Chapter III: Book II: Chap. VII (2)

The northermost of these islands is called by the natives Eaheinomauwe, and the southermost Tovy, or Tavai Poenammoo; yet, as I have observed before, we are not sure whether the name Tovy Poenammoo comprehends the whole southern island, or only part of it. The figure and extent of these islands, with the situation of the bays and harbours they contain, and the smaller islands that lie about them, will appear from the chart that I have drawn, every part of which, however, I cannot vouch to be equally accurate. The coast of Eaheinomauwe, from Cape Palliser to East Cape, is laid down with great exactness, both in its figure, and the course and distance from point to point; for the opportunities that offered, and the methods that I used, were such as could scarcely admit of an error. From East Cape to St. Maria van Diemen, the chart, though perhaps not equally exact, is without any error of moment, except possibly in some few places which are here, and in other parts of the chart, distinguished by a dotted line, and which I had no opportunity to examine: from Cape Maria van Diemen to latitude 36° 15ʹ, we were seldom nearer the shore than between five and eight leagues; and therefore the line that marks the sea-coast may possibly be erroneous. From latitude 36° 15ʹ, to nearly the length of Entry Island, our course was very near the shore, and in this part of the chart therefore there can be no material error, except perhaps at Cape Tierawitte. Between Entry Island and Cape Palliser we were again farther from the shore, and this part of the coast therefore may not be laid down with minute exactness; yet, upon the whole, I am of opinion that this island will be found not much to differ from the figure that I have given it, and that upon the coast there are few or no harbours which are not noticed in the journal, or delineated in the chart. I cannot however say as much of Tovy Poenammoo: the season of the year, and the circumstances of the voyage, would not permit me to spend so much time about this island as I had employed upon the other; and the storms that we met with made it both difficult and dangerous to keep near the shore. However, from Queen Charlotte’s Sound to Cape Campbell, and as far to the S. W. as latitude 43°, the chart will be found pretty accurate. Between latitude 43° and latitude 44° 20ʹ the line may be doubted, for of some part of the coast which it represents we had scarcely a view. From latitude 44° 20ʹ, to Cape Saunders, our distance would not permit me to be particular, and the weather was besides extremely unfavourable. From Cape Saunders to Cape South, and even to Cape West, there is also reason to fear that the chart will in many places be found erroneous, as we were seldom able to keep the shore, and were sometimes blown to such a distance that it could not be seen. From Cape West to Cape Farewell, and even to Charlotte’s Sound, it is not more to be trusted.

Tovy Poenammoo is for the most part a mountainous, and to all appearance a barren country; and the people whom we saw in Queen Charlotte’s Sound, those that came off to us under the snowy mountains, and the fires to the west of Cape Saunders, were all the inhabitants, and signs of inhabitants, that we discovered upon the whole island.

Eaheinomauwe has a much better appearance; it is indeed not only hilly but mountainous, yet even the hills and mountains are covered with wood, and every valley has a rivulet of water: the soil in these valleys, and in the plains, of which there are many that are not overgrown with wood, is in general light but fertile, and in the opinion of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, as well as of every other gentleman on board, all kinds of European grain, plants, and fruit, would flourish here in the utmost luxuriance: from the vegetables that we found here, there is reason to conclude, that the winters are milder than those in England, and we found the summer not hotter, though it was more equally warm; so that if this country should be settled by people from Europe, they would, with a little industry, be very soon supplied not only with the necessaries, but the luxuries of life in great abundance.

In this country there are no quadrupeds but dogs and rats, at least we saw no other, and the rats are so scarce that many of us never saw them. The dogs live with the people, who breed them for no other purpose than to eat: there might indeed be quadrupeds that we did not see; but this is not probable, because the chief pride of the natives, with respect to their dress, is in the skins and hair of such animals as they have, and we never saw the skin of any animal about them but those of dogs and birds: there are indeed seals upon the coast, and we once saw a sea lion, but we imagine they are seldom caught, for though we saw some of their teeth, which were fashioned into an ornament like a bodkin, and worn by the natives at their breast, and highly valued, we saw none of their skins: there are whales also upon this coast, and though the people did not appear to have any art or instrument by which such an animal could be taken and killed, we saw pattoo-pattoos in the possession of some of them, which were made of the bone of a whale, or of some other animal whose bone had exactly the same appearance.

Of birds the species are not many; and of these none, except perhaps the gannet, is the same with those of Europe: here are ducks indeed, and shags of several kinds, sufficiently resembling those of Europe, to be called the same, by those who have not examined them very nicely. Here are also hawks, owls, and quails, which differ but little from those of Europe at first sight; and several small birds, whose song, as has been remarked in the course of the narrative, is much more melodious than any that we had ever heard.

The sea-coast is also visited by many oceanic birds, particularly albatrosses, sheerwaters, pintados, and a few of the birds which Sir John Narborough has called Penguins, and which indeed are what the French call _Nuance_, and seem to be a middle species between bird and fish; for their feathers, especially those upon their wings, differ very little from scales; and their wings themselves, which they use only in diving, and not to accelerate their motion even upon the surface of the water, may, perhaps with equal propriety, be called fins.

Neither are insects in greater plenty than birds: a few butterflies and beetles, flesh flies, very like those in Europe, and some musquitos and sand flies, perhaps exactly the same with those of North America, make up the whole catalogue. Of musquitos and sand flies, however, which are justly accounted the curse of every country where they abound, we did not see many: there were indeed a few in almost every place where we went on shore, but they gave us so little trouble, that we did not make use of the shades which we had provided for the security of our faces.

For this scarcity of animals upon the land, the sea, however, makes an abundant recompense; every creek swarming with fish, which are not only wholesome, but equally delicious with those of Europe: the ship seldom anchored in any station, or with a light gale passed any place, that did not afford us enough with hook and line to serve the whole ship’s company, especially to the southward: when we lay at anchor, the boats, with hook and line, near the rocks, could take fish in any quantity; and the seine seldom failed of producing a still more ample supply; so that both times when we anchored in Cook’s Streight, every mess in the ship, that was not careless and improvident, salted as much as lasted many weeks after they went to sea. Of this article, the variety was equal to the plenty; we had mackrel of many kinds, among which, one was exactly the same as we have in England: these came in immense shoals, and were taken by the natives in their seines, who sold them to us at a very easy rate. Besides these, there were fish of many species which we had never seen before, but to all which the seamen very readily gave names: so that we talked here as familiarly of hakes, bream, cole-fish, and many others, as we do in England; and though they are by no means of the same family, it must be confessed that they do honour to the name. But the highest luxury which the sea afforded us, even in this place, was the lobster or sea cray-fish, which are probably the same that in the account of Lord Anson’s Voyage are said to have been found at the island of Juan Fernandes, except that, although large, they are not quite equal in size: they differ from ours in England in several particulars, they have a greater number of prickles on their backs, and they are red when first taken out of the water. These we also bought every where to the northward in great quantities of the natives, who catch them by diving near the shore, and finding out where they lie with their feet. We had also a fish that Frezier, in his Voyage to the Spanish Main in South America, has described by the names of _Elefant_, _Pejegallo_, or _Poison coq_, which, though coarse, we eat very heartily. Several species of the skate, or sting-ray, are also found here, which were still coarser than the _Elefant_; but as an atonement, we had among many kinds of dog-fish one spotted with white, which was in flavour exactly similar to our best skate, but much more delicious. We had also flat fish resembling both soles and flounders, besides eels and congers of various kinds, with many others of which those who shall hereafter visit this coast will not fail to find the advantage; and shell-fish in great variety, particularly clams, cockles, and oysters.

Among the vegetable productions of this country, the trees claim a principal place; for here are forests of vast extent, full of the straightest, the cleanest, and the largest timber trees that we had ever seen: their size, their grain, and apparent durability, render them fit for any kind of building, and indeed for every other purpose except masts; for which, as I have already observed, they are too hard, and too heavy: there is one in particular which, when we were upon the coast, was rendered conspicuous by a scarlet flower, that seemed to be a compendage of many fibres; it is about as large as an oak, and the wood is exceedingly hard and heavy, and excellently adapted to the use of the millwright. There is another which grows in the swamps, remarkably tall and straight, thick enough to make masts for vessels of any size, and, if a judgment may be formed by the direction of its grain, very tough: this, which, as has been before remarked, our carpenter thought to resemble the pitch-pine, may probably be lightened by tapping, and it will then make the finest masts in the world: it has a leaf not unlike a yew, and bears berries in small bunches.

Great part of the country is covered with a luxuriant verdure, and our natural historians were gratified by the novelty, if not the variety of the plants. Sow-thistle, garden night-shade, one or two kinds of grass, the same as in England, and two or three kinds of fern, like those of the West Indies, with a few of the plants that are to be found in almost every part of the world, were all, out of about four hundred species, that have hitherto been described by any botanists, or had been seen elsewhere during the course of this voyage, except about five or six which had been gathered at Terra del Fuego.

Of eatable vegetables there are but few; our people, indeed, who had been long at sea, eat, with equal pleasure and advantage, of wild celery, and a kind of cresses, which grew in great abundance upon all parts of the sea-shore. We also, once or twice, met with a plant like what the country people in England call _Lamb’s quarters_, or Fat-hen, which we boiled instead of greens; and once we had the good fortune to find a cabbage-tree, which afforded us a delicious meal; and, except the fern-root, and one other vegetable, totally unknown in Europe, and which, though eaten by the natives, was extremely disagreeable to us, we found no other vegetable production that was fit for food, among those that appeared to be the wild produce of the country; and we could find but three esculent plants among those which are raised by cultivation, yams, sweet potatoes, and coccos. Of the yams and potatoes there are plantations consisting of many acres; and I believe that any ship which should happen to be here in the autumn, when they are dug up, might purchase them in any quantity.

Gourds are also cultivated by the natives of this place, the fruit of which furnishes them with vessels for various uses. We also found here the Chinese paper mulberry-tree, the same as that of which the inhabitants of the South Sea islands make their cloth; but it is so scarce, that though the New Zealanders also make cloth of it, they have not enough for any other purpose than to wear as an ornament in the holes which they make in their ears, as I have observed before.

But among all the trees, shrubs, and plants of this country, there is not one that produces fruit, except a berry which has neither sweetness nor flavour, and which none but the boys took pains to gather, should be honoured with that appellation. There is, however, a plant that serves the inhabitants instead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are put to the same purposes in other countries. Of this plant there are two sorts; the leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller, and their clusters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the leaves of these plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common apparel; and of these they make also their strings, lines, and cordage for every purpose, which are so much stronger than any thing we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparison. From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long slender fibres which shine like silk, and are as white as snow: of these, which are also surprisingly strong, the finer clothes are made; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths, and tying the strips together, they make their fishing nets; some of which, as I have before remarked, are of an enormous size.

A plant which, with such advantage, might be applied to so many useful and important purposes, would certainly be a great acquisition to England, where it would probably thrive with very little trouble, as it seems to be hardy, and to affect no particular soil; being found equally in hill and valley; in the driest mould, and the deepest bogs: the bog, however, it seems rather to prefer, as near such places we observed it to be larger than elsewhere.

I have already observed, that we found great plenty of iron sand in Mercury Bay, and therefore that iron ore is undoubtedly to be found at no great distance. As to other metals we had scarcely knowledge enough of the country for conjecture.

If the settling of this country should ever be thought an object worthy the attention of Great Britain, the best place for establishing a colony would be either on the banks of the Thames, or in the country bordering upon the Bay of Islands. In either place there would be the advantage of an excellent harbour; and, by means of the river, settlements might be extended, and a communication established with the inland parts of the country: vessels might be built of the fine timber which abounds in these parts, at very little trouble and expence, fit for such a navigation as would answer the purpose. I cannot indeed exactly assign the depth of water which a vessel intended to navigate this river, even as far up as I went with the boat, should draw, because this depends upon the depth of water that is upon the bar, or flats, which lie before the narrow part of the river, for I had no opportunity to make myself acquainted with them; but I am of opinion, that a vessel which should draw not more than twelve feet would perfectly answer the purpose.

When we first arrived upon the coast of this country, we imagined it to be much better peopled than we afterwards found it, concluding that the inland parts were populous from the smoke that we saw at a considerable distance from the shore; and, perhaps, that may really be the case with respect to the country behind Poverty Bay, and the Bay of Plenty, where the inhabitants appeared to be more numerous than in other places. But we had reason to believe, that, in general, no part of the country but the sea-coast is inhabited; and even there we found the people but thinly scattered, all the western coast from Cape Maria Van Diemen to Mount Egmont being totally desolate; so that upon the whole the number of inhabitants bears no proportion to the extent of country.

CHAP. IX.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE INHABITANTS, THEIR HABITATIONS, APPAREL, ORNAMENTS,
FOOD, COOKERY, AND MANNER OF LIFE.

THE stature of the men in general is equal to the largest of those in Europe: they are stout, well limbed, and fleshy; but not fat, like the lazy and luxurious inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas: they are also exceedingly vigorous and active; and have an adroitness and manual dexterity in an uncommon degree, which are discovered in whatever they do. I have seen the strokes of fifteen paddles on a side in one of their canoes made with incredible quickness, and yet with such minute exactness of time, that all the rowers seemed to be actuated by one common soul. Their colour in general is brown; but in few deeper than that of a Spaniard, who has been exposed to the sun; in many not so deep. The women have not a feminine delicacy in their appearance, but their voice is remarkably soft; and by that, the dress of both sexes being the same, they are principally distinguished: they have, however, like the women of other countries, more airy cheerfulness, and a greater flow of animal spirits, than the other sex. Their hair, both of the head and beard, is black; and their teeth extremely regular, and as white as ivory: the features of both sexes are good: they seem to enjoy high health; and we saw many who appeared to be of a great age. The dispositions both of the men and women seemed to be mild and gentle: they treat each other with the tenderest affection, but are implacable towards their enemies, to whom, as I have before observed, they never give quarter. It may, perhaps, at first, seem strange, that where there is so little to be got by victory, there should so often be war; and that every little district of a country inhabited by people so mild and placid, should be at enmity with all the rest. But possibly more is to be gained by victory among these people than at first appears, and they may be prompted to mutual hostilities by motives which no degree of friendship or affection is able to resist. It appears, by the account that has already been given of them, that their principal food is fish, which can only be procured upon the sea-coast; and there, in sufficient quantities, only at certain times; the tribes, therefore, who live inland, if any such there are, and even those upon the coast, must be frequently in danger of perishing by famine. Their country produces neither sheep, nor goats, nor hogs, nor cattle; tame fowls they have none, nor any art by which those that are wild can be caught in sufficient plenty to serve as provision. If there are any whose situation cuts them off from a supply of fish, the only succedaneum of all other animal food, except dogs, they have nothing to support life, but the vegetables that have already been mentioned, of which the chief are fern-root, yams, clams, and potatoes; when by any accident these fail, the distress must be dreadful; and even among the inhabitants of the coast, many tribes must frequently be reduced to nearly the same situation, either by the failure of their plantations, or the deficiency of their dry stock, during the season when but few fish are to be caught. These considerations will enable us to account, not only for the perpetual danger in which the people who inhabit this country appear to live, by the care which they take to fortify every village, but for the horrid practice of eating those who are killed in battle; for the hunger of him who is pressed by famine to fight, will absorb every feeling, and every sentiment which would restrain him from allaying it with the body of his adversary. It may, however, be remarked, that, if this account of the origin of so horrid a practice is true, the mischief does by no means end with the necessity that produced it: after the practice has been once begun on one side by hunger, it will naturally be adopted on the other by revenge. Nor is this all, for though it may be pretended, by some who wish to appear speculative and philosophical, that whether the dead body of an enemy be eaten or buried is in itself a matter perfectly indifferent; as it is, whether the breasts or thighs of a woman should be covered or naked; and that prejudice and habit only make us shudder at the violation of custom in one instance, and blush at it in the other: yet, leaving this as a point of doubtful disputation, to be discussed at leisure, it may safely be affirmed, that the practice of eating human flesh, whatever it may be in itself, is relatively, and in its consequences, most pernicious; tending manifestly to eradicate a principle which is the chief security of human life, and more frequently restrains the hand of murder than the sense of duty, or even the fear of punishment.

Among those who are accustomed to eat the dead, death must have lost much of its horror; and where there is little horror at the sight of death, there will not be much repugnance to kill. A sense of duty, and fear of punishment, may be more easily surmounted than the feelings of nature, or those which have been ingrafted upon nature by early prejudice and uninterrupted custom. The horror of the murderer arises less from the guilt of the fact, than its natural effect; and he who has familiarised the effect, will consequently lose much of the horror. By our laws, and our religion, murder and theft incur the same punishment, both in this world and the next; yet, of the multitude who would deliberately steal, there are but very few who would deliberately kill, even to procure much greater advantage. But there is the strongest reason to believe, that those who have been so accustomed to prepare a human body for a meal, that they can with as little feeling cut up a dead man, as our cook-maids divide a dead rabbit for a fricassee, would feel as little horror in committing a murder as in picking a pocket, and consequently would take away life with as little compunction as property; so that men, under these circumstances, would be made murderers by the slight temptations that now make them thieves. If any man doubts whether this reasoning is conclusive, let him ask himself, whether in his own opinion he should not be safer with a man in whom the horror of destroying life is strong, whether in consequence of natural instinct unsubdued, or of early prejudice, which has nearly an equal influence, than in the power of a man who under any temptation to murder him would be restrained only by considerations of interest; for to these all motives of mere duty may be reduced, as they must terminate either in hope of good, or fear of evil.

The situation and circumstances, however, of these poor people, as well as their temper, are favourable to those who shall settle as a colony among them. Their situation sets them in need of protection, and their temper renders it easy to attach them by kindness; and whatever may be said in favour of a savage life among people who live in luxurious idleness upon the bounty of nature, civilization would certainly be a blessing to those whom her parsimony scarcely furnishes with the bread of life, and who are perpetually destroying each other by violence, as the only alternative of perishing by hunger.

But these people, from whatever cause, being inured to war, and by habit considering every stranger as an enemy, were always disposed to attack us when they were not intimidated by our manifest superiority. At first, they had no notion of any superiority but numbers; and when this was on their side, they considered all our expressions of kindness as the artifices of fear and cunning, to circumvent them, and preserve ourselves: but when they were once convinced of our power, after having provoked us to the use of our fire-arms, though loaded only with small shot; and of our clemency, by our forbearing to make use of weapons so dreadful except in our defence, they became at once friendly, and even affectionate, placing in us the most unbounded confidence, and doing every thing which could incite us to put equal confidence in them. It is also remarkable, that when an intercourse was once established between us, they were very rarely detected in any act of dishonesty. Before, indeed, and while they considered us as enemies, who came upon their coast only to make an advantage of them, they did not scruple by any means to make any advantage of us; and would, therefore, when they had received the price of any thing they had offered to sell, pack up both the purchase and the purchase money with all possible composure, as so much lawful plunder from people who had no view but to plunder them.

I have observed that our friends in the South Seas had not even the idea of indecency, with respect to any object or any action; but this was by no means the case with the inhabitants of New Zealand, in whose carriage and conversation there was as much modesty, reserve, and decorum with respect to actions, which yet in their opinion were not criminal, as are to be found among the politest people in Europe. The women were not impregnable; but the terms and manner of compliance were as decent as those in marriage among us, and according to their notions the agreement was as innocent. When any of our people made an overture to one of their young women, he was given to understand that the consent of her friends was necessary, and by the influence of a proper present it was generally obtained; but when these preliminaries were settled, it was also necessary to treat the wife for a night with the same delicacy that is here required by the wife for life, and the lover who presumed to take any liberties by which this was violated, was sure to be disappointed.

One of our gentlemen having made his addresses to a family of the better sort, received an answer, which, translated into our language, according to the mode and spirit of it, as well as the letter, would have been exactly in these terms: “Any of these young ladies will think themselves honoured by your addresses, but you must first make me a suitable present, and you must then come and sleep with us on shore, for daylight must by no means be a witness of what passes between you.”

I have already observed, that in personal cleanliness they are not quite equal to our friends at Otaheite; because, not having the advantage of so warm a climate, they do not so often go into the water; but the most disgustful thing about them is the oil, with which, like the islanders, they anoint their hair: it is certainly the fat either of fish or of birds, melted down, and though the better sort have it fresh, their inferiors use that which is rancid, and consequently are almost as disagreeable to the smell as a Hottentot; neither are their heads free from vermin, though we observed that they were furnished with combs, both of bone and wood: these combs are sometimes worn stuck upright in the hair as an ornament, a fashion which at present prevails among the ladies of England. The men generally wear their beards short, and their hair tied upon the crown of the head in a bunch, in which they stick the feathers of various birds in different manners, according to their fancies; sometimes one is placed on each side of the temples, pointing forwards, which we thought made a very disagreeable appearance. The women wear their hair sometimes cropped short, and sometimes flowing over their shoulders.

The bodies of both sexes are marked with the black stains called Amoco, by the same method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less. The women in general stain no part of their bodies but the lips, though sometimes they are marked with small black patches on other parts: the men, on the contrary, seem to add something every year to the ornaments of the last, so that some of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almost covered from head to foot. Besides the Amoco, they have marks impressed by a method unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind: they are furrows of about a line deep, and a line broad, such as appear upon the bark of a tree which has been cut through, after a year’s growth: the edges of these furrows are afterwards indented by the same method, and being perfectly black, they make a most frightful appearance. The faces of the old men are almost covered with these marks; those who are very young, black only their lips like the women; when they are somewhat older, they have generally a black patch upon one cheek, and over one eye, and so proceed gradually, that they may grow old and honourable together: but though we could not but be disgusted with the horrid deformity which these stains and furrows produced in the “human face divine,” we could not but admire the dexterity and art with which they were impressed. The marks upon the face in general are spirals, which are drawn with great nicety, and even elegance, those on one side exactly corresponding with those on the other: the marks on the body somewhat resemble the foliage in old chased ornaments, and the convolutions of fillagree work; but in these they have such a luxuriance of fancy, that of an hundred, which at first sight appeared to be exactly the same, no two were, upon a close examination, found to be alike. We observed, that the quantity and form of these marks were different in different parts of the coast, and that as the principal seat of them at Otaheite was the breech, in New Zealand it was sometimes the only part which was free, and in general was less distinguished than any other.

The skins of these people, however, are not only dyed, but painted; for, as I have before observed, they smear their bodies with red oker, some rubbing it on dry, and some applying it in large patches mixed with oil, which is always wet, and which the least touch will rub off, so that the transgressions of such of our people as were guilty of ravishing a kiss from these blooming beauties, were most legibly written upon their faces.

The dress of a New Zealander is certainly, to a stranger at first sight, the most uncouth that can be imagined. It is made of the leaves of the flag, which has been described among the vegetable productions of this country: these leaves are split into three or four slips, and the slips, when they are dry, interwoven with each other into a kind of stuff between netting and cloth, with all the ends, which are eight or nine inches long, hanging out on the upper side, like the shag or thrump mats, which we sometimes see lying in a passage. Of this cloth, if cloth it may be called, two pieces serve for a complete dress; one of them is tied over their shoulders with a string, and reaches as low as the knees; to the end of this string is fastened a bodkin of bone, which is easily passed through any two parts of this upper garment, so as tack them together; the other piece is wrapped round the waist, and reaches nearly to the ground: the lower garment, however, is worn by the men only upon particular occasions; but they wear a belt, to which a string is fastened, for a very singular use. The inhabitants of the South Sea islands slit up the prepuce so as to prevent it from covering the glans of the penis; but these people, on the contrary, bring the prepuce over the glans, and to prevent it from being drawn back by the contraction of the part, they tie the string which hangs from their girdle round the end of it. The glans, indeed, seemed to be the only part of their body which they were solicitous to conceal, for they frequently threw off all their dress but the belt and string, with the most careless indifference, but showed manifest signs of confusion, when, to gratify our curiosity, they were requested to untie the string, and never consented but with the utmost reluctance and shame. When they have only their upper garment on, and sit upon their hams, they bear some resemblance to a thatched house; but this covering, though it is ugly, is well adapted to the use of those who frequently sleep in the open air, without any other shelter from the rain.

But besides this coarse shag or thatch, they have two sorts of cloth, which have an even surface, and are very ingeniously made, in the same manner with that manufactured by the inhabitants of South America, some of which we procured at Rio de Janeiro. One sort is as coarse as our coarsest canvass, and somewhat resembles it in the manner of laying the threads, but it is ten times as strong; the other is formed by many threads lying very close one way, and a few crossing them the other, so as to bind them together; but these are about half an inch asunder, somewhat like the round pieces of cane matting which are sometimes placed under the dishes upon a table. This is frequently striped, and always had a pretty appearance, for it is composed of the fibres of the same plant, which are prepared so as to shine like silk. It is made in a kind of frame of the size of the cloth, generally about five feet long, and four broad, across which the long threads, which lie close together, or warp, are strained, and the cross threads, or woof, are worked in by hand, which must be a very tedious operation.

To both these kinds of cloth they work borders of different colours, in stitches, somewhat like carpeting, or rather like those used in the samplars which girls work at school. These borders are of various patterns, and wrought with a neatness, and even an elegance, which, considering they have no needle, is surprising: but the great pride of their dress consists in the fur of their dogs, which they use with such economy, that they cut it into stripes, and sew them upon their cloth at a distance from each other, which is a strong proof that dogs are not plenty among them; these stripes are also of different colours, and disposed so as to produce a pleasing effect. We saw some dresses that were adorned with feathers instead of fur, but these were not common; and we saw one that was entirely covered with the red feathers of the parrot.

The dress of the man who was killed when we first went ashore in Poverty Bay has been described already; but we saw the same dress only once more during our stay upon the coast, and that was in Queen Charlotte’s Sound.

The women, contrary to the custom of the sex in general, seemed to affect dress rather less than the men: their hair, which, as I have observed before, is generally cropt short, is never tied upon the top of the head when it is suffered to be long, nor is it ever adorned with feathers. Their garments were made of the same materials, and in the same form, as those of the other sex, but the lower one was always bound fast round them, except when they went into the water to catch lobsters, and then they took great care not to be seen by the men. Some of us happening one day to land upon a small island in Tolaga Bay, we surprised several of them at this employment; and the chaste Diana, with her nymphs, could not have discovered more confusion and distress at the sight of Actæon than these women expressed upon our approach. Some of them hid themselves among the rocks, and the rest crouched down in the sea till they had made themselves a girdle and apron of such weeds as they could find, and when they came out, even with this veil, we could perceive that their modesty suffered much pain by our presence. The girdle and apron which they wear in common have been mentioned before.

Both sexes bore their ears, and, by stretching them, the holes become large enough to admit a finger at least. In these holes they wear ornaments of various kinds, cloth, feathers, bones of large birds, and even sometimes a stick of wood; and to these receptacles of finery they generally applied the nails which we gave them, and every thing which it was possible they could contain. The women sometimes thrust through them the down of the albatros, which is as white as snow, and which, spreading before and behind the hole in a bunch almost as big as the fist, makes a very singular, and, however strange it may be thought, not a disagreeable appearance. Besides the ornaments that are thrust through the holes of the ears, many others are suspended to them by strings; such as chissels or bodkins made of green talc, upon which they set a high value, the nails and teeth of their deceased relations, the teeth of dogs, and every thing else that they can get, which they think either curious or valuable. The women also wear bracelets and anclets, made of the bones of birds, shells, or any other substances which they can perforate and string upon a thread. The men had sometimes hanging to a string, which went round the neck, a piece of green talc, or whalebone, somewhat in the shape of a tongue, with the rude figure of a man carved upon it; and upon this ornament they set a high value. In one instance, we saw the gristle that divides the nostrils, and called by anatomists the _septum nasi_, perforated, and a feather thrust through the hole, which projected on each side over the cheeks: it is probable that this frightful singularity was intended as an ornament; but of the many people we saw, we never observed it in any other, nor even a perforation that might occasionally serve for such a purpose.

Their houses are the most inartificially made of any thing among them, being scarcely equal, except in size, to an English dog-kennel: they are seldom more than eighteen or twenty feet long, eight or ten broad, and five or six high, from the pole that runs from one end to the other, and forms the ridge, to the ground. The framing is of wood, generally slender sticks, and both walls and roof consist of dry grass and hay, which, it must be confessed, is very tightly put together; and some are also lined with the bark of trees, so that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat. The roof is sloping, like those of our barns, and the door is at one end, just high enough to admit a man, creeping upon his hands and knees: near the door is a square hole, which serves the double office of window and chimney, for the fire-place is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two sides. In some conspicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, covered with carving after their manner: this they value as we do a picture, and in their estimation it is not an inferior ornament. The side-walls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls at each end, so as to form a kind of porch, in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the floor which is allotted for the fire-place is enclosed in a hollow square, by partitions either of wood or stone, and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor, along the inside of the walls, is thickly covered with straw, and upon this the family sleep.

Their furniture and implements consist of but few articles, and one chest commonly contains them all, except their provision-baskets, the gourds that hold their fresh water, and the hammers that are used to beat their fern-root, which generally stand without the door: some rude tools, their clothes, arms, and a few feathers to stick in their hair, make the rest of their treasure.

Some of the better sort, whose families are large, have three or four houses enclosed within a court-yard, the walls of which are constructed of poles and hay, and are about ten or twelve feet high.

When we were on shore in the district called Tolaga, we saw the ruins, or rather the frame of a house, for it had never been finished, much superior in size to any that we saw elsewhere: it was thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, and twelve high: the sides of it were adorned with many carved planks, of a workmanship much superior to any other that we had met with in the country; but for what purpose it was built, or why it was deserted, we could never learn.

But these people, though in their houses they are so well defended from the inclemency of the weather, seem to be quite indifferent whether they have any shelter at all during their excursions in search of fern-roots and fish, sometimes setting up a small shade to windward, and sometimes altogether neglecting even that precaution, sleeping with their women and children under bushes, with their weapons ranged round them, in the manner that has already been described. The party, consisting of forty or fifty, whom we saw at Mercury Bay, in a district which the natives call Opoorage, never erected the least shelter while we staid there, though it sometimes rained incessantly for four-and-twenty hours together.

The articles of their food have been enumerated already; the principal, which to them is what bread is to the inhabitants of Europe, is the roots of the fern which grows upon the hills, and is nearly the same with what grows upon our high commons in England, and is called indifferently fern, bracken, or brakes. The birds, which sometimes serve them for a feast, are chiefly penguins and albatrosses, with a few other species that have been occasionally mentioned in this narrative.

Having no vessel in which water can be boiled, their cookery consists wholly of baking and roasting. They bake nearly in the same manner as the inhabitants of the South Seas, and to the account that has been already given of their roasting, nothing need be added, but that the long skewer or spit to which the flesh is fastened is placed sloping towards the fire, by setting one stone against the bottom of it, and supporting it near the middle with another, by the moving of which, to a greater or less distance from the end, the degree of obliquity is increased or diminished at pleasure.

To the northward, as I have observed, there are plantations of yams, sweet potatoes, and coccos, but we saw no such to the southward; the inhabitants, therefore, of that part of the country must subsist wholly upon fern root and fish, except the scanty and accidental resource which they may find in sea-fowl and dogs; and that fern and fish are not to be procured at all seasons of the year, even at the sea-side, and upon the neighbouring hills, is manifest from the stores of both that we saw laid up dry, and the reluctance which some of them expressed at selling any part of them to us when we offered to purchase them, at least the fish, for sea stores. And this particular seems to confirm my opinion, that this country scarcely sustains the present number of its inhabitants, who are urged to perpetual hostilities by hunger, which naturally prompted them to eat the dead bodies of those who were slain in the contest.

Water is their universal and only liquor, as far as we could discover, and if they have really no means of intoxication, they are, in this particular, happy beyond any other people that we have yet seen or heard of.

As there is, perhaps, no source of disease, either critical or chronic, but intemperance and inactivity, it cannot be thought strange that these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health. In all our visits to their towns, where young and old, men and women, crowded about us, prompted by the same curiosity that carried us to look at them, we never saw a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint, nor among the numbers that we have seen naked did we once perceive the slightest eruption upon the skin, or any marks that an eruption had left behind. At first, indeed, observing that some of them when they came off to us were marked in patches with a white flowery appearance upon different parts of their bodies, we thought that they were leprous, or highly scorbutic; but upon examination we found that these marks were owing to their having been wetted by the spray of the sea in their passage, which, when it was dried away, left the salts behind it in a fine white powder.

Another proof of health, which we have mentioned upon a former occasion, is the facility with which the wounds healed that had left scars behind them, and that we saw in a recent state; when we saw the man who had been shot with a musket-ball through the fleshy part of his arm, his wound seemed to be so well digested, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed, that if I had not known no application had been made to it, I should certainly have enquired, with a very interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the country.

A farther proof that human nature is here untainted with disease, is the great number of old men that we saw, many of whom, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit; and though not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity.

CHAP. X.

OF THE CANOES AND NAVIGATION OF THE INHABITANTS OF NEW ZEALAND: THEIR TILLAGE, WEAPONS, AND MUSIC: GOVERNMENT, RELIGION, AND LANGUAGE: WITH SOME REASONS AGAINST THE EXISTENCE OF A SOUTHERN CONTINENT.

THE ingenuity of these people appears in nothing more than in their canoes: they are long and narrow, and in shape very much resemble a New England whale-boat: the larger sort seem to be built chiefly for war, and will carry from forty to eighty, or an hundred armed men. We measured one which lay ashore at Tolaga: she was sixty-eight feet and a half long, five feet broad, and three feet and a half deep; the bottom was sharp, with straight sides like a wedge, and consisted of three lengths, hollowed out to about two inches, or an inch and a half thick, and well fastened together with strong plaiting: each side consisted of one entire plank, sixty-three feet long, ten or twelve inches broad, and about an inch and quarter thick, and these were fitted and lashed to the bottom part with great dexterity and strength. A considerable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were securely lashed on each side, as a strengthening to the boat. The ornament at the head projected five or six feet beyond the body, and was about four feet and a half high; the ornament at the stern was fixed upon that end, as the stern-post of a ship is upon her keel, and was about fourteen feet high, two feet broad, and an inch and a half thick. They both consisted of boards of carved work, of which the design was much better than the execution. All their canoes, except a few at Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were of one piece, and hollowed by fire, are built after this plan, and few are less than twenty feet long: some of the smaller sort have outriggers, and sometimes two of them are joined together, but this is not common. The carving upon the stern and head ornaments of the inferior boats, which seemed to be intended wholly for fishing, consists of the figure of a man, with a face as ugly as can be conceived, and a monstrous tongue thrust out of the mouth, with the white shells of sea-ears stuck in for the eyes. But the canoes of the superior kind, which seem to be their men-of-war, are magnificently adorned with open work, and covered with loose fringes of black feathers, which had a most elegant appearance: the gunwale boards were also frequently carved in a grotesque taste, and adorned with tufts of white feathers placed upon a black ground. Of visible objects that are wholly new, no verbal description can convey a just idea, but in proportion as they resemble some that are already known, to which the mind of the reader must be referred: the carving of these people being of a singular kind, and not in the likeness of any thing that is known on our side of the ocean, either “in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters that are under the earth,” I must refer wholly to the representations which will be found of it in Plate XV.

The paddles are small, light, and neatly made; the blade is of an oval shape, or rather of a shape resembling a large leaf, pointed at the bottom, broadest in the middle, and gradually losing itself in the shaft, the whole length being about six feet, of which the shaft or loom including the handle is four, and the blade two. By the help of these oars they push on their boats with amazing velocity.

In sailing they are not expert, having no art of going otherwise than before the wind: the sail is of netting or matt, which is set up between two poles that are fixed upright upon each gunwale, and serve both for masts and yards: two ropes answered the purpose of sheets, and were consequently fastened above to the top of each pole. But clumsy and inconvenient as this apparatus is, they make good way before the wind, and are steered by two men who sit in the stern, with each a paddle in his hand for that purpose.