracted, would then be imbibed by the human body. But this expedient, with every other that could be thought of, proved unsuccessful, and the popular discontent then ran so high that it was very near producing an insurrection ; his Majesty, how- ever, at length prevailed, and Madrid is now as clear as most of the considerable cities in Europe. But many of the citizens, probably upon the principles advanced by their physicians, that heaps of filth pre- vent deleterious particles of air from fixing upon neighbouring substances, have, to keep their food wholesome, constructed their privies by the kitchen fire. In the evening, all our boats being employed in carrying the water on board, and Mr. Banks and his company finding it probable that they should be left on shore after it was dark, by which much time would be lost, which they were impatient to employ in putting the plants they had gathered in order, they applied to the Indians for a passage in one of their canoes : they immediately consented, and a canoe was launched for their use. They went all on board, being eight in number, but not being used to a vessel that required so even a balance, they un- fortunately overset her in the surf: no life, however, was lost, but it was thought advisable that half of them should wait for another turn. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and Tayeto embarked again, and without any further accident arrived safely at the ship, well pleased with the good nature of their Indian friends, who cheerfully undertook to carry them a second time, after having experienced how unfit a freight they were for such a vessel. X 2 308 COOK S FIRST VOYAGK OCT. While these gentlemen were on shore, several of the natives went off to the ship, and trafficked, by exchanging their cloth for that of Otaheite : of this barter they were for some time very fond, preferring the Indian cloth to that of Europe : but before night it decreased in its value five hundred per cent. Many of these Indians I took on board, and showed them the ship and her apparatus, at which they expressed equal satisfaction and astonishment. As I found it exceedingly difficult to get water on board on account of the surf, I determined to stay no longer at this place ; on the next morning, there- fore, about five o'clock, I weighed anchor, and put to sea. This bay, which is called by the natives Tegadoo, lies in the latitude of 38° 10' S.; but as it has nothing to recommend it, a description of it is unnecessary. From this bay 1 intended to stand on to the north- ward, but the wind being right against me, I could make no way. While I was beating about to wind- ward, some of the natives came on board, and told me, that in a bay which lay a little to the southward, being the same that I could not fetch the day I put into Tegadoo, there was excellent water, where the boats might land without a surf. I thought it better, therefore, to put into this bay, where I might com- plete my water, and form farther connections with the Indians, than to keep the sea. With this view I bore up for it, and sent in two boats, manned and armed, to examine the watering-place, who confirming the report of the Indians at their return, I came to an anchor about one o'clock, in eleven fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, the north point of the bay N.by E., and the south point S. E. The watering-place, which was in a small cove a little within the south point of the bay, bore S. by E., distant about a mile. Many canoes came immediately off' from the shore, and all traded very honestly for Otaheite cloth and glass- bottles, of which thev were immoderatelv fond. 4 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. SOQ In the afternoon of the Q3d, as soon as the ship was moored, I went on shore to examine the watering- place, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander : the boat landed in the cove, without the least surf; the water was excellent, and conveniently situated ; there was plenty of w^ood close to high-water mark, and the disposition of the people was in every respect such as we could wish. Having, with Mr. Green, taken several observations of the sun and moon, the mean result of them gave 180^ 47' W. longitude ; but, as all the observations made before exceeded these, I have laid down the coast from the mean of the w^hole. At noon, I took the sun's meridan altitude with an astronomical quadrant, which was set up at the watering-place, and found the latitude to be 38° ^22' 24". On the 24th, early in the morning, I sent Lieu- tenant Gore on shore, to superintend the cutting of wood and filling of water, with a sufficient number of men for both purposes, and all the marines as a guard. After breakfast, 1 went on shore myself, and continued there the whole day. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander also went on shore to gather plants, and in their walks saw several things worthy of notice. They met with many houses in the valleys that seemed to be wholly deserted, the people living on the ridges of the hills in a kind of sheds very slightly built. As they were advancing in one of these valleys, the hills on each side of which were very steep, they were suddenly struck with the sight of a very extraordinary natural curiosity. It was a rock, perforated through its whole substance, so as to form a rude but stupendous arch or cavern, opening directly to the sea : this aperture was seventy- five feet long, twenty-seven broad, and five-and-forty high, commanding a view of the bay and the hills on the other side, which were seen through it, and, opening at once upon the view, produced an effect far superior to any of the contrivances of art. X 3 310 cook's first voyage OCT. As they were returning to the watering-place in the evening, they met an old man, who detained them some time by showing them the military exer- cises of the country with the lance and patoo-patoo, which are all the weapons in use. The lance is from ten to fourteen feet long, made of a very hard wood, and sharp at both ends: the patoo-patoo has been described already: it is about a foot long, made of talc or bone, with sharp edges, and used as a battle- axe. A post or stake was set up as his enemy, to which he advanced with a most furious aspect, brandishing his lance, which he grasped with great firmness ; when it was supposed to have been pierced by his lance, he ran at it with his patoo-patoo, and falling upon the upper end of it, which was to repre- sent his adversary's head, he laid on with great vehe- mence, striking many blows, any one of which would probably have split the skull of an ox. From our champion's falling upon his mock enemy with the patoo-patoo, after he was supposed to have been pierced with the lance, our gentlemen inferred, that in the battles of this country their is no quarter. This afternoon, we set up the armourer's forge, to repair the braces of the tiller, which had been broken, and went on getting our wood and water, without suffering the least molestation from the natives ; who came down with different sorts of fish, which we purchased with cloth, beads, and glass-bottles, as usual. On the 25th, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went again on shore j and while they were searching for plants, Tupia staid with the waterers : among other Indians who came down to them, was a priest, with whom Tupia entered into a very learned convers- ation. In their notions of religion they seemed to agree very well, which is not often the case between learned divines on our side of the ocean : Tupia, however, seemed to have the most knowledge, and he was listened to with great deference and attention 4 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 311 by the other. In the course of this conversation, after the important points of divinity had been settled, Tupia enquired if it was their practice to eat men, to which they answered in the affirmative ; but said, that they eat only their enemies who were slain in battle. On the 26th, it rained all day, so that none of us could go ashore ; and very few of the Indians came either to the watering-place or the ship. On the 27th, I went with Dr. Solander to examine the bottom of the bay ; but though we went ashore at two places we met with little worth notice. The people behaved very civilly, showing us every thing that we expressed a desire to see. Among other trifling curiosities which Dr. Solander purchased of them, was a boy's top, shaped exactly like those which children play with in England ; and they made signs that to make it spin it was to be whipped. Mr. Banks in the mean time went ashore at the watering-place, and climbed a hill which stood at a little distant to see a fence of poles, which we had observed from the ship, and which had been much the subject of speculation. The hill was extremely steep, and rendered almost inaccessible by wood ; yet he reached the place, near which he found many houses that for some reason had been deserted by their in- habitants. The poles appeared to be about sixteen feet high ; they v;ere placed in two rows, with a space of about six feet between them, and the poles in each row were about ten feet distant from each other. The lane between them was covered by sticks, that were set up sloping towards each other from the top of the poles on each side, like the roof of a house. This rail- work, with a ditch that was parallel to it, was carried about a hundred yards down the hill in a kind of curve ; but for what purpose we could not guess. The Indians, at the watering-place, at our request, entertained us with their war-song, in which the women joined, with the most horrid distortions of x 4 312 cook's first voyage oct. countenance, rolling tlieir eyes, thrusting out their tongues, and often heaving loud and deep sighs ; though all was done in very good time. On the 28th, we went ashore upon an island that Jies to the left hand of the entrance of the bay, where we saw the largest canoe that we had yet met with : she was sixty-eight feet and a half long, five broad, and three feet six high ; she had a sharp bottom, con- sisting of three trunks of trees hollowed, of which that in the middle was the longest : the side planks were sixty-two feet long, in one piece, and were not despicably carved in bas-relief; the head also was adorned with carving still more richly. Upon this island there was a larger house than any we had yet seen ; but it seemed unfinished, and was full of chips. The wood-work was squared so even and smooth, that we made no doubt of their having among them very sharp tools. The sides of the posts were carved in a masterly style, though after their whimsical taste, which seems to prefer spiril lines and distorted faces : as these carved posts appeared to have been brought from some other place, such work is probably of great value among them. At four o'clock in the morning of the 29th, having got on board our wood and water, and a large supply of excellent celery, with which the country abounds, and which proved a powerful antiscorbutic, I un- moored and put to sea. This bay is called by the natives Tolaga ; it is moderately large, and has from seven to thirteen fathom, with a clean sandy bottom and good anchor- age ; and is sheltered from all winds except the north-east. It lies in latitude 38° 22' S. and four leagues and a half to the north of Gable-end Fore- land. On the south point lies a small but high island, so near the main as not to be distinguished from iu Close to the north end of the island, at the entrance into the bay, are two high rocks ; one is round, like a corn-stack, but the other is long, and perforated in I7O9. HOUND THE WORLD. 313 several places, so that the openings appear like the arches of a bridge. Within these rocks is the cove where we cut wood, and filled our water-casks. Off the north point of the bay is a pretty high rocky island ; and about a mile without it are some rocks and breakers. The variation of the compass here is 14° SV E., and the tide flows at the full and change of the moon, about six o'clock, and rises and falls perpendicularly from five to six feet : whether the flood comes from the southward or the northward I have not been able to determine. We got nothing here by traffic but a few fish, and some sweet potatoes, except a few trifles, which we considered merely as curiosities. We saw no four- footed animals, nor the appearance of any, either tame or wild, except dogs and rats, and these were very scarce : the people eat the dogs, like our friends at Otaheite ; and adorn their garments w-ith the skins, as we do ours with fur and ermine. I climbed many of the hills, hoping to get a view of the country, but I could see nothing from the top except higher hills, in a boundless succession. The ridges of these hills produce little besides fern ; but the sides are most luxuriantly clothed with wood, and verdure of various kinds, with little plantations intermixed. In the woods, we found trees of above twenty different sorts, and carried specimens of each on board ; but there was nobody among us to whom they were not altogether unknown. The tree which we cut for firing was somewhat like our maple, and yielded a whitish gum. We found another sort of it of a deep yellow, which w^e thought might be useful in dyeing. We found also one cabbage-tree, which we cut down for the cabbages. The country abounds with plants, and the woods with birds, in an endless variety, exquisitely beautiful, and of which none of us had the least knowledge. The soil both of the hills and valleys is 'hght and sandy, and very fit for the pro- duction of all kinds of roots ; though we saw none except sweet potatoes and yams. S14 cook's first voyage OCT. CHAP. III. THE RANCxE FROM TOLAGA TO MERCURY BAY, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF MANY INCIDENTS THAT HAPPENED BOTH ON BOARD AND ASHORE: A DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS EXHIBITED BY THE COUNTRY, AND OF THE HEPPAHS, OR FORTIFIED VILLAGES OF THE INHABITANTS. On Monday, the 30th, about half an hour after one o'clock, having made sail again to the northward for about ten hours, with a light breeze, 1 hauled round a small island which lay east one mile from the north- east point of the land : from this place I found the land trend away N. W. by W. and W. N. W. as far as I could see, this point being the easternmost land on the whole coast. I gave it the name of East Cape, and I called the island that lies off it East Island ; it is of a small circuit, high and round, and appears white and barren : the cape is high, with white cliffs, and lies in latitude 37° 4^2' 30"' S. and longitude 181° W. The land from Tolaga Bay to East Cape is of a moderate but unequal height, forming several small bays, in which are sandy beaches : of the inland country we could not see much, the weather being cloudy and hazy. The soundings were from twenty to thirty fathom, at the distance of about a league from the shore. After we had rounded the Cape, we saw in our run along the shore a great number of villages, and much cultivated land ; the country in general appeared more fertile than before, and was low near the sea, but hilly within. At six in the evening, being four leagues to the westward of East Cape, we passed a bay which was first discovered by Lieu- tenant Hicks, and which, therefore, I called Hicks's Bay. At eight in the evening, being eight leagues to the westward of the Cape, and three or four miles l/tili. ROUND THE WORLD. 315 from the shore, I shortened sail, and brought to for the night, having at this time a fresh gale at S. S. E. and squally ; but it soon became moderate, and at two in the morning we made sail again to the S. W. as the land now trended ; and at eight o'clock in the morning saw land, which made like an island, bearing west, the south-westernmost part of the main bearing south-west ; and about nine no less than ^ve canoes came off, in which were more than forty men, all armed with their country pikes and battle- axes, shouting, and threatening an attack ; this gave us great uneasiness, and was, indeed, what we did not expect ; for we hoped, that the report both of our power and clemency had spread to a greater extent. When one of these canoes had almost reached the ship, another of an immense size, the largest we had yet seen, crowded with people who were also armed, put off from the shore, and came up at a great rate : as it approached it received signals from the canoe that was nearest to the ship ; and we could see that it had sixteen paddles on a side, beside people that sat, and others that stood in a row from stem to stern, being in all about sixty men : as they made directly to the ship, we were desirous of preventing an attack, by showing what we could do ; and, therefore, fired a gun, loaded with grape-shot, a-head of them : this made them stop, but not retreat j a round-shot was then fired over them, and upon seeing it fall, they seized their paddles and made towards the shore with such pre- cipitation that they seemed scarcely to allow them- selves time to breathe. In the evening, three or four more canoes came oft* unarmed ; but they would not venture within a musket-shot of the vessel. The Cape off which we had been threatened with hostili- ties I called, from the hasty retreat of the enemy. Cape Runaway. It lies in latitude 37° 32' ; longi- tude 181** 48'. In this day's run, we found that the land, which made like an island in the morning, 5lG cook's iiRsr voyage no v. bearing west, was so ; and we gave it the name of White Island. At day-break, on the 1st of November, we counted no less than five-and-fortj canoes that were coming from the shore towards the ship : seven of them came up with us, and after some conv^ersation w^ith Tupia, sold us some lobsters and muscles, and two conger eels. These people traded pretty fairly ; but when they were gone, some others came off from another })lace, who began also to trade fairly : but after some time they took wdiat was handed down to them, without making any return ; one of them who had done so, upon being threatened, began to laugh, and with many marks of derision set us at defiance, at the same time putting off the canoe from the ship : a musket was then fired over his head, which brought him back in a more serious mood, and trade went on with great regularity. At length, when the cabin and gun-room had got as much as they wanted, the men were allowed to come to the gangway, and trade for themselves. Unhappily the same care was not taken to prevent frauds as had been taken before, so that the Indians, finding that they could cheat with impunity, grew insolent again, and proceeded to take greater liberties. One of the canoes, having sold every thing on board, pulled forward, and the people that were in her seeing some linen hang over the ship's side to dry, one of them, without any ceremony, untied it, and put it up in his bundle : he was immediately called to, and required to return it ; instead of which, he let his canoe drop astern, and laughed at us : a musket was fired over his head, which did not put a stop to his mirth ; another was then fired at him with small shot, which struck him upon the back ; he shrunk a little when the shot hit him, but did not regard it more than one of our men would have done the stroke of a rattan : he continued with great composure to pack up the linen that he bad stolen. All the canoes now dropped astern about 1^69' IIOCXD THE WORLD. .317 a hundred yards, and all set up their song of defiance, which they continued till the ship was distant from them about four hundred yards. As they seemed to have no design to attack us, 1 was not willing to do them any hurt ; yet I thought their going off in a bravado might have a bad effect when it should be reported ashore. To show them, therefore, that they were still in our power, though very much beyond the reach of any missile weapon with which they were acquainted, I gave the ship a yaw, and fired a four-pounder so as to pass near them. The shot happened to strike the water and rise several times at a great distance beyond the canoes : this struck them with terror, and they paddled away without once looking behind them. About two in the afternoon, we saw a pretty In'gh island bearing west from us; and at five, saw. more islands and rocks to the westward of that. We hauled our wind in order to go without them, but could not weather them before it was dark. I, there- fore, bore up, and ran between them and the main. At seven, I was close under the first, from which a large double canoe, or rather two canoes lashed together at the distance of about a foot, and covered with boards so as to make a deck, put off, and made sail for the ship : this was the first vessel of the kind that we had seen since we left the South Sea islands. When she came near, the people on board entered very freely into conversation with Tupia, and we thought showed a friendly disposition ; but when it was just dark, they ran their canoe close to the ship's side, and threw in a volley of stones, after which they paddled away. We learnt from Tupia, that the people in the canoe called the island which we were under Mowtohora ; it is but of a small circuit, though high, and lies six miles from the main ; on the south side is anchorage in fourteen fathom water. Upon the main land S. W. by W. of this island, and apparently at no great distance 318 cook's first voyage nov. from the sea, is a high round mountain, which I called Mount Edgecumbe : it stands in the middle of a large plain, and is, therefore, the more conspicu- ous; latitude 37° 59', longitude 183° T- In standing westward, we suddenly shoaled our water from seventeen to ten fathom ; and knowing that we were not far from the small islands and rocks which we had seen before dark, and which I intended to have passed before I brought to for the night, I thought it more prudent to tack, and spend the night under Mowtohora, where I knew there was no danger. It was, indeed, happy for us that we did so ; for in the morning, after we had made sail to the westward, we discovered ahead of us several rocks, some of which were level with the surface of the water, and some below it : they lay N. N. E. from Mount Edge- cumbe, one league and a half distant from the island Mowtohora, and about nine miles from the main. We passed between these rocks and the main, having from ten to seven fathom water. This morning, many canoes and much people were seen along the shore : several of the canoes followed us, but none of them could reach us, except one with a sail, which proved to be the same that had pelted us the night before. The people on board again entered into conversation with Tupia; but we expected another volley of their ammunition, which was not, indeed, dangerous to any thing but the cabin windows. They continued abreast of the ship about an hour, and behaved very peaceably ; but at last the salute which we expected was given : we returned it by firing a musket over them, and they immediately dropped astern and left us, perhaps rather satisfied with having given a test of their courage by twice insulting a vessel so much superior to their own, than intimidated by the shot. At half an hour after ten, we passed between a low flat island and the main : the distance from one to the other was about four miles, and the depth of ' I7G9. ROUND THE WORLD. 319 water from ten to twelve fathom. The main land between this flat island and Mowtohora is of a mo- derate height, but level, pretty clear of wood, and full of plantations and villages. The villages, which were larger than any we had yet seen, were built upon eminences near the sea, and fortified on the land side by a bank and ditch, with a high pahng within it, which was carried all round : beside a bank, ditch, and pallisadoes, some of them appeared to have outworks. Tupia had a notion that the small inclosure of pallisadoes, and a ditch that we had seen before, were morais or places of worship ; but we were of opinion that they were forts, and con- cluded that these people had neighbouring enemies, and were always exposed to hostile attacks. At two o'clock we passed a small high island, lying four miles from a high round head upon the main. From this head the land trends N. W. as far as can be seen, and has a rugged and hilly appearance. As the weather was hazy, and the wind blew fresh on the shore, we hauled off for the weathermost island in sight, which bore from us N. N. E., distant about six or seven leagues. Under this island, which I have called the Mayor, we spent the night. At seven in the morning it bore S. 47 E., distant six leagues, and a cluster of small islands and rocks bore N. J E., distant one league, to which I gave the name of the Court of Aldermen. They lie in the compass of about half a league every way, and five leagues from the main, between which and them lie other islands, most of them barren rocks, of which there is great variety : some of them are as small in compass as the Monument of London, but h rise to a much greater height, and some of them are ^ inhabited. They lie in latitude 36° 57', and at noon bore S. 60 E., distant three or four leagues ; and a rock like a castle, lying not far from the main, bore N. 40 W., at the distance of one league. The country that we passed the night before appeared to 320 COOK S FIRST VOYAGE NOV. be well inhabited, many towns were in sight, and some hundreds of large canoes lay under them upon the beach ; but this day, after having sailed about fifteen leagues, it appeared to be barren and desolate. As far as we had yet coasted this country from Cape Turnagain, the people acknowledged one chief, whom they called Teratu, and to whose residence they pointed, in a direction that we thought to be very tar inland, but afterwards found to be other- wise. About one o'clock, three canoes came off to us from the main, with one-and-twenty men on board. The construction of these vessels appeared to be more simple than that of any we had seen, they being nothing more than trunks of a single tree hollowed by fire, without any convenience or ornament. The people on board were almost naked, and appeared to be of a browner complexion ; yet naked and despi- cable as they were, they sung their song of defiance, and seemed to denounce against us inevitable de- struction : they remained, however, some time out of stone's throw, and then venturing nearer, with less appearance of hostility, one of our men went to the ship's side, and was about to hand them a rope ; this courtesy, however, they thought fit to return by throwing a lance at him, which having missed him, they immediately threw another into the ship : upon this a musket was fired over them, which at once sent them away. About two, we saw a large opening, or inlet, for which we bore up; we had now forty-one fathom water, which gradually decreased to nine, at which time we were one mile and a half distant from a high towered rock which lay near the south point of the inlet : this rock, and the nothernmost of the Court of Alderman being in one, bearing S. 61 E. About seven in the evening we anchored in seven fathom, a little within the south entrance of the bay : to this place we were accompanied by several canoes 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 321 and people like those we had seen last, and for some time they behaved very civilly. While they were hovering about us, a bird was shot from the ship, as it was swimming upon the water : at this they showed less surprise than we expected, and taking up the bird, they tied it to a fishing line that was towing astern ; as an acknowledgment for this favour, we gave them a piece of cloth : but notwithstanding this effect of our fire-arms, and this interchange of civilities, as soon as it grew dark, they sung their war-song, and attem.pted to tow away the buoy of the anchor. Two or tlu'ee muskets were then fired over them, but this seemed rather to make them angry than afraid, and they went away, threatening that to-morrow they would return with more force, and be the death of us all ; at the same time sending off a boat, which they told us was going to another part of the bay for assistance. There was some appearance of generosity, as well as courage, in acquainting us with the time when they intended to make their attack, but they for- feited all credit which this procured them, by coming secretly upon us in the night, when they certainly hoped to find us asleep : upon approaching the ship, they found themselves mistaken, and therefore re- tired without speaking a word, supposing that they were too early ; after some time, they came a second time, and being again disappointed, they retired as silently as before. In the morning, at day-break, they prepared to effect by force what they had in vain attempted by stealth and artifice : no less than twelve canoes came against us w^ith about a hundred and fifty men, all armed with pikes, lances, and stones. As they could do nothing till they came very near the ship, Tupia was ordered to expostulate with them, and if possi- ble divert them from their purpose : during the con- versation, they appeared to be sometimes friendly and sometimes otherwise ; at length, however, they began VOL. I. Y 322 cook's first voyage NOV. to trade, and we offered to purchase their weapons, which some of them consented to sell : they sold two very fairly, but having received what had been agreed upon for the purchase of a third, they refused to send it up, but offered it for a second price ; a second was sent down, but the weapon was still detained, and a demand made of a third ; this being refused with some expressions of displeasure and resentment, the offender, with many ludicrous tokens of contempt and defiance, paddled his canoe off a few yards from the ship. As I intended to continue in this place five or six days, in order to make an observation of the transit of Mercury, it was absolutely necessary, in order to prevent future mischief, to show these people that we were not to be treated ill with im- punity ; some small shot were therefore fired at the thief, and a musket ball through the bottom of his boat : upon this it was paddled to about a hundred yards' distance, and to our great surprise the people in the other canoes took not the least notice of their w^ounded companion, though he bled very much, but returned to the ship, and continued to trade with the most perfect indifference and unconcern. They sold us many more of their weapons, without making any other attempt to defraud us, for a considerable time ; at last, however, one of them thought fit to paddle away with two different pieces of cloth which had been given for the same weapon : when he had got about an hundred yards* distance, and thought himself secure of his prize, a musket was fired after him, which fortunately struck the boat just at the water's edge, and made two holes in her side ; this only incited them to ply their paddles with greater activity, and the rest of the canoes also made off with the utmost expedition. As the last proof of our superiority, therefore, we fired a round shot over them, and not a boat stopped till they got on shore. About ten o'clock, 1 went with two boats to sound the bay, and look out for a more convenient anchor- 19 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 323 ing-place, the master being in one boat and myself in the other. We pulled first over to the north shore, from which some canoes came out to meet us ; as we advanced, however, they retired, inviting us to follow them ; but seeing them all armed, I did not think it pro- per to comply, but went towards the head of the bay, where I observed a village upon a very high point, fortified in the manner that has been already de- scribed, and having fixed upon an anchoring-place not far from where the ship lay, I returned onboard. At three o'clock in the afternoon, I weighed, run in nearer to the shore, and anchored in four fathom and an half water, with a soft sandy bottom, the south point of the bay bearing E. distant one mile, and a river which the boats can enter at low water S. S. E., distant a mile and an half. In the morning, the natives came off again to the ship, and we had the satisfaction to observe that their behaviour was very different from what it had been yesterday : among them was an old man, whom we had before remarked for his prudence and honesty : his name was Toiava, and he seemed to be a person of a superior rank ; in the transactions of yesterday morning he had behaved with great propriety and good sense, lying in a small canoe, always near the ship, and treating those on board as if he neither in- tended a fraud, nor suspected an injury: with some persuasion this man and another came on board, and ventured into the cabin, where I presented each of them with a piece of English cloth and some spike nails. They told us that the Indians were now very much afraid of us, and on our part we promised friendship, if they would behave peaceably, desiring only to purchase what they had to sell upon their own terms. After the natives had left us, I went with the pin- nace and long boat into the river with a design to haul the seine, and sent the master in the yawl to sound the bay and dredge for fish. The Indian^, who y 2 324 cook's first voyage NOV. were on one side of the river, expressed their friend- ship by all the signs they could devise, beckoning us to land among them ; but we chose to go ashore on the other side, as the situation was more convenient for hauling the seine and shooting birds, of which we saw great numbers of various kinds : the Indians, with much persuasion, about noon, ventured over to us. With the seine we had very little success, catch- ing only a few mullets, neither did we get any thing by the trawl or the dredge, except a few shells ; but we shot several birds, most of them resembling sea- pies, except that they had black plumage, and red bills and feet. While we were absent with our guns, the people who staid by the boats saw two of the In- dians quarrel and fight : they began the battle with their lances, but some old men interposed and took them away, leaving them to decide the difference, like Englishmen, with their fists: they boxed with great vigour and obstinacy for some time, but by de- grees all retired behind a little hill, so that our people could not see the event of the combat. In the morning the long-boat was sent again to traul in the bay, and an officer, with the marines, and a party of men, to cut wood and haul the seine. The Indians on shore appeared very peaceable and sub- missive, and we had reason to believe that their ha« bitations were at a considerable distance, for we saw no houses, and found that they slept under the bushes: the bay is probably a place to which they frequently resort in parties to gather shell-fish, of which it af- fords incredible plenty; for wherever we went, whether upon the hills or in the valleys, the woods or the plains, we saw vast heaps of shells, often many wag- gon-loads together, some appearing to be very old, and others recent. We saw no cultivation in this place, which had a desolate and barren appearance ; the tops of the hills were green, but nothing grew there, except a large kind of fern, the roots of which the natives had got together in large quantities, in 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 325 order to carry away with them. In the evening Mn Banks walked up the river, which, at the mouth, looked fine and broad, but at the distance of about two miles was not deep enough to cover the foot ; and the country inland was still more barren than at the sea side. The seine and dredge were not more success- ful to-day than yesterday, but the Indians in some measure compensated for the disappointment by bringing us several baskets of fish, some dry, and some fresh dressed ; it was not indeed of the best, but I ordered it all to be bought for the encourage- ment of trade. On the 7th, the weather was so bad that none of us left the ship, nor did any of the Indians come on board. On the 8th, I sent a party of men on shore to wood and water ; and in the mean time many canoes came off, in one of which was our friend Toiava ; soon after he was alongside of the ship, he saw two canoes com- ing from the opposite side of the bay, upon which he hasted back again to the shore with all his canoes, telling us that he was afraid of the people who were coming : this was a farther proof that the people of this country were perpetually committing hostilities against each other. In a short time, however, he re- turned, having discovered that the people who had alarmed him were not the same that he had supposed. The natives that came to the ship this morning sold us, for a few pieces of cloth, as much fish of the mackerel kind as served the whole ship's company, and they were as good as ever were eaten. At noon, this day, I observed the sun's meridional zenith dis- tance by an astronomical quadrant, which gave the latitude 36° 47' 43'' within the south entrance of the bay. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went on shore and collected a great variety of plants, altogether un- known, and not returning till the evening, had an opportunity of observing in what manner the Indians y 3 326 cook's first voyage nov. disposed themselves to pass the night. They had no shelter but a few shrubs ; the women and the children were ranged innermost, or farthest from the sea ; the men lay in a kind of half circle round them, and their arms were set up against the trees close by them, in a manner which showed that they were afraid of an attack by some enemy not far distant. It was also discovered that they acknowledged neither Teratu, nor any other person as their king : as in this particu- lar they differed from all the people that we had seen upon other parts of the coast, we tliought it possible that they might be a set of outlaws, in a state of re- bellion against Teratu, and in that case they might have no settled habitations, or cultivated land in any part of the country. On the 9th, at day-break, a great number of canoes came on board, loaded with mackerel of two sorts, one exactly the same with those caught in England, and the otner somewhat different : we imagined the people had taken a large shoal, and brought us an overplus which they could not consume ; for they sold them at a very low rate. They were, however, very welcome to us ; at eight o'clock, the ship had more fish on board than all her people could eat in three days ; and before night, the quantity was so much increased, that every m.an who could get salt, cured as many as would last him a month. After an early breakfast, I went ashore, with Mr. Green and proper instruments, to observe the transit of Mercury, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander being of the party ; the weather had for some time been very- thick, with much rain, but this day was so favourable that not a cloud intervened during the whole transit. The observation of the ingress was made by Mr. Green alone, while I was employed in taking the sun's altitude to ascertain the time. It came on at 7'' 20' 68" apparent time : according to Mr. Green's observation, the internal contact was at 12^ 8' 58''^, the external at i2^ 9' 55" P. M. And according to 1769.* ROUND THE WORLD. 32? mine, the internal contact was at IS** 8' 54", and the external 12^ 9' 48'^ ; the latitude of the place of observation was 30° 48' 5i". The latitude observed at noon was SG'' 48' 28". The mean of this and yesterday's observation gives 36° 48' 5h" S. the lati- tude of the place of observation; the variation of the compass was 11° 9' E. About noon, we were alarmed by the firing of a great gun from the ship ; Mr. Gore, my second lieutenant, was at this time commanding officer on board, and the account that he gave was this. While some small canoes were trading with the people, two very large ones came up, full of men, one of them having on board forty-seven, all armed with pikes, darts, and stones, and apparently with a hostile in- tention: they appeared to be strangers, and to be rather conscious of superiority over us by their numbers, than afraid of any weapons which could give us the superiority over them: no attack how- ever was made ; probably because they learnt from the people in the other canoes, with whom they im- mediately entered into conference, what kind of an enemy they had to deal with: after a little time, they began to trade, some of them offering their arms, and one of them a square piece of cloth, which makes a part of their dress, called a Haahow ; several of the weapons were purchased, and Mr. Gore having agreed for a Haahow, sent down the price, which was a piece of British cloth, and expected his pur- chase : but the Indian, as soon as he had got Mr. Gore's cloth in his possession, refused to part with his own, and put off the canoe: upon being threatened for this fraud, he and his companions began to sing their war-song in defiance, and shook their paddles : still however they began no attack, only defying Mr. Gore to take any remedy in his power, which so pro- voked him that he levelled a musket loaded with ball at the offender, while he was holding the cloth in his hand, and shot him dead. It would have been Y 4 3^8 cook's first voyage nov. happy, if the effect of a few small shot had been tried upon this occasion, which, upon some others, had been successful. When the Indian dropped, all the canoes put oft' to some distance ; but as they did not go away, it was thought they might still meditate an attack. To secure therefore a safe passage for the boat, which it was necessary to send on shore, a round shot was fired over their heads, which effectually answered the purpose, and put them all to flight. When an ac- count of what had happened was brought ashore, our Indians were alarmed, and drawing all together, re- treated in a body. After a short time, however, they returned, having heard a more particular account of the affair; and intimated that they thought the man who had been killed deserved his fate. A little before sunset the Indians retired to eat their supper, and we went with them to be spectators of the repast ; it consisted of fish of different kinds, among which were lobsters, and some birds, of a species unknown to us: these were either roasted or baked ; to roast them, they fastened them upon a small stick, which was stuck up in the ground inclin- ing towards their fire; and to bake them, they put them into a hole in the ground, with hot stones, in the same manner as the people of Otaheite. Among the natives that were assembled upon this occasion, we saw a woman, who, after their manner, was mourning for the death of her relation : she sat upon the ground near the rest, who, one only ex- cepted, seemed not at all to regard her : the tears constantly trickled down her cheeks, and she re- peated in a low, but very mournful voice, words, whioh even Tupia did not at all understand : at the end of every sentence she cut her arms, her face, or her breast with a shell that she held in her hand, so that she was almost covered with blood, and was indeed one of the most affecting spectacles that can be conceived. The cuts, however, did not appear 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. SQQ to be so deep as are sometimes made upon similar occasions, if we may judge by the scars which we saw upon the arms, thighs, breasts, and cheeks of many of them, which we were told were the remains of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves as testimonies of their affection and sorrow. The next day, I went with two boats, accompanied by Mr. Banks and the other gentlemen, to examine a large river that empties itself into the head of the bay. We rowed about four or five niiles up, and could have gone much farther, if the weather had been favourable. It was here wider than at the mouth, and divided into many streams by small flat islands, which are covered with mangroves, and overflowed at high water. From these trees exudes a viscous substance which very much resembles resin: we found it first in small lumps upon the sea-beach, and now saw it sticking to the trees, by which we knew whence it came. We landed on the east side of the river, where we saw a tree upon which several shags had built their nests, and here therefore we de- termined to dine ; twenty of the shags were soon killed, and being broiled upon the spot, aflTorded us an excellent meal. We then went upon the hills from whence 1 thought I saw the head of the river. The shore on each side, as well as the islands in the middle, were covered with mangroves ; and the sand- banks abounded in cockles and clams: in many places there were rock-oysters, and every where plenty of wild fowl, principally shags, ducks, curlieus, and the sea-pie, that has been described before. We also saw fish in the river, but of what kind we could not discover: the country on the east side of this river is for the most part barren, and destitute of wood; but on the west it has a better aspect, and in some places is adorned with trees, but has in no part the appearance of cultivation. In the entrance of the river, and for two or three miles up, there is good anchoring in four and ^\e fathom water, and places 330 COOK*S FIRST VOYAGE NOV. very convenient for laying a vessel on shore, where the tide rises and falls seven feet at the full and change of the moon. We could not determine, whether any considerable stream of fresh water came into this river out of the country ; but we saw a number of small rivulets issue from the adjacent hills. Near the mouth of this river, on the east side, we found a little Indian village, consisting of small temporary sheds, where we landed, and were re- ceived by the people with the utmost kindness and hospitality: they treated us with a flat shell flsh of a most delicious taste, somewhat like a cockle, which we eat hot from the coals. Near this place is a high point or peninsula, projecting into the river, and upon it are the remains of a fort, which they call EppaJi, or Heppah, The best engineer in Europe could not have chosen a situation better adapted to enable a small number to defend themselves against a greater. The steepness of the cliffs renders it wholly inaccessible from the water which incloses it on three sides ; and, to the land, it is fortified by a ditch, and a bank raised on the inside: from the top of the bank to the bottom of the ditch, is two and twenty feet ; the ditch on the outside is fourteen feet deep, and its breadth is in proportion. The whole seemed to have been executed with great judgment; and there had been a row of pickets or pallisadoes, both on the top of the bank and along the brink of the ditch on the outside ; those on the outside had been driven very deep into the ground, and were inclined towards the ditch, so as to project over it ; but of these the thickest posts only were left, and upon them there were evident marks of fire, so that the place had probably been taken and destroyed by an enemy. If any occasion should make it necessary for a ship to winter here, or stay any time, tents might be built in this place, which is sufficiently spacious, with great convenience, and might easily be made impregnable to the whole country. I H 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 331 On the eleventh, there was so much wind and rain that no canoe came off; but the long-boat was sent to fetch oysters from one of the beds which had been discovered the day before: the boat soon re- turned, deeply laden, and the oysters, which were as good as ever came from Colchester, and about the same size, were laid down under the booms, and the ship's company did nothing but eat them from the time they came on board till night, when, as may reasonably be supposed, great part of them were ex- pended ; this, however, gave us no concern, as we knew that not the boat only, but the ship, might have been loaded, almost in one tide, as the beds are dry at half ebb. In the morning of Sunday the 12th, two canoes came off full of people whom we had never seen be- fore, but who appeared to have heard of us by the caution which they used in approaching us. As we invited them to come alongside with all the tokens of friendship that we could show, they ventured up, and two of them came on board; the rest traded very fairly for what they had : a small canoe also came from the other side of the bay, and sold us some very large fish, which they gave us to understand they w^ould have brought yesterday, having caught them the day before, but that the wind was so high they could not venture to sea. After breakfast, I went with the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, over to the north side of the bay, to take a view of the country, and two fortified villages which we had discovered at a distance. We landed near the smallest of them, the situation of which was the most beauti- fully romantic that can be imagined ; it was built upon a small rock, detached from the main, and surrounded at high water. The whole body of this rock was perforated by an hollow or arch, which pos- sessed much the largest part of it; the top of the arch was above sixty feet perpendicular above the 332 cook's first voyage nov. sea, wliicli at high water flowed through the bottom of it : the whole summit of the rock above the arch was fenced round after their manner ; but the area was not large enough to contain more than five or six houses: it was accessible only by one very narrow and steep path, by which the inhabitants, at our approach, came down, and invited us into the place; but we refused, intending to visit a much more con- siderable fort of the same kind at about a mile's distance. We made some presents however to the women, and in the mean time we saw the inhabitants of the town which we were going to, coming towards us in a body, men, women, and children, to the number of about one hundred: when they came near enough to be heard, they waved their hands and called out Horomai; after which they sat down among the bushes near the beach ; these ceremonies we were told were certain signs of their friendly disposition. We advanced to the place where they were sitting, and when we came up, made them a few presents, and asked leave to visit their Heppah ; they con- sented with joy in their countenances, and immedi- ately led the way. It is called Wharretouwa, and is situated upon a high promontory or point, which projects into the sea, on the north side, and near the head of the bay: two sides of it are washed by the sea, and these are altogether inaccessible; two other sides are to the land: up one of them, which is very steep, lies the avenue from the beach ; the other is flat and open to the country upon the hill, which is a narrow ridge: the whole is inclosed by a pallisade about ten feet high, consisting of strong pales bound together with withes. The weak side next the land is also defended by a double ditch, the innermost of which has a bank and an additional pallisade : the inner pallisades are upon the bank next the town, but at such a distance from the top of the bank as to leave room for men to walk and use their arms, between them and the inner ditch ; the outermost pallisades are be- I 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 333 tween the two ditches, and driven obliquely into the ground, so that their upper ends incline over the inner ditch : the depth of this ditch, from the botton to the top or crown of the bank, is four-and-twentyfeet. Close within the innermost pallisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad ; it is supported by strong posts, and is intended as a station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which lay ready for use. Another stage of the same kind com- mands the steep avenue from the beach, and stands also within the pallisade; on this side of the hill, there are some little outworks and huts, not intended as advanced posts, but as the habitations of people who, for want of room, could not be accommodated within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, desirous of placing themselves under their protection. The pallisades, as has been observed already, run round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the sea as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a mount, they have reduced it not to one level, but to several, rising in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is in- closed within its separate pallisade ; they communi- cate with each other by narrow lanes, which might easily be stopt up, so that if an enemy should force the outward pallisade, he would have others to carry before the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be obstinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a narrow passage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the steep ascent from the beach : it passes under one of the fighting stages, and though we saw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be considered as a place of great strength, in w^iich a small number of resolute men may defend themselves against all the force which a people with SSii cook's l^IRST VOYAGE NOV. no Other arms than those that are in use here could bring against it. It seemed to be well furnished for a siege with every thing but water ; we saw great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and dried fish piled up in heaps ; but we could not per- ceive that they had any fresh water nearer than a brook, whicli runs close under the foot of the hill : whether they have any means of getting it from this place during a siege, or whether they have any method of storing it within the works in gourds or other vessels, we could not learn ; some resource they certainly have with respect to this article, an indis- pensable necessary of life, for otherwise the laying up dry provisions could answer no purpose. Upon our expressing a desire to see their method of attack and defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting- stage, which they call Porava^ and another went into the ditch : both he that was to defend the place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war- song, and danced with the same frightful gesticu- lations that we had seen used in more serious cir- cumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of that mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is the necessary prelude to a battle ; for dis- passionate courage, a strength of mind that can sur- mount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal spirits by which it is extinguished, seems to be the prerogative of those who have projects of more lasting importance, and a keener sense of honour and dis- grace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few pains or pleasures besides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose but tq provide for the day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an insult: they will march against each other indeed in cool blood, though they find it necessary to work themselves into passion before they en- gage ; as among us there have been many instances of people who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a project which they 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 335 formed when they were sober, but whicli, while they continued so, they did not dare to undertake. On the side of the hill, near this in closure, we saw about half an acre planted with gourds and sweet potatoes, which was the only cultivation in the bay : under the foot of the point upon which this fortifica- tion stands, are two rocks, one just broken off from the main, and the other not perfectly detached from it : they are both small, and seem more proper for the habitations of birds than men ; yet there are houses and places of defence upon each of them. And we saw many other works of the same kind upon small islands, rocks, and ridges of hills, on dif- ferent parts of the coast, besides many fortified towns, which appeared to be much superior to this. The perpetual hostility in which these poor sa- vages, who have made every village a fort, must necessarily live, will account for there being so little of their land in a state of cultivation ; and, as mis- chiefs very often reciprocally produce each other, it may perhaps appear, that there being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their living in perpetual hostility. But it is very strange, that the same invention and diligence which have been used in the construction of places so admirably adapted to defence, almost without tools, should not, when urged by the same necessity, have furnished them with a single missile weapon except the lance, which is thrown by hand ; they have no contrivance like a bow to discharge a dart, nor any thing like a sling to assist them in throwing a stone ; which is the more surprising, as the invention of slings, and bows and arrows, is much more obvious than of the works which these people construct, and both these weapons are found among much ruder nations, and in almost every other part of the world. Besides the long lance and Patoo-patoo, which have been men- tioned already, they have a staff about five feet long, 336 cook's first voyage nov. sometimes pointed like a Serjeant's halberd, some- times only tapering to a point at one end, and having the other end broad, and shaped somewhat like the blade of an oar. They have also another weapon, about a foot shorter than these, pointed at one end, and at the other shaped like an axe. The points of their long lances are barbed, and they handle them with such strength and agility, that we can match them with no weapon but a loaded musquet. After taking a slight view of the country, and loading both the boats with celery, which we found in great plenty near the beach, we returned from our excursion, and about five o'clock in the evening got on board the ship. On the 15th, I sailed out of the bay, and at the same time had several canoes on board, in one of which was our friend Toiava, who said, that as soon as we were gone he must repair to his Heppah or fort, because the friends of the man who had been shot by Mr. Gore on the 9th, had threatened to revenge his death upon him, whom they had reproached as being our friend. Off the north point of the bay, 1 saw a great number of islands, of various extent, which lay scattered to the north-west, in a direction parallel with the main as far as I could see. I steered north-east for the north-easternmost of these islands, but the wind coming to the north-west, I was obliged to stand out to sea. To the bay which we had now left I gave the name of Mercury Bay, on account of the observ- ation which we had made there of the transit of that planet over the sun. It lies in latitude 36° 47' S. ; and in the longitude of 184° 4' W.: there are several islands lying both to the southward and northward of it, and a small island or rock in the middle of the entrance : within this island the depth of water no where exceeds nine fathom ; the best anchoring is in a sandy bay, which lies just within the south head. 1769- ROUND THE WORLD. 337 in five and four fathom, bringing a high tower or rock, which lies without the head, in one with the head, or just shut in behind it. This place is very convenient both for wooding and watering, and in the river there is an immense quantity of oysters and other shell-fish : I have for this reason given it the name of Oyster River. Bat for a ship that wants to stay here any time, the best and safest place is in the river at the head of the bay ; which, from the number of mangrove trees about it, I have called Mangrove River. To sail into this river, the south shore must be kept all the way on board. The country on the east side of the river and bay, is very barren, its only produce being fern, and a few other plants that will grow in a poor soil. The land on the north-west side is covered with wood, and the soil being much more fertile would doubtless produce all the necessaries of life with proper cultivation : it is not however so fertile as the lands that we have seen to the southward, nor do the inhabitants, though numerous, make so good an appearance : they have no plantations ; their canoes are mean, and without ornament ; they sleep in the open air ; and say, that Teratu, whose sovereignty they do not acknowledge, if he was to come among them, would kill them. This favoured our opinion of their being out-laws j yet they told us, that they had Heppahs, or strong- holds, to which they retired in time of imminent danger. We found, thrown upon the shore, in several parts of this bay, great quantities of iron sand, which is brought down by every little rivulet of fresh water that finds its way from the country ; which is a de- monstration that there is ore of that metal not far inland : yet neither the inhabitants of this place, or any other part of the coast that we have seen, know the use of iron, or set the least value upon it ; all of them preferring the most worthless and useless trifle, not only to a nail, but to any tool of that metal. VOL. I. z S38 cook's first voyage nov. j Before we left the bay, we cut upon one of the | trees near the watering-place the ship's name, and 1 that of the commander, with the date of the year - and month when we were there ; and after display- j ing the English colours, I took a formal possession | of it in the name of his Britannic Majesty King ! George the Third. j V/GQ' JtOUKD THE WOULD 339 CHAP. IV. THE RANGE FROM MERCURY BAY TO THE BAY OF ISLANDS; AN EXPEDITION UP THE RIVER THAMES: SOME ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS WHO INHABIT ITS BANKS, AND THE FINE TIMBER THAT GROWS THERE : SEVERAL INTERVIEWS WITH THE NA- TIVES ON DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COAST, AND A SKIRMISH WITH THEM UPON AN ISLAND. 1 CONTINUED plying to windward two days to get under the land, and on the 18th, about seven in the morning, we were abreast of a very conspicuous pro- montory, being then in latitude 36° 26', and in the direction of N. 48 W. from the north head of Mer- cury Bay, or Point Mercury, which was distant nine leagues : upon this point stood many people, who seemed to take little notice of us, but talked together with great earnestness. In about half an hour, se- veral canoes put off from different places, and came towards the ship ; upon which the people on the point also launched a canoe, and about twenty of them came in her up with the others. When two of these canoes, in which there might be about sixty men, came near enough to make themselves heard, they sung their war-song ; but seeing that we took little notice of it, they threw a few stones at us, and then rowed off towards the shore. We hoped that we had now done with them, but in a short time they returned, as if with a fixed resolution to provoke us into a battle, animating themselves by their song as they had done before. Tupia, without any direc- tions from us, went to the poop, and began to expos- tulate : he told them, that we had weapons which would destroy them in a moment ; and that, if they ventured to attack us, we should be obliged to use them. Upon this, they flourished their weapons, and z 2 3i0 cook's first voyage NOV. cried out, in their language, " Come on shore, and we will kill you all :" Well, said Tupia, but why should you molest us while we are at sea ? as we do not wish to fight, we shall not accept your challenge to come on shore ; and here there is no pretence for quarrel, the sea being no more your property than the ship. This eloquence of Tupia, though it greatly surprised us, having given him no hints for the argu- ments he used, had no effect upon our enemies, who very soon renewed their battery : a musket was then fired through one of their boats, and this was an ar- gument of sufficient weight, for they immediately fell astern and left us. From the point, of which we were now abreast, the land trends W. ^ S. near a league, and then S. S. E. as far as we could see ; and, besides the islands that lay without us, we could see land round by the S. W. as far as N. W. ; but whether this was the main or islands, we could not then determine : the fear of losing the main, however, made me re- solve to follow its direction. With this view, I hauled round the point, and steered to the southward, but there being light airs all round the compass, we made but little progress. About one o'clock, a breeze sprung up at east, which afterwards came to N. E. and we steered along the shore S. by E. and S. S. E. having from twenty- five to eighteen fathom. At about half an hour after seven in the evening, having run seven or eight leagues since noon, I an- chored in twenty- three fathom, not choosing to run any farther in the dark, as I had now land on both sides, forming the entrance of a straight, bay, or river, lying S. by E. for on that point we could see no land. At day-break, on the 19th, the wind being still favourable, we weighed and stood with an easy sail up the inlet, keeping nearest to the east side. In a short time, two large canoes came off to us from the 17()9» ROUND THE WORLD. ' 341 shore ; the people on board said, that they knew Toiava very well, and called Tupia by his name. I invited some of them on board ; and as they knew they had nothing to fear from us, while they behaved honestly and peaceably, they immediately complied : I made each of them some presents, and dismissed them much gratified. Other canoes afterwards came up to us from a different side of the bay ; and the people on board of these also mentioned the name of Toiava, and sent a young man into the ship, who told us he was his grandson, and he also was dis- missed with a present. After having run about five leagues from the place where we had anchored the night before, our depth of water gradually decreased to six fathom ; and not choosing to go into less, as it was tide of flood, and the wind blew right up the inlet, 1 came to an an- chor about the middle of the channel, which is near eleven miles over ; after which I sent two boats out to sound, one on one side, and the other on the other. The boats not having found above three feet more water than we were now in, I determined to go no farther with the ship, but to examine the head of the bay in the boats ; for, as it appeared to run a good way inland, I thought this a favourable opportunity to examine the interior part of the country, and its produce. At day-break, therefore, I set out in the pinnace and long-boat, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. So- lander, and Tupia ; and we found the inlet end in a river, about nine miles above the ship : into this river we entered with the first of the flood, and within three miles found the water perfectly fresh. Before we had proceeded more than one third of that dis- tance, we found an Indian town, which was built upon a small bank of dry sand, but entirely sur- rounded by a deep mud, which possibly the inhabi- tants might consider as a defence. These people, as z 3 242 COOK S FIRST VOYAGE NOV. soon as they saw us, thronged to the banks, and in- vited us on shore. We accepted the invitation, and made them a visit notwithstanding the mud. They received us with open arms, having heard of us from our good old friend Toiava ; but our stay could not be long, as we had other objects of curiosity in view. We proceeded up the river till near noon, when we were fourteen miles within its entrance ; and then, finding the face of the country to continue nearly the same, without any alteration in the course of the stream, which we had no hope of tracing to its source, we landed on the west side, to take a view of the lofty trees which every where adorned its banks. They were of a kind that we had seen before, though only at a distance, both in Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay. Before we had walked an hundred yards into the wood, we met with one of them which was nineteen feet eight inches in the girt, at the height of six feet above the ground : having a quad- rant with me, I measured its height from the root to the first branch, and found it to be eighty-nine feet : it was as straight as an arrow, and tapered but very little in proportion to its height; so that I judged there were three hundred and fifty-six feet of solid timber in it, exclusive of the branches. As we ad- vanced, we saw many others that were still larger ; we cut down a young one, and the wood proved heavy and solid, not fit for masts, but such as would make the finest plank in the world. Our carpenter, who w^as with us, said that the timber resembled that of the pitch-pine, which is lightened by tapping ; and possibly some such method might be found to lighten these, and they would then be such masts as no country in Europe can produce. As the wood was swampy, we could not range far; but we found many stout trees of other kinds, all of them utterly unknown to us, specimens of which we brought away. The river at this height is as broad as the Thames 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 343 at Greenwich, and the tide of flood as strong ; it is not indeed quite so deep, but has water enough for vessels of more than a middle size, and a bottom of mud so soft, that nothing could take damage by run- nino^ ashore. About three o'clock, we reimbarked, in order to return with the first of the ebb, and named the river the Thabies, it having some resemblance to our own river of that name. In our return, the inhabitants of the village where we had been ashore, seeing us take another channel, came off to us in their canoes, and trafficked with us in the most friendly manner, till they had disposed of the few trifles they had. The tide of ebb just carried us out of the narrow part of the river, into the channel that run up from the sea before it was dark ; and we pulled hard to reach the ship, but meeting the flood, and a strong breeze at N. N. W. with showers of rain, we were obliged to desist ; and about midnight, we run under the land, and came to a grappling, where we took such rest as our situation would admit. At break of day, we set forward again, and it was past seven o'clock before we reached the ship. We were all extremely tired, but thought ourselves happy to be on board ; for before nine it blew so hard that the boat could not have rowed ahead, and must therefore either have gone ashore, or taken shelter under it. About three o'clock, having the tide of ebb, we took up our anchor, made sail, and plied down the river till eight in the evening, when we came to an anchor again : early in the morning, we made sail with the first ebb, and kept plying till the flood obliged us once more to come to an anchor. As we had now only a light breeze, I went in the pinnace, accompanied by Dr. Solander, to the western shore, but 1 saw nothing worthy of notice. When I left the ship, many canoes were about it ; Mr. Banks therefore chose to stay on board and traffic with the natives ; they bartered their clothes z 4 344 cook's first voyage nov. and amis, chiefly for paper, and behaved with great friendship and honesty. But while some of them were below with Mr. Banks, a young man who was upon the deck stole a half minute glass which was in the binnacle, and was detected just as he was car- rying it off. Mr. Hicks, who was commanding-officer on board, took it into his head to punish him, by giving him twelve lashes with a cat-o'nine-tails ; and accordingly ordered him to be taken to the gang- way, and tied up to the shrouds. When the other Indians who were on board saw him seized, they attempted to rescue him ; and being resisted called for their arms, which were handed up from the canoes, and the people of one of them attempted to come up the ship's side. The tumult was heard by Mr. Banks, who, with Tupia, came hastily upon the deck to see what had happened. The Indians im- mediately ran to Tupia, who, finding Mr. Hicks in- exorable, could only assure them, that nothing was intended against the life of their companion ; but that it was necessary he should suffer some punish- ment for his offence ; which being explained to them, they seemed to be satisfied. The punishment w^as then inflicted, and as soon as the criminal was un- bound, an old man among the spectators, who was supposed to be his father, gave him a hearty beating, and sent him down into his canoe. All the canoes then dropped a-stern, and the people said that they were afraid to come any more near the ship : after much persuasion, however, they ventured back again, but their cheerful confidence was at an end, and their stay was short ; they promised indeed, at their departure, to return with some fish, but we saw no more of them. On the 23d, the wind being contrary, we kept plying down the river, and at seven in the evening, got without the N. W. point of the islands lying on the west side of it. The weather being bad, night coming on, and having land on every side of us, I 3* 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. S45 thought it most advisable to tack, and stretch in under the point, where we anchored in nineteen fathom. At five in the morning of the 24th, we weighed, and made sail to the N. W. under our courses and double reefed topsails, the wind being at S. W. by W. and W. S. W. a strong gale and squally. As the gale would not permit us to come near the land, we had but a slight and distant view of it from the time when we got under sail till noon, during a run of twelve leagues, but we never once lost sight of it. At this time, our latitude by obser- vation was 36° 15' Q0'\ we were not above two miles from a point of land on the main, and three leagues and an half from a very high island, which bore N.E. by E. : in this situation we had twenty-six fathom water : the farthest point on the main that we could see bore N. W. but we could perceive several small islands lying to the north of that direction. The point of land of which we were now a-breast, and which I called Point Rodney, is the N. W. extre- mity of the river Thames ; for under that name I comprehend the deep bay, which terminates in the fresh water stream, and the N. E. extremity is the promontory which we passed when we entered it, and which I called Cape Colville, in honour of the Right Honourable Lord Colville. Cape Colville lies in latitude 36'^ 26", longitude 184° 27'; it rises directly from the sea, to a consi- derable height, and is remarkable for a lofty rock, which stands to the pitch of the point, and may be distinguished at a very great distance. From the south point of this cape, the river runs in a direct line S. by E., and is no where less than three leagues broad for the distance of fourteen leagues above the cape, and there it is contracted to a narrow stream, but continues the same course through a low flat country, or broad valley, which lies parallel with the sea coast, and the end of which we could not see. On the east side of the broad part of this river, the 346 cook's first voyage nov. land is tolerably high and hilly ; on the west side, it is rather low, but the whole is covered with verdure and wood, and has the appearance of great fertility, though there were but a few small spots which had been cultivated. At the entrance of the narrow part of the river, the land is covered with mangroves and other shrubs ; but farther, there are immense woods of perhaps the finest timber in the world, of which some account has already been given : in several places, the wood extends to the very edge of the water, and where it is at a little distance, the inter- mediate space is marshy, like some parts of the banks of the Thames in England: it is probable that the river contains plenty of fish, for we saw poles stuck up in many places to set nets for catching them, but of what kinds I do not know. The greatest depth of water that we found in this river was six-and- twenty fathom, which gradually decreased to one fathom and an half: in the mouth of the fresh-water stream, it is from four to three fathom, but there are large flats and sand banks lying before it. A ship of moderate draught may, notwithstanding, go a long way up this river with a flowing tide, for it rises per- pendicularly near ten feet, and at the full and change of the moon, it is high water about nine o'clock. Six leagues within Cape Colville, under the eastern shore, are several small islands, which, together with the main, seem to form good harbours ; and opposite to these islands, under the western shore, lie other islands, by which it is also probable that good har- bours may be formed : but if there are no harbours about this river, there is good anchoring in every part of it where the depth of water is sufficient, for it is defended from the sea by a chain of islands of different extent, which lie cross the mouth of it, and which I have, for that reason, called Barrier Islands : they stretch N. W. and S. E. ten leagues. The south end of the chain lies N. E. between two and three leagues from Cape Colville j and the north end lies 1760. ROUND THE WORLD. 347 N. E. four leagues and an half from Point Rodney. Point Rodney lies W. N. W. nine leagues from Cape Colville, in latitude 86'' 15' S. longitude 184° 53' W. The natives residing about this riv'er do not appear to be numerous, considering the great extent of the country. But they are strong, well-made, and active ; people, and all of them paint their bodies with red I oker and oil from head to foot, which we had not seen before. Their canoes were large and well built, and adorned with carving, in as good a taste as any that we had seen upon the coast. We continued to stand along the shore till night, with the main land on one side, and islands on the other, and then anchored in a bay, with fourteen fathom, and a sandy bottom. We had no sooner come to an anchor, than we tried our lines, and in a short time caught near one hundred fish, which the people called Sea-bream ; they weighed from six to eight pounds a-piece, and consequently would supply the whole ship's company with food for two days. From the success of our lines here, we called the place Bream Bay : the two points that form it lie north and south, five leagues from each other ; it is every where of a good breadth, and between three and four leagues deep : at the bottom of it there appears to be a river of fresh water. The north head of the bay, called Bream Head, is high land, and remarkable for several pointed rocks, which stand in a range upon the top of it : it may also be known by some small islands which lie before it, called the Hen and Chickens, one of which is high, and ter- minates in two peaks. It lies in latitude 35° 46' S., and at the distance of seventeen leagues and an half from Cape Colville, in the direction of N. 41 W. The land between Point Rodney and Bream Head, an extent of ten leagues, is low, and wooded in tufts, with white sand banks between the sea and the firm lands. We saw no inhabitants, but many fires in SiS cook's first voyage NOV. the niglit ; and where there are fires, there are al- ways people. At day-break, on the 25th, we left the bay, and steered along shore to the northward : we found the variation of the compass to be J 2° 42' E. At noon, our latitude was 35° St)' S., Bream Head bore south, distant ten miles ; and we saw some small islands, to which I gave the name of the Poor Knights, at N. E. by N. distant three leagues ; the northernmost land in sight bore N. N. W. : we were in this place at the distance of two miles from the shore, and had twenty-six fathom water. The country appeared low, but well covered with wood : we saw some straggling houses, three or four fortified towns, and near them a large quantity of cultivated land. In the evening, seven large canoes came off to us, with about two hundred men : some of them came on board, and said that they had heard of us. To two of them, who appeared to be chiefs, I gave presents ; but when these were gone out of the ship, the others became exceedingly troublesome. Some of those in the canoes began to trade, and, according to their custom, to cheat, by refusing to deliver what .had been bought, after they had received the price : among these was one who had received an old pair of black breeches, which, upon a few small shot being fi.red at him, he threw into the sea. All the boats soon after paddled oflTto some distance, and when they thought they were out of reach, they began to defy us, by singing their song, and brandishing their wea- pons. We thought it advisable to intimidate them, as well for their sakes as our own, and therefore fired first some small arms, and then round shot over their heads ; the last put them in a terrible fright, though they received no damage, except by over-heating themselves in paddling away, which they did with astonishing expedition. 17'C9. ROUND THE WORLD. S49 In the night we had variable light airs ; but to- wards the morning, a breeze sprung np at S. and afterwards at S. E. with wliich we proceeded slowly to the northward, along the shore. Between six and seven o'clock, two canoes came oft', and told us that they had heard of yesterday's adventure, notwithstanding which th(j people came on board, and traded very quietly and honestly for whatever they had : soon after two canoes came off from a more distant part of the shore ; these were of a much larger size and full of people : when they came near, tliey called off the other canoes which were along side of the ship, and after a short confer- ence they all came up together. The strangers ap- peared to be persons of a superior rank ; their canoes were well carved with many ornaments, and they had with them a great variety of weapons : they had patoo-patoos both of stone and whalebone, upon which they appeared to set a great value ; they had also ribs of whale, of which we had before seen imitations in wood, carved and adorned with tufts of dog's hair. Their complexions were browner than those of the people we had seen to the southward, and their bodies and faces were more marked with the black stains which they call Amoco : they had a broad spiral on each buttock ; and the thighs of many of them were almost entirely black, some narrow lines only being left untouched, so that at first sight they appeared to wear striped breeches. With respect to the Amoco, every different tribe seemed to have a different custom ; for all the men, in some cances, seemed to be almost covered with it, and those in others had scarcely a stain, except on the lips, which were black in all of them, without a single ex- ception. These gentlemen, for a long time, refu^ied to part with any of their weapons, whatever vv^as offered for them ; at last, however, one of them pro- duced a piece of talc, wrought into the shape of an axe, and agreed to sell it for a piece of cloth : the 350 cook's first voyage nov. cloth was handed over the ship's side, but his honour immediately put off his canoe with the axe. We had recourse to our usual expedient, and fired a musket ball over the canoe, upon which it put back to the ship, and the piece of cloth was returned ; all the boats then went ashore, without offering any further intercourse. At noon, the main land extended from S. by E. to N. W. by W. a remarkable point of land bearing W. distant four or five miles ; at three we passed it, and 1 gave it the name of Cape Bret, in honour of Sir Piercy. The land of this cape is considerably higher than any part of the adjacent coast : at the point of it, is a high round hillock, and N. E. by N. at the distance of about a mile, is a small high island or rock, which, like several that have already been de- scribed, was perforated quite through, so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. This cape, or at least some part of it, is by the natives called Motugogogo, and it lies in latitude 35° 10' 30^' S. longitude 185° ^5' W. On the west side of it is a large and pretty deep bay, lying in S. W. by W. in which there ap- peared to be several small islands : the point that forms the N. W. entrance, lies W. i N. at the dis- tance of three or four leagues from Cape Bret, and I distinguished it by the name of Point Pococke. On the west side of the bay, we saw several villages, both upon islands and the main, and several very large canoes came off to us, full of people, who made a better appearance than any we had seen yet : they were all stout and well-made ; their hair, which was black, was tied up in a bunch on the crown of their heads, and stuck with white feathers. In each of the canoes, were two or three chiefs, whose habits were of the best sort of cloth, and covered with dog's «kin, so as to make an agreeable appearance : most of these people were marked with the Amoco, like those who had been alongside of us before : their manner of trading was also equally fraudulent j and 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. 3.51 the officers neglecting either to punish or fright them, one of the midshipmen who had been defrauded in his bargain, had recourse, for revenge, to an expe- dient which was equally ludicrous and severe : he got a fishing line, and when the man who had cheated him was close under the ship's side in his canoe, he heaved the lead with so good an aim, that the hook caught him by the backside ; he then pulled the line, and the man holding back, the hook broke in the shank, and the beard was left sticking in the flesh. During the course of this day, though we did not range more than six or eight leagues of the coast, we had alongside and on board the ship between four and five hundred of the natives, which is a proof that this part of the country is well inhabited. At eight o'clock the next morning, we were within a mile of a group of islands which lie close under the main, at the distance of two-and-twenty miles from Cape Bret, in the direction of N. W. by W. i W. At this place, having but little wind, w^e lay about two hours, during which time several canoes came off, and sold tis some fish, which we called Cavalles, and for that reason I gave the same name to the islands. These people were very insolent, frequently threatening us, even while they were selling their fish ; and when some more canoes came up, they began to pelt us with stones. Some small shot were then fired, and hit one of them while he had a stone in his hand, in the very action of throwing it into the ship : they did not, however, desist, till some others had been wounded, and then they went away, and we stood off to sea. The wind being directly against us, we kept ply- ing to windward till the 29th, when we had rather lost than gained ground ; I therefore bore up for a bay which lies to the westward of Cape Bret ; at this time it was about two leagues to leeward of us ; and at about eleven o'clock we anchored under the south 352 cook's first voyage Nor. west side of one of the many islands which line it on the south-east, in four fathom and an half water ; we shoaled our water to this depth all at once, and if this had not happened, I should not have come to an anchor so soon. The master was immediately sent out with two boats to sound, and he soon discovered that we had got upon a bank, which runs out from the north-west end of the island, and that on the outside of it there was from eight to ten fathom. In the mean time the natives, to the number of near four hundred, crowded upon us in their caHoes, and some of them were admitted on board : to one, who seemed to be a chief, I gave a piece of broad cloth, and distributed some trifling presents among the rest. I perceived that some of these people had been about the ship when she was off at sea, and that they knew the power of our fire-arms, for the very sight of a gun threw them into manifest confusion : under this impression, they traded very fairly ; but the people in one of the canoes took the opportunity of our being at dinner to tow away our buoy : a musket was fired over them without effect, we then endeavoured to reach them with some small shot, but they were too far off: by this time they had got the buoy into their canoe, and we were obliged to fire a musket at them with ball : this hit one of them, and they immediately threw the buoy over board : a round shot was then fired over them, which struck the water and went ashore. Two or three of the canoes immediately landed their people, who ran about the beach, as we imagined, in search of the ball. Tupia called to them, and assured them that, while they were honest, they should be safe, and with a little persuasion many of them returned to the ship, and their behaviour was such as left us no reason to suspect that they intended to give us any farther trouble. After the ship ,was removed into deeper water, and properly secured, I went with the pinnace and yawl. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 353 manned and armed, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and landed upon the island, which was about three quarters of a mile distant : we ob- served that the canoes which were about the ship, did not follow us upon our leaving her, which we thought a good sign ; but we had no sooner landed than they crowded to different parts of the island and came on shore. We were in a little cove, and in a few minutes were surrounded by two or three hundred people, some rushing from behind the heads of the cove, and others appearing on the tops of the hills : they were all armed, but they came on in so con- fused and straggling a manner that we scarcely suspected they meant us any harm, and we were determined that hostilities should not begin on our part. We marched towards them, and then drew a line upon the sand between them and us, which we gave them to understand they were not to pass: at first they continued quiet, but their weapons were held ready to strike, and they seemed to be rather irresolute than peaceable. While we remained in this state of suspense, another party of Indians came up, and now growing more bold as their number increased, they began the dance and song, which are their pre- ludes to a battle : still, however, they delayed the attack, but a party ran to each of our boats, and at- tempted to draw them on shore ; this seemed to be the signal, for the people about us at the same time began to press in upon our line: our situation was now become too critical for us to remain longer in- active, I therefore discharged my musket, which was loaded with small shot, at one of the forwardest, and Mr. Banks and two of the men fired immediately afterwards: this made them fall back in some con- fusion, but one of the chiefs, who was at the distance of about twenty yards, rallied them, and running forward, waving his patoo-patoo, and calling loudly to his companions, led them to the charge. Dr. Solander, whose piece was not yet discharged, fired VOL. I. A A 554 cook's first voyage nov. at this champion, who stopped short upon feeling the shot, and then ran away with the rest: they did not however disperse, but got together upon a rising ground, and seemed only to want some leader of re- solution to renew their attack. As they were now beyond the reach of small shot, we fired with ball, but as none of them took place, they still continued in a body, and in this situation we remained about a quarter of an hour : in the mean time the ship, from whence a much greater number of Indians were seen than could be discovered in our situation, brought her broad-side to bear, and entirely dispersed them, by firing a few shot over their heads. In this skir- mish only two of the Indians were hurt with the small shot, and not a single life w^as lost, which would not have been the case, if I had not restrained the men, who, either from fear or the love of mischief, showed as much impatience to destroy them as a sportsman to kill his game. When we were in quiet possession of our cove, we laid down our arms and began to gather celery, which grew here in great plenty: after a little time we recollected to have seen some of the people hide themselves in a cave of one of the rocks, we therefore went towards the place, when an old Indian, who proved to be the chief that I had presented with a piece of broad cloth in the morning, came out with his wife and his brother, and in a supplicating posture put themselves under our protection. We spoke kindly to them, and the old man then told us that he had another brother, who was one of those that had been wounded by the small shot, and enquired, with much solicitude and concern, if he would die. We assured him that he would not, and at the same time put into his hand both a musket- ball and some small shot, telling him, that those only who were wounded with the ball would die, and that the others would recover; at the same time assuring him, that if we were attacked again, we should certainly defend ourselves with the ball, which would 17^9. ROUND THE WORLD. S55 wound them mortally. Having now taken courage, they came and sat down by us, and as tokens of our perfect amity, w^e made them presents of such trifles as we happened to have about us. Soon after we re-embarked in our boats, and hav- ing rowed to another cove in the same island, climbed a neighbouring hill, which commanded the country to a considerable distance. The prospect was very uncommon and romantic, consisting of innumerable islands, which formed as many harbours, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pool : we saw also many towns, scattered houses, and plantations, the country being much more populous than any we had seen. One of the towns was very near us, from which many of the Indians advanced, taking great pains to show us that they were unarmed, and in their gestures and countenances expressing great meekness and humility. In the mean time some of our people, who, when the Indians were to be punished for a fraud, assumed the inexorable justice of a Lycurgus, thought fit to break into one of their plantations, and dig up some potatoes: for this offence I ordered each of them to be punished with twelve lashes, after which two of them were discharged ; but the third, insisting that it was no crime in an Englishman to plunder an Indian plantation, though it was a crime in an Indian to defraud an Englishman of a nail, I ordered him back into his confinement, from which I would not release him till he had received six lashes more. On the 30th, there being a dead calm, and no probability of our getting to sea, I sent the master, with two boats, to sound the harbour ; and all the forenoon had several canoes about the ship, who traded in a very fair and friendly manner. In the evening we went ashore upon the main, where the people received us very cordially , but we found nothing worthy of notice. In this bay we were detained by contrary winds A A 2 356 cook's eirst voyage nov. and calms several days, during which tinae our inter- course with the natives was continued in the most peaceable and friendly manner, they being frequently about the ship, and we ashore, both upon the islands and the main. In one of our visits to the continent, an old man showed us the instrument they use in the staining their bodies, which exactly resembled those that were employed for the same purpose at Otaheite. We saw also the man v/ho was wounded in attempting to steal our buoy: the ball had passed through the fleshy part of his arm, and grazed his breast; but the wound, under the care of Nature, the best surgeon, and a simple diet, the best nurse, was in a good state, and seemed to give the patient neither pain nor ap- prehension. We saw also the brother of our old chief, who luid been wounded with small shot in our skirmish: they had struck his thigh obliquely, and though several of them were still in the flesh, the wound seemed to be attended with neither danger nor pain. We found among their plantations the morus papi/rijera, of which these people, as well as those of Otaheite, make cloth; but here the plant seems to be rare, and we saw no pieces of the cloth large enough for any use but to wear by way of orna- ment in their ears. Having one day landed in a very distant part of the bay, the people immediately fled, except one old man, who accompanied us wherever we went, and seemed much pleased with the little presents we made him. We came at last to a little fort, built upon a small rock, which at high water was surrounded by the sea, and accessible only by a ladder: we perceived that he eyed us with a kind of restless solicitude as we approached it, and upon our expressing a desire to enter it, he told us that his wife was there: he saw that our curiosity was not diminished by this in- telligence, and after some hesitation, he said, if we would promise to offer no indecency, he would ac- company us : our promise was readily given, and he 1769. HOUND THE WORLD, S5T immediately led the way. The ladder consisted of steps fastened to a pole, but we found the ascent both difficult and dangerous. When we entered we found three women, who, the moment they saw us, burst into tears of terror and surprise: some kind words and a few presents soon removed their apprehensions, and put them into good humour. We examined the house of our old friend, and by his interest two others, which were all that the tbrtification contained, and having distributed a few more presents, we parted with mutual satisfaction. At four o'clock in the morning of the 5th of De- cember, we weighed, with a light breeze, but it being variable with frequent calms, we made little way. W^e kept turning out of the bay till the after- noon, and about ten o'clock we were suddenly be-, calmed, so that the ship would neither wear nor stay, and the tide or current setting strong, she drove to- wards land so fast, that before any measures could be taken for her security, she was within a cable's length of the breakers : we had thirteen fathom water, but the ground was so foul that we did not dare to drop our anchor; the pinnace therefore was imm.edi- ately hoisted out to take the ship in tow, and the men, sensible of their danger, exerting themselves to the utmost, and a faint breeze springing up off the land, we perceived, with unspeakable joy, that she made head- way, after having been so near the shore that Tupia, who was not sensible of our hair's breadth escape, was at 'this very time conversing with the people upon the beach, whose voices were distinctly heard, notwithstanding the roar of the breakers. We now thought all danger was over, but about an hour afterwards, just as the man in the chains had cried " seventeen fathom," the ship struck. The shock threw us all into the utmost consternation; Mr. Banks, who had undressed himself and was stepping into bed, ran hastily up to the deck, and the man in the chains called out " five fathom ;" by this time, A A 3 358 cook's first voyage dec* the rock on which we had struck being to windward, the ship went off without having received the least damage, and the water very soon deepened to twenty fathom. This rock lies half a mile W.N. W. of the northern- most or outermost island on the south-east side of the bay. We had light airs from the land, with calms, till nine o'clock the next morning, when we got out of the bay, and a breeze springing up at N. N. W. we stood out to sea. This bay, as I have before observed, lies on the west side of Cape Bret, and I named it the Bay oj* Islands, from the great number of islands which line its shores, and from several harbours equally safe and commodious, where there is room and depth for any number of shipping. That in which we lay is on the south-west side of the south westernmost island, called Maturaro, on the south-east side of the bay. I have made no accurate survey of this bay, being discouraged by the time it would cost me; I thought also that it was sufficient to be able to affirm that it afforded us good anchorage, and refreshment of every kind. It was not the season for roots, but we had plenty of fish, most of which, however, we purchased of the natives, for we could catch very little ourselves either with net or line. When we showed the natives our seine, which is such as the King's ships are generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in triumph produced their own, which, was indeed of an enormous size, and made of a kind of grass, which is very strong: it was five fathom deep, and by the room it took up, it could not be less than three or four hundred fathom long. Fishing seems indeed to be the chief business of life in this part of the country; we saw about all their towns a great number of nets, laid in heaps like hay-cocks, and covered with a thatch to keep them from the weather, and we scarcely entered a house where some of the people were not employed in making them. The fish we 1769. ROUND THE ATORLD. 359 procured here were sharks, sting-rays, sea-bream, mullet, mackerel, and some others. The inhabitants in this bay are far more numerous than in any other part of the country that we had before visited; it did not appear to us that they were united under one head, and though tlieir towns were fortified, they seemed to live together in perfect amity. It is high w^ater in this bay at the full and change of the moon, about eight o'clock, and the tide then rises from six to eight feet perpendicularly. It ap- pears, from such observations as I was able to make of the tides upon the sea-coast, that the flood comes from the southward ; and I have reason to think that there is a current which comes from the westward, and sets along the shore to the S. E. or S. S. Fj, as the land happens to lie. \ A A 4 ;60 cook's first voyage dec. CHAP. V. RANGE FROM THE BAY OF ISLANDS ROUND NORTH CAPE TO i^UEEN charlotte's SOUND; AND A DESCRIPTION OF THAT PART ^F THE COAST. On Thursday the 7th of December, at noon, Cape Bret bore S. S. E. i E. distant ten miles, and our lati- tude, by observation, was 34° 59' S. ; soon after we made several observations of the sun and moon, the result of which made our longitude 185° S& W. The wind being against us, we had made but little w^ay. In the afternoon, we stood in shore, and fetched close under the Cavalies, from w^hich islands the main trends W. by N.: several canoes put off and followed us, but a light breeze springing up, I did not choose to wait for them. I kept standing to the W. N. W. and N. W. till the next morning ten o'clock, when I tacked and stood in for the shore, from which we were about five leagues distant. At noon, the westernmost land in sight bore W. by S. and was about four leagues distant. In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze to the west, which in the evening came to the south, and continuing so all night, by day-light brought us pretty well in with the land, seven leagues to the westward of the Cavalies, where we found a deep bay running in S. W. by W. and W. S. W. the bottom of which we could but just see, and there the land ap- peared to be low and level. To this bay, which I called Doubtless Bay, the entrance is formed by two points, which lie W. N. W. and E. S. E. and are five miles distant from each other. The wind not permitting us to look in here, we steered for the westernmost land in sight, which bore from us W. N. 1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 361 W. about three leagues, but before we got the length of it, it fell calm. While we lay becalmed, several canoes came off to us, but the people having heard of our guns, it was not without great difficulty that they were persuaded to come under our stern: after having bought some of their cloaths, as well as their fish, we began to make inquiries concerning their country, and learnt, by the help of Tupia, that, at the distance of three days' rowing in their canoes, at a place called Moore- w^ENNUA, the land would take a short turn to the southward, and from thence extend no more to the west. This place we concluded to be the land dis- covered by Tafman, which he called Cape Maria VAN DiEMEN, and finding these people so intelligent, we inquired farther, if they knew of any country be- sides their own: they answered, that they never had visited any other, but that their ancestors had told them, that to the N. W. by N. or N. N. W. there was a country of great extent, called Ulimaroa, to which some people had sailed in a very large canoe ; that only part of them returned, and reported, that after a passage of a month they had seen a country where the people eat hogs. Tupia then inquired whether these adventurers brought any hogs with them when they returned; they said, No: Then, replied Tupia, your story is certainly false, for it cannot be believed that men who came back from an expedition without hogs, had ever visited a country where hogs were to be procured. It is however remarkable, notwith- standing the shrewdness of Tupia's objection, that when they mentioned hogs, it was not by description but by name ; calling them Booah, the name which is given them in the South-sea islands ; but if the animal had been wholly unknown to them, and they had had no communication with people to whom it was known, they could not possibly have been ac- quainted with the name. About ten o'clock at night, a breeze sprung up at S6^ C00K*5 FIRST VOYAGE BEC» W. N. W. with which we stood off north; and at noon the next day, the Cavalles bore S. E. by E. distant eight leagues; the entrance of Doubtless Bay S. by W., distant three leagues; and the north-west ex- tremity of the land in sight, which we judged to be the main, bore N. W. by W.: our latitude by observ- ation was 34° 44' S. In the evening, we found the variation to be 12'' 41' E. by the azimuth, and 12*^ 40' by the amplitude. Early in the morning, we stood in with the land, seven leagues to the westward of Doubtless Bay, the bottom of which is not far distant from the bottom of another large bay, which the shore forms at this place, being separated only by a low neck of land, which juts out into a peninsula that I have called Knuckle Point. About the middle of this bay, which we called Sandy Bay, is a high mountain, standing upon a distant shore, to which I gave the name of Mount Camel. The latitude here is Si'' 5V S. and longitude 186° 50'. We had twenty-four and twenty-five fathom water, with a good bottom ; but there seems to be nothing in this bay that can induce a ship to put into it ; for the land about it is utterly barren and desolate, and, except Mount Camel, the situation is low : the soil appears to be nothing but white sand, thrown up in low irregular hills and narrow ridges, lying parallel with the shore. But barren and desolate as this place is, it is not without inhabitants : we saw one village on the west side of Mount Camel, and another on the east side ; we saw also five canoes full of people, who pulled after the ship, but could not come up with us. At nine o'clock, we tacked and stood to the northward ; and at noon, the Cavalles bore S. E. by E., distant thirteen leagues; the north extremity of the land in sight, making like an island, bore N. W. i N. distant nine leagues ; and Mount Camel bore S. W. by S., distance six leagues. The wind being contrary, we kept plying north- I7fe. ROUND THE WORLD. 36S ward till five o'clock in the evening of the l'2th, when, having made very little way, we tacked and stood to the N. E. being two leagues to the north- ward of Mount Camel, and about a mile and a half from the shore, in w^iich situation we had two-and- twenty fathom water. At ten it began to blow and rain, which brought us under double reefed topsails; at twelve we tacked and stood to the westward till seven the next morn- ing, when we tacked and stood again to the N. E., being about a mile to windward of the place where we tacked last night. Soon after it blew very hard at N. N. W. with heavy squalls and much rain, which brought us under our courses, and split the maintop- sail; so that we were obliged to unbend it and bend another : at ten, it became more moderate, and we set the topsails, double reefed: at noon, havino- strong gales and heavy weather, we tacked and stood to the westward, and had no land in sight for the first time since we had been upon this coast. We had now strong gales at W. and W. S. W. ^ and at half an hour past three we tacked and stood to the northward. Soon after, a small island lyin*^ off Knuckle Point bore S. i W., distant half a league. In the evening, having split the fore and mizen topsails, we brought the ship under her courses ; and at midnight, we wore, and stood to the southward till five in the morning ; when we tacked and stood to the N. W., and saw land bearing south, at the dis- tance of eight or nine leagues ; by this we discovered that we had fallen much to the leeward since yester- day morning. At noon our latitude by observation was 34° 6' S. ; and the same land which we had seen before to the N. W. now bore S. W.,>and appeared to be the northern extremity of the country. We had a large swell rolling in from the westward, and, there- fore, concluded that we were not covered by any land in that quarter. At eight in the evening, we tacked and stood to the westward, with as much sail 364^ cook's first voyage D£c* as we could bear ; and at noon the next day, we were in latitude 34* 10', longitude IS^'^ 45' W., and by estimation about seventeen leagues from the land, notwithstanding our utmost endeavours to keep in with it. On the l6th, at six in the morning, we saw land from the mast-head, bearing S. S. W. ; and at noon it bore S.by W. distant fourteen leagues: while we were standing in for the shore, we sounded several times, but had no ground with ninety fathom. At eight, we tacked in a hundred and eight fathom, at about three or four miles from the shore, which was the same point of land that we had to the N. W. before we w^ere blown off. At noon, it bore S. W., distant about three miles ; Mount Camel bore S. by E., dis- tant about eleven leagues, and the westernmost land in sight bore S. 75 W. ; the latitude by observation was 34° '20' S. At four o'clock, we tacked and stood in shore, in doing which, we met with a strong rip- pling, and the ship fell fast to leeward, which we imputed to a current setting east. At eight, we tacked and stood off till eight the next morning ; when we tacked and stood in, being about ten leagues from the land : at noon, the point of land which we were near the day before, bore S. S. W. distant ^ve leagues. The wind still continued at west ; and at seven o'clock, we tacked in thirty-five fathom, when the point of land which has been mentioned before, bore N. W. by N., distant four or five miles ; so that we had not gained one inch to windward the last twenty-four hours, which confirmed our opinion that there was a current to the eastward. The point of land I called North Cape, it being the northern extremity of this country. It lies in latitude 34°22'S., longitude 186° 55' W., and thirty-one leagues distant from Cape Bret, in the direction of N. 63 W. It forms the north point of Sandy Bay, and is a penin- sula jutting out N. E. about two miles, and terminat- ing in a bluff head that is flat at the top. The isthmus 1769. ROUND THE WORLD, 365 which joins this head to the main land is very low, and for that reason the land of the cape, from several situations, has the appearance of an island. It is still more remarkable when it is seen from the southward, by the appearance of a high round island at the S. E, point of the cape ; but this also is a deception ; for what appears to be an island is a round hill, joined to the cape by a low narrow neck of land. Upon the c",pe we saw a Hippah or village, and a few inha])itants ; and on the south-east side of it, there appears to be anchorage, and good shelter from the south-west and north-west winds. We continued to stand off and on, making N. W. till noon on the 21st, when North Cape bore S. 39 E. distant thirty-eight leagues. Our situation varied only a few leagues till the 23d, w^hen, about seven o'clock in the evening, w^e saw land from the mast- head, bearing S. i- E. At eleven the next morning, we saw it again, bearing S. S. E. at the distance of eight leagues : we now stood to the S. W. ; and at four o'clock, the land bore S. E. by S. distant four leagues, and proved to be a small island, with other islands or rocks, still smaller, lying off the south-west end of it, and another lying off the north-east end, which were discovered by Tasman, and called the Three Kings. The principal island lies in latitude 34^ 12^ S., longi- tude 187° %'~;4 ■^^ ^''/^^ El ••