Passage from the cruising ground to the Marquesas—Sleepy times aboard
ship—South Sea scenery—Land ho!—The French squadron discovered at
anchor in the bay of Nukuheva—Strange pilot—Escort of canoes—A flotilla
of cocoa-nuts—Swimming visitors—The _Dolly_ boarded by them—State of
affairs that ensue.
I can never forget the eighteen or twenty days during which the light
trade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the islands. In pursuit
of the sperm whale, we had been cruising on the line some twenty
degrees to the westward of the Gallipagos; and all that we had to do,
when our course was determined on, was to square in the yards and keep
the vessel before the breeze, and then the good ship and the steady
gale did the rest between them. The man at the wheel never vexed the
old lady with any superfluous steering, but comfortably adjusting his
limbs at the tiller, would doze away by the hour. True to her work, the
_Dolly_ headed to her course, and like one of those characters who
always do best when let alone, she jogged on her way like a veteran old
sea-pacer as she was.
What a delightful, lazy, languid time we had whilst we were thus
gliding along! There was nothing to be done; a circumstance that
happily suited our disinclination to do anything. We abandoned the
fore-peak altogether, and spreading an awning over the forecastle,
slept, ate, and lounged under it the live-long day. Every one seemed to
be under the influence of some narcotic. Even the officers aft, whose
duty required them never to be seated while keeping a deck watch,
vainly endeavoured to keep on their pins; and were obliged invariably
to compromise the matter by leaning up against the bulwarks, and gazing
abstractedly over the side. Reading was out of the question; take a
book in your hand, and you were asleep in an instant.
Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the general
languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell, and to
appreciate the beauty of the scene around me. The sky presented a clear
expanse of the most delicate blue, except along the skirts of the
horizon, where you might see a thin drapery of pale clouds which never
varied their form or colour. The long, measured, dirge-like swell of
the Pacific came rolling along, with its surface broken by little tiny
waves, sparkling in the sunshine. Every now and then a shoal of flying
fish, scared from the water under the bows, would leap into the air,
and fall the next moment like a shower of silver into the sea. Then you
would see the superb albicore with his glittering sides, sailing aloft,
and after describing an arc in his descent, disappear on the surface of
the water. Far off, the lofty jet of the whale might be seen, and
nearer at hand the prowling shark, that villanous footpad of the seas,
would come skulking along, and, at a wary distance, regard us with an
evil eye. At times, some shapeless monster of the deep, floating on the
surface, would, as we approach, sink slowly into the blue waters, and
fade away from the sight. But the most impressive feature of the scene
was the almost unbroken silence that reigned over sky and water.
Scarcely a sound could be heard but the occasional breathing of the
grampus, and the rippling at the cut-water.
As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance of
innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in spiral tracks, they
would accompany the vessel, and at times alight on our yards and stays.
That piratical-looking fellow, appropriately named the
man-of-war’s-hawk, with his blood-red bill and raven plumage, would
come sweeping round us in gradually diminishing circles, till you could
distinctly mark the strange flashings of his eye; and then, as if
satisfied with his observation, would sail up into the air and
disappear from the view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the
land were apparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of
it being in sight was heard from aloft,—given with that peculiar
prolongation of sound that a sailor loves—“Land ho!”
The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily for his
spy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the mast-head with a
tremendous “Where-away?” The black cook thrust his woolly head from the
galley, and Boatswain, the dog, leaped up between the knight-heads, and
barked most furiously. Land ho! Ay, there it was. A hardly perceptible
blue irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty
heights of Nukuheva.
This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas, is by some
navigators considered as forming one of a distinct cluster, comprising
the islands of Roohka, Ropo, and Nukuheva; upon which three the
appellation of the Washington Group has been bestowed. They form a
triangle, and lie within the parallels of 8° 38′ and 9° 32′ south
latitude, and 139° 20′ and 140° 10′ west longitude, from Greenwich.
With how little propriety they are to be regarded as forming a separate
group will be at once apparent, when it is considered that they lie in
the immediate vicinity of the other islands, that is to say, less than
a degree to the north-west of them; that their inhabitants speak the
Marquesan dialect, and that their laws, religion, and general customs
are identical. The only reason why they were ever thus arbitrarily
distinguished, may be attributed to the singular fact, that their
existence was altogether unknown to the world until the year 1791, when
they were discovered by Captain Ingraham, of Boston, Massachusetts,
nearly two centuries after the discovery of the adjacent islands by the
agent of the Spanish Viceroy. Notwithstanding this, I shall follow the
example of most voyagers, and treat of them as forming part and parcel
of the Marquesas.
Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the only one at
which ships are much in the habit of touching, and is celebrated as
being the place where the adventurous Captain Porter refitted his ships
during the late war between England and the United States, and whence
he sallied out upon the large whaling fleet then sailing under the
enemy’s flag in the surrounding seas. This island is about twenty miles
in length, and nearly as many in breadth. It has three good harbours on
its coast, the largest and best of which is called by the people living
in its vicinity, “Tyohee,” and by Captain Porter was denominated
Massachusetts Bay. Among the adverse tribes dwelling about the shores
of the other bays, and by all voyagers, it is generally known by the
name bestowed upon the island itself—Nukuheva. Its inhabitants have
become somewhat corrupted, owing to their recent commerce with
Europeans; but so far as regards their peculiar customs, and general
mode of life, they retain their original primitive character, remaining
very nearly in the same state of nature in which they were first beheld
by white men. The hostile clans, residing in the more remote sections
of the island, and very seldom holding any communication with
foreigners, are in every respect unchanged from their earliest known
condition.
In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach. We had
perceived the loom of the mountains about sunset; so that, after
running all night with a very light breeze, we found ourselves close in
with the island the next morning; but as the bay we sought lay on its
farther side, we were obliged to sail some distance along the shore,
catching, as we proceeded, short glimpses of blooming valleys, deep
glens, waterfalls, and waving groves, hidden here and there by
projecting and rocky headlands, every moment opening to the view some
new and startling scene of beauty.
Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally are
surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from the sea.
From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their beauty, many people
are apt to picture to themselves enamelled and softly swelling plains,
shaded over with delicious groves, and watered by purling brooks, and
the entire country but little elevated above the surrounding ocean. The
reality is very different; bold rock-bound coasts, with the surf
beating high against the lofty cliffs, and broken here and there into
deep inlets, which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys, separated
by the spurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass, and sweeping down
towards the sea from an elevated and furrowed interior, form the
principal features of these islands.
Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance to the harbour, and at last
we slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and entered the bay of
Nukuheva. No description can do justice to its beauty; but that beauty
was lost to me then, and I saw nothing but the tri-coloured flag of
France, trailing over the stern of six vessels, whose black hulls, and
bristling broadsides, proclaimed their warlike character. There they
were, floating in that lovely bay, the green eminences of the shore
looking down so tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the sternness of
their aspect. To my eye, nothing could be more out of keeping than the
presence of these vessels; but we soon learnt what brought them there.
The whole group of islands had just been taken possession of by
Rear-Admiral Du Petit Thouars, in the name of the invincible French
nation.
This item of information was imparted to us by a most extraordinary
individual, a genuine South Sea vagabond, who came alongside of us in a
whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay, and, by the aid of some
benevolent persons at the gangway, was assisted on board, for our
visitor was in that interesting stage of intoxication when a man is
amiable and helpless. Although he was utterly unable to stand erect, or
to navigate his body across the deck, he still magnanimously proffered
his services to pilot the ship to a good and secure anchorage. Our
captain, however, rather distrusted his ability in this respect, and
refused to recognise his claim to the character he assumed; but our
gentleman was determined to play his part, for, by dint of much
scrambling, he succeeded in getting into the weather-quarter boat,
where he steadied himself by holding on to a shroud, and then commenced
issuing his commands with amazing volubility and very peculiar
gestures. Of course, no one obeyed his orders; but as it was impossible
to quiet him, we swept by the ships of the squadron with this strange
fellow performing his antics in full view of all the French officers.
We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a lieutenant
in the English navy, but having disgraced his flag by some criminal
conduct in one of the principal ports on the main, he had deserted his
ship, and spent many years wandering among the islands of the Pacific,
until accidentally being at Nukuheva when the French took possession of
the place, he had been appointed pilot of the harbour by the newly
constituted authorities.
As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed off from the
surrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst of quite a flotilla
of them, their savage occupants struggling to get aboard of us, and
jostling one another in their ineffectual attempts. Occasionally the
projecting out-riggers of their slight shallops, running foul of one
another, would become entangled beneath the water, threatening to
capsize the canoes, when a scene of confusion would ensue that baffles
description. Such strange outcries and passionate gesticulations I
never certainly heard or saw before. You would have thought the
islanders were on the point of flying at one another’s throats, whereas
they were only amicably engaged in disentangling their boats.
Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen numbers of
cocoa-nuts floating closely together in circular groups, and bobbing up
and down with every wave. By some inexplicable means these cocoa-nuts
were all steadily approaching towards the ship. As I leaned curiously
over the side, endeavouring to solve their mysterious movements, one
mass, far in advance of the rest, attracted my attention. In its centre
was something I could take for nothing else than a cocoa-nut, but which
I certainly considered one of the most extraordinary specimens of the
fruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing about among the
rest in the most singular manner: and as it drew nearer, I thought it
bore a remarkable resemblance to the brown shaven skull of one of the
savages. Presently it betrayed a pair of eyes, and soon I became aware
that what I had supposed to have been one of the fruit was nothing else
than the head of an islander, who had adopted this singular method of
bringing his produce to market. The cocoa-nuts were all attached to one
another by strips of the husk, partly torn from the shell, and rudely
fastened together. Their proprietor, inserting his head into the midst
of them, impelled his necklace of cocoa-nuts through the water by
striking out beneath the surface with his feet.
I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number of natives
that surrounded us, not a single female was to be seen. At that time I
was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of the “taboo,” the use
of canoes in all parts of the island is rigorously prohibited to the
entire sex, for whom it is death even to be seen entering one when
hauled on shore; consequently, whenever a Marquesan lady voyages by
water, she puts in requisition the paddles of her own fair body.
We had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of the foot of the
bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had managed to
scramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their canoes, directed
our attention to a singular commotion in the water ahead of the vessel.
At first I imagined it to be produced by a shoal of fish sporting on
the surface, but our savage friends assured us that it was caused by a
shoal of “whinhenies” (young girls), who in this manner were coming off
from the shore to welcome us. As they drew nearer, and I watched the
rising and sinking of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm
bearing above the water the girdle of tappa, and their long dark hair
trailing beside them as they swam, I almost fancied they could be
nothing else than so many mermaids:—and very like mermaids they behaved
too.
We were still some distance from the beach, and under slow headway,
when we sailed right into the midst of these swimming nymphs, and they
boarded us at every quarter; many seizing hold of the chainplates and
springing into the chains; others, at the peril of being run over by
the vessel in her course, catching at the bob-stays, and wreathing
their slender forms about the ropes, hung suspended in the air. All of
them at length succeeded in getting up the ship’s side, where they
clung dripping with the brine and glowing from the bath, their
jet-black tresses streaming over their shoulders, and half enveloping
their otherwise naked forms. There they hung, sparkling with savage
vivacity, laughing gaily at one another, and chattering away with
infinite glee. Nor were they idle the while, for each one performed the
simple offices of the toilet for the other. Their luxuriant locks,
wound up and twisted into the smallest possible compass, were freed
from the briny element; the whole person carefully dried, and from a
little round shell that passed from hand to hand, anointed with a
fragrant oil: their adornments were completed by passing a few loose
folds of white tappa, in a modest cincture, around the waist. Thus
arrayed they no longer hesitated, but flung themselves lightly over the
bulwarks, and were quickly frolicking about the decks. Many of them
went forward, perching upon the head-rails or running out upon the
bow-sprit, while others seated themselves upon the taffrail, or
reclined at full length upon the boats.
Their appearance perfectly amazed me; their extreme youth, the light
clear brown of their complexions, their delicate features, and
inexpressibly graceful figures, their softly moulded limbs, and free
unstudied action, seemed as strange as beautiful.
The _Dolly_ was fairly captured; and never I will say was vessel
carried before by such a dashing and irresistible party of boarders.
The ship taken, we could not do otherwise than yield ourselves
prisoners, and for the whole period that she remained in the bay, the
_Dolly_, as well as her crew, were completely in the hands of the
mermaids.
In the evening after we had come to an anchor, the deck was illuminated
with lanterns, and this picturesque band of sylphs, tricked out with
flowers, and dressed in robes of variegated tappa, got up a ball in
great style. These females are passionately fond of dancing, and in the
wild grace and spirit of their style excel everything that I have ever
seen. The varied dances of the Marquesan girls are beautiful in the
extreme, but there is an abandoned voluptuousness in their character
which I dare not attempt to describe.
Our ship was now wholly given up to every species of riot and
debauchery. The grossest licentiousness and the most shameful inebriety
prevailed, with occasional and but short-lived interruptions, through
the whole period of her stay. Alas for the poor savages when exposed to
the influence of these polluting examples! Unsophisticated and
confiding, they are easily led into every vice, and humanity weeps over
the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted upon them by their European
civilizers. Thrice happy are they who, inhabiting some yet undiscovered
island in the midst of the ocean, have never been brought into
contaminating contact with the white man.