SOJOURN ON THE NORTHERN PORTION OF NEW ZEALAND
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SOJOURN ON THE NORTHERN PORTION OF NEW ZEALAND, CALLED EAKENOMAOUVE BY THE ABORIGINES.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY AND NOTES ON ITS INHABITANTS.
On the 12th of May, 1772, the vessels being safely anchored, and the weather being fine, M. Marion erected tents on an island in the middle of the harbour, where there was wood and water, where there was a suitable cove opposite to the vessel, and whither he had the sick transported, and where he picketed a guard. The aborigines call this island Motouara. 1
We had hardly anchored before a large number of canoes came off and brought us a quantity of fish, and which they explained they had caught expressly for us. At first we did not know how to talk to these savages, but by chance I bethought me of a vocabulary of the island of Taity which had been given me by the superintendent of the Isle of France. I read several words of this list, and I saw with the greatest surprise that the savages understood me perfectly. 2 I soon saw that the language of this country was absolutely the same as that of the island of Taity more than 600 leagues distant from New Zealand. On the approach of night the canoes retired,
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THE NEW ZEALANDERS.
leaving on board eight or ten savages who remained the whole night with us just as though they were our comrades and had known us a long time.
Next morning being very fine many canoes came along filled with savages, who brought us their children and their daughters, all coming unarmed and with the greatest confidence. On arriving at the vessel, they commenced singing out Taro, 3 the name they give to ships' biscuit. We gave small pieces to every one, and that with the greatest economy, for they were such great eaters and so numerous that if we had given them according to their appetite, they would soon have consumed our provisions; they brought large quantities of fish, for which we gave them glass trinkets and pieces of iron in exchange. In these early days they were content with old nails two or three inches long, but later on they became more particular and in exchange for their fish demanded nails four or five inches in length. Their object in asking for these nails was to make small wood chisels of them. As soon as they had obtained a piece of iron, they took it to one of the sailors and by signs engaged him to sharpen it on the millstone; they always took care to reserve some fish wherewith to pay the sailor for his trouble. The ship was full of these savages, who appeared very gentle and even affectionate. Little by little they came to know the officers and called them by their names. We only allowed the chiefs, the women and the girls to enter the chart room. The chiefs were distinguished by the feathers of egrets or of other aquatic birds stuck in their hair on the top of their head. The married women were distinguished by a sort of straw plait which confined their hair on the top of the head; the girls had no such distinctive mark, their hair hanging naturally over their neck without anything to bind it.
It was the savages themselves who pointed out these distinctions and who gave us to understand by signs that we must not touch the married women, but that we might with perfect freedom make advances to the girls. It was in fact not possible to find any more approachable.
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As soon as we discovered these distinctions, we passed the word round the two ships so that every one might be circumspect with regard to the married women, and thereby preserve the good understanding with savages who appeared so amiable, and not to cause them to be ill-affected towards us. The facility with which the girls were approached was the cause that we never had the slightest trouble with the savages on account of their women during the whole time we lived amongst these people.
I remarked with great astonishment that amongst the savages who boarded the vessels in the early days there were three kinds of men, of which those who appeared to be the true aborigines were yellowish-white and the biggest of them all, their mean height five foot nine to ten inches, and their hair black, glossy and straight; others were more swarthy and not quite so tall, their hair slightly frizzled [? curled]; finally there were true negroes with woolly heads, not so tall as the others but generally broader in the chest. The former have very little beard and the negroes have very much. 4
The observations I made on these people during the following days on shore fully confirmed the correctness of my first remark. Generally speaking, these three kinds of men are handsome and well formed, with good heads, large eyes, well-proportioned aquiline noses and well-proportioned mouths, beautiful and very white teeth, muscular bodies, vigorous arms, strong hands, broad chests, extremely loud voices, small stomach, almost hairless well-proportioned but slightly gross legs, broad feet, and the toes well spread out. 5
The women are not so good-looking on close examination; they have generally a bad figure, are short, very thick in the waist, with voluminous mammae, coarse thighs and legs, and are of a very amorous temperament, while on the contrary the men are very indifferent in this respect.
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NEW ZEALAND VILLAGES.
When we became well acquainted with the savages, they invited us to land and visit them in their village, the which we did. I disembarked with M. Marion, well armed and with a detachment of soldiers. We first of all wandered along a portion of the bay, where we counted 20 villages, composed of a number of houses, and large enough to lodge 400 people in every one. The smallest village would hold at least 200 inhabitants.
We entered several of the villages. From the moment we set foot on shore, the savages came unarmed to meet us with their women and children. We made friendly overtures to each other, and we offered them little gifts which seemed to please them much. The chiefs of some of these villages were most pressing with their invitations to go with them and we followed them.
DESCRIPTION OF THE VILLAGES OF THE NORTHERN PORTION OF NEW ZEALAND.
All the villages are situated on steep cliffs jutting out into the sea, and we noticed that where the inclination of the ground was not great, it had been made steep by hand. We had much difficulty in climbing up, and the savages had often to help us by holding our hands. On arrival at the top, we found first of all a palisade formed of piles, driven straight and deeply into the ground, seven or eight feet high, and the ground well beaten down and grassed at the foot of the palisades. Then followed a ditch about six feet broad, and about five to six feet deep, but this ditch was only placed on the land side, where an enemy might approach. There was then a second palisade, which, like the first, served to enclose the whole village into an oblong shape. The entrance gates are not placed opposite each other. After entering the first circuit one has to go further along a narrow path to look for the entrance through the second palisade. The gates are very small.
From that side from which they fear attacks they have a sort of outworks, equally well palisaded and surrounded by ditches, and which will hold four hundred to five hundred men. This work is only a palisaded oblong and is placed outside the village
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to act as a defence to the entrance. Inside the village, at the side of the gate, there is a sort of timber platform, about 25 feet high, the posts being about 18 to 20 inches in diameter and sunk solidly in the ground. The people climb on to this sort of advance fort by means of a post with footsteps cut into it. A considerable collection of stones and short javelins is always kept up there, and when they fear an attack, they picket the sentinels there. The platforms are roomy enough to hold fifteen or twenty fighting men. These two outworks are generally placed at the outermost gate, and help to defend it as well as to prevent the ditch being crossed.
The interior of the village is composed of two rows of houses ranged side by side along the two sides of the palisades which form the enclosure, and every house is furnished with a penthouse, which serves as a kitchen. The savages eat their food under these sheds and never take a meal inside the house. The space which divides the two rows of houses, and which is more or less roomy, according to the lay of the ground, serves as a sort of parade ground, and extends the whole length of the village. This parade ground is raised about a foot higher than the surrounding ground on which the houses stand. It is raised by means of soil brought there and beaten down; no grass is to be seen on it and the whole place is kept extremely clean. This whole space between the two rows of houses is only occupied by three public buildings, of which the first and nearest to the village gate is the general magazine of arms. A little distance off is the food storehouse, and still further the storehouse for nets, all the implements used in fishing, as well as all the necessary material for making the nets, etc. At about the extremity of the village there are some large posts set up in the form of gallows, where the provisions are dried before being placed in the stores.
In the centre of this parade ground there is a piece of wooden sculpture representing a hideous figure very badly carved, on which one can only recognize a rude head, eyes, a great mouth, very much like the jaws of a toad and out of which protrudes an immoderately long tongue. All the other portions of the
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NEW ZEALAND VILLAGES.
body are still more shapeless, with the exception of the genital parts, occasionally of one sex, occasionally of the other, which are represented in greater detail. This piece of carving is part of a huge pile sunk deeply into the ground.
We entered with the chiefs into the first magazine where the arms are stored; we found a surprisingly large quantity of small wooden spears, some simply with sharpened points, others carved in the form of serpents' tongues, and these carvings continued for the length of a foot from the tip of the javelin, others furnished with very sharp points made from the bones of the whale. We also found bludgeons or clubs made of some very hard wood and of ribs of the whale which are still harder; spears which seemed made on the model of our ancient halberds for spearing at one end and clubbing at the other, these lances being all of a very hard wood and fairly well carved; tomahawks of stone or of bones of whale, the tomahawks being highly polished, well sharpened and neatly carved; sticks furnished at one extremity with knotted cord for throwing darts in the same way as we throw stones with slings; and some varieties of battle-axes in hard wood and fairly well designed for killing people.
In this same magazine we found a collection of their common implements, such as axes, adzes, chisels made of various very hard stones such as jade, granite, and basalt. The magazines are generally about 20 to 25 feet long by 10 to 12 broad. In the interior there is a row of posts which support the ridgeboard of the roof. The savages arranged their arms round these posts like a stand of arms according to variety.
In the second magazine, where the savages keep their food in common, we found sacks of potatoes, bundles of suspended fern-root, various testaceous fishes, cooked, drawn from the shell and threaded on blades of rushes and hung up; a large quantity of fragments of big fish of every variety, cooked, wrapped up in packets in fern leaf and hung up, and an abundance of very large calabashes always kept full of water for village use. This storehouse is almost as big and of the same shape as the magazine house.
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The third storehouse contains the rope, fishing lines, the flax for making rope, thread and rushes for making string, an immense quantity of fishhooks of every size from the smallest to the largest, stones cut to serve as lead weights, and pieces of wood cut to serve as floats. In this warehouse they keep all the paddles of their war canoes; it is there that they make their nets, and when they have finished one they carry it to the extremity of the village, or every net in the form of a seine to a separate cabin.
These public storehouses as well as the private houses are made of timber, well squared and fastened by mortise and tenon and pinned together; they are generally oblong in form; instead of planks for the walls of their houses, they make use of well-made straw matting, which they ply doubled or trebled one on top of the other, and which shelter them from wind and rain. The straw mattings also serve as roofs to the houses, but in this case they are made of a sort of very hard grass which grows in the marshes, and which the natives manipulate with great skill. Every house has only one door about three feet high and two feet broad, which they close from the inside by means of a latch very much like the iron one which we use in France for closing our gates. Above the door there is a small window about two feet square furnished with a rush trellis; inside the house there is no flooring, but they take the precaution to raise the soil about a foot and beat it down well so as to avoid damp. In every house there is a square of boards well joined together about six feet long and two feet broad; on these planks are laid seven or eight inches of grass or fern leaves well dried, and upon which they sleep. They have no other beds. In the middle of the house there is always a small fire to drive out the dampness. These houses are very small, being for the most part not more than seven or eight feet long by five or six feet broad. The houses of the chiefs are larger; they are ornamented with pieces of carved wood, and the posts in the interior are also carved. The only furniture we found in these houses were fishhooks of mother-of-pearl and of wood and bone, nets, fishing lines, some calabashes full of water,
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FOOD OF NEW ZEALANDERS.
stone implements such as we had seen in the common storehouses, mantles and other clothing hanging on the partition.
The whole of the villages which we saw during our two months' stay in the Bay of Islands appeared to be constructed on the same plan without any well-defined differences. The construction and form of the private houses as well as those of the chiefs were the same in all the villages; they were all palisaded and placed on high cliffs. At the extremity of every village and on the point which jutted furthest into the sea there was a public place of accommodation for all the inhabitants.
THE FOOD OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE NORTH OF NEW ZEALAND.
We were extremely well received by the savages. They came in mobs on to the vessels and appeared there every day, and we went similarly to their villages and into their houses with the greatest security. This naturally gave us every facility for seeing how these people fed themselves, what were their occupations, their works, their industry, and even their amusements.
We have already noticed that the basis of the food of these people is the root of a fern absolutely similar to ours, with the sole difference that in some places the New Zealand fern has a much bigger and longer root and its fronds grow to greater length. 6
Having pulled up the root they dry it for several days in the air and sun. When they wish to eat it they hold it before the fire, roast it lightly, pound it between two stones, and when in this state they chew it in order to obtain the juices, which to me appeared farinaceous; when they have nothing else to eat, they eat even the woody fibre; but when they have fish or shellfish or some other dish, they only chew the root and reject the fibre.
These people live also principally on fish and on shellfish;
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they eat quail, ducks and other aquatic birds which abound in their country, also various species of birds, dogs, rats, and finally they eat their enemies.
The New Zealanders have no vessel in which to cook their meat; the general custom in all the villages we visited was to cook the meat and fish in a sort of subterranean oven. In every kitchen there is a hole one and a half feet deep and two feet in diameter; on the bottom of the hole they place stones, on the stones they place wood which they light, on this wood they place a layer of fLat stones which they make red hot, and on these latter stones they place the meat or fish which they desire to cook.
They also live on potatoes and gourds, which they cook in the same way as their meat. Their habits in eating are dirty.
I have also seen them eat a sort of green gum which they like immensely, but I was not able to find out the tree from which they obtained it. Some of us ate of this by letting it drop in our mouths. We all found it very heating.
We also remarked that the savages eat regularly twice a day, once in the Fig. 5. morning, the other time at sunset. As
they are all strong, hardy, big, well-formed, and with good constitution, one concludes that their food is very healthy, and I think it well to repeat here that fern root forms the basis of their food.
Generally speaking they appeared to me to be great eaters; when they came on board our vessel, we could not satisfy them
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CLOTHING OF NEW ZEALANDERS.
sufficiently with the biscuit which they liked immensely. When the sailors were eating they would approach them in order to pet a portion of their soup and of their salt meat. The sailors used to give them the remains on their platters, which the savages took care to clean out thoroughly; they were very fond of fat and even of tallow.
I have even seen them take the tallow from the sounding lead or tallow otherwise used in the ship and eat it as a tasty morsel. They were very partial to sugar; they drank tea and coffee with us, and liked our drinks according as they were more or less sweetened. They showed great repugnance for wine, and especially for strong liquors; they do not like salt and do not eat it. They drink a great deal of water, and when I saw them very thirsty, I used to think that this desire to be continually drinking was caused by their dry food, the fern root.
THE CLOTHING OF THE SAVAGES OF THE NORTH OF NEW ZEALAND.
The savages in this part of the world never wear any headdress; they tie their hair into a tuft on the top of their heads with a piece of cord or plaits of grass, and then cut it off in the form of a round brush an inch or two above the cord; for want of scissors for this operation they make use of a shell the edges of which they sharpen. The men and women rub fish oil into their hair and powder it with crushed red ochre. Many of them only powder the tuft, and the chiefs adorn their heads with white plumes.
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The married women arrange their hair the same as the men; the girls allow their hair to fall naturally on their necks, and cut it so that it does not grow below the shoulders.
Young women paint their lips black, which is no doubt done in order the better to show off the whiteness of their teeth.
The ears of the men are pierced like those of the women, and they all equally adorn them with mother-of-pearl and lustrous shells, or with feathers, or with small dogbones.
Some wear round their necks pieces of jade of a very fine green of various forms joined together, engraved or carved. Some of this jade glitters very much. They sometimes wear mother-of-pearl, pieces of wood, or bundles of feathers.
The women wear necklaces made like rosaries, composed of broken pieces of equal lengths of white teeth alternately with black irregular tubes; others wear necklaces made of small very hard black stones of a fruit which I do not know.
Men and women wear a mantle on their shoulders, held up by means of a plait round the neck, and which hangs down as far as the waist. These mantles are made of a small piece of coarse stuff, without seam, and made for this purpose only: they just exactly cover the shoulders and the back, and leave the chest and stomach uncovered.
Besides this mantle, they have a sort of cloth of the same material, which envelopes the waist and thighs, and hangs as far as the calf of the leg. This second garment is, like the first, common to both men and women; it is bound and held round the waist by a belt about four fingers wide. These belts are sometimes made of the same material, and sometimes of plaited rushes.
They have invented another sort of garment which is in fact a waterproof mantle. This mantle is made of very coarse flax, of which the fairly long ends stick out above the tissue; the side of the material thus bristling with long strings, like skin with the hair on, the savages put on the outside to receive the rain, which thus runs off as from a roof. The mantle is long, and covers almost the whole body.
The chiefs are distinguished from the rest of the people by
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NEW ZEALAND TATUING.
mantles and loincloths of finer tissue. I noticed that only the chiefs had very nicely worked mantles, with very fine thongs of dogskin adroitly twisted close together, with the colours arranged symmetrically, and having the appearance of consisting of a single skin. They put the hair inside touching their skin when it is cold, and outside when it is warm.
But the most striking way discovered by the chiefs of these savages to distinguish themselves has been to engrave (tatu) their face and buttocks in the most hideous manner: they draw designs by means of small pricks on the forehead, cheeks, and even the nose, and as the blood runs out they rub powdered charcoal into the outer skins, and which cannot be effaced. They study to invent designs which make them look horrible and give them a most fearful look. All these designs on the faces of the various chiefs are very varied, but the designs on the buttocks are always the same: on these parts they trace in equally indelible marks a very neat spiral line, of which the first point is on the centre of the most fleshy part, and successively embraces the whole circumference.
They have also on both hands two little black engravings drawn very correctly in the form of an "S." The chiefs were very pleased to show us all the tatuings on their bodies, and seemed even proud and conceited about them.
THE ARTS OF THE SAVAGES IN THE NORTH OF NEW ZEALAND.
The arts of these savage people are almost confined to four objects: to procure sufficient nourishment, a simple lodging against the inclemencies of the climate, the garments necessary in a climate colder than appears consistent with the position of their islands, and finally, to fortify themselves and to insure them-
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selves against invasions by their fellows, and even to attack and destroy the latter.
I have already mentioned that the fern root is the basis of their food. This root naturally grows very deep in the soil, and in order to dig it up they have invented a sort of pointed spade very much like a lever pointed at one end, to which they have fixed transversely a piece of wood, strongly bound with cord, which serves as footpiece, while they work the lever at the other end with their arms, to send it deeply into the ground, and are thus enabled to raise large clods. As this lever has only a certain breadth at the end which is pushed into the ground, two men join together to work it to lift the same clod. This sort of spade very much resembles a stilt on which the step is placed at about two and a half feet from the bottom.
These people have already made a start in the art of agriculture. They cultivate a few small fields of potatoes similar to those of the Two Indies,
they also cultivate gourds, which they eat when they are small and tender, and when they are ripe they take out the inside, dry them, and make use of them for carrying and conserving water. Some of their calabashes will hold as much as from ten to twelve pints of water.
They also cultivate an aloes-pite and a sort of reed, 7 which, when ripe, furnishes them, after retting, with thread to make their cloth, and cords for various uses. In the cultivation of these crops they make use of the same instrument of which I have just spoken, sharpened and trimmed so as to form a sort of spade. It seemed to me that they confined their whole agriculture to two or three objects. They have no knowledge of any sort of grain and, excepting some small fields planted with potatoes, gourds, aloes-pite, and very small flax, the whole country appeared to me to be lying fallow, and producing only the wild natural growths. I
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NEW ZEALAND CANOES.
saw nothing which might be taken for an orchard, and I did not even meet with the least fruit, either wild or cultivated.
As fish, after the fern root, forms their staple food, their arts are particularly directed towards all that concerns fishery. Without iron, or any other metal, they make hooks of all sizes out of mother-of-pearl and various other shells, all worked with great skill. Their fishing lines, as well as their nets of every description, are knotted with the same adroitness as those of the cleverest fisherman of our seaports; they manufacture seines five hundred feet long; and for want of corks to hold up the net, they make use
of a very light white. wood, and for lead to weigh it down, they make use of very heavy round pebbles enclosed in a network sheath which runs along the bottom of the seine.
They manufacture their seines of reeds and a sort of well-twisted thread, coloured red with fish oil. The knots of these seines are exactly similar to those of our nets.
All the villages situated in the middle of the Bay of Islands, where we anchored, possessed a considerable number of canoes. These boats, which were dug-outs, appeared to be generally well made, with lines calculated for speed, well worked, and more or less carved. The majority of the canoes were 20 to 25 feet long by two and a half to three feet broad. Their principal use is for fishing, and every canoe ordinarily carries seven or eight men.
Besides these boats, which appeared to be private property, every village possesses in common two or three big war canoes for attacking purposes. I measured one of them which was seventy feet long by six feet broad and four deep, made of the body of a single tree trunk, the two sides of which were raised by means of planks skilfully sewn on, the sewing well caulked, and the whole canoe painted red by the aid of oil. These war canoes have carved, and very high, poops and prows.
The savages make use of paddles instead of oars; these
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paddles are of most perfect cut, and so shaped as to add by the elasticity of the blade to the force of the stroke. In certain points these paddles might serve as models to the boatmen of our ports. The paddles of the chiefs, who ordinarily command the canoes, are nicely carved on the back.
What is astonishing in the arts of the savages, in the construction of their boats, of their paddles, in their carvings, in fact in all their works, is that they have no iron nor any other metal which can take its place; as a consequence they have none of the tools which our workmen make use of. In lieu thereof they have very hard stones sharpened and formed like iron axes, chisels, and adzes. The stones they chiefly use for this purpose are jade and basalt. It is no doubt a great art to be able to substitute for iron materials so raw and so varied. However, this art is common to all savages known in different parts of the globe, and the tools of the Australians are exactly the same as those which have been found in New Guinea, in New Holland, amongst the islanders of the South Seas, and finally amongst the inhabitants of America when that part of the world was first discovered. 8 It is even probable that before the discovery of iron and of the method of smelting it, so as to adapt it to our uses, the primitive inhabitants of the earth, the forefathers of all those nations of to-day who have made the greatest advances in the arts, commenced by making use of stone tools. It is probable that they made use of these rude tools for a long time and perhaps for centuries.
The boats of New Zealand are all built of a splendid cedar with which the country abounds. By following M. du Hamel's 9 method for obtaining the specific weights of wood, I found that the New Zealand cedar when freshly cut did not
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NEW ZEALAND FISHERWOMEN.
weigh above a pound and a half more per cubic foot than the best quality of Riga pine.
I have already mentioned that the savages feed on shellfish. The procuring of this sort of nourishment does not call forth any special art, and the women and girls go daily to collect it off the rocks in the sea. For this purpose they put on a rush apron made like matting to save their petticoats from the sea-water; round their waists they carry a rush basket, into which they collect the shellfish and carry it to their villages. These savages know of no other method of capturing game than the net and the running noose; with these they catch quail, wild ducks, a very large species of wood pigeon, and several other kinds of birds of which I shall speak later on. They do not know the use of the bow and arrow.
I have already spoken of the arts of the Austral savages in the formation and arrangement of their villages, in the construction of their public storehouses and of their private dwellings. The arts employed in the manufacture of their garments cover a large number of objects. They cultivate flax and know how to ret it. After retting they beat it in order to detach the hard or woody portion, they then comb their thread with combs made of large sea-shells, and lastly they have a sort of crude and simple wheel and distaff for spinning their thread. They make
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also a thread of five or six strands of hair which is very strong. Finally they have a method of working which seems to be the commencement of that followed by our weavers, and by which they make cloth of very close tissue and of good wear.
It would be impossible to estimate the immeasurable distance there exists between the rude industries of the savages and those which amongst enlightened nations serve their wants and their luxuries. It is impossible to imagine the trouble and the enormous loss of time savages suffer from the imperfection of their arts; one must perhaps have seen the insufficiency and the fatiguing efforts of these industries of early man, emerging as it were from the hands of nature, in order to be sensible how grateful we ought to feel towards those who by their labours from century to century have so perfected all our arts.
The savages of New Zealand live in a continual state of warfare; their palisaded villages, surrounded by ditches and situated on very high cliffs, prove that they fear their enemies and are always on the defensive. This continual state of warfare has inclined their labour towards the manufacture of every species of implement useful for destroying their fellows, and has brought about the use of stone, wood, and bones of animals to that end. Their tomahawks are of stone, generally of basalt, and sometimes of jade. Their lances, their javelins, and their pikes are made of a very hard and heavy wood; their clubs or bludgeons are made of wood and of the bones of whales; their war trumpets are of wood and give out a very disagreeable sound similar to that of shepherds' horns. All these murderous instruments are carved and worked with care, and the savages possess large quantities of them.
Nevertheless all their arms are ridiculous and contemptible when opposed to men armed in European fashion: fifty fusiliers with sufficient ammunition, and who might have to revenge themselves on these people, could without danger destroy them like wild beasts and entirely exterminate them.
Besides these destructive instruments they have two or three varieties of flutes from which they extract fairly sweet but at the same time discordant sounds by breathing into them with
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NEW ZEALAND RELIGION.
their nostrils. I have heard them play on these instruments, especially in the evening when they were locked up in their villages, and it appeared to me they sometimes dance to the sound of the flutes.
THE RELIGION OF THE SAVAGES OF THE NORTHERN PART OF NEW ZEALAND.
We did not remain long enough in New Zealand, and I was always too much occupied with the wants of our vessels, to be able to acquire satisfactory notions regarding the worship and belief of the savages. I have, however, sufficient grounds for believing that they have some religion, and these are as follow:
1. They have in their language a word which expresses the Divinity; they call it Ea-Toue, a name which describes one who makes the earth tremble.
2. When they were asked questions on this subject, they raised their eyes and hands towards heaven with demonstrations of respect and fear, which indicated their belief in a Supreme Being.
3. I have already said that in the middle of every village there is a carved figure which appears to represent the tutelary god of the village. In their private houses are to be found similar figures like little idols placed in positions of honour. Several savages carried similar figures carved in jade or in wood round their necks. These figures are simply hideous, they nearly all have an immoderately long tongue and have a fearful look, and if these images represent their divinity, they prove that the people regard him as an evil being. It is possible that in their opinion all these figures only represent the demon authors of evil which differ from the Divinity.
4. I noticed that the savages who came to sleep on board our vessels were in the habit of communing with themselves in the middle of the night, to sit up and mumble a few words which resembled a prayer in which they answered one another and appeared to chant. This sort of prayer generally lasted eight or ten minutes.
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5. If there were any savages on board our vessels when we went to prayers, they did not appear astonished; they took up the attitude of the sailors, and appeared to join in their prayers.
CONTINUATION OF OBSERVATIONS AND OF VARIOUS EVENTS WHICH TOOK PLACE DURING OUR STAY IN THE BAY OF ISLANDS IN NEW ZEALAND.
A few days after our arrival in the Bay of Islands M. Marion made several journeys along the coast, and even into the interior of the country, in search of suitable timber for making masts for the Castries, and in these excursions the savages accompanied him everywhere. On the 23rd of May M. Marion discovered a forest of magnificent cedars about two leagues inland, and within reach of a bay about a league and a half distant from our vessels.
We immediately made a settlement there. We sent thither two-thirds of our crews with axes, tools, and all the necessary apparatus, not only for cutting down the trees and making masts thereof, but also to smooth a road over three small hills and across a marsh, which had to be traversed in order to bring the masts to the sea-shore. 10
We established barracks in communication with the settlement on the shore nearest to the place where we had our workshop; to this post our vessels sent daily boats laden with provisions for the workmen who were hutted two leagues inland.
We had three posts on land. One was on the island Moutouara in the middle of the bay, where we had our sick under tents, our forge where we made the iron bands for the re-masting of the Castries, and also our empty casks, with the coopers, for it was on that island that we obtained our water. This post was guarded by an officer, with ten armed men, and the surgeons at the service of the sick. A second post was on the sea-shore
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FRIENDLINESS OF NEW ZEALANDERS.
of the mainland, a league and a half from our vessels, which served as store and as point of communication with our carpenters' workshop situated two leagues further off, in the middle of the forest. These two latter posts were equally under the command of officers, who had armed men under them in order to guard our goods.
The savages were always amongst us at our settlements and on board our vessels, and in exchange for nails they furnished us with fish, quail, wood-pigeons, and wild duck; they ate with our sailors and helped them in their labours; and every time they set to work, the result was very noticeable, for they were extremely strong, and their help relieved our crews very much.
Our young men, attracted by the winning ways of the savages, and by the friendliness of their daughters, overran the villages every day, even making journeys inland to hunt the ducks, and taking with them the savages, who carried them across marshes and rivers as easily as a man would carry a child.
It sometimes happened that they strayed very far so as to get among savages of another canton, and to find there villages very much bigger than those in our bay. There they found men with whiter skins, who received them very well, and they occasionally returned in the middle of the night through the forests, accompanied by a mob of savages, who carried them when they were fatigued.
In spite of these proofs of friendship on the part of the savages, we were always a little on our guard, and our boats never went ashore without being well armed; neither did we allow the savages to come on board our vessels when they were armed. But at last confidence was established to that pitch that M. Marion gave orders that the whale boats and gigs going ashore should be disarmed. I did all that I possibly could to get this order rescinded, and in spite of the winning ways of the savages, I never forgot that our predecessor, Abel Tasman, had named Massacre Bay that bay where he had land-fallen in New Zealand. We did not know that Capt. Cook had visited it since, and had made an entire survey; neither did we then know that he had found
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the people cannibals, and that he was to be killed in the same bay in which we were now anchored. 11
It is very surprising that savages, who in the preceding year had seen and traded with a French and an English vessel, 12 and who must necessarily have obtained from these ships iron, cloth, and other European goods, should never have allowed us to notice anything about this, and should never have given us to understand that they had seen other vessels besides our own. It is true that the goods we gave them daily were never seen again by us, nor did we see any traces of them in overrunning their villages and on visiting their houses.
Lulled into a feeling of the greatest security, it was M. Marion's greatest happiness to live in the very midst of these savages. When he was on board, the council chamber was full of them; he fondled them and with the help of the Taity vocabulary he tried to make himself understood. He overwhelmed them with presents. They on their part recognized perfectly that M. Marion was the chief of the two vessels; they knew that he liked turbot, and every day they brought him some very fine ones. Whenever he showed a desire for anything, he always found them at his orders. Whenever he went ashore, all the savages accompanied him as though it were a day of feasting, and with joyful demonstrations; the women, the girls, and even the children petted him. They all called him by name.
So great was the confidence established that Tacouri, the previously-mentioned chief of the largest village, brought his son on board to M. Marion, aged about fourteen years, whom he
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FAMILIARITY WITH NEW ZEALANDERS.
appeared to love very much, and whom he even allowed to pass the night in the ship.
When three of M. Marion's slaves deserted in a canoe, which sank on reaching the shore, Tacouri had those who had not been drowned arrested, and sent them back to M. Marion.
One day a savage entered by the port hole of the powder-magazine and stole a sword; he was discovered, made to come on deck, and was denounced to the chief, who severely reprimanded him, and who begged that he should be put in irons just like a sailor. The thief was however sent away without punishment. 13
We had become so familiar with these men that nearly all the officers had particular friends amongst them, who served them and accompanied them everywhere; had we departed about this time, we would have brought to Europe the most favourable accounts of these savages; we would have painted them in our relations with them as the most affable, the most humane, and the most hospitable people on the face of the earth. From our accounts philosophers fond of praising primitive man would have triumphed in seeing the speculations of their studies confirmed by the accounts of travellers whom they would have recommended as worthy of belief. But we would all of us have been in the wrong.
On the 8th of June M. Marion had landed, accompanied by a mob of savages as usual. He was received with greater demonstrations of friendship than ever; the chiefs assembled and by common accord appointed him Grand Chief of the country, and they stuck in his hair on the top of his head the four white plumes which serve to distinguish chiefs. He returned on board more pleased with the savages than ever.
While this was going on the young savage for whom I had grown to have a great affection, who came to see me every day and who showed great attachment towards me, paid me a visit; he was a fine young man, well made, with a sweet expression and always smiling. On this particular day he appeared sorrowful in a way in which I had never seen him before. He brought
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me as a present some arms, implements, and ornaments of a very beautiful jade which I had expressed a desire to possess. I wished to pay him for these things with iron implements and red handkerchiefs, which I knew would please him, but he refused them. I wished to make him take back his jade, but he would not. I offered him something to eat, he refused again and went away very sorrowfully. I never saw him afterwards.
Some other savages, friends of our officers and accustomed to come and visit them every day, disappeared at this time, but we did not pay sufficient attention to the fact. We had been thirty-three days in the Bay of Islands and lived on the very best of terms with the savages, who appeared to us to be the best people one could possibly meet with; we spread into the country every day in order to reconnoitre, to study its productions and see if we could discover any metals or other objects fit for commerce. M. Marion had sometimes gone very far in his gig, and had visited various bays inhabited by other savages, all of whom had received him well.
On the 12th June at two o'clock in the afternoon, M. Marion landed in his gig armed with a dozen men, taking with him two young officers MM. de Vaudricourt and Le Houx, and a volunteer and master-at-arms, altogether sixteen people. The above-named Tacouri, the chief of the largest village, another chief, and five or six savages who were on board, accompanied M. Marion, whose object was to go and eat oysters and run the seine at the foot of the chief's village.
At nightfall M. Marion did not return to sleep at his usual hour. No one returned from the gig, but none of us were alarmed, as the hospitality of these savages was so well known to us that we did not distrust them in the least. We merely thought that M. Marion and his followers were remaining to sleep on land in our huts in order to be nearer in the morning to the workshops, two leagues inland, where the masts of the Castries were being made. The masts were approaching completion, and part of the materials had already been transported close to the shore, the savages helping us every day with these fatiguing transports.
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MURDER OF M. MARION.
The next morning, the 13th June, the Castries sent the longboat ashore for wood and water for the day's consumption, it being customary for the two vessels to send alternately every day for common wants. At nine o'clock, however, a man was seen swimming towards the vessels, and a boat was immediately lowered to help him and bring him on board. This man was one of the longboat's crew, who alone had saved himself from the massacre of his comrades-- murdered by the savages. He had two spear-wounds in his side and had been badly hurt. He stated that when the longboat landed at seven o'clock in the morning, the savages had appeared on the shore without arms and with their usual demonstrations of friendship, that they had even as was customary carried such sailors who were afraid to wet their feet on their shoulders from the boat to the shore, that they had shown themselves as good fellows as hitherto, but that when the sailors had separated one from another in order to pick up their bundles of wood, the savages attacked them furiously, in bands of eight or ten for every sailor, with tomahawks, clubs, and spears, and so murdered them. As for himself, as he had only to do with two or three savages, he at first defended himself and received two spear-wounds, but seeing other savages approach, he had run off and hidden himself in the brushwood. From there he had seen his comrades killed, and how that the savages having killed them, stripped them, cut open their stomachs, and commenced hacking them to pieces. He then started to reach the vessel by swimming.
After such a fearful account we doubted no longer that M. Marion and the sixteen men in
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the gig, of whom we had no news, had suffered the same fate as the eleven men of the longboat.
The officers who still remained on board immediately met together in order to consult about saving the three stations we had on land.
The Mascarin's longboat, well armed with an officer and a detachment of soldiers commanded by a sergeant, was immediately despatched ashore. The officer had instructions to search the length of the coast for the gig of M. Marion and for the longboat, but he was above all instructed to warn the stations and to go first to the landing place nearest to the mastyard in order to carry the greatest help to this station with the news of what had happened. The officer discovered the longboat of the Castries and M. Marion's gig stranded together at the foot of Tacouri's village and surrounded by savages armed with axes, swords, and muskets which they had taken from the two boats after having slaughtered our people.
In order not to lose any time, the officer did not stop at this place, where he might easily have scattered the savages and retaken the boats, for he feared lest he might be too late to arrive in time at the mastyard station, and he stuck to his orders to carry prompt help thither with news of the tragic events of the morning and of the day before.
Fortunately I was at the station, having passed the night there. I had not slept, but without knowing anything of the massacre of M. Marion, I had kept a good watch. I was on a little hill and occupied in directing the transport of our masts, when about two o'clock in the afternoon I saw a detachment marching towards us in good order with bayonets fixed, which I recognized at a distance, on account of their brightness, as not being the ordinary arms of the ship.
I understood at once that this detachment had come to give us news of something wrong. In order not to frighten our men, as soon as the sergeant, who was at the head, was within hailing distance, I ordered him to stop, and I alone approached so as to ascertain what was the matter. As soon as I heard
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THE RETREAT.
his report, I ordered the detachment to preserve silence and marched with them to the station.
I immediately stopped all work and had the implements and arms collected, the muskets charged, and divided amongst the sailors all that they could carry away. I had a hole dug in one of the barracks in order to bury the rest. I then had the hut pulled down and burnt, so that the few implements and utensils which I had buried, as not being able to carry away with me, might be hidden under the ashes.
Our men knew nothing of the misfortunes which had overtaken M. Marion and their comrades, for it was necessary that they should not lose their heads if we were to get out of the trouble. We were surrounded by armed savages whom I had only then perceived when the detachment joined us and after the sergeant had made his report. The assembled savages occupied the surrounding heights.
The detachment, now reinforced by the sailors I divided into two divisions; one division armed with muskets, headed by the sergeant led the way, the sailors carrying the implements and other effects
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following in the centre, and I followed in the rear with the other half. We were about sixty men. We passed several mobs of savages, of whom the various chiefs repeated frequently the sad words, "Tacouri mate Marion" that is to say, "The chief Tacouri has killed Marion." It was the intention of the chiefs to frighten us, for we had learned that amongst them when a chief is killed in a quarrel, all is lost for his followers.
We thus marched two leagues to the sea-shore, where the longboats awaited us, without having been harassed by the savages, who contented themselves with following alongside and frequently repeating that Marion was dead and eaten. There were in the detachment several good marksmen, who, hearing that M. Marion was killed, were burning to avenge his death and frequently asked my permission to break the heads of those chiefs who appeared to threaten us. This was, however, not the time to occupy ourselves with vengeance. In the state in which we were then, the death of a single man would have been an irreparable loss, and had we lost several, the two vessels might never have left New Zealand. We had besides a third station, that of the sick, which had still to be placed in safety. I accordingly restrained the ardour of our men, and prohibited them from firing, promising to give their vengeance full play at a more favourable opportunity.
When we arrived at our longboat, the savages began to press us more closely. I ordered the burdened sailors to embark first, then addressing one of the savage chiefs, I fixed a peg in the ground ten paces from him, and gave him to understand that if a single savage crossed the line of the peg I should shoot him with my carbine, which I raised in apparent readiness for action. I told them in threatening tones to sit down. The chief repeated my order quietly to his people, and immediately the savages, about a thousand strong, sat down.
I made all our people embark, which took long enough, because there was much baggage to put in the longboat, and the boat when loaded could not be launched easily, and we were obliged to wade into the water in order to start her. I was the last to embark, and as soon as I had entered the water, the
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VENGEANCE.
savages rose en masse, crossed the marked line, and uttering their war cry, threw wooden spears and stones at us, which did harm to nobody. They burned our huts on the bank, and threatened us with their arms, which they beat together, uttering fearful yells. As soon as I got into the boat, I had the grapnel raised and so arranged the men that they should not interfere with the oarsmen. The boat was so over-loaded that I was obliged to stand up in the stern with the arm of the rudder between my legs. I did not intend to fire a single shot, but intended to re join the vessel promptly in order to send the longboat to Moutouaro Island, and there relieve the invalid station, our forge and cooperage.
As we began to get away from the shore the cries and threats of the savages increased to such an extent that our departure looked like a retreat, and the savages entered the water as though determined to attack us. Much to my regret I found it advisable and necessary for our safety that I should make these unhappy people understand the superiority of our arms. I had the rowing stopped, and ordered four fusiliers to fire at the chiefs, who appeared more excited and animated than all the others. Every shot told, and this fusilade continued some minutes. The savages saw their chiefs and comrades fall in the most senseless manner, they could not understand how they could be killed by arms which did not touch them like their tomahawks and clubs. 14 At every shot they re-doubled their cries and threats; they were most horribly excited, and as they remained on the shore like a flock of sheep, we might indeed have killed every man of them had I desired to continue the firing; but after having killed many more than I wished to, we rowed on to the vessel, while the savages did not leave off shouting.
As soon as I arrived on board the Mascarin, I despatched the longboat to relieve the sick station. I sent a detachment commanded by an officer with orders to send on board all the sick, the surgeon's assistants, and all the utensils of our hospital,
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to pull down the tents, to make an entrenchment with our casks round the forge for the night, to picket an advance sentinel on the side towards the village which was on the same island, to keep a good watch and to take every precaution against a surprise, for I feared some attack by the savages on our forging establishment, where the iron would very likely tempt them. At the same time I arranged with the officer in charge for signals during the night, and promised to send him prompt assistance in case of attack.
The sick were happily brought on board without accident towards eleven o'clock at night. The savages prowled round about the post, but seeing our people well on guard, they dared not make an attack, having failed to surprise them.
The next morning, the 14th June, I sent a second detachment with a couple of officers on to the island. We had not as yet sufficient wood and water on board to enable us to continue our voyage, and after our experience with the savages, we should have had much difficulty in raising these stores on the mainland.
The island Moutouaro, placed as it was in the middle of the harbour close to our vessels, gave us as much wood as we wanted and there was a fresh water spring for filling our casks; but as there was on this island a village of about three hundred savages, who might be in a position to trouble us, I instructed the officer in charge of the station that in case the aborigines were disposed to be troublesome, he should unite all his forces, attack the village, and clear the whole island of them, so as to insure our water supply.
In the afternoon the savages appeared armed close to the station, and made threatening demonstrations as though defying our men to fight them. Our men immediately prepared to receive them, marched upon, them with bayonets fixed, but without firing; for the savages fled into their village, where they made a firm stand, uttering fearful yells.
Malou, the chief of the village, who was one of those with whom we had lived most familiarly, was accompanied by five or six other chiefs or principal fighting men from other villages; they were intensely excited, and incited, by their voices and the
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NEW ZEALANDERS DEFEATED.
movement of their arms, the young fighting men to advance upon us, but these dared not.
Our men in battle array arrived within pistol shot of the gate of the village; there they commenced firing, killing six chiefs, whereupon the whole of the fighting men fled across the village in order to get to their canoes. The detachment pursued them with the bayonet, killed about fifty, overthrew some of the others in the water, and set fire to the village. By this means we became masters of the island. We merely had one man severely wounded by a spear which struck him in the upper part of the nose in the corner of the eye.
After this expedition we re-embarked our forge, our iron, and our casks, and I had the whole station withdrawn. I then had the ferns on the island cut down, for fear the savages might hide in them and surprise us, for they grew six feet high and very thick. I had the dead savages buried, leaving one hand sticking up out of the ground in order to let the savages see that we did not eat our enemies. I had recommended our officers to make an effort to bring us some savages alive, and to try and catch some young people of both sexes or children; I had even promised the soldiers and sailors 50 piastres for every living savage they might bring me; but the islanders had taken the precaution before the battle to place their women and children in safety by carrying them over to the mainland. Our soldiers attempted to stop and bind such of the wounded as could not flee, but these wretches were furious and bit like wild beasts, others broke the cords with which they were bound just as though they were thread, so that it was not possible for us to secure even one.
In the meanwhile the Castries was still wanting bowsprit and mizenmast, and it was quite out of the question to go and fetch the beautiful cedar (Kauri pine) masts which we had found on the mainland, and which had cost us so much infinite trouble to get out of the forest where we had cut them down. We therefore rigged up some jury-masts as best we could.
We still wanted seven hundred barrels of water and seventy cords of firewood for the two vessels, and as we only had one longboat for this work, we completed it bit by bit in the
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course of a month, sending the longboat to the island everyday to get wood and water alternately. The workers were always accompanied by a detachment which returned on board every night.
One day when the longboat remained longer than usual, the savages crossed over to the island in large numbers on that side where they could not be seen. The sentinel posted on a piece of rising ground saw a man with a hat and dressed like a sailor approaching him; but this man walked like one who sneaks along and does not wish to be observed. The sentinel called out to him to stop, but it was a savage, who, not understanding him, continued to advance. The sentinel recognized the disguise, fired and shot the man. Immediately a multitude of savages were seen to approach; the detachment advanced, chased them, and several which were killed were found dressed in the clothes of the officers and sailors they had previously murdered; the rest of the savages re-embarked in their canoes, and after this useless attempt they did not again molest us.
From the day on which M. Marion disappeared, we could see from the vessels every movement of the savages who had retired to the mountain strongholds; we could clearly distinguish their sentinels posted on the highest parts, and from whence they notified to their friends the least of our proceedings. Their eyes were always turned towards us, and we could distinctly hear the calls of the sentinels who answered one another with a most surprisingly powerful voice. During the night they signalled by means of fires.
When the savages appeared in mobs within gunshot of our artillery, we now and then fired a cannon ball at them, especially during the night, in order to let them know that we were on the alert; but as they always kept out of cannon shot they never experienced the effect, and it was to be feared that they would become so emboldened as to despise our artillery.
One of the canoes, in which there were eight or ten men, passed one day within gunshot of the Castries, which cut the canoe in two by means of a cannon ball and killed some of the savages, the others regaining the land by swimming.
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THE SEARCH PARTY.
In the meanwhile we were not sure of the fate of M. Marion, of the two officers who accompanied him ashore on the 12th of June, nor of the fourteen sailors he had taken with him in his gig, partly to row and partly to draw the seine. We only knew, from the account of the sailor who had escaped the massacre of the boatmen the following day, that the eleven men killed in this horrible treachery had had their stomachs cut open after being killed, and their bodies quartered and distributed amongst the savages who had massacred them. The sailor who had been fortunate enough to escape had observed this horrible scene through the brushwood, where he had concealed himself.
In order to throw some light on the fate of M. Marion, and on that of his companions in misfortune, I sent the longboat with trustworthy officers and a strong detachment to the village of Tacouri, who the savages told us had killed M. Marion, where we knew he had been fishing, accompanied by this same Tacouri, and where we had seen his gig, as well as the longboat, stranded and surrounded by armed savages. I instructed the officers to make the most minute search, first of all in the place where we had seen the stranded boats, and then to enter the village, to force it if it was defended, to exterminate the inhabitants, to rummage scrupulously through all their public buildings and private houses, to pick up whatever they could find having belonged to M. Marion or to his companions in misfortune, so as to be able to confirm their death by an official report, to wind up by setting fire to the village, and by carrying off the big war canoes which were hauled up at the foot of the village thereof, or by burning them in case they could not tow them away.
The longboat left well armed with swivel guns and blunderbusses, and landed first of all at the place where we had seen our stranded boats. These were no more, the savages having burned them in order to extract the iron. The detachment then marched in good order on to Tacouri's village. Traitors are cowards in New Zealand the same as elsewhere: Tacouri had fled: he was seen afar off out of gunshot range, having on his shoulders M. Marion's mantle, which was made
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of English cloth of two colours, scarlet and blue. His village was abandoned, and only a few old men remained who had not been able to follow their fugitive comrades, and who were seen sitting quietly in front of their houses. Our men wished to take them captive. One of them without appearing to get excited struck one of our soldiers with a javelin which he had by him. Our men killed him, but no harm was done to the others, who were left in the village. The men rummaged all the houses carefully. They found in Tacouri's kitchen the skull of a man who had only been cooked a few days before, some pieces of flesh were still hanging on to it, and on these we could trace the marks of the cannibal's teeth. They also found a piece of a human thigh fixed to a wooden skewer and three-parts eaten.
In another house they found the body of a shirt which was recognized as having belonged to M. Marion. The neck of the shirt was all bloody and there were three or four blood-bespattered holes in the side. In other houses they found part of the clothes and the pistols of young M. de Vaudricourt, who had accompanied M. Marion on the fatal fishing excursion; finally were found the arms of the longboat and a heap of rags from the clothes of our unfortunate sailors.
After having made a thorough visitation of the village and having collected all the proofs of the assassination of M. Marion and of his companions, and also the arms and articles abandoned by the savages, fire was set to the houses and the whole village reduced to ashes. While this was going on the detachment noticed that the islanders were leaving a neighbouring village very much better fortified than the others, belonging to a chief named Piquiore, who was the accomplice of Tacouri. The detachment immediately marched on to this village but found it completely deserted. The houses were visited, and as in the former village, several articles from our boats and shreds of clothing from our massacred people were found. Among others in Piquiore's kitchen they found human entrails, recognized as such by one of our surgeons, cleaned and cooked. This village was also reduced to ashes.
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DEPARTURE FROM NEW ZEALAND.
On their return our people launched two war canoes and towed them to the vessel. We took out planks and wood, which might prove useful; but as we could not take the body on board, which was about sixty feet long, it was burned.
As soon as we had confirmed the death of M. Marion, we searched in his papers for any of his plans for the continuation of the voyage, but we only found some very detailed notes in the form of instructions from the Governor of the Isle of France, which, leaving M. Marion to his own operations and researches, merely indicated the best method of making the observations, of directing them towards objects which might prove most useful to our colonies, and generally towards the advancement of human knowledge.
The two ships' staffs having been assembled, we found that we had lost our best sailors, that the Castries had but three anchors, three cables, and her longboat; that the masts of this vessel, being formed of a collection of small material, could not have the same strength as if they had been made of suitable timber; that we had many sick on board; and finally that we had provisions for eight or nine months only, even supposing that all we had was in good preservation.
It was in consequence decided by common consent that we should proceed with our journey in the South Seas according to M. Marion's intentions; but that, without searching for distant lands, we should confine ourselves to reconnoitering the islands of Rotterdam and Amsterdam, where we might procure fresh provisions, that from thence we should sail for the Iles la Borne, or Marianne Islands, in order to get to the Philippines, where we might get a cargo and thence return to the Isle of France.
This plan being decided upon, we completed our stores of wood and water; we took possession in the King's name of the Island of New Zealand, which the Aborigines called Eakenomaouve, and which M. Marion had called France Australe; and we prepared to leave the bay to which M. Marion had given his name, for he had discovered it in his gig. Captain Cook had called it on his chart the Bay of Islands, and we named it on
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leaving Treachery Bay. It is situated in S. latitude 35 deg. 10' and 174 deg. longitude to the E. of the meridian of Paris. The magnetic variation is 12 deg. N. E.
Before leaving New Zealand I shall give an account of my general observations on the manners of its inhabitants, of which I have already given some details in the course of this narrative. I shall then speak of that which I was able to observe regarding the physical aspect of the country and of the different products of its soil.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE NORTHERN PORTION OF NEW ZEALAND.
After what had happened to us, and the investigations we had made, we could not doubt that the savages of this part of New Zealand were cannibals. Mr. Cook, the English Captain, who had visited them shortly before us, learned from them themselves that they only ate their enemies, and our sailor who had escaped from the longboat had been the sorrowful witness of the cruelty with which these aborigines divided amongst themselves the bodies of those whom they had killed. It is to be presumed that they regarded as enemies all strangers, even those of their own island who lived at a distance from their village. This barbarous custom seems to me common to all savages who are found scattered in the different corners of the earth; but when I remember the interesting demonstrations of friendship which these Australasians had manifested towards us, unaltered for thirty-three consecutive days, in order to butcher us on the thirty-fourth, I cannot believe that there can be on the face of the earth greater traitors than these savages. I can affirm that not even on the slightest occasion had these savages any reason to complain of us. The friendship which they showed us was carried to the extremest familiarity; the chiefs on boarding our vessels entered our rooms without ceremony, and slept on our beds, examining all our furniture piece by piece; they asked about the meanings of our pictures, and of our mirrors, of which
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TREACHERY OF PRIMITIVE MAN.
they of course understood nothing. Indeed, they spent whole days with us with the greatest demonstrations of friendship and of confidence. Two days before murdering him they had of their free will proclaimed M. Marion Grand Chief, and on the day on which they had decided to murder him and his companions, in order to feast on them afterwards, they brought him some very fine turbots as a present.
Here then we have a picture of these primitive men, so extolled by those who do not know them, and who attribute gratuitously to them more virtues and less vices than possessed by men whom they are pleased to call artificial, because forsooth education has perfected their reason. For my part I maintain that there is amongst all the animals of the creation none more ferocious and dangerous for human beings than the primitive and savage man, and I had much rather meet a lion or a tiger, because I should then know what to do, than one of these men. I speak according to my experience. Having been occupied with the art of navigation ever since my childhood, I have never been able to enjoy that happy ease which permits of those studies and contemplations by means of which philosophers improve their minds; but I have traversed the greater part of the globe, and I have seen everywhere that when reason is not assisted and perfectioned by good laws, or by a good education, it becomes the prey of force or of treachery, equally as much so among primitive men as amongst animals, and I conclude that reason without culture is but a brutal instinct.
During the whole time that we lived in a sort of confidence with these primitive men I had endeavoured to study their characters, and I succeeded in doing so as much as was possible considering the difficulties we had in understanding each other through an imperfect vocabulary, of which several words were different to those in their dialect. I had made myself familiar with several chiefs and with young and old men, and they had easily become so towards me. Every day I probed their inclinations and inquired into the capacity of the lights of their reason; I understood that they only had a faint idea of a Supreme Being
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and of some subsidiary invisible creatures, that they were somewhat afraid of these latter and prayed frequently to them, that the object of these prayers was to become the conquerors and butchers of their enemies, that every family considered itself independent and stranger to the others, that they had no other law, no other police, and almost no other instinct, but that which was necessary for self-preservation. They were more contented when we gave them sugar, bread or meat than when we made them presents of useful articles such as axes, chisels or other implements.
At times I endeavoured to arouse their curiosity. I even sometimes imitated them in order to discover the workings of their souls, but I only found wicked children, and all the more dangerous, for being as they were stronger and even hardier than the generality of men. Within the space of a quarter of an hour, I have seen them pass from the most silly joy to the darkest sorrow, from calmness to fury, and return as suddenly to immoderate laughter. I have seen them turn and turn about, sweetly affectionate, hard and threatening, never long in the same temper, but always dangerous and treacherous.
In accordance with the results of such observations repeated day after day for thirty-three days, I always mistrusted them and always noted with the acutest sorrow how M. Marion took these savages into his confidence, a confidence to which at last he fell a victim in spite of my most serious representations.
One can easily conceive how it is, that amongst a people like that of New Zealand, which are in a state of continual warfare, separated by little doubly palisaded villages surrounded by ditches, and built on almost inaccessible heights, the fighting man holds the first place. We did not notice amongst them any distinction save for the purposes of war. Those only met with consideration who best knew how to use a tomahawk or to handle the club or lance.
Only those amongst the fighting men who have committed acts of ferocity or treason have the right to wear four plumes in their hair, to tatu the skin of their face, their buttocks, and their hands, and which is considered amongst them as the
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CHARACTER OF NEW ZEALANDERS.
highest distinction. There is no doubt that in order to arrive at the pre-eminence of such complete tatuing a man must have killed and eaten many of his fellows.
When an ordinary man, woman, or child dies, the corpse is thrown into the sea; but a fighting man is buried, and on the hillock which covers his corpse spears and javelins are stuck as trophies.
A country inhabited by a people which only respect the art of destroying their fellows, cannot be thickly populated, and so it appeared to me that the interior of the country was uninhabited, and that a population was only to be found on the coast along the harbours. At our first anchorage we found a large village abandoned and destroyed, and although I sometimes climbed high mountains, in order to get a view of the country, I could only find dwellings on the sea-coast. A people which frequently fight, and amongst whom the conqueror eats the conquered, are the most destructive people that can possibly exist. Nevertheless these ferocious men love dancing, and their dancing is of the most lascivious character; they frequently danced on the deck of our vessels, and they danced so heavily that we were afraid they would break through the deck. In dancing they sing alternately warlike and lascivious songs.
The two sexes do not know shame, and although they are half clothed against the cold, they go about quite naked without ceremony when they no longer fear it.
The men show great indifference towards the women, and make them do all the domestic and laborious work. The women collect in the fields the bundles of fern root pulled up by the men; they carry water from the foot of the mountains up to the villages; they alone collect the mussels and other shell-fish on the sea-shore; they alone do the cooking, prepare the dishes and serve them to the men without eating with them; they are in fact in that state of degradation which makes them the servants rather than the companions of their husbands.
The women in general are not so well made as the men, and no doubt it is the laborious works to which they are subjected which makes them thick and misshapen. Nevertheless I
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did see some young women who were pretty. They seemed to be good mothers and showed affection for their offspring. I have often seen them play with the children, caress them, chew the fern root, pick out the stringy parts, and then take it out of their mouth in order to put it into that of their nurslings.
The men were also very fond of and kind to their children. The chief Tacouri sometimes brought his son on board; he was about fourteen years of age with a pretty face, and the father seemed to love him very much.
When their relations die, they mourn for them several days. Mourning consists in scratching the face and all parts of the body to express sorrow, in assembling in the house of the defunct to weep and utter cries of despair, in recounting his deeds and howling at the end of every account.
On the whole I did not see many children. One has to associate with them for a long time before one can become acquainted with their manners, laws and customs. At sight of these big, hardy and well-made men, one suspects that they do not preserve those children who are born sickly or deformed.
I noticed that the men and women attain to a great age, that they preserve up to the most advanced age all their hair, which does not whiten much, and their teeth are more used up than spoilt. We did not find any traces showing them to be subject to small-pox or venereal diseases; they are generally slovenly and wash but little, but neither pock mark nor cicatrice is to be seen on their skins. There were, however, amongst our crews several sailors who suffered from the usual diseases, which they communicated to the people of the country.
It is no doubt surprising that we should have found at this corner of the earth, in islands unknown until the present day, and cut off from all communication with other parts of the globe, three varieties of man: whites, blacks, and yellows. It is most certain that the whites are the aborigines. Their colour is generally speaking like that of the people of Southern Europe, and I saw several who had red hair. 15 Amongst them there were some
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SOUTH SEA MIGRATIONS.
who were as white as our sailors, and we often saw on our ships a tall young man five feet eleven inches high, who by his colour and features might easily have passed for an European. I saw a girl, fifteen or sixteen years of age, as white as our French women. Various occurrences in navigation might have transferred the blacks of New Holland to New Zealand, which are about 300 leagues distant, but which may not always have been so far off. New Holland, the largest island we know of, has certainly been peopled by the blacks of New Guinea, from which it is only separated by a strait as broad as a river. These negroes transported to New Zealand have no doubt allied themselves with the women of the country, and from these alliances have no doubt sprung the yellow people we see at the present day.
It is to be observed that, in almost all the islands which extend from Formosa and the Philippines as far as New Zealand in this great Archipelago, which occupies an area of more than fifteen hundred leagues in length between the seas of China, the Indies and Africa, on one side, and those of America on the other, we find everywhere a prodigious mixture of men of different colour and cast, whites, especially negroes and the yellows. The shores of Formosa are inhabited by Chinese, the interior of the island by half-savage blacks; the shores of Luzon and the majority of the other Philippine Islands are inhabited by Malay colonies, and their interiors, the forests and the mountains, by true wild aborigines. The same holds good of Borneo, where woolly-headed negroes are found; the same with regard to the Malaccas, New Guinea, Timor, New Holland, and finally New Zealand. Perhaps we shall find the same mixture in the Austral lands which the French and English are this day vying with each other in their attempts to discover. What is most singular is that our navigators have quite recently found the same mixtures even as far as the middle of the South Sea in the island of Taity.
Perhaps there was a time when New Zealand communicated with the island of Taity, from which it is at present separated by a sea with no bottom and more than six hundred leagues in extent. At New Zealand we found the same language as that
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of Taity, with a few differences in a small number of words, and there is much resemblance between these two peoples so widely separated at the present day.
I am not disinclined to believe that America was peopled by New Zealand, the Austral lands and the islands of the South Sea. I find a striking resemblance amongst the manners and customs of savages of these different parts of the globe: the same men almost beardless and cannibals, the same arms, the same utensils, the same cut of clothes, habitations, and boats; the same indifference towards the women, the same manner of making them do all the most laborious work. Those who have a good knowledge of the languages of these people will perhaps find greater analogy. The chapter which follows may perhaps give additional evidence in favour of the conjecture. 16
PHYSICAL OBSERVATIONS ON NEW ZEALAND AND ON SOME OF ITS NATURAL PRODUCTIONS.
Seamen are generally not sufficiently well educated to be able to report, in the accounts of their voyages, on the sometimes very interesting objects they meet with in the countries they overrun, especially on unknown regions and peoples which they discover for the first time. To be able to journey usefully one should have a knowledge of all our arts and a smattering at least of natural history, and a little of that philosophy so necessary for studying without prejudice the mind and the opinions of primitive man, the varieties and the immensity of the works of creation, and the slow revolutions and even the agitations of nature in different portions of our planet.
When Captain Cook, who on his corvette has just completed one of the most interesting voyages ever made since the time of Magellan, and who, by an astonishing succession of discoveries and by incredible labour, has merited from his country and the human race generally the position of being ranked amongst the most celebrated navigators, was sent by England to the
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NATURALIST WANTED.
South Seas, three scientific men, Messrs. Banks, Solander, and Green, were given him as companions. These three learned men, associated with the great seaman, have drawn from this splendid but laborious voyage all that it was possible to do for the advancement of human knowledge.
When we were despatched from the Isle of France in October, 1771, for the journey of which I am now giving an account, M. l'Abbe Rochon, of the Academy of Sciences, as well as M. Commerson, 17 a learned naturalist, were to have started with us. The former had already rendered important services to navigation by determining the position of several islands and reefs situated between the Isles of France and Bourbon and the Coromandel and Malabar coasts; he had also, conjointly with an officer of great distinction, M. le Chevalier de Fromelin, ship's captain, his relation and friend, just saved the vessel Le Berrier from missing the Isle of France by correcting the ship's reckonings, by means of very precise longitudinal observations, which reckonings had an error of more than a hundred leagues, ascribed solely to the currents. The latter had collected an immense quantity of plants during M. de Bougainville's voyage round the world. M. Poivre, the Governor of the Isle of France, had engaged these two scientific men to accompany us; but fortunately for them this clever and virtuous administrator, who was ceaselessly occupied with all that which might contribute to the progress of science and to the advantage of navigation, was not able to overcome the obstacles which ultimately prevented their departure--obstacles which consisted in another mission which was considered more important. M. Marion and I were all the more grieved at this as we were about to open up an absolutely new route for entering into the South Seas, and an astronomer furnished with good instruments and with an excellent chronometer by the celebrated Ferdinand Berthoud, 18 would have made our voyage infinitely more useful.
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After the partial survey I had made of the productions of New Holland, and especially of those of New Zealand, I often had cause to regret that these two learned men had not been able to embark with us. I feel perfectly sure I have not been able to see as with their eyes; but encouraged by the hope of indulgence towards a traveller, who after all is only a seaman, I will relate ingenuously and in good faith that which has struck me most.
Having been accustomed during a long succession of voyages in all parts of the world to read in the great book of Nature, and to note above all her most striking scenes, I first of all observed that the mass of the land of New Zealand looked like a great range of mountains, which might formerly have formed a portion of some great continent. The various highest peaks of this range were for the most part covered with snow. On its western shore there is not the slightest appearance of a plain--it is rocky; the land is much broken, without coves, havens or ports, and appears but little inhabited. From the sea we could not sight any estuaries.
The eastern coast, which faces the South Sea, is more cut up with a multitude of islands, bays and harbours, and it seems that all the rivers coming from the mountains have their course and run into the sea on this side. One sees plains which look delicious and appear to be well wooded.
In overrunning this part one finds everywhere volcanic traces, lava mixed with scoriae, basalt or compact lava, pumice stone, blocks of that black glass which is known only to be the result of volcanic fusion [obsidian], baked earths in a friable form like tripoli, and others less friable and more mixed. Might not the subterranean fire, which formerly burned and vitrified so much matter in New Zealand, have also by several shocks detached this island from New Holland or from the Austral lands or from some other continent? According to South Sea travellers all the lands, which extend from New Zealand from south latitude 47 deg. to the equator, and from the equator to the north of Japan, and from thence to the 40 deg. north latitude, are after all only islands, so that this vast portion of our globe, which extends North and South for eighteen hundred leagues,
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resembles a ruin. We find everywhere traces of extinct or active volcanoes close to one another. This immense space which bounds our entire planet to the east and to the south appears to be the abode of fire: it seems that there Nature has placed her formidable workshops, and her efforts for ages past have changed and during our days still change the face of this part of the earth, make it tremble without ceasing, break it up by depressions and terrible explosions, and make it totter under the feet of the unfortunate inhabitants. It is not without good cause that the islanders of Taity and the savages of New Zealand agree in calling the Divinity the "One who shakes the earth." People so widely separated and without a knowledge of the art of navigation do not speak the same language unless they were once the same people and inhabited perhaps the same continent, of which the volcanic shocks have only spared us the mountains and their savage inhabitants, and who by means of their former easy intercommunication are now mixed black and white. In this great portion of the earth so long unknown to Europe and so little known at this day, how many physical revolutions may not have been occasioned by successive volcanic eruptions? How many cities, empires, nations, may have disappeared from the face of the earth and abandoned their abode to the element which now covers them, like the city of Callao, which was covered and engulphed by the sea on the night of the 28th October, 1747? We are assured that on the coast of Peru some years ago a fairly considerable rock was discovered which is composed of an immense mass of petrified human bones, as though the sea had formerly covered a vast cemetery, of which the corpses petrified under the waters appear to-day in the form of a rock. This fact supports my conjecture regarding the existence of submerged countries between New Zealand and Taity, etc. I shall not be astonished if those navigators, now occupied with the discovery of an Austral Continent, should find at the Antarctic Pole nothing but islands, being the summits of the mountains which have escaped from volcanic shocks and have been separated from plains which may formerly have surrounded them. There they will surely find people absolutely similar to those of New Zealand.
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In my wanderings on the land which surrounds the Bay of Islands I found here and there blocks of white marble, of red jasper, ideous marble which suggests that there exists in this island some marine deposit around the nucleus of the ancient rock of granite, the base of which appears to be gabbro laminated and more or less black, containing a white substance which is pulverulent and dull in some, but brilliant and solid in others; crystallized quartz, firestone, flint, chalcedonic agates, pebbles crystallized in the interior, others translucent and similar to those which one finds in India on the Malabar coast. In the first bay in which we anchored, and where we lost our anchors, I found a spring of very soft water running out of the rock, and whose waters appeared to me to be capable of producing petrifaction. I picked up the remains of a petrified crab, some pebbles of which the kernel was very hard, and of which the outer layers folded like leaves had not yet acquired the same hardness, although of a strong nature. 19 I found masses of flints formed into very large blocks, being bound together by a hard natural cement. 20 Finally we found everywhere a very beautiful red ochre indicating the ferruginous nature of the soil.
Although it appears that jade is very common in New Zealand, for the savages have nearly all tomahawks, chisels, engraved images, and ear ornaments made thereof, yet I was not able to see the place where they obtain it; I do not know whether they find it in the rivers like pebbles or whether Nature has placed it in quarries. 21 This jade is of a beautiful semi-transparent green, and of a deeper hue than that of the jade known to other parts of the world; sparkling pieces are sometimes found which are of a very pleasing variant colour. The New Zealanders carve. all their implements with jade, which is one of the hardest stones. 22
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THE KAURI PINE.
The country which surrounds the Bay of Islands is a charming mixture of plains and slopes, valleys and mountains. Wherever the country is not covered with forest, it is covered with ferns; those which grow on the sea-coast and on the mountains are not much higher than those of France, but those which grow in the dales and at the foot of the mountains are the large ferns which the savages prefer on account of their roots, which are as thick as one's thumb, and which form the basis of their nourishment.
Their forests contain a fairly large variety of trees, amongst which I recognized a very beautiful strong-smelling myrtle thirty to forty feet high, Guaiacum [sic] atherosperma, and several redwood trees, one of which resembles the small-leaved bois de nattes a petites feuilles [mysine] of the Isles of France and Bourbon. We obtained from this good knees for repairing our vessels. But the tree which prevails most in all the forests is the olive-leaved cedar [Dammara australis, the Kauri pine]. I have had cedars of this variety cut down whose trunks were more than a hundred feet long, from the ground to the lowest branches, and fifty-two inches in diameter. The trees are very resinous; the resin is white and transparent, and gives out an agreeable smell like incense when burnt. It appeared to me that this cedar is the commonest and highest tree of the country; its wood is elastic, and I judged it very suitable for making ships' masts. 23
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In some parts the forests are very free from obstructions, in others the ground is covered with shrubbery, some of which is thorny, and with a very common vine which climbs to the top of the very highest trees.
Although we were in New Zealand in the months of June and July, which months are the coldest in this southern portion of the world, I did not see a single tree shed its leaves. The forests were quite as green as they are in France in the middle of summer; nevertheless there were occasional light frosts, and in the morning I have seen the water of the marshes frozen over to a thickness of two or three lines, but the sun melted this thin ice within an hour of its rising. I did not see any snow fall in the plains, but I have noticed it on the highest mountains. I also noticed that the rains generally came from the E. and N. E., which is contrary to the direction they come from in our French climate.
The marshes are full of rushes and of Hibertia (?). On stony ground, on slopes which are not broken up, we found a variety of Hoheria in large quantities, from which these savages extract a very beautiful silken thread, a cyprus-leaved tithymale [sic] resembling a shrub, different sorts of Epacris, Solatium, Aviculare, and a very pretty golden immortelle. In the neighbourhood of the sea we found very tasty celery, also Oxalis magellanica, a kind of large leaved water-cress, 24 and the same variety of morel which is eaten in Madagascar and in the Isle of France. We ate a good deal of these plants, which abound in the country, and the eating of which had a very salutary effect on our scurvied people when the good terms on which we lived with the savages allowed us to gather them every day. The savages expressed great astonishment at seeing us eat these herbs. 25
I formed a garden on Moutouaro Island, in which I sowed the seed of all sorts of vegetables, stones and the pips of our fruits,
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INTRODUCED PLANTS.
wheat, millet, maize, and in fact every variety of grain which I had brought from the Cape of Good Hope; everything succeeded admirably, several of the grains sprouted and appeared above ground, and the wheat especially grew with surprising vigour.
The soil is excellent for vegetation. 26 In those parts where I was obliged to stir the ground, in making the road for transporting our masts, I found it to consist of a black vegetable soil down to a depth of five to six feet, without any other admixture. At this depth the soil was mixed with small stones and more especially with small translucent pebbles.
The garden on Moutouaro Island alone was not sufficient to satisfy my desires; I planted stones and pips wherever I went --in the plains, in the glens, on the slopes, and even on the mountains; I also sowed everywhere a few of the different varieties of grain, and most of the officers did the same. We tried in vain to get the savages to grow some, and explained to them the use of the wheat, of the other elementary grains and of the quality of the fruits of which we showed them the stones. But they had no more mind for this than brutes. 27
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In several.....places I found very good potters' clay, and our master gunner, a very ingenious man, rigged up a potter's reel, on which in the presence of the savages he made several vessels, porringers and plates, and even baked them under the very eyes of the savages. Some of his essays succeeded perfectly, and he gave the articles to the savages who had seen them turned and baked, but I doubt whether they will profit by such an industry as this, which would afford them a thousand conveniences.
The only quadrupeds I saw in this country were dogs and rats. The dogs are a sort of domesticated fox, quite black or white, very low on the legs, straight ears, thick tail, long body, full jaws but more pointed than that of the fox, and uttering the same cry; they do not bark like our dogs. These animals are only fed on fish, and it appears that the savages only raise them for food. Some were taken on board our vessels, but it was impossible to domesticate them like our dogs, they were always treacherous and bit us frequently. They would1 have been dangerous to keep where poultry was raised or had to be protected; they would destroy them just like true foxes. The rats are of the same species as those we have in our fields and forests. 28
We had on board our vessels some pigs from the Cape of Good Hope, some sheep and kids, the sight of which caused the greatest astonishment to the savages every time they came on board. They looked upon these animals with the greatest surprise, proving that they have not the like in their country. They had also never seen domestic fowls and ducks, and were very much astonished to see them in the coops. They have absolutely no other domestic animal than the dog.
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NEW ZEALAND GAME.
In the marshes are found wild duck, teal, and blue fowl similar to but darker in hue than those of Madagascar, the Indies, and China. In the forests there are very beautiful wood pigeons about the size of a pullet, their sparkling blue and gold plumage is magnificent. These birds make splendid game. In the same forests are to be found very big parrots with black and variegated blue and red plumage, lories and a small variety of the latter with a very beautiful plumage similar to that of the lories of the island of Gola. 29
The newly discovered lands abound with parson birds, starlings, pipits, the very common quail with the same plumage as our own but bigger, native robins of different colours, and birds like wagtails and wheatears. 30
On the sea-coast one meets with many curlews, snipe, cormorants, black and white egrets similar to those of France, and a very beautiful black bird of the size of a sea-snipe, with bright red beak and feet. 31 With the exception of the egrets, whose flesh is very dry, all these birds are good to eat. The envergures, which the sailors call velvet cuffs, and grey and white gulls, are too dry, tough and oily to be eaten. 32
From the day of our first landing I noticed that all the birds of this country were tame and allowed themselves to be approached so closely that they could be killed with stones and sticks; but when our young men had fired at them for a few days, the game became wild, although the savages could still approach closely, while they fled our sportsmen from afar off.
Fish are very abundant on this coast of New Zealand, and splendid barbots, mullet, and conger-eels are caught, as well as incredible quantities of mackerel much bigger than those from the coasts of France, but very good; many balistes of various colours, codfish in smaller quantities, two varieties of red fish like the gurnet which I have not met with elsewhere,
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and of which one variety is of about the size of a cod. All these fish are good to eat. It appears that migratory fish are to be met with on the coasts at different seasons of the year, and I am convinced that the fishery must be much more abundant in the straits which separate the two big islands of this country. In the rocks which fringe the coasts many lobsters, crabs, and shellfish of every variety are to be met with and similar to those which we found in Frederic Henry Bay in Van Diemen's Land. 33
We found neither penguins nor sea-wolves on this coast. Out at sea at some distance from the land many whales and white porpoises were seen, all of which could be hunted.
DEPARTURE FROM NEW ZEALAND, CONTINUATION OF THE VOYAGE IN THE SOUTH SEAS.
On the 14th July we left Treachery Bay, named Bay of Islands on the chart by Captain Cook, and steered in a northeasterly direction into the South Sea. The wind was in the S. E. From the 16th to the 21st of July the wind varied from N. E. to N. W., and we experienced violent winds and a very heavy sea. Up to the 25th the wind blew from the S. W. We found the winds variable and often contrary until we had crossed the tropic of Capricorn. We then met with a clear sky and calm sea and wind from the S. E. to E. Having arrived at 20 deg. S. latitude and longitude 185 deg. E. of Paris, we directed our course towards the east in search of the islands Rotterdam and Amsterdam, which are marked on the chart in the same latitude. We navigated with the greatest care in order not to pass these islands in the night. On the 6th of August we saw land ahead of us and approached it to within two leagues. The coast seemed fringed with breakers. We saw clearly a chain of low-lying islands, which looked like beds of broken coral, on which Nature had planted a few
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DAYBREAK ISLAND.
coco-nut palms; the wind and current forced us on to the coast, but we searched in vain for an anchorage, the weather being bad and the sea rough. We stood off for the night, proposing to return in the morning and look for a roadstead.
On examining the excellent work of President de Brosses, 34 which I always had near me, I understood that the islands before us were not those of Rotterdam and Amsterdam which we were in search of, but a chain of coral islands to the north of the said islands. Having sounded several times without finding bottom, I changed the course for the north. When we were in sight of these rocks, we were in latitude 20 deg. 9' S., and our longitude by reckoning was 182 deg. E. of Paris, the variation being 11 deg. 45' N. E. The islands of Rotterdam and Amsterdam should be placed in latitude 21 deg. 80' as indicated on the chart.
In going north, we observed at daybreak on the 12th of August an island which I have not found on any chart, and I named it Ile du point du jour (Daybreak Island). It appeared to me an arid, steep, mountainous peak, surrounded by rocks, more especially on the south side, where they look very much like boats. I calculated it to be about five leagues in circumference. It is situated in 16 deg. S. latitude, and according to our reckoning 182 deg. 30' E. of Paris. On passing the island I found magnetic variation to be 8 deg. 30' N. E.
The sight of this island did not cause us to deviate from our course. We had the finest of weather, with the wind E. S. E. On the 23rd August we crossed the line at 176 deg. 43' E. longitude. From this point to the 8 deg. N. latitude the variation was 1 deg. deg. to the N. E. The wind blew continuously from the S. E. From the time we saw the last islands we unceasingly met with land birds.
After the 28th of August, from N. latitude 8 deg. to 130, the wind veered about from W. to N. and to S. E. We now had very little wind, and the scurvy was playing havoc with our sailors, few being left in a state fit to work. This disease had made
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its appearance when we entered the tropics and had since then made rapid progress.
On the 2nd of September we changed our course to the W., the wind being constant from N. E. to E. We had rain occasionally, and continued to meet with indications of the neighbourhood of land until we sighted the island of Guam, the largest of the Marianne Islands, 35 on the 20th of September 1772, and where we anchored on the 27th of the same month.
