wig to cool and refresh himself : a sudden exclama-
tion of one of the Indians, who saw it, drew the
attention of the rest, and in a moment every eye
3TAHEITE. 23
was fixed upon the prodigy, and every operation
was suspended. The whole assembly stood some
time motionless, in silent astonishment, which could
not have been more strongly expressed if the)^ had
discovered that our friend's limbs had been screwed
on to the trunk. In a short time, however, the
young women who were chafing us resumed their
employment, and having continued for about half an
hour, they dressed us again, but in this they were,
as may easily be imagined, very awkward ; I found
great benefit, however, from the chafing, and so did
the lieutenant and the purser.
" After a little time our generous benefactress or-
dered some bales of Indian cloth to be brought out,
with which she clothed me and all that were with
me, according to the fashion of the country. At first
I declined the acceptance of this favour; but being
unwilling not to seem pleased with what was in-
tended to please me, I acquiesced. When we went
away, she ordered a very large sow big with young
to be taken down to the boat, and accompanied us
thither herself. She had given directions to her
people to carry me, as they had done when I came,
but as I chose rather to walk, she took me by the
arm, and whenever we came to a plash of water or
dirt, she lifted me over with as little trouble as it
would have cost me to have lifted over a child if 1
had been well."
The following morning Captain Wallis sent her a
present by the gunner, who found her in the midst
of an entertainment given to at least a thousand
people. The messes were put into shells of cocoa-
nuts, and the shells into wooden trays, like those
used by our butchers, and she distributed them with
her own hands to the guests, who were seated in
rows in the open air round the great house. When
this was done she sat down herself upon a place
somi what elevated above the rest, and two women,
placing themselves one on each side of her, fed ho»-
24 OTAHEITE.
she opening- her mouth as they brought their hands
up with the food. From this time provisions were
sent to market in the greatest abundance. The queen
frequently visited the captain on board, and always
with a present ; but she never condescended to bar-
ter, nor would she accept of any return.
One day, after visiting her at her house, the cap-
tain at parting made her comprehend by signs that he
intended to quit the island in seven days. She im-
mediately understood his meaning, and by similar
signs expressed her wish that he should stay twenty
days, that he should go with her a couple of days'
journey into the country, stay there a few days, re-
turn with plenty of hogs and poultry, and then go
away; but on persisting in his first intention she
burst into tears, and it was not without great diffi-
culty that she could be pacified. The next time that
she went on board Captain Wallis ordered a good
dinner for her entertainment and those chiefs who
were of her party ; but the queen would neither eat
nor drink. As she was going over the ship's side
she asked, by signs, whether he still persisted in leav-
ing the island at the time he had fixed ; and on re-
ceiving an answer in the affirmative, she expressed
her regret by a flood of tears ; and as soon as her
passion subsided she told the captain that she would
come on board again the following day.
Accordingly the next day she again visited the
ship twice, bringing each time large presents of hogs,
fowls, and fruits. The captain, after expressing his
sense of her kindness and bounty, announced his in-
tention of sailing the following morning. This, as
usual, threw her into tears, and, after recovering
herself, she made anxious inquiry when he should
return. He said in fifty days, with which she seemed
to be satisfied. " She staid on board," says Captain
Wallis, " till night, and it was then with the greatest
difficulty that she could be prevailed upon to go on
shore. \^lien she was told that the boat was ready,
OTAHEITE. 25
she threw herself down upon the arm-chest, and
wept a long time with an excess of passion that
could not be pacified. At last, however, with the
greatest reluctance, she was prevailed upon to g-o jito
the boat, and was followed by her attendants."
The next day, while the ship was unmooring, the
whole beach was covered with the inhabitants. The
queen came down, and, having ordered a double
canoe to be launched, was rowed off by her own
people, followed by fifteen or sixteen other canoes.
She soon made her appearance on board, but, not
being able to speak, she sat down, and gave vent to
her passion by weeping. Shortly ji.fter, a breez*^
springing up, the ship made sail ; and finding it now
necessary to return into her canoe. " she embraced
us all," says Captain Wallis, " in ihe nv.ist affection-
ate manner, and with many tears ; all her attendants
also expressed great sorrow at our departure. In a
few minutes she came into the bow of her canoe,
where she sat weeping with inconsolable sorrow. I
gave her many things which I thought would be of
great use to her, and some for ornament. She si-
lently accepted of all, but took little notice of any
thing. About ten o'clock we had got without the
reef, and a fresh breeze springing up, our Indian
friends, and particularly the queen, once more bade
us farewell, with such tendeniess of affection and
grief as filled both my heart and my eyes."
The tender passion had certainly caught hold of
one or both of these v/orthies ; and if her majesty's
language had been as well understood by Captain
Wallis as that of Dido was to ^Eneas when pressing
him to stay with her, there is no doubt it would
have been found not less pathetic.
Nee te nostef amor, nee te data dextera quondam,
Nee moritura tenet crudeli funcre Dido ?
This lady, however, did not sink, like the '♦ miser-
rima Dido," under her griefs j on the contrary, we
26- OTAHEITF.
find her in full activity and animation, and equally
generous to Lieut. Cook and his party, under the
name of Oberea, who, it now appeared, was no queen,
but whose husband they discovered was uncle to the
young king, then a minor, but from whom she was
separated. She soon evinced a paitiality for Mr
Banks, though not quite so strong as that for Wallis ,
but it appears to have been mutual, until an unlucky
discovery took place that she had at her command
a stout, strong-boned cavaliere servente ; added to
which, a theft rather of an amusing nature contrib-
uted for a time to create a coolness, and somewhat
to disturb the good understanding that had subsisted
between them. It happened that a party, consisting
of Cook, Banks, Solander, and three or four others,
was benighlP.d at a distance from the anchorage.
Mr. Banks, says Lieut. Cook, thought himself fortu-
nate in being offered a place by Oberea in her own
canoe, and, wishing his friends a good night, took
his leave. He went to rest early, according to the
custom of the country ; and taking off his clothes, as
was his constant practice, the nigTits being hot, Obe-
rea kindly insisted upon taking them into her own
custody, for otherwise, she said, they would cer-
tainly be stolen. Mr. Banks, having, as he thouglit,
so good a safeguard, resigned himself to sleep with
all imaginable tranquilhty; but awakening about
eleven o'clock, and wanting to get up, he searched
for his clothes where he had seen them carefully
deposited by Oberea when he lay down to sleep, and
perceived, to his sorrow and surprise, that they were
missing. He immediately awakened Oberea, who,
starting up and hearing his complaint, ordered lights,
and prepared in great haste to recover what had been
lost. Tootahah, the regent, slept in the next canoe,
and, being soon alarmed, he came to them, and set
out with Oberea in search of the thiel. Mr. Banks
was not in a condition to go with them, as of his
apparel scarcely any thing was left him but his
OTAHEITE. 27
breeches. In about half an hour his two noble
friends returned, but without having obtained any
intelligence of his clothes or of the thief. Where
Cook and Soiander had disposed of themselves he
did not know ; but hearing music, Vv^hich was sure
to bring a crowd together, in which there was a
chance of his associates being among them, he rose,
and made the bes%of his way towards it, and joined
liis party, as Cook says, " more than half-naked, and
told us his melancholy story."
It was some consolation to find that his friends
were fellow-sufferers. Cook having lost his stockings,
that had been stolen from under his head, though he
had never been asleep, and his associates their jack-
ets. At daybreak Oberea brought to Mr. Banks some
of her countiy clothes; "so that when he came to
us," says Cook, "he made a most motley appear-
ance, half Indian and half P^nglish." Such an adven-
ture must have been highly amusing to him who
was the object of it when the inconvenience had
been removed, as every one will admit who knew
the late venerable president of the Royal Society.
He never doubted, however, that Oberea was privy
to the theft, and there was strong suspicion of her
having some of the articles in her custody. Being
aware that this feehng existed, she absented herself
for some time, and when she again appeared she
said a favourite of hers liad taken them away, whom
she had beaten and dismissed ; " but she seemed
conscious," says Cook, " that she had no right to be
believed ; she discovered the strongest signs of fear,
yet she surmounted it with astonishing resolution,
and was very pressing to be allowed to sleep with
her attendants in Mr. Banks's tent. In this, how-
ever, she was not gratified." Sir Joseph might have
thought, that if he complied with her requef..t his
breeches might be in danger of following the other
articles of his dress.
The Otaheitans cannot resist pilfering. " I must
28 OTAHEITE.
bear my testimony," says Cook, " that the people of
this country, of all ranks, men and women, are the
arrantest thieves upon the face of the earth ; but,"
he adds, " we must not hastil}^ conclude that theft is
a testimony of the same depravity in them that it is
in us, in the instances in vvhich our people were suf-
ferers by their dishonesty; for their temptation was
such as to surmount what would fee considered as a
pi oof of uncommon integrity among those who have
more knov/ledge, better principles, and stronger mo-
tives to resist the temptations of iUicit advantage
An Indian among penny knives and beads, and even
nails and broken glass, is in the same state of mind
with the meanest servant in Europe among unlocked
coffers of jewels and gold." Captain Wallis has
illustrated the truth of this position by an experi-
ment he made on some persons whose dress and be-
haviour indicated that they were of a superior cast.
" To discover what present," he says, "would most
gratify them, I laid down before them a Johannes, a
guinea, a crown-piece, a Spanish dollar, a few shil
lings, some new halfpence, and two large nails,
making signs that they should take what they liked
best. The nails w'ere first seized with great eager-
ness, and then a few of the halfpence, but the silver
and gold lay neglected." Here, then, it might with
truth be said was discovered
The goldless age where gold disturbs no dreams.
But their thirst after iron w^as irresistible. Wallis's
ship was stripped of all the nails in her by the sea-
men to purchase the good graces of the women, who
assembled in crowds on the shore. The men even
drew^ out of different parts of the ship those nails
that fastened the cleats to her side. This commerce
established with the women rendered the men, as
might readily be expected, less obedient to com-
mand, and made it necessary to punish some of them
by flogging. The Otaheitans regarded this punish-
ruent with horror. One of Cook's men having in-
OTAHEITE. 29
stilted a chief's wife, he was ordered to be flogged
in their presence. 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 >vas given they interfered with
great agitation, earnestly entreating Vhat the rest of
the punishment might be remitted ; and when they
found they were unable to prevail, they gave vent to
their pity by tears. " But their tears," as Cook ob-
serves, " like those of children, were aUvays ready
to express any passion that was strongly excited,
and, like those of children, they also appeared to be
forgotten as soon as shed." And he instances this
by the following incident : — Mr. Banks, seeing a
young woman in great affliction, the tears streaming
from her eyes, inquired earnestly the cause; but in-
stead 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 fol-
lowed, and, disregarding his inquiries, she continued
to talk loud in a melanchol}^ tone, while those around
were laughing and talking without taking the least
notice of her distress. The bleeding having ceased,
she looked up with a smile, and, collecting the pieces
of cloth which she had used to stanch the blood,
threw them into the sea; then plunging into the
river, and washing her whole body, she returned to
the tents with the same gayety and cheerfulness as
if notliing had happened. The same thing occurred
in the case of a chief, who had given great offence
to Mr. Banks, when he and all his followers were over-
whelmed with grief and dejection ; but one of his
women having struck a shark's tooth into her head
several times till it was covered with blood, the
scene was immediately changed, and laughing and
good-humour took place. Wallis witnessed the
same kind of conduct. This, therefore, and the tears
are probably considered a sort of expiation or doing
penance for a fault.
C
30 OTAHEITE.
But the sorrows of these simple and artless people
are transient. Cook justly observes, that 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 ail the changes of the passing
hour, and reflect the colour of the time, however fre-
quently it may vary. They grieve for the death of
a relation, and place the body on a stage erected
on piles and covered with a roof of thatch; for they
never bury the dead, and never approach one of these
morals without great solemnity ; but theirs is no last-
ing grief.
An old woman having died, Mr. Banks, whose pur-
suit was knowledge of every kind, and to gain it
made himself one of the people, requested he might
attend the ceremony and witness all the mysteries
of the solemnity of depositing the body in the moral.
The request was complied with, but on no other con
dition than his taking a part in it. This was just
what he wished. In the evening he repaired to the
house of mQurning, where he was received by the
daughter of the deceased and several others, among
whom was a boy about fourteen years old. One of
the chiefs of the district was the principal mourner,
wearing a fantastical dress. Mr. Banks was stripped
entirely of his European clothes, and a small piece
of cloth was tied round his middle. His fa(;e and
body were then smeared with charcoal and water as
low as the shoulders till they were as black as those
of a negro. The same operation was performed on
the rest, among whom were some women, who were
reduced to a state as near to nakedness as himself.
The boy was blacked all over, after which the pro-
cession set forward, the chief mourner having mum-
bled something like a prayer over the body. It is
the custom of the Indians to fly from these proces-
sions with the utmost precipitation. On the present
occasion several large bodies of the natives were put
OTAHEITE. 31
to flight, all the houses were deserted, and not an Ota-
he itan was to be seen. The body being deposited
on the stage, the mourners were dismissed, to wash
themselves in the river, and to resume their custom-
ary dresses and their usual gayety.
They are, however, so jealous of any one approach-
ing these abodes of the dead, that one of Cook's
party, happening one day to pull a flower from a tree
which grew in one of "these sepulchral enclosures,
was struck by a native who saw it, and came sud-
denly behind him. The moral of Oberea was a pile
of stone-work, raised pyramidically, two hundred and
sixty-seven feet long, eighty-seven feet wide, and
forty-four feet high, terminating in a ridge like the
roof of a house, and ascended by steps of white coral
stone neatly squared and polished, some of them not
less than three feet and a half by two feet and a half.
Such a structure, observes Cook, raised without the
assistance of iron tools or mortar to join them, struck
us with astonishment, as a work of considerable
skill and incredible labour.
On the same principle of making himself ac-
quainted with every novelty that presented itself,
Captain Cook states that " Mr. Banks saw the opera-
tion of tattooing performed upon the back of a girl
about thirteen years old. The instrument used upon
this occasion had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of
which at least a hundred were made in a minute,
drew an ichor or serum a little tinged with blood.
The girl bore it with most stoical raeolution for
about a quarter of an hour ; but the pain of so many
hundred punctures as she had received in that time
then became intolerable : she first complained in
murmurs, then wept, and at last burst into loud
lamentations, earnestly imploring the operator to
desist. He was, however, inexorable ; and when she
began to struggle, she was held down by two women,
who sometimes soothed and sometimes chid her,
and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave
82 GTAHEITE.
her a smart blow. Mr. Banks staid in the neigh-
bouring house an hour, and the operation was not
over when he went away."
The sufferings of this young lady did not, how-
ever, deter the late president of the Royal Society
from undergoing the operation on his own person.
The skill and labour which the Otaheitans bestow
on their large double boats is not less wonderful
than their stone morals, from the felling of the tree
and splitting it into plank, to the minutest carved
ornaments that decorate the head and the stern.
The whole operation is performed without the use
of any metallic instrument. " To fabricate one of
their principal vessels with their tools is," says
Cook, " as great a work as to build a British man
of war with ours." The fighting boats are some-
times more than seventy feet long, but not above
three broad ; but they are fastened in pairs, side by
side, at the distance of about three feet ; the head
and stern rise in a semicircular form, the latter to
the height of seventeen or eighteen feet. To build
these boats, and the smaller kinds of canoes, — to
build their houses, and finish the shght furniture they
contain, — to fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber for
various purposes, — and, in short, for every conver-
sion of wood, — the tools they make use of are the
following : an adze of stone ; a chisel or gouge of
bone, generally that of a man's arm between the
wrist and elbow ; a rasp of coral ; and the skin of a
stingray, wiih coral sand as a file or polisher.
The persons of the Otaheitan men are in general
tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped ; equal in
size to the largest of Europeans. The women of
superior rank are also above the middle stature of
Europeans, but the inferior class are rather below it.
The complexion of the former class is that which
we call a brunette, and the skin is most delicately
smooth and soft. The shape of the face is comely,
the cheek bones are not hiijh, neither are the eyes
OTAHEITE. 33
hollow, nor the brow prominent ; the nose is a httle,
but not much, flattened ; but their eyes, and more
particularly those of the women, are full of expres-
sion, sometimes sparkling with fire, and sometimes
melting with softness ; their teeth also are, almost
without exception, most beautifully even and white,
and their breath perfectly without taint. In their
motions there is at once vigour as well as ease ;
their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and
their behaviour to 'strangers and to each other affa-
ble and courteous. In their dispositions they appear
to be brave, open, and candid, without suspicion or
treachery, cruelty or revenge. Mr. Banks had such
confidence in them as to sleep frequently in their
houses in the woods without a companion, and con-
sequently wholly in their power. They are delicate
and cleanly, almost wholly without example.
" The natives of Otaheite," says Cook, " both men
and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in
running water three times every day ; once as soon
as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again
before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river
be near them or at a distance. They wash, not only
the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almost be-
tween every morsel ; and their clothes, as well as
their persons, are kept without spot or stain."
If any one should think this picture somewhat
overcharged, he will find it fully confirmed in an
account of them made by gentlemen of the highest
respectability. In the first missionary voyage, in
the year 1797, the natives of Otaheite are thus
described :
"Natural colour olive, inclining to copper; the
women, who carefully clothe themselves and avoid
the sunbeams, are but a shade or two darker than a
European brunette ; their eyes are black and spar-
kling ; their teeth white and even ; their skin soft and
delicate ; their limbs finely turned ; their hair jetty
34 OTAHEITE.
perfumed and ornamented with flowers ; they are in
general large and wide over the shoulders ; we were
therefore disappointed in the judgment we had
formed from the report of preceding visiters ; and
though here and there was to be seen a young per-
son who might be esteemed comely, we saw few
who, in fact, could be called beauties ; yet they pos-
sess eminent feminine graces : their faces are never
darkened with a scowl, or covered with a cloud of
suUenness or suspicion. Their manners are affable
and engaging; their step easy, firm, and graceful;
their behaviour free and unguarded ; always bound-
less in generosity to each other and to strangers;
their tempers mild, gentle, and unaffected ; slow to
take offence, easily pacified, and seldom retaining
resentment or revenge, whatever provocation they
may have received. Their arms and hands are very
delicately formed; and though they go barefoot,
their feet are not coarse and spreading.
" As wives in private life, they are affectionate,
tender, and obedient to their husbands, and uncom-
monly fond of their children : they nurse them with
the utmost care, and are particularly attentive to
keep the infant's limbs supple and straight. A crip-
ple is hardly ever seen among them in early life. A
rickety child is never known ; any thing resembling
it would reflect the highest disgrace on the mother.
" The Otaheitans have no partitions in their houses ;
but it may be affirmed they have in many instances
more refined ideas of decency than ourselves ; and
one long a resident scruples not to declare, that he
never saw any appetite, hunger and thirst excepted,
gratified in public. It is too true, that for the sake
of gaining our extraordinary curiosities, and to please
our brutes, they have appeared immodest in the ex-
treme. Yet they lay this charge wholly at our door,
and say that Englishmen are ashamed of nothing,
and that we have led them to public acts of inde-
cency never before practised among themselves.
OTAHEITE. 35
Iron here, more precious than gold, bears down every
barrier of restraint; honesty and modesty yield to
the force of temptation."*
Such are the females and the mothers here de-
scribed, whose interesting- offspring are now peo-
plnig P.itcairn's Island, and who, while they inherit
their mothers' virtues, have hitherto kept themselves
free from their vices.
The greater part of tht3 food of Otaheitans is vege-
table. Hogs, dogs, and poultry are their only ani-
mals, and all of them serve for food. "We all
agreed," says Cook, " that a South Sea dog was little
inferior to an English lamb," which he ascribes to
its being kept up and fed wholly on vegetables.