OTAHEITE
The gentle island, and the genial soil,
The friendly hearts, the feasts without a toil,
The courteous manners but from nature caught,
The wealth unhoarded, and the love unbougnt,
The bread-tree, which, without the
ploughshare, yields
The unreap’d harvest of unfurrow’d
fields,
And bakes its unadulterated loaves
Without a furnace in unpurchased groves,
And flings off famine from its fertile breast,
A priceless market for the gathering guest;
These, etc --
Byron.
The reign of George III will be distinguished
in history by the great extension and improvement
which geographical knowledge received under the immediate
auspices of this sovereign. At a very early period,
after his accession to the throne of these realms,
expeditions of discovery were undertaken, ’not
(as Dr. Hawkesworth observes) with a view to the acquisition
of treasure, or the extent of dominion, but for the
improvement of commerce, and the increase and diffusion
of knowledge.’ This excellent monarch was
himself no mean proficient in the science of geography;
and it may be doubted if any one of his subjects, at
the period alluded to, was in possession of so extensive
or so well-arranged a cabinet of maps and charts as
his was, or who understood their merits or their defects
so well as he did.
The first expeditions that were sent
forth, after the conclusion of the war, were those
of Byron, Wallis, and Carteret. In the instructions
to the first of these commanders it is said, ’there
is reason to believe that lands and islands of great
extent, hitherto unvisited by any European power,
may be found in the Atlantic Ocean, between the Cape
of Good Hope and the Magellanic Strait, within the
latitudes convenient for navigation, and in climates
adapted to the produce of commodities useful in commerce.’
It could not require much knowledge or consideration
to be assured that, between the Cape and the Strait,
climates producing commodities useful in commerce,
with the exception of whales and seals, were likely
to be found. The fact was that, among the real
objects of this and other subsequent voyages, there
was one which had engaged the attention of certain
philosophers, from the time of the Spanish navigator,
Quiros: this able navigator had maintained that
a Terra Australis incognita must necessarily
exist, somewhere in the high latitudes of the southern
hemisphere, to counterbalance the great masses of
land in those of the northern one, and thus maintain
a just equipoise of the globe.
While these expeditions were in progress,
the Royal Society, in 1768, addressed an application
to the king, praying him to appoint a ship of war
to convey to the South Seas Mr. Alexander Dalrymple
(who had adopted the opinion of Quiros), and certain
others, for the main purpose, however, of observing
the transit of Venus over the sun’s disc, which
was to happen in the year 1769. By the king’s
command, a bark of three hundred and seventy tons
was taken up by the Admiralty to perform this service,
but, as Mr. Dalrymple was a civilian, he could not
be entrusted with the command of the ship, and on
that account declined going in her.
The command was therefore conferred
on Lieutenant James Cook, an officer of undoubted
ability, and well versed in astronomy and the theory
and practice of navigation, with whom the Royal Society
associated Mr. Charles Green, who had long been assistant
to Dr. Bradley, the astronomer royal, to aid him in
the observation of the transit. Mr. Banks, a
private gentleman of good fortune, who afterwards became
the valuable and distinguished President of the Royal
Society, and Dr. Solander, a Swedish gentleman of
great acquirements, particularly in natural history,
accompanied Lieutenant Cook on this interesting voyage.
The islands of Marquesas de Mendoza, or those of Rotterdam
or Amsterdam, were proposed by the Royal Society as
proper places for making the observation. While
fitting out, however, Captain Wallis returned from
his expedition, and strongly recommended as most suitable
for the purpose, Port Royal Harbour, on an island
he had discovered, to which he had given the name
of ‘King George’s Island,’ and which
has since been known by its native name, Otaheite
or Tahite.
This lovely island is most intimately
connected with the mutiny which took place on board
the Bounty, and with the fate of the mutineers and their innocent
offspring. Its many seducing temptations have been urged as one, if not
the main, cause of the mutiny, which was supposed, at least by the commander of
that ship, to have been excited by
Young hearts which languish’d
for some sunny isle,
Where summer years,
and summer women smile,
Men without country,
who, too long estranged,
Had found no native
home, or found it changed,
And, half uncivilized,
preferr’d the cave
Of some soft savage
to the uncertain wave.
It may be proper, therefore, as introductory
to the present narrative, to give a general description
of the rich and spontaneous gifts which Nature has
lavished on this once ’happy island;’ of
the simple and ingenuous manners of its natives, and
of those allurements which were supposed, erroneously
however, to have occasioned the unfortunate catastrophe
alluded to; to glance at
The nymphs’ seducements
and the magic bower,
as they existed at the period of the
first intercourse between the Otaheitans and the crews
of those ships, which carried to their shores, in
succession, Wallis, Bougainville, and Cook.
The first communication which Wallis
had with these people was unfortunately of a hostile
nature. Having approached with his ship close
to the shore, the usual symbol of peace and friendship,
a branch of the plantain tree, was held up by a native
in one of the numerous canoes that surrounded the
ship. Great numbers, on being invited, crowded
on board the stranger ship, but one of them, being
butted on the haunches by a goat, and turning hastily
round, perceived it rearing on its hind legs, ready
to repeat the blow, was so terrified at the appearance
of this strange animal, so different from any he had
ever seen, that, in the moment of terror, he jumped
overboard, and all the rest followed his example with
the utmost precipitation.
This little incident, however, produced
no mischief; but as the boats were sounding in the
bay, and several canoes crowding round them, Wallis
suspected the islanders had a design to attack them,
and, on this mere suspicion, ordered the boats by
signal to come on board, ’and at the same time,’
he says, ’to intimidate the Indians, I fired
a nine-pounder over their heads.’ This,
as might have been imagined, startled the islanders,
but did not prevent them from attempting immediately
to cut off the cutter, as she was standing towards
the ship. Several stones were thrown into this
boat, on which the commanding officer fired a musket,
loaded with buck-shot, at the man who threw the first
stone, and wounded him in the shoulder.
Finding no good anchorage at this
place, the ship proceeded to another part of the island,
where, on one of the boats being assailed by the Indians
in two or three canoes, with their clubs and paddles
in their hands, ‘Our people,’ says the
commander, ’being much pressed, were obliged
to fire, by which one of the assailants was killed,
and another much wounded.’ This unlucky
rencontre did not, however, prevent, as soon as the
ship was moored, a great number of canoes from coming
off the next morning, with hogs, fowls, and fruit.
A brisk traffic soon commenced, our people exchanging
knives, nails, and trinkets, for more substantial
articles of food, of which they were in want.
Among the canoes that came out last were some double
ones of very large size, with twelve or fifteen stout
men in each, and it was observed that they had little
on board except a quantity of round pebble stones.
Other canoes came off along with them, having only
women on board; and while these females were assiduously
practising their allurements, by attitudes that could
not be misunderstood, with the view, as it would seem,
to distract the attention of the crew, the large double
canoes closed round the ship; and as these advanced,
some of the men began singing, some blowing conchs,
and others playing on flutes. One of them, with
a person sitting under a canopy, approached the ship
so close, as to allow this person to hand up a bunch
of red and yellow feathers, making signs it was for
the captain. He then put off to a little distance,
and, on holding up the branch of a cocoa-nut tree,
there was an universal shout from all the canoes,
which at the same moment moved towards the ship, and
a shower of stones was poured into her on every side.
The guard was now ordered to fire, and two of the
quarter-deck guns, loaded with small shot, were fired
among them at the same time, which created great terror
and confusion, and caused them to retreat to a short
distance. In a few minutes, however, they renewed
the attack. The great guns were now ordered to
be discharged among them, and also into a mass of canoes
that were putting off from the shore. It is stated
that, at this time, there could not be less than three
hundred canoes about the ship, having on board at
least two thousand men. Again they dispersed,
but having soon collected into something like order,
they hoisted white streamers, and pulled towards the
ship’s stern, when they again began to throw
stones with great force and dexterity, by the help
of slings, each of the stones weighing about two pounds,
and many of them wounded the people on board.
At length a shot hit the canoe that apparently had
the chief on board, and cut it asunder. This
was no sooner observed by the rest, than they all
dispersed in such haste, that in half an hour there
was not a single canoe to be seen; and all the people
who had crowded the shore fled over the hills with
the utmost precipitation. What was to happen on
the following day was matter of conjecture, but this
point was soon decided.
The white man landed; need
the rest be told?
The new world stretch’d
its dusk hand to the old.
Lieutenant Furneaux, on the next morning,
landed, without opposition, close to a fine river
that fell into the bay stuck up a staff
on which was hoisted a pendant, turned
a turf, and by this process took possession
of the island in the name of his Majesty, and called
it King George the Third’s Island.
Just as he was embarking, an old man, to whom the
Lieutenant had given a few trifles, brought some green
boughs, which he threw down at the foot of the staff,
then retiring, brought about a dozen of his countrymen,
who approached the staff in a supplicating posture,
then retired and brought two live hogs, which they
laid down at the foot of the staff, and then began
to dance. After this ceremony the hogs were put
into a canoe and the old man carried them on board,
handing up several green plantain leaves, and uttering
a sentence on the delivery of each. Some presents
were offered him in return, but he would accept of
none.
Concluding that peace was now established,
and that no further attack would be made, the boats
were sent on shore the following day to get water.
While the casks were filling, several natives were
perceived coming from behind the hills and through
the woods, and at the same time a multitude of canoes
from behind a projecting point of the bay. As
these were discovered to be laden with stones, and
were making towards the ship, it was concluded their
intention was to try their fortune in a second grand
attack. ’As to shorten the contest would
certainly lessen the mischief, I determined,’
says Captain Wallis, ’to make this action decisive,
and put an end to hostilities at once.’
Accordingly a tremendous fire was opened at once on
all the groups of canoes, which had the effect of
immediately dispersing them. The fire was then
directed into the wood, to drive out the islanders,
who had assembled in large numbers, on which they
all fled to the hill, where the women and children
had seated themselves. Here they collected to
the amount of several thousands, imagining themselves
at that distance to be perfectly safe. The captain,
however, ordered four shot to be fired over them, but
two of the balls, having fallen close to a tree where
a number of them were sitting, they were so struck
with terror and consternation, that, in less than
two minutes, not a creature was to be seen. The
coast being cleared, the boats were manned and armed,
and all the carpenters with their axes were sent on
shore, with directions to destroy every canoe they
could find; and we are told this service was effectually
performed, and that more than fifty canoes, many of
which were sixty feet long, and three broad, and lashed
together, were cut to pieces.
This act of severity must have been
cruelly felt by these poor people, who, without iron
or any kind of tools, but such as stones, shells,
teeth, and bones supplied them with, must have spent
months and probably years in the construction of one
of these extraordinary double boats.
Such was the inauspicious commencement
of our acquaintance with the natives of Otaheite.
Their determined hostility and perseverance in an
unequal combat could only have arisen from one of two
motives either from an opinion that a ship
of such magnitude, as they had never before beheld,
could only be come to their coast to take their country
from them; or an irresistible temptation to endeavour,
at all hazards, to possess themselves of so valuable
a prize. Be that as it may, the dread inspired
by the effects of the cannon, and perhaps a conviction
of the truth of what had been explained to them, that
the ’strangers wanted only provisions and water,’
had the effect of allaying all jealousy; for from
the day of the last action, the most friendly and uninterrupted
intercourse was established, and continued to the day
of the Dolphin’s departure; and provisions
of all kinds, hogs, dogs, fruit, and vegetables, were
supplied in the greatest abundance, in exchange for
pieces of iron, nails, and trinkets.
As a proof of the readiness of these
simple people to forgive injuries, a poor woman, accompanied
by a young man bearing a branch of the plantain tree,
and another man with two hogs, approached the gunner,
whom Captain Wallis had appointed to regulate the market,
and looking round on the strangers with great attention,
fixing her eyes sometimes on one and sometimes on
another, at length burst into tears. It appeared
that her husband and three of her sons had been killed
in the attack on the ship. While this was under
explanation, the poor creature was so affected as
to require the support of the two young men, who from
their weeping were probably two more of her sons.
When somewhat composed, she ordered the two hogs to
be delivered to the gunner, and gave him her hand
in token of friendship, but would accept nothing in
return.
Captain Wallis was now so well satisfied
that there was nothing further to apprehend from the
hostility of the natives, that he sent a party up
the country to cut wood, who were treated with great
kindness and hospitality by all they met, and the
ship was visited by persons of both sexes, who by
their dress and behaviour appeared to be of a superior
rank. Among others was a tall lady about five
and forty years of age, of a pleasing countenance
and majestic deportment. She was under no restraint,
either from diffidence or fear, and conducted herself
with that easy freedom which generally distinguishes
conscious superiority and habitual command. She
accepted some small present which the captain gave
her, with a good grace and much pleasure; and having
observed that he was weak and suffering from ill health,
she pointed to the shore, which he understood to be
an invitation, and made signs that he would go thither
the next morning. His visit to this lady displays
so much character and good feeling, that it will best
be described in the captain’s own words.
’The next morning I went on
shore for the first time, and my princess or rather
queen, for such by her authority she appeared to be,
soon after came to me, followed by many of her attendants.
As she perceived that my disorder had left me very
weak, she ordered her people to take me in their arms,
and carry me not only over the river, but all the way
to her house; and observing that some of the people
who were with me, particularly the first lieutenant
and purser, had also been sick, she caused them also
to be carried in the same manner, and a guard, which
I had ordered out upon the occasion, followed.
In our way, a vast multitude crowded about us, but
upon her waving her hand, without speaking a word,
they withdrew, and left us a free passage. When
we approached near her house, a great number of both
sexes came out to meet her; these she presented to
me, after having intimated by signs that they were
her relations, and taking hold of my hand she made
them kiss it.
’We then entered the house,
which covered a piece of ground three hundred and
twenty-seven feet long, and forty-two feet broad.
It consisted of a roof thatched with palm leaves,
and raised upon thirty-nine pillars on each side,
and fourteen in the middle. The ridge of the
thatch, on the inside, was thirty feet high, and the
sides of the house, to the edge of the roof, were
twelve feet high; all below the roof being open.
As soon as we entered the house, she made us sit down,
and then calling four young girls, she assisted them
to take off my shoes, draw down my stockings, and
pull off my coat, and then directed them to smooth
down the skin, and gently chafe it with their hands.
The same operation was also performed on the first
lieutenant and the purser, but upon none of those
who appeared to be in health. While this was
doing, our surgeon, who had walked till he was very
warm, took off his wig to cool and refresh himself:
a sudden exclamation of one of the Indians, who saw
it, drew the attention of the rest, and in a moment
every eye was fixed upon the prodigy, and every operation
was suspended. The whole assembly stood some
time motionless, in silent astonishment, which could
not have been more strongly expressed, if they had
discovered that our friend’s limbs had been screwed
on to the trunk. In a short time, however, the
young women who were chafing us, resumed their employment,
and having continued for about half an hour, they
dressed us again, but in this they were, as may easily
be imagined, very awkward; I found great benefit,
however, from the chafing, and so did the lieutenant
and the purser.
’After a little time our generous
benefactress ordered some bales of Indian cloth to
be brought out, with which she clothed me, and all
that were with me, according to the fashion of the
country. At first I declined the acceptance of
this favour, but being unwilling not to seem pleased
with what was intended to please me, I acquiesced.
When we went away, she ordered a very large sow, big
with young, to be taken down to the boat, and accompanied
us thither herself. She had given directions
to her people to carry me, as they had done when I
came, but as I chose rather to walk, she took me by
the arm, and whenever we came to a plash of water
or dirt, she lifted me over with as little trouble
as it would have cost me to have lifted over a child,
if I had been well.’
The following morning Captain Wallis
sent her a present by the gunner, who found her in
the midst of an entertainment given to at least a
thousand people. The messes were put into shells
of cocoa-nuts, and the shells into wooden trays, like
those used by our butchers, and she distributed them
with her own hands to the guests, who were seated in
rows in the open air, round the great house. When
this was done, she sat down herself upon a place somewhat
elevated above the rest, and two women, placing themselves,
one on each side of her, fed her, she opening her
mouth as they brought their hands up with the food.
From this time, provisions were sent to market in
the greatest abundance. The queen frequently
visited the captain on board, and always with a present,
but she never condescended to barter, nor would she
accept of any return.
One day, after visiting her at her
house, the captain at parting made her comprehend
by signs, that he intended to quit the island in seven
days: she immediately understood his meaning,
and by similar signs, expressed her wish that he should
stay twenty days; that he should go with her a couple
of days’ journey into the country, stay there
a few days, return with plenty of hogs and poultry,
and then go away; but on persisting in his first intention,
she burst into tears, and it was not without great
difficulty that she could be pacified. The next
time that she went on board, Captain Wallis ordered
a good dinner for her entertainment and those chiefs
who were of her party; but the queen would neither
eat nor drink. As she was going over the ship’s
side, she asked, by signs, whether he still persisted
in leaving the island at the time he had fixed, and
on receiving an answer in the affirmative, she expressed
her regret by a flood of tears; and as soon as her
passion subsided, she told the captain that she would
come on board again the following day.
Accordingly, the next day she again
visited the ship twice, bringing each time large presents
of hogs, fowls, and fruits. The captain, after
expressing his sense of her kindness and bounty, announced
his intention of sailing the following morning.
This, as usual, threw her into tears, and after recovering
herself, she made anxious inquiry when he should return;
he said in fifty days, with which she seemed to be
satisfied. ‘She stayed on board,’
says Captain Wallis, ’till night, and it was
then with the greatest difficulty that she could be
prevailed upon to go on shore. When she was told
that the boat was ready, she threw herself down upon
the arm-chest, and wept a long time, with an excess
of passion that could not be pacified; at last, however,
with the greatest reluctance, she was prevailed upon
to go into the boat, and was followed by her attendants.’
The next day, while the ship was unmooring,
the whole beach was covered with the inhabitants.
The queen came down, and having ordered a double canoe
to be launched, was rowed off by her own people, followed
by fifteen or sixteen other canoes. She soon
made her appearance on board, but, not being able
to speak, she sat down and gave vent to her passion
by weeping. Shortly after a breeze springing up,
the ship made sail; and finding it now necessary to
return into her canoe, ’she embraced us all,’
says Captain Wallis, ’in the most affectionate
manner, and with many tears; all her attendants also
expressed great sorrow at our departure. In a
few minutes she came into the bow of her canoe, where
she sat weeping with inconsolable sorrow. I gave
her many things which I thought would be of great
use to her, and some for ornament; she silently accepted
of all, but took little notice of any thing. About
ten o’clock we had got without the reef, and
a fresh breeze springing up, our Indian friends, and
particularly the queen, once more bade us farewell,
with such tenderness of affection and grief, as filled
both my heart and my eyes.’
The tender passion had certainly caught hold of one or both of these
worthies; and if her Majestys language had been as well understood by Captain
Wallis, as that of Dido was to AEneas, when pressing him to stay with her, there
is no doubt it would have been found not less pathetic
Nec te noster
amor, nec te data dextera
quondam, Nec moritura tenet
crudeli funere Dido?
This lady, however, did not sink,
like the ‘miserrima Dido,’ under
her griefs; on the contrary, we find her in full activity
and animation, and equally generous, to Lieut.
Cook and his party, under the name of Oberea,
who, it now appeared, was no queen, but whose husband
they discovered was uncle to the young king, then
a minor, but from whom she was separated. She
soon evinced a partiality for Mr. Banks, though not
quite so strong as that for Wallis, but it appears
to have been mutual, until an unlucky discovery took
place, that she had, at her command, a stout strong-boned
cavalière servente; added to which, a theft,
rather of an amusing nature, contributed for a time
to create a coolness, and somewhat to disturb the
good understanding that had subsisted between them.
It happened that a party, consisting of Cook, Banks,
Solander, and three or four others, were benighted
at a distance from the anchorage. Mr. Banks,
says Lieut. Cook, thought himself fortunate in
being offered a place by Oberea, in her own canoe,
and wishing his friends a good night, took his leave.
He went to rest early, according to the custom of
the country; and taking off his clothes, as was his
constant practice, the nights being hot, Oberea kindly
insisted upon taking them into her own custody, for
otherwise, she said, they would certainly be stolen.
Mr. Banks having, as he thought, so good a safeguard,
resigned himself to sleep with all imaginable tranquillity;
but awakening about eleven o’clock, and wanting
to get up, he searched for his clothes where he had
seen them carefully deposited by Oberea, when he lay
down to sleep, and perceived to his sorrow and surprise,
that they were missing. He immediately awakened
Oberea, who, starting up and hearing his complaint,
ordered lights, and prepared in great haste to recover
what had been lost. Tootahah (the regent) slept
in the next canoe, and being soon alarmed, he came
to them and set out with Oberea in search of the thief.
Mr. Banks was not in a condition to go with them, as
of his apparel scarcely any thing was left him but
his breeches. In about half an hour his two noble
friends returned, but without having obtained any
intelligence of his clothes or of the thief. Where
Cook and Solander had disposed of themselves he did
not know; but hearing music, which was sure to bring
a crowd together, in which there was a chance of his
associates being among them, he rose, and made the
best of his way towards it, and joined his party,
as Cook says, ’more than half naked, and told
us his melancholy story.’
It was some consolation to find that
his friends were fellow-sufferers, Cook having lost
his stockings, that had been stolen from under his
head, though he had never been asleep, and his associates
their jackets. At day-break Oberea brought to
Mr. Banks some of her country clothes; ‘so that
when he came to us,’ says Cook, ’he made
a most motley appearance, half Indian and half English.’
Such an adventure must have been highly amusing to
him who was the object of it, when the inconvenience
had been removed, as every one will admit who knew
the late venerable President of the Royal Society.
He never doubted, however, that Oberea was privy to
the theft, and there was strong suspicion of her having
some of the articles in her custody. Being aware
that this feeling existed, she absented herself for
some time, and when she again appeared, she said a
favourite of hers had taken them away, whom she had
beaten and dismissed; ‘but she seemed conscious,’
says Cook, ’that she had no right to be believed;
she discovered the strongest signs of fear, yet she
surmounted it with astonishing resolution, and was
very pressing to be allowed to sleep with her attendants
in Mr. Banks’s tent; in this, however, she was
not gratified.’ Sir Joseph might have thought
that, if he complied with her request, his breeches
might be in danger of following the other articles
of his dress.
The Otaheitans cannot resist pilfering.
‘I must bear my testimony,’ says Cook,
’that the people of this country, of all ranks,
men and women, are the arrantest thieves upon the
face of the earth; but,’ he adds, ’we
must not hastily conclude that theft is a testimony
of the same depravity in them that it is in us, in
the instances in which our people were sufferers by
their dishonesty; for their temptation was such, as
to surmount what would be considered as a proof of
uncommon integrity among those who have more knowledge,
better principles, and stronger motives to resist
the temptations of illicit advantage; an Indian among
penny knives and beads, and even nails and broken glass,
is in the same state of mind with the meanest servant
in Europe among unlocked coffers of jewels and gold.’
Captain Wallis has illustrated the truth of this position
by an experiment he made on some persons, whose dress
and behaviour indicated that they were of a superior
cast. ’To discover what present,’
he says, ’would most gratify them, I laid down
before them a Johannes, a guinea, a crown piece, a
Spanish dollar, a few shillings, some new halfpence,
and two large nails, making signs that they should
take what they liked best. The nails were first
seized with great eagerness, and then a few of the
halfpence, but the silver and gold lay neglected.’
Here then it might with truth be said was discovered
The goldless age, where
gold disturbs no dreams.
But their thirst after iron was irresistible;
Wallis’s ship was stripped of all the nails
in her by the seamen to purchase the good graces of
the women, who assembled in crowds on the shore.
The men even drew out of different parts of the ship
those nails that fastened the cleats to her side.
This commerce established with the women rendered the
men, as might readily be expected, less obedient to
command, and made it necessary to punish some of them
by flogging. The Otaheitans regarded this punishment
with horror. One of Cook’s men having insulted
a chief’s wife, he was ordered to be flogged
in their presence. The Indians saw him stripped
and tied up to the rigging with a fixed attention,
waiting in silent suspense for the event; but as soon
as the first stroke was given, they interfered with
great agitation, earnestly entreating that the rest
of the punishment might be remitted; and when they
found they were unable to prevail, they gave vent
to their pity by tears. ’But their tears,’
as Cook observes, ’like those of children, were
always ready to express any passion that was strongly
excited, and like those of children, they also appeared
to be forgotten as soon as shed.’ And he
instances this by the following incident: Mr.
Banks seeing a young woman in great affliction, the
tears streaming from her eyes, inquired earnestly
the cause; but instead of answering, she took from
under her garment a shark’s tooth, and struck
it six or seven times into her head with great force;
a profusion of blood followed, and disregarding his
inquiries, she continued to talk loud in a melancholy
tone, while those around were laughing and talking
without taking the least notice of her distress.
The bleeding having ceased, she looked up with a smile,
and collecting the pieces of cloth which she had used
to stanch the blood, threw them into the sea; then
plunging into the river, and washing her whole body,
she returned to the tents with the same gaiety and
cheerfulness as if nothing had happened. The same
thing occurred in the case of a chief, who had given
great offence to Mr. Banks, when he and all his followers
were overwhelmed with grief and dejection; but one
of his women, having struck a shark’s tooth
into her head several times, till it was covered with
blood, the scene was immediately changed, and laughing
and good humour took place. Wallis witnessed the
same kind of conduct. This, therefore, and the
tears, are probably considered a sort of expiation
or doing penance for a fault.
But the sorrows of these simple and
artless people are transient. Cook justly observes,
that what they feel they have never been taught either
to disguise or suppress; and having no habits of thinking,
which perpetually recall the past and anticipate the
future, they are affected by all the changes of the
passing hour, and reflect the colour of the time,
however frequently it may vary. They grieve for
the death of a relation, and place the body on a stage
erected on piles and covered with a roof of thatch,
for they never bury the dead, and never approach one
of these morais without great solemnity; but
theirs is no lasting grief.
An old woman having died, Mr. Banks,
whose pursuit was knowledge of every kind, and to
gain it made himself one of the people, requested he
might attend the ceremony and witness all the mysteries
of the solemnity of depositing the body in the morai.
The request was complied with, but on no other condition
than his taking a part in it. This was just what
he wished. In the evening he repaired to the house
of mourning, where he was received by the daughter
of the deceased and several others, among whom was
a boy about fourteen years old. One of the chiefs
of the district was the principal mourner, wearing
a fantastical dress. Mr. Banks was stripped entirely
of his European clothes, and a small piece of cloth
was tied round his middle. His face and body were
then smeared with charcoal and water, as low as the
shoulders, till they were as black as those of a negro:
the same operation was performed on the rest, among
whom were some women, who were reduced to a state as
near to nakedness as himself; the boy was blacked
all over, after which the procession set forward,
the chief mourner having mumbled something like a
prayer over the body. It is the custom of the
Indians to fly from these processions with the utmost
precipitation. On the present occasion several
large bodies of the natives were put to flight, all
the houses were deserted, and not an Otaheitan was
to be seen. The body being deposited on the stage,
the mourners were dismissed to wash themselves in
the river, and to resume their customary dresses and
their usual gaiety.
They are, however, so jealous of any
one approaching these abodes of the dead, that one
of Cook’s party, happening one day to pull a
flower from a tree which grew in one of these sepulchral
inclosures, was struck by a native who saw it, and
came suddenly behind him. The morai of Oberea
was a pile of stone-work raised pyramidically, two
hundred and sixty-seven feet long, eighty-seven feet
wide, and forty-four feet high, terminating in a ridge
like the roof of a house, and ascended by steps of
white coral stone neatly squared and polished, some
of them not less than three feet and a half by two
feet and a half. Such a structure, observes Cook,
raised without the assistance of iron tools, or mortar
to join them, struck us with astonishment, as a work
of considerable skill and incredible labour.
On the same principle of making himself
acquainted with every novelty that presented itself,
Captain Cook states that ’Mr. Banks saw the
operation of tattooing performed upon the back
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 operator 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 stayed in the neighbouring
house an hour, and the operation was not over when
he went away.’
The sufferings of this young lady
did not however deter the late President of the Royal
Society from undergoing the operation on his own person.
The skill and labour which the Otaheitans
bestow on their large double boats is not less wonderful
than their stone morais, from the felling of the tree
and splitting it into plank, to the minutest carved
ornaments that decorate the head and the stern.
The whole operation is performed without the use of
any metallic instrument. ’To fabricate one
of their principal vessels with their tools is,’
says Cook, ’as great a work as to build a British
man of war with ours.’ The fighting boats
are sometimes more than seventy feet long, but not
above three broad; but they are fastened in pairs,
side by side, at the distance of about three feet;
the head and stern rise in a semi-circular form, the
latter to the height of seventeen or eighteen feet.
To build these boats, and the smaller kinds of canoes; to
build their houses, and finish the slight furniture
they contain; to fell, cleave, carve, and
polish timber for various purposes; and,
in short, for every conversion of wood the
tools they make use of are the following: an adze
of stone; a chisel 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.
The persons of the Otaheitan men are
in general tall, strong, well-limbed and finely shaped;
equal in size to the largest of Europeans. The
women of superior rank are also above the middle stature
of Europeans, but the inferior class are rather below
it. The complexion of the former class is that
which we call a brunette, and the skin is most delicately
smooth and soft. The shape of the face is comely,
the cheek bones are not high, neither are the eyes
hollow, nor the brow prominent; the nose is a little,
but not much, flattened; but their eyes, and more
particularly 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 beautifully even and white, and their
breath perfectly without taint. In their motions
there is at once vigour as well as ease; their walk
is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour
to strangers and to each other, affable and courteous.
In their dispositions they appear to be brave, open,
and candid, without suspicion or treachery, cruelty
or revenge. Mr. Banks had such confidence in
them, as to sleep frequently in their houses in the
woods, without a companion, and consequently wholly
in their power. They are delicate and cleanly,
almost wholly without example.
‘The natives of Otaheite,’
says Cook, ’both men and women, constantly wash
their whole bodies in running 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 be near them or at a distance.
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.’
If any one should think this picture
somewhat overcharged, he will find it fully confirmed
in an account of them made by a description of men
who are not much disposed to represent worldly objects
in the most favourable light. In the first missionary
voyage, in the year 1797, the natives of Otaheite
are thus described:
’Natural colour olive, inclining
to copper; the women, who carefully clothe themselves,
and avoid the sun-beams, are but a shade or two darker
than an European brunette; their eyes are black and
sparkling; their teeth white and even; their skin
soft and delicate; their limbs finely turned; their
hair jetty, perfumed and ornamented with flowers;
they are in general large and wide over the shoulders;
we were therefore disappointed in the judgement we
had formed from the report of preceding visitors;
and though here and there was to be seen a young person
who might be esteemed comely, we saw few who, in fact,
could be called beauties; yet they possess eminent
feminine graces: their faces are never darkened
with a scowl, or covered with a cloud of sullenness
or suspicion. Their manners are affable and engaging;
their step easy, firm, and graceful; their behaviour
free and unguarded; always boundless in generosity
to each other, and to strangers; their tempers mild,
gentle, and unaffected; slow to take offence, easily
pacified, and seldom retaining resentment or revenge,
whatever provocation they may have received.
Their arms and hands are very delicately formed; and
though they go barefoot, their feet are not coarse
and spreading.
’As wives in private life, they
are affectionate, tender and obedient to their husbands,
and uncommonly fond of their children: they nurse
them with the utmost care, and are particularly attentive
to keep the infant’s limbs supple and straight.
A cripple is hardly ever seen among them in early
life. A rickety child is never known; anything
resembling it would reflect the highest disgrace on
the mother.
’The Otaheitans have no partitions
in their houses; but, it may be affirmed, they have
in many instances more refined ideas of decency than
ourselves; and one, long a resident, scruples not to
declare, that he never saw any appetite, hunger and
thirst excepted, gratified in public. It is too
true that, for the sake of gaining our extraordinary
curiosities, and to please our brutes, they have appeared
immodest in the extreme. Yet they lay this charge
wholly at our door, and say that Englishmen are ashamed
of nothing, and that we have led them to public acts
of indecency never before practised among themselves.
Iron here, more precious than gold, bears down every
barrier of restraint; honesty and modesty yield to
the force of temptation.’
Such are the females and the mothers
here described, whose interesting offspring are now
peopling Pitcairn’s Island, and who, while they
inherit their mothers’ virtues, have hitherto
kept themselves free from their vices.
The greater part of the food of Otaheitans
is vegetable. Hogs, dogs, and poultry are their
only animals, and all of them serve for food.
’We all agreed,’ says Cook, ’that
a South-Sea dog was little inferior to an English
lamb,’ which he ascribes to its being kept up
and fed wholly on vegetables. Broiling and baking
are the only two modes of applying fire to their cookery.
Captain Wallis observes, that having no vessel in
which water could be subjected to the action of fire,
they had no more idea that it could be made hot,
than that it could be made solid; and he mentions
that one of the attendants of the supposed queen, having
observed the surgeon fill the tea-pot from an urn,
turned the cock himself, and received the water in
his hand; and that as soon as he felt himself scalded,
he roared out and began to dance about the cabin with
the most extravagant and ridiculous expressions of
pain and astonishment; his companions, unable to conceive
what was the matter, staring at him in amaze, and
not without some mixture of terror.
One of Oberea’s peace-offerings
to Mr. Banks, for the robbery of his clothes committed
in her boat, was a fine fat dog, and the way in which
it was prepared and baked was as follows. Tupei,
the high priest, undertook to perform the double office
of butcher and cook. He first killed him by holding
his hands close over his mouth and nose for the space
of a quarter of an hour. A hole was then 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 be heated. The dog was then
singed, scraped with a shell, and 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
entrails carefully washed. When the hole was
sufficiently heated, the fire was taken out, and some
of the stones, being 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 the party all agreed that
he made a very good dish. These dogs it seems
are bred to be eaten, and live wholly on bread-fruit,
cocoa-nuts, yams, and other vegetables of the like
kind.
The food of the natives, being chiefly
vegetable, consists of the various preparations of
the bread-fruit, of cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains,
and a great variety of other fruit, the spontaneous
products of a rich soil and genial climate. The
bread-fruit, when baked in the same manner as the
dog was, is rendered soft, and not unlike a boiled
potato; not quite so farinaceous as a good one, but
more so than those of the middling sort. Much
of this fruit is gathered before it is ripe, and by
a certain process is made to undergo the two states
of fermentation, the saccharine and acetous, in the
latter of which it is moulded into balls, and called
Mahie. The natives seldom make a meal
without this sour paste. Salt water is the universal
sauce, without which no meal is eaten. Their
drink in general consists of water, or the juice of
the cocoa-nut; the art of producing liquors that intoxicate
by fermentation being at this time happily unknown
among them; neither did they make use of any narcotic,
as the natives of some other countries do opium, beetel-nut,
and tobacco. One day the wife of one of the chiefs
came running to Mr. Banks, who was always applied to
in every emergency and distress, and with a mixture
of grief and terror in her countenance, made him understand
that her husband was dying, in consequence of something
the strangers had given him to eat. Mr. Banks
found his friend leaning his head against a post,
in an attitude of the utmost languor and despondency.
His attendants brought out a leaf folded up with great
care, containing part of the poison of the effects
of which their master was now dying. On opening
the leaf Mr. Banks found in it a chew of tobacco,
which the chief had asked from some of the seamen,
and imitating them, as he thought, he had rolled it
about in his mouth, grinding it to powder with his
teeth, and ultimately swallowing it. During the
examination of the leaf he looked up at Mr. Banks with
the most piteous countenance, and intimated that he
had but a very short time to live. A copious
draught of cocoa-nut milk, however, set all to rights,
and the chief and his attendants were at once restored
to that flow of cheerfulness and good-humour, which
is the characteristic of these single-minded people.
There is, however, one plant from
the root of which they extract a juice of an intoxicating
quality, called Ava, but Cook’s party
saw nothing of its effects, probably owing to their
considering drunkenness as a disgrace. This vice
of drinking ava is said to be peculiar almost
to the chiefs, who vie with each other in drinking
the greatest number of draughts, each draught being
about a pint. They keep this intoxicating juice
with great care from the women.
As eating is one of the most important
concerns of life, here as well as elsewhere, Captain
Cook’s description of a meal made by one of the
chiefs of the island cannot be considered as uninteresting,
and is here given in his own words.
’He sits down under the shade
of the next tree, or on the shady side of his house,
and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit
or bananas, are neatly spread before him upon the
ground as a table-cloth; a basket is then set by him
that contains his provision, which, if fish or flesh,
is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two
cocoa-nut shells, one full of salt water and one of
fresh. His attendants, which are not few, seat
themselves round him, and when all is ready, he begins
by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with
the fresh water, and this he repeats almost continually
throughout the whole meal. He then takes part
of his provision out of the basket, which generally
consists of a small fish or two, two or three bread-fruits,
fourteen or fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven
apples. He first takes half a bread-fruit, peels
off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails;
of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold,
and while he chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves
and breaks one of them into the salt water, placing
the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit, upon
the leaves that have been spread before him.
When this is done, he takes up a small piece of the
fish that has been broken into the salt-water, with
all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his
mouth, so as to get with it as much of the salt-water
as possible. In the same manner he takes the
rest by different morsels, and between each, at least
very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt-water,
either out of the cocoa-nut shell, or the palm of
his hand. In the meantime one of his attendants
has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the
outer rind with his teeth, an operation which to an
European appears very surprising; but it depends so
much upon sleight, that many of us were able to do
it before we left the island, and some that could
scarcely crack a filbert. The master when he
chooses to drink takes the cocoa-nut thus prepared,
and boring a hole through the shell with his fingers,
or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor.
When he has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins
with his plantains, one of which makes but a mouthful,
though it be as big as a black-pudding; if instead
of plantains he has apples, he never tastes them
till they have been pared; to do this a shell is picked
up from the ground, where they are always in plenty,
and tossed to him by an attendant. He immediately
begins to cut or scrape off the rind, but so awkwardly
that great part of the fruit is wasted. If, instead
of fish, he has flesh, he must have some succedaneum
for a knife to divide it; and for this purpose a piece
of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he makes the
necessary implement by splitting it transversely with
his nail. While all this has been doing, some
of his attendants have been employed in beating bread-fruit
with a stone pestle upon a block of wood; by being
beaten in this manner, and sprinkled from time to
time with water, it is reduced to the consistence of
a soft paste, and is then put into a vessel somewhat
like a butcher’s tray, and either made up alone,
or mixed with banana or mahie, according to
the taste of the master, by pouring water upon it
by degrees and squeezing it often through the hand.
Under this operation it acquires the consistence of
a thick custard, and a large cocoa-nut shell full of
it being set before him, he sips it as we should do
a jelly if we had no spoon to take it from the glass.
The meal is then finished by again washing his hands
and his mouth. After which the cocoa-nut shells
are cleaned, and everything that is left is replaced
in the basket.’
Captain Cook adds, ’the quantity
of food which these people eat at a meal is prodigious.
I have seen one man devour two or three fishes as
big as a perch; three bread-fruits, each bigger than
two fists; fourteen or fifteen plantains or bananas,
each of them six or seven inches long, and four or
five round; and near a quart of the pounded bread-fruit,
which is as substantial as the thickest unbaked custard.
This is so extraordinary that I scarcely expect to
be believed; and I would not have related it upon
my own single testimony, but Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander,
and most of the other gentlemen have had ocular demonstration
of its truth, and know that I mention them on the occasion.’
The women, who, on other occasions,
always mix in the amusements of the men, who are particularly
fond of their society, are wholly excluded from their
meals; nor could the latter be prevailed on to partake
of anything when dining in company on board ship;
they said it was not right: even brothers and
sisters have each their separate baskets, and their
provisions are separately prepared; but the English
officers and men, when visiting the young ones at
their own houses, frequently ate out of the same basket
and drank out of the same cup, to the horror and dismay
of the older ladies, who were always offended at this
liberty; and if by chance any of the victuals were
touched, or even the basket that contained them, they
would throw them away.
In this fine climate houses are almost
unnecessary. The minimum range of the thermometer
is about 63 deg., the maximum 85 deg., giving
an average of 74 deg.. Their sheds or houses
consist generally of a thatched roof raised on posts,
the eaves reaching to within three or four feet of
the ground; the floor is covered with soft hay, over
which are laid mats, so that the whole is one cushion,
on which they sit by day and sleep by night.
They eat in the open air, under the shade of the nearest
tree. In each district there is a house erected
for general use, much larger than common, some of
them exceeding two hundred feet in length, thirty broad,
and twenty high. The dwelling-houses all stand
in the woody belt which surrounds the island, between
the feet of the central mountains and the sea, each
having a very small piece of ground cleared, just enough
to keep the dropping of the trees from the thatch.
An Otaheitan wood consists chiefly of groves of bread-fruit
and cocoa-nuts, without underwood, and intersected
in all directions by the paths that lead from one
house to another. ‘Nothing,’ says
Cook, ’can be more grateful than this shade,
in so warm a climate, nor anything more beautiful than
these walks,’
With all the activity they are capable
of displaying, and the sprightliness of their disposition,
they are fond of indulging in ease and indolence.
The trees that produce their food are mostly of spontaneous
growth the bread-fruit, cocoa-nut, bananas
of thirteen sorts, besides plantains; a fruit
not unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant;
sweet potatoes, yams, and a species of arum;
the pandanus, the jambu and the sugar-cane; a
variety of plants whose roots are esculent these,
with many others, are produced with so little culture,
that, as Cook observes, they seem to be exempted from
the first general curse that ‘man should eat
his bread in the sweat of his brow.’ Then
for clothing they have the bark of three different
trees, the paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and
a tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West
Indies; of these the mulberry only requires to be
cultivated.
In preparing the cloth they display
a very considerable degree of ingenuity. Red
and yellow are the two colours most in use for dyeing
their cloth; the red is stated to be exceedingly brilliant
and beautiful, approaching nearest to our full scarlet;
it is produced by the mixture of the juices of two
vegetables, neither of which separately has the least
tendency to that hue: one is the Cordia Sebestina,
the other a species of Ficus; of the former
the leaves, of the latter the fruits yield the juices.
The yellow dye is extracted from the bark of the root
of the Morinda citrifolia, by scraping and infusing
it in water.
Their matting is exceedingly beautiful,
particularly that which is made from the bark of the
Hibiscus tiliaceus, and of a species of Pandanus.
Others are made of rushes and grass with amazing facility
and dispatch. In the same manner their basket
and wicker work are most ingeniously made; the former
in patterns of a thousand different kinds. Their
nets and fishing-lines are strong and neatly made,
so are their fish-hooks of pearl-shell; and their
clubs are admirable specimens of wood-carving.
A people so lively, sprightly, and
good-humoured as the Otaheitans are, must necessarily
have their amusements. They are fond of music,
such as is derived from a rude flute and a drum; of
dancing, wrestling, shooting with the bow, and throwing
the lance. They exhibit frequent trials of skill
and strength in wrestling; and Cook says it is scarcely
possible for those who are acquainted with the athletic
sports of very remote antiquity, not to remark a rude
resemblance of them in a wrestling-match (which he
describes) among the natives of a little island in
the midst of the Pacific Ocean.
But these simple-minded people have
their vices, and great ones too. Chastity is
almost unknown among a certain description of women:
there is a detestable society called Arreoy,
composed, it would seem, of a particular class, who
are supposed to be the chief warriors of the island.
In this society the men and women live in common; and
on the birth of a child it is immediately smothered,
that its bringing up may not interfere with the brutal
pleasures of either father or mother. Another
savage practice is that of immolating human beings
at the Morais, which serve as temples as well
as sepulchres, and yet, by the report of the missionaries,
they entertain a due sense and reverential awe of
the Deity. ‘With regard to their worship,’
Captain Cook does the Otaheitans but justice in saying,
’they reproach many who bear the name of Christians.
You see no instances of an Otaheitan drawing near the
Eatooa with carelessness and inattention; he is all
devotion; he approaches the place of worship with
reverential awe; uncovers when he treads on sacred
ground; and prays with a fervour that would do honour
to a better profession. He firmly credits the
traditions of his ancestors. None dares dispute
the existence of the Deity.’ Thieving may
also be reckoned as one of their vices; this, however,
is common to all uncivilized nations, and, it may
be added, civilized too. But to judge them fairly
in this respect, we should compare their situation
with that of a more civilized people. A native
of Otaheite goes on board a ship and finds himself
in the midst of iron bolts, nails, knives, scattered
about, and is tempted to carry off a few of them.
If we could suppose a ship from El Dorado to arrive
in the Thames, and that the custom-house officers,
on boarding her, found themselves in the midst of bolts,
hatchets, chisels, all of solid gold, scattered about
the deck, one need scarcely say what would be likely
to happen. If the former found the temptation
irresistible to supply himself with what was essentially
useful the latter would be as little able
to resist that which would contribute to the indulgence
of his avarice or the gratification of his pleasures,
or of both.
Such was the state of this beautiful
island and its interesting and fascinating natives
at the time when Captain Wallis first discovered and
Lieutenant Cook shortly afterwards visited it.
What they now are, as described by Captain Beechey,
it is lamentable to reflect. All their usual
and innocent amusements have been denounced by the
missionaries, and, in lieu of them, these poor people
have been driven to seek for resources in habits of
indolence and apathy: that simplicity of character,
which atoned for many of their faults, has been converted
into cunning and hypocrisy; and drunkenness, poverty,
and disease have thinned the island of its former
population to a frightful degree. By a survey
of the first missionaries, and a census of the inhabitants,
taken in 1797, the population was estimated at 16,050
souls; Captain Waldegrave, in 1830, states it, on
the authority of a census also taken by the missionaries,
to amount only to 5000 and there is but
too much reason to ascribe this diminution to praying,
psalm-singing, and dram-drinking.
The island of Otaheite is in shape
two circles united by a low and narrow isthmus.
The larger circle is named Otaheite Mooe, and is about
thirty miles in diameter; the lesser, named Tiaraboo,
about ten miles in diameter. A belt of low land,
terminating in numerous valleys, ascending by gentle
slopes to the central mountain, which is about seven
thousand feet high, surrounds the larger circle, and
the same is the case with the smaller circle on a
proportionate scale. Down these valleys flow
streams and rivulets of clear water, and the most luxuriant
and verdant foliage fills their sides and the hilly
ridges that separate them, among which were once scattered
the smiling cottages and little plantations of the
natives. All these are now destroyed, and the
remnant of the population has crept down to the flats
and swampy ground on the sea shore, completely subservient
to the seven establishments of missionaries, who have
taken from them what little trade they used to carry
on, to possess themselves of it; who have their warehouses,
act as agents, and monopolize all the cattle on the
island but, in return, they have given
them a new religion and a parliament (risum teneatis?)
and reduced them to a state of complete pauperism and
all, as they say, and probably have so persuaded themselves,
for the honour of God, and the salvation of their
souls! How much is such a change brought about
by such conduct to be deprecated! how lamentable is
it to reflect, that an island on which Nature has
lavished so many of her bounteous gifts, with which
neither Cyprus nor Cythera, nor the fanciful island
of Calypso, can compete in splendid and luxuriant
beauties, should be doomed to such a fate, in
an enlightened age, and by a people that call themselves
civilized!