Commodore Byron, thirty-five years previous to the visit of the
Dolphin, it is reasonable to suppose, from the strong resemblance of
the natives to those of Clarence Island, their dress and canoes being
the same, that they came from thence at no very distant period. The
distance of these islands from each other, is only about forty miles,
and a canoe, being driven from one in the direction of the other, in
tempestuous weather, would soon be in sight of it. Towards evening
in returning on board, we found, to our regret, that the tide had
risen two or three feet over the coral bank, and it became difficult
for us to see the holes, some of which, being now filled with water,
were deep enough to be attended with danger. Besides this, the surf,
as is usual upon these coral banks, had increased with the rising
tide to such a degree, that we found it difficult to embark. Guided
by our observation, in the morning, however, we got on board safely,
with the exception of some trifling accidents. The most serious of
which was having the boat bilged against the rocks.
At four, P.M. on the 31st of October, we got under way, and steered
to the westward. For several days the weather was squally, and the
wind variable, shifting suddenly to all points of the compass, and
blowing at times with great violence. We experienced strong currents
setting in different directions, which were now a cause of serious
alarm to us, as we should soon be surrounded by reefs and chains of
islands, all low, and to be seen only for a few miles on a clear day.
On the 9th of November, Byron's Island was seen, at 8 P.M. six miles
from us, and soon afterwards the shore was lighted up with a number
of fires. The surf was beating heavily upon the weather-shore. We
stood off and on until morning, when, having been driven to leeward
by a strong current, we beat up for the island, passing several
canoes on our way, and having a great many others in different
directions to windward, running down for us. At meridian, we were
close in with the land, where we beat about for several hours,
looking for anchorage. Once we tacked, in three fathoms, so close to
the coral bank, where was beating a heavy surf, that we could almost
have jumped upon it. At 6, P.M. on the tenth, we anchored in ten
fathoms, within less than a cable's length of the surf, and where the
water was so clear, that we could see almost every coral rock at the
bottom. Besides the rocks, it presented the appearance of a splendid
landscape of trees and copse-wood, ornamented with the most lively
and brilliant colours, which, affected by the swelling of the ocean,
were transformed into a representation of a rich and beautiful
country of mountain and valley.
Whilst we were beating about, canoes were assembling near us, in
great numbers, and as soon as we anchored, came along side, the
people jumping on board without the least hesitation, talking and
hallooing to each other so loud, as almost to deafen us with their
noise. They had not been long on board, before several of them were
detected in thieving, and when threatened, seemed quite regardless of
our displeasure, although it was expressed in a way calculated to
make them sensible of its disagreeable consequences. They were all
provided with long shark's-tooth spears, and walked about the deck
with a swaggering, independent air, that seemed to challenge, at
least, an equality. But few brought any thing else with them but
their spears, which they would not dispose of, and altogether, their
number and appearance was truly formidable. At sunset, we sent them
off, and they all returned to their respective islets.
The appearance of Byron's Island, differed scarcely in any respect
from that of the Duke of Clarence. Its dimensions and formation were
perfectly similar; and, like the latter, it was inhabited by an
enterprising and warlike people, whose dress, arms, canoes, and
manner of life, seemed to be identically the same. The islet abreast
of us was all night illuminated with numerous fires, and the air rung
incessantly with the shouts of hundreds of people.
When the day dawned, the whole ocean was whitened with the little
sails of canoes that were seen coming from every direction, and some
of them as far as the eye could distinguish so small an object. In
an hour, not less than a hundred of them were alongside, and our deck
was crowded with the natives. The officer of the watch undertook to
wash off the deck, which he found altogether impracticable: not a
word could be understood for the noise that they made, and when they
were pushed out of the way by our people, they became insolent and
resentful. We were at length, obliged to resort to some little
violence to clear the decks of the unruly rabble, whose disposition
to thievery and violence, became every moment more difficult to
repress.
An old athletic chief, whom our captain had treated with more than
ordinary attention, suddenly put his arms round him, and embraced him
with such herculean strength, that he was constrained to call on the
men near him for assistance; in a moment, they had a rope around the
old chief's neck, and broke his grasp, and the captain having enough
of Indian courtesy, was well pleased to dismiss them. They still
remained near us, and as many as were allowed, came alongside. They
exchanged for pieces of old iron, coarse matting, flying-fish, shell
ornaments, and a few of them disposed of their spears.
One fellow, who evinced an obstinate determination to come alongside,
was ordered off by the sentinel, who pointed his musket at him. As
soon as the musket was pointed, he raised his spear, and stood in the
attitude of throwing it until the sentinel came to a shoulder, when
he again took to his paddle; the musket was again presented, and the
Indian, with the same promptitude, raised his spear, until the
sentinel, feeling the awkwardness of his situation, reported the
circumstance to an officer. I went forward, and pointing at the
native a pistol loaded with very fine shot, motioned for him to
retire; upon which, he raised his spear at me, and I discharged the
pistol at his legs, when he dropped his arms and fled with the
greatest precipitation; I afterwards remarked him outside of all the
rest of the canoes, apparently afraid to come nearer the vessel.
After this example, none of them seemed disposed to question the
authority of a sentinel.
The islands we had seen, since our departure from the Marquesas,
resembling each other so much, and none of them affording indications
of water sufficient for our purposes, we began to think seriously,
that we might experience great inconvenience, and perhaps suffering,
before we could procure a supply; we determined, therefore, to let no
opportunity escape us, of examining every island that came in our
way, if it could be done without too much risk. With a view to this
object, the captain pulled in shore, followed by nearly all the
canoes; but when he arrived at the edge of the surf, which was so
heavy as to make the landing difficult, he remarked that the people
on shore, of whom a great many were assembled, had all armed
themselves with spears and stones. This hostile appearance, together
with the violence of the surf, made him hesitate about proceeding
further, although the natives, on shore as well as those in canoes,
pressed him to land. When, finally, he relinquished his object, and
was about to return on board, the people on shore dashed into the
water and swam off, and uniting with those in the canoes, made a
violent attempt to drag the boat into the surf. The men promptly
repelled them, when they dived to the bottom, and coming up, showered
a volley of stones into the boat, which wounded a few of the crew
slightly, and broke several pieces of the gunwale. In the midst of
the excitement and confusion that prevailed, a native seized a
pistol, which he struggled violently to carry off, until a musket was
fired, and he was taken into the nearest canoe severely wounded; it
had the effect to disperse the natives, who fled from the boat in
every direction, as she returned to the schooner. When she was
hoisted in, they came alongside, and some of them got on board. We
commenced getting underway, and one of the anchors was already up;
the other having hooked to a coral rock, the captain directed the
sentinel forward, to give the musket to him, and repair to his
station. A native, who had been talking to the captain, embracing a
favourable opportunity, seized the musket, upon which was a fixed
bayonet, and jumping overboard with it, swam towards the shore,
keeping half the time under water. Muskets were fired at him, but he
bore his booty safely through the surf to the coral bank, where,
although he was still within striking distance, he marched away with
the most perfect composure, until he disappeared in the bushes.
After this bold theft, several boats were prepared to land in search
of water, and, if possible, recover the stolen property. The captain
took the lead, and landed on the coral bank, with his arms and
ammunition wet and useless, whilst the boat, in returning through the
surf, was thrown upon the rocks, bilged, and before she finally got
off, almost every timber in her broke. This fatality having attended
his landing, he forbade the other boats to attempt it, choosing
rather to remain in his defenceless situation, surrounded by hostile
natives, to the more serious consequence of losing the remainder of
his boats.
By signals concerted previous to his departure from the vessel, he
directed a fire at intervals from our cannon, in the direction of a
large hut that we supposed belonged to the chief. A small group of
natives approached him, one of whom, a man advanced in years, came up
with a green branch in his hand; the captain demanded of him by signs
the return of the musket, in reply to which, he addressed some one
near him, who ran off, and in about an hour, brought it without
either lock or bayonet; these were also required, and our demand
repeated occasionally by a discharge of cannon in the direction of
the chiefs hut. It was not long before the lock was brought, but no
threats could compel them to relinquish the bayonet. The situation
of the captain and his party was becoming more and more critical with
every moment's delay. They were on a bank of coral a hundred yards
wide, and small parties of natives, of whom great numbers were
assembled in the bushes, would frequently sally out and throw stones
at them. They had no other means of protection or defence than what
was afforded by our guns, which were fired whenever the hostile
parties made their appearance. The hustle of our shot over their
heads, and the fall of cocoa-nut trees, proved to them the
superiority of our arms over theirs, and in a measure, had the
desired effect of keeping them back. One circumstance, however,
convinced us that they were not yet fully sensible of this
superiority, or if so, that they were intrepid to a degree that might
well alarm us for the safety of our people.
When one of their parties had sallied out, there were two men walking
along the beach, carrying a canoe; a shot that was fired to drive the
sallying party back, struck so near these men, that it threw the sand
and gravel all over them. They laid the canoe down and looked round
them for a few moments, when they took it up again and walked along,
as they would have done under the most ordinary circumstances.
When the captain became impatient of his confined situation on the
beach, besieged and harrassed as he constantly was by the natives, he
made bold to risk an excursion back upon the island, to show the
natives his disregard for them, and, at the same time, satisfy
himself as to the existence of water. They did not any where oppose
him or appear in numbers; a few persons were seen behind the trees,
or stealing along through the thickets without any demonstration of
hostility. His discoveries were few and unimportant; the only place
where he found water, was in an old well, where it was stagnant and
unfit for use. In the huts that he entered, were stores of dry
cocoa-nuts, and a preparation of dried fish and sea-moss.
We were filled with solicitude for our party when beyond the reach of
our assistance, knowing that they had no other means of safety than
the opinion which might exist among the natives of their
invincibility, and we were highly gratified, after an hour's
watching, to see them returning to their old place of blockade--the
coral bank.
It was now sundown, and the surf had increased so much that we did
not believe it possible for a boat to reach the shore and return in
safety; and to send men there without a prospect of their being
enabled to return, would be but a useless sacrifice of lives; but
here was our people on shore; the natives had followed them on their
return to the beach; and their remaining after dark would probably be
attended with the most serious consequences. Two men, who were good
swimmers, came forward and volunteered their services to take on
shore a light boat that we had, and although I might have felt
unwilling to exercise authority in the performance of so hazardous a
service, I was happy to accept the generous offer. They landed in
safety, and the boat being deeply laden with the captain and his
party, they clung with one hand to her quarter, swimming with the
other, until after a severe and most doubtful struggle, she emerged
from the surf, almost filled with water, and was soon afterwards
alongside. It was thought that if there had been one more breaker to
pass, all would have perished.
The men of Byron's Island are stout, active, and well made. They
were all naked, and covered with scars. Some of them wore
skull-caps, of grass, and wreaths of dry cocoa-nuts. Their ornaments
were rude, and worn by but very few. They consisted of shells and
beads, made of something that resembled whalebone, worn in long
strings,--by some round the waist, and by others round the neck.
Their hair was long and matted, and their complexion very dark.
Their beard was thin, and curled upon the chin, like that of the
negroes. A few women came round us in canoes, who looked coarse, and
almost as robust as the men. They wore round their loins a small mat
about a foot wide, with a fringe at the bottom. But few of the men
were tattooed, and they very slightly. Their canoes were ingeniously
wrought, of a great many pieces of light wood, which were laced
together by twine, made from the husk of the cocoa-nut; but they were
so leaky as to keep one man baling constantly. They were very
narrow, sharp at both ends, and had a small platform of light wood,
on one side, to keep them upright. They resembled the canoes of the
Duke of York and Clarence islands, but were rather narrower, and made
with better workmanship. The canoe sails, of all these islands, are
mats of straw or grass.
As soon as the captain returned on board, we got underway, and bade
adieu to Byron's Island, and its inhabitants, whose acquaintance had
been productive of nothing but anxiety and perplexity. We run off W.
by S., and in three or four hours made Drummond's Island, ahead,
distant three or four leagues.
At daylight, we passed a reef of considerable extent upon the N.E.
end of the island, and ran down upon the west side of it. When we
had approached the shore, within the distance of a league, canoes
made their appearance in every direction, sailing off to us. We
stood in, and found anchorage within two cables' length of the bank
of coral, that stretched one or two miles from the shore, and which,
at low water, was almost every where dry. Here we hove to, having in
sight, along the shore, twenty or thirty large villages, besides
other habitations, that were thickly interspersed amongst the trees
beyond it. The island, indeed, was swarming with inhabitants, and,
from its extent and forest of cocoa-nut trees, seemed well adapted to
sustain a large population. It was low, and being quite level,
promised but a poor prospect of affording a supply of water. We had
not been long hove to, before we were surrounded by from one to two
hundred canoes, having in each of them, with few exceptions, two men
and a woman, the latter of whom was kept constantly employed baling
the water out. They betrayed a greater degree of timidity than the
natives of any island we had seen before, keeping in their canoes, at
a distance from us, or approaching, with caution and distrust. At
length some of them got on board, and others hung upon the sides of
the vessel, talking and exchanging their cocoa-nuts, and flying-fish,
for old nails, or pieces of tin. One of them, an interesting looking
youth, was noticed by one of the seamen, who made him several
presents, and in other respects, treated him very kindly. The youth
appeared to be sensible of the favour shown him, and expressed his
gratitude by smiles, and by repeatedly patting the sailor on the
shoulder; but, after this dumb show had been going on for some time,
and when his patron's face was turned from him, he snatched his hat
from his head, and jumped overboard with it, making his way as
expeditiously as possible to the nearest canoe. The canoe took him
in, and pulled off dead to windward of us, until they were out of our
reach, although we threw several shot over their heads, to convince
them of the danger they encountered in such bold adventures. From
our first stopping place, we ran down a few miles, followed by all
the canoes, which were joined by many more. Some of the natives
again came on board, and one man, to whom the captain had made
presents, seized upon a fixture of the waist-boat, and abruptly took
his leave. He was as suddenly saluted with a charge of bird-shot,
from a pistol, but manfully clung to his prize, and bore it off in
triumph to his canoe. Aided by his companion, he was playing us the
same trick, as the fellow who stole the sailor's hat. But a few shot
over their heads brought them to, when they lay down in the bottom of
the canoe, until we lowered a boat, and sent it to them. When they
saw the boat approaching, they took to their paddles, and made an
effort to escape; but, finding that impossible, jumped overboard, and
continued diving from one side of the canoe to the other, until they
were taken. They trembled excessively, expressing a great deal of
alarm, upon being brought on board, and made several attempts to
escape. The captain inflicted upon the thief, a punishment, that he
thought might be a useful admonition to the natives, in their future
intercourse with white men, when, with his companion, he jumped
overboard, apparently delighted, in having escaped so well. The
number and enterprising character of the people, changed our purpose
of attempting to obtain a supply of water, by digging wells. And,
besides the above objection, it was to be expected that, in the
performance of our duty, at the Mulgrave Islands, it would be
necessary for us to explore the whole group, where, within so great a
compass, our wants could scarcely fail to be supplied. Accordingly,
in the evening, we made sail, and, after clearing the island, hauled
up to the northward and westward. The inhabitants of Drummond's and
Byron's Islands, were, in all respects, similar to each other, even
to their canoes and sails, the latter of which was a coarse matting
of grass.
During our passage from Drummond's Island to the Mulgraves, which was
of nine days' duration we had squally weather, and were constantly
affected by violent currents, for which, as they were irregular, no
allowance could be made. On the second day after our departure from
Drummond's Island, our safety was considerably endangered from this
cause. Being near a chain of small islands belonging to the
Kingsmill Group, the weather thick and squally, we stretched off,
calculating that, at meridian, on the following day, we should be
thirty miles to the northward of them; but, to our surprise, when at
meridian the weather cleared, and we got our observations, instead of
being thirty miles to the northward, we were as much to the south,
having been carried through them by a current at night. We were two
or three days in the vicinity of the Mulgraves', laying to at night,
and drifting with the current nearly as much as we advanced through
the day, with light and baffling winds.
On the evening of November, the nineteenth, the welcome hail of
"Land! ho!" was given, and shortly afterwards it was seen from the
deck, two leagues off. It proved to be the easternmost of the
Mulgraves', for which we run down on the following morning, and
anchored on the lee shore, within less than a cable's length of the
surf, in six fathoms water.
The island was low, of coral formation, and, in all respects,
resembled Caroline, Clarence, York, Byron's, and Drummond's Islands.
The inhabitants were not numerous, and differed from all we had seen
before in dress and manners. They gave us a most kind and hospitable
reception, freely offered whatever any of us expressed a wish for,
and in all respects acquitted themselves in a manner highly
satisfactory. Near our landing place we had the satisfaction to find
two or three old wells of water, which, after being cleared out,
would afford us a supply without much labour in getting it off, the
landing being tolerably good.
On the twenty-first and twenty-second of November, we filled our
water-casks, and, with several parties, explored the island. In our
search we found a whaler's lance, and several pieces of old canvass;
but all our efforts to obtain a knowledge, from whence they came, or
of the persons who brought them, were unavailing. Some of the
natives came on board, all of whom were neatly ornamented. They wore
wreaths of flowers round their heads, bracelets and necklaces of
beautiful shells; a large roll of leaves, from one to two inches in
diameter, through slits in their ears, and as a covering for their
loins, two bunches of a kind of grass, that resembled hemp, hanging
below their knees, one bunch being behind, and the other before.
Nothing was stolen by them. They behaved in a most orderly manner,
looking round the deck inquiringly, or seated themselves, and chatted
familiarly with our people, taking pains to make themselves
understood. In their look and action they appeared to be lively and
intelligent; but whenever the subject of our visit was pressed upon
them, by pointing to the whaler's lance, they became silent,
pretending to be ignorant of our meaning. The activity of our
exploring parties, in traversing all parts of the island, and our
close examination of every thing amongst them, that had belonged to
the whites, produced a sensible alarm by the third day; and, besides
the desertion of their habitations by some of them, a large canoe was
missing, that had departed from the island during the night.
Beyond us, to the south and west, was a range of islets, as far as we
could see from the masthead, and having thoroughly explored the
island, where we were anchored, completed our watering, and made such
repairs upon the vessel as were necessary, we determined to proceed
further in that direction. At our anchorage here the wind several
times changed from blowing off shore, which, as we had not room to
ride in shore of our anchor, made it, upon such occasions, necessary
to get underway, and stand off. At such times, we remarked, with
particular satisfaction, the advantage we possessed in our vessel,
being schooner rigged, as none but a fore and after could, with the
same facility, have performed the delicate operation of getting
underway, and crawling off, when riding upon a lee shore, within a
few fathoms of the rocks, to have touched which would inevitably have
been attended with shipwreck.
Upon the island, besides cocoa-nut, there were a few bread-fruit
trees, growing in great luxuriance. The golden yellow fruit, with
which the females of Nooaheeva ornamented their necks, grew here in
the greatest abundance, and was eaten by the natives almost
constantly, who called it bup. A species of small rat, with a tuft
of hair upon the tail, was very numerous, and so tame, that hundreds
of them were constantly feeding about the huts.