A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 16

As in such a life, their women must contribute a very large share of its happiness, it is rather surprising, besides the humiliating restraints they are laid under with regard to food, to find them often treated with a degree of harshness, or rather brutality, which one would scarcely suppose a man would bestow on an object for whom he had the least affection. Nothing, however, is more common, than to see the men beat them without mercy; and, unless this treatment is the effect of jealousy, which both sexes, at least, pretend to be sometimes infected with, it will be difficult to account for it. It will be less difficult to admit this as the motive, as I have seen several instances where the women have preferred personal beauty to interest; though, I must own, that even in these cases, they seem scarcely susceptible of those delicate sentiments that are the result of mutual affection; and, I believe, that there is less Platonic love in Otaheite than in any other country.

Cutting, or inciding the foreskin, should be mentioned here as a practice adopted amongst them from a notion of cleanliness; and they have a reproachful epithet in their language for those who do not observe that custom. When there are five or six lads pretty well grown up in a neighbourhood, the father of one of them goes to a Tahoua, or man of knowledge, and lets him know. He goes with the lads to the top of the hills, attended by a servant, and seating one of them properly, introduces a piece of wood underneath the foreskin, and desires him to look aside at something he pretends is coming; having thus engaged the young man's attention to another object, he cuts through the skin upon the wood with a shark's tooth, generally at one stroke. He then separates, or rather turns back the divided parts; and having put on a bandage, proceeds to perform the same operation on the other lads. At the end of five days they bathe, and the bandages being taken off, the matter is cleaned away. At the end of five days more they bathe again, and are well; but a thickness of the prepuce, where it was cut, remaining, they go again to the mountains with the Tahoua and servant; and a fire being prepared, and some stones heated, the Tahoua puts the prepuce between two of them, and squeezes it gently, which removes the thickness. They then return home, having their heads, and other parts of their bodies, adorned with odoriferous flowers; and the Tahoua is rewarded for his services by their fathers, in proportion to their several abilities, with presents of hogs and cloth; and if they be poor, their relations are liberal on the occasion.

Their religious system is extensive, and, in many instances, singular; but few of the common people have a perfect knowledge of it; that being confined chiefly to their priests, who are pretty numerous. They do not seem to pay respect to one god, as possessing pre-eminence; but believe in a plurality of divinities, who are all very powerful; and in this case, as different parts of the island, and the other islands in the neighbourhood, have different ones, the inhabitants of each, no doubt, think that they have chosen the most eminent, or, at least, one who is invested with power sufficient to protect them, and to supply all their wants. If he should not answer their expectations, they think it no impiety to change; as has very lately happened in Tiarabooa, where, in the room of the two divinities formerly honoured there, Oraa,⁴ god of Bolabola, had been adopted, I should suppose, because he is the protector of a people who have been victorious in war; and as, since they have made this change, they have been very successful themselves against the inhabitants of Otaheite-nooe, they impute it entirely to Oraa, who, as they literally say, fights their battles.

Their assiduity in serving their gods is remarkably conspicuous. Not only the whattas, or offering-places of the morais, are commonly loaded with fruits and animals, but there are few houses where you do not meet with a small place of the same sort near them. Many of them are so rigidly scrupulous, that they will not begin a meal without first laying aside a morsel for the Eatooa; and we had an opportunity, during this voyage, of seeing their superstitious zeal carried to a most pernicious height, in the instance of human sacrifices; the occasions of offering which, I doubt, are too frequent. Perhaps they have recourse to them when misfortunes occur; for they asked, if one of our men, who happened to be confined, when we were detained by a contrary wind, was taboo? Their prayers are also very frequent, which they chaunt, much after the manner of their songs in their festive entertainments. And the women, as in other cases, are also obliged to shew their inferiority in religious observances; for it is required of them, that they should partly uncover themselves as they pass the morais, or take a considerable circuit to avoid them. Though they have no notion that their god must always be conferring benefits, without sometimes forgetting them, or suffering evil to befall them, they seem to regard this less than the attempts of some more inauspicious being to hurt them. They tell us, that Etee is an evil spirit, who sometimes does them mischief; and to whom, as well as to their god, they make offerings. But the mischiefs they apprehend from any superior invisible beings, are confined to things merely temporal.

They believe the soul to be both immaterial and immortal. They say that it keeps fluttering about the lips during the pangs of death; and that then it ascends and mixes with, or, as they express it, is eaten by the deity. In this state it remains for some time; after which it departs to a certain place, destined for the reception of the souls of men where it exists in eternal night; or, as they sometimes say, in twilight or dawn. They have no idea of any permanent punishment after death, for crimes that they have committed on earth; for the souls of good and of bad men are eat indiscriminately by God. But they certainly consider this coalition with the deity as a kind of purification necessary to be undergone before they enter a state of bliss. For, according to their doctrine, if a man refrain from all connexion with women some months before death, he passes immediately into his eternal mansion, without such a previous union; as if already, by this abstinence, he were pure enough to be exempted from the general lot.

They are, however, far from entertaining those sublime conceptions of happiness, which our religion, and indeed reason, gives us room to expect hereafter. The only great privilege they seem to think they shall acquire by death is immortality; for they speak of spirits being, in some measure, not totally divested of those passions which actuated them when combined with material vehicles. Thus, if souls, who were formerly enemies, should meet, they have many conflicts; though, it should seem, to no purpose, as they are accounted invulnerable in this invisible state. There is a similar reasoning with regard to the meeting of man and wife. If the husband dies first, the soul of the wife is known to him on its arrival in the land of spirits. They resume their former acquaintance, in a spacious house, called tourooa, where the souls of the deceased assemble to recreate themselves with the gods. She then retires with him, to his separate habitation, where they remain for ever, and have an offspring; which, however, is entirely spiritual, as they are neither married, nor are their embraces supposed to be the same as with corporeal beings.

Some of their notions about the deity are extravagantly absurd: They believe that he is subject to the power of those very spirits to whom he has given existence; and that, in their turn, they frequently eat or devour him, though he possess the power of re-creating himself. They doubtless use this mode of expression, as they seem incapable of conversing about immaterial things, without constantly referring to material objects to convey their meaning. And in this manner they continue the account, by saying, that, in the tourooa, the deity enquires if they intend, or not, to destroy him? And that he is not able to alter their determination. This is known to the inhabitants on earth, as well as to the spirits; for when the moon is in its wane, it is said that they are then devouring their Eatooa; and that as it increases he is renewing himself. And to this accident, not only the inferior, but the most eminent gods are liable. They also believe, that there are other places for the reception of souls at death. Thus, those who are drowned in the sea remain there; where they think that there is a fine country, houses, and every thing that can make them happy. But, what is more singular, they maintain, that not only all other animals, but trees, fruit, and even stones, have souls, which at death, or upon being consumed or broken, ascend to the divinity, with whom they first mix, and afterwards pass into the mansion allotted to each.

They imagine that their punctual performance of religious offices procures for them every temporal blessing. And as they believe that the animating and powerful influence of the divine spirit is every where diffused, it is no wonder that they join to this many superstitious opinions about its operations. Accordingly, they believe that sudden deaths, and all other accidents, are effected by the immediate action of some divinity. If a man only stumble against a stone and hurt his toe, they impute it to an Eatooa; so that they may be literally said, agreeably to their system, to tread enchanted ground. They are startled in the night on approaching a toopapaoo, where the dead are exposed, in the same manner that many of our ignorant and superstitious people are with the apprehensions of ghosts, and at the sight of a church-yard; and they have an equal confidence in dreams, which they suppose to be communications either from their god, or from the spirits of their departed friends, enabling those favoured with them to foretell future events; but this kind of knowledge is confined to particular people. Omai pretended to have his gift. He told us, that the soul of his father had intimated to him in a dream, on the 26th of July 1776, that he should go on shore at some place within three days; but he was unfortunate in this first attempt to persuade us that he was a prophet; for it was the 1st of August before we got into Teneriffe. Amongst them, however, the dreamers possess a reputation little inferior to that of their inspired priests and priestesses, whose predictions they implicitly believe, and are determined by them in all undertakings of consequence. The priestess who persuaded Opoony to invade Ulietea, is much respected by him; and he never goes to war without consulting her. They also, in some degree, maintain our old doctrine of planetary influence; at least, they are sometimes regulated in their public counsels by certain appearances of the moon; particularly when lying horizontally, or much inclined on the convex part, on its first appearance after the change, they are encouraged to engage in war with confidence of success.

They have traditions concerning the creation, which, as might be expected, are complex and clouded with obscurity. They say, that a goddess, having a lump or mass of earth suspended in a cord, gave it a swing, and scattered about pieces of land, thus constituting Otaheite and the neighbouring islands, which were all peopled by a man and woman, originally fixed at Otaheite. This, however, only respects their own immediate creation; for they have notions of an universal one before this; and of lands, of which they have now no other knowledge than what is mentioned in the tradition. Their most remote account reaches to Tatooma and Tapuppa, male and female stones or rocks, who support the congeries of land and water, or our globe underneath. These produced Totorro, who was killed, and divided into land; and after him Otaia and Oroo were begotten, who were afterward married, and produced, first, land, and then a race of gods. Otaia is killed, and Oroo marries a god, her son, called Teorrhaha, whom she orders to create more land, the animals, and all sorts of food found upon the earth; as also the sky, which is supported by men called Teeferei. The spots observed in the moon, are supposed to be groves of a sort of trees which once grew in Otaheite, and being destroyed by some accident, their seeds were carried up thither by doves, where they now flourish.

They have also many legends, both religious and historical; one of which latter, relative to the practice of eating human flesh, I shall give the substance of, as a specimen of their method. A long time since there lived in Otaheite two men, called Taheeai, the only name they yet have for cannibals; none knew from whence they came, or in what manner they arrived at the island. Their habitation was in the mountains, from whence they used to issue, and kill many of the natives, whom they afterward devoured, and by that means prevented the progress of population. Two brothers, determined to rid their country of such a formidable enemy, used a stratagem for their destruction, with success. These still lived farther upward than the Taheeai, and in such a situation that they could speak with them without greatly hazarding their own safety; they invited them to accept of an entertainment that should be provided for them, to which these readily consented. The brothers then taking some stones, heated them in a fire, and thrusting them into pieces of mahee, desired one of the Taheeai to open his mouth; on which one of these pieces was dropped in, and some water poured down, which made a boiling or hissing noise, in quenching the stone, and killed him. They entreated the other to do the same; but he declined it, representing the consequences of his companion's eating. However, they assured him that the food was excellent, and its effects only temporary; for that the other would soon recover. His credulity was such that be swallowed the bait, and shared the fate of the first. The natives then cut them in pieces, which they buried; and conferred the government of the island on the brothers, as a reward for delivering them from such monsters. Their residence was in the district called Whapaeenoo; and to this day there remains a bread-fruit tree, once the property of the Taheeais. They had also a woman, who lived with them, and had two teeth of a prodigious size. After they were killed, she lived at the island Otaha; and when dead, was ranked amongst their deities. She did not eat human flesh, as the men; but, from the size of her teeth, the natives still call any animal that has a fierce appearance, or is represented with large tusks, Taheeai.

Every one must allow that this story is just as natural as that of Hercules destroying the hydra, or the more modern one of Jack the giant-killer. But I do not find that there is any moral couched under it, any more than under most old fables of the same kind, which have been received as truths only during the prevalence of the same ignorance that marked the character of the ages in which they were invented. It, however, has not been improperly introduced, as serving to express the horror and detestation entertained here against those who feed upon human flesh. And yet, from some circumstances, I have been led to think that the natives of these isles were formerly cannibals. Upon asking Omai, he denied it stoutly; yet mentioned a fact, within his own knowledge, which almost confirms such an opinion. When the people of Bolabola, one time, defeated those of Huaheine, a great number of his kinsmen were slain. But one of his relations had, afterward, an opportunity of revenging himself, when the Bolabola men were worsted in their turn, and cutting a piece out of the thigh of one of his enemies, he broiled, and eat it. I have also frequently considered the offering of the person's eye, who is sacrificed, to the chief, as a vestige of a custom which once really existed to a greater extent, and is still commemorated by this emblematical ceremony.

The being invested with the maro, and the presiding at human sacrifices, seem to be the peculiar characteristics of the sovereign. To these, perhaps, may be added the blowing a conch-shell, which produces a very loud sound. On hearing it, all his subjects are obliged to bring food of every sort to his royal residence, in proportion to their abilities. On some other occasions, they carry their veneration for his very name to an extravagant and very destructive pitch. For if, on his accession to the maro, any words in their language be found to have a resemblance to it in sound, they are changed for others; and if any man be bold enough not to comply, and continue to use those words, not only he, but all his relations, are immediately put to death. The same severity is exercised toward those who shall presume to apply this sacred name to any animal. And, agreeably to this custom of his countrymen, Omai used to express his indignation, that the English should give the names of prince or princess to their favourite horses or dogs. But while death is the punishment for making free with the name of their sovereign, if abuse be only levelled at his government, the offender escapes with the forfeiture of lands and houses.

The king never enters the house of any of his subjects, but has, in every district where he visits, houses belonging to himself. And if, at any time, he should be obliged by accident to deviate from this rule, the house thus honoured with his presence, and every part of its furniture, is burnt. His subjects not only uncover to him, when present, down to the waist; but if he be at any particular place, a pole, having a piece of cloth tied to it, is set up somewhere near, to which they pay the same honours. His brothers are also entitled to the first part of the ceremony; but the women only uncover to the females of the royal family. In short, they seem even superstitious in their respect to him, and esteem his person little less than sacred. And it is, perhaps, to these circumstances, that he owes the quiet possession of his dominions. For even the people of Tiaraboo allow him the same honours as his right; though, at the same time, they look upon their own chief as more powerful; and say, that he would succeed to the government of the whole island, should the present reigning family become extinct. This is the more likely, as Waheiadooa not only possesses Tiaraboo, but many districts of Opooreanoo. His territories, therefore, are almost equal in extent to those of Otoo; and he has, besides, the advantage of a more populous and fertile part of the island. His subjects, also, have given proofs of their superiority, by frequent victories over those of Otaheite-nooe, whom they affect to speak of as contemptible warriors, easily to be worsted, if at any time their chief should wish to put it to the test.

The ranks of people, besides the Eree de hoi and his family, are the Erees, or powerful chiefs; the Manahoone, or vassals; and the Teou, or Toutou, servants, or rather slaves. The men of each of these, according to the regular institution, form their connexions with women of their respective ranks; but if with any inferior one, which frequently happens, and a child be born, it is preserved, and has the rank of the father, unless he happens to be an Eree, in which case it is killed. If a woman of condition should choose an inferior person to officiate as a husband, the children he has by her are killed. And if a Teou be caught in an intrigue with a woman of the blood-royal, he is put to death. The son of the Eree de hoi succeeds his father in title and honours as soon as he is born; but if he should have no children, the brother assumes the government at his death. In other families, possessions always descend to the eldest son; but he is obliged to maintain his brothers and sisters, who are allowed houses on his estates.

The boundaries of the several districts, into which Otaheite is divided, are, generally, either rivulets, or low hills, which, in many places, jut out into the sea. But the subdivisions into particular property, are marked by large stones, which have remained from one generation to another. The removal of any of these gives rise to quarrels, which are decided by arms; each party bringing his friends into the field. But if any one complain to the Eree de hoi, he terminates the difference amicably. This is an offence, however, not common; and long custom seems to secure property here as effectually as the most severe laws do in other countries. In conformity also to ancient practice established amongst them, crimes of a less general nature are left to be punished by the sufferer, without referring them to a superior. In this case, they seem to think that the injured person will judge as equitably as those who are totally unconcerned; and as long custom has allotted certain punishments for crimes of different sorts, he is allowed to inflict them, without being amenable to any other person. Thus, if any one be caught stealing, which is commonly done in the night, the proprietor of the goods may put the thief instantly to death; and if any one should enquire of him after the deceased, it is sufficient to acquit him, if he only informs them of the provocation he had to kill him. But so severe a punishment is seldom inflicted, unless the articles that are stolen be reckoned very valuable; such as breast-plates and plaited hair. If only cloth, or even hogs, be stolen, and the thief escape, upon his being afterward discovered, if he promise to return the same number of pieces of cloth, or of hogs, no farther punishment is inflicted. Sometimes, after keeping out of the way for a few days, he is forgiven, or, at most, gets a slight beating. If a person kill another in a quarrel, the friends of the deceased assemble, and engage the survivor and his adherents. If they conquer, they take possession of the house, lands, and goods of the other party; but if conquered, the reverse takes place. If a Manahoone kill the Toutou, or slave of a chief, the latter sends people to take possession of the lands and house of the former, who flies either to some other part of the island, or to some of the neighbouring islands. After some months he returns, and finding his stock of hogs much increased, he offers a large present of these, with some red feathers, and other valuable articles, to the Toutou's master, who generally accepts the compensation, and permits him to repossess his house and lands. This practice is the height of venality and injustice; and the slayer of the slave seems to be under no farther necessity of absconding, than to impose upon the lower class of people, who are the sufferers. For it does not appear that the chief has the least power to punish this Manahoone; but the whole management marks a collusion between him and his superior, to gratify the revenge of the former, and the avarice of the latter. Indeed, we need not wonder that the killing of a man should be considered as so venial an offence, amongst a people who do not consider it as any crime at all to murder their own children. When talking to them, about such instances of unnatural cruelty, and asking, whether the chiefs or principal people were not angry, and did not punish them? I was told, that the chief neither could nor would interfere in such cases; and that every one had a right to do with his own child what he pleased.

Though the productions, the people, and the customs and manners of all the islands in the neighbourhood, may, in general, be reckoned the same as at Otaheite, there are a few differences which should be mentioned, as this may lead to an enquiry about more material ones hereafter, if such there be, of which we are now ignorant.

With regard to the little island Mataia, or Osnaburgh Island, which lies twenty leagues east of Otaheite, and belongs to a chief of that place, who gets from thence a kind of tribute, a different dialect from that of Otaheite is there spoken. The men of Mataia also wear their hair very long; and when they fight, cover their arms with a substance which is beset with sharks' teeth, and their bodies with a sort of shagreen, being skin of fishes. At the same time they are ornamented with polished pearl-shells, which make a prodigious glittering in the sun; and they have a very large one, that covers them before, like a shield or breast plate.

The language of Otaheite has many words, and even phrases, quite unlike those of the islands to the westward of it, which all agree; and this island is remarkable for producing great quantities of that delicious fruit we call apples, which are found in none of the others, except Eimeo. It has also the advantage of producing an odoriferous wood, called eahoi, which is highly valued at the other isles, where there is none; nor even in the south-east peninsula, or Tiaraboo, though joining it. Huaheine and Eimeo, again, are remarkable for producing greater quantities of yams than the other islands. And at Mourooa there is a particular bird, found upon the hills, much esteemed for its white feathers; at which place there is also said to be some of the apples, though it be the most remote of the Society Islands from Otaheite and Eimeo, where they are produced.

Though the religion of all the islands be the same, each of them has its particular, or tutelar god; whose names, according to the best information I could receive, are set down in the following list:

Besides the cluster of high islands from Mataia to Mourooa inclusive, the people of Otaheite are acquainted with a low uninhabited island, which they name Mopeeha, and seems to be Howe's Island, laid down to the westward of Mourooa in our late charts of this ocean. To this the inhabitants of the most leeward islands sometimes go. There are also several low islands, to the north-eastward of Otaheite, which they have sometimes visited, but not constantly; and are said to be only at the distance of two days' sail, with a fair wind. They were thus named to me:

The inhabitants of these isles come more frequently to Otaheite and the other neighbouring high islands, from whose natives they differ in being of a darker colour, with a fiercer aspect, and differently punctured. I was informed, that at Mataeeva, and others of them, it is a custom for the men to give their daughters to strangers who arrive amongst them; but the pairs must be five nights lying near each other, without presuming to proceed farther. On the sixth evening, the father of the young woman, treats his guest with food, and informs his daughter, that she must, that night, receive him as her husband. The stranger, however, must not offer to express the least dislike, though the bed-fellow allotted to him should be ever so disagreeable; for this is considered as an unpardonable affront, and is punished with death. Forty men of Bolabola, who, incited by curiosity, had roamed as far as Mataeeva in a canoe, were treated in this manner; one of them having incautiously mentioned his dislike of the woman who fell to his lot, in the hearing of a boy, who informed her father. In consequence of this the Mateevans fell upon them; but these warlike people killed three times their own number; though with the loss of all their party, except five. These hid themselves in the woods, and took an opportunity, when the others were burying their dead, to enter some houses, where, having provided themselves with victuals and water, they carried them on board a canoe, in which they made their escape; and, after passing Mataia, at which they would not touch, at last arrived safe at Eimeo. The Bolabolans, however, were sensible enough that their travellers had been to blame; for a canoe from Mateeva, arriving some time after at Bolabola, so far were they from retaliating upon them for the death of their countrymen, that they acknowledged they had deserved their fate, and treated their visitors kindly.

These low isles are, doubtless, the farthest navigation which those of Otaheite and the Society Islands perform at present. It seems to be a groundless supposition, made by Mons. de Bougainville, that they made voyages of the prodigious extent⁵ he mentions; for I found, that it is reckoned a sort of a prodigy, that a canoe, once driven by a storm from Otaheite, should have fallen in with Mopeeha, or Howe's Island, though so near, and directly to leeward. The knowledge they have of other distant islands is, no doubt, traditional; and has been communicated to them by the natives of those islands, driven accidentally upon their coasts, who, besides giving them the names, could easily inform them of the direction in which the places lie from whence they came, and of the number of days they had been upon the sea. In this manner, it may be supposed, that the natives of Wateeoo have increased their catalogue by the addition of Otaheite and its neighbouring isles, from the people we met with there, and also of the other islands these had heard of. We may thus account for that extensive knowledge attributed by the gentlemen of the Endeavour to Tupia in such matters. And, with all due deference to his veracity, I presume that it was, by the same means of information, that he was able to direct the ship to Oheteroa, without having ever been there himself, as he pretended; which, on many accounts, is very improbable.⁶

Footnote 1: (return)

See this Vocabulary at the end of Captain Cook's second voyage. Many corrections and additions to it were now made by this indefatigable enquirer; but the specimens of the language of Otaheite, already in the hands of the public, seem sufficient for every useful purpose.—D.

Footnote 2: (return)

Mr Anderson, invariably in his manuscript, writes Eree de hoi. According to Captain Cook's mode, it is Eree rahie. This is one of the numerous instances that perpetually occur, of our people's representing the same word differently.—D.

Footnote 3: (return)

That the Caroline Islands are inhabited by the same tribe or nation, whom Captain Cook found, it such immense distances, spread throughout the South Pacific Ocean, has been satisfactorily established in some preceding notes The situation of the Ladrones, or Marianne Islands, still farther north than the Carolines, but at no great distance from them, is favourable, at first sight, to the conjecture, that the same race also peopled that cluster; and, on looking into Father Le Gobien's history of them, this conjecture appears to be actually confirmed by direct evidence. One of the greatest singularities of the Otaheite manners, is the existence of the society of young men called Erreoes, of whom some account is given in the preceding paragraph. Now we learn from Father Le Gobien, that such a society exists also amongst the inhabitants of the Ladrones. His words are: Les Urritoes sont parmi eux les jeuns gens qui vivent avec des maitresses, sans vouloir s'engager dans les liens du mariage. That there should be young men in the Ladrones, as well as in Otaheite, who live with mistresses, without being inclined to enter into the married state, would not, indeed, furnish the shadow of any peculiar resemblance between them. But that the young men in the Ladrones, and in Otaheite, whose manners are thus licentious, should be considered as a distinct confraternity, called by a particular name; and that this name should be the same in both places: this singular coincidence of custom, confirmed by that of language, seems to furnish an irrefragable proof of the inhabitants of both places being the same nation. We know, that it is the general property of the Otaheite dialect, to soften the pronunciation of its words. And, it is observable, that, by the omission of one single letter (the consonant t), our Arreoys (as spelled in Hawkesworth's collection), or Erreoes (according to Mr Anderson's orthography), and the Urritoes of the Ladrones, are brought to such a similitude of sound (the only rule of comparing two unwritten languages), that we may pronounce them to be the same word, without exposing ourselves to the sneers of supercilious criticism.

One or two more such proofs, drawn from similarity of language, in very significant words, may be assigned. Le Gobien tells us, that the people of the Ladrones worship their dead, whom they call Anitis. Here, again, by dropping the consonant n, we have a word that bears a strong resemblance to that which so often occurs in Captain Cook's voyages, when speaking of the divinities of his islands, whom he calls Eatooas. And it may be matter of curiosity to remark, that what is called an Aniti, at the Ladrones, is, as we learn from Cantova (Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, tom. xv. p. 309, 310.) at the Caroline Islands, where dead chiefs are also worshipped, called a Tahutup; and that, by softening or sinking the strong sounding letters, at the beginning and at the end of this latter word, the Ahutu of the Carolines, the Aiti of the Ladrones, and the Eatooa of the South Pacific Islands, assume such a similarity in pronunciation (for we can have no other guide), as strongly marks one common original. Once more; we learn from Le Gobien, that the Marianne people call their chiefs Chamorris, or Chamoris. And by softening the aspirate Ch into T, and the harshness of r into l (of which the vocabularies of the different islands give us repeated instances), we have the Tamole of the Caroline Islands, and the Tamolao, or Tamaha, of the Friendly ones.

If these specimens of affinity of language should be thought too scanty, some very remarkable instances of similarity of customs and institutions will go far to remove every doubt. 1. A division into three classes, of nobles, of middle rank, and the common people, or servants, was found, by Captain Cook, to prevail, both at the Friendly and the Society Islands. Father Le Gobien expressly tells us, that the same distinction prevails at the Ladrones: Il y a trois états, parmi les insulaires, la noblesse, le moyen, et le menu. 2. Numberless instances occur in Captain Cook's voyage to prove the great subjection under which the people of his islands are to their chiefs. We learn from Le Gobien, that it is so also at the Ladrones: La noblesse est d'un fierté incroyable, et tien le peuple dans un abaisement qu'on ne pourroit imaginer en Europe, &c. 3. The diversions of the natives at Wateeo, the Friendly, and the Society Islands, have been copiously described by Captain Cook. How similar are those which Le Gobien mentions in the following words, as prevailing at the Ladrones!—Ils se divertissent à danser, courir, sautir, lutter, pour s'exercer, et éprouver leur forces. Ils prennent grand plaisir à raconter les avantures de leurs ancétres, et à reciter des vers de leurs poëtes. 4. The principal share sustained by the women, in the entertainments at Captain Cook's islands, appears sufficiently from a variety of instances in this work; and we cannot read what Le Gobien says of the practice at the Ladrones, without tracing the strongest resemblance—Dans leurs assemblées elles se mettent doux ou trieze femmes en rond, debout, sans se remuer. Dans cette attitude elles chantent les vers fabuleux de leurs poëtes avec un agrément, et une justesse qui plairoit en Europe. L'accord de leur voix est admirable, et ne cede en rien à la musique concertée. Elles ont dans les mains de petits coquilles, dont elles se servent avec beaucoup de precision. Elles soutiennent leur voix, et animent leur chants avec une action si vive, et des gestes si expressives, qu'elles charment ceux qui les voient, et qui les entendent. 5. We read in Captain Cook's first voyage, that at Otaheite garlands of the fruit of the palm-tree and cocoa-leaves, with other things particularly consecrated to funeral solemnities, are deposited about the places where they lay their dead; and that provisions and water are also left at a little distance. How conformable to this is the practice at the Ladrones, as described by Le Gobien!—Ils font quelques repas autour du tombeau; car on en eleve toujours un sur le lieu ou le corps est enterré, ou dans le voisinage; on le charge de fleurs, de branches de palmiers, de coquillages, et de tout ce qu'ils ont de plus precieux. 6. It is the custom at Otaheite not to bury the skulls of the chiefs with the rest of the bones, but to put them into boxes made for that purpose. Here again, we find the same strange custom prevailing at the Ladrones; for Le Gobien expressly tells us, qui'ls gardent les cranes, en leur maisons, that they put these skulls into little baskets (petites corbeilles); and that these dead chiefs are the Anitis, to whom their priests address their invocations. 7. The people at Otaheite, as we learn from Captain Cook, in his account of Tee's embalmed corpse, make use of cocoa-nut oil, and other ingredients, in rubbing the dead bodies. The people of the Ladrones, Father Le Gobien tells us, sometimes do the same—D'autres frottent les morts d'huile odoriferante. 8. The inhabitants of Otaheite believe the immortality of the soul; and that there are two situations after death, somewhat analogous to our heaven and hell; but they do not suppose, that their actions here in the least influence their future state. And in the account given in this Voyage of the religious opinions entertained at the Friendly Islands, we find there exactly the same doctrine. It is very observable, how conformable to this is the belief of the inhabitants of the Ladrones—Ils sont persuadés (says Le Gobien) de l'immortalité de l'áme. Ils reconnoissent même un Paradis et un Enfer, dont ils se forment des idées assez bizarres. Ce n'est point, selon eux, la vertu ni le crime, qui conduit dans ces lieux là; les bonnes ou les mauvaises actions n'y servent de rien. 9. One more very singular instance of agreement shall close this long list. In Captain Cook's account of the New Zealanders, we find that, according to them, the soul of the man who is killed, and whose flesh is devoured, is doomed to a perpetual fire; while the souls of all who die a natural death, ascend to the habitations of the gods. And, from Le Gobien, we learn that this very notion is adopted by his islanders—Si on a le malkeur de mourir de mort violente, on a l'enfer pour leur portage.

Surely such a concurrence of very characteristic conformities cannot be the result of mere accident; and, when combined with the specimens of affinity of language mentioned at the beginning of this note, it should seem that we are fully warranted, from premises thus unexceptionable, to draw a certain conclusion, that the inhabitants of the various islands discovered or visited by Captain Cook in the South Pacific Ocean, and those whom the Spaniards found settled upon the Ladrones or Mariannes, in the northern hemisphere, carried the same language, customs, and opinions from one common centre, from which they had emigrated; and that, therefore, they may be considered as scattered members of the same nation.

See Pere Le Gobien's Histoire des Iles Mariannes, Book ii. or the summary of it in Histoire des Navigations aux Terres Australes, T. ii. p. 492-512, from which the materials for this note have been extracted.—D.

Footnote 4: (return)

We have another instance of the same word being differently pronounced by our people. Captain Cook, as appears above, speaks of Olla as the Bolabola god.—D.

Footnote 5: (return)

See Bougainville's Voyage autour du Monde, p. 228, where we are told that these people sometimes navigate at the distance of more than three hundred leagues.—D.

Footnote 6: (return)

Though much of Mr Anderson's account of Otaheite, &c. be very similar to what has been given in the preceding relations, yet it must be allowed to possess too great merit to warrant omission or alteration. He has been fortunate, certainly, in delineating the manners and opinions of the people; and perhaps, on the whole, his information bears more decisive marks of care and intimate acquaintance than any other we possess on the subject. This, it may be said, is no very high merit; because, having the benefit of pretty extensive labours, he had only to compare a picture with its original, as presented to his notice, and was under no necessity of dividing his attention among a multiplicity of unconnected objects. Still this remark is not just, unless it be shewn that he has merely affirmed the likeness or unlikeness he observed betwixt them, and specified the peculiarities of resemblance or dissimilarity. In place of doing so, however, he has executed another picture. But such analogical reasoning is more fanciful than judicious; and even were it correctly applicable to the case, it is evident, that no one would be entitled to decide as to the respective merits of the productions, who was not familiar with the objects which they represented. Now, the fact is, that Mr Anderson had no opportunity of availing himself of what others had done before, unless we except the avowedly imperfect delineations in Hawkesworth's Narrative, from which we can scarcely believe he could derive material assistance. The reader will understand this at once, by considering, that neither Cook's account of his second voyage, nor the productions of Mr Forster, had been published before the commencement of this expedition. It may, however, be imagined, that Cook himself would communicate to Mr Anderson such particulars of his former journal as were likely to aid him in his present researches. Even this supposition is exceedingly unnecessary; because, it appears from the Memoir of Cook, in the Biog. Brit. that that officer rather received assistance from Mr Anderson during the former navigation; and we shall afterwards see reason to consider him as possessed of abilities, and a talent for observation, which rendered him very independent of others. His description, therefore, is to be judged an original one, and as such is entitled to the highest distinction. It may indeed be somewhat chargeable with the exaggerations of a warm fancy, especially as to what is said of the religious notions of these islanders, which perhaps assume more of system and regularity through the medium of Mr A.'s report, than it is altogether likely would be found to exist in their popular creeds. This is easily understood, without any aspersion on his veracity. For, as it will be allowed that he possessed greater compass of mind, and was more in the habit of exercising thought than the people whose opinions he described, so it may thence be readily inferred, that, what to them was confused and unconnected, as is commonly the case with the superstitions of the illiterate in all countries, his philosophical genius, working on obvious and remote analogies, wrought into order, and stamped with the semblance, at least, of theoretical consistency. We had at one time purposed to offer a few remarks on certain parts of his description, but, on second thoughts, it occurred, that, on the whole, the subject had received a very ample share of attention in the course of these voyages.—E.

SECTION X.

Progress of the Voyage, after leaving the Society Islands.—Christmas Island discovered, and Station of the Ships there.—Boats sent ashore.—Great Success in catching Turtle.—An Eclipse of the Sun observed.—Distress of two Seamen who had lost their Way.—Inscription left in a Bottle.—Account of the Island.—Its Soil.—Trees and Plants.—Birds.—Its Size.—Form.—Situation.—Anchoring Ground.

After leaving Bolabola, I steered to the northward, close-hauled, with the wind between N.E. and E., hardly ever having it to the southward of E., till after we had crossed the Line, and had got into N. latitudes. So that our course, made good, was always to the W. of N., and sometimes no better than N.W.

Though seventeen months had now elapsed since our departure from England, during which, we had not, upon the whole, been unprofitably employed, I was sensible, that with regard to the principal object of my instructions, our voyage was, at this time, only beginning; and, therefore, my attention to every circumstance that might contribute toward our safety and our ultimate success, was now to be called forth anew. With this view I had examined into the state of our provisions at the last islands; and, as soon as I had left them, and got beyond the extent of my former discoveries, I ordered a survey to be taken of all the boatswain's and carpenter's stores that were in the ships, that I might be fully informed of the quantity, state, and condition of every article; and, by that means, know how to use them to the greatest advantage.

Before I sailed from the Society Islands, I lost no opportunity of enquiring of the inhabitants, if there were any islands in a N. or N.W. direction from them; but I did not find that they knew of any. Nor did we meet with any thing that indicated the vicinity of land, till we came to about the latitude of 8° S., where we began to see birds, such as boobies, tropic, and men-of-war birds, tern, and some other sorts. At this time our longitude was 205° E. Mendana, in his first voyage in 1568,¹ discovered an island which he named Isla de Jesus, in latitude 6° 45' S., and 1450 leagues from Callao, which is 200° E. longitude from Greenwich. We crossed this latitude near a hundred leagues to the eastward of this longitude, and saw there many of the above-mentioned birds, which are seldom known to go very far from land.

In the night, between the 22d and 23d, we crossed the Line in the longitude of 203° 15' E. Here the variation of the compass was 6° 30' E. nearly.