James Cook

“ 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 which the gentlemen desired to see. They were sometimes found at their meals, which the approach of the strangers never interrupted. Their food at this season consisted 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. ”

“ 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 inhabitants of the most speculative and enlightened nations. 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 reason, no habits of thinking, can subdue, except in those whom habitual baseness and guilt have rendered indifferent to honour and shame while they lived. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 demonstration 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. ”

“ The people, who kept abreast of the ship on the beach, made many signals; but whether they were intended to frighten us away, or invite us on shore, it is not easy to determine: we returned them by waving our hats and shouting, and they replied by shouting again. We did not put their disposition to the test, by attempting to land; because, as the island was inconsiderable, and as we wanted nothing that it could afford, we thought it imprudent as well as cruel to risk a contest, in which the natives must have suffered by our superiority, merely to gratify an idle curiosity ”

“ Mutton is scarcely to be procured, and hogs and poultry are dear; of garden-stuff and fruit-trees there is abundance, of which, however, none can be preserved at sea but the pumpkin; rum, sugar, and molasses, all excellent in their kind, may be had at a reasonable price; tobacco also is cheap, but it is not good. Here is a yard for building shipping, and a small hulk to heave down by; for as the tide never rises above six or seven feet, there is no other way of coming at a ship’s bottom.
When the boat which had been sent on shore returned, we hoisted her on board, and stood out to sea. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon slight evidence, 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 privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when particular persons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. ”

“ 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 middle is low land, with hills gradually rising behind, one towering above another, and terminating in the chain of mountains, which appeared to be far inland.
In the evening I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with the pinnace and yawl, and a party of men. ”

“ 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 mountains, 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. ”

“ Solander went a fishing with hook and line, and caught an immense quantity every where upon the rocks, in between four and five fathom water: the seine was hauled every night, and seldom failed to supply the whole ship’s company with as much fish as they could eat. This day all the people had leave to go on shore at the watering-place, and divert themselves as they should think proper. ”

“ Owhaw, who had never left us, observing that we were now totally deserted, got together a few of those who had fled, though not without some difficulty, and ranged them about us: we endeavoured to justify our people as well as we could, and to convince the Indians that if they did no wrong to us, we should do no wrong to them: they went away without any appearance of distrust or resentment; and having struck our tent, we returned to the ship, but by no means satisfied with the transactions of the day. ”

“ 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 far inland, but afterwards found to be otherwise.
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. ”

“ 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 procured to society, and much evil prevented, by a desire of preventing disgrace or procuring honour to a name, when nothing but a name remains. ”

“ 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 with 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. ”

“ 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 reciprocation of good offices. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 standing, 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 imagined. ”

“ 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: sometimes 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. ”

“ We saw also the man who 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 apprehension. We saw also the brother of our old chief, who had 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. ”

“ Their whole behaviour was affable, obliging, and unsuspicious: they presented each person with fish, and a brand of fire to dress it, and pressed them many times to stay till the morning, which they would certainly have done if they had not expected the ship to sail, greatly regretting that they had not become acquainted with them sooner, as they made no doubt but that more knowledge of the manners and disposition of the inhabitants of this country would have been obtained from them in a day than they had yet been able to acquire during our whole stay upon the coast. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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, surrounding 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. ”

“ I discovered by the appearance of the shore, that at this place it was low water; and I had observed at Lagoon Island, that it was either high water, or that the sea neither ebbed nor flowed. I infer, therefore, that a S. by E. or S. moon makes high water.
We went on with a fine trade-wind and pleasant weather, and on the 5th, about three in the afternoon, we discovered land to the westward. It proved to be a low island of much greater extent than either of those that we had seen before, being about ten or twelve leagues in compass. ”

“ Tupia, without any directions from us, went to the poop, and began to expostulate: 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 340cried 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. ”

“ The rope-dancer and balance-master owe their art, not to any peculiar liberality of nature, but to an accidental improvement of her common gifts; and though equal diligence and application would not always produce equal excellence in these, any more than in other arts, yet there is no doubt but that a certain degree of proficiency in them might be universally attained. Another proof of the existence of abilities in mankind, that are almost universally dormant, is furnished by the attainments of blind men. ”

“ It might be expected 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 recorded from the beginning of the world to the present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 incredible 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 abundance. In the middle of the top stood the image of a bird, carved in wood; and near it lay the broken one of a fish, carved in stone. ”

“ 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 us 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. ”

“ To the regulars the inhabitants behave with the utmost humility and submission; and I was told, that if any of them should neglect to take off his hat upon meeting an officer, he would immediately be knocked down. These haughty severities render the people extremely civil to any stranger who has the appearance of a gentleman. But the subordination of the officers themselves to the Viceroy is enforced with circumstances equally mortifying, for they are obliged to attend in his hall three times every day to ask his commands; the answer constantly is, “There is nothing new.” ”