FIRST VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. AUGUST 1768 TO JULY 1771.

In the year 1763, on the restoration of peace, the desire to explore

unknown seas and to discover new countries revived among the English,

and was warmly encouraged by King George the Third. Two expeditions

were at once fitted out to circumnavigate the globe--one under Lord

Byron, and the other under Captains Wallis and Carteret; the former

commanding the Dolphin, in which Lord Byron had just returned, the

latter the Swallow. As, however, Captains Wallis and Carteret

accidentally parted company at an early period of their voyage, and kept

different routes, they are generally considered as having led two

separate expeditions.

Before the return of these ships, another expedition was determined on,

the immediate object of which was to observe a transit of Venus which it

had been calculated by astronomers would occur in 1769. It was believed

that one of the Marquesas, or one of the Friendly Islands, called, by

Tasman, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Middleburg, would be an advantageous

spot for making the proposed observation.

The King was memorialised by the Royal Society, and through his

Majesty's intervention the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty

undertook to furnish a suitable vessel and crew to convey the

astronomers and other scientific persons who might be selected to carry

out the proposed objects. The Royal Society had fixed on Mr Alexander

Dalrymple to take the direction of the expedition; but as he was not in

the Royal Navy, Sir Edward Hawke, then at the head of the Admiralty,

would not hear of his being appointed. Mr Dalrymple, on the other

hand, would not consent to go unless he received a brevet commission as

captain. It was necessary, therefore, to find some one else, and Mr

Stephens, the Secretary of the Admiralty, a warm supporter of the

expedition, mentioned Cook to the Board, and suggested that Sir Hugh

Palliser's opinion should be asked respecting him. This, as may be

supposed, was in every respect favourable; and consequently Lieutenant

Cook was directed to hold himself in readiness to take command of the

proposed expedition. Sir Hugh Palliser was requested to select a fit

ship for the purpose, and with Cook's assistance he fixed on a barque of

three hundred and seventy tons, to which the name of the Endeavour was

given. She mounted ten carriage and ten swivel guns; her crew, besides

the commander, consisted of eighty-four persons, and she was provisioned

for eighteen months.

The well-known Sir Joseph Banks, then Mr Banks, one of the chief

promoters of the expedition, volunteered to accompany it. On leaving

Oxford he had visited the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, to obtain

information on scientific subjects. Although he suffered no small

amount of hardship on that occasion, he returned home with unabated zeal

in the cause he had adopted, and ready again to leave all the advantages

which his position afforded him, for the discomfort and dangers of a

long voyage in unknown seas. Mr Banks was, however, more than a

philosopher--he was a large-hearted philanthropist, and he was animated

with the hope of diffusing some of the advantages of civilisation and

Christianity among the people who might be discovered. He engaged, as

naturalist to the expedition, the services of Dr Solander, a Swede by

birth, educated under Linnaeus, from whom he had brought letters of

introduction to England. Mr Banks also, at his own charge, took out a

secretary and two artists--one to make drawings from subjects of natural

history, the other to take sketches of scenery and the portraits of the

natives who might be met with. He had likewise four personal

attendants, two of whom were negroes.

The Government, on its part, appointed Mr Charles Green, who had long

been assistant to Dr Bradley at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, to

assist Lieutenant Cook in the astronomical department of the expedition;

and in every respect the persons engaged in this celebrated expedition

were well fitted to attain the objects contemplated.

While these preparations were going forward, Captain Wallis returned

from his voyage round the world. He expressed his opinion that a

harbour in an island he had discovered, and called King George's Island,

since well-known as Otaheite or Tahiti, was a fit spot for observing the

transit of Venus. That island was accordingly to be the first

destination of the Endeavour. After having accomplished the primary

object of the voyage, the commander was directed to proceed in making

discoveries through the wide extent of the Great Southern Ocean.

Lieutenant Cook received his commission as commander of the Endeavour

(which was then in the basin in Deptford Yard) on May 25, 1768. On the

27th he went on board, and immediately began fitting her for sea. The

work in dockyards was not executed so rapidly in those days as it is

now, and it was upwards of two months before the vessel was ready. On

July 30 she dropped down the river; but it was not till August 15 that

she reached Plymouth. On Friday, August 26, the wind becoming fair, the

Endeavour finally put to sea, and commenced the first of one of the most

memorable series of voyages which have ever been performed by a single

vessel. Next to Commander Cook in authority in the Endeavour were her

two lieutenants--Zachary Hicks and John Gore; her senior mate was

Charles Clerke, who accompanied Cook in each of his subsequent voyages,

and succeeded to the command of the third expedition on the death of his

beloved captain. He had previously served as midshipman under Lord

Byron in his first voyage round the world.

A long sea voyage is almost always felt to be extremely tedious and dull

to landsmen; but every change in the atmosphere, the varied appearance

presented by the sea, the numberless creatures found in it, the birds

which hovered about the ship or pitched on the rigging, all afforded

matter of interest to the enlightened persons on board the Endeavour.

At Madeira the naturalists of the expedition set to work collecting

specimens. The social condition of the people has probably altered

little since those days, though the monasteries, which then existed,

have long since been abolished. The nuns of the convent of Santa Clara

especially amused Mr Banks and his companions by the simplicity of the

questions they put on hearing that they were philosophers. Among

others, they requested them to ascertain by their art whether a spring

of pure water existed within the walls of their convent, and also when

the next thunderstorm would occur.

On leaving Madeira the course was shaped for Rio de Janeiro, which was

reached on November 13. The voyagers were not treated by the viceroy

with the courtesy which might have been expected. The object of the

voyage was utterly beyond the comprehension of that functionary, who

could form no other conception of the matter than that it had something

to do with the passing of the North Star through the South Pole. This

ignorance and suspicion caused the voyagers a great deal of annoyance

during the whole of their stay; though the viceroy could not refuse them

water and other necessaries. When, at length, these were procured, and

the Endeavour was going out of the harbour, she was fired at from the

forts of Santa Cruz. Cook immediately sent on shore to demand the cause

of this act. The excuse offered by the commandant of the port was that

he had received no orders from the viceroy to allow the ship to pass.

It appeared that the letter had been written, but that through neglect

it had not been forwarded. Through the whole of the contest with the

viceroy, Cook behaved with equal spirit and discretion. Among the

remarks which Cook makes in his journal on Brazil, is one on the fearful

expense of life at which the royal gold mines in that country were

worked. No less than forty thousand negroes were annually imported to

labour in the royal mines. In the year 1766, through an epidemic, the

number required falling short, twenty thousand more were drafted from

the town of Rio. A very similar account may be given of the silver and

other mines on the other side of the continent; while the treacherous

system which was organised to supply the demand for labour from among

the inhabitants of the Pacific Islands must be looked on with even

greater horror and indignation than that which existed for supplying

Brazil with slave labour. So strictly were the Brazilian gold mines

guarded, that no stranger was allowed to visit them, and any person

found on the roads leading to them was immediately hanged by the guards

stationed there. Altogether Cook formed a very unfavourable opinion of

the inhabitants of Brazil, though few parts of the tropics surpass it in

beauty of climate, fertility of soil, and power of production.

After a stay of three weeks in the harbour of Rio, the Endeavour put to

sea on December 7, and stood down the coast of South America. On

approaching the latitudes of the Falkland Islands, the crew, complaining

of cold, received what was called a Magellanic jacket, and a pair of

trousers made of a thick woollen stuff called Fearnought. Instead of

going through the Straits of Magellan, as was the custom in those times,

the Endeavour was steered from the Strait of Le Maire between Helen

Island and Tierra del Fuego. On her anchoring in the Bay of Good

Success, several of the party went on shore. Thirty or forty Indians

soon made their appearance, but, distrustful of the strangers, quickly

retreated to a distance. On this, Mr Banks and Dr Solander advanced,

when two of the Indians approached them and sat down. As the Englishmen

drew near, the savages rose and each threw away from him a stick which

he had in his hand, returning immediately to their companions and making

signs to the white men to follow. This they did, and friendly relations

were at once established between the two parties. Three of them were

induced to go on board, and were chiefly remarkable for the entire want

of interest with which they regarded all the novelties by which they

were surrounded. One of them, who was conjectured to be a priest, did

little else than shout all the time he was on board. He was supposed,

by this, to be engaged in the performance of some heathenish

incantation. When these three men were landed, their fellow-savages

showed great eagerness to learn what they had seen in the strange big

canoe, as they would probably have termed the English ship.

On December 16, Mr Banks and Dr Solander, with Mr Green, Mr

Monkhouse the surgeon, and several attendants, landed, with the

intention of ascending a mountain seen in the distance, and penetrating

as far as they could into the country. The atmosphere when they set out

was like that of a warm spring day in England. It being the middle of

summer, the day was one of the longest in the year. Nothing could have

been more favourable for their expedition. They had gone through a

wood, and were about to pass over what at a distance they had taken to

be a plain, but which proved to be a swamp covered thickly with tangled

bushes three feet high. Still they pushed across it, and reached the

mountain, on which Mr Banks and Dr Solander commenced collecting

specimens. Most of the party were greatly fatigued, and Mr Buchan, the

draughtsman, was seized with a fit. He was therefore left with some of

the party while the rest went forward. The weather, however, changed--

the cold became intense, and snow fell very thickly. Dr Solander had

warned his companions not to give way to the sensation of sleepiness

which intense cold produces, yet he was one of the first to propose to

lie down and rest. Mr Banks, however, not without the greatest

difficulty, urged him on, but the two black servants lay down and were

frozen to death, and a seaman who remained with them nearly shared the

same fate. The survivors collected together at night, but their

provisions were exhausted; one or two were very ill, and they were a

long day's journey from the ship. There appeared, indeed, a great

probability that the chief objects of the voyage would be frustrated by

the death of the principal scientific persons engaged in it. After a

night of great anxiety, a vulture they had shot being their only food,

the snow partially cleared off, and they made their way to the beach,

which was not so far distant as they had supposed.

After this disastrous adventure the party again went on shore, and found

a tribe of savages, numbering fifty persons, living in a collection of

conical huts, rudely formed of boughs, and open on the lee side. The

people, who are stout and clumsily formed, had their faces painted, and

were very imperfectly covered with seal-skins. Their chief article of

clothing, indeed, was a small cloak which they wore on the side on which

the wind comes when walking or sitting. They lived chiefly on

shell-fish, and in search of them wandered from place to place. They

were considered as among the most dull and stupid of the human race. No

wonder, indeed, considering the few objects on which their minds could

be expanded. A farther acquaintance with these tribes has shown that

they have minds as capable of receiving good impressions as other human

beings, and that they are not destitute of a considerable amount of

intelligence.

The Endeavour took her departure from Cape Horn on January 26, 1769.

She ran for seven hundred leagues without land being seen. After that

she passed several coral islands, the appearance of which is now

familiar to most people, but in those days was but little-known. To

three of them the names of Lagoon Island, Bow Island, and Chain Island

were given; several of them were inhabited.

On April 11 she sighted Otaheite, [now known as Tahiti] called King

George's Island by Captain Wallis, which appeared high and mountainous,

and on the 13th came to an anchor in Matavai Bay. As she approached the

land numerous canoes came off, their crews carrying young plantains and

other green branches as a sign of friendship. Several of the boughs

were handed on board, and it was intimated that they should be placed in

different parts of the ship to show that the voyagers also wished for

peace. The natives exhibited great satisfaction on this being done.

They gladly exchanged cocoanuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit,

and small fish, for beads and other trifles. They had a pig, which they

would not part with for anything but a hatchet; this Cook would not

allow to be given, considering that if a hatchet was given them it would

be considered from that time forward to be the proper price of a pig.

The bread-fruit, with which the voyagers now first became acquainted,

grows on a tree about the height of an ordinary oak. Its leaves are

about a foot and a half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like

those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in consistency and colour;

they also, on being broken, exude a white, milky juice. The fruit is

about the size and shape of a child's head, and the surface is

reticulated. It is covered with a thin skin, and has an oblong core

four inches long. The eatable part, which lies between the skin and the

core, is as white as snow, and of the consistency of new bread. It must

be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four

parts. Its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness somewhat

resembling the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke.

The first person who came off was Owhaw. He was well-known to Mr Gore,

and to others who had been there with Captain Wallis. It was hoped that

he would prove useful, and he was therefore taken on board and every

attention shown him. Captain Cook at once issued a set of rules to

govern the ship's company in all their intercourse with the natives.

They were as follows:--

"1. To endeavour by every fair means to cultivate a friendship with the

natives; and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.

"2. A proper person or persons will be appointed to trade with the

natives for all manner of provisions, fruit, and other productions of

the earth; and no officer or seaman, or other person belonging to the

ship, excepting such as are so appointed, shall trade or offer to trade

for any sort of provision, fruit, or other productions of the earth,

unless they have leave so to do.

"3. Every person employed on shore, on any duty whatsoever, is strictly

to attend to the same; and if by any neglect he loses any of his arms or

working tools, or suffers them to be stolen, the full value thereof will

be charged against his pay, according to the custom of the Navy in such

cases; and he shall receive such further punishment as the nature of the

case may deserve.

"4. The same penalty will be inflicted on every person who is found to

embezzle, trade, or offer to trade with any part of the ship's stores of

what nature soever.

"5. No sort of iron, or anything that is made of iron, or any sort of

cloth, or other useful or necessary articles are to be given in exchange

for anything but provisions."

Though there can be no doubt as to Captain Cook's own feelings and

wishes, his subordinates did not always act in accordance with them; and

his judicious and benevolent designs with regard to the natives were

thus frequently frustrated. As soon as the ship was secured, he, with

Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and a party of men under arms, went on shore,

where they were received by hundreds of the natives, whose countenances

exhibited their friendly feelings. At first, however, the simple people

were so struck with awe that they approached their visitors crouching

down almost on their hands and feet, while they carried in their hands

the green boughs as emblems of peace. The leader presented Captain Cook

with a bough, which he and his companions received with looks and

gestures of kindness and satisfaction. Each of the Englishmen also

immediately gathered a bough, and carried it in the same way the natives

did theirs. The party then proceeded about a mile and a half towards

the place where Captain Wallis' ship, the Dolphin, had watered. Here a

halt was called, and the natives having cleared away all the plants that

grew on the ground, the principal persons among them threw their green

branches on the bare spot, and made signs that their visitors should do

the same. Captain Cook at once yielded to this request. The marines

being drawn up, each as he passed dropped his bough on those of the

Indians, the officers then doing the same. The natives now intimated to

Captain Cook that he might make use of the ground for any purpose he

desired; but as it was not suitable for the purpose of the expedition,

the offer was declined.

The party now took a circuitous route of four or five miles through

groves of trees which were loaded with cocoanuts and bread-fruit, and

afforded the most grateful shade. Under these trees were the

habitations of the people, most of them in the daytime presenting the

appearance of a roof without walls. Mats at night were let down to

afford such privacy and shelter as the habits of the people and the

genial climate required. The whole scene seemed to realise to the

voyagers the poetical fables of Arcadia.

The reception Captain Wallis met with from these people was in the first

instance very different from that which Captain Cook and his companions

now received. No sooner did the Dolphin, which the savages called a

huge canoe without an outrigger, appear, than several thousand people,

in canoes laden with stones, came off and attacked her. Not until they

had been repeatedly fired on, and many of their number had been killed,

did they retire. Several shots were fired at the crowds on shore before

they would disperse. The people then saw that it would be hopeless to

contend with the strangers, and with green boughs in their hands sued

for peace. After this, Captain Wallis was treated with great attention,

especially by a female chief, whom he called a queen or princess, and

who lived in a house much larger than any others in the neighbourhood.

On Captain Cook's arrival, no trace of her house was to be found, and

the princess herself had disappeared. Indeed, the voyagers were

convinced that as yet they had seen none of the leading chiefs of the

island. The next day, however, two persons of greater consequence than

any who had yet appeared came off, called Matahah and Tootahah; the

first fixing on Mr Banks as his friend, and the latter on Captain Cook.

The ceremony consisted in the natives taking off a great part of their

clothing, and putting on that of their white friends. A similar

ceremony exists among some of the tribes of North America. The dress of

the natives was formed from cloth made of the bark of the paper-mulberry

tree.

Captain Cook, Mr Banks, and others accompanied these chiefs on shore,

where they met another chief, Tubourai Tamaide, and formed a treaty of

friendship with him. He invited them to his house, and gave them a

feast of fish, bread-fruit, cocoanuts, and plantains, dressed after the

native fashion. The natives ate some of the fish raw, a feat the

Englishmen could not accomplish. The general harmony was interrupted by

Dr Solander and Mr Monkhouse finding that their pockets had been

picked, the one of an opera glass, the other of his snuff-box. Mr

Banks on this started up and struck the butt end of his musket violently

on the ground. On this, most of the people ran away, but the chief

remained. To show his concern, and that he had nothing to do with the

theft, he offered Mr Banks several pieces of native cloth as a

compensation. When Mr Banks refused it, and let him understand that he

required only what had been taken away, the chief went out, and in half

an hour returned with the snuff-box and the case of the opera glass.

His countenance fell when he found the case empty, and taking Mr Banks

by the hand, he led him out towards the shore at a rapid rate. On the

way, followed by Dr Solander and Mr Monkhouse, he passed a woman, who

handed him a piece of cloth, which he took, and went on till he reached

another house, where a woman received them. He intimated that they

should give her some beads. These with the cloth were placed on the

floor, when the woman went out, and in half an hour returned with the

glass. The beads were now returned, and the cloth was forced on Dr

Solander, who could not well refuse it, though he insisted on giving a

present in return. This, among other instances, shows that the people

had a sense of justice, and were raised above the savage state in which

the inhabitants of many of the surrounding islands were plunged.

A spot was at last fixed on, away from habitations, where the

astronomical instruments could be set up, protected by a fort; and on

the 10th, Captain Cook, accompanied by Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and Mr

Green, went on shore with a party of men to commence operations. A

number of natives, on seeing them, collected to watch their proceedings;

though they had no weapons, it was intimated to them that they must not

cross a line which the captain drew in front of the ground it was

proposed to occupy. Having taken all the precautions he considered

necessary, he left a midshipman and a party of marines to guard the

tent, and, with Mr Banks and the other gentlemen, set off on an

excursion through the woods, accompanied by Owhaw, who, however, seemed

very unwilling that they should go far from the shore. One of their

objects was to obtain poultry and pigs. Owhaw's unwillingness to

proceed arose, they believed, from the fact that their live-stock had

been driven into the interior by the natives lest their white visitors

should lay violent hands on them.

As fresh meat or poultry was much wanted, Mr Banks, seeing some ducks,

fired and killed three at one shot, which so astonished the natives that

most of them fell flat on the ground as if knocked down by the same

discharge. They soon recovered, however, and proceeded with the white

men. The Englishmen were walking somewhat apart, when, shortly after

the above-mentioned incident, two shots were heard. Owhaw, on this,

seemed to think, as the visitors did, that something was wrong, and

signing to them to keep together, sent most of the natives away. Three

chiefs, however, remained, who instantly broke off green boughs from the

nearest trees, and extended them towards the English, to show that they

wished to be on terms of friendship, whatever had happened. The

Englishmen, of course, full of anxiety, hurried back to the tent. On

their arrival they found that the natives had fled, and that one of them

had been killed. It appeared that a native had suddenly seized the

sentry's musket and made off with it, when the midshipman, most

improperly, ordered the marines to fire. This they did, into the very

middle of the flying crowd; but finding that the thief did not fall,

they pursued and shot him dead. It is easy to fancy Captain Cook's

grief and annoyance at this incident. In spite of his humane desire to

treat the natives justly and kindly, and to cultivate their goodwill,

and notwithstanding all his precautions against violence, blood had been

shed. Though the native had acted wrongly, death was too severe a

punishment for his fault. The chiefs who had remained with Cook behaved

very well. Calling the people around, they enabled him to explain to

them that though the English would allow no liberties to be taken, yet

their desire was to treat them with kindness.

Notwithstanding these assurances, the next morning very few natives came

near the ship, and she was consequently warped closer in, more

effectually to protect the intended fort. Before long, however, the

natives got over their alarm, and the two chiefs Tubourai Tamaide and

Tootahah returned, bringing in their canoes not branches only, but two

young trees, and would not venture on board till these had been received

as emblems of peace. They each also brought, as propitiatory gifts, a

hog and bread-fruit ready dressed--both very acceptable articles at that

time. In return, a hatchet and a nail were given to each of them.

At this time the expedition had the misfortune to lose Mr Buchan, the

landscape-painter brought out by Mr Banks.

Rapid progress was made with the forts, and on April 18, Mr Banks's

tent being set up, he slept on shore for the first time. The natives

had by this time completely recovered from their alarm, and an abundance

of provisions was offered for sale. Their friend Tubourai Tamaide even

brought his wife and family to the fort, and did not hesitate to throw

himself down and sleep on Mr Banks's bed. The voyagers were gradually

gaining an insight into the manners and customs of the people. Mr

Monkhouse, in one of his walks, learned their mode of treating their

dead. He found the body of the poor man who had been shot. It was

wrapped in cloth, and placed on a high platform supported by stakes,

with a roof over it; near it were some instruments of war and other

articles. Two other bodies were seen near, in a similar position, the

bones of which were perfectly dry. The first was near the hut in which

the man had lived. On the approach of the white man to the bodies the

natives showed considerable uneasiness, and seemed greatly relieved when

the examination was over.

A few days afterwards Tootahah amused them by a concert. There were

four performers on flutes having two stops, which were sounded by

application to the end of the nose, instead of the mouth; one nostril

being stopped by the hand.

Longer excursions from the shore than they had at first ventured to take

gave the explorers a good notion of the fertility and resources of the

country. After passing a belt of fertile land, about two miles wide,

they came to a range of barren hills. These being crossed, they

descended into a wide plain, watered by a river issuing from a fertile

valley, which was nearly a hundred yards wide, and at a considerable

distance from the sea.

This plain was thickly studded over with houses, the inhabitants of

which seemed to live in the full enjoyment of the ample productions of

their country. As they became better acquainted with the people, it was

discovered that, amiable as the people appeared, they had many vicious

habits. They were generally expert and pertinacious thieves, although

some of the chiefs appear to have been exempt from this vice, or to have

been ashamed of practising it on their liberal visitors.

The fort was completed on April 26, and six swivel guns were mounted on

it. This seemed very naturally to excite the apprehensions of the

people, and some fishermen who lived near wisely moved farther off.

Owhaw, indeed, intimated by signs that the English would begin to fire

their guns in four days. Notwithstanding this, Tubourai Tamaide and

other chiefs, with their wives, came into the fort and ate without

showing any signs of fear. Again the commander's patience was tried by

the misconduct of one of his own people. The butcher had taken a fancy

to a stone hatchet in the hands of the wife of the above-named chief,

and because she refused to give it to him for a nail, he threatened to

kill her. Being proved guilty of this crime, as well as of an

infraction of the rules drawn up by the commander, he received a severe

flogging, in the presence of a number of the natives. It speaks well

for their kind feelings that when they saw the first strokes given they

begged that the rest of his punishment might be remitted, and when

Captain Cook would not consent to this they burst into tears. Indeed,

numberless instances proved that these people were mere children of

impulse. They had never been taught to disguise or suppress their

feelings; easily affected by all the changes of the passing hour, their

sorrows were transient, and their joy and pleasure speedily excited.

Unaccustomed to dwell on the past, or to allow themselves to be troubled

with thoughts of the future, all they desired was to gratify the desire

of the moment. About this time--the beginning of May--an event occurred

which threatened disappointment to the object of the expedition. This

was the disappearance, from the middle of the fort, of the quadrant, a

large instrument in a case, on which the possibility of making the

proposed observations entirely depended. Search was instantly made in

every direction, and at length, through the intervention of the friendly

chiefs, portions were discovered in the possession of the natives. They

had been carried off by different people, but fortunately, not broken,

and finally all the parts were collected and the instruments set up. At

the suggestion of the Earl of Morton, before leaving home, Captain Cook

sent out two parties to observe the transit of Venus from different

situations--one to the east, the other to the westward. The anxiety for

such weather as would be favourable to the success of the experiment was

powerfully felt by all parties concerned; they could not sleep the

preceding night; but their apprehensions were removed by the sun's

rising without a cloud on the eventful morning of June 3. The weather

continued with equal clearness throughout the day, so that the

observations at each post were successfully made. At the fort Captain

Cook, Mr Green, and Dr Solander were stationed. The passage of the

planet Venus over the sun's disc was observed with great advantage.

The explorers had been, from the first, anxious to see the person who

had been looked upon by Captain Wallis as the queen of the island, and

at length, a number of people being collected at the tents, Mr

Mollineux, the master, declared that one of the females, who was sitting

quietly among the rest, was the lady herself. She, at the same time,

acknowledged him to be one of the strangers she had before seen. Her

name, they soon learned, was Oberea. She was tall and stout, and must

have been handsome in her youth. Her countenance indicated much

intelligence, and she was also unusually fair. She was thenceforth

treated with great attention, and many presents were offered her. It

was curious that among them all she seemed to value most a child's doll.

On this, Tootahah, who was apparently at that time the principal chief

on the island, jealous of the favours shown to Oberea, was not content

till he also had a doll given to him. For the moment he valued it more

than a hatchet, probably supposing that its possession conferred some

mark of dignity; or perhaps he took it for one of the gods of the white

men. Whatever the position really held by Oberea, her moral conduct was

not superior to that of most of her countrywomen. She seems to have

been the repudiated wife of Oamo, one of the principal chiefs of the

island. There appeared to have been three brothers, chiefs--Whappai,

the eldest, Oamo, and Tootahah. As soon as a son is born to a head

chief, he succeeds as king, and generally the father becomes regent.

Whappai had a son who was thus king, but Tootahah, having distinguished

himself as a leader in battle, was chosen as regent instead of Whappai,

and a son of Oamo and Oberea was the heir-apparent. It was thus

manifest to our voyagers that even among those simple savages--"the

children of nature" as they were sometimes called--ambition for

greatness and jealousy of power were passions not unknown nor unfelt,

any more than they are among civilised and highly cultivated nations and

races of men.

Among the attendants of Oberea was Tupia, who had been her minister in

the days of her power, and was now a priest, and possessed of

considerable influence. He from the first attached himself to the

English, and soon expressed a strong desire to accompany them whenever

they should leave the country. As it was very important to have an

intelligent native of a South Sea island attached to the expedition,

Captain Cook gladly availed himself of this desire, and Tupia was

subsequently received on board the Endeavour as interpreter.

During his first visit to the island, Captain Cook learned very little

about the religion of the people. He came to the conclusion that they

believed in one God or Creator of the universe, and in a number of

subordinate deities, called Etuas, as also in a separate state of

existence with different degrees of happiness. They did not seem to

fancy that their deities took any notice of their actions. Their

religion, such as it was, had therefore no restraining influence over

them. Their priests were called Tahowas. The office was hereditary.

All ranks belonged to it. The chief priest was generally the younger

brother of a good family, and was respected in a degree next to the

king. Of the little knowledge existing in the country the priests

possessed the greatest share, especially with regard to navigation and

astronomy. The name Tahowa signifies, indeed, a man of knowledge. Like

all heathen superstitions, their system was one of imposture; and the

priests supported their authority by cunning, and by working on the

credulity of the people. Captain Cook was not aware at that time that

it was their custom to offer up human sacrifices, and that they

exercised a fearful influence over the people by selecting for victims

those who had in any way offended them. The persons fixed on, often

young men or girls in the pride and strength of youth, were followed,

unsuspicious of the fate awaiting them, and were struck down by the

clubs of the assistant priests without warning. They were then offered

up at their morais to the Etuas, whose anger they desired to propitiate.

The priests professed also to cure diseases by incantations very

similar to those practised by the medicine-men or mystery-men among the

Indians of North America. A society existed, called the Arreoy, the

object of which was to set at defiance all the laws of morality which

the rest of the people acknowledged. Many of the principal people of

the island belonged to it. By its rules any woman becoming a mother was

compelled instantly to strangle her infant. Both Captain Cook and Mr

Banks spoke to some who acknowledged that they had thus destroyed

several children, and, far from considering it as a disgrace, declared

that it was a privilege to belong to the association. For a long period

this dissolute society existed, and opposed all the efforts of the

Christian missionaries to get it abolished. From the lowest to the

highest, the people were addicted to thieving; for even the principal

chiefs could not resist temptation when it came in their way. On one of

their expeditions Mr Banks and his companions had the greater part of

their clothes stolen from them while they were asleep. They had no

doubt that Oberea was concerned in the robbery.

Still the people possessed qualities which won the regard of their

visitors. In all their habits they were scrupulously clean. They

regularly bathed three times in the day, washed their mouths before and

after eating, and their hands frequently during each meal. It was the

custom for the chiefs to take their meals alone, seated on the ground,

with leaves instead of a cloth spread before them, and their food ready

cooked in a basket by their side. Their chief animal food consisted of

pigs and dogs, the latter being carefully kept for the purpose, and fed

entirely on vegetable diet. It was agreed that South Sea dog was but

little inferior to English lamb. The meat was either broiled or baked

in earth-ovens. A hole was dug in the ground, and a fire lighted in it,

small stones being mixed with the wood. When the hole was sufficiently

hot, the fire was raked out, and a layer of hot stones placed at the

bottom; on this leaves were put. The animal to be cooked was laid on

the top of them, and covered, first with more leaves, and then with the

remainder of the hot stones; the whole being then covered up with earth.

All the fish and flesh eaten by the natives was baked in the same way.

An excursion in the pinnace, made by Captain Cook and Mr Banks, round

the island, gave them a perfect knowledge of its shape and size. It

consists of two peninsulas joined by a narrow neck of land, and was

found to be about thirty leagues in circumference. Though they were

received in a very friendly way, the natives stole their clothes or

whatever they could lay hands on. On this excursion they met with a

representation of one of their Etuas, or deities. It was the figure of

a man constructed of basket-work, rudely made, and rather more than

seven feet high. The wicker skeleton was completely covered with

feathers, which were white where the skin was to appear, and black in

the parts which it is their custom to paint or stain. On the head was a

representation of hair; there were also four protuberances, three in

front and one behind, which the English would have called horns, but

which were called by the natives Tate Ete (little men).

In the northern peninsula they visited a burying-place, the pavement of

which was extremely neat; upon it was raised a pyramid five feet high,

covered with the fruit of two plants peculiar to the country. Near the

pyramid, under a shed, was a small image of stone, of very rude

workmanship--the first specimen of stone-carving which had been seen

among the people. Continuing their voyage, they came to a district

belonging to Oberea, and were entertained at her house, which, though

small, was very neat. Not far from it they saw an enormous pile, which

they were told was the morai of Oamo and Oberea, literally their

burying-place and temple. It was a pile of stone-work, raised

pyramidically upon an oblong base or square two hundred and sixty-seven

feet long and eighty-seven wide. It was like the small mounds erected

for sun-dials, with steps leading on all sides to the summit. The steps

at the sides were broader than those at the ends, and it terminated in a

ridge like the roof of a house. There were eleven steps, each four feet

high, so that the height of the pile was forty-four feet; each course

was formed of white coral stone, neatly squared and polished; the rest

of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of round pebbles.

Some of the coral stones were measured, and found to be three feet and

a half by two feet and a half. The foundation was of stones squared,

and one of them measured four feet seven inches by two feet four inches.

It was surprising that such a structure should have been raised without

iron tools to shape the stones, or mortar to join them. The quarried

stones must have been brought from a considerable distance by hand, and

the coral must have been raised from under the water, where, though

there is an abundance, it is at a depth of never less than three feet.

To square these stones must have been a work of incredible labour,

though the polishing might have been more easily effected by means of

the sharp coral sand from the sea-shore. The whole pyramid was not

straight, but formed a slight curve, and made one side of a spacious

area or square of three hundred and sixty feet by three hundred and

fifty-four feet, enclosed by a stone wall, and paved throughout its

whole extent with flat stones. Several trees, called _etoa_ and

plantains, were growing through the pavement. On the top of the pyramid

stood the figure of a bird carved in wood, and near it lay the broken

figure of a fish carved in stone. About a hundred yards to the west of

this building was another paved court, in which were several small

stages raised on wooden pillars seven feet high. These were altars,

called Ewattas, and upon them were placed provisions of all sorts as

offerings to their gods. In the neighbourhood of the morai were found

large numbers of human bones. These were said to have been the remains

of the inhabitants killed a few months before by the people of Tirrabou,

in the south-east peninsula, who had made a sudden descent on the coast.

The jaw-bones had been carried away as trophies, as the Indians of

North America carry off the scalps of their enemies. The natives

conjectured, probably, that the English would not approve of human

sacrifices, and therefore refrained from offering up any, or did so only

when they knew that their visitors would not interrupt them in their

horrible proceedings.

The inhabitants of Otaheite were remarkably intelligent, and their minds

were capable of a high state of cultivation. The climate was considered

healthy, and the natural productions of the island abundant. The

bread-fruit was, perhaps, the most valuable. They had also cocoanuts,

thirteen sorts of bananas, plantains; a fruit not unlike an apple, sweet

potatoes, yams, cacao; a kind of _arum_, the _yambu_, the sugar-cane; a

fruit growing in a pod, like a large kidney bean; the pandana tree,

which produces fruit like the pine-apple, and numerous edible roots of

nutritious quality. Among other trees must be mentioned the Chinese

paper-mulberry, from which their cloth was, and is still, manufactured,

and two species of fig-trees. There were no serpents and no wild

quadrupeds on the island, except rats. Their tame animals were hogs,

dogs, and poultry, and there were wild ducks, pigeons, paroquets, and a

few other birds. The complexion of the people was olive or light brown;

that of the women of the upper classes being very clear, with

well-formed faces and expressive eyes, the nose only being flatter than

is admired in Europe. In their persons, as already observed, they were

remarkably cleanly; and they certainly showed that they were neither

treacherous nor revengeful. Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and Captain Cook

himself, were constantly in their power, often in their villages,

sleeping in separate huts, without any watch or guard.

Contrary to the usual custom, the men wore their hair long or tied up in

a bunch, while the women wore it cropped short round their ears. The

bodies of both sexes were tattooed, but not their faces. They

manufactured three sorts of cloth for dress. The finest and whitest was

made from the paper-mulberry tree, and was used for the dresses of the

chief people. The second, used by the common people, was made from the

bread-fruit tree, and the third from a tree resembling a fig-tree. The

latter was coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown

paper; but it was valuable because it resisted the wet, while the others

did not. The women of the upper class wore three pieces of cloth; one,

eleven yards long and two wide, was wrapped round the waist, and hung

down like a petticoat; while the two others were formed like the South

American poncho, the head being put through a hole in the middle, so as

to leave the arms at liberty. The men dressed in much the same way,

except that instead of allowing the cloth to hang down like a petticoat,

they brought it between their legs so as to have some resemblance to

breeches. The higher a person's rank, the more clothes he wore, some

throwing a large piece loosely over the shoulders. They shaded their

eyes from the sun with hats made at the moment required, of cocoanut

leaves or matting, and the women sometimes wore small turbans, or a

head-dress which consisted of long plaited threads of human hair, wound

round and round, with flowers of various kinds stuck between the folds,

especially the Cape jessamine, which was always planted near their

houses. The chiefs sometimes wore the tail feathers of birds stuck

upright in their hair. Their personal ornaments besides flowers were

few; but both sexes wore ear-rings of shells, stones, berries, or small

pearls.

Their houses were always built in woods, sufficient space only being

cleared to prevent the droppings from the boughs from rotting the roofs.

They were simply formed of three rows of parallel stakes for the

support of the roof, the highest part of which was only nine feet from

the ground, while the eaves reached to within three feet and a half.

The houses were thatched with palm-leaves, and the floor was covered

some inches deep with soft hay. They were, indeed, scarcely used for

any other purpose than as dormitories, the people living almost

constantly in the open air. The great chiefs, however, had houses in

which privacy could be enjoyed; and there were guest-houses for the

reception of visitors, or for the accommodation of the people of a whole

district. Some were two hundred feet long, thirty broad, and twenty

high under the ridge; on one side of them was an area enclosed with low

palings. They were maintained at the public expense.

The style of cookery among these islanders has already been described.

They baked in their earth-ovens hogs and large fish, as also the

bread-fruit. The baked pork and fish were considered more juicy and

more equally done than by any mode of cooking known at home. Of the

bread-fruit they made various dishes, by putting to it either water or

the milk of the cocoanut, and then beating it to a paste with a stone

pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains and bananas. They

made an intoxicating beverage from a plant they called _Ava_. The

chiefs only indulged in the vice of drinking to excess, and even they

considered it a disgrace to be seen intoxicated. They sometimes drank

together, and vied with each other in taking the greatest number of

draughts, each draught being about a pint. They ate a prodigious

quantity of food at each meal, and would finish off by swallowing a

quart of pounded bread-fruit of the consistency of custard.

They had various amusements, and were especially fond of dancing, in

which they kept admirable time, their movements being often graceful;

but their gestures too generally showed the very debased condition of

their morals. Their musical instruments were flutes and drums. The

flutes were made of hollow bamboo, about a foot long. The drums were

blocks of wood of cylindrical form, solid at one end, but scooped out

and covered at the other with shark's skin. They were beaten by the

hands instead of sticks. The natives sang to these instruments, and

often made extempore verses.

The men delighted especially in wrestling. They also practised archery

and spear-throwing. They shot, not at a mark, but to try how far they

could send an arrow; their spears, however, they threw at a mark,

generally the bole of a plantain, at the distance of twenty yards.

These spears were about nine feet long. They also, in war, used clubs

of hard wood, often well carved, and six or seven feet long; pikes,

headed with the stings of sting-rays; and slings, which they wielded

with great dexterity. Thus armed, they fought with obstinacy and fury,

and gave no quarter to man, woman, or child who, while their passion

lasted, fell into their hands. Although they could not be said to live

under a regular form of government, there was a certain subordination

established among them, not unlike that of European nations under the

feudal system.

Their tools were few and rude: 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 sting of a sting-ray, with coral sand as a file or

polisher. With these tools they built their houses and canoes, hewed

stone, and felled, clove, carved, and polished timber. Their axes were

of different sizes, but even with the largest it took them several days

to cut down a tree. The canoes were often large, and constructed with

great labour and ingenuity. They were of two builds: one, the _Ivaha_,

for short excursions, was wall-sided, with a flat bottom; the other, the

_Pahie_, for longer voyages, was bow-sided, with a sharp bottom. There

was the fighting Ivaha, the fishing Ivaha, and the travelling Ivaha.

The fighting Ivaha was the largest; the head and stern were raised

sometimes seventeen feet or more above the sides, which were only three

feet out of the water. Two of these vessels were always secured

together by strong poles about three feet apart. Towards the head a

platform was raised, about twelve feet long, wider than the boats, and

on this platform stood the fighting men, armed with slings and spears;

for they did not use their bows and arrows except for amusement. Below

the stage the rowers sat with reserved men, who supplied the place of

those that were wounded. Some of their war canoes had stages or decks

from one end to the other. The fighting Pahie was often sixty feet

long, and two were also joined together, with a large platform above

them. One measured by Captain Cook was, though sixty feet long, only

one foot and a half at the gunwale, with flat sides; then it abruptly

widened out to three feet, and narrowed again to the keel. The double

canoes were sometimes out a month together, going from island to island.

Some carried one, some two masts, with sails of matting, of

shoulder-of-mutton shape. The bottom of a large Pahie was formed of

three or more trunks of trees secured together and hollowed out, above

this flooring were the sides of plank, two inches thick, and about

fifteen inches broad; and then there were the upper works, hollowed out

of trunks of trees like the bottom. Sometimes these canoes were used

singly, but then they were fitted with outriggers like the flying Proa

of the Ladrone Islands. The outrigger is a log of wood fixed at the end

of two poles, which lie across the vessel, projecting eight or ten feet,

according to her size. The length and high sterns of these canoes gave

them great advantage in putting off from the shore through the surf;

they also sailed and paddled very fast. The amount of time and labour

expended in the construction of one of these canoes must have been very

great, and speaks well for the intelligence as well as for the industry

and perseverance of the islanders.

Before quitting the island, Mr Banks planted a quantity of seeds of

water-melons, oranges, lemons, limes, and other plants and trees which

he had collected at Rio de Janeiro. He had prepared the ground for them

in the neighbourhood of the fort, in as many varieties of soil as he

could select. He also gave away seeds liberally to the natives, and

planted others in the woods. The plants from some melon-seeds which

were sown on their first arrival were flourishing, and the natives

eagerly begged for more.

Many articles manufactured by the natives have not yet been described.

The mode of making cloth from the bark of the paper-mulberry was

curious. When the trees were of a fit size, they were pulled up, and

the tops and roots being cut off, the bark was slit longitudinally, and

was this easily removed. It was then placed under stones in running

water. When sufficiently softened, the coarser parts were scraped away

with a shell, the fine fibres of the inner coat only remaining. They

were then placed on plantain-leaves, in lengths of about twelve yards,

one by the side of the other, for about a foot in width. Two or three

layers were also placed one on the other, care being taken that the

thickness should be equal throughout. In this state it remained till

the following morning, when all the water it contained being drained off

or evaporated, the fibres were found to adhere so closely together that

the whole piece could be lifted up and carried home. There it was

placed on a long, smooth board, to be beaten by the women. The

instrument they used was a four-sided piece of wood, with a long handle.

This mallet was scored with grooves of different finenesses, those on

one side being wide enough to receive a small pack-thread, the size of

the grooves diminishing by degrees till those on the last side were fine

as the finest silk. The fabric was beaten with the coarser side first,

the women keeping time, and it spread rapidly under their strokes. The

finest side was the last used, and the groove marked the cloth so as to

give it the appearance of having been made of fine thread. It was then

almost as thin as English muslin, and became very white on being

bleached in the air. The scarlet dye used was very brilliant, and was

extracted from the juice of a species of fig; a duller red was from the

leaves of another tree. A yellow pigment was extracted from the root of

the _Morinda citrifolia_. A brown and a black dye were also used.

The natives, when visited by Cook, manufactured mats of various

descriptions, some of them exceedingly fine and beautiful. One sort

served them for clothing in wet weather. They made also coarse mats of

rushes and grass, to sit or sleep on, plaiting them with great rapidity

and facility. They produced every variety of basket-work of great

beauty; they also made ropes and string of all sorts; their

fishing-line, made from the bark of a species of nettle, was far

stronger than any English line of the same thickness. Their

fishing-nets, though coarse, answered their purpose. They were often

eighty fathoms in length. Harpoons, made of cane, were used to catch

fish, and fish-hooks of mother-of-pearl. One used for trawling had a

white tuft of dog's or hog's hair attached to it, to look like the tail

of a fish. The fishermen watched for the birds which always follow a

shoal of bonetas, and seldom returned without a prize. Both sexes were

expert swimmers, and would dash out through the fiercest foam, diving

under the breaking seas as they rolled in, and coming up on the other

side. One of their amusements was to tow out a small raft on which they

would sit, and allow themselves to be carried in on the top of a high

foaming sea, amid which no boat could live for an instant. They were

not without the comfort of artificial light. Their candles were made of

the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which were stuck one over another on

a skewer running through the middle. The upper one being lighted burnt

down to the second, which took fire, the part of the skewer which went

through the first being consumed, and so on to the last. These candles

burnt a considerable time, and gave a very tolerable light.

From the brief description which has been given of their manufactures it

will be seen that the islanders of Otaheite possessed a considerable

number of the conveniences of life. Had they but been blessed with true

religion and a good government, they would already have had most of the

elements of a happy existence, without further intercourse with the rest

of the world.

That a life such as was apparently led by these South Sea islanders--a

life of comparative ease, and in a luxurious and enervating but inviting

climate--should have presented charms to such men as chiefly composed

the crew of the Endeavour, can excite no surprise. Rude, ignorant, and,

for the most part, vicious themselves, in spite of the boasted

civilisation of their country, they saw nothing repulsive in the

rudeness, ignorance, and vices of the dusky natives. On the other hand,

they were attracted by visions of indolence and savage freedom from

care. Some of them also had formed attachments not easy to be broken;

and they were willing to barter their distant homes, connections, and

prospects for the licentious pleasures so near at hand. It was very

difficult for them to resist these enticements; and notwithstanding the

vigilance of the commander of the expedition, two marines managed to

desert from the ship. In order to recover these deserters, Captain Cook

thought himself under the necessity of detaining several of the

principal people of the island on board the Endeavour. This led to

reprisals; for on a party being sent on shore to bring off the

deserters, they were, in turn, seized by the natives, who made it

understood that they should not be restored till their chiefs were set

at liberty. A stronger party was consequently sent from the ship, with

a message from Tootahah (one of the captives), desiring that the

Englishmen should be released. This, happily, had the desired effect,

and the deserters, as well as the other men, were immediately sent back.

Thus, in this, as in previous transactions, the prudence and mildness

of the islanders averted a quarrel which, had it proceeded to

extremities, would have left the civilised visitors little to boast of,

beyond the superior power they possessed. And it must be a source of

deep regret to every Christian reader that in the protracted intercourse

which had been carried on between these professed Christians on the one

hand, and the poor heathens on the other, not one attempt, so far as is

known, had been made to impart a knowledge of that glorious Being who is

the "Light of the world" and "the Saviour of men;" nor of God the Holy

Spirit, who is the Giver of the only true and eternal life. The

scientific objects of the voyage had, indeed, thus far been successful,

and, to a great extent, had been rendered so by the goodwill of the

islanders; but to the silent appeal for religious teaching and spiritual

aid made to the philosophers of that party by the ignorance of their

hosts there was no reply.

The fort was now completely dismantled, and preparations were made for

sailing. At a last interview with the chiefs, all differences were

settled, and the voyagers parted from the islanders on the most friendly

terms. The latter, indeed, were loud in their demonstrations of grief.

Tupia, who still adhered to his determination of sailing in the

Endeavour, though he shed tears, bade farewell to his countrymen in a

dignified manner, and as far as he was able, concealed the sorrow he

evidently felt. The Endeavour had remained exactly three months at the

island. It was high time for her to leave; for the season for cocoanuts

and bread-fruit being over, the natives could no longer spare any of

their provisions for the strangers. Tupia, who had gone on shore,

returned again on board with his servant, a lad of thirteen, called

Tayeto, and on July 13, 1769, the Endeavour sailed from Otaheite to

continue her voyage towards the west.

Tupia informed Captain Cook that four islands, called Huaheine, Ulietea,

Otaha, and Bolabola, lay at the distance of between one and two days'

sail of Otaheite, and that refreshments in abundance might be procured

at them. In consequence, however, of light winds, the Endeavour did not

get off Huaheine till the morning of the 16th. Tupia probably fancied

that he could impose on the white men as he did on his own people, for

in his character of priest he began to offer prayers, or rather to

perform incantations, as soon as he saw the prospect of a breeze

springing up.

Upon the ship's getting close in with the land, several canoes came off,

but kept at a distance till they discovered Tupia. In one of them were

Oree, king of the island, and his wife. On receiving reiterated

assurances that they would be treated as friends, they ventured on

board. Though at first struck with astonishment at what they saw, they

soon became familiar with their visitors, and the king expressed his

wish to change names with the captain, who was henceforth called Captain

Oree, while the chief took the name of King Cookee. The ship having

anchored in a small, excellent harbour called Owharee, the captain, Mr

Banks, Dr Solander, and Mr Monkhouse, with Tupia and King Cookee, went

on shore. On landing Tupia stripped himself to the waist, and desired

Mr Monkhouse, whom he seems to have looked on as a brother priest, to

do the same; and sitting down in a large guest-house, full of people,

opposite the king, he began a sort of incantation, the king answering in

what appeared to be set responses. During this he made presents of some

handkerchiefs, beads, two bunches of feathers, and plantains to the

Etua, or god of the island, and received in return a hog, two bunches of

feathers, and some young plantains, as presents to the white man's God.

[Note 3.]

These he ordered to be carried on board. On the treaty, as the ceremony

was supposed to be, being concluded, every one went his way, and Tupia

repaired to worship at a morai. The next day, as Tupia was much engaged

with his friends in the island, the captain and Mr Banks took Tayeto as

their companion in their rambles. The most interesting object they met

with was a chest or cask, the lid of which was nicely sewed on, and

neatly thatched with palm-leaves. It was fixed on two horizontal poles,

and supported on arches of wood neatly carved. The object of the poles

seemed to be to remove it from place to place. There was a circular

hole at one end, stopped, when it was first seen, with cloth. The chest

was, on a second visit, found to be empty. The general resemblance

between it and the ark of the Lord among the Jews was remarkable. The

boy called it _Ewharre no Etua_ (the house of the god). He, however,

could give no account of its use.

Some hogs were exchanged for axes, and some medals bestowed on the king,

and no accident having happened to mar their friendly intercourse with

the natives, the voyagers took their departure. The people were

superior in size and appearance to the general run of the natives of

Otaheite, and the women fairer and better-looking. Not having

experienced the effects of the guns of the Dolphin, they were less timid

than the people of Otaheite, and did not fall down on hearing a musket

fired. On one of them being detected in thieving, his companions

prescribed a good beating, which was at once administered.

The next island visited was Ulietea, where, within the coral reef, the

ship anchored in a good harbour. Two canoes at once came off, each

bringing a woman and a pig--the one as a mark of confidence, the other

as a present. The ladies each received a spike-nail and some beads,

greatly to their delight. On landing, the Union-Jack was hoisted, and

the three islands in sight taken possession of in the name of his

Britannic Majesty. Here was a large morai, called Tapodeboatea, which

was visited, and found to be different from those of Otaheite. It

consisted only of four walls, eight feet high, built of coral stones--

some of immense size--enclosing an area of five-and-twenty yards square,

filled up with smaller stones. On the top of it many carved planks were

set on end, and at a little distance was an altar, on which lay a hog of

about eighty pounds weight, roasted whole, supposed to have been a

sacrifice. Round it were four or five arks resting on poles like that

seen at Huaheine. In the interior of one of them Mr Banks found a

package done up tightly in mats. He had opened several folds, but the

last resisted all his attempts; and as he saw that his proceeding gave

great offence, he was compelled to desist. Not far off was a long

house, where, among rolls of cloth, was the model of a canoe, about

three feet long, to which were tied eight human jaw-bones. Other

jaw-bones were seen near the ark, and Tupia affirmed that they were

those of natives of the island.

Bad weather detained the ship in the harbour of Oopoa for two more days,

and when at length she got out, she was in imminent danger of striking

on a reef, having got unexpectedly close to the edge of one, which was

discovered from the water being shallow on one side, though deep enough

under the keel to float her. Some time was expended in endeavouring to

beat up to an anchorage off Bolabola, and several smaller islands were

visited.

A leak having been discovered, and some more ballast being required,

Captain Cook put into a harbour in Ulietea, at the opposite side of the

island to that he had before visited. While the ship's company were

taking in ballast and water, Mr Banks and Dr Solander went on shore,

and were everywhere received with the greatest respect by the natives,

who seemed conscious that their white visitors had the power, though not

the desire, to do them every possible harm. Men, women, and children

crowded round them, and followed them wherever they went; but no one was

guilty of the least incivility. On the contrary, the men vied with each

other in lifting them over any dirt or water in the way.

On approaching the first house, they saw the people arrange themselves

on either side of a long mat spread on the ground, at the farther end of

which sat some young girls and very pretty children, dressed with the

greatest neatness and taste, who kept their position, evidently

expecting the strangers to come up and make them presents. At one

house, at the end of a mat thirty feet long, sat a girl about six years

old; her dress was red, and a large quantity of plaited hair was wound

round her head. She was leaning on the arm of a good-looking woman,

supposed to be her nurse. The gentlemen walked up to her, and as soon

as they approached she stretched out her hands for the beads which they

offered, and received them with a grace which no princess in Europe

could have surpassed. The people, in consequence of these gifts, seemed

to be so pleased with their visitors that they employed every means in

their power to amuse them. The master of one of the houses where they

stopped ordered a dance to be performed before them, different from any

they had yet witnessed. It was executed by one man, who put on a high

head-dress of feathers, edged round with sharks' teeth. As he moved

slowly round he made it describe a circle, bringing it often close to

the faces of the spectators so as to make them start back, always to the

great amusement of the rest.

In the course of their walk the next day they met a company of dancers--

two women and six men, with three drums--who were making a tour of the

island for their own amusement, for they received no pay, and were said

by Tupia to be among the principal people of the country. The women

wore graceful head-dresses of long braids of hair and flowers. The

upper parts of their bodies were without clothing; but they were amply

clothed from the breast downwards in black, and they wore pearls in

their ears. The dances were of the immoral kind general in the islands.

Regular dramas were also represented before the strangers.

It appeared that the island had lately been conquered by the subjects of

Opoony, King of Bolabola, whose acquaintance Captain Cook wished to

make. Instead of seeing a fine-looking warrior as he had expected, he

found a withered, decrepit wretch, half blind with age; yet it seemed

that he was the terror of all the surrounding islands.

A good supply of hogs, poultry, and other provisions having been

obtained at Ulietea, and her leak being stopped, the Endeavour sailed on

August 9. As Bolabola was difficult of access, Captain Cook gave up his

intention of touching there. To gratify Tupia, however, he fired a shot

towards the island, though it was seven leagues distant. The object of

Tupia appeared to be that of showing his resentment against the king of

that island, as well as of exhibiting the power of his new allies.

To the six islands which had been visited or seen, namely, Ulietea,

Otaha, Bolabola, Huaheine, Tubai, and Maurua, Captain Cook gave the name

of the Society Islands. Otaheite was not included in the group, but

continued to be known as King George's Island. [Note 1.]

The voyagers were much disappointed in finding that they could not keep

their live-stock. The hogs would not eat European grain of any sort,

nor bread-dust; and the fowls were seized with a disease which made them

hold their heads between their legs till they died.

Nothing worthy of notice occurred till the 13th, when an island, called,

by Tupia, Oheteroa, was seen. The next morning Mr Gore was sent in the

pinnace to attempt a landing, accompanied by Mr Banks, Dr Solander,

and Tupia. As the boat approached the land a number of natives, armed

with long lances, appeared. The main body sat down, while two walked

abreast of the boat as she pulled along the shore. At length they

leaped into the water and swam towards the boat, but were left behind.

Two others followed, but were soon distanced. At last, one man, running

on, got up to the boat. Mr Banks, wishing to gain the goodwill of the

natives by kind treatment, urged Mr Gore to take him in; but he

declined doing so. On the English attempting to land, soon after this,

several natives came off in a canoe and boarded the boat, evidently with

the intention of capturing her; indeed, it was not till muskets were

fired over their heads that the savages leaped out and swam ashore. As

no harbour or good landing-place was discovered in the circuit of the

island, and as the natives were everywhere hostile, the attempt to land

was abandoned. The clothing of the inhabitants was considered superior

to that of the natives of the islands before visited. The cloth of

which their dresses were made was richly coloured. One piece of red or

yellow was crossed on the breast, and sewed round the waist as a sash.

They had also head-dresses of white or lead-coloured cloth, shaped like

a small turban; and some wore the feathers of the native birds round

their heads. They had well-finished lances in their hands, twenty feet

long, and highly carved and polished clubs and pikes. The canoe also,

though small, was richly carved; and her head and stern were ornamented

with white feathers. Tupia stated that there were numerous islands

between the south and north-west, at different distances from Oheteroa;

and that there was one, three days' sail to the north-east, called

Manua, or Bird Island. The most distant island with which he was

acquainted to the south was Mouton, but his father had told him of

islands to the south of that. But considering the uncertainty of this

information, Captain Cook determined not to lose time in looking for

islands, but to steer to the south in search of a continent.

In leaving these islands we cannot help expressing regret that the

voyagers were so forgetful, as they appear to have been, of their

obligations to the religion they professed, and of the eternal welfare

of those among whom they sojourned. They found a people sunk in

idolatry and superstition, and should have endeavoured to do as the

Apostle Paul did at Athens, where, finding an altar inscribed "To the

unknown God," he said to the assembled multitude, "Whom therefore ye

ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you," and then began to preach

Jesus Christ and His great salvation. But so far from imitating this

example, they, in many instances, took part in their idolatrous and

superstitious ceremonies. It is vain to attempt an excuse of these

Englishmen by saying either that it was the fashion of the times to pass

by the heathen without a thought for their wretched lost condition, or

that the party of philosophers and scientific men and discoverers were

not Christian missionaries. Every Christian ought to look upon himself

as a missionary, when work for his Lord can be done by him; and it was a

bad fashion to follow, surely, that of suffering heathens to perish

without one effort made for their salvation. No doubt there were great

physical and natural impediments in the way of Cook and his associates

making anything known to the natives of those islands; but these

impediments were overcome in relation to other matters.

The Endeavour sailed from Oheteroa on August 15, 1769. The 25th was the

first anniversary of the day she had quitted the shores of England. To

celebrate it a Cheshire cheese was cut, and a cask of porter broached,

and both were found excellent. Those who have been long at sea and away

from home can best understand the importance attached to such trifles,

and the pleasure they afford.

On the morning of the 30th a comet was seen in the east, a little above

the horizon. Tupia, who observed it with others, instantly cried out

that as soon as the people of Bolabola perceived it they would attack

the inhabitants of Uhetea, who would have to fly to the mountains to

save their lives. Meeting with a heavy sea and strong gales from the

westward, on September 1 Captain Cook wore and stood to the northward.

On the weather moderating he continued his course to the westward during

the whole of September. Several seals were seen asleep on the surface

of the water, and various birds were perceived, a sure indication that

the ship was approaching land. On October 6 land was seen from the

mast-head, bearing west by north. In the evening it could be seen from

the deck. It was not till the evening of the next day that the voyagers

got near enough to observe the nature of the country, when it appeared

of great extent, with four or five ranges of hills rising one over the

other, and beyond them a lofty chain of mountains. The general opinion

was that they had found the _Terra Australia incognita_. A bay was

seen, and smoke rising from the shore, but night coming on, they were

obliged to stand off till daylight. The next day, on standing in again,

some small but neat houses were seen, and a considerable number of

people seated on the beach. Farther on was discovered a tolerably high

and regular paling, enclosing the whole of the top of a hill. Some on

board supposed it to be a park for deer, others an enclosure for oxen or

sheep. In the afternoon the ship came to an anchor in a bay off the

mouth of a river. The sides of the bay were white cliffs of great

height; the middle was low land, with hills rising behind and

terminating in a chain of lofty mountains.

Captain Cook, with Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and a party of men in the

yawl and pinnace, landed on the east side of the river; but some people

being perceived on the west side, the yawl crossed over, and while the

gentlemen landed, four boys were left in charge of her. On the approach

of the Englishmen the natives ran away, and the former advanced towards

some huts two or three hundred yards from the water's edge. When,

however, they had got some distance from the yawl, four men with long

lances rushed out of the woods towards her, and would have cut her off

had not the people in the pinnace covered them, and called to the boys

to drop down the stream. This they did, but the natives pursued in

spite of two musket-shots fired at them. At length, one of the natives

was poising his spear to dart it at the boys, when the coxswain of the

pinnace fired a third time, and shot the native dead. The other three

at first attempted to drag off the dead body, but fear soon made them

drop it and take to flight.

On the captain and his companions returning to the boat they stopped to

examine the body, which had been shot through the heart. It was that of

a man of middle stature, of a brown, but not very dark complexion. One

side of his face was tattooed in spiral lines of regular figure, and his

hair tied in a knot on the top of his head, but no feathers in it. He

wore a garment of a fine cloth, of a manufacture new to the English.

When the voyagers returned on board, they could hear the natives talking

very loudly. The next day the captain and the same party landed with

Tupia, and the marines were afterwards sent for. A large body of

natives had collected on the opposite side of the river, apparently

unarmed; but on the approach of the English they started up, each man

holding a spear or dart, and made signs to the strangers to depart. The

marines being drawn up, the visitors again approached the natives, when

Tupia addressed them in the language of Otaheite, which they perfectly

understood. He told them that their visitors wanted provisions and

water, and would pay them with iron, the properties of which he

explained as well as he could. They replied that they were willing to

trade if the English would cross over to them. Captain Cook consented

to do this, provided they would put aside their arms. This they would

not consent to do. Tupia warned the English, during the conversation,

that the natives were not friendly. Captain Cook then invited the

natives to come across to them. At last, one of them stripped himself

and swam over without his arms. He was soon after followed by others,

to the number of twenty, most of whom came armed; and though iron and

beads were offered them, they set no value apparently on either, for a

few feathers were offered in return, and they at once showed their

hostile disposition by endeavouring to snatch the weapons from the hands

of their visitors. They were told, through Tupia, that if they

continued to proceed in that manner they would be killed;

notwithstanding this, one of them seized Mr Green's hanger from his

side, and ran off with it. Mr Banks on this fired at him with small

shot; but though hit, he still continued to wave the hanger round his

head. Mr Monkhouse, seeing this, fired at him with ball, when he

instantly dropped. Upon this, the main body, who had retired to a rock

in the middle of the river, began to return. Two that were near the man

who had been killed tried to drag off the body. One seized his weapon

of green talc; and the other tried to secure the hanger, which Mr

Monkhouse had but just time to prevent. As the whole body were now

returning with threatening gestures, those who had their guns loaded

with small shot fired. The effect was to make the natives turn back,

and to retreat up the country, several of them being wounded. Such was

the first unhappy attempt of the English to open up an intercourse with

the inhabitants of New Zealand, for that was the magnificent country

Captain Cook and his companions had now reached. Painful as it is to

reflect on the sacrifice of human life which often in those days

attended the first intercourse of civilised Europeans with the savage

inhabitants of newly-discovered countries, and the cruelties and

injuries inflicted, we must not judge our countrymen too harshly. Much

less value was set on human life a century ago than is the case at

present, and dark-skinned savages were scarcely regarded as beings of

the same nature as white men. Captain Cook was, however, undoubtedly a

kind and humane man, and was sincere in his expressions of regret at the

blood his followers so frequently shed whenever they met with opposition

from the natives of the lands they visited.

Having no longer any hope of establishing a friendly intercourse with

the inhabitants of this place, and finding that the water in the river

was salt, Captain Cook proceeded with the boats round the head of the

bay, in search of fresh water, intending also, if possible, to surprise

some of the natives, and, by kind treatment and presents, to obtain

their friendship. Everywhere, however, a dangerous surf beat on the

coast, and he was unable to land. But seeing two canoes coming in

towards the shore, one under sail, and the other moved by paddles, he

judged it necessary for the object he had in view to intercept them.

Supposing that they were fishermen without arms, he hoped to do this

without bloodshed. Notwithstanding the way in which he had placed the

boats, one of the canoes managed to escape; but the other, under sail,

came directly into the middle of the English boats without perceiving

what they were. On discovering the strangers, the natives lowered their

sail and took to their paddles. Tupia called out to them that those in

the boats wished to be friends; but the natives preferred trusting to

their paddles, and continued their flight. On this, a musket was fired

over their heads, when they ceased paddling and began to strip, not to

swim to the shore but to fight to the last.

When the boat came up they attacked the English with paddles, stones,

and other weapons, and showed a determination not to be taken alive.

The English, in their own defence, fired, when four out of the seven

people in the canoe were killed. The other three were lads--the eldest

of whom, about nineteen years old, leaped into the sea, swimming

vigorously, and resisting every effort made to capture him. At last he

was seized and taken into the boat, as were the two younger lads,

without further attempt to escape. As soon as they were in the boat,

the lads squatted down, evidently expecting instant death. Every effort

was made to win their confidence, and with so much success that by the

time the ship was reached they appeared not only reconciled to their

fate, but in high spirits. On food being offered them, they ate it

voraciously, and asked and answered questions with every appearance of

pleasure. At night, however, they sighed, and seemed to be mourning for

the friends they had lost; but, encouraged by Tupia, they quickly

regained their cheerfulness, and in the morning ate another enormous

meal. On being told that they would be put on shore where the English

had landed the previous day, they expressed great alarm, and said that

the inhabitants were their enemies and would eat them. At last, on

landing on the other side of the bay, after hesitating for some time,

the lads cried out that they saw, among a large body of natives who were

approaching, one of their relations. Still they seemed doubtful about

joining them, and evidently regretted leaving their new friends. The

body of the native who had been killed the previous day still lay on the

shore. The boys, seeing it, went and covered it with some of the

clothes they had received on board the Endeavour. Soon after, a man,

who proved to be the uncle of one of the boys, swam over with a green

bough in his hand, which was here, as at Otaheite, an emblem of peace.

Tupia received the branch, and several presents were made to the native.

Notwithstanding this, he refused to go on board the strange ship.

Breaking off another bough, he then approached the dead body, before

which he performed numerous ceremonies. When this was done he returned

to his companions, and held with them a long consultation. The boys

refused to go back to their countrymen, and begged again to be taken on

board. The natives, after this, were observed from the ship to cross

the river, and to carry off the dead body on a kind of bier.

Later in the day, the captain directed Tupia to ask the boys if they had

any longer a fear of landing, the body having been carried off, which

was supposed to be a ratification of peace. They replied that they were

perfectly ready to go, and stepped with alacrity into the boat which was

prepared to carry them on shore.

On the boat reaching the shore they landed willingly, but soon after,

when she put off, waded back into the water, and entreated to be taken

on board. As the midshipman in charge of the boat had received strict

orders not to receive them, their request was not granted. After a time

a man came and took them across the river, on a raft, to where a large

number of people were assembled. They appeared to be well received, and

shortly after were seen standing on the beach, when they waved their

hands three times and stepped nimbly back to their companions.

Captain Cook gave the name of Poverty Bay to the place where these

events occurred; and in his journal he strongly expresses his regret at

the destruction of the four unfortunate fishermen, saying that, had he

supposed they would have resisted, he would not have attempted to stop

them; but that, as it was, he could not allow his people to be knocked

on the head by the savages. It may be asked, why were the savages not

permitted to escape? The reply of Captain Cook is, that he considered

it his duty, in prosecution of his enterprise, to open a communication

with the natives by force if he could not succeed by gentle means. In

pursuance of that object, and in accordance with this supposed duty, our

countrymen had little scruple in shedding the blood and taking the lives

of their fellow-men, even when violence was not necessary for their own

safety.

The next morning the Endeavour sailed from Poverty Bay, but, being

becalmed, several canoes came off to her. The natives in one canoe

setting the example, the rest were easily persuaded to come on board, to

the number of fifty men. Only two weapons were seen among them; these

were made of green talc, and called _patoo-patoo_, being shaped somewhat

like a pointed battledore, with a short handle and sharp edges. They

were well contrived for close fighting, and would certainly split the

thickest skull at a single blow. The sad truth of this some of our

countrymen were afterwards to experience, when not far from this spot

the greater part of a ship's company were destroyed, each savage

producing one of these weapons from under his cloak, and singling out a

victim for instant destruction. Presents were made by the officers of

the Endeavour to the natives, who were all so eager for the white men's

goods that they afterwards exchanged everything they had with them, even

to the paddles of their canoes. Inquiries were made for the poor boys,

and the captain was assured that no harm had happened to them, and that

it was in consequence of the account they had given of their reception

on board that the present party had come off to the ship.

An hour before sunset the natives paddled off, leaving three of their

number below. As soon as this was discovered they were hailed, but

would not return, nor did the deserted natives seem to be alarmed. The

next morning, however, when they discovered that the ship was at a

distance from the land, their consternation was excessive, and Tupia had

great difficulty in pacifying them. On standing in again, a canoe with

an old chief came off, but he and his followers would not venture on

board till Tupia had used numerous arguments to persuade them--among

others, an assurance that the strangers did not eat men. This remark,

coupled with those of the boys, gave the English their first suspicions

of the horrible propensity of the people with whom they were now

attempting to open up an intercourse. The old chief, after remaining a

short time on board, returned with the three men to the shore.