A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels Volume Xvi Part 33

During the night, the wind was again variable; but early next morning it settled at E., and blew so fresh as to oblige us to double-reef the top-sails. At seven, in hauling round the W. point of Morotoi, we opened a small bay, at the distance of about two leagues, with a fine sandy beach; but seeing no appearance of fresh water, we stood on to the N., in order to get to the windward of Woahoo, an island which we had seen at our first visit in January 1778.

At two in the afternoon, we saw the land bearing W. by N., eight leagues distant; and having tacked as soon as it was dark, we again bore away at day-light on the 27th; and at half-past ten, were within a league of the sh.o.r.e, near the middle of the N.E. side of the island.

The coast to the northward is formed of detached hills, rising perpendicularly from the sea, with ragged and broken summits, the sides covered with wood, and the vallies between them of a fertile and well-cultivated appearance. To the southward we saw an extensive bay, bounded by a low point of land to the S.E., which was covered with cocoa-nut trees, and off it stood a high insulated rock, about a mile from the sh.o.r.e. The haziness of the weather prevented our seeing distinctly the land to the southward of the point, we could only perceive that it was high and broken.

As the wind continued to blow very fresh, we thought it dangerous to entangle ourselves with a lee-sh.o.r.e, and therefore did not attempt to examine the bay, but hauled up, and steered to the northward in the direction of the coast. At noon, we were abreast of the N. point of the island, about two leagues from the land, which is low and flat, and has a reef stretching off it to the distance of near a mile and a half. The lat.i.tude, by observation, 21 50' N., longitude 202 15' E., the extreme parts of the island in sight bearing S.S.E. 1/4 E., and S.W. by S. 3/4 W.

Between the N. point and a distant head-land which we saw to the S.W., the land bends inward considerably, and appeared likely to afford a good road. We therefore directed our course along the sh.o.r.e, at the distance of about a mile, carrying regular soundings from twenty to thirteen fathoms. At a quarter past two, the sight of a fine river, running through a deep valley, induced us to come to an anchor in thirteen fathoms water, with a sandy bottom; the extreme points of the bay bearing S.W. by W. 1/2 W., and N.E. by E. 3/4 E., and the mouth of the river S.E. 1/2 E., one mile distant. In the afternoon I attended the two captains on sh.o.r.e, where we found but few of the natives, and those mostly women; the men, they told us, were gone to Morotoi to fight Tahyterree, but that their chief, Perreeoranee, who had stayed behind, would certainly visit us as soon as he heard of our arrival.

We were much disappointed to find the water had a brackish taste for two hundred yards up the river, owing to the marshy ground through which it empties itself into the sea. Beyond this it was perfectly fresh, and formed a fine running stream, along the side of which I walked till I came to the conflux of two small rivulets, that branched off to the right and left of a remarkably steep and romantic mountain.

The banks of this river, and indeed the whole we saw of the N.W. part of Woahoo, are well cultivated, and full of villages; and the face of the country is uncommonly beautiful and picturesque.

As the watering at this place would have been attended with great labour, I was sent to examine the coast to leeward; but not being able to land, on account of a reef of coral which stretched along the sh.o.r.e to the distance of half a mile, Captain Clerke determined, without farther loss of time, to proceed to Atooi. At eight in the morning we weighed, and stood to the northward till day-light on the 28th, when we bore away for that island, which we were in sight of by noon; and about sun-set, were off its eastern extremity, which shews itself in a fine green flat point.

It being too late to run for the road on the S.W. side of the island, where we had been the last year, we pa.s.sed the night in plying on and off, and at nine the next morning, came to an anchor in twenty-five fathoms water, and moored with the best bower in thirty-eight fathoms, the bluff-head on the west side of the village, bearing N.E. by N. 3/4 E., two miles distant; the extremes of the island, N.W. by W. 3/4 W., and S.E. by E. 1/2 E.; the island Oneeheow W. by S. 1/2 W. In running down to the road, from the S.E. point of the island, we saw the appearance of shoal water in several places, at a considerable distance from the land; and when we were about two miles to the eastward of the anchoring-place, and two or three miles from the sh.o.r.e, we got into four and a half fathoms water, although our soundings had usually been seven and eight fathoms.

We had no sooner anch.o.r.ed in our old station, than several canoes came along-side of us; but we could observe that they did not welcome us with the same cordiality in their manner, and satisfaction in their countenances, as when we were here before. As soon as they got on board, one of the men began to tell us, that we had left a disorder amongst their women, of which several persons of both s.e.xes had died.

He was himself afflicted with the venereal disease, and gave a very full and minute account of the various symptoms with which it had been attended. As there was not the slightest appearance of that disorder amongst them on our first arrival, I am afraid it is not to be denied that we were the authors of this irreparable mischief.

Our princ.i.p.al object here was to water the s.h.i.+ps with the utmost expedition; and I was sent on sh.o.r.e early in the afternoon, with the pinnace and launch laden with casks. The gunner of the Resolution accompanied me to trade for provisions, and we had a guard of five marines. We found a considerable number of people collected upon the beach, who received us at first with great kindness; but as soon as we got the casks on sh.o.r.e, began to be exceedingly troublesome. Former experience having taught me how difficult it was to repress this disposition, without having recourse to the authority of their chiefs, I was very sorry to find that they were all at another part of the island. Indeed we soon felt the want of their a.s.sistance; for it was with great difficulty I was able to form a circle, according to our usual practice, for the convenience and security of the trading party, and had no sooner done it, and posted guards to keep off the crowd, than I saw a man laying hold of the bayonet of one of the soldiers'

muskets, and endeavouring, with all his force, to wrench it out of his hand. On my coming up to them, the native let go his hold and retired, but returned in a moment, with a spear in one hand and a dagger in the other; and his countrymen had much ado to restrain him from trying his prowess with the soldier. This fray was occasioned by the latter's having given the man a slight p.r.i.c.k with his bayonet, in order to make him keep without the line.

I now perceived that our situation required great circ.u.mspection and management; and accordingly gave the strictest orders that no one should fire, nor have recourse to any other act of violence, without positive commands. As soon as I had given these directions, I was called to the a.s.sistance of the watering party, where I found the natives equally inclined to mischief. They had demanded from our people a large hatchet for every cask of water, and this not being complied with, they would not suffer the sailors to roll them down to the boats.

I had no sooner joined them than one of the natives advanced up to me, with great insolence, and made the same claim. I told him that, as a friend, I was very willing to present him with a hatchet, but that I should certainly carry off the water without paying any thing for it; and I immediately ordered the pinnace men to proceed in their business, and called three marines from the traders to protect them.

Though this shew of spirit succeeded so far as to make the natives desist from any open attempt to interrupt us, they still continued to behave in the most teazing and provoking manner. Whilst some of them, under pretence of a.s.sisting the men in rolling down the casks, turned them out of their course, and gave them a wrong direction; others were stealing the hats from off the sailors' heads, pulling them backward by their clothes, or tripping up their heels; the whole crowd, all this time, shouting and laughing, with a strange mixture of childishness and malice. They afterward found means to steal the cooper's bucket, and took away his bag by force; but the objects they were most eager to possess themselves of were the muskets of the marines, who were every instant complaining of their attempts to force them out of their hands. Though they continued, for the most part, to pay great deference and respect to me, yet they did not suffer me to escape without contributing my share to their stock of plunder. One of them came up to me with a familiar air, and with great management diverted my attention, whilst another, wrenching the hanger, which I held carelessly in my hand, from me, ran off with it like lightning.

It was in vain to think of repelling this insolence by force; guarding therefore against its effects, in the best manner we were able, we had nothing to do but to submit patiently to it. My apprehensions were, however, a little alarmed, by the information I soon after received from the serjeant of marines, who told me that, turning suddenly round, he saw a man behind me holding a dagger in the position of striking. In this he might possibly be mistaken; yet our situation was certainly alarming and critical, and the smallest error on our side might have been fatal to us. As our people were separated into three small parties, one at the lake filling casks; another rolling them down to the sh.o.r.e; and the third, at some distance, purchasing provisions; it had once occurred to me, that it might be proper to collect them altogether, and to execute and protect one duty at a time. But on second thoughts, I judged it more advisable to let them continue as they were. In case of a real attack, our whole force, however advantageously disposed, could have made but a poor resistance. On the other hand, I thought it of some consequence to shew the natives that we were under no fears; and, what was still more material, the crowd was by this means kept divided, and a considerable part of them fully employed in bartering provisions.

It is probable that their dread of the effects of our arms was the princ.i.p.al cause of their backwardness in attacking us; and, indeed, the confidence we appeared to place in this advantage, by opposing only five marines to their whole force, must have raised in them a very high idea of our superiority. It was our business to keep up this opinion as much as possible; and in justice to the whole party, I must observe, that no men could possibly behave better, for the purpose of strengthening these impressions. Whatever could be taken in jest, they bore with the utmost temper and patience; and whenever any serious attempt was made to interrupt them, they opposed it with bold looks and menaces. By this management we succeeded so far as to get all the casks down to the water side without any material accident.

While we were getting them into the launch, the natives, perceiving the opportunity of plundering would soon, be over, became every moment more daring and insolent. On this occasion I was indebted to the serjeant of marines, for suggesting to me the advantage that would arise from sending off his party first into the boats; by which means the muskets of the soldiers, which, as I have already mentioned, were the objects the islanders had princ.i.p.ally in view, would be removed out of their reach; and in case of an attack, the marines themselves might be employed more effectually in our defence, than if they were on sh.o.r.e.

We had now got every thing into the boats, and only Mr Anderson the gunner, a seaman of the boat's crew, and myself, remained on sh.o.r.e.

As the pinnace lay beyond the surf, through which we were obliged to swim, I told them to make the best of their way to it, and that I should follow them. With this order I was surprised to find them both refuse to comply; and the consequence was a contest among us who should be the last on sh.o.r.e. It seems that some hasty words I had just before used to the sailor, which he thought reflected on his courage, was the cause of this odd fancy in him; and the old gunner, finding a point of honour started, thought he could not well avoid taking a part in it. In this ridiculous situation we might have remained some time, had not our dispute been soon settled by the stones that began to fly about us, and by the cries of the people from the boats, to make haste, as the natives were following us into the water with clubs and spears. I reached the side of the pinnace first, and finding Mr Anderson was at some distance behind, and not yet entirely out of danger, I called out to the marines to fire one musket. In the hurry of executing my orders, they fired two; and when I had got into the boat I saw the natives running away, and one man, with a woman sitting by him, left behind on the beach. The man made several attempts to rise without being able; and it was with much regret, I perceived him to be wounded in the groin. The natives soon after returned, and surrounded the wounded man, brandis.h.i.+ng their spears and daggers at us, with an air of threatening and defiance; but before we reached the s.h.i.+ps, we saw some persons, whom we supposed to be the chiefs, now arrived, driving them away from the sh.o.r.e.

During our absence, Captain Clerke had been under the greatest anxiety for our safety. And these apprehensions were considerably increased, from his having entirely mistaken the drift of the conversation he had held with some natives who had been on board. The frequent mention of the name of Captain Cook, with other strong and circ.u.mstantial descriptions of death and destruction, made him conclude, that the knowledge of the unfortunate events at Owhyhee had reached them, and that these were what they alluded to; whereas all they had in view was, to make known to him the wars that had arisen, in consequence of the goats that Captain Cook had left at Oneeheow, and the slaughter of the poor goats themselves, during the struggle for the property of them. Captain Clerke, applying this earnestness of conversation, and these terrible representations, to our calamitous transactions at Owhyhee, and to an indication of revenge, kept his telescope fixed upon us, and the moment he saw the smoke of the muskets, ordered the boats to be manned and armed, and to put off to our a.s.sistance.

The next morning I was again ordered on sh.o.r.e, with the watering party. The risk we had run the preceding day, determined Captain Clerke to send a considerable force from both s.h.i.+ps for our guard, amounting in all to forty men under arms. This precaution, however, was now unnecessary; for we found the beach left entirely to ourselves, and the ground between the landing-place and the lake _tabooed_ with small white flags. We concluded, from this appearance, that some of the chiefs had certainly visited this quarter; and that not being able to stay, they had kindly and considerately taken this step, for our greater security and convenience. We saw several men armed with long spears and daggers, on the other side of the river, on our right; but they did not offer to give us the least molestation.

Their women came over, and sat down on the banks close by us, and at noon we prevailed on some of the men to bring hogs and roots for our people, and to dress them for us. As soon as we had left the beach, they came down to the sea-side, and one of them threw a stone at us; but his conduct seeming to be highly disapproved of by all the rest, we did not think it proper to shew any resentment.

The next day we completed our watering, without meeting with any material difficulty. On our return to the s.h.i.+ps, we found that several chiefs had been on board, and had made excuses for the behaviour of their countrymen, attributing their riotous conduct to the quarrels which subsisted at that time amongst the princ.i.p.al people of the island, and which had occasioned a general want of order and subordination amongst them. The government of Atooi was in dispute between Toneoneo, who had the supreme power when we were here last year, and a boy named Teavee. They are both, by different fathers, the grandsons of Perreeorannee, king of Woahoo, who had given the government of Atooi to the former, and that of Oneeheow to the latter.

The quarrel had arisen about the goats we had left at Oneeheow the last year; the right of property in which was claimed by Toneoneo, on the pretence of that island's being a dependency of his. The friends of Teavee insisting on the right of possession, both parties prepared to maintain their pretensions by force; and a few days before our arrival, a battle had been fought, in which Toneoneo had been worsted.

The consequence of this victory was likely to affect Toneoneo in a much deeper manner than by the mere loss of the objects in dispute; for the mother of Teavee having married a second husband, who was a chief of Atooi, and at the head of a powerful faction there, he thought that the present opportunity was not to be neglected, of driving Toneoneo entirely out of the island, and of advancing his son-in-law to the government. I have already had occasion to mention, that the goats, which had increased to the number of six, and would probably in a few years have stocked all these islands, were destroyed in the contest.

On the 4th, the mother and sister of the young prince and his father-in-law, with many other chiefs of that party, came on board the Resolution, and made several curious and valuable presents to Captain Clerke. Amongst the former, were some fish-hooks, which they a.s.sured us were made of the bones of our old friend Terreeoboo's father, who had been killed in an unsuccessful descent upon the island of Woahoo; and a fly-flap, presented to him by the prince's sister, the handle of which was a human bone, that had been given her as a trophy by her father-in-law. Young Teavee was not of the company, being engaged, as we were told, in performing some religious ceremonies, in consequence of the victory he had obtained, which were to last twenty days.

This and the two following days were employed on sh.o.r.e, in completing the Discovery's water; and the carpenters were busy on board, in caulking the s.h.i.+ps, and in making other preparations for our next cruise. The natives desisted from giving us any further disturbance, and we procured from them a plentiful supply of pork and vegetables.

At this time, an Indian brought a piece of iron on board the Discovery, to be fas.h.i.+oned into the shape of a _pahooah_. It was carefully examined both by the officers and men, and appeared to be the bolt of some large s.h.i.+p-timbers. They were not able to discover to what nation it belonged; but from the pale colour[1] of the iron, and its not corresponding in shape to our bolts, they concluded that it certainly was not English. This led them to make a strict enquiry of the native, when and where he got it; and, if they comprehended him right, it had been taken out of a piece of timber, larger than the cable-bit, to which he pointed. This piece of wood, they farther understood from, him, to have been driven upon their island, since we were here in January 1778.

[Footnote 1: It was evident, that the iron we found in possession of the natives at Nootka Sound, and which was mostly made into knives, was of a much paler sort than ours.]

On the 7th, we were surprised with a visit from Toneoneo. When he heard the dowager-princess was in the s.h.i.+p, it was with great difficulty we could prevail on him to come on board, not from any apprehension that he appeared to entertain of his safety, but from an unwillingness to see her. Their meeting was with sulky and lowering looks on both sides. He staid but a short time, and seemed much dejected; but we remarked, with some surprise, that the women, both at his coming and going way, prostrated themselves before him; and that he was treated by all the natives on board with the respect usually paid to those of his rank. Indeed, it must appear somewhat extraordinary, that a person who was at this time in a state of actual hostility with Teavee's party, and was even prepared for another battle, should trust himself almost alone within the power of his enemies. It is therefore to be observed, that the civil dissentions, which are very frequent throughout all the South-Sea Islands, seem to be carried on without much acrimony or bloodshed; and that the deposed governor still continues to enjoy the rank of an _Eree_, and is left to make use of such means as may arise for the regaining his lost consequence. But I shall have occasion to speak more particularly on this subject in the next section; in which the best account will be given, which we were able to collect, of the political state of those countries.

On the 8th, at nine in the morning, we weighed, and sailed toward Oneeheow; and at three in the afternoon anch.o.r.ed in twenty fathoms water, nearly on the same spot as in the year 1778. We moored with the other anchor in twenty-six fathoms water. The high bluff, on the south end of the island, bore E.S.E.; the north point of the road, N. 1/2 E; and a bluff head to the south of it, N.E. by N. During the night, we had a strong gale from the eastward; and, in the morning of the 9th, found the s.h.i.+p had driven a whole cable's length, and brought both anchors almost ahead. We shortened in the best bower-cable; but the wind blowing too fresh to unmoor, we were obliged to remain this and the two following days with the anchors still ahead.

On the 12th, the weather being moderate, the master was sent to the north-west side of the island, to look for a more convenient place for anchoring. He returned in the evening, having found, close round the west point of the road where we now lay, which is also the westernmost point of the island, a fine bay, with good anchorage, in eighteen fathoms water, a clear sandy bottom, not a mile from the beach, on which the surf beats, but not so as to hinder landing. The direction of the points of the bay were N. by E., and S. by W.; and, in that line, the soundings seven, eight, and nine fathoms. On the north side of the bay was a small village; and a quarter of a mile to the eastward were four small wells of good water; the road to them level, and fit for rolling casks. Mr Bligh went afterward so far to the north as to satisfy himself, that Oreehoua was a separate island from Oneeheow, and that there was a pa.s.sage between them, which before we only conjectured to exist.

In the afternoon we hoisted in all the boats, and made ready for going to sea in the morning.

END OF VOLUME SIXTEENTH.