King’s or one of the principal chief’s house and we always had an
invitation to attend. A large bowl was prepared in which the cava or
ava was put and mixed with water, when it forms a liquor which has
much the same effect on a person as opium. The company sit round in a
circle, the bowl in the centre, and while it is preparing, they all
sing songs relating to some enterprise that is intended or perhaps
past, the King having first invoked the Great Spirit to bless the
liquor, the people all answering with a word which is equivalent to our
amen. It was then carried round in cocoanut shells, the King drinking
first, and so on according to the rank, though we always had the honour
to drink next to the King. They always give a toast before drinking,
frequently wishing the Great Spirit to bless us with a safe arrival to
our country; sometimes that he might bless them with a great plenty of
yams or fish.
We continued to live on good terms of friendship with the natives,
which was much increased by our assisting them in repairing and
learning them the use of the muskets and other weapons of which a great
many fell into their hands. We always met with a welcome reception
when we visited their houses and frequently received small presents of
clothes, etc., for the work we did for them, so our situation became
quite comfortable, although we could hardly suppress our feelings,
to see our property and clothes destroyed, nor reflect on the great
distance we were from our homes and friends and the future prospects,
without pain and anxiety.
About the last of April, 1831, the king fitted out an expedition of
thirty large canoes to go to a place about 50 miles distant to procure
certain tribute of the mountaineers which he obliged them to pay him.
The King and all the principal warriors, with the women and ourselves,
started in the canoes and in two days arrived at the place where we
were to meet the mountaineers with the tribute. It was on a beautiful
plain where houses were built for the King and the chiefs with their
families.
After the King and chiefs were seated in the houses, a party of the
women of the mountains marched out in front of our King, fancifully
dress’d with flowers and strips of bark of various colours, each
having a fish-net of superior workmanship and each bearing in her hand
a sort of fan, with which they beat time to a sort of solemn tune
which they sung. After performing a number of dances before the King,
they divested themselves of their ornaments and nets which became the
property of our women, and marched off followed by the shouts and
praises of all our party.
A party of the men then presented themselves dressed with a large
quantity of curiously-coloured cloth[49] and after performing various
dances and manœuvres and leaving their dresses for the men of our
party, they marched for the mountains having likewise received the
King’s approbation and our shouts and expressions of admiration.
The tribute was now examined by the King’s command. It consisted of
280 hogs, vast quantities of yams, cava-root, etc., on which the
High-Priest of our nation envoked the Great Spirit for his approbation
of the tribute. The priest, after a ceremony of twirling a cocoanut
round two or three times, pronounced that it was very Good, and that it
would be proper to have a feast of pork and yams, drink cava, etc. The
King then gave orders for a certain number of hogs to be killed, the
rest to be divided, and the cava got ready and as we had had nothing
to eat for some days we all joined in obeying orders. Each one of the
party, ourselves not excepted, received a portion of the provisions and
while the King drank his cava, the people prepared the feast.
The King gave the mountaineers a few presents and a specimen of his
eloquence in which he informed them that as the ship cast away on
his shores had rendered him very powerful, he should expect a larger
tribute the next year, giving them to understand he should be ready
to use forcible means if it became necessary. With this, the chief
took his leave of us and we commenced, according to the advice of the
priest, to eat. At night we repaired to the canoes with the tribute and
on the next morning started for the town where on the 20th of April we
arrived.
On our return, the 2nd officer of the ship, with the carpenter and a
number of the crew, left in a canoe to go to Bow, having understood by
the natives that a vessel was lost in the same gale that had wrecked
our ship and that the Captain and crew resided there. We found the
natives of another town, enemies to the King, had set fire to the
_Glide_ and she had burnt nearly up.
The 2nd chief, to whom the ship had been delivered, when we abandon’d
her, was now taken sick and the priest continued to howl through the
night for his recovery. On our asking the reason of such proceedings
they told us that the priest was angry because a sufficient sacrifice
of pigs had not been made and that the Great Spirit had caused a
sickness to afflict the greatest warrior. A number of hogs were
immediately killed and buried and numbers of the friends of the chief’s
cut off a finger or toe[50] to satisfy the Great Spirit.
We learn’d that it was the custom to cut off their fingers or toes on
the death of their friends or on the sickness of their chiefs. We saw a
number of very aged people who had become feeble and infirm, call round
their friends and bid them farewell and then allow themselves to be
strangled and buried without showing any signs of fear for the future
or regret for leaving the past.
On the 6th of May we received a letter which was written previous to
the gale, from which we learned that the vessel lost at Bow was the
brig _Niagara_,[51] Capt. Nathaniel Brown, and that she was from Salem.
Nothing particular occurred until the 22nd of May, 1831, when a sail
was seen standing for the anchorage at 5 P. M. At sundown we were on
board and she proved to be the schooner _Harriet_, Capt. Young, from
the Sandwich Islands and last from Wallis Island. They took us all on
board the schooner and after procuring the cables, anchors, etc., of
our ship we proceeded for Bow.
On the 9th of June, we arriv’d off Averlon and found there the bark
_Peru_,[52] Capt. Egleston, of and from Salem. Captain Egleston took
Capt. Archer, Mr. Burnham and the remainder of our crew on board;
likewise the Captains Brown and Vanderford[53] of the _Niagara_ with
the officers and crew and we proceeded on our course to Bow, where we
arrived on June 10th, and anchored off the island where Mr. Manini,
supercargo of the schooner, purchased the cables and anchors of the
brig _Niagara_, from the King of Bow. Having succeeded in getting them
on board we got underweigh and ran down to Avalon and anchored near the
bark _Peru_. Capt. Brown came on board the schooner and Capt. Young
agreed to forward us to the Sandwich Islands.
On the 26th of June, we lost sight of the Fegee Islands, steering to
the N. E. for Wallis Island[54] and arriving there three days later, we
found the brig _Chinchilla_,[55] Capt. Meek. Capt. Young not finding
it for his interest to return to the Sandwich Islands at present, on
the 12th July sailed, intending to return in the space of 6 or 8 weeks,
leaving us to reside in their houses and wait for his return.
[Illustration: SHIP CHINCHILLA OF NEW YORK
“Scrimshawed” on a whale’s tooth. Presented to the East India Marine
Society of Salem in 1825 by Capt. William Osgood. Now in the Peabody
Museum of Salem.]
After a long and most tedious stay on this island, on the 8th of
November, the American whale-ship _Braganza_[56] arrived from a cruise
off Japan for the purpose of procuring vegetables, water, etc. On the
26th, the brig _Chinchilla_ arrived from Port Jackson, having been
obliged to put into that port for provisions. Finding that Capt. Meek
was not to return to the Sandwich Islands at present and no chance
offering for a passage to a civilized port, I went on board of the
_Braganza_, it being the intention of Capt. Wood to cruise for whales
about the Equator for the space of 4 or 5 months and then to proceed to
some port for supplies, where I should probably find an opportunity to
return to the United States.
On Nov. 29th, we left Wallis Island and proceeded towards the Equator
where we cruised until the 1st of February, 1832, and succeeded in
taking 25 c. of Sperm Oil. Then finding the head of the main-mast
rotted badly and the weather rather unfavourable for prosecuting the
whaling business we bore away and steered for Otaheite and on the 23rd
February we arrived at _Eamco_,[57] an island a short distance from
Otaheite where the Captain intended to repair his main-mast. We found
at Otaheite, the ship _Atlantic_, Capt. Fisher, who intended to cruise
for a short time for whales and then proceed for the United States.
I immediately shipped on board and on the 28th February, signed his
articles intending to sail the next day. Early the next morning we got
underweigh and stood out to sea steering to the south east under short
sail with the man at the mast-head looking for whales.
It was on the morning of 20th of April, just as the sun was rising,
that the man at the mast-head cried out “There she blows!”[58]
It was very still on board; the ship steered close to the wind, a light
breeze from east and not a sound heard except the slight ruffling the
ship made as she forced her way through the water. But nothing could
have acted so forcibly on our feelings as the cry that whales were in
sight. In a moment the ship was in confusion, the sailors came up from
below and ran to clear their boats and see all in readiness for the
pursuit.
“Where away?” enquired the Captain, as he was coming up the
companion-steps and without waiting for an answer ordered the ship to
be hove to and the boats manned.
The order was promptly executed by the respective officers and on
ascertaining they were sperm whales, he ordered the officers to lower
the boats and pursue them. The whales were but a short distance from
the ship and we had a good opportunity to observe their movements. The
boats, sufficiently armed and manned, soon got amongst the whales, when
the man at the mast-head had orders to inform those on deck of the
movements in the boats and to inform those in the boats by signals of
the situation of the whales.
[Illustration: A SHOAL OF SPERM WHALE OFF THE ISLAND OF HAWAII IN 1833
From an engraving by J. Hill after a painting by T. Birch. The picture
shows the famous Roach (Rotch) whaling fleet,--the _Enterprise_, _Wm.
Roach_, _Pocahontas_ and _Houqua_, all from Nantucket.]
In a few moments we perceived by a great splashing, which one of them
made, that the 1st officer had hove his harpoon into one of them. After
running under water some time and taking the line out of the boat to a
considerable distance, the whale came up on top of the water. The other
whales immediately joining the wounded one and gave the other boats
an opportunity of striking also, which they immediately improved and
all three of the boats were each fastened to a whale at the same time.
After the whales became exhausted they hauled up to them and lanced
until they were dead.
In this manner the boats continued to improve their time and weapons
until 6 of these huge animals were forced to yield their valuable
bodies to the superior skill of Nantucket whalemen. They were soon
towed alongside the ship and secured by their tails being fastened to
the bows. The crew then proceeded to take the blubber on board. Large
tackles were secured on the main-mast, the falls taken to the windlass,
and every person stationed in his particular place. The officers at
the ship’s side, on stages, to cut the blubber as it is hove on board
with the tackles. The harpooners on deck to receive the blubber and
overhaul the tackles. The carpenter sharpening the spades, the cooperer
preparing the casks, the seamen heaving at the windlass, and the
Captain superintending the whole.
They commenced by cutting a hole in the blubber near to the head of the
whale, into which a tackle was hooked which served to steady the whale
while the officers cut off the head which was hoisted on board. They
then proceeded to peel the blubber off the whale, the officers cutting
it with their spades into strips about 6 or 8 feet in width and from 12
to 18 feet in length, while it is hove in with the tackles. This causes
the whale to turn over and over until the blubber is all off, when they
cut the carcass adrift and left it a banquet for the sharks and birds
of which there were great numbers around the ship.
After having secured the blubber of all the whales sail was again made
on the ship and we proceeded on our way around Cape Horn. In a few days
the blubber was tried out and stow’d in the ship’s hold and thus ended
what the whalers term’d a fare of sperm oil.
We had a tolerable passage to the United States and on the 25th June,
arrived at Nantucket, 119 days from Otaheite, and on the 29th June,
1832, I reached my home in Danvers after having been absent 37 months
and 8 days.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Tasmania. William Endicott says in his Log of this voyage: “Van
Diemen’s Island appears from the sea to be high and irregular barren
land covered with snow to the summits. The shore is bound with craggy
rocks.”
[3] Situated at the northerly end of North Island, this was the
principal rendezvous of European and American vessels during the early
intercourse with the Pacific. Endicott says in his Log: “The Bay of
Islands is a fine place for procuring wood, water, potatoes, pigs and
vegetables.”
[4] “Indiaman,” “Diana” and “Tower Castle.”
[5] “New Zealander” of New Zealand.
[6] The primitive Maori method of cooking bodies was to dig a hole
in the ground about two feet deep in which was placed a quantity of
stones. A fire was built over these and when they were red hot most of
them were removed. Those remaining were covered with alternate layers
of leaves and flesh until there was as much above as below ground. Two
or three quarts of water was then thrown over the pile, old mats spread
over it and the whole covered with earth to confine the steam. In
twenty minutes the flesh was cooked. Cannibalism was entirely abandoned
by 1840 owing to the influence of the missionaries.
[7] The Friendly or Tonga Islands are a group lying south-east of Fiji
between 18° and 20° south latitude and 174° and 176° west longitude.
They comprise some 150 islands, mostly very small, of which only a
few are inhabited. They were discovered by Tasman in 1643 and became
a British protectorate in 1900. The natives are of Polynesian stock
and have become Christians through the efforts of the Wesleyan Mission
established here in 1822. Probably the best early account of the
natives of any Pacific islands is William Mariner’s “An Account of the
Natives of the Tonga Islands.”
[8] The Fiji islands are an important group of the Central Pacific
lying largely between latitude 15°30′ and 19°30′ South and longitude
177° East and 178° West. They comprise some 155 islands, of which 100
are inhabited, and numerous islets and reefs. The group was discovered
by Tasman in 1643 and was ceded to Great Britain by Thakombau on Oct.
10, 1874. The natives are of Melanesian stock with an admixture of
Polynesian. The mountaineers of Vanua Levu show the purest strain while
the costal tribes of that and the surrounding islands show a very
pronounced strain of Tongan blood. All are now Christian through the
efforts of the Wesleyan missionaries who went there in 1835 and a white
man or woman is safer with these natives than on the streets of New
York or Chicago.
[9] The result of the infusion of Tongan blood.
[10] War was the chief object in life for the Fijian man and so great
was the desire for killing that two men always walked abreast for fear
that if one were behind he would be overcome by the temptation to club
his companion.
[11] Cannibalism was not practised exclusively on those killed in
war. It was tabu or forbidden to the lower classes and they were most
frequently the victims. Sometimes if a chief wanted a body for a feast
he would send one of his dependents out to waylay a man of the lower
classes. He would approach his unsuspecting victim from behind and
strike him on the head with a club before he was aware that anything
was to happen. Persons dying a natural death were never eaten but those
shipwrecked were rescued only that they might be eaten. Neither sex
nor age was a deterrent. One chief was so fond of human flesh that he
boasted that he never passed a person that he did not wonder how they
would taste. The method of cooking bodies was either by baking, in a
manner similar to that practised in New Zealand (see note, page 16), or
by boiling. The body was rarely baked whole but was dismembered and the
trunk cast aside unless the supply was very short.
[12] Turtle Island--Vatoa.
[13] Civil account--civil day. When at sea the log-book day
corresponded with the astronomical day and extended from noon to noon;
but when anchored for any extended period of time the log-book record
was kept in civil time, that is from midnight to midnight.
[14] Mbau or Ambau, a native town on a small island at the southerly
end of Ambau Bay on the easterly side of Viti Levu, the largest island
of the Fiji group. This town was the residence of Tanoa, the most
influential chief in the Islands. It was off this town that the French
brig “l’Amiable Josephine” was cut off by the chiefs of Rewa (or Viwa,
a town on Viti Levu, the second most influential town in Fiji) in
July, 1834, and the captain and all the crew but three were killed. In
retaliation for this Dumont D’Urville destroyed the town of Viwa in
1839. In August, 1834, the chief Vendovi of Rewa massacred the mate and
five men of the crew of the brig “Charles Doggett” of Salem. One of the
crew was eaten.
[15] Brig “Quill,” of Salem, 189 tons, built at Hingham in 1818. Owned
by John W., Nathaniel L. and Richard S. Rogers; commanded by Joshua
Kinsman.
[16] Mr. Driver.
[17] Oahu, Hawaiian Islands.
[18] An edible holothurian familiar throughout the East under the Malay
name of _trepang_.
[19] William S. Carey.
[20] From the Malay “to carry on the back”,--a man’s burden. A
commercial weight varying in different countries. In the Philippines,
where the beche-de-mer was sold, it was 140 lbs.
[21] Tanoa, the most powerful chief in the Islands. He was the father
of Thakombau, the most celebrated of the Fijian chiefs and the greatest
stumbling block to the missionaries until he was forced as a matter of
expediency to adopt the Christian religion in 1854.
[22] The houses were burned so that they might not be used by other
traders.
[23] Ship “Clay” of Salem, 299 tons, built at Hanover, Mass., in 1818.
Owned by John W., Nathaniel L. and Richard S. Rogers; commanded by
Charles Millett.
[24] Anganga Island.
[25] Including the ship “Sophia” of London.
[26] Ship “Zeneas Coffin” of Nantucket, 338 tons, owned by C. G. and H.
Coffin; commanded by George Joy.
[27] Ship “Ann Alexander” of New Bedford, 211 tons, owned by George
Howland; commanded by Josiah Howland.
[28] Ship “Hector” of New Bedford, 380 tons, owned by Charles W.
Morgan; commanded by John G. Morse.
[29] Maui, the second largest island of the Hawaiian group.
[30] Ship “Atlantic” of Nantucket, 321 tons. Commanded by Elihu Fisher.
[31] This church at Lahaina, Maui, was said at the time to be “the most
noble structure in all Polynesia.”
[32] Penrhyn or Tongareva was discovered by Seaver in the ship “Lady
Penrhyn” in 1788. When visited by the “Popoise” of the Wilkes’
Expedition in 1841 the natives were described as the wildest and most
savage-looking beings that had been met with.
[33] Ovalau, a small island about 10 miles east of Viti Levu. On this
island is situated the town of Levuka whose harbor is one of the best
in the islands. It was the principal residence of white men in the
group and was the seat of the British colonial government until 1882,
when it was removed to Suva on Viti Levu.
[34] The anchors usually carried were: sheet anchor, the largest and
strongest which is only used in time of direst necessity; the best
bower anchor and the small bower anchor, about the same size and take
their name from their position at the bow of the ship; the stream
anchor, smaller than the bowers; and the kedge anchor, smallest of all.
[35] Somosomo, a town of considerable importance, situated on the
island of Taviuni or Vuna off the south-eastern point of Vanua Levu the
second largest island in the Fiji group.
[36] Brig “Faun” of Salem, 168 tons, built at Quincy in 1816. Owned by
Robert Brookhouse of Salem, George Abbot of Beverly and Hall & Williams
of Boston; commanded by James Briant. Wrecked in August 1830 on the
Cakaudrove coast of Vanua Levu in the bay now called Faun Harbor.
[37] Charles Ambrose Knight, 1st mate of the ship “Friendship” of
Salem, a brother of Edmund, was massacred in February 1831, by the
natives at Quallah Battoo, Sumatra.
[38] Fish--a piece of timber, somewhat in the form of a fish, used to
strengthen a mast or yard.
[39] Mutt-Water or Mudwater, a town on the north side of Vanua Levu.
The native name was Bonne Rarah.
[40] Tackanova--Vanua Levu.
[41] The “bitter-end” is that part of the cable which is abaft the
bitts when the ship rides at anchor.
[42] Chief Santa Beeta of Bonne Rarah.
[43] Bonne Rarah.
[44] Mah--Mathee.
[45] The _bure_ or temple was the council chamber and town hall of
the village. Strangers were entertained there and the head persons
of the village often slept in it. As the best constructed building
in the village it was elaborately decorated, the timbers and rafters
being wrapped with sennit in various designs of red and black. Votive
offerings such as clubs, huge rolls of sennit, whale’s teeth, strips of
masi, a model of a temple made of sennit or parts of a victim slain in
war, decorated the interior.
[46] Sennit--a cord made of the fibre of the cocoanut husk, dried,
combed and braided. The Fijians having no nails use this for all sorts
of fastenings, lashings and wrappings in varied design. It is made in
all sizes from a single strand to a cable and is of very considerable
strength.
[47] This statement seems to be somewhat exaggerated. One canoe has
been recorded as one hundred feet in length. Wilkes says that the
average large canoe was seventy feet in length and would conveniently
carry fifty men.
[48] _Yaquona_ of the Fijians, _kava_ of the Tongans and _awa_ of the
Hawaiians, is an infusion of the root of the pepper plant (_Piper
methysticum_). The root is first chewed or grated, after which the
macerated mass is placed in a bowl and covered with water. The infusion
is then strained through a fibre mesh and is ready to drink. It was
used on occasions of ceremony or entertainment and its preparation
was accompanied by a more or less elaborate ritual. It is used by the
races in the Pacific who do not chew the betel nut. Its effects are
intoxicating and narcotic.
[49] Tapa cloth, _masi_ of the Fijians, _siapo_ of the Samoans, _kapa_
of the Hawaiians, was the substitute for cloth and paper. It was made
from the inner bark of the paper mulberry (_Broussonetia papyrifera_).
The plants were carefully cultivated and when about one inch in
diameter were cut down and soaked in water. The bark was removed and
beaten. Different pieces were joined together and beaten into one piece
so that sheets of almost any size could be made. The finished masi was
then decorated by printing or stencilling with dyes of red-brown and
black.
[50] One of the chief forms of mourning for the dead, in addition to
wailing, was to lop off the little finger of one of the hands. Most
of the older natives lost both little fingers. This was confined to
the relatives of the deceased unless the latter was one of the highest
chiefs when it was confined to the tribe.
[51] Brig “Niagara” of Salem, 246 tons, built at Mount Desert in 1816.
Owned by Putnam I. Farnham, Jed Fry and Peter S. Webster; commanded by
Nathaniel Brown. Wrecked in Ambau Bay the same day as the “Glide.”
[52] Bark “Peru”, 210 tons, built at Salem in 1823. Owned by Stephen
C. Phillips; commanded by John H. Eagleston. Sold to Spanish owners at
Manila in 1832. Capt. Eagleston commanded four different vessels in the
Fiji trade, was familiar with the language and was on friendly terms
with several of the chiefs. He rendered great assistance and furnished
valuable information to Lieut. Wilkes while the U. S. Exploring
Expedition was at the Fijis.