| A great many canoes, filled with the natives,
were about the ships all day; and a trade commenced betwixt us and them,
which was carried on with the strictest honesty on both sides. The
articles which they offered to sale were skins of various animals, such as
bears, wolves, foxes, deer, racoons, polecats, martins; and, in
particular, of the sea otters, which are found at the islands east of
Kamtschatka. Besides the skins in their native shape, they also brought
garments made of them, and another sort of clothing made of the bark of a
tree, or some plant like hemp; weapons, such as bows, arrows, and spears;
fish-hooks, and instruments of various kinds; wooden vizors of many
different monstrous figures; a sort of woollen stuff, or blanketing; bags
filled with red ochre; pieces of carved work; beads; and several other
little ornaments of thin brass or iron, shaped like a horse-shoe, which
they hang at their noses; and several chisels, or pieces of iron fixed to
handles. From their possessing which metals, we could infer that they had
either been visited before by some civilised nation, or had connexions
with tribes on their continent who had communication with them. But the
most extraordinary of all the articles which they brought to the ships for
sale were human skulls, and hands not yet quite stripped of the flesh,
which they made our people plainly understand they had eaten, and indeed,
some of them had evident marks that they had been upon the fire. We had
but too much reason to suspect, from this circumstance, that the horrid
practice of feeding on their enemies is as prevalent here as we had found
it to be at New Zealand and other South Sea Islands. For the various
articles which they brought, they took in exchange knives, chisels, pieces
of iron and tin, nails, looking-glasses, buttons, or any kind of metal.
Glass beads they were not fond of; and cloth of every sort they rejected.
We employed the next day in hauling our ships
into the cove, where they were moored head and stern, fastening our
hawsers to the trees on shore. On heaving up the anchor of the Resolution,
we found, notwithstanding the great depth of water in which it was let go,
that there were rocks at the bottom. These had done some considerable
damage to the cable; and the hawsers that were carried out, to warp the
ship into the cove, also got foul of rocks; from which it appeared that
the whole bottom was strewed with them. The ship being again very leaky in
her upper works, I ordered the carpenters to go to work to caulk her, and
to repair such other defects as on examination we might discover.
The fame of our arrival brought a great concourse
of the natives to our ships in the course of this day. We counted above a
hundred canoes at one time, which might be supposed to contain, at an
average, five persons each; for few of them had less than three on board;
great numbers had seven, eight, or nine; and one was manned with no less
than seventeen. Amongst these visitors, many now favoured us with their
company for the first time, which we could guess from their approaching
the ships with their orations and other ceremonies. If they had any
distrust or fear of us at first, they now appeared to have laid it aside;
for they came on board the ships, and mixed with our people with the
greatest freedom. We soon discovered, by this nearer intercourse, that
they were as light-fingered as any of our friends in the islands we had
visited in the course of the voyage. And they were far more dangerous
thieves; for, possessing sharp iron instruments, they could cut a hook
from a tackle, or any other piece of iron from a rope, the instant that
our backs were turned. A large hook, weighing between twenty and thirty
pounds, several smaller ones, and other articles of iron, were lost in
this manner. And, as to our boats, they stripped them of every bit of iron
that was worth carrying away, though we had always men left in them as a
guard. They were dexterous enough in effecting their purposes; for one
fellow would contrive to amuse the boat-keeper at one end of a boat, while
another was pulling out the iron work at the other. If we missed a thing
immediately after it had been stolen, we found little difficulty in
detecting the thief, as they were ready enough to impeach one another. But
the guilty person generally relinquished his prize with reluctance; and
sometimes we found it necessary to have recourse to force.
The ships being securely moored, we began our
other necessary business the next day. The observatories were carried
ashore, and placed upon an elevated rock on one side of the cove, close to
the Resolution. A party of men, with an officer, was sent to cut
wood, and to clear a place for the conveniency of watering. Others were
employed to brew spruce-beer, as pine trees abounded here. The forge was
also set up, to make the iron-work wanting for the repairs of the
foremast. But, besides one of the bibs being defective, the larboard
trestle-tree, and one of the cross-trees, were sprung.
A considerable number of the natives visited us
daily; and every now and then we saw new faces. On their first coming,
they generally went through a singular mode of introducing themselves.
They would paddle, with all their strength, quite round both ships, a
chief, or other principal person, in the canoe, standing up with a spear,
or some other weapon, in his hand, and speaking, or rather hallooing all
the time. Sometimes the orator of the canoe would have his face covered
with a mask, representing either a human visage, or that of some animal;
and, instead of a weapon, would hold a rattle in his hand². After making
this circuit round the ships, they would come alongside, and begin to
trade without further ceremony. Very often, indeed, they would first give
us a song, in which all in the canoe joined, with a very pleasing harmony.
During these visits they gave us no other trouble
than to guard against their thievish tricks. But, in the morning of the
4th, we had a serious alarm. Our party on shore, who were employed in
cutting wood and filling water, observed that the natives all around them
were arming themselves in the best manner they could; those who were not
possessed of proper weapons, preparing sticks and collecting stones. On
hearing this I thought it prudent to arm also; but being determined to act
upon the defensive, I ordered all our workmen to retreat to the rock, upon
which we had placed our observatories; leaving the natives in quiet
possession of the ground where they had assembled, which was within a
stone's throw of the Resolution's stern. Our fears were
ill-grounded: these hostile preparations were not directed against us, but
against a body of their own countrymen, who were coming to fight them; and
our friends of the Sound, on observing our apprehensions, used their best
endeavours to convince us that this was the case. We could see that they
had people looking out, on each point of the cove, and canoes frequently
passed between them and the main body assembled near the ships. At length
the adverse party, in about a dozen large canoes, appeared off the south
point of the cove, where they stopped, and lay drawn up in line of battle,
a negotiation having commenced. Some people in canoes, in conducting the
treaty, passed between the two parties, and there was some speaking on
both sides. At length, the difference whatever it was, seemed to be
compromised; but the strangers were not allowed to come alongside the
ships, nor to have any trade or intercourse with us. Probably we were the
cause of the quarrel; the strangers, perhaps, being desirous to share in
the advantages of a trade with us; and our first friends, the inhabitants
of the Sound, being determined to engross us entirely to themselves. We
had proofs of this on several other occasions; nay, it appeared that even
those who lived in the Sound were not united in the same cause; for the
weaker were frequently obliged to give way to the stronger party, and
plundered of everything, without attempting to make the least resistance.
We resumed our work in the afternoon, and the
next day, rigged the foremast; the head of which being rather too small
for the cap, the carpenter went to work to fix a piece on one side, to
fill up the vacant space. In cutting into the mast-head for this purpose,
and examining the state of it, both cheeks were found to be so rotten that
there was no possibility of repairing them; and it became necessary to get
the mast out, and to fix new ones upon it. It was evident that one of the
cheeks had been defective at the first, and that the unsound part had been
cut out, and a piece put in, which had not only weakened the mast-head,
but had, in a great measure, been the occasion of rotting every other part
of both cheeks. Thus, when we were almost ready to put to sea, we had all
our work to do over again; and what was still more provoking, an
additional repair was to be undertaken, which would require some time to
be completed. But as there was no remedy, we immediately set about it. It
was fortunate for the voyage that these defects were discovered when we
were in a place where the materials requisite were to be procured. For,
amongst the drift-wood in the cove where the ships lay, were some small
seasoned trees very fit for our purpose. One of these was pitched upon;
and the carpenters began, without loss of time, to make out of it two new
cheeks. In the morning of the 7th, we got the foremast out, and hauled it
ashore; and the carpenters of the ships were set to work upon it. Some
parts of the lower standing rigging having been found to be very much
decayed, as we had time now to put them in order, while the carpenters
were repairing the foremast, I ordered a new set of main-rigging to be
fitted, and a more perfect set of fore-rigging to be selected out of the
best parts of the old.
From the time of our putting into the Sound till
now, the weather had been exceedingly fine, without either wind or rain.
That comfort, at the very moment when the continuance of it would have
been of most service, was withdrawn. In the morning of the 8th, the wind
freshened at south-east, attended with thick hazy weather and rain. In the
afternoon the wind increased; and toward the evening it blew very hard
indeed. It came, in excessively heavy squalls, from over the high land on
the opposite shore, right into the cove; and, though the ships were very
well moored, put them in some danger. These tempestuous blasts succeeded
each other pretty quick; but they were of short duration; and in the
intervals between them we had a perfect calm. According to the old
proverb, "misfortunes seldom come single"; the mizen was now the
only mast on board the Resolution that remained rigged, with its
topmast up. The former was so defective that it could not support the
latter during the violence of the squalls, but gave way at the head under
the rigging. About eight o'clock the gale abated; but the rain continued
with very little intermission for several days; and, that the carpenters
might be enabled to proceed in their labours, while it prevailed, a tent
was erected over the foremast, where they could work with some degree of
convenience. The bad weather which now came on did not, however, hinder
the natives from visiting us daily; and, in such circumstances, their
visits were very advantageous to us. For they frequently brought us a
tolerable supply of fish, when we could not catch any ourselves with hook
and line; and there was not a proper place near us where we could draw a
net. The fish which they brought us were either sardines, or what
resembled them much, a small kind of bream, and sometimes small cod.
On the 11th, notwithstanding the rainy weather,
the main-rigging was fixed and got over head; and our employment, the day
after, was to take down the mizen-mast, the head of which proved to be so
rotten that it dropped off while in the slings. In the evening we were
visited by a tribe of natives whom we had never seen before; and who, in
general, were better looking people than most of our old friends, some of
whom attended them. I prevailed upon these visitors to go down into the
cabin for the first time; and observed, that there was not a single object
that fixed the attention of most of them for a moment; their countenances
marking that they looked upon all our novelties with the utmost
indifference. This, however, was not without exception; for a few of the
company showed a certain degree of curiosity.
In the afternoon of the next day I went into the
woods with a party of our men, and cut down a tree for a mizen-mast. On
the day following it was brought to the place where the carpenters were
employed upon the foremast. In the evening the wind, which had been for
some time westerly, veered to the south-east, and increased to a very hard
gale, with rain, which continued till eight o'clock the next morning, when
it abated, and veered again to the west. The foremast being by this time
finished, we hauled it alongside; but the bad weather prevented our
getting it in till the afternoon, and we set about rigging it with the
greatest expedition, while the carpenters were going on with the
mizen-mast on shore. They had made very considerable progress in it on the
16th, when they discovered that the stick upon which they were at work was
sprung, or wounded, owing, as supposed, to some accident in cutting it
down. So that all our labour was thrown away; and it became necessary to
get another tree out of the woods, which employed all hands above half a
day. During these various operations several of the natives, who were
about the ships, looked on with an expressive silent surprise, which we
did not expect, from their general indifference and inattention.
We found that many of the principal natives who
lived near us, carried on a trade with more distant tribes in the articles
they had procured from us; for we observed that they would frequently
disappear for four or five days at a time, and then return with fresh
cargoes of skins and curiosities, which our people were so passionately
fond of that they always came to a good market. But we received most
benefit from such of the natives as visited us daily. These, after
disposing of all their little trifles, turned their attention to fishing,
and we never failed to partake of what they caught. We also got from these
people a considerable quantity of very good animal oil, which they had
reserved in bladders. In this traffic some would attempt to cheat us, by
mixing water with the oil; and, once or twice, they had the address to
carry their imposition so far as to fill their bladders with mere water,
without a single drop of oil. It was always better to bear with these
tricks than to make them the foundation of a quarrel; for our articles of
traffic consisted, for the most part, of mere trifles; and yet we were put
to our shifts to find a constant supply even of these. Beads, and such
other toys, of which I had some left, were in little estimation. Nothing
would go down with our visitors but metal; and brass had by this time
supplanted iron, being so eagerly sought after, that before we left this
place hardly a bit of it was left in the ships, except what belonged to
our necessary instruments. Whole suits of clothes were stripped of every
button, bureaus of their furniture, and copper kettles, tin canisters,
candle-sticks, and the like, all went to wreck; so that our American
friends here got a greater medley and variety of things from us than any
other nation whom we had visited in the course of the voyage.
After a fortnight's bad weather, the 19th proving
a fair day, we availed ourselves of it to get up the topmasts and yards,
and to fix up the rigging. And, having now finished most of our heavy
work, I set out the next morning to take a view of the Sound. I first went
to the west point, where I found a large village, and before it a very
snug harbour, in which were from nine to four fathoms' water, over a
bottom of fine sand. The people of this village, who were numerous, and to
most of whom I was well known, received me very courteously, every one
pressing me to go into his house, or rather his apartment; for several
families live under the same roof. I did not decline the invitation; and
my hospitable friends whom I visited spread a mat for me to sit upon, and
showed me every other mark of civility. In most of the houses were women
at work, making dresses of plant or bark, which they executed exactly in
the same manner that the New Zealanders manufacture their cloth. Others
were occupied in opening sardines. I had seen a large quantity of them
brought on shore from canoes, and divided by measure amongst several
people, who carried them up to their houses, where the operation of curing
them by smoke-drying is performed. They hang them on small rods, at first
about a foot from the fire; afterwards they remove them higher and higher,
to make room for others, till the rods on which the fish hang reach the
top of the house. When they are completely dried they are taken down and
packed close in bales, which they cover with mats. Thus they are kept till
wanted; and they are not a disagreeable article of food. Cod, and other
large fish, are also cured in the same manner by them; though they
sometimes dry these in the open air, without fire.
From this village I proceeded up the west side of
the Sound. For about three miles I found the shore covered with small
islands, which are so situated as to form several convenient harbours,
having various depths of water, from thirty to seven fathoms, with a good
bottom. Two leagues within the Sound, on this west side, there runs in an
arm in the the direction of north north-west; and two miles farther is
another nearly in the same direction, with a pretty large island before
it. I had no time to examine either of these arms; but have reason to
believe that they do not extend far inland, as the water was no more than
brackish at their entrances. A mile above the second arm, I found the
remains of a village. The logs or framings of the houses were standing;
but the boards that had composed their sides and roofs did not exist³.
Before this village were some large fishing weirs; but I saw nobody
attending them. These weirs were composed of pieces of wicker-work made of
small rods, some closer than others, according to the size of the fish
intended to be caught in them. These pieces of wicker-work (some at least
twenty feet by twelve), are fixed up edgewise in shallow water, by strong
poles or pickets that stand firm in the ground. Behind this ruined village
is a plain of a few hours' extent, covered with the largest pine-trees
that I ever saw. This was the more remarkable, as the elevated ground, in
most other parts of this west side of the Sound, was rather naked.
From this place I crossed over to the other, or
east side of the Sound, passing an arm of it that runs in north
north-east, to appearance not far. I now found what I had before
conjectured, that the land under which the ships lay was an island; and
that there were many smaller ones lying scattered in the Sound on the west
side of it. Opposite the north end of our large island, upon the mainland,
I observed a village, and there I landed. The inhabitants of it were not
so polite as those of the other I had just visited. But this cold
reception seemed, in a great measure, if not entirely, owing to one surly
chief, who would not let me enter their houses, following me wherever I
went; and several times, by expressive signs, marking his impatience that
I should be gone. I attempted in vain to soothe him by presents; but
though he did not refuse them, they did not alter his behaviour. Some of
the young women, better pleased with us than was their inhospitable chief,
dressed themselves expeditiously in their best apparel, and assembling in
a body welcomed us to their village, by joining in a song, which was far
from harsh or disagreeable. The day being now far spent, I proceeded for
the ships round the north end of the large island; meeting in my way with
several canoes laden with sardines, which had been just caught somewhere
in the east corner of the Sound. When I got on board I was informed, that
while I was absent the ships had been visited by some strangers, in two or
three large canoes, who by signs made our people understand that they had
come from the south-east, beyond the bay. They brought several skins,
garments, and other articles, which they bartered. But what was most
singular, two silver table-spoons were purchased from them, which, from
their peculiar shape, we supposed to be of Spanish manufacture. One of
these strangers wore them round his neck by way of ornament. These
visitors also appeared to be more plentifully supplied with iron than the
inhabitants of the Sound.
The mizen-mast being finished, it was got in and
rigged on the 21st [April, 1778]; and the carpenters were set to work to
make a new fore-topmast, to replace the one that had been carried away
some time before. Next morning, about eight o'clock, we were visited by a
number of strangers in twelve or fourteen canoes. They came into the cove
from the southward; and as soon as they had turned the point of it, they
stopped, and lay drawn up in a body above half an hour, about two or three
hundred yards from the ships. At first we thought that they were afraid to
come nearer; but we were mistaken in this, and they were only preparing an
introductory ceremony. On advancing toward the ships, they all stood up in
their canoes, and began to sing. Some of their songs, in which the whole
body joined, were in a slow, and others in quicker time; and they
accompanied their notes with the most regular motions of their hands; or
beating in concert, with their paddles, on the sides of the canoes; and
making other very expressive gestures. At the end of each song they
remained silent a few seconds, and then began again, sometimes pronouncing
the word hooee! forcibly, as a chorus. After entertaining us with
this specimen of their music, which we listened to with admiration, for
above half an hour, they came alongside the ships and bartered what they
had to dispose of. Some of our old friends of the Sound were now found to
be amongst them; and they took the whole management of the traffic between
us and the strangers, much to the advantage of the latter.
Our attendance on these visitors being finished,
Captain Clerke and I went in the forenoon with two boats to the village at
the west point of the Sound. When I was there the day before, I had
observed that plenty of grass grew near it, and it was necessary to lay in
a quantity of this as food for the few goats and sheep which were still
left on board. The inhabitants received us with the same demonstrations of
friendship which I had experienced before; and the moment we landed, I
ordered some of my people to begin their operation of cutting. I had not
the least imagination that the natives could make any objection to our
furnishing ourselves with what seemed to be of no use to them, but was
necessary for us. However, I was mistaken, for the moment that our men
began to cut, some of the inhabitants interposed and would not permit them
to proceed, saying they must "makook"; that is, must
first buy it. I was now in one of the houses, but as soon as I heard of
this, I went to the field, where I found about a dozen of the natives,
each of whom laid claim to some part of the grass that grew in this place.
I bargained with them for it, and having completed the purchase, thought
we were now at liberty to cut wherever we pleased; but here, again, it
appeared that I was under a mistake, for the liberal manner in which I had
paid the first pretended proprietors, brought fresh demands upon me from
others, so that there did not seem to be a single blade of grass that had
not a separate owner; and so many of them were to be satisfied, that I
very soon emptied my pockets. When they found that I really had nothing
more to give, their importunities ceased, and we were permitted to cut
wherever we pleased, and as much as we chose to carry away.
Here I must observe, that I have nowhere in my
several voyages met with any uncivilised nation or tribe who had such
strict notions of their having a right to the exclusive property of
everything that their country produces, as the inhabitants of this Sound.
At first they wanted our people to pay for the wood and water that they
carried on board, and had I been upon the spot when these demands were
made, I should certainly have complied with them. Our workmen, in my
absence, thought differently, for they took but little notice of such
claims, and the natives, when they found that we were determined to pay
nothing, at last ceased to apply. But they made a merit of necessity, and
frequently afterward took occasion to remind us that they had given us
wood and water out of friendship.
During the time I was at this village, Mr.
Webber, who had attended me thither, made drawings of everything that was
curious, both within and without doors. I had also an opportunity of
inspecting more narrowly the construction of the houses, household
furniture, and utensils, and the striking peculiarities of the customs and
modes of living of the inhabitants. When we had completed all our
operations at this village, the natives and we parted very good friends,
and we got back to the ships in the afternoon. The three following days
were employed in getting ready to put to sea, the sails were bent, the
observatories and instruments, brewing vessels, and other things, were
moved from the shore; some small spars for different uses, and pieces of
timber which might be occasionally sawn into boards, were prepared and put
on board, and both ships were cleared and put into a sailing condition.
Everything being now ready, in the morning of the
26th I intended to have put to sea, but both wind and tide being against
us, was obliged to wait till noon, when the S.W. wind was succeeded by a
calm; and the tide turning in our favour, we cast off the moorings, and
with our boats towed the ships out of the cove. After this, we had
variable light airs and calms till four in the afternoon, when a breeze
sprung up northerly with very thick hazy weather. The mercury in the
barometer fell unusually low; and we had every other fore-runner of an
approaching storm, which we had reason to expect would be from the
southward; this made me hesitate a little, as night was at hand, whether I
should venture to sail or wait till the next morning. But my anxious
impatience to proceed upon the voyage, and the fear of losing this
opportunity of getting out of the Sound, making a greater impression on my
mind than any apprehension of immediate danger, I determined to put to sea
at all events.
Our friends, the natives, attended us till we
were almost out of the Sound, some on board the ships, and others in their
canoes. One of their chiefs, who had some time before attached himself to
me, was amongst the last who left us. Having, before he went, bestowed
upon him a small present, I received in return a beaver skin of much
greater value. This called upon me to make some addition to my present,
which pleased him so much, that he insisted upon my acceptance of the
beaver-skin cloak which he then wore, and of which I knew he was
particularly fond. Struck with this instance of generosity, and desirous
that he should be no sufferer by his friendship to me, I presented to him
a new broad-sword with a brass hilt, the possession of which made him
completely happy. He, and also many others of his countrymen, importuned
us much to pay them another visit, and, by way of encouragement, promised
to lay in a good stock of skins. I make no doubt, that whoever comes after
me to this place, will find the natives prepared accordingly, with no
inconsiderable supply of an article of trade, which they could observe we
were eager to possess, and which we found could be purchased to great
advantage. |
