Читать книгу The Voyages of Captain Cook Around the World (All 7 Volumes) - Georg Forster - Страница 18

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THE OBSERVATORY SET UP; THE QUADRANT STOLEN, AND CONSEQUENCES OF THE THEFT: A VISIT TO TOOTAHAH: DESCRIPTION OF A WRESTLING-MATCH: EUROPEAN SEEDS SOWN: NAMES GIVEN TO OUR PEOPLE BY THE INDIANS.

In the afternoon of Monday the first of May, we set up the observatory, and took the astronomical quadrant, with some other instruments, on shore, for the first time.

The next morning, about nine o’clock, I went on shore with Mr. Green to fix the quadrant in a situation for use, when to our inexpressible surprise and concern it was not to be found. It had been deposited in the tent which was reserved for my use, where, as I passed the night on board, nobody slept: it had never been taken out of the packing-case, which was eighteen inches square, and the whole was of considerable weight; a sentinel had been posted the whole night within five yards of the tent door, and none of the other instruments were missing. We at first suspected that it might have been stolen by some of our own people, who seeing a deal box, and not knowing the contents, might think it contained nails, or some other subjects of traffic with the natives. A large reward was therefore offered to any one who could find it, as, without this, we could not perform the service for which our voyage was principally undertaken. Our search in the mean time was not confined to the fort and places adjacent, but as the case might possibly have been carried back to the ship, if any of our own people had been the thieves, the most diligent search was made for it on board; all the parties, however, returned without any news of the quadrant. Mr. Banks, therefore, who upon such occasions declined neither labour nor risk, and who had more influence over the Indians than any of us, determined to go in search of it into the woods; he hoped, that if it had been stolen by the natives, he should find it wherever they had opened the box, as they would immediately discover that to them it would be wholly useless: or, if in this expectation he should be disappointed, that he might recover it by the ascendancy he had acquired over the chiefs. He set out, accompanied by a midshipman and Mr. Green, and as he was crossing the river he was met by Tubourai Tamaide, who immediately made the figure of a triangle with three bits of straw upon his hand. By this Mr. Banks knew that the Indians were the thieves; and that, although they had opened the case, they were not disposed to part with the contents. No time was therefore to be lost, and Mr. Banks made Tubourai Tamaide understand, that he must instantly go with him to the place whither the quadrant had been carried; he consented, and they set out together to the eastward, the chief enquiring at every house which they passed after the thief by name: the people readily told him which way he was gone, and how long it was since he had been there: the hope which this gave them that they should overtake him, supported them under their fatigue, and they pressed forward, sometimes walking, sometimes running, though the weather was intolerably hot; when they had climbed a hill at the distance of about four miles, their conductor showed them a point full three miles farther, and gave them to understand that they were not to expect the instrument till they had got thither. Here they paused; they had no arms, except a pair of pistols, which Mr. Banks always carried in his pocket; they were going to a place that was at least seven miles distant from the fort, where the Indians might be less submissive than at home, and to take from them what they had ventured their lives to get; and what, notwithstanding our conjectures, they appeared desirous to keep: these were discouraging circumstances, and their situation would become more critical at every step. They determined, however, not to relinquish their enterprise, nor to pursue it without taking the best measures for their security that were in their power. It was therefore determined, that Mr. Banks and Mr. Green should go on, and that the midshipman should return to me, and desire that I would send a party of men after them, acquainting me at the same time, that it was impossible they should return till it was dark. Upon receiving this message, I set out, with such a party as I thought sufficient for the occasion; leaving orders, both at the ship and at the fort, that no canoe should be suffered to go out of the bay, but that none of the natives should be seized or detained.

In the mean time, Mr. Banks and Mr. Green pursued their journey, under the auspices of Tubourai Tamaide, and in the very spot which he had specified, they met one of his own people, with part of the quadrant in his hand. At this most welcome sight they stopped; and a great number of Indians immediately came up, some of whom pressing rather rudely upon them, Mr. Banks thought it necessary to show one of his pistols, the sight of which reduced them instantly to order: as the crowd that gathered round them was every moment increasing, he marked out a circle in the grass, and they ranged themselves on the outside of it to the number of several hundreds with great quietness and decorum. Into the middle of this circle, the box, which was now arrived, was ordered to be brought, with several reading-glasses, and other small matters, which in their hurry they had put into a pistol-case, that Mr. Banks knew to be his property, it having been some time before stolen from the tents, with a horse pistol in it, which he immediately demanded, and which was also restored.

Mr. Green was impatient to see whether all that had been taken away was returned, and upon examining the box found the stand, and a few small things of less consequence, wanting; several persons were sent in search of these, and most of the small things were returned: but it was signified that the thief had not brought the stand so far, and that it would be delivered to our friends as they went back; this being confirmed by Tubourai Tamaide, they prepared to return, as nothing would then be wanting but what might easily be supplied; and after they had advanced about two miles, I met them with my party, to our mutual satisfaction, congratulating each other upon the recovery of the quadrant, with a pleasure proportionate to the importance of the event.

About eight o’clock, Mr. Banks with Tubourai Tamaide got back to the fort; when to his great surprise, he found Tootahah in custody, and many of the natives in the utmost terror and distress, crowding about the gate. He went hastily in, some of the Indians were suffered to follow him, and the scene was extremely affecting. Tubourai Tamaide pressing forward, ran up to Tootahah, and catching him in his arms, they both burst into tears, and wept over each other, without being able to speak: the other Indians were also in tears for their chief, both he and they being strongly possessed with the notion that he was to be put to death. In this situation they continued till I entered the fort, which was about a quarter of an hour afterwards. I was equally surprised and concerned at what had happened, the confining Tootahah being contrary to my orders, and therefore instantly set him at liberty. Upon inquiring into the affair, I was told, that my going into the woods with a party of men under arms, at a time when a robbery had been committed, which it was supposed I should resent, in proportion to our apparent injury by the loss, had so alarmed the natives, that in the evening they began to leave the neighbourhood of the fort with their effects: that a double canoe having been seen to put off from the bottom of the bay by Mr. Gore, the second lieutenant, who was left in command on board the ship, and who had received orders not to suffer any canoe to go out, he sent the boatswain with a boat after her to bring her back: that as soon as the boat came up, the Indians being alarmed, leaped into the sea; and that Tootahah, being unfortunately one of the number, the boatswain took him up, and brought him to the ship, suffering the rest of the people to swim on shore: that Mr. Gore, not sufficiently attending to the order that none of the people should be confined, had sent him to the fort, and Mr. Hicks, the first lieutenant, who commanded there, receiving him in charge from Mr. Gore, did not think himself at liberty to dismiss him.

The notion that we intended to put him to death had possessed him so strongly, that he could not be persuaded to the contrary till by my orders he was led out of the fort. The people received him as they would have done a father in the same circumstances, and every one pressed forward to embrace him. Sudden joy is commonly liberal, without a scrupulous regard to merit: and Tootahah, in the first expansion of his heart, upon being unexpectedly restored to liberty and life, insisted upon our receiving a present of two hogs; though, being conscious that upon this occasion we had no claim to favours, we refused them many times.

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander attended the next morning in their usual capacity of marketmen, but very few Indians appeared, and those who came brought no provisions. Tootahah, however, sent some of his people for the canoe that had been detained, which they took away. A canoe having also been detained that belonged to Oberea, Tupia, the person who managed her affairs when the Dolphin was here, was sent to examine whether any thing on board had been taken away: and he was so well satisfied of the contrary, that he left the canoe where he found it, and joined us at the fort, where he spent the day, and slept on board the canoe at night. About noon, some fishing boats came abreast of the tents, but would part with very little of what they had on board; and we felt the want of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit very severely. In the course of the day, Mr. Banks walked out into the woods, that by conversing with the people he might recover their confidence and good-will: he found them civil, but they all complained of the ill-treatment of their Chief; who, they said, had been beaten and pulled by the hair. Mr. Banks endeavoured to convince them, that he had suffered no personal violence, which to the best of our knowledge was true; yet, perhaps the boatswain had behaved with a brutality which he was afraid or ashamed to acknowledge. The Chief himself being probably, upon recollection, of opinion that we had ill deserved the hogs, which he had left with us as a present, sent a messenger in the afternoon to demand an axe, and a shirt, in return: but as I was told that he did not intend to come down to the fort for ten days, I excused myself from giving them till I should see him, hoping that his impatience might induce him to fetch them, and knowing that absence would probably continue the coolness between us, to which the first interview might put an end.

The next day we were still more sensible of the inconvenience we had incurred by giving offence to the people in the person of their chief, for the market was so ill-supplied that we were in want of necessaries. Mr. Banks therefore went into the woods to Tubourai Tamaide, and with some difficulty persuaded him to let us have five baskets of bread-fruit; a very seasonable supply, as they contained above one hundred and twenty. In the afternoon another messenger arrived from Tootahah for the axe and shirt; as it was now become absolutely necessary to recover the friendship of this man, without which it would be scarcely possible to procure provisions, I sent word that Mr. Banks and myself would visit him on the morrow, and bring what he wanted with us.

Early the next morning he sent again to remind me of my promise, and his people seemed to wait till we should set out with great impatience: I therefore ordered the pinnace, in which I embarked with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander about ten o’clock: we took one of Tootahah’s people in the boat with us, and in about an hour we arrived at his place of residence which is called Eparre, and is about four miles to the westward of the tents.

We found the people waiting for us in great numbers upon the shore, so that it would have been impossible for us to have proceeded, if way had not been made for us by a tall well-looking man, who had something like a turban about his head, and a long white stick in his hand, with which he laid about him at an unmerciful rate. This man conducted us to the chief, while the people shouted round us, Taio Tootahah, “Tootahah is your friend.” We found him, like an ancient Patriarch, sitting under a tree, with a number of venerable old men standing round him; he made a sign to us to sit down, and immediately asked for his axe: this I presented to him, with an upper garment of broad cloth, made after the country fashion, and trimmed with tape, to which I also added a shirt: he received them with great satisfaction, and immediately put on the garment; but the shirt he gave to the person who had cleared the way for us upon our landing, who was now seated by us, and of whom he seemed desirous that we should take particular notice. In a short time, Oberea, and several other women whom we knew, came and sat down among us: Tootahah left us several times, but after a short absence returned; we thought it had been to shew himself in his new finery to the people, but we wronged him, for it was to give directions for our refreshment and entertainment. While we were waiting for his return the last time he left us, very impatient to be dismissed, as we were almost suffocated in the crowd, word was brought us, that he expected us elsewhere: we found him sitting under the awning of our own boat, and making signs that we should come to him: as many of us therefore went on board as the boat would hold, and he then ordered bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts to be brought, of both which we tasted, rather to gratify him than because we had a desire to eat. A message was soon after brought him, upon which he went out of the boat, and we were in a short time desired to follow. We were conducted to a large area or court-yard, which was railed round with bamboos about three feet high, on one side of his house, where an entertainment was provided for us, entirely new: this was a wrestling-match. At the upper end of the area sat the chief, and several of his principal men were ranged on each side of him, so as to form a semicircle; these were the judges, by whom the victor was to be applauded; seats were also left for us at each end of the line; but we chose rather to be at liberty among the rest of the spectators.

When all was ready, ten or twelve persons, whom we understood to be the combatants, and who were naked, except a cloth that was fastened about the waist, entered the area, and walked slowly round it, in a stooping posture, with their left hands on their right breasts, and their right hands open, with which they frequently struck the left fore-arm so as to produce a quick smart sound: this was a general challenge to the combatants whom they were to engage, or any other person present: after these followed others in the same manner, and then a particular challenge was given, by which each man singled out his antagonist: this was done by joining the finger ends of both hands, and bringing them to the breast, at the same time moving the elbows up and down with a quick motion: if the person to whom this was addressed accepted the challenge, he repeated the signs, and immediately each put himself into an attitude to engage; the next minute they closed; but, except in first seizing each other, it was a mere contest of strength: each endeavoured to lay hold of the other, first by the thigh, and if that failed by the hand, the hair, the cloth, or elsewhere as he could: when this was done they grappled, without the least dexterity or skill, till one of them, by having a more advantageous hold, or greater muscular force, threw the other on his back. When the contest was over, the old men gave their plaudits to the victor in a few words, which they repeated together in a kind of tune: his conquest was also generally celebrated by three huzzas. The entertainment was then suspended for a few minutes, after which another couple of wrestlers came forward and engaged in the same manner: if it happened that neither was thrown, after the contest had continued about a minute, they parted, either by consent or the intervention of their friends, and in this case each slapped his arm, as a challenge to a new engagement, either with the same antagonist or some other. While the wrestlers were engaged, another party of men performed a dance which lasted also about a minute; but neither of these parties took the least notice of each other, their attention being wholly fixed on what they were doing. We observed with pleasure, that the conqueror never exulted over the vanquished, and that the vanquished never repined at the success of the conqueror; the whole contest was carried on with perfect good-will and good-humour, though in the presence of at least five hundred spectators, of whom some were women. The number of women indeed was comparatively small, none but those of rank were present, and we had reason to believe that they would not have been spectators of this exercise but in compliment to us.

This lasted about two hours; during all which time the man who had made way for us when we landed, kept the people at a proper distance, by striking those who pressed forward very severely with his stick: upon inquiry we learnt, that he was an officer belonging to Tootahah, acting as a master of the ceremonies.

It is scarcely possible for those who are acquainted with the athletic sports of very remote antiquity, not to remark a rude resemblance of them in this wrestling-match among the natives of a little island in the midst of the Pacific Ocean: and even our female readers may recollect the account given of them by Fenelon in his Telemachus, where, though the events are fictitious, the manners of the age are faithfully transcribed from authors by whom they are supposed to have been truly related.

When the wrestling was over, we were given to understand that two hogs, and a large quantity of bread-fruit, were preparing for our dinner, which, as our appetites were now keen, was very agreeable intelligence. Our host, however, seemed to repent of his liberality; for, instead of setting his two hogs before us, he ordered one of them to be carried into our boat; at first we were not sorry for this new disposition of matters, thinking that we should dine more comfortably in the boat than on shore, as the crowd would more easily be kept at a distance: but when we came on board, he ordered us to proceed with his hog to the ship: this was mortifying, as we were now to row four miles while our dinner was growing cold; however, we thought fit to comply, and were at last gratified with the cheer that he had provided, of which he and Tubourai Tamaide had a liberal share.

Our reconciliation with this man operated upon the people like a charm; for he was no sooner known to be on board, than bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and other provisions were brought to the fort in great plenty.

Affairs now went on in the usual channel; but pork being still a scarce commodity, our master, Mr. Mollineux, and Mr. Green, went in the pinnace to the eastward, on the 8th, early in the morning to see whether they could procure any hogs or poultry in that part of the country: they proceeded in that direction twenty miles; but though they saw many hogs, and one turtle, they could not purchase either at any price: the people every where told them, that they all belonged to Tootahah, and that they could sell none of them without his permission. We now began to think that this man was indeed a great prince; for an influence so extensive and absolute could be acquired by no other. And we afterwards found that he administered the government of this part of the island, as sovereign, for a minor whom we never saw all the time that we were upon it. When Mr. Green returned from this expedition, he said he had seen a tree of a size which he was afraid to relate, it being no less than sixty yards in circumference; but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander soon explained to him, that it was a species of the fig, the branches of which, bending down, take fresh root in the earth, and thus form a congeries of trunks, which being very close to each other, and all joined by a common vegetation, might easily be mistaken for one.

Though the market at the fort was now tolerably supplied, provisions were brought more slowly; a sufficient quantity used to be purchased between sunrise and eight o’clock, but it was now become necessary to attend the greatest part of the day. Mr. Banks, therefore, fixed his little boat up before the door of the fort, which was of great use as a place to trade in: hitherto we had purchased cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit for beads; but the market becoming rather slack in these articles, we were now, for the first time, forced to bring out our nails: one of our smallest size, which was about four inches long, procured us twenty cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit in proportion, so that in a short time our first plenty was restored.

On the 9th, soon after breakfast, we received a visit from Oberea, being the first that she had made us after the loss of our quadrant, and the unfortunate confinement of Tootahah; with her came her present favourite, Obadée, and Tupia: they brought us a hog and some bread-fruit, in return for which we gave her a hatchet. We had now afforded our Indian friends a new and interesting object of curiosity, our forge, which having been set up some time, was almost constantly at work. It was now common for them to bring pieces of iron, which we suppose they must have got from the Dolphin, to be made into tools of various kinds; and as I was very desirous to gratify them, they were indulged except when the smith’s time was too precious to be spared. Oberea having received her hatchet, produced as much old iron as would have made another, with a request that another might be made of it; in this, however, I could not gratify her, upon which she brought out a broken axe, and desired it might be mended: I was glad of an opportunity to compromise the difference between us: her axe was mended, and she appeared to be content. They went away at night, and took with them the canoe, which had been a considerable time at the point, but promised to return in three days.

On the 10th, I put some seeds of melons and other plants into a spot of ground which had been turned up for the purpose; they had all been sealed up by the person of whom they were bought, in small bottles with rosin; but none of them came up except mustard; even the cucumbers and melons failed, and Mr. Banks is of opinion that they were spoiled by the total exclusion of fresh air.

This day we learnt the Indian name of the island, which is Otaheite, and by that name I shall hereafter distinguish it: but after great pains taken we found it utterly impossible to teach the Indians to pronounce our names; we had, therefore, new names, consisting of such sounds as they produced in the attempt. They called me Toote; Mr. Hicks, Hete; Mollineux they renounced in absolute despair, and called the Master Boba, from his Christian name Robert; Mr. Gore was Toarro; Dr. Solander, Torano; and Mr. Banks, Tapane; Mr. Green, Eteree; Mr. Parkinson, Patini; Mr. Sporing, Polini; Petersgill, Petrodero; and in this manner they had now formed names for almost every man in the ship: in some, however, it was not easy to find any traces of the original, and they were perhaps not mere arbitrary sounds formed upon the occasion, but significant words in their own language. Monkhouse, the Midshipman, who commanded the party that killed the man for stealing the musket, they called Matte; not merely by an attempt to imitate in sound the first syllable of Monkhouse, but because Matte signifies dead; and this probably might be the case with others.