[May 1820]
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May 1st, Monday. At ten a. m. the Prince Regent schooner sailed for Port Jackson.
In the afternoon, a shooting party went into a cove, not very far from the ship, and killed some wild ducks. While the boat remained on one side, four of the sportsmen walked round to the other, where they were met by a New Zealander, who asked them "what they wanted there?" and seemed in a most desperate passion, particularly with the man who carried the game. No notice whatever being taken of him, he went away; but when the gentlemen were about to embark, he again came running to the boat,
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rather more composed, but still very sulky. Another native, who had attended them during their walk, and who had been very civil, was told, in the presence of his ill-tempered countryman, to come on board the next day for a present; an invitation with which he punctually complied. It would be difficult to say what could have irritated the other man, as the natives always feel so much gratification in seeing a European kill a bird, that they not only volunteer to show them where game is to be found, but to assist them in looking for it. May 2d, Tuesday. Early this morning, observing several war-canoes at the mouth of the Wytangy, some of the gentlemen hastened thither, but their boat was unable to overtake the canoes, which formed a line, and paddled rapidly up the stream. The warriors in them were painted red, and their heads were ornamented with feathers and leaves; they shouted and fired their muskets as they passed the different villages; and, after continuing their course for about three miles up the Wytangy to where a waterfall of twenty feet, extending
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across the bed of the river, prevents its further navigation, they disembarked, and encamped on the banks on either side. They said they had had a great battle at Mercury Bay, and that they had brought back many prisoners and heads, some of which they offered for sale.
The prisoners were generally women and children; among the former was one who had received a musket-shot through the fleshy part of the leg, which evidently had not been dressed since it was wounded. She was advanced in years, and the bank upon which the war-party had encamped, being steep and rugged, she sat by the water's edge, crying to them, but in vain, for assistance to ascend it. This tribe were natives of the shores of the Wytangy; but they said it was necessary that they should go inland to a considerable distance the following morning, and that they should not return for some time.
It was positively asserted by the natives in the neighbourhood, and by members of their own tribe, that the object of their excursion into the interior was to devour their prisoners without intrusion or molestation. The wounded
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female we never afterwards were able to discover; nor would they give us any satisfactory information about her. Our visit was repeated to their camp the next day, but it had been abandoned, and nothing remained but their canoes.
In the afternoon there was thunder, lightning, and rain, and the Prince Regent schooner had found the weather so bad at sea, that she was obliged to return.
May 3d, Wednesday. The carpenter had been some days up the Cowa-Cowa with ten sailors, assisting the natives in getting down the spars. The chiefs who had contracted to supply them, were, as already mentioned, Tekokee and King George. For each tree was given an axe, which was supposed to be exclusively the property of the chiefs; and as a farther remuneration, the carpenter was in the habit of distributing every second evening articles of minor value among the men and women who worked under them. At noon King George demanded the usual stipend for his people, which the carpenter refused to give, telling him that the day's work
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had not been completed, but that they should receive it at sunset; upon this King George grew excessively insolent, and in a few minutes surrounded the carpenter's tent with about 100 persons, threatening to kill a native of Bengal [see Note 12.] who acted as interpreter to the carpenter, and was in the tent with him, and behaving in other respects so outrageously that the unjust demand, from motives of prudence, was complied with. The natives then dispersed, and, with the exception of very few, abandoned their work altogether.
During this affair Tekokee conducted himself extremely well, taking no part in the tumult, and telling the carpenter that so far from not being sufficiently paid, the people had already received too much for their labour. Things were in this state when the commander of the Dromedary accidentally arrived at the wood; and as nothing could be done at the moment, Tekokee and King George promised to come on board the next day, and explain the motives of the disagreement.
May 4th, Thursday. That there might be
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no misunderstanding, a boat was sent to Tippoona for one of the missionaries, to interpret what King George had to say for himself; and in the course of the day Tekokee and his fellow-chief arrived.
King George had not been two minutes in the ship when he remarked that his conduct at the carpenter's tent was shenerica , or hoax; "that neither he nor his people meant any harm, and their only object was to get as much as they could from the white men" Both he and Tekokee declared that they were amply paid, that they had no reason to be dissatisfied, and that they would again resume their labours. They urged in extenuation of their not performing their contract, that one of their relations had lately died, that many of the tribe were gone to cry over him, that many more were obliged to attend the planting of the koomeras; but that they would all return at the end of the present moon, and that then the spars should be floated down the river. Notwithstanding this affected satisfaction they seemed sore and out of spirits, particularly King George, who did nothing
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but beg for one thing or the other from the time he came into the ship until he left it.
The people of the Bay of Islands having a suspicion that the Dromedary might ultimately go to Wangarooa, took every opportunity of pointing out to us the danger attendant upon a visit to that harbour. Almost daily reports were made of the plots laid for our destruction; and this morning a native, nicknamed George, who had lived as servant with the missionaries, and understood English pretty well, told us that he had it from unquestionable authority, that his namesake of Wangarooa had cut down two spars, which were drawn near the water, and several others which were left more inland, as a snare to induce our people to come on shore, that they might be dealt with in the same manner as the crew of the Boyd.
May 6th, Saturday. Two or three spars having been floated down the river, the carpenters were employed in trimming them; and one of the natives, affecting to make himself particularly useful, took occasion, when the attention of the European workmen was turned
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to other objects, to seize an axe, and run away with it into a neighbouring wood as hard as he could; pursuit of course was useless.
May 7th, Sunday. One of the officers of the ship having visited the missionaries' settlement at Tippoona, was presented with a human bone, curiously carved. The person who gave it to him assured him that he had purchased it from a chief of Wangarooa, who had set a high value upon it, from the circumstance of its being the rib of one of the crew of the Boyd.
8th, Monday. The wind being southerly, the Prince Regent schooner sailed for Port Jackson.
9th, Tuesday. In going up the Cowa-Cowa in the morning, we met the carpenter, who told us that the whole of Tekokee's and King George's people had abandoned their work, to attend the taking up of the bones of a deceased relative.
This is one of the last funeral rites that is paid to the dead. After the body has remained sufficiently long in the earth for the flesh to decay, the friends take up the bones,
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scrape them clean, and deposit them in a basket, placing the skull at the top, in the burying-ground of the family. These burying-grounds are rigidly tabbooed, and a violation of them is never forgotten or forgiven. On taking up the bones, the tribe perform the ceremony of crying and cutting themselves, which is followed by a grand feast.
Soon after we had parted with the carpenter, we landed on the left bank of the river, and walked to a village about half a mile distant. It was at first almost deserted, but in a short time several women came running into it, very much cut with the shell, and bleeding profusely from their faces and arms: they were followed by the native of Bengal, already mentioned, who hurried to his house, and seizing his musket, discharged it in the air.
In the first hurry we could get no explanation of this extraordinary proceeding; but we were afterwards informed that a man of Tekokee's tribe had just died in the neighbourhood, and that it was customary upon these occasions for every person having a musket to fire it, as a salute to the departed
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spirit. The women had been present when the man expired, and had gone through the usual ceremonies of their country; but when they joined our party they were in the highest spirits, and though still bleeding, they continued to laugh and romp, until we parted from them at the water's edge, whither they had followed us.
Previous to abandoning their work, the natives, incensed at an objection made by the carpenter to a spar which they were about to launch, on account of its being under the regulated dimensions, laid it across the bed of the river, so as effectually to stop the passage of the rest that were to follow, and sinking a canoe some distance lower down the stream, went to celebrate the obsequies of their relative.
May 10th, Wednesday. Some of the gentlemen belonging to the ship returned from an excursion into the interior. They had gone up the river Kiddy-Kiddy, and after walking about twenty miles across the country, arrived at a small stream called the Wymatty, which flows into the Wytangy, and gives its
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name to the neighbouring district, the property of Tarrea, a chief of Shungie's tribe. They found this man presiding at a general assembly of the people of the Bay of Islands and the country adjacent, and they calculated that there were nearly 3000 persons on the ground. Being cautious in concealing the object of meetings of this kind, the New Zealanders said it originated in the presence of an Atua , or god, and directed the gentlemen to the place where the divinity was to be found.
Here they saw the head of one of their chiefs, who had been killed at Mercury Bay, dressed out with feathers, and placed upon an elevated platform. Near it were the bones of many generations of the family; and the lamentations of the relatives who sat round it began at the rising and terminated at the setting of the sun.
The appearance of this immense assemblage was represented as resembling a fair; and as all meetings, whether to grieve or to rejoice, end in a feast, the quantities of koomeras and potatoes which were seen were enormous.
Though many of the people might have
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collected to celebrate the rites of the Atua, it was afterwards ascertained that the chief object of the meeting was to concert measures to avenge the death of one of Shungie's brothers, who had been killed twelve years before in an unsuccessful expedition on the western coast.
The gentlemen afterwards went to a place called Tyama, where they saw some hot sulphureous springs, and collected some specimens of crystallised sulphur. They were attended on their return by Kaiterra, the chief of the place. He had been particularly civil to them, and seemed to be one of the few who had improved by a visit to Port Jackson; having several acres of ground fenced in, and cultivated, and a house of a description very superior to those of the other New Zealanders.
May 11th, Thursday. Two water casks having been anchored right and left of the ship, the great guns were exercised. There were many canoes full of people assembled to witness the spectacle; and as the progress of the shot upon the water was very visible,
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the natives seemed greatly surprised at the extent of its range. Krokro being among the spectators, remarked, at the end of the firing, "that the entertainment was over because the powder was all gone:" but that he thought the captain of the ship would have acted much more wisely in giving it to him, as he would have amply supplied the vessel with provisions in return. Another chief named Perehico, who sat by, replied, "that it was very well to fire at a cask at New Zealand, but that he was confident whenever the Dromedary returned to England King George would be very angry with her commander for wasting his powder."
When the crowd had dispersed, we rowed into a cove, whither the greater part of the shots had been directed; and at its extremity we were surprised to find the habitation of a native family. On landing, the principal islander invited us into his house, where he produced a small pig, which he requested us to accept; and he appeared much surprised that, instead of taking it, we gave him a trifling present, which he seemed to value.
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Whether his fears had led to this unusual act of generosity, it is impossible to say; but certainly some of the shot had struck the rocks at no great distance from him; for he told us that an Atua, or something wonderful, had been there. This man's attachment to us continued ever after.
On the right bank of the confluence of the Cowa-Cowa and the Wycaddy there lived an islander of something of the same character. It is true, some trifling repair had been done to his musket, which, perhaps, he considered involved him in a debt of gratitude he could not easily repay: but never did our boat pass near his house that his musket was not fired: his children were perched upon the rocks to invite us to land, while he himself waited the honour of carrying us on his back on shore; and so urgent were his solicitations, that it was almost impossible to resist them.
Among the members of his family was the only deformed person we had seen on the island. One of his sons had his hand and arm very much distorted; but so studiously did the boy conceal his calamity from us, by
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hiding the limb under his mat, that it was by a mere accident, and after a long acquaintance, that we discovered it.
May 12th, Friday. We were visited by a chief of Bream Bay, who described it as too shallow for the Dromedary; but he said that the neighbouring district produced a considerable quantity of cowry, some of which grew close to the water's edge.
13th, Saturday. In the morning, some of the gentlemen made an excursion up the river Wycaddy; and on approaching Tetoro's village, he fired two muskets as a salute; but as there were no arms in the boat, he asked us, when we landed, why the compliment had not been returned; and seemed displeased until a satisfactory explanation was given. He then led us to his hut, where he had just completed the stock of a musket, and, considering the few miserable tools he possessed, it was done with much ingenuity. The place for the barrel had been hollowed out by fire, and the excavation for the lock, though made with an old knife and a wretched chisel, was singularly accurate.
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Whenever Tetoro came on board the Dromedary, he took his station either at the carpenter's or the armourer's bench, where he watched with unremitting attention whatever was going on; and he showed remarkable quickness and sagacity in learning every thing mechanical that came under his observation.
In the evening, the carpenter returned from the Cowa-Cowa, where he had been the whole of the week, with ten sailors, and reported that for the last three days he had scarcely received any assistance from the natives, the greater part of them having gone to a funeral in the neighbourhood, and that it was impossible to say when they would return. The labour had now become very hard, the trees were felled in a swamp, which the late rains had flooded, and the men employed in dragging them to the river were often up to their waists in water.
May 15th, Monday. The working party of sailors up the Cowa-Cowa was increased to twenty men.
One of the midshipmen having gone on shore near where the ship lay, a native, who
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spoke English, told him that Tooi had formed a plot to take the Dromedary, and that a night-attack was to be made upon her three Sundays afterwards, with 200 men.
May 16th, Tuesday. In the evening the carpenter came from the Cowa-Cowa, and reported that such was the obstinacy of the natives in cutting down trees which he had decidedly told them were too short, that out of the many they had felled, only four remained sufficiently long to form part of the cargo; and that the missionaries having agreed to take such as were unfit for the Dromedary, he proposed moving higher up the river, to where the ground was drier, and the spars longer. During the night there was a heavy gale of wind, with constant rain.
17th. The natives at the Cowa-Cowa, for some reason which could not be ascertained, refused to assist the sailors, and mustered their whole strength to get down a spar for the missionaries. The next day they returned to their work.
19th, Friday. In going into what appeared a deep cove, near the mouth of the Wycaddy,
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we found that it terminated in a river, called the Wykeeno, which was navigable for boats about three miles: its banks, in some parts, were steep, and richly wooded; and we saw a great number of wild ducks upon it. It terminated at a village, where we were received by two very pretty native women, who told us that their father (Cowerapopo) was chief of the place, and proposed to lead us to him. He was an elderly man, and had lost the use of his limbs, apparently from rheumatism. The chief gave us a most gracious reception; and, on taking our leave, the whole family joined in requesting us to return again, which we promised to do.
During our ramble through Cowerapopo's village, we accidentally, and unobserved, entered the burying-ground. In the centre of the enclosure stood a kind of stage, roofed over like a house, and on it were laid several small canoes. In one were the remains of a child, rolled up in a mat, but they were not quite decayed, and in another, was a heap of bones, with a skull placed upon the top of it.
The natives say that when people die, the
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bodies are buried until the flesh has rotted off the bones; but what we saw this day, with other circumstances, sufficiently evinces that there are exceptions to this practice; and that among this extraordinary people the same inconsistency prevails in the disposal of the dead, which is observed in many of their other customs.
The remains of the child that were not quite decayed, evidently had not been interred. Krokro would scarcely have taken so much trouble, in the instance described, to prevent the putrefaction of the body of his friend, if it was to be committed to the earth. The upper part of the body of a woman was seen at Shukehanga, in a high state of preservation, while the remainder, in consequence of decomposition immediately after death, was not preserved; and Mr. Marsden saw Wevere's father laid out upon a stage, in precisely the same manner as the child just now described.
We were glad that our visit to this consecrated place did not attract the notice of the natives; as, on all occasions, they so strongly
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expressed their superstitious disapprobation of white men approaching the repositories of their dead, our present unintentional intrusion upon them would probably have given uneasiness and offence to the very friendly people who had received us with so much civility.
May 20th, Saturday. In an excursion up the Wytangy, we met a war-canoe, filled with strangers; and the chief seemed to be so anxious for our acquaintance, that he followed our boat up to the fall, whither we were going, offering some potatoes as a present, and using every means to ingratiate himself with us. When we parted, he requested permission to pay us a visit the next day. He proved to be a chief from Bream Bay, and was on his return from the general assembly described at Wymatty.
21st, Sunday. In the morning we had a visit from our Bream Bay friend, who remained on board the greater part of the day; and having got from one of the officers a small bit of iron, called by the natives a tokee , he threw it into his canoe, which lay along-
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side. So anxious were two of his followers to seize the prize, that in the struggle, they lost their temper, and came to blows with their paddles.
This was one of the first quarrels that many of us had hitherto witnessed. Their blows were entirely directed against each other's heads, and though the effusion of blood on both sides was considerable, the combat seemed to be regarded for a long time by their companions with the most perfect indifference. At length a woman interfered, and the canoe almost immediately paddled off to the shore. As the natives on board told us, that they had gone thither to renew the battle, some of the officers followed them; but on landing, they found the parties apparently reconciled.
Though disappointed in witnessing a fight, the gentlemen had an opportunity of seeing the operation of the amoco , or tattooing, performed upon the face of a young man of Tekokee's tribe. He lay upon his back, with his head resting upon the knees of the operator, who sat upon the ground, and for
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whose guidance the intended form of the amoco had been previously traced in black lines upon the patient's face. The point of the tattooing chisel was about half a quarter of an inch wide; it was made of the wingbone of an albatross, and fastened in a transverse wooden handle. Before each incision the instrument was dipped in a calabash of charcoal and water, and then laid on the part, and lightly struck with a bit of stick not larger than a common pencil. As the lines of the amoco became more contracted, a narrower instrument was used. Though the blood gushed out at every puncture, the patient bore the operation with perfect composure; and whatever the pain might have been at the time, the inflammation that followed and continued for many days was quite frightful. During this week, many canoes were daily round the ship, and the supply of vegetables was tolerably plentiful.
May 22d, Monday. A shooting excursion up the Wykeeno was very successful; and the old chief and his daughters were highly pleased with our repeating our visit.
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May 23d, Tuesday. A canoe came alongside in the afternoon, and a girl, who it appeared had been on board the preceding evening, having gone into it, was attacked by two New Zealanders so furiously that they seemed only restrained by our presence from killing her. Some of the men, who were looking over the side, having told them to desist from this outrage, they pushed off from the ship, having first tied her hand and foot in the bottom of the canoe, and paddled to the shore.
Many of the natives having said that the intention was to kill and eat her, some of the officers lost no time in following them to the beach, and on arriving there, we found that she had been released from her fetters, but set apart from the rest, and was crying. The man who had misused her came up, and told us that unless we chose to buy her, he would kill her; but the chief of the party, who was an, acquaintance of ours, arriving at the moment, declared that the whole was a shenerica, or hoax, and that nothing unfortunate should happen; that the irritation of the man was momentary, and that the crime of the poor
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girl, who was a slave, consisted in having disappointed her master of the base and discreditable gain upon which he calculated, when he sent her on board the ship.
As these people were preparing their dinner, we remained by invitation to share it with them; and the poor prisoner having received some trifling presents from one of the party, we had the pleasure of observing, before our return to the ship, that she had dismissed her fears and recovered her good spirits.
Before our meal, the natives were extremely chatty; but when the baskets of cockles and vegetables were put before them, not a word was spoken; and they ate with excessive greediness and rapidity. On the subject of their silence, when we made some comments, they told us the New Zealanders had quite enough to do at their dinners without losing their time by talking to their neighbours.
May 24th, Wednesday. There was now a general report among the natives that a large ship had been seen off the heads.
25th, Thursday. In the morning we had a visit from Moodooi, one of the chiefs
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of Shukehanga: he was accompanied by Timoranga, and a river Thames chief, named Towretta.
May 27th, Saturday. In the evening died a very fine child, the daughter of Sergeant Brown of the 84th regiment.
28th, Sunday. During the week the daily attendance of the canoes was numerous, and a moderate supply of fish and vegetables was purchased.
29th, Monday. The remains of Sergeant Brown's child were sent to Tippoona, and interred in the garden of Mr. King, one of the missionaries. For some time before its death a native girl had been in the habit of nursing and looking after it, and when the body was lowered into the boat, she was as deeply affected and cried as bitterly as if the child had been her nearest relative.
A message having been received from George of Wangarooa, that he had got several cowry spars cut down, the carpenter, accompanied by Mr. Marsden and one of the missionaries, set out in a whale-boat to make a further examination of his harbour, and to
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ascertain what prospect the ship might have, by going thither, of procuring a cargo.
May 30th, Tuesday. At noon the Coromandel store-ship, which was employed on the same service as the Dromedary, was seen within the heads, and in the evening she anchored in Parro Bay.
31st, Wednesday. Fine. This morning the captain of the Coromandel and some of the officers came on board. In the afternoon a heavy gale set in at N. E., and the first cutter, with a midshipman, one sailor, and six soldiers, upset within half a mile of the ship. The promptness with which assistance was rendered, fortunately saved the lives of the whole party, who clung to the bottom of the boat until they were rescued.
The gale continued the whole of the 1st; and on the 2d, the officer in charge of the working party at the Cowa-Cowa came on board in the forenoon, and reported that the sailors' huts had been blown down, and that the river was swollen so much as to be impassable for boats.
