The island, to which they were carried, proves to be Lord North's
island, called by the natives _To'bee_.--Account of the island and
its inhabitants.--Their manners and customs.
It may now be proper in this place to give some account of the place
where our unhappy lot was cast, and of its rude and miserable
inhabitants. It will be impossible to convey a correct idea of their
ignorance, poverty, and degradation; but some conception may be formed,
by imagining what the condition of beings must necessarily be, when
wholly separated from the rest of their species, stripped of all the
refinements of life, and deprived of all means and opportunities for
improvement.
We were now upon the small piece of land called by the natives _To'bee_,
but known to navigators by the name of _Lord North's Island_, situated
between the third and fourth degrees of north latitude, and in longitude
one hundred and thirty-one degrees twenty minutes east. It is also
known by the name of _Nevil's Island_ and _Johnston's Island_; and it
has been hitherto considered by navigators and others as uninhabited.
This is not surprising; as we were told by the natives, that no white
man had ever visited the place; though it seemed, from the pieces of
iron in their possession, and from other circumstances, that they had
had some communication with the Spaniards and Portuguese in that quarter
of the world.[4] Like many other islands in those seas, this is
surrounded by a coral reef, which is from an eighth to one half of a
mile wide; but outside of the reef the water is apparently fathomless,
the water being as blue as it is in the middle of the ocean; and the
largest vessels may in many places approach within a quarter of a mile
of the beach. The whole island rises so little above the level of the
sea, that the swell often rolls up to a considerable distance inland.
It is about three quarters of a mile in length, and not far from half a
mile in width. There were upon it three villages, situated on the
shores, and containing, in all, between three and four hundred souls, at
the time when we were taken there; but the number was considerably
diminished by famine and disease before we left.
The inhabitants are in a state of entire barbarism and ignorance. The
men wear a sort of girdle or belt made of the bark of a tree. This is
girded round the loins so as to leave one end to hang loose behind, the
other is brought forward and fastened to the belt in front. This is
their only clothing. The females, after arriving at the age of
womanhood, wear an apron made of the leaves of a plant, by them called
_kurremung_, split into fine strips and plaited. This extends from the
loins nearly to the knees. Some few wear rings upon their wrists made of
white shells, and some had this kind of ornament made of turtle-shell.
In their ears, which are always bored, they sometimes wear a leaf; and
round their necks a necklace made of the shell of the cocoa-nut, and a
small white shell, called _keem_ shell. The children go entirely naked.
The complexion of these islanders is a light copper color; much lighter
than the Malays, or the Pelew islanders; which last, however, they
resemble in the breadth of their faces, high cheek bones, and broad
flattened noses. They do not color their teeth, by chewing any thing, as
many of those islanders do; but their teeth are so strong that they can
husk a cocoa-nut with them instantly.
Their principal food is the cocoa-nut. They occasionally succeed in
procuring fish, though the supply obtained during our residence there
was exceedingly small. Their fish-hooks are made of turtle-shell, and
not well contrived for the purpose; but we could not induce them to use
our hooks, till they had heated them and altered their form so that they
would not hold the fish. They did this, because they said that Yarris
(God) would be angry with them, if they used our hooks without preparing
them according to their fashion. Sometimes they are so fortunate as to
obtain a sea-turtle; five only were taken during the two years we were
there. The turtle, I may add, has something of a sacred character with
them. They also raise small quantities of a vegetable somewhat
resembling the yam; but while we were with them they were unsuccessful
in cultivating it. These constitute the slender means of their support;
and they are thus barely kept from actual death by famine, but on the
very verge of starvation. When any one of them begins to fail, for want
of food, so that his death is pretty certain, they inhumanly turn him
off from among them, to starve to death.
Their religion is such as might be expected among a people in their
condition. Their place of worship is a rudely constructed building, or
hut, about fifty feet long and thirty wide. In the centre, suspended
from the roof, is a sort of altar, into which they suppose their deity
comes to hold converse with the priest. Rudely carved images are placed
in different parts of the building, and are supposed to personate their
divinity. As nearly as could be ascertained by us, they supposed that
the object of their worship was of like passions with themselves,
capricious and revengeful. During the time we were with them, they
attributed to his displeasure their want of success in taking fish as
they had done in former times, and the unfruitfulness of their
bread-fruit and cocoa trees.
Their religious ceremonies are singular. In the commencement the priest
walks round the altar and takes from it a mat devoted to the purpose,
which is laid upon the ground. He then seats himself upon it, and begins
to hoot, in the mean time throwing himself into a variety of attitudes,
for the purpose of calling down the divinity into the altar. At
intervals the congregation sing, but immediately stop when the priest
breaks out in his devotions. By the side of the altar is always placed a
large bowl, and six cocoa-nuts. After the incantation is gone through,
and the divinity is supposed to be present, the bowl is turned up, and
four of the nuts are broken and put in it, two being reserved for the
exclusive use of a priest by them called also "_yarris_." As soon as the
nuts are broken, one of the company begins to shout, and, rushing to the
centre, seizes the bowl, and drinks of the milk of the nut, generally
spilling a considerable part of it upon the ground. After this a few
pieces are thrown to the images, and the remainder are eaten by the
priests. This closes the ceremony; after which they indulge in any
recreations that chance to please them best.
While we were on the island several earthquakes happened, and some of
them pretty severe. On those occasions the natives were much terrified;
they would not let their children speak a word; and they said among
themselves--_zahbee'too Yarris_, _To'bee yettah'men_, that is, Yarris
(God) is coming and To'bee (the name of the island) will sink. They were
also very much alarmed at thunder and lightning; and used to say at such
times, _Yarris tee'tree_, God is talking. I do not know how they would
be affected by an eclipse, as none happened, that I noticed, while we
remained there.
I will here mention some other things in respect to their customs and
usages, as they now occur to me.
Their implements of war are spears and clubs; they have no bows and
arrows. Their spears are made of the wood of the cocoa-nut trees; the
points of them are set with rows of sharks' teeth; and, being at the
same time very heavy and from ten to twenty feet long, are formidable
weapons.
Their canoes are made of logs which drift to their island from other
places, there being no trees on it large enough for that purpose; they
are hollowed out with great labor, and are of very clumsy workmanship;
to prevent their oversetting, they are fitted up with outriggers, like
those of the Pelew islanders. A sketch of one is given in the
accompanying engraving.
They kindle their fires, as they informed me, by rubbing two pieces of
wood together, as is common in the islands of the Pacific ocean; and
they cook their turtle or other meat, (when they are so fortunate as to
have any,) as well as their vegetables, by covering them with heated
stones. I should state, however, that during the whole time we staid
among them, fire was always preserved in some part of the island, so
that there was no necessity for kindling it in the manner here
mentioned.
Like other savage people, they reckon time by moons; I could not learn
that they ever reckoned by any other period, except, indeed, when
speaking of two or three days.
They take pride in their hair, and are particularly careful about it,
washing and cleansing it almost every day. They do not color it,
however, as the natives of some islands are said to do; but they moisten
it with the juice pressed out from the cocoa-nut, which gives it a very
glossy appearance; and it is frequently so long as to reach down to
their waist.
Their mode of salutation is, to clasp each other in their arms, and
touch their noses together, as is practised in many other islands.
We found no musical instruments of any kind among them. They sometimes,
on particular occasions, would sing or bawl out something like a rude
tune; but we could not understand it. We frequently tried to teach them
to whistle, and their awkward attempts to do it amused us; but they
never were able to learn how it was done.
In their names, I could not find that they had any thing like a family
name, but only a single one, (corresponding to our christian names,) as
is the case, I believe, throughout the islands of the Pacific. I could
not learn, that the names were significant either of animals or other
objects, as the Indian names of America are, and I never found any two
persons of the same name. The names of the members of the family with
which I lived were as follows:--
Pahrahboo'ah, the father of the family.
Nah'kit, the mother.
Buhwur'timar, the eldest child, a son, ten or twelve years old.
Kobaw'ut, the second, a daughter.
Kobahnoo'uk, the third, a daughter.
Wah'rebo, the fourth, a son.
The children do not address their parents by any word corresponding to
father or mother, papa or mamma, but by their names. Their parents treat
them on the footing of equality; they are generally well behaved, and
are never punished, except occasionally when impatient for their food.
Their language appears to be different from those of the other islands
in that quarter; we found that the three natives of the Pelew islands,
that accompanied us, could not understand any thing they said; though I
observed afterwards, occasionally, a resemblance in two or three words.
The reader will, however, be enabled to judge for himself, by means of a
short vocabulary of common words which will be found at the end of this
narrative. I may add, that the Pelew chiefs had never heard of Lord
North's island; but they are acquainted with the _Caroline_ islands.
A detail of all that befell us would serve only to give pain to the
benevolent, or at most to show how much human beings can endure. I shall
attempt but little more than to describe the sufferings of a day;
observing once for all, that for the term of two long years we
experienced the same privations, and were subjected to the same brutal
treatment; life, during all that time, being no better than the constant
succession of the most acute sufferings.
This island, unlike the Pelews, is one of the most horrible and wretched
on the face of the globe. The only product of its soil worth mentioning
is the cocoa-tree; and those are of so dwarfish and miserable a growth
as to bear but very few nuts. These few, however, constitute the food of
the inhabitants, with the exception of a species of fish caught
occasionally near the shore. The only animals or creeping things known
on the island are lizards and mice, and, during our stay there, scarcely
a solitary sea-fowl was known to have alighted on the island, and but
few fish were taken by the natives.
The character of the inhabitants much resembles that of the island
itself. Cowardly and servile, yet most barbarous and cruel, they
combine, in their habits, tempers, and dispositions, the most
disgusting and loathsome features that disgrace humanity. And, what may
be regarded as remarkable, the female portion of the inhabitants
outstrip the men in cruelty and savage depravity; so much so, that we
were frequently indebted to the tender mercies of the men for escapes
from death at the hands of the women. The indolence of the natives,
which not even the fear of starvation itself can rouse to exertion,
prevents their undertaking the least toil, although a little labor, well
applied, might be made to render them infinitely more comfortable.[5]
Strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless true, that, notwithstanding
they are in this miserable condition, with no prospect of its ever being
improved, they are of the opinion that they are highly favored. This can
be accounted for in no other way than by the fact, that they are
entirely ignorant of all that lies beyond the narrow limits of their
observation. They know nothing of any other portion of the globe, than
the mere speck of barren land upon which by some accident they were
thrown, and where they remain, to drag out a wretched existence. Their
traditions do not extend further back than to about a hundred years;
and, to their simple minds, it seems like a splendid effort of mind to
be able to relate, with tolerable accuracy, the time-hallowed stories
told them by their parents. Whether they could in any way be improved by
instruction, is a question which it would be difficult to answer. They
seem to be doomed to remain, as one of the last links in the chain that
connects our race with the mere animal part of the creation.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] They occasionally wore a kind of broad hat, called by them _shappo_,
and sometimes _shambararo_; which are evidently derived from the
Portuguese _chapeo_ (or possibly the French _chapeau_) and the Spanish
_sombrero_.--_Edit._
[5] Some of these remarks are taken from the New York Sun of May 30,
1835; for which paper the substance of them was furnished by Mr. Nute
and myself.