An Indian who attended the Queen appearing to be fond of imitating the English, was presented with a suit of the Lieutenant’s cloaths, which became him extremely well. As it was shoal-water at the landing-place, the English officers were carried on shore; and this man, unwilling to be out of the fashion, was carried in the same manner by the Indians. In his attempt to use a knife and fork at first, his hand always went to his mouth, while the food remained stuck on the end of the fork.
Besides the articles already mentioned, these people eat the flesh of dogs. Rats abound on the island, but are not eaten. The river produces parrot-fish, groopers, cray-fish and mullet, and conchs and muscles are found on the rocks: the inhabitants use nets, and hooks and lines.
There is something singular in their way of dressing their food: having produced a fire by rubbing two pieces of dry wood together, they dig a pit, which being paved with stones, they make a fire in it. The stones being properly heated, they rake away the ashes, and covering the stones with green leaves of the cocoa-nut-tree, they put their meat in plantain leaves, and place it in the pit, covering it over with the hot ashes, on which they lay bread-fruit and yams enclosed in plantain leaves: these again they cover with the embers intermixed with the hot stones: to this succeeds a layer of cocoa-nut leaves, and upon the whole is a covering of earth. In this manner a small hog is dressed whole, but a large one is cut in two; and Captain Wallis asserts, that this method of cookery exceeds every other he has known, the meat being extremely tender, and full of gravy. Their only sauces are salt-water and fruit, and their knives are made of shells.
They were astonished when they first saw meat boiled in a pot; but the Captain having given iron-pots to the Queen and some of her chiefs, they were often used; and the old Indian fed on boiled meat almost constantly. The only liquor they drink is water: they occasionally pluck and chew a bit of the sugar-cane; but have no idea of extracting any spirit from it.
From the scars with which many of these people were marked, it seems evident, that they sometimes waged war with each other.--That they have skill in surgery is evident from the following circumstance: a splinter having got into the foot of one of the sailors, his mess-mate tried in vain to extract it with a pen-knife: on this one of the natives, having formed an instrument, with his teeth, out of a shell, extracted the splinter in an instant; and the old Indian applying a piece of the gum of the apple-tree to the wound, the man’s foot was quite well in two days.
There are several sheds on the island, enclosed within a wall, on the outside of which several posts are fixed in the ground, on which are rude resemblances of men, women, dogs and hogs. The enclosed place is paved with large stones, between which the grass grows. These were supposed to be burial-places, from the natives being sometimes seen to enter them with an air of solemn sorrow.--It could not be discovered that these people had any kind of religious worship among them.
They have three kinds of canoes--one formed out of a single tree, in which they go a fishing; a second, made of planks sewed together, and large enough to hold 20 or 30 men; in which they sail round the island, and come laden home with fruits; and a third sort, which are not unlike the Venetian gondolas, and used when they sail on parties of pleasure. In these they make a kind of procession two or three times in a week, with their streamers flying, attended by the small canoes, while hundreds of the natives accompany their motions on the shore. On these occasions they put on their best cloaths, and while some are under a large awning, others sit upon it:--these are clothed in red and white; two men in red sit on the prow of each vessel; while the rowers and steersmen are in white.
The people of Otaheite use bows and arrows, which last are headed with a round stone. They have likewise bludgeons, and slings for the throwing of stones.
The inhabitants being shewn some small turtles, hinted that they had some which were much larger; but not one was seen by any of the ship’s crew.
Captain Wallis represents this island as one of the most pleasant in the universe; being blessed with a pure air, abounding in wood and herbage, harbouring no venomous animal; and its inhabitants being happy in a constant flow of health. The south-east part of the island, which produces fruit in vast abundance, is better peopled than the spot near where the ship lay.
When captain Cook, in the Endeavour, visited this island, he found the venereal disease among the natives; which must have been contracted from some of the crew under the command of M. Bougainville; for not one of captain Wallis’s men were infected with that disorder for several months before and after his arrival at Otaheite.
The Dolphin sailed from this harbour on the 27th of July 1767, and passed the Duke of York’s Island, the coast of which abounds with plantain-trees, cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and apple-trees. On the 28th they discovered land, which was called SIR CHARLES SAUNDER’S ISLAND. It had a few inhabitants, who lived in small huts; and the cocoa-nut and other trees grew on the shore. On the 30th they again made land, which received the name of LORD HOWE’S ISLAND, on which smoke was seen, but no inhabitants. Their next discovery was of some dangerous shoals, to which captain Wallis gave the name of the SCILLY ISLANDS.
They now steered westward till the 13th of August, when they saw two small islands, one of which was named KEPPEL’S ISLE, and the other BOSCAWEN’S ISLAND; on the latter of which were several inhabitants; but they steered for the former, as its appearance promised the most convenient anchorage. By the help of glasses they now discovered the natives on the shore; but they did not attempt to anchor that night, on account of some breakers at a considerable distance from the island.
The boats being dispatched to the island, brought on board some cocoa-nuts and other fruit, and a couple of fowls. The officer reported, that the inhabitants were not unlike those of Otaheite; that some few of them ventured into the boat, but soon jumped out and swam back to the island. These people were remarkable for having the first joint of their little fingers cut off; and they were dressed in a sort of matting.
As there was no convenient watering-place at this island, and as the ship had received some damages that had rendered her unfit to encounter a rough sea, the Captain determined to sail for Tinian, from thence to Batavia, and so to England by the Cape of Good Hope. He therefore passed the island, which is well inhabited, abounds in timber, and is of a circular form.
On the 16th they again discovered land, to which the officers gave the name of WALLIS’S ISLAND. The coast of this island is very rocky, and the trees grow almost to the edge of the water. The inhabitants wore no covering but a mat round the waist: each man had a very large club, two of which were purchased by the boat’s crew. These people attempting to steal the cutter, by hauling her upon the rocks, a gun was fired close to one of their faces, the report of which so terrified them, that they decamped with the utmost speed. When the boats were returning to the ship, they were impeded by the points of rocks, which being observed by the Indians, they followed in their canoes till they got into deep water, and then they rowed back.
Captain Wallis remarks, as an extraordinary circumstance, that although no sort of metal was seen on any of the lately discovered islands, yet the natives were no sooner possessed of a piece of iron than they began to sharpen it, but did not treat copper or brass in the same manner.
They now sailed to the north-west, and on the 28th observed a number of birds flying about the ship, one of which they catched. It was web-footed, but in all other respects resembled a dove. On the 3d of September they saw land, which was thought to be two of the Piscadore Islands; and on this day an Indian Proa (a description of which is given in Anson’s Voyage) made towards the ship, on which they hoisted Spanish Colours; but she came no nearer than within about two miles. On the 7th and 9th they saw several birds, one of which was taken, and judged to be a land-bird. On the 18th they discovered the island of Saypan, and soon afterwards that of Tinian, off which they anchored on the day following.
No time was lost in sending the boats on shore, and they returned in a few hours, with oranges, limes, and cocoa-nuts. Tents were erected for the sick, who were sent on shore with all expedition. The smith’s forge, and carpenter’s chest were also landed; and the Captain and first Lieutenant, who both continued ill, went on shore, with a party of men to hunt for cattle. A young bull of great weight was soon catched; and they found plenty of oranges, limes, and bread-fruit. On the 21st they began the necessary repairs of the ship. The fatigue sustained by those who went to hunt for cattle was so great, by going many miles thro’ thickets, that one party was ordered to relieve another; and the second Lieutenant with several of the men, being sent to reside on the north part of the island, where cattle were most plentiful, a boat was sent daily to bring in what they catched. In this island they procured beef, pork, poultry, papaw-apples, and all the other refreshments, of which an account is given in Anson’s Voyage.