Читать книгу The Voyages of Captain Cook Around the World (All 7 Volumes) - Georg Forster - Страница 17

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AN EXCURSION TO THE EASTWARD, AN ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL INCIDENTS THAT HAPPENED BOTH ON BOARD AND ON SHORE, AND OF THE FIRST INTERVIEW WITH OBEREA, THE PERSON WHO, WHEN THE DOLPHIN WAS HERE, WAS SUPPOSED TO BE QUEEN OF THE ISLAND, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT.

On the 24th, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined the country for several miles along the shore to the eastward: for about two miles it was flat and fertile; after that, the hills stretched quite to the water’s edge, and a little farther ran out into the sea, so that they were obliged to climb over them. These hills, which were barren, continued for about three miles more, and then terminated in a large plain, which was full of good houses, and people who appeared to live in great affluence. In this place there was a river, much more considerable than that at our fort, which issued from a deep and beautiful valley, and, where our travellers crossed it, though at some distance from the sea, was near one hundred yards wide. About a mile beyond this river the country became again barren, the rocks every where projecting into the sea, for which reason they resolved to return. Just as they had formed this resolution, one of the natives offered them refreshment, which they accepted. They found this man to be of a kind that has been described by various authors, as mixed with many nations, but distinct from them all. His skin was of a dead white, without the least appearance of what is called complexion, though some parts of his body were in a small degree less white than others: his hair, eye-brows, and beard, were as white as his skin; his eyes appeared as if they were bloodshot, and he seemed to be very short-sighted.

At their return they were met by Tubourai Tamaide, and his women, who, at seeing them, felt a joy which, not being able to express, they burst into tears, and wept some time before their passion could be restrained.

This evening Dr. Solander lent his knife to one of these women, who neglected to return it, and the next morning Mr. Banks’s also was missing; upon this occasion I must bear my testimony, that the people of this country, of all ranks, men and women, are the errantest thieves upon the face of the earth. The very day after we arrived here, when they came on board us, the chiefs were employed in stealing what they could in the cabin, and their dependents were no less industrious in other parts of the ship: they snatched up every thing that it was possible for them to secrete till they got on shore, even to the glass ports, two of which they carried off undetected. Tubourai Tamaide was the only one except Tootahah who had not been found guilty; and the presumption, arising from this circumstance, that he was exempt from a vice, of which the whole nation besides were guilty, cannot be supposed to outweigh strong appearances to the contrary. Mr. Banks, therefore, though not without some reluctance, accused him of having stolen his knife: he solemnly and steadily denied that he knew any thing of it; upon which Mr. Banks made him understand, that whoever had taken it, he was determined to have it returned: upon this resolute declaration, one of the natives who was present produced a rag, in which three knives were very carefully tied up. One was that which Dr. Solander had lent to the woman, another was a table-knife belonging to me, and the owner of the third was not known. With these the chief immediately set out, in order to make restitution of them to their owners at the tents. Mr. Banks remained with the women, who expressed great apprehensions that some mischief was designed against their lord. When he came to the tents, he restored one of the knives to Dr. Solander, and another to me, the third not being owned, and then began to search for Mr. Banks’s in all the places where he had ever seen it. After some time, one of Mr. Banks’s servants, understanding what he was about, immediately fetched his master’s knife, which it seems he had laid by the day before, and till now knew nothing of its having been missed. Tubourai Tamaide, upon this demonstration of his innocence, expressed the strongest emotions of mind, both in his looks and gestures: the tears started from his eyes; and he made signs with the knife, that, if he was ever guilty of such an action as had been imputed to him, he would submit to have his throat cut. He then rushed out of the lines, and returned hastily to Mr. Banks, with a countenance that severely reproached him with his suspicions. Mr. Banks soon understood that the knife had been received from his servant, and was scarcely less affected at what had happened than the chief: he felt himself to be the guilty person, and was very desirous to atone for his fault. The poor Indian, however violent his passions, was a stranger to sullen resentment; and upon Mr. Banks’s spending a little time familiarly with him, and making him a few trifling presents, he forgot the wrongs that had been done him, and was perfectly reconciled.

Upon this occasion it may be observed, that these people have a knowledge of right and wrong from the mere dictates of natural conscience; and involuntarily condemn themselves when they do that to others which they would condemn others for doing to them. That Tubourai Tamaide felt the force of moral obligation is certain; for the imputation of an action which he considered as indifferent would not, when it appeared to be groundless, have moved him with such excess of passion. We must indeed estimate the virtue of these people by the only standard of morality, the conformity of their conduct to what in their opinion is right; but we must not hastily conclude that theft is a testimony of the same depravity in them that it is in us, in the instances in which our people were sufferers by their dishonesty; for their temptation was such as to surmount would be considered as a proof of uncommon integrity among those who have more knowledge, better principles, and stronger motives to resist the temptations of illicit advantage: an Indian among penny knives, and beads, or even nails and broken glass, is in the same state of trial with the meanest servant in Europe among unlocked coffers of jewels and gold.

On the 26th, I mounted six swivel guns upon the fort, which I was sorry to see struck the natives with dread: some fishermen who lived upon the point removed farther off, and Owhaw told us, by signs, that in four days we should fire great guns.

On the 27th, Tubourai Tamaide, with a friend, who ate with a voracity that I never saw before, and the three women that usually attended him, whose names were Terapo, Tirao, and Omie, dined at the fort: in the evening they took their leave, and set out for the house which Tubourai Tamaide had set up in the skirts of the wood; but in less than a quarter of an hour he returned in great emotion, and hastily seizing Mr. Banks’s arm, made signs that he should follow him. Mr. Banks immediately complied, and they soon came up to a place where they found the ship’s butcher, with a reaping-hook in his hand: here the chief stopped, and, in a transport of rage which rendered his signs scarcely intelligible, intimated that the butcher had threatened, or attempted, to cut his wife’s throat with the reaping-hook. Mr. Banks then signified to him, that if he could fully explain the offence, the man should be punished. Upon this he became more calm, and made Mr. Banks understand that the offender, having taken a fancy to a stone-hatchet which lay in his house, had offered to purchase it of his wife for a nail: that she having refused to part with it upon any terms, he had catched it up, and throwing down the nail, threatened to cut her throat if she made any resistance: to prove this charge the hatchet and the nail were produced, and the butcher had so little to say in his defence, that there was not the least reason to doubt of its truth.

Mr. Banks having reported this matter to me, I took an opportunity, when the chief and his women, with other Indians, were on board the ship, to call up the butcher, and after a recapitulation of the charge and the proof, I gave orders that he should be punished, as well to prevent other offences of the same kind, as to acquit Mr. Banks of his promise: the Indians saw him stripped and tied up to the rigging with a fixed attention, waiting in silent suspense for the event; but as soon as the first stroke was given, they interfered with great agitation, earnestly intreating that the rest of the punishment might be remitted: to this, however, for many reasons, I could not consent, and when they found that they could not prevail by their intercession, they gave vent to their pity by tears.

Their tears, indeed, like those of children, were always ready to express any passion that was strongly excited, and like those of children they also appeared to be forgotten as soon as shed; of which the following, among many others, is a remarkable instance. Very early in the morning of the 28th, even before it was day, a great number of them came down to the fort, and Terapo being observed among the women on the outside of the gate, Mr. Banks went out and brought her in; he saw that the tears then stood in her eyes, and as soon as she entered they began to flow in great abundance: he enquired earnestly the cause, but instead of answering she took from under her garment a shark’s tooth, and struck it six or seven times into her head with great force; a profusion of blood followed, and she talked loud, but in a most melancholy tone, for some minutes, without at all regarding his enquiries, which he repeated with still more impatience and concern, while the other Indians, to his great surprise, talked and laughed, without taking the least notice of her distress. But her own behaviour was still more extraordinary. As soon as the bleeding was over, she looked up with a smile, and began to collect some small pieces of cloth, which during her bleeding she had thrown down to catch the blood; as soon as she had picked them all up, she carried them out of the tent, and threw them into the sea, carefully dispersing them abroad, as if she wished to prevent the sight of them from reviving the remembrance of what she had done. She then plunged into the river, and after having washed her whole body returned to the tents with the same gaiety and cheerfulness as if nothing had happened.

It is not, indeed, strange, that the sorrows of these artless people should be transient, any more than that their passions should be suddenly and strongly expressed: what they feel they have never been taught either to disguise or suppress, and having no habits of thinking which perpetually recall the past, and anticipate the future, they are affected by all the changes of the passing hour, and reflect the colour of the time, however frequently it may vary: they have no project which is to be pursued from day to day, the subject of unremitted anxiety and solicitude, that first rushes into the mind when they awake in the morning, and is last dismissed when they sleep at the night. Yet if we admit that they are upon the whole happier than we, we must admit that the child is happier than the man, and that we are losers by the perfection of our nature, the increase of our knowledge, and the enlargement of our views.

Canoes were continually coming in during all this forenoon, and the tents at the fort were crowded with people of both sexes from different parts of the island. I was myself busy on board the ship, but Mr. Mollineux, our master, who was one of those that made the last voyage in the Dolphin, went on shore. As soon as he entered Mr. Banks’s tent he fixed his eyes upon one of the women, who was sitting there with great composure among the rest, and immediately declared her to be the person who at that time was supposed to be the queen of the island; she also, at the same time, acknowledging him to be one of the strangers whom she had seen before. The attention of all present was now diverted from every other object, and wholly engaged in considering a person who had made so distinguished a figure in the accounts that had been given of this island by its first discoverers; and we soon learnt that her name was Oberea. She seemed to be about forty years of age, and was not only tall, but of a large make; her skin was white, and there was an uncommon intelligence and sensibility in her eyes: she appeared to have been handsome when she was young, but at this time little more than memorials of her beauty were left.

As soon as her quality was known, an offer was made to conduct her to the ship. Of this she readily accepted, and came on board with two men and several women, who seemed to be all of her family: I received her with such marks of distinction as I thought would gratify her most, and was not sparing of my presents, among which this august personage seemed particularly delighted with a child’s doll. After some time spent on board, I attended her back to the shore; and as soon as we landed, she presented me with a hog, and several bunches of plantains, which she caused to be carried from her canoes up to the fort in a kind of procession, of which she and myself brought up the rear. In our way to the fort we met Tootahah, who, though not king, appeared to be at this time invested with the sovereign authority; he seemed not to be well pleased with the distinction that was showed to the lady, and became so jealous when she produced her doll, that to propitiate him it was thought proper to compliment him with another. At this time he thought fit to prefer a doll to a hatchet; but this preference arose only from a childish jealousy, which could not be soothed but by a gift of exactly the same kind with that which had been presented to Oberea; for dolls in a very short time were universally considered as trifles of no value.

The men who had visited us from time to time had, without scruple, eaten of our provisions; but the women had never yet been prevailed upon to taste a morsel. To day, however, though they refused the most pressing solicitations to dine with the gentlemen, they afterwards retired to the servants’ apartment, and ate of plantains very heartily; a mystery of female economy here, which none of us could explain.

On the 29th, not very early in the forenoon, Mr. Banks went to pay his court to Oberea, and was told that she was still asleep under the awning of her canoe: thither therefore he went, intending to call her up, a liberty which he thought he might take, without any danger of giving offence: but, upon looking into her chamber, to his great astonishment he found her in bed with a handsome young fellow about five-and-twenty, whose name was Obadée: he retreated with some haste and confusion, but was soon made to understand, that such amours gave no occasion to scandal, and that Obadée was universally known to have been selected by her as the object of her private favours. The lady being too polite to suffer Mr. Banks to wait long in her antichamber, dressed herself with more than usual expedition; and, as a token of special grace, clothed him in a suit of fine cloth and proceeded with him to the tents. In the evening Mr. Banks paid a visit to Tubourai Tamaide, as he had often done before, by candle-light, and was equally grieved and surprised to find him and his family in a melancholy mood, and most of them in tears: he endeavoured in vain to discover the cause, and therefore his stay among them was but short. When he reported this circumstance to the officers at the fort, they recollected that Owhaw had foretold, that in four days we should fire our great guns; and as this was the eve of the third day, the situation in which Tubourai Tamaide and his family had been found alarmed them. The sentries therefore were doubled at the fort, and the gentlemen slept under arms. At two in the morning, Mr. Banks himself went round the point, but found every thing so quiet, that he gave up all suspicions of mischief intended by the natives as groundless. We had, however, another source of security,—our little fortification was now complete. The north and south sides consisted of a bank of earth four feet and a half high on the inside, and a ditch without ten feet broad and six deep: on the west side, facing the bay, there was a bank of earth four feet high, and palisadoes upon that, but no ditch, the works here being at high-water mark: on the east side, upon the bank of the river, was placed a double row of water-casks, filled with water; and as this was the weakest side, the two four pounders were planted there, and six swivel guns were mounted so as to command the only two avenues from the woods. Our garrison consisted of about five-and-forty men with small arms, including the officers and the gentlemen who resided on shore; and our sentries were as well relieved as in the best regulated frontier in Europe.

We continued our vigilance the next day, though we had no particular reason to think it necessary; but about ten o’clock in the morning, Tomio came running to the tents, with a mixture of grief and fear in her countenance, and taking Mr. Banks, to whom they applied in every emergency and distress, by the arm, intimated that Tubourai Tamaide was dying, in consequence of something which our people had given him to eat, and that he must instantly go with her to his house. Mr. Banks set out without delay, and found his Indian friend leaning his head against a post, in an attitude of the utmost languor and despondency: the people about him intimated that he had been vomiting, and brought out a leaf folded up with great care, which they said contained some of the poison, by the deleterious effects of which he was now dying. Mr. Banks hastily opened the leaf, and upon examining its contents found them to be no other than a chew of tobacco, which the chief had begged of some of our people, and which they had indiscreetly given him: he had observed that they kept it long in the mouth, and being desirous of doing the same, he had chewed it to powder, and swallowed the spittle. During the examination of the leaf and its contents, he looked up at Mr. Banks with the most piteous aspect, and intimated that he had but a very short time to live. Mr. Banks, however, being now master of his disease, directed him to drink plentifully of cocoa-nut milk, which in a short time put an end to his sickness and apprehensions; and he spent the day at the fort with that uncommon flow of cheerfulness and good humour which is always produced by a sudden and unexpected relief from pain either of body or mind.

Captain Wallis having brought home one of the adzes which these people, having no metal of any kind, make of stone, Mr. Stevens, the secretary to the Admiralty, procured one to be made of iron in imitation of it, which I brought out with me, to show how much we excelled in making tools after their own fashion: this I had not yet produced, as it never happened to come into my mind. But on the first of May Tootahah coming on board about ten o’clock in the forenoon, expressed a great curiosity to see the contents of every chest and drawer that was in my cabin: as I always made a point of gratifying him, I opened them immediately; and having taken a fancy to many things that he saw, and collected them together, he at last happened to cast his eye upon this adze: he instantly snatched it up with the greatest eagerness, and putting away every thing which he had before selected, he asked me whether I would let him have that: I readily consented; and, as if he was afraid I should repent, he carried it off immediately in a transport of joy, without making any other request, which, whatever had been our liberality, was seldom the case.

About noon, a chief, who had dined with me a few days before, accompanied by some of his women, came on board alone: I had observed that he was fed by his women, but I made no doubt that upon occasion he would condescend to feed himself: in this, however, I found myself mistaken. When my noble guest was seated, and the dinner upon the table, I helped him to some victuals: as I observed that he did not immediately begin his meal, I pressed him to eat; but he still continued to sit motionless like a statue, without attempting to put a single morsel into his mouth, and would certainly have gone without his dinner, if one of the servants had not fed him.