Chapter XXIV
New Zealand--Bay of Islands--Kororareka--Fences--Flag--Paihia --Natives--Features--Tattow--Population--Colour--Manner--War-Canoes --Prospects--Mackintosh--Fern--Church--Resident--Vines--Villages --Houses--Planks--Cooking--Church--Marae--First Mission--Settlers --Pomare--Marion--Cawa-Cawa--Meeting--Chiefs--Rats--Spirits--Wine --Nets--Burial--Divine Service--Singing--Causes of Disturbances --Reflections and Suggestions--Polynesian Interests--Resources for Ships in the Pacific.
Dec. 21. At daylight we were about four miles from Cape Brett, and nearly the same distance from Point Pococke; while in the north-west the Cavalle islands showed themselves indistinctly. A light easterly breeze enabled us to steer towards the Bay of Islands.--Few places are easier of access than this bay: excepting the Whale-rock, whose position is well ascertained, there are no hidden dangers: and within the line of the heads, there is little or no current deserving notice: outside that line, the current generally sets to the south-east about a mile an hour.
Compared with mountainous countries, the northern parts of New Zealand are not high; but they cannot be described as low land. Perhaps the expression, ‘moderately high land,’ may convey an idea of such as is more than two hundred, but less than twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea; which are the limits I have in view. In distant profile the land inclines too much to regular and convex outlines to be picturesque. It is only along the sea-coast that steep cliffs, and a more broken boundary, cause enough variety to please the eye of a lover of landscape. Approaching nearer, the interior of the country, varied by hill and valley, with an agreeable mixture of woodland and cleared ground, makes a favourable impression upon the mind, from the natural association of ideas of capability and cultivation; but whether it pleases the eye, as a picture, must depend probably as much upon the kind of scenery lately viewed, as upon pre-conceived ideas. With us the recent impressions caused by Otaheite, rendered the view of New Zealand, though novel, rather uninteresting.
Cape Brett is a bold promontory, higher than any neighbouring land. When first seen from a distant offing, while no other land is in sight, it makes like a quoin-shaped island. As the sea around is free from danger, it is an excellent landfall for shipping approaching this part of the coast. Detached from, but near the cape, is the rock, with a hole or archway through it, named by Cook, ‘Piercy Islet.’
Point, or rather Cape Pococke, is a steep cliffy headland, of a dark colour, rather picturesque in its appearance: near it there is a conical rocky islet. Numerous islands, small and large, are scattered over the bay; an expanse of water really about ten miles square, though to the eye it appears much smaller, because so many islands intercept the view.
Near the middle of the west side of the bay is the opening of Kororareka Harbour, a secure but shallow port; better adapted to merchant shipping than to the use of men-of-war.
After passing Cape Pococke, and advancing about a mile, a small settlement appeared in the northern bight of the bay; and the English look of the houses was very gratifying to us. This, I found, was Tipuna, or Rangihoua, the place where the first settlement of white men was made upon the shores of New Zealand. On the farther side of Kororareka other houses were then seen--neat, and apparently comfortable dwellings, well situated under the lee of the western hills, while close by, on our right hand, a curious line of flat-topped black rocks, a few feet only above the water, reminded us of the remains of a great mole.
Within the line from Cape Pococke to Cape Brett there is not more than thirty fathoms of water; and every where, excepting close to the rocks, the bottom is soft and tenacious, so that an anchor may be let go in any part. We saw small straggling villages of native huts in many places, and around each of them a substantial fence of palisaded posts and rails. These fences, and the cultivated spots of ground which appear as you proceed up the bay, might give a more favourable idea of the native habits than they yet deserve; for the fences are fortifications--defences against intruding men, not cattle.
In a conspicuous solitary position, opposite to the entrance of Kororareka harbour, a single English house, without another building within a mile of it, nor any protection except that of a tall staff, on which waved the British Union-jack, presented a contrast to the fortified villages; and forcibly impressed one’s mind with a conviction of the great influence already obtained over the formerly wild cannibals of New Zealand.
The entrance to the harbour is narrow, even to the eye, but it is still more confined by shoal water. In entering or leaving it, a ship ought to keep close to Kororareka Point: after rounding that point, at the distance of a cable’s length, the sheltered part of the port is seen, looking like the mouth of a navigable river. On the western side, the native village of Kororareka, a straggling collection of low huts, strongly palisaded; on the eastern, three or four English houses, the head-quarters of the missionaries; on the rising ground, near the water, far up the harbour, several more houses and villages--gave an appearance of population and successful exertion as surprising as satisfactory. Near a detached house of European form, a large white ensign excited our curiosity; and we found it was the flag of New Zealand; differing only from the ensign of St. George in the upper ‘canton,’ next the staff, where, instead of a Union-jack, there is a red cross on a blue field; each quarter of the blue field being ‘pierced’ by a white star.
We anchored between Kororareka and Paihia (the missionary settlement): farther up the harbour were several whale-ships which had anchored there, I was told, in order to avoid the spirit-shops of Kororareka.
From this anchorage the view on all sides is pleasing. An appearance of fertility every where meets the eye; but there are no grand or very remarkable features. There is nothing in the outward character of the country corresponding to the ferocious sanguinary disposition of its aboriginal inhabitants. The British resident, some English settlers, and two of the native chiefs came on board during the afternoon; and in the evening I made acquaintance with Mr. Baker, a missionary residing at Paihia. The resident’s boat was manned by young Zealanders, whose smooth faces, cropped hair, Scotch caps, and jackets and trowsers, were much approved of (perhaps hypocritically), by a chief whose long war-canoe was well-manned by athletic savages with half-naked figures, faces deeply-scarred--rather than tattowed--and long curly hair.
We were amused by finding that the Beagle had been mistaken for a ship of the (so called) Baron de Thierry. Her small size; the number of boats; and her hoisting a white ensign (thought to be that of New Zealand), so completely deceived them all, that one boat only approached reluctantly, after we had anchored, to reconnoitre; but as soon as it was known that the expected intruder had not arrived, visitors hastened on board. Had he made such an experiment, he would hardly have escaped with life, so inveterate and general was the feeling then existing against his sinister and absurd attempt. He would indeed have found himself in a nest of hornets.
In walking about the missionary establishment at Paihia, I was disappointed by seeing the natives so dirty, and their huts looking little better than pig-styes. Immediately round the dwellings of the missionaries I expected a better state of things; but I was told, that their numerous and increasing avocations engrossed all their time; and that the native population were slow in adopting habits, or even ideas, of cleanliness.
My first impression, upon seeing several New Zealanders in their native dress and dirtiness was, that they were a race intermediate between the Otaheitans and Fuegians; and I afterwards found that Mr. Stokes and others saw many precise resemblances to the Fuegians, while every one admitted their likeness to the Otaheitans. To me they all seem to be one and the same race of men, altered by climate, habits, and food; but descended from the same original stock.
Of a middle size, spare, but strong frame, and dark complexion, the New Zealander’s outward appearance is much in his favour; hardiness and activity, as may be expected, he eminently possesses. The expression of his features indicates energy, quickness of apprehension, without much reflection; and a high degree of daring. Ferocity is a striking trait in the countenances of many among the older men, and it is increased considerably by the savage style in which their faces are disfigured, or, as they think, ornamented by lines cut in the skin with a blunt-edged iron tool, and stained black. These lines are certainly designed with as much taste, even elegance, as could possibly be exerted in such disfiguring devices. The expression which, it appears, is anxiously desired, is that of a demon-warrior. All their old ideas seem to have had reference to war. Well might the Spanish poet’s description of the Araucanians have been applied to the New Zealanders in their former condition:--
“Venus y Amor aqui no alcanzan parte, Solo domina el iracundo Marte!”
The lines upon the face are not, however, arbitrary marks, invented or increased at the caprice of individuals, or the fancy of the operator who inflicts the torture; they are heraldic ornaments, distinctions far more intelligible to the natives of New Zealand than our own armorial bearings are to many of us, in these unchivalric days. Young men have but few: slaves, born in bondage, or taken young, have scarcely any marks; but the older men, especially the more distinguished chiefs, are so covered with them that the natural expression of face is almost hidden under an ornamented mask. One object of the tattowing, is to prevent change of features after middle age. Some of the women, whom the missionaries endeavoured to persuade not to follow this practice, said, “Let us have a few lines on our lips, that they may not shrivel when we are old.”
Every one has heard of, and many people have seen the war-dance. What exaggerated distortions of human features could be contrived more horrible than those they then display? What approach to demons could human beings make nearer than that which is made by the Zealanders when infuriating, maddening themselves for battle by their dance of death!
The hair of a New Zealander is naturally luxuriant, though rather coarse; its rough, free curliness in an unadorned, almost untouched state, heightens that expression of untameable ferocity which is so repulsive in the older men, especially in those of inferior degree. Many of the young women are good-looking; and they dress their hair with some pains, and not a little oil.
Although cannibalism and infanticide have ceased in the northern parts of New Zealand, the aboriginal race is decreasing. The natives say frequently, ‘The country is not for us; it is for the white men!’ and they often remark upon their lessening numbers. Change of habits, European diseases, spirits, and the employment of many of their finest young men in whale-ships (an occupation which unhappily tends to their injury), combine to cause this diminution. Wearing more clothes (especially thick blankets), exposes them to sudden colds, which often end fatally. We were surprised at seeing almost every native wrapped up in a thick blanket, perhaps even in two or three blankets, while we were wearing thin clothing.
The countenances of some of the men (independent of the tattowing) are handsome, according to European ideas of line beauty. Regular, well-defined, and high features are often seen; but they are exceptions, rather than the usual characteristics. Generally speaking, the New Zealander has a retreating and narrow forehead--rather wide, however, at the base; a very prominent brow; deeply-sunk black eyes, small and ever restless; a small nose, rather hollow, in most cases, though occasionally straight or even aquiline, with full nostrils; the upper lip is short, but that and the lower are thick; the mouth rather wide; white and much blunted teeth; with a chin neither large nor small, but rather broad. Some have higher and better heads, and a less marked expansion of brow, nostrils, and lips; others, again, are the reverse: usually, their eyes are placed horizontally; but some are inclined, like those of the Chinese, though not remarkably; indeed not so much so as those of a Scotchman whom I met there. Among the women I noticed a general depression of the bridge of the nose, and a flat frontal region.
Few engravings, or paintings, show the real expression, features, or even colour of the Polynesian tribes. They give us a half naked, perhaps tattowed[1] man or woman; but the countenance almost always proves the European habits of the artist. The features have a European cast, quite different from the original, and the colouring is generally unlike; especially in coloured engravings.
The general complexion of both women and men is a dark, coppery-brown; but it varies from the lightest hue of copper to a rich mahogany or chocolate, and in some cases almost to black. The natural colour of the skin is much altered by paint, dirt, and exposure. Before closing this slight description of the personal appearance of the Zealanders, I must allude to the remarkable shape of their teeth. In a white man the enamel usually covers all the tooth, whether front or double; but the teeth of a man of New Zealand are like those of the Fuegians, and at a first glance remind one of those of a horse. Either they are all worn down--canine, cutting-teeth, and grinders--to an uniform height, so that their interior texture is quite exposed, or they are of a peculiar structure.[2]
The New Zealanders’ salutation has often been talked of as ‘rubbing noses,’ it is, in fact, touching, or crossing them; for one person gently presses the bridge of his nose across that of his friend. Mr. Darwin informed me that when a woman expects to be saluted by a person of consequence, in the ‘nose pressing’ manner, she sits down and makes a droll grunting noise, which is continued, at intervals, until the salute has been given.
The usual manner of the native is very inferior. Accustomed to a low, wretched dwelling, and to crouching in a canoe, his habitual posture of rest is squatting on his hams, or upon the ground, with his knees up to his chin; hence, also, his limbs are rather inferior in their shape. But arouse his spirit, set him in motion, excite him to action, and the crouching, indolent being is suddenly changed into an active and animated demoniac. The Zealander is extremely proud; he will not endure the slightest insult. A blow, even in jest, must be returned!
Every one has seen or heard so much of their weapons and canoes, that it is almost superfluous to speak of them; yet, in examining one of their larger canoes--seventy feet in length, from three to four in width, and about three in depth--I was much interested by observing what trouble and pains had been taken in building and trying to ornament this, to them, first-rate vessel of war. Her lower body was formed out of the trunk of a single tree--the New Zealand kauri, or cowrie--the upper works by planks of the same wood; the stem and stern, raised and projecting, like those of the gallies of old, were carved and hideously disfigured, rather than ornamented, by red, distorted faces with protruding tongues and glaring mother-of-pearl eyes. Much carving of an entirely different and rather tasteful design[3] decorated the sides. Beneath the ‘thwarts,’ a wicker-work platform, extending from end to end, served to confine the ballast to its proper position, and to afford a place upon which the warriors could stand to use their weapons. From forty to eighty men can embark in such canoes. But their day is gone! In a few years, scarcely a war-canoe will be found in the northern district of New Zealand.[4]
Judging only from description, the largest canoes ever seen by the oldest of the present generation, must have been nearly ninety feet in length; formed out of one tree, with planks attached to the sides, about six or seven feet wide, and nearly as much in depth. Several old men agreed, at different times, in this account; but perhaps each of them was equally inclined to magnify the past.
New Zealand much requires assistance from the strong but humane arm of a powerful European government. Sensible treaties should be entered into by the head of an over-awing European force, and maintained by the show, not physical action, of that force until the natives see the wonderful effects of a changed system. Finding that their protectors sought to ameliorate their condition, and abolish all those practices which hunger, revenge, and ignorance probably caused, and alone keep up; that they neither made them slaves, nor took away land without fair purchase; and that they did no injury to their country, or to them, except in self-defence--even then reluctantly--would give the natives satisfaction and confidence, and might, in a few years, make New Zealand a powerful, and very productive country. I say powerful, because its inhabitants are very numerous, and have in themselves abundant energy, with moral, as well as physical materials; productive also, because the climate is favourable; the soil very rich; timber plentiful, and very superior; minerals are probably plentiful; flax is a staple article; corn and vines are doing well; and sheep produce good wool.
While our thoughts are directed to the natives of New Zealand, let us refer to what Sir James Mackintosh says of the former savages of our own island.
“B.C. 54.--At the time of Cæsar’s landing, the island of Great Britain was inhabited by a multitude of tribes, of whom the Romans have preserved the names of more than forty. The number of such tribes living in a lawless independence, is alone a sufficient proof of their barbarism. Into the maritime provinces southward of the Thames, colonies probably recent from Belgic Gaul began to introduce tillage; they retained the names of their parent tribes on the continent; they far surpassed the rest in the arts and manners of civilized life. The inhabitants of the interior appear to have been more rude and more fierce than any neighbouring people. The greater part of them raised no corn; they subsisted on milk and flesh, and were clothed in the skins of the beasts whom they destroyed for food. They painted and punctured their bodies, that their aspect might be more horrible in war. The use of carriages in war is a singular instance of labour and skill among such a people. Their domestic life was little above promiscuous intercourse. Societies of men, generally composed of the nearest relations, had wives in common. The issue of this intercourse were held to belong to the man (if such there should be) who formed a separate and lasting connexion with their mother. Where that appropriation did not occur, no man is described as answerable for the care of the children.”
Again, Sir James says--
“The Britons had a government rather occasional than constant, in which various political principles prevailed by turns. The power of eloquence, of valour, of experience, sometimes of beauty, over a multitude, for a time threw them into the appearance of a democracy. When their humour led them to follow the council of their elders, the community seemed to be aristocratic. The necessities of war, and the popularity of a fortunate commander, vested in him in times of peril a sort of monarchical power, limited by his own prudence, and the patience of his followers, rather than by laws, or even customs. Punishment sprung from revenge: it was sometimes inflicted to avenge the wrongs of others. It is an abuse of terms to bestow the name of a free government on such a state of society: men, in such circumstances, lived without restraint; but they lived without security. Human nature, in that state, is capable of occasional flashes of the highest virtues. Men not only scorn danger, and disregard privation, but even show rough sketches of ardent kindness, of faithful gratitude, of the most generous self-devotion. But the movements of their feelings are too irregular to be foreseen. Ferocious anger may, in a moment, destroy the most tender affection. Savages have no virtues on which it is possible to rely.”
Speaking of missionaries, the same historian states, that--
“Our scanty information relating to the earliest period of Saxon rule, leaves it as dark as it is horrible. But Christianity brought with it some mitigation. A.D. 596. The arrival of Augustine in Kent, with forty other missionaries, sent by Gregory the Great to convert the Saxons, is described in picturesque and affecting language by Bede, the venerable historian of the Anglo-Saxon church. It cannot be doubted that the appearance of men who exposed themselves to a cruel death for the sake of teaching truth, and inspiring benevolence, could not have been altogether without effect among the most faithless and ruthless barbarians. Liberty of preaching what they conscientiously believed to be Divine truth, was the only boon for which they prayed.”
22d. On the little island of Paihia, where our instruments were landed for observations, the remains of half-burned human bones were found: and as the dead are not burned in this country, they must have been the remains of a former meal. It was difficult to decide upon the time which had elapsed since that feast was made, by the appearance of the bones. They might have been covered by earth for some time, and only lately exposed; or they might have been the remains of a very modern feast, indulged in upon a little island to which it was not probable that a missionary, or any one who might give information to him, could approach unperceived.
We were much struck by the beautiful appearance of an evergreen tree, resembling an ilex, or a large myrtle, when seen from a distance; whose bright red flowers, in large clusters, upon the dark green foliage, gave an effect which I longed to see transferred to an English garden. This tree seemed to be common. After landing, the fern attracted more notice than any other vegetable production: every where in New Zealand this useful plant is found. Why useful? may be thought. Because it was one principal article of food, before the introduction of potatoes. Owing to its abundance, and to the edible, as well as tolerably nutritious, nature of its roots, no man can ever starve in New Zealand who is able to gather fern: but that it is not a pleasant food may be inferred from the fact that no native eats fern-roots when he can get potatoes. Where the fern grows thickly, and high, the soil is known to be rich: where it is small, and scarce, the land is not worth cultivating.[5]
Mr. Williams, the elder, formerly a lieutenant in the navy, was absent on an exploring and negociating expedition to the southern parts of the island. I much regretted having missed seeing him, as he was considered the leading person among the missionary body in New Zealand; and was said, by every one, to be thoroughly devoted to the great cause, in which he was one of the first, and most daring. I walked with Mr. Baker about the little village, or hamlet, of Paihia. A substantial stone building I thought must be the church; but was a good deal disappointed at being shown a small low edifice, as the place of worship; and hearing that the large stone house was the printing establishment. This I did not like; for I thought of the effect produced on ignorant minds by the magnificence of Roman Catholic churches. No doubt education overcomes superstitious ideas and observances; and the devotion of an enlightened man is not increased or diminished by the style, or by the decorations of a building: in him probably no building made by hands would excite such emotions as the starry temple of a cloudless sky. But ought he, therefore, to despise, or think lightly of those outward forms, and ceremonious observances, which influence ignorant people, who see without thinking; and are too much guided by that which makes a vivid impression. Would a little outward show do any harm among such ignorant human beings as the savages of New Zealand; or among Fuegians, and New Hollanders? And may one not expect that an intelligent native should notice that the ‘House of God’ is in every respect inferior to the other houses which they see erected by Christians?
Paihia is a pretty spot. The harbour of Kororareka lies in front; and an amphitheatre of verdant hills forms the back ground. But it must be hot during the summer, as it is in a hollow, facing the sun. A visit to Mr. J. Busby, the ‘British Resident,’ at his house (protected by the flag, as I have already mentioned) occupied Mr. Darwin and myself some time. Like most of the missionary dwellings, it is a temporary boarded cottage, intended only for present purposes. Mr. Busby was taking great pains with his garden; and among other plants he anticipated that vines would flourish. Those at Waitangi (the name of his place) are favoured by climate, as well as by the superintendance of a person who so thoroughly understands their culture. At a future day not only New Zealand, but Van Diemen’s Land, and all New Holland, will acknowledge the obligation conferred upon them by this gentleman, who made a long and troublesome journey through France and Spain solely for the purpose of collecting vines for Australia, his adopted country.
Mr. Busby’s official occupations at New Zealand appeared to me of a very neutral character. An isolated individual, not having even the authority of a magistrate, encircled by savages, and by a most troublesome class of his own countrymen, I was not astonished at his anxiety to receive definite instructions, and substantial support; or at the numerous complaints continually made by the English settlers.
Afterwards we went to Kororareka. On a sandy level, narrowly bounded by a low range of hills, or rather rising grounds, stands the principal assemblage of houses in the island; or as the missionaries say, ‘in the land’. I have said assemblage of houses, because it did not agree with my ideas of a town, a village, a hamlet, or even an Indian encampment. Near the beach were a few small cottages which had once been white-washed. At the foot of the hills were two or three small houses of European build; but the remaining space of ground appeared to be covered by palings, and pig-styes. The temporary enclosures which are made in a market-place, for cattle, might give an idea of the appearance of these sadly wretched dwelling places. The palings, or palisades, are intended to be fortifications: they are high, sometimes eight or ten feet; and, almost encircling the whole, a stronger palisade is fixed, but so inefficiently that either strength, an axe, or fire, would ensure an entrance to resolute men. There is neither embankment nor ditch. Within the small square spaces, enclosed by the slighter palings, are the huts of the natives: the angular, low thatched roofs of which are scarcely set off from the ground by walls a foot or two in height. These roofs slope downwards, lengthwise as well as sideways; so that the front of the hut is the highest part. The upper point of the roof may be eight feet from the ground; the space of ground occupied, about ten square feet; seldom more, indeed usually less. Besides the door, through which a man cannot pass excepting upon his hands and knees, there is neither window, nor aperture of any kind. The New Zealand ‘order of architecture,’ is marked by two wide planks placed edgeways in front, joined together at the top by nails or pegs, and forming a wide angle, in which the space is filled up, excepting a door-way two feet square, with materials similar to those of the walls and roof, namely wicker work, or ‘wattling,’ covered by a thatching of broad flag leaves or rushes. The eaves of the roof project two or three feet beyond the front; so likewise do the side walls. In this sort of porch the family sit, eat, and, in the day-time, often sleep. At night most of them huddle together, within what, in every respect, deserves the name of a sty: even a Fuegian wigwam is far preferable, for as that is frequently left vacant during many successive weeks, heavy rains and a cold climate are antidotes to any particular accumulation of dirt. In a fine climate, surrounded by beautiful trees and luxuriant herbage, can one account for human nature degrading itself so much as to live in such a den? Is it not that the genuine, simple beauties of Creation are understood, and enjoyed, only in proportion as man becomes more refined, and as he differs more from his own species in what is falsely called a state of nature.
I was inquisitive about the large planks, generally painted red, which appeared in front of every house. The natives told me that such boards had always been made by their ancestors, before tools of any metal were seen in the land: they were from twelve to twenty feet in length, about two feet in breadth, and two inches thick: and they seemed to have been ‘dubbed’ down to a fair surface; but I am inclined to think that the wood is of a kind that splits easily into plank, like the alerse of southern Chile.[6] Being the evening meal time, some women, and male slaves, were removing the cinders from holes in the earth, whence steam was issuing profusely, under a shed, near the house I was examining. The shed was a light roof, upon upright poles, covering the cooking place--a few square yards of cinder-covered ground. Out of each hole dirty looking bunches of fish and leaves were raked with fingers and sticks. Hot stones were at the bottom of the hole, placed in the usual Polynesian and Chilote method. The fish had been wrapped in the leaves, but taking it out of the oven in such a manner had displaced the leaves, and substituted a coating of ashes and cinders. Potatoes, raked out of another hot hole, looked more eatable: but leaving the natives to their dirty food, we walked to the new church. A slightly built edifice of bricks, and light frame work, with an abundance of bad glass windows, gave me the idea of a small methodist meeting-house, or an anabaptist chapel, rather than an episcopal church. A good deal of money having been subscribed by residents, and visitors, specially for this church, it might be wished that a portion of it had been employed in obtaining a better design, and better materials, as it stands in a very conspicuous situation. To place a church in a stronghold of iniquity, such as Kororareka, the resort of the worst disposed inhabitants of New Zealand, native and foreign, was a daring experiment: yet notwithstanding the ill-will entertained towards the missionaries, by their ‘spirit-selling’ countrymen; by native chiefs, whose pandering trade was yearly lessened; and by the evil disposed of every description, no molestation had been offered, and not a plane of glass had been broken! neither had the church service been performed in vain to inattentive hearers.
Returning to the beach, we saw some of the fine canoes I have already mentioned: we then paid a formal visit to one of the chiefs; and for another, who was not at home, I thought I could not do better than leave a present: his wife, or rather one of his wives, was pointed out to us, as the sister of the notorious Shunghi. ‘Titore’ was the absent chief’s name. He was out in the country, with a hundred well-armed followers, cultivating, as we were told, his yam and potato grounds. We next saw a burying place, or rather a place where the dead are exposed, upon a raised platform, to the wind and sun. Wrapped in cloth of the country, the bodies are placed upon small square platforms of boards, which are fixed upon single central posts, ten feet high. Bushes were growing, unmolested, in the enclosure (or ‘Marae’), no foot entering to tread them down. Among these thickets I saw several large boards standing upright like gravestones, some of which were painted red, and uncouthly carved. Returning to our boat, the chief whom we had visited presented me with a garment of the country manufacture: his assumed haughtiness was amusing, from being characteristic. Our evening was passed in very interesting conversation with Mr. W. Williams, and Mr. Baker;[7] the former had just arrived from Waimate, an agricultural settlement, lately established by the missionaries, in the interior.
Of the difficulties encountered and surmounted by the first missionaries in New Zealand full accounts have been lately published: the little we then heard strongly excited our curiosity. Mr. Marsden appeared to have been the originator, as well as the main instrument, in forwarding the great work.
On the 23d, I went with Mr. Baker to Tipuna, the place where the first missionaries, Mr. King and Mr. Kendal, established themselves in 1813. Mr. King was absent, but I saw his wife and son, who told me that he was travelling about among the natives, and would not return for several days; he was on horseback, his son said, but quite alone. Mrs. King described the former state of things which she had witnessed herself in strong terms; she could not look back to those days without shuddering. Being told in the evening, that “before morning their house would be in flames;” and that “stones were heating for the oven in which they themselves were to be cooked,” was a quieting farewell, from a mob of angry natives, on more than one occasion. But Mr. King always found a trusty friend in a chief, whose name has been often noticed--‘Waripoaka.’ I met him near the house, in company with a young chief, whose sense of propriety was so delicate that he would not appear before Mrs. King, because he was not dressed ‘well enough!’ Waripoaka was satisfied with his own attire, and went with us. To my prejudiced eye, the dress of the young man, a mat, or mantle of the country, loosely wrapped around a fine figure, appeared far more suitable than the long-tailed old coat, thread-bare pantaloons, and worn-out hat, which utterly disguised and disfigured the old chief.
Mr. King’s son talked of his sheep, and I found that though not more than eighteen or twenty, he was already a farmer, possessing land and a flock of sheep. Returning by a different route, we landed upon an island lately bought from the natives by two persons who had been masters of whale-ships.
This island, purchased for a trifling price, will become very valuable, as the trade to the Bay of Islands increases; and I regretted to see a spot of such future consequence in the hands of men, whose verbal attacks upon the missionaries, and illiberal aspersions of Mr. Busby’s character, disgusted me so much that I had hardly patience to make the inquiries which were the object of my visit; or to wait while Mr. Baker told them of a plan which was in contemplation among the settlers, for the prevention, or at least restriction, of the sale of spirits.
Such men as these, strongly prejudiced, deaf to reason, and too often habitually vicious; run-away convicts, whose characters may be imagined; and democratic seceders from regular government, cause the principal difficulties against which honest, upright settlers, and the whole missionary body, have to contend. One of the men, whose share in the property of the island I have been regretting, was partly intoxicated while we were with him; but Waripoaka, who accompanied us, significantly warned me of his state as I entered the house.
24th. I went with Mr. Baker to a scattered village, called Cawa-cawa. Leaving the ship early, we followed the windings of an estuary which forms Kororareka Harbour, until its shores contracted it to the limits of a fresh-water river. Three good houses on the eastern shore, lately built by respectable English settlers, attracted our notice in passing: and afterwards the ‘Pah’[8] of Pomare,[9] a well-known chief, appeared like a cattle-enclosure upon a hill. Pomare is the man who killed and ate a part of his female slave, when Mr. Earle was there; he has still large possessions, and had larger, but has sold much for ammunition, muskets, and spirits. His honourable office at this time was that of supplying the numerous whale-ships which visited the harbour with his slaves; and he found such an employment of his female vassals answer better than the horrible one well described by Mr. Earle. Dismal alternative! On board each of the ships we passed there were many of these women; but before we notice the ‘mote,’ let us consider the great ‘beam,’--think of what our own sea-ports were in times of war, and be charitable to the South Sea Islanders.
Pomare was heard to say that his son would be a greater man than himself: and the New Zealanders in general are impressed with the idea that their sons will be better, or greater men, than themselves.
The estuary, or arm of the sea, whose windings we were following, forms an excellent harbour for ships not larger than third-class frigates; or to speak in a more definite manner, for those which do not draw more than seventeen feet of water. On each side the land rises to five or six hundred feet, sheltering the anchorage without occasioning those violent squalls alternating with calms, that are found under the lee of very high land, over which strong wind is blowing. As far as I know, there are very few shoals or banks in the wide space which forms the inner harbour. A slight stream of current and tide runs outwards during about seven hours, and the tide sets inwards about five, though with still less strength. At times, the outward stream may run about two knots in the narrow places. Mr. Mair’s house and shipping-yard, Mr. Clendon’s establishment, and the pleasantly-situated house and garden of Mr. Wright gave an English aspect to the eastern side of the harbour; while boats passing and ships lying at anchor in an estuary, much resembling one in our own country, prevented the frequent occurrence of a thought, that we were near the Antipodes; and that on the western side of the harbour is the place where ‘Marion’ and so many of his crew were massacred, and afterwards eaten! That horrid catastrophe is now said to have been caused by mutual ignorance of language. The Frenchmen not understanding that the spot was tabooed, persisted in fishing there, and endeavoured to maintain their intrusion by force.
Canoes met and passed us as we proceeded. It was pleasant to witness the cordial greetings exchanged between most of their occupants and Mr. Baker. All these canoes were going to Kororareka, to sell their cargoes of firewood, potatoes, yams, or pigs. Here and there, by the water-side, we saw a house, or rather hut, with a patch of cleared and cultivated ground, a great pile of firewood, ready for sale, and perhaps a canoe close by, which the native owners were loading with the marketable produce of their land. When the estuary had diminished, and we found ourselves in a fresh-water river, there was much resemblance to parts of the river at Valdivia; but the amount of ground under cultivation, and the number of huts scattered over the face of the country and along the banks of the river, were less near Valdivia, exclusive of the town itself, than in this so lately a cannibal country.
Though on a small scale, the banks of this river are interesting and picturesque. On each side, the soil is extremely good on the low grounds, and the hills are well clothed with wood: they are not high, but approach the river rather closely in some places, so that the winding stream, spaces of level and partially cultivated land, and woody heights, are agreeably mingled, and formed a rapidly varying view as we proceeded.
Mr. Baker had been urged by the natives of Cawa-cawa to visit them, and endeavour to settle a dispute which had arisen with a neighbouring village, or rather tribe. He also wished to gain more advocates for the abolition of spirits; and I was glad to profit by the opportunity of seeing a little of the natives and their habits, in a place said to be Christianized, and uncontaminated by the spirit-sellers.
A few of our own countrymen were employing themselves as sawyers, on the banks of the river, near the village of Cawa-cawa; but neither their huts, their mode of living, nor their outward appearance, caused any feeling of good-will towards them on my part.
Having ascended the stream, as far as the boat could go, which was about four miles from the salt-water, we landed, and walked towards the village of Cawa-cawa, escorted by several elderly and a mob of young natives. Our way led through open underwood, maize-grounds, and damp swampy soil, in which I saw plenty of the plant called ‘flax,’ supposed, a few years since, to be very valuable, and now probably much undervalued. Across a stream the natives seemed delighted to carry us; indeed, I may say once for all, that at this village their whole behaviour was affable, friendly, and open, to a degree nearly approaching that of the merry Otaheitans.
Under the shade of a large tree, the inhabitants of the widely-scattered huts soon assembled. For me they brought a chair out of a cottage; but for themselves their native soil offered a sufficient place of rest. In all positions, half-enveloped in blankets or coarse country mattings, with their rough, curly hair protecting their heads from the sun’s rays, and almost shading their tattowed faces, about a hundred men, women, and children surrounded their apparently most welcome friend ‘Payka,’ as they called Mr. Baker. Many fine forms and most expressive countenances were there. Such heads, indeed I may say, such a group for a painter! I had sufficient leisure to admire them; for it is etiquette in New Zealand to sit in silence during some minutes, previous to commencing any conversation. Engrossed by the fine, the grand heads of some of the old warriors, whose amply tattowed features had withstood the ravages of time more successfully than their once dark hair, and by the graceful figures of the younger women, I was sorry when the ceremonial silence was ended. By turns the principal men discussed with Mr. Baker (whose speaking appeared to be to the purpose, as well as fluent), the business for which they had assembled.
I could understand few words used, but the gestures of the natives were sufficiently expressive to give a general idea of their meaning. Mr. Baker’s interpretation to me afterwards was to this effect:--“A neighbouring tribe has encroached upon the district which this tribe claim as hereditary property. These men prove their right to it by bringing forward several of their elders, who have at various times killed and eaten ‘rats’ upon it.”
In other days, the war-club and the patoo-patoo--a sanguinary contest to determine whose should be the land and whose bodies should fill the ovens--would have been the unfailing mode of decision. “What would Mr. Baker recommend them to do, now that they had become Christians?” was their question. He recommended arbitration, each party to choose a ‘wise man;’ and if the two wise men disagreed, they should refer the question to the deliberation of the missionaries, at their next general meeting. He also promised to visit the other tribe, enquire into the case, and exert himself for the sake of both parties, who were equally his friends, and whose interest, as well as duty, it was to remain at peace.
By temporising, talking to each party, and inducing one to meet the other half way, Mr. Baker had no doubt of amicably arranging the affair.[10] Is it not extremely gratifying to find the missionaries thus appealed to, and acting as mediators and peace-makers?
The singular reason for laying claim to this land, appears less extraordinary when explained. Formerly there were no wild quadrupeds, excepting rats, upon New Zealand: and while so destitute of animal food, a rat was considered ‘game’ by the natives; and no man would attempt to kill his neighbour’s rats, or those which were found on his territory, without intending, or declaring war against him. Had not the rats, eaten by the older men of Cawa-cawa, belonged to them, the lawful or understood owners of the rats would long since have made war upon the people of Cawa-cawa. Rats having been there killed, and war not having been consequently declared, were irresistible arguments in the minds of those men, who never forgot, and who knew not how to forgive an injury.[11] Some of us are apt to think modern game laws harsh inventions, and the result of civilization. Yet if, in our own history, we look back seven hundred years, we find that human lives were then forfeited for those of beasts of the chase: and if we look at this country, which may be supposed two thousand years behind our own, in point of civilization, we find, that to kill a rat upon a neighbour’s land, is an offence almost sufficient to cause a general war.
The precise manner in which territory is divided among these savages surprised me not a little: I thought land was but slightly valued by them. Though sold to Europeans for what we consider trifles, the sale is, to them, matter of high importance, in which every free man of the tribe ought to be consulted. Uncleared land is supposed to belong to the tribe, collectively. Cultivated spots, and houses, are private property, but cannot be sold, or given away, out of the tribe, without the consent of the whole community. This division of land among small tribes,[12] looks much like a comparatively late appropriation of the country. To make a purchase of land in New Zealand, in a manner which will ensure quiet and unquestioned possession, it is necessary to assemble all the tribe of owners, or as many as can come; a few absentees, of little consequence, not being thought about. The goods intended to be given, as an equivalent for the land, are then spread out for inspection; and if the contracting parties agree, their word is given, and their marks are perhaps put to a deed which they cannot read,[13] but whose purport they are told. The goods are forthwith carried away; each man appropriates what he chooses, and it often happens that the chief men of the tribe receive the smallest portion of the purchase goods.
One, among many objections alleged against the purchase of land, said to have been made by de Thierry, was, that he could not have bought land in New Zealand, while absent, because, in order to make a purchase valid, it is necessary to buy from the tribe, not from individuals.
Mr. Stokes was informed that when a tribe is utterly vanquished, the conqueror generously gives the survivors a grant of land, and even slaves. I do not see how to reconcile this act of generosity with the blood-thirsty warfare which has usually ended in indiscriminate slaughter, and cannibal feasts.
Satisfied, for the time, on the principal subject:--the much desired abolition of the use and importation of ardent spirits, was discussed. An old man, named ‘Noah,’ spoke to the tribe; and after alluding to the disgraceful and unfortunate events, caused by drinking, which had happened to their friends, and to neighbouring tribes, since the white men had introduced the vice of intoxication, old Noah ended a short but eloquent harangue, by saying, “expel the liquid fire.” Noah is a Christian: his name was his own choice, when baptized, some years ago. The principal men, eight in number, signed, or made marks upon the paper, which contained the resolutions agreed to by acclamation. Noah wrote his name in a distinct hand: each of the others made marks resembling a small part of the tattowed lines upon their faces. One man imitated the mark upon the side of his nose; another that near his eye. Baked potatoes were afterwards brought to us; and a curious wine, of which I had not heard. It was dark coloured, and not unlike good elderberry wine. It is made from the small currant-like fruit of a shrub, which the settlers call ‘native vine;’ but the resemblance to a vine is about as evident as that of a common elderberry bush. The fruit grows in clusters, much like small elderberries in appearance, but it contains stony kernels, which are said to be unwholesome, if not poisonous. Women collect the juice by squeezing the bunches of fruit with their hands. I have heard that it is used after fermentation as well as in its pure juicy state, but some assert the contrary: it might then assuredly cause intoxication; I doubt, however, their often obtaining, or keeping, a sufficient quantity. It dyes the hands of the women and children who collect the juice, so deeply, that they cannot efface the stain for many days afterwards.
Instead of rubbing, or rather pressing, noses, these people have adopted the custom of shaking hands: everyone expects to have a shake. Yet with all their asserted equality, and democratic ideas, there must be a considerable distinction of rank, and difference of occupation, among them; for I particularly noticed that two chief persons of this tribe, who rather resembled the higher class at Otaheite, had far less swarthy complexions, and less hardened extremities, than the others: one of them, considered by Mr. Baker to be the head of the tribe, was more like an Otaheitan ‘Eri,’ and less like the ordinary New Zealanders than any other native I saw, while at their island. From the meeting place under the large tree, we went to see a chapel which the natives were building, by their own free will and labour; and in our way we passed through yam and potato grounds, so neatly kept, that no gardener need have hesitated to commend them.[14] The intended chapel was a lightly framed building of wood, with a thatched roof. The natives seemed to be very proud of it, and were much gratified by our praises. Some large oxen, in a pen, were feeding on young branches, and leaves of trees, gathered for them by the natives, which they appeared to relish as much as hay: they were called ‘booa-cow.’[15]
At the door of a house, or rather in the porch (before described), I saw a woman reading: she was sick, Mr. Baker told me, one of a long list of invalids, who frequently applied to the missionaries for advice and medicine. I looked at her book, it was the Gospel of St. Matthew, printed at Paihia, in the New Zealand language. Now, certainly, there was neither constraint, nor any thing savouring of outward show, in this woman’s occupation, for my seeing her was sudden, and quite accidental, arising from my going out of the usual path to look at the oxen. Mr. Baker told me, that one of the most troublesome, though not the least gratifying duties, of the missionaries, was that of attempting to act as medical men. No regularly educated practitioner having at that time established himself in the land, every complaint was entrusted to the kind attention, and good will, but slight medical knowledge of the missionaries. We saw several nets for fishing placed in separate heaps, each upon a small platform, at the top of a post eight or ten feet in height: in a similar manner yams and potatoes are preserved from the rotting influence of the damp earth. The nets are made with the split leaves of the ‘flax’ plant, not merely with the fibres, and last for many years: both they and the food, thus exposed to the air, are thatched, like the houses, with the broad leaves of an iris-like rush, or flag, which grows abundantly by the river sides, and in marshy places. I was here informed, that after the bodies of the dead (which are exposed to the air, on platforms similar to those I have just mentioned), are thoroughly dried, the bones are carried away, and deposited in a secret burying place.
25th. Being Christmas-day, several of our party attended Divine service at Paihia, where Mr. Baker officiated. Very few natives were present; but all the respectable part of the English community had assembled. Instead of performing the whole service first in one language, and afterwards in the other, as at Otaheite, the two entire services were mixed, and the whole extended to such a length that had even the most eloquent divine occupied the pulpit, his hearers could scarcely have helped feeling fatigued. Mr. Baker appeared to be more fluent in the language of New Zealand, than in his own, a fortunate circumstance for the natives, though not for the English who attend his church. In the mere glimpse which I had of the missionary body at New Zealand, it appeared to me that they rather undervalued their white congregations. They say, “We are sent to the heathen, it is to their improvement that every effort should be directed.” “This is true,” may be replied; “but does not the example of respectable settlers, or visitors, assist the influence of missionaries?” Would not the natives take notice if foreigners whom they see in the land refused, generally speaking, to conform in their habits and conduct, to the principles so earnestly insisted upon by the missionaries? But unless Divine service is performed in a manner which will, at the very least, increase respect for it, and give rise to no feelings of slight towards those who, from the nature of their highly responsible office, are expected to perform it tolerably well--it does not seem likely that such as are only sojourners in the land, will be seen at the church as often as might be desirable; thus a part of their example, so beneficial to the great cause, will perhaps be lost.
A very correct musical ear seems to be as general among the people here, as among those of Otaheite. The responses of thirty natives, women and men, were made so simultaneously, and so perfectly in harmony, that I could no more distinguish the different voices, than I could those of a number of good choristers singing together. Their singing was equally melodious, yet neither I nor others were disposed to think it equal to that of Otaheite.
26th. Disputes between masters of whale ships and their crews, and between both these classes and the New Zealanders, obliged me to meddle, though very reluctantly, in their affairs. To show what anarchy has been caused in this country, by the partial, half measures, which have been taken, I will try to describe the state of things, at the Bay of Islands, as we found them.
I will not attempt to give the slightest sketch of events which had occurred anterior to the Beagle’s visit, full and authentic details being accessible in other publications; farther than to say that the rumoured approach of de Thierry had stimulated Mr. Busby (holding the undefined office of British resident) to take measures adverse to such foreign intruders, by issuing a public announcement,[16] and by calling together the principal chiefs of tribes inhabiting the districts of New Zealand, north of the Thames, with a view of urging them to frame a sort of constitution,[17] which should have a steadying influence over their unwieldy democracy, and leave them less exposed to foreign intrusion.
Thus much had been done by words and on paper; the chiefs had departed, each to his perhaps distant home, and the efficiency of their authority, in a ‘collective capacity’ was yet to be discovered. No ‘executive’ had been organized; the former authorities--each chief in his own territory--hesitated to act as they had been accustomed, owing to a vague mystification of ideas, and uncertainty as to what they really had agreed upon, while the authority of Mr. Busby was absolutely nothing, not even that of a magistrate among his own countrymen; so of course he could have no power over the natives. To whom then were the daily squabbles of so mixed and turbulent a population, as that of the Bay of Islands and its vicinity, to be referred?
Late events had impressed the natives with such a high idea of King William’s men-of-war, that even the little Beagle was respected by them, and, in consequence, appeals were made to me--by natives, by men of the United States of America, and by British subjects; but, not then aware of the peculiarity of Mr. Busby’s position, I referred them to him, under the idea that his office was of a consular nature, and therefore that I ought not to act in these cases, excepting as his supporter. Finding him unwilling to take any steps of an active kind, not deeming himself authorised to do so: and the aggrieved parties still asking for assistance, I referred them to the only real, though not nominal, authority, in the place, that of the missionaries. By the active assistance of Mr. Baker, the more serious quarrels were ended without bloodshed, and those of a more trifling nature, in which the natives were not concerned, were temporarily settled: but I doubt not that in a few days afterwards anarchy again prevailed.
To give an idea of the nature of some of these quarrels, and of the serious consequences they might entail, I will describe briefly two or three cases which were referred to me.
Pomare had been beaten while on board a whale ship, by some of her crew. No New Zealander will submit to be struck, but thus to treat a chief is unpardonable. Burning with indignation he maltreated the first Englishman whom he met on shore, and was concerting serious measures of revenge, when the master of the ship, and a number of his men, came to ask for assistance and protection.
Again; a chief, whose name I do not know, had been refused admittance on board a whale ship, where he had heard that one of his female slaves was living. He did not wish to injure her, or even take her away. His only motive, in asking admittance, was to satisfy himself that she was there. Highly affronted at the refusal, he spoke to me, (as he said) previously to collecting his warriors and attacking the ship.
Another case was unconnected with the natives, but tended to expose a fraudulent system, and to show the necessity of arming British authorities, in distant parts of the world, with a definite degree of control over the licentious, or ill-disposed portion of their own countrymen, who, in those remote regions, are disproportionably numerous, and now able to do pretty much what they please.
A person who stated himself to be the master of an English whaler, lying in the harbour, came on board the Beagle, accompanied by a man said to be the third mate. The former complained of the mutinous state of his crew, who had ill treated this third mate, and then refused to work or obey any orders. Inquiry on board the whaler, showed that the crew had been ill-used, especially as to provisions: and that not only the nominal master, but the chief as well as the second mate were North Americans, (U.S.) The legal master, it appeared, was the so-called third mate, an Englishman. His name appeared in the ship’s papers as master; that of the person who had been acting as master did not appear at all. But the acting master, who before me styled himself ‘supercargo,’ produced a power of attorney from the owners of the vessel,[18] which appeared to authorise him to control the proceedings of the vessel, as he thought proper; to displace the master and appoint another person in his stead, and in every way to act for the owners, as if he, the American, were sole owner. Nearly all the seamen were British subjects. How far his power of attorney might carry weight against the spirit and intent of the navigation laws, I had much doubt; but as it appeared to me that the owners in such cases, ought to know their own interest better than other persons could; and that in suiting their own interest they certainly would add their mite towards the general interest of their country; and as the supercargo had a circular letter from the Commander-in-chief on the West-India and North American station, asking for the assistance of any King’s ship he might meet (with the view of encouraging the whale fishery out of Halifax); I refrained from doing what my first impulse prompted--putting an officer on board, and sending the ship to the nearest port (Sydney), in which correctly legal measures might be adopted, if necessary. Meanwhile as the British resident did not think himself authorised to interfere, and disorder, with ‘club-law,’ were prevailing and likely to continue, in the Rose, I went on board, accompanied by Lieutenant Sulivan and Mr. Bynoe. After examining the provisions and all the ship’s papers, I spoke to the crew (every man of whom wished to leave the vessel) and to the nominal master; obtained an assurance, in their hearing, that their future allowance of provisions should be unobjectionable, and, for the time, restored order. But I felt that the calm was unlikely to last, and two days afterwards fresh appeals were made, to which I could not attend, being in the act of leaving the port.[19]
The laws which regulate our merchant shipping, especially sealers and whalers, do not appear to extend a sufficient influence over the numerous vessels, which, with their often turbulent inmates, now range over the vast Pacific. For many years past, Great Britain and the United States have annually sent hundreds of large whale ships into the Pacific: during late years, Sydney has sent forth her ships, amounting at present in number to more than sixty, most of which are employed in whaling or trading in the Pacific: and be it remembered that their crews are not the most select seamen--the nature of many of them may easily be imagined--yet in all this immense expanse of ocean, little or no restraint except that of masters of vessels, on board their own ships, is imposed either upon Americans or British subjects! There is the nominal authority of a consul at the Sandwich, and Society Islands: and occasionally a man-of-war is seen at the least uncivilized places. But how inefficient is so widely separated, and so nominal a control? When ships of war visit the less frequented parts of the Pacific, they are too much in the dark, as to the state of things, to be able to effect a tenth part of what might be done, in equal time, by a ship employed solely on that ocean. In so peculiar a portion of the world as Polynesia, it takes some time to learn what has been taking place: and what ship of war has stayed long enough for her captain to lose the sensation of inexperience--which must embarrass him if called upon to decide and act, in cases where he really is about the most ignorant person (as regards the special case) of any one concerned with it? In consequence of that ignorance, he must inevitably be more or less guided by the advice of parties, of whose individual interest in the matter so short an acquaintance cannot give him a proper idea.
A great deal of prudence, and good management, is required in the commander of a man-of-war, who has any business of consequence to transact with the natives of Polynesia, or who has to deal with his own countrymen in that distant region. A single ship, assisted perhaps by tenders, might, if well commanded, do more good in a few years among the islands of the Pacific, than can now easily be imagined. But then she must be stationary; not that she should remain in one place--far from it--her wings should seldom rest; I mean only that she should stay in the Pacific during three or four years. In that time so much information might be gained, and so much diffused among the natives; such a system of vigilant inspection might be established, and so much respect for, and confidence in the British nation, be secured--that our future intercourse with Polynesia would, for a length of time, be rendered easier and infinitely more secure, as well as creditable.
The few ships of war which have remained during any length of time among the islands, have been occupied by exploring and surveying, to an extent that has interfered with the earnest consideration of other matters. But in a ship, employed as I have described, a surveyor might be embarked, who would have ample opportunities of increasing our knowledge of that ocean. And if a sensible man, whose natural ability had been improved by an education unattainable by sailors, could be tempted to bear the trials and losses of a long sea voyage, in a busily employed ship, how much might Science profit by the labours of three or four such years?
Having thus entered freely into ideas which I have so often dwelt upon that they are become familiar, I will venture to suggest the kind of ship which would do most, in my humble opinion, at the least ultimate expense consistent with efficiency. Moral influence over the minds of natives, as well as over wanderers from our own or other countries, is a primary object, and that influence might be at once obtained by the mere presence of a large ship.
Compare the manner in which the natives of the Marquesas behaved to the Tagus and Briton frigates, with their hostility to vessels whose appearance did not overawe them. An outward show of overpowering force would often prevent a struggle, and probably loss of life, which, however justifiable, cannot too anxiously be avoided. From what I have seen and heard, I feel authorised to say that one ship of force, well-manned, and judiciously commanded, would effect more real good in the Pacific than half-a-dozen small vessels.
Frigates have already been seen among some of the islands of Polynesia, and heard of in the greater number. To send a ship of a lower class to establish a general influence over the Polynesians, and our own wandering countrymen, as well as for the purposes I have previously mentioned, would be to treat the business so lightly that, for the credit of our country, it would perhaps be better let alone; particularly as a frigate does occasionally go from the South American station, and a sloop from Australia, or the East-Indies. No European or American nation has now a duty to perform, or an interest to watch over, in the Pacific Ocean, equal to that of Great Britain. The North Americans are increasing their connections, and consequently their influence, rapidly. Russia has extended her arm over the Northern Pacific. France has sent her inquiring officers, and Roman Catholic missionaries[20] are sowing the seeds of differences, if not discord, among the islanders, in the Gambier Islands and elsewhere.
Independent of expense, what are the principal local objections to employing a frigate in such a duty? In the first place, among the islands there would be risk of getting ashore, increasing with the size of the ship:--in the second; it might be difficult to obtain supplies, and in the event of losing spars she might be obliged to return: perhaps to England:--in the third; to get ashore, in a ship drawing so much water, would be a much more serious affair than a similar accident happening to a smaller vessel: and, by obliging her to return to England, or go to an East-Indian dock-yard, would upset all plans and expose Polynesia to greater irregularities and less control than ever, until new arrangements could be made.
To the ‘risk of getting ashore,’ I answer: large ships are in general more efficiently officered and manned than small ones, and they are less likely to get into danger, because they are consequently more carefully managed. The Pacific is, technically speaking, a ‘deep water’ ocean: all its coral reefs are ‘steep-to.’ Sand or mud banks are unknown, except near the shores of continents, and even there they are rare, unless on the Japanese and Chinese shores. Small ships attempt to sail in intricate passages, and get ashore:--large vessels use warps, or await very favourable opportunities, and are not risked. Secondly: supplies may now be obtained in any quantity on the coast of South America, as well as in Australia; and fresh provisions can be obtained by regular, reasonable purchase, at the principal islands. New Zealand, Norfolk Island, the north-west coast of America and other places, are stocked with the finest spars: and lastly: a large ship, well provided, has the resources of a small dock-yard within herself.
An East-India trader of eight hundred tons, was hove down by her own crew, and the natives, at Otaheite. Cook laid his ship ashore for repair in Endeavour River, on the north-east coast of New Holland; where the rise and fall of tide is very great. Sydney is an excellent place for heaving down and repairing a ship of any size. Guayaquil has a great rise and fall of tide. Lima, or rather Callao,--and Coquimbo, are good places for a ship to refit in. But Sydney is superior to all as a rendezvous, and any repairs may be effected there.
Large ships are able to do all their own work, while small vessels are frequently obliged to ask for the help of their neighbours, when they get into difficulty, or want repairs. These considerations, however, should not prevent a frigate from having a good tender, for much risk would then be avoided: and although the large ship might be repairing, the knowledge that she was in the Pacific[21] would be quite sufficient, if she had only established such a character as that which was borne by many a British frigate during the last general war. Such a ship could detach efficient boats for surveying, or other purposes; she could carry animals, seeds, plants, and poultry, to those islands which have none; and by her countenance and protection, she could assist and encourage the missionaries in their all-important occupation.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Amoco is the native word for the tattow marks.
[2] This apparent wearing away of the teeth is not found in the Zealanders alone. The Fuegians, Araucanians, and Society Islanders show it more or less, and it is very remarkable among the natives of New Holland. I have also seen some white men (Europeans) with similar teeth, but they were all elderly; whereas in some young savages I have noticed incisors shaped rather like those of a horse.
[3] Arabesque, like the ornaments at Otaheite.
[4] North of latitude 38° S.
[5] Humboldt mentions fern-roots being used for food near the Orinoco.
[6] Kauri? or some other pine?
[7] I learned that de Thierry was sometime resident in the King’s-bench, and that his alleged purchase of land, in New Zealand, was a theme of ridicule among the aborigines.
[8] Or Paa; by Cook called Hippah.
[9] This chief said that his father had adopted the name of ‘Pomare,’ because he had heard of a very distinguished warrior at Otaheite, who bore that appellation.
[10] Before the Beagle sailed it was settled.
[11] In Mariner’s Tonga Islands a full description is given of the manner in which the Friendly Islanders shot rats: as an amusement.
[12] There are several varieties of the human race in New Zealand; differing from one another as much as the lightest olive-coloured Otaheitan differs from the ‘brown-black’ New Hollander.
[13] A few natives can now read and write.
[14] Cook speaks in strong terms of the neatness and regularity of their cultivated grounds.
[15] Literally cow-pig. Before white men brought others, pigs were the only domestic animals known in Polynesia besides dogs:--and when a cow first appeared in a ship, she was called cow-booa, or booa-cow.
[16] Appendix, No. 35.
[17] A copy of the constitution, or form of government, decided upon at a meeting of all the chiefs of the northern districts (excepting two or three of minor consequence), is in the Appendix, No. 36.
[18] The ‘Rose’ of Halifax.
[19] Afterwards (at Sydney) I heard that the men had all left the vessel, and were living among the natives.
[20] Sent out immediately after the first circulation of Captain Beechey’s interesting work.
[21] No accident need oblige her to quit that ocean. Many large ships are built there, and never leave its waters.
Chapter XXV
Waimate--Cultivation--Flax--Apteryx--Gardens--Missionaries--Farm --Barn--Mill--Grave of Shunghi--Horses--Kauri Pine--Keri-keri --Children--Waripoaka--La Favorite--Political condition--Relics --Images, or Amulets--Mats--Leave New Zealand--Remarks--Intercourse --Convicts--Effects of Missionary exertion--Irregular Settlements --Trade--Residents and Consuls--Missionary Embarrassments--Society’s Lands--Discontent of Settlers--Purchase of Land--Influence of Missionaries--Their sphere of action.
28th. Accompanied by Mr. Baker, I set out to go to Waimate, a settlement formed by the missionaries with the view of introducing agriculture and mechanical arts among the natives, in addition to the truths of the Gospel. Entering one of the numerous creeks (Waitangi) by which the north-eastern shores of New Zealand are intersected, we went a little way in a boat, then landed and got on horseback.[1] Two natives, who had been waiting with the horses, ran by their side during the rest of the day with much ease, though we trotted or cantered rather fast. One of them even carried a bundle weighing about thirty pounds. The men did this by choice, for the sake of riding back from Keri-keri, a place we were afterwards to visit, and whence Mr. Baker and I would return by water. While running thus easily and cheerfully, by the side of our horses, they reminded me of men at Madeira; and still more of the Maltese, whom they both resembled in feature, figure, and colour. To see fern every where, was a remarkable peculiarity. In some places it grew thickly, and to the height of a man, in others it was scantily scattered. It is said to be an index to the quality of the soil, which is productive in proportion to the quantity of fern. After ascending the first low hills, I was a little disappointed by the uniform and unpicturesque appearance around me. A rather level or irregularly undulating country, in which extensive plains were more remarkable than hills--every where verdant, in many places wooded, and intersected by numerous streams of water--pleased by its supposed capabilities, though not by the picturesqueness of its appearance. From seeing the remains of forest, or rather irregular-looking woods, in a variety of situations--at the summits of hills, as well as in the hollows of vallies; and from the prevalence of fern instead of grass, I was led to think that the whole land had once been thickly wooded, but that the natives had cleared away the trees by burning.
We passed by a native village, around which were many acres of well cultivated ground, with maize and potatoes in a thriving state. They were planted in little heaps of earth (like mole-hills), at exact distances, laid out by line. For planting the sweet potato (cumera), a kind of yam (taro), or the lately introduced potato, a wooden stake is used as a substitute for a spade, in preparing the ground. The natives acknowledge themselves much indebted to the white men for pigs and potatoes; but they speak angrily of the ‘liquid fire’--and diseases which they brought. One old native also made a shrewd remark about certain seven-barrelled guns sent among them by some of our countrymen, even while others were preaching the gospel of peace, and trying to check their inclination to quarrel.
Abundance of the flax plant was growing on the low moist ground, and also on higher, apparently dry soil. I was told that the flax plant does not like a swamp, but thrives where the ground is rather moist. With leaves like those of an iris or large lily, whence the fibres are obtained which are ‘called’ flax, this plant has always been of great consequence to the natives. Those immense nets which are mentioned in the faithfully descriptive accounts of Cook, are made with the leaves split into long narrow shreds, not scraped or peeled. For the manufacture of smaller cordage and thread, the leaves are scraped by a shell, which removes the upper or green part and leaves the strong white fibres, that run longitudinally along the under side. With these fibres, in less or greater numbers, and twisted more or less, the New Zealand cordage has been made, which was so much liked at its first introduction, but is now said to be of a quality very inferior to that made with European, or even Chilian, hemp. The principal objection I have heard urged against the New Zealand rope is, that it does not endure frequent bending; not being sufficiently tenacious if used where its pliability is much tried. In sailor’s language, ‘it soon goes in the nip.’ Perhaps this objection might be removed by a peculiar mode of treating the plant, or by another way of seasoning and preparing the fibres. Very fine mats for clothing are made with these fibres, which, when properly prepared, are of a fine silky texture, extremely durable, and capable of withstanding a great deal of washing and wear. I have one by me which has been in constant use sixteen years, and frequently washed. This being the case with respect to the mats, how does it happen that rope made by white men, of the very same material, has not been found to answer? Surely, it can only be because the material has not been properly treated by those who are, perhaps, little acquainted with its nature, with the best season for cutting it, and with other peculiarities probably well known to the natives. Do not many of our own handicraftsmen make a mystery of their art, and, in consequence, are not the secrets of most trades hidden to those who have not learned them, and cannot read?
An open-sided house, or rather shed, standing apart from the little village, I was told was a chapel, which the natives had lately built of their own accord, and without telling the missionaries of their intention: when it was completed they applied to Mr. Williams for a teacher.
A very fine-looking native passed us, whose air and manner of carrying his gun reminded me of an Albanian’s. Every man now carries a gun or musket, who, a few years since, would have been armed with a war club, or patoo-patoo, and a mieri.[2]
So accessible is the country between Waimate and the Bay of Islands, that, except across a few small ravines, which require log bridges, a cart might travel easily; though there was at this time no road: water conveyance also is every where at hand, so intersected is the land by arms of the sea. Fresh water, in rivers, brooks, and springs, is plentiful, and never fails.
There is a rare and curious bird in New Zealand, which few persons have seen. It is shy, and seldom visible in the day-time: the natives are said to chase it by moonlight. It is of the bustard or emu kind, unable to fly, though provided with short wings; it is said to be more hairy than feathery, and about the size of a small emu.[3]
On rather a high plain, or very flat-topped hill, stands Waimate--the agricultural establishment of the Church Missionary Society. After so long an absence from every similar sight, and in New Zealand, the sudden appearance of three English houses, surrounded by outhouses, gardens, and cultivated fields, was striking and delightful; I looked at it as a fragment of Old England, small indeed, but apparently genuine. About twenty acres of land, judging only by eye, seemed to be cultivated. Corn was in full ear, and looked well. The buildings showed at a distance to greater advantage than on a nearer approach; because they are built in the form of gentlemen’s cottages, but entirely of wood, and were then unfinished. There were also nice gardens, which had evidently profited by much industrious care, and knowledge of gardening: my hasty survey was however stopped by the approach of a person, whose appearance and manner showed that he was an essential actor in this English scene; and whose intelligent, kind, and truly respectable demeanor was of that description which at once excites esteem and good-will. This was Mr. Davis, the superintendent of the farming establishment. He told me that Mr. Wm. Williams (the brother of Henry Williams) and Mr. Clarke, were gone to Hokianga, at the opposite side of the island, to attend the last hours of a young Wesleyan missionary.
I have hitherto spoken of missionaries in general terms, as if they formed a distinct and undivided class. That as a body they are distinct, in the scale of worldly divisions, is true; their self-devotion, their habits of life, peculiar education, and incessant anxiety, attach them to a class, of which the good, and therefore truly great Bishop Heber was one of the leading members. But of course they are separated, among themselves, by distinctions which are a natural result of more or less education and of early habits.
The Church Missionary Society have distinguished by the term ‘missionary’ only those educated, well-informed men who have taken holy orders, and they are styled ‘reverend.’ Those who are not in orders are termed ‘catechists.’ Without an idea of finding fault with the present conduct of any individual belonging to either of those two classes, it has occurred to others as well as to me, that a third class might be added advantageously, that of ‘visiting’ or ‘inspecting missionaries.’ A clergyman of Heber’s character, embarked on board a man of war, might advise and assist those who are now too much on an equality to give free advice to one another, or readily to see the small defects from which no human beings or institutions ever can be free.
Human nature, tried during a long course of years, has seldom steered a uniformly steady course; and may not slight defects, if unnoticed, increase into real blemishes? Difficulties have arisen in New Zealand, as well as in other parts of the Pacific, unnoticed by many people, because, till lately, they were but little felt. These difficulties particularly interfere with the missionaries, and if not remedied by timely measures, will lead to continual embarrassment.
To return from this digression. Near the houses a number of sheep were grazing: plenty of fowls, geese, and pigs; some cattle and horses; and several calves and colts, added to the comfortable, farm-like appearance. We accompanied Mr. Davis into his house for a few minutes, walked over the garden and farm, looked at the farm-yard, barn, and mill, and returned to dinner. The house was well constructed of wood; and though unfinished had a remarkably clean and neat appearance. The compact manner in which the walls were boarded or wainscotted struck me particularly, from being such a contrast to the manner in which a South American carpenter would have constructed a house of similar size. A little room, used by Mr. Davis, pleased me much; for, in addition to clever contrivances and good carpentry, it contained a collection of excellent books, and a frame on which an unfinished plan of the Society’s farm bore testimony to the nature of the in-door occupations of our host. I did not expect to see much indication of reading, certainly none of drawing, in a newly-built house, standing in the midst of a tract of New Zealand, which two years previously was covered with fern.
In the garden, European vegetables seemed to thrive, and the farm-yard was quite English; a large barn, built entirely by natives, under Mr. Davis’s direction; a blacksmith’s shop; carts and farming implements, successively engaged our attention. In the barn, a surprising work for the New Zealanders, two natives were thrashing, and a winnowing machine was attended by a third. The mill and mill-dam were well worth examination, as good works of their kind, independent of the interest occasioned by their locality. An embankment (made entirely by natives) had changed the upper part of a small valley into a large pond; and on the middle of the pond-head, or embankment, stood the mill.
A powerful water-wheel, equal to the performance of far more work than the mill required, seemed to be easily turned by only a part of the stream admitted through the mill-dam or sluice. In answer to a remark upon the surplus power, Mr. Davis said that the Society contemplated erecting a thrashing machine, and that Mr. Coates[4] had encouraged him to anticipate its arrival. A thrashing-machine might be worked easily, in addition to the mill, and yet there would be power to spare.[5] When embanking the pond, an unfortunate accident occurred, which almost stopped the work: one of the natives, incautiously digging under an overhanging mass of earth, was smothered by its sudden fall. Superstitious and easily excited, the natives abandoned their allotted tasks, and not without much difficulty could the missionaries induce them to resume their employment. When at last the mill was finished and in full operation, nothing could exceed the surprise and delight of the natives, especially those who had assisted in the work. They called it a ‘ship of the land.’ “Wonderful white men!” said they; “fire, water, earth, and air are made to work for them by their wisdom; while we can only command the labour of our own bodies!”
Many natives have visited Sydney; some have been round the world; and, of course, their ideas and descriptions have been imparted to their countrymen; but nothing, not even that, to a savage, awfully-mysterious object, a steam-vessel, has yet effaced their early-formed opinion, that a large ship of war is the greatest wonder of the world.
Returning from the mill, Mr. Davis showed me where Shunghi was buried. No monumental mark indicates the tabooed place in which the remains of the slaughter-loving cannibal were deposited; a few dark-leaved trees and some thickly-growing fern alone point out the spot.
While looking about, highly gratified by all we saw, we met Mr. W. Williams, who had just returned from his attendance upon the young Wesleyan before-mentioned. The sufferer had been released from painful illness by death.
A thriving young English oak, near Mr. Davis’s house, augured well; for where English oaks succeed, many other useful trees will certainly grow. Several younger saplings, just fit for transplanting, occupied a part of Mr. Williams’s well-stocked garden; and these interested me more than all the other plants and trees in the garden taken together. Englishmen one now meets every where; but a living, healthy, English oak was a sight too rare, near the Antipodes, to fail in exciting emotion.
I was much struck by the harmony and apparent happiness of those families whose cheerful hospitality I was enjoying. An air of honesty, and that evident tranquillity of mind which can only be the result of a clear conscience, offered a forcible contrast to the alleged gloom and selfishness of which some missionaries have been accused by those whose society was not, perhaps, even tolerable to them, because of their vicious habits and indulgences. It was also very gratifying to me to mark the lively interest taken by Mr. Williams, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Baker in every detail connected with the Fuegians, and our attempt to establish Richard Matthews in Tierra del Fuego. Again and again they recurred to the subject, and asked for more information; they would not hear of my calling the attempt ‘a failure.’ “It was the first step,” said they, “and similar in its result to our first step in New Zealand. We failed at first; but, by God’s blessing upon human exertions, we have at last succeeded far beyond our anticipations.” Their anxiety about the South American aborigines generally; about the places where missionaries might have a chance of doing good; and about the state of the islands in the Pacific Ocean, gave me a distinct idea of the prevalence of true missionary spirit.
In the minds of Mr. Williams and his brother I should have expected high and generalizing ideas, similar in a great degree to those of the ‘Apostle of the South’--the ‘heroic Marsden,’ as he has been most deservedly styled; but I was unprepared to find all the members of this missionary body anxious to hear about, and talk of Fuegians and other distant tribes of savages, rather than to draw attention to themselves, to their troubles, and ultimate success, or to their own interests.
At this interview it was fully decided that Richard Matthews should remain with his brother, a respectable young missionary mechanic, established at the northern end of the island, and lately married to Mr. Davis’s daughter. Among many subjects of conversation we discussed the dress of the natives; and Mr. Williams assented fully to the inconvenience of their present awkward mode, and expressed an intention of trying to introduce something like the poncho and ‘chilipã’[6] dress of South America. With sincere regret I took leave of the residents at Waimate. Instead of hours, I could have passed days with them, had other duties allowed of following my own inclination.
Riding across a valley close to Waimate, we passed some young horses of a good breed, though fitter for the saddle than for agricultural purposes. They were the produce of mares brought from Sydney. A picturesque wooden bridge, which had been thrown across the stream at the bottom of the valley, reminded me strongly of one well-known in England; and caused that rush of associated ideas sure to follow an unexpected meeting with the semblance of an object familiar in other days.
In a large wood I saw the noble cowrie (kauri) pine. The trunk of this gigantic offspring of New Zealand is in size and shape like an immense antique column. From the ground to the lower branches, more than ninety feet have been measured; and around the trunk, at a yard from the ground, more than forty feet; while thirty feet in circumference is not an uncommon size. But the upper portions are comparatively meagre, and utterly devoid of any of the beauties so remarkable in our English oaks, cedars, and firs. The woods of New Zealand have rather a naked appearance; for the branches seem inclined to grow upwards instead of spreading, or feathering.
Cantering along, across an open easy country, passable for wheel carriages, we soon approached Keri-keri. A deep ravine, into which a considerable stream falls over a precipice about a hundred feet in height, was pointed out to me as the limit of an arm of the sea which penetrates from the Bay of Islands. The waterfall is rather picturesque. Passing on over rounded hills covered with fern, I almost started at a thoroughly English scene suddenly exposed. In the valley beneath, a quiet little village; a church-like building of stone, with a clock on the tower; an English cutter at anchor, with her ensign flying, in the arm of the sea before-mentioned, close to the village; gardens full of flowers, surrounding the neatly-built and white-washed cottages; cattle grazing about the surrounding hills; and a whole school of little English children, hallooing and screaming to one another as they played in a field, quite transported me in imagination to the other side of the world. Recalled to the truth by our pedestrian companions asking us to stop for them, I enquired of Mr. Baker how long that respectable church had been built? and was disappointed to hear that the fancied church was a store-house. A small, low building, which he pointed out, was the chapel--it looked much more like a small school-house.
I was glad to see that our native companions took pains to dress themselves decently before they entered the village; as, while running along the road, they had carried their clothes in their hands; but of their own accord they put them on as soon as the houses were seen.
In the village of Keri-keri we found an English welcome, and an abundance of happy-looking, healthy children. Their parents seemed to bear the Church missionary character, open integrity, and the outward indications of a sincere wish to do that which is right. It may seem absurd to speak thus decidedly upon a hasty glance and first impression; but there is a talisman in a truly honest face, and a charm in the manner of one who ‘thinketh no evil,’ that to me is irresistible; and I have never yet found cause to think lightly of ‘ten minutes sight.’
At about ten o’clock, Mr. Baker and I embarked in my boat, to return to Paihia. As we passed down a river-like arm of the sea by moonlight, but little idea of the country on either side could be formed. What I could distinguish was undulating, and rather low land. We were four hours on the water, though the boat moved fast with a fair wind.
I was glad to learn from all quarters that the natives are very fond of the white children. Mr. Davis told me, that his sons could engage the attention and assistance of natives a great deal more easily than he could himself. Speaking the native language more fluently may assist the young people in their intercourse; but they are liked chiefly because born in the land, and because of the naturally kind disposition of the New Zealanders. Many instances have proved that they are kind by nature, and that their feelings are keenly sensitive, as well as very strong. But there are opposing feelings, each powerful, in the same individuals; and upon education, habit, and the accidents of moments, depend their development and the ascendancy which either may obtain.
On the following day (29th), Waripoaka visited the Beagle; he was accompanied by a mixed assemblage of men, women, children, pigs, dogs, and fowls, all in one large canoe. His own appearance, a spare figure and tattowed face, ill-dressed in a shabby old suit of European clothes; and the disorderly group in his train, formed an unfavourable outward contrast to the warlike array of a heathen New Zealand chief. Waripoaka seemed to be very intelligent and unassuming; perhaps his manner to white men was too humble. It did not agree with pre-conceived ideas of an independent, haughty New Zealander, to see bows and awkward grimaces (intended for good manners) made by a man whose eye and aspect at once precluded the idea of any approach to refined habits.
During our stay at New Zealand we heard much of the zealous activity of the officers of ‘La Favorite’--a French surveying ship--which had lately visited, and made a minute plan of the Bay of Islands. They must have examined every corner and ascended every hill, by the accounts we received; but neither natives nor English settlers seemed able to comprehend the principle which animated Captain La Place and the officers of La Favorite to take so much trouble in a foreign country for no good to themselves alone. I was able to explain this to some of them by instancing my own occupation on the shores of South America, and showing that nations acted upon grander principles than individuals. I was told that M. La Place had likewise examined, with much care, a considerable extent of the eastern sea-coasts of the northern large island (Eaheinomawe, or Yahinomaui).
The term Rangatira, Rangateeda, or Rangatida, has spread among all classes, excepting only the slaves, who are prisoners taken in war or their descendants. Every free Zealander now styles himself rangatira.
At Otaheite there is a very limited number of raatiras, as the secondary chiefs are there called; and each of those so styled is really a person possessing a considerable estate, and having influence over his neighbours. There can be little doubt that originally the words were alike; or rather there was but one word which expressed either ‘freeman’ or ‘privileged person;’ and that the first people of New Zealand were animated by the spirit of equality and apparent liberty, which is seen to prevail in most colonies. Is not this the natural spirit of an association of adventurers, whose objects are similar, whose origin, individually, as to birth and place in the parental society does not differ much--if it does, the difference is unnoticed when not upheld by accidental circumstances--and whose property is very similar?
Democratic, essentially democratic, is the present political state of the New Zealanders; and one cannot help pitying their short-sightedness in exposing themselves to the caprice and dissensions of the many who obtain temporary influence, and to the wars, harsh slavery--for in the heathen districts the life of a slave depends upon the caprice of his master--and dreadful consequences. But this shocking existence, so utterly repugnant to our ideas of happiness, excited and still excites the New Zealander to animal enjoyments, and a sort of pleasure resulting from the gratification of his horrible propensities, which is almost incomprehensible to us, however intelligible it may have been to our earlier ancestors. Do not let us entirely forget the painted savages who opposed Cæsar--or the sacrifices of the Druids!
Some of the Zealanders have amulets and other similar trifles hung around their necks. Small uncouth images, much like the Burmese or Chinese ‘josses,’ formed out of a very hard stone (‘jade’?), are so highly prized by them that they are, generally speaking, very reluctant to part with any. I got one from the daughter of Shunghi, but could not obtain a second, though she had several. I was told that they value them as hereditary relics, as well as supposed charms. Many nations, even at the present day, put faith in relics, some more especially in such as have a word or words upon them, which it is supposed the evil spirit would not like to see or to hear, and therefore would avoid. Particular figures and shapes also are considered to be disagreeable to the author of evil and his agents.[7] Surely the New Zealanders must have tried thus to frighten Satan by their hideous images, and by the uncouth, horrible faces which they delight in making. The little images, or amulets of jade, are formed in a similar fashion!
These small idols, or talismans, seem to me to have been cut into the rude likeness of an ape, or a ‘ribbed-nosed baboon.’[8] Yet, excepting the face, they resemble figures of Hindoo gods! What time and pains must have been bestowed in working such hard pieces of stone, unless indeed, a method of acting upon them by fire or chemistry was known: or that when first taken from the ground they were softer.[9]
Besides the use which the natives make of the flax for clothing by day, a mat, coarsely woven of its fibres, is tied at night, or while it rains, round the neck, and forms a sort of thatch, under which the owner squats upon his heels, and, at a little distance, looks very like a bee-hive. The rough tuft of coarse and curly black hair, which shows at the top of the conical roof, does not at all injure the resemblance; and in this manner a great number of the natives pass their nights, especially if there is the least chance of a surprise or attack from an enemy. I was told that they sleep as well in this way as if they were lying down, but I doubt it much, and think that only a part of the whole number at any place, keep watch, or remain ready in this manner, while others sleep lying down, though frequently in the open air. A more watchful way of resting could not well be devised.
30th. Unpleasant discussions, on the local discordances I have already mentioned, obliged me to delay sailing for some hours: but at last I escaped, happy to disentangle myself from a maze of disagreeable questions, in which it was not my proper business to interfere, though unavoidably I had become involved in them. By evening we had gained a good offing, and profited by it in the night, during a strong gale of wind from the eastward, with a lee current, setting to the north-west, about a knot an hour. When we sailed there was every appearance of a gale coming on, but all our necessary operations were completed, and to have stayed an hour longer in that place would have been far worse than passing some hours in a gale of wind at sea.
That the few notices here given of a small part of New Zealand are scanty and quite insufficient for those who seek general information, I am well aware: but the Beagle’s stay was very short, and I have made it a principle in this narrative to restrict myself to writing what I or my companions collected on the spot: admitting a few quotations from other authorities, only where they seemed to illustrate or explain a particular subject, without requiring much space. To those interested about this important and rising country, I need hardly mention the volume of evidence taken before the House of Lords, as the latest,--and Cook’s account as the earliest,--as well as best sources of information.
I will now endeavour to draw attention to a few of the difficulties against which missionaries have to contend, while anxiously labouring in their holy cause among Polynesian, Australian, and European infidels. It may be supposed that population and occasional intercourse had every where extended, even before the ever-memorable epoch, when the ‘Victory’ was steered by the daring Magalhaens across an unexplored ocean: but since that time, intercourse with Polynesia has so much increased, that the most interesting islanders--those of Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands--are already more civilized than the natives of some of the Spanish settlements in America.
The New Zealanders are improving; so likewise are the natives of many other islands, which have been visited by missionaries: but those islanders who have been altered only by the visits of whalers, sealers, and purveyors for Chinese epicures, have in no way profited. On the contrary, they have learned to show less respect to their own ordinances, and have been taught no others in stead. The most abandoned, profligate habits and ideas, have been encouraged by the latter classes of visitors. By their fire-arms, ammunition, and spirituous liquors,--exchanged every where for provisions, and for the gratification of their animal inclinations,--lamentable effects have been caused.
Some men-of-war have allowed an unrestrained intercourse with the natives, receiving them on board, and permitting them to remain, as is still usual among the whalers. Others have not admitted any on board, excepting visitors who were formally received, and did not remain. Such, for example, as the Queens of the Sandwich Isles or Otaheite, with their attendants. But although in that respect men-of-war may have to plead guilty, they are free from any charge of exciting mutual hostility between neighbours; of taking any part in hostilities which were being carried on between rival tribes at the times of their visits; or of acting in any manner which could be likely to lower Europeans in the estimation of the natives, or to excite a feeling of animosity against white men in general.
Stray, or rather escaped convicts, are the chief drawback. Unrestrained by any religious, or even mere moral principle, those abandoned men have done vast injury, but have frequently fallen victims to the just indignation of the provoked islanders, whose hospitality they abused. Convicts are seldom brave, but usually unprincipled, designing, and cunning; can one then wonder at the natives of some South Sea islands taking an aversion to white people, if their only acquaintance with them has been through such characters, transported to Australia for life, in consequence of felony: who have again, perhaps, been banished from Australia to the doubly penal settlement of ‘Norfolk Island;’ and have thence escaped to wander through those countries in which they have the strongest hope of avoiding apprehension.
It is little known, and difficult to estimate, how much anarchy, tumult, and destruction of human life have been prevented by the presence and active exertions of missionaries, during the last twenty years, in which French, Russian, American, and English intercourse with the Pacific, has so much increased. Under the colours of the United States, and of our own country, more than five hundred sail of vessels have been annually employed in the Pacific, during late years. To obtain refreshments and supplies, such as I have mentioned, only those islands on which there are white or native missionaries, are considered safe for single merchant ships. But even while profiting by the influence of the missionaries, and assisted by them in their intercourse with the natives, men who belong to those very ships hesitate not, in many instances (but not in all), to ridicule the means by which the missionary has gained his influence--to encourage immorality, and the use of ardent spirits, and to seek for faults in a system, as well as in the behaviour of individuals according to that system, because it has a tendency to limit the indulgence and expose the impropriety of their own unrestrained misconduct. If the opponents of missionaries could be prejudiced so far as to allow no other good character to have been earned by those hard-working men, they can never deny them that of peace-makers.
Many sailors have left their ships, and settled for life, upon various islands. Though generally immoral, some of these men have established a character among the islanders, so very different from that of the convicts, that persons who understand the native descriptions are seldom deceived in their estimation of a man who, they hear, has recently settled in any place.
Some of these seamen have astonished the New Zealanders, and even men of the Feejee Islands, by hardy courage in warlike enterprises. One, known by the name of Charles, has been already mentioned as having distinguished himself so much by his activity and daring in wars with other islanders, that he was treated as a chief of very high rank, and allowed to have a hundred wives: while the greatest chieftains had from fifty to a hundred and fifty, according to their rank. There are now said to be upon the southern large island or middle island of New Zealand, settlements supposed to be formed by some two or three hundred abandoned characters, European, Australian, and American. These outcasts, of whom a proportion are convicts, have established a sort of system amongst themselves, in order to regulate their intercourse with the natives. I was told that they were living with native women, and, at that time, cultivated the soil; but, what will be the consequence of such a colony, if left to their own devices in that distant corner of the world? Yet, again, where could outcasts, whose state of exile (if they may be supposed to have good feelings) would be as insupportable to themselves as pitiable in the minds of others--where could such unhappy wretches be placed more appropriately than at the Antipodes? They should, however, be frequently watched, to check any approach to piratical preparations, as well as to give timely notice of such an intention.
Settlements of a different character are elsewhere forming, and the establishments of individuals are increasing in North New Zealand, at Otaheite, and in the Sandwich Islands. Between these establishments, small vessels are always in motion: and not trifling is the trade in oil (cocoa-nut oil), arrow-root, and sugar, between Otaheite and Sydney: in flax, spars, potatoes, and whale-oil, between New Zealand and Sydney; in sandal-wood, bicho-do-mar, nut-oil, pearl-oyster-shells, and curiosities (such as native arms, implements, and clothing) between other islands, and Australia, Tasmania,[10] the East-Indies, China, and South America.
Thus surrounded by those who are engaged in a commerce annually increasing; unavoidably involved in local dissensions; referred to on all occasions as interpreters or as peace-makers; and I may say, as the consular agents of white men of all nations;[11] it argues very favourably for the missionaries that they have as yet upheld the character of their sacred office, though sneered at by nominal friends, censured by enemies, and always struggling against opposition. I have said that at the Sandwich Islands there is a consul; on those islands there are missionaries from the United States, but none from England. At Otaheite, also, there is now consular authority. At New Zealand there are two officers, holding the indefinite station of ‘Resident.’ One of these officers had a salary, but denied having any authority to act as a consular agent, or even as a magistrate. The other resident (who lived at Hokianga) was not in the receipt of any salary; his appointment having been given for the reasons stated in a letter from the Colonial Secretary at Sydney, dated 29th June 1835, of which a copy is inserted in the Appendix (No. 37), accompanied by extracts from an excellent letter addressed to Mr. Busby. (No. 38.)
Upon reading these statements, it will not be difficult to form an idea of some of the embarrassments of a secular nature, which perplex the missionaries, after having overcome all the primary dangers and difficulties of establishing themselves in savage--even cannibal countries. Although they are now able to assist their own countrymen, who have eagerly profited by their exertions,--settling in every direction upon those very lands to which access was obtained by their hardy, daring enthusiasm, and is preserved by the united efforts of the supporters of missionary societies, assisting and encouraging individual exertion,--their own strength is failing!
Embarrassments of many kinds are arising; one, jealousy of that influence which has enabled even those who are jealous to approach the spot upon which they now stand, and oppose the missionary as he exerts himself to suppress licentious habits and the use of ardent spirits. While assisting their early settlement, the missionaries were the best friends of those adventurers who sought a livelihood among the islands of the Pacific--in New Zealand especially. But when once established, ingratitude and utter want of reflection became too prevalent among the worst sort of settlers, whose only occupations were those of publicans and especial sinners. The few respectable settlers--men of character and property--such as Mr. Clendon and Mr. Mair at New Zealand, Mr. Bicknell and Mr. Henry (junior) at Otaheite, have acted--I rejoice to say--in the most honourable and praiseworthy manner. Their conduct deserves unanimous applause. To many it appears, that the respectable support and steady countenance of these upholders of the real character of Britons have, in a quiet, unpretending manner, much assisted the progress of the missionaries, and the spread of incipient civilization which must accompany the sacred truths of the gospel. If a few such men had not appeared upon that side of the world, how low might the character of Englishmen have fallen there. A few isolated missionaries would have been always opposed by numerous reprobates.
By such men as those who are jealous of the influence of the missionaries, an outcry has been raised against their “attempts to monopolize the lands.” Said those men, “Why should a missionary be allowed to purchase so much land as to prevent people who come afterwards from obtaining an eligible piece of ground near a frequented port?” “Why should Mr. ---- be allowed to try to prevent Waripoaka and his tribe from selling me that piece of ground, because he thinks that I shall sell spirits, or build a public-house? Have not the missionaries already monopolized the best land in the finest situations?”
In answer to this, lest the reader should think that the missionaries have been covetous, and have taken undue advantage of their influence (gained, it ought to be remembered, at the imminent risk of life, and when no ordinary men dared to stop in the land), I will explain--that a large extent of land in New Zealand was long ago purchased by the missionaries, on behalf of the Church Missionary Society: and that many of the outcriers supposed that land to be the private property of individuals. And I will ask for attention to the too little considered fact, that these unjustly blamed individuals have (by their engagements) divided that tie which once held them to a country whose inestimable value can only be fully felt by those who have long been wanderers in other lands. New Zealand, or Otaheite, or a less known island, is now their home; and there are around them a host of little children whose smiling healthy looks would interest even strangers in their behalf, whose country is that adopted by their parents, and to whom every good father would anxiously desire to leave a sufficient maintenance, such as his own honourable exertions could procure. Shall the missionaries be debarred from providing in a proper manner for the future welfare of their own children? If a missionary and a more recent settler are each in treaty for a particular piece of ground, and the former obtains it upon easier terms than the latter, is it not a natural consequence of the good-will entertained towards him by the natives; many of whom understand and appreciate his motives, and are themselves very fond of the little white children, considering them as belonging to their country? The missionaries have bought land, as opportunities offered; and they, of course, from their residence upon the spot, have had better opportunities than occasional visitors or late settlers.[12]
If anathemas, indulgences, or excommunications were in vogue among British missionaries, one might have a suspicion of undue influence; but as such engines of spiritual, or indeed temporal power, have not, as yet, travelled out of the coral circle of the Gambier islands, I think we need not impugn the characters of highly religious men, by puzzling ourselves to learn how protestant ministers--unassisted by artifice, supported by no temporal power, except that of public opinion, excited by their own good conduct--could have obtained so great an influence over tribes of New Zealanders, as to induce them to part with their paternal lands upon terms which the natives thought unfavourable, or less advantageous than those offered by other persons.
In opposition to such an idea as that of their eagerly grasping at territory, and using undue means to procure it, I know with certainty, that the Rev. Henry Williams, and his brother William, exerted all their real influence--that of advice--in pointing out the consequences which would result to some tribes who were inclined to part hastily with extensive tracts of valuable pine forests. The real value of those trees was explained to the natives; and they were shown distinctly how a careful management of such stores of spars would ensure a future property, and sufficient maintenance for the native children who would otherwise be deprived of their birthright. Did this show a desire to monopolize?
But I must hasten to a conclusion of the subject. When authorized agents of European or American governments assume active functions in New Zealand (where at present they are little more than cyphers), I hope they will have the good sense to ask for advice from the missionaries; who, no doubt, will duly remember, that, however they may have been called upon to act during emergencies, the duties of their office are, or ought to be, separated as much as possible from affairs of a secular nature. Neither in politics, nor in any kind of hostilities or dissensions, ought they to take a part, excepting as peace-makers, if an officer or authorized executive agent of government is within their reach.
* * * * *
Among many omissions which I am obliged to make in the subsequent chapter, are the following:--On the 7th of January, while more than two hundred miles from any known land, we saw a boatswain-bird and two white tern. To those who are interested about the distances to which birds fly from land, this remark may be worth notice: as some persons say that tern never fly far.
* * * * *
Mr. Chaffers obtained the jaw of a huge blue shark, at Hobart Town, which had been killed by the boat’s crew of Mr. James Kelly’s whaling vessel. The extreme length of the monster was thirty-seven feet. Its jaw is now in the United Service Museum.
* * * * *
About Van Diemen’s Land, the barometer ranged higher than I had witnessed in the southern hemisphere.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] A few horses had been brought over from Sydney.
[2] Or mearee (spear).
[3] This bird (Apteryx Australis) has lately been described by naturalists, therefore I say no more about it.
[4] Secretary to the Church Missionary Society.
[5] The Church Missionary Society have sent out the thrashing machine, and probably it is now in full operation.
[6] The chilipã is a kind of loose breeches.
[7] Mosheim, in his edition of Cudworth’s Intellectual System.--Encyc. Brit.
[8] The mandril, of Buffon. Apes were worshipped in India.--Ibid.
[9] It is still a matter of conjecture how the Peruvians worked in the very hard stone of which some of their ornaments were made.
[10] Van Diemen’s Land.
[11] At Otaheite and Owyhee excepted.
[12] After a purchase of land has been made by a settler (or immigrant, as the colonists say), he is considered to be under the protection of the chief of the tribe from whom the purchase was effected.
Chapter XXVI
North Cape of New Zealand--Superstitions--Cook’s great Lizard --Traditions--Currents--Thermometer--Sydney--Dr. Darwin--Drought --Aqueduct--Position--Disadvantages--Ill-acquired wealth of Convicts, or Emancipists--Hobart Town--Advantages of Van Diemen’s Land--King George Sound--Natives--Dance--Keeling Islands--Tides --Soundings--Coral formations--Malays--Fish--Weather--Mauritius --Cape of Good Hope--St. Helena--Ascension--Bahia--Pernambuco --Cape Verde Islands--Azores--Arrive in England.
On the last day of this year (1835) we passed the north cape of New Zealand, and steered for Port Jackson. It has been said that the New Zealanders entertain vague ideas about the spirits of their dead hovering near this north cape. I had no opportunity of inquiring into this superstition, but as other authorities besides Cook mention it, no doubt there is some such belief among those who have not acquired different notions from foreigners. To my mind it is interesting in two points of view; one, as showing their belief in a future state of existence; and the other, as indicating the quarter whence New Zealand was first peopled; for it appears to be an impression common to many savage nations, that their souls should go to the land of their ancestors. This is particularly remarkable among the South American aborigines. It is not easy to imagine any motive for the New Zealanders supposing that spirits hover about the North Cape, in preference to any other promontory of New Zealand, unless in connexion with the idea that from the point nearest to the country whence those people formerly migrated, the souls of the deceased would, after a time perhaps, depart to their permanent abode.
In taking leave of this interesting country I will refer to Cook once more, for a curious notice, given in his third voyage, respecting great lizards in New Zealand, which have not, so far as I am aware, been lately described, or even met with. ‘Taweiharooa’ gave an account of snakes and lizards of an enormous size: “he describes the latter as being eight feet in length, and as big round as a man’s body. He said that they sometimes seize and devour men; that they burrow in the ground; and that they are killed by making fires at the mouths of the holes. We could not be mistaken as to the animal; for, with his own hand, he drew a very good representation of a lizard on a piece of paper; as also of a snake, in order to show what he meant.”--(Cook’s third Voyage, chap. VII.) Perhaps this huge kind of lizard has become extinct; but it is possible that it yet exists on the southern (or middle) island. In its burrowing we are reminded of the great lizard, or iguana, of the Galapagos Islands; but the assertion that it sometimes seizes men seems to refer to an alligator, or crocodile. Cook heard of it shortly after leaving Queen Charlotte Sound, from a native of the southern large island.[1] If such a reptile ever existed upon the northern island it must have been exterminated by the earliest aboriginal settlers, as they have now no tradition of any animals except dogs, pigs, rats, mice, and small lizards. Pigs and dogs, say the natives, were brought from the north, in canoes.
On New Year’s day, while in sight of the islets called Three Kings, we passed through several tide ‘races,’ one of which was rather ‘heavy,’ and would have been impassable for a boat. These races moved towards the north while we could trace their progress. The temperature of the water fell six degrees after passing through the principal one. Next day, at noon, we found that during the past twenty-four hours we had been set as many miles southward (S.S.E.), and hence I am inclined to infer that we were influenced by regular tide-streams, rather than by currents setting always in one direction. To the succeeding day at noon (3d) we were set only seven miles, by the water, and that due east. Afterwards, in our passage to Port Jackson, we had alternately northerly and south-easterly currents of about ten miles a day, and it was easy to tell which current we were in, by the temperature of the sea:--while the stream set from the north, the water thermometer showed about 72°; but when the current was running from the southward, the temperature of the ocean, a foot below, as well as at, the surface,[2] was only 67°. I ought to have remarked elsewhere, if I have not already done so, that the thermometer may be used at sea to detect and trace currents; but little, if any, confidence can be placed in its indications as a guide to the approach of land. Icebergs may indeed affect it, but they will affect the temperature of the air probably sooner than that of the ocean.
Near midnight, on the 11th, we saw the red, revolving light of Sydney Light-house, and next day entered Port Jackson, and anchored in Sydney Cove. Much as I had heard of the progress and importance of this place, my astonishment was indeed great, when I saw a well-built city covering the country near the port. Not many days previously I had been reading the account of Governor Phillip’s voyage to Botany Bay in 1787-8, and little did I think that, in forty-eight years from the first discovery of Port Jackson, a city, upon a large scale, could have arisen out of a wilderness so near our antipodes. In the account just mentioned it is stated that “from a piece of clay imported from Sydney Cove, Mr. Wedgwood caused a medallion to be modelled, representing Hope, encouraging Art and Labour, under the influence of Peace, to pursue the means of giving security and happiness to the infant settlement. The following lines, in allusion to this medallion, were written by Dr. Darwin.”
“Where Sydney Cove her lucid bosom swells, Courts her young navies and the storm repels, High on a rock, amid the troubled air, Hope stood sublime, and wav’d her golden hair; Calm’d with her rosy smile the tossing deep, And with sweet accents charm’d the winds to sleep; To each wild plain, she stretch’d her snowy hand, High-waving wood, and sea-encircled strand. ‘Hear me,’ she cried, ‘ye rising realms! record Time’s opening scenes, and Truth’s unerring word.-- There shall broad streets their stately walls extend, The circus widen, and the crescent bend; There ray’d from cities o’er the cultur’d land, Shall bright canals, and solid roads expand.-- There the proud arch, Colossus-like, bestride Yon glittering streams, and bound the chasing tide; Embellish’d villas crown the landscape scene, Farms wave with gold, and orchards blush between.-- There shall tall spires, and dome-capt towers ascend, And piers and quays their massy structures blend; While with each breeze approaching vessels glide, And northern treasures dance on every tide!’ Here ceased the nymph--tumultuous echoes roar, And Joy’s loud voice was heard from shore to shore-- Her graceful steps descending press’d the plain; And Peace, and Art, and Labour, join’d her train.”
When I was at Sydney in 1836, all that was foretold in this allegory had come to pass, with one exception only, that of canals. It was always a country comparatively dry; and unfortunately the more wood is cleared away, the drier both climate and soil become, therefore it is unlikely that canals should ever be made there. This want of fresh water is the only drawback to the future prosperity of this mushroom city; which is now dependent upon a supply brought through iron pipes from a distance of several leagues. Mr. Busby, father of the resident at New Zealand, was the projector and executor of this aqueduct, but,--like many other really valuable things,--his useful work as ably planned as it was perseveringly carried on against uncommon difficulties, is but little appreciated, even by those who daily drink the pure water which it supplies.
It is difficult to believe that Sydney will continue to flourish in proportion to its rise. It has sprung into existence too suddenly. Convicts have forced its growth, even as a hot-bed forces plants, and premature decay may be expected from such early maturity. Other rising colonies have advantages in point of situation and climate, which the country about Sydney does not possess; and if our government establishment should be withdrawn, from that day the decline of the city would commence, because its natural advantages are not sufficient to enable it to compete with other places in those regions, excepting while fostered by the presence of regularly paid government officers, troops, and a large convict establishment.
There must be great difficulty in bringing up a family well in that country, in consequence of the demoralizing influence of convict servants, to which almost all children must be more or less exposed. Besides, literature is at a low ebb: most people are anxious about active farming, or commercial pursuits, which leave little leisure for reflection, or for reading more than those fritterers of the mind--daily newspapers and ephemeral trash. It was quite remarkable to see how few booksellers’ shops there were in Sydney, and what a low class of books--with some exceptions--was to be found in them. These few exceptions were the works usually called ‘standard,’ which some persons who buy books, for show as furniture, rather than for real use, think it necessary to purchase. Another evil in the social system of Sydney and its vicinity, is the rancorous feeling which exists between the descendants of free settlers and the children of convicts. Fatal, indeed, would it be to the former, if the arm of power were removed; for their high principles and good feelings would be no match for the wiles and atrocities of such abandoned outcasts as are there congregrated, and almost rejoice in their iniquity. Money is gained by such people by any and every means, save those of honest industry. By selling spirits, frequently drugged--by theft--by receiving and selling stolen goods--by the wages of iniquity--and by exorbitant usury--fortunes have been amassed there in a few years which would make an honest man’s hair stand on end. But do such men enjoy their wealth? Does it benefit them or their children? No. Their life is a miserable scene of anxiety, care, fear, and generally penuriousness; they die without a friend and without hope.
The Beagle sailed from Sydney on the 30th, and anchored off Hobart Town (or Hobarton) on the 5th of February. The change of scene was as striking as a view of Gibraltar or Madeira after leaving the Downs. Comparatively speaking, near Sydney all was light-coloured and level; while in Van Diemen’s Land we almost thought ourselves in another Tierra del Fuego. But this was only a first impression, on a blustering wet day. Fields of ripe corn, dotted, as it were, about the hilly woodlands, told us that the climate must generally be favourable; and the number of red brick cottages, thickly scattered about, though apparently at random, proved an extent of population incompatible with an unproductive place.
During a few days’ stay in Sullivan Cove, the chief anchorage, we had opportunities of going to some distance into the country, and seeing things which led me to think that there is a more solid foundation for future prosperity in Van Diemen’s Land than can be found near Sydney. Natural advantages are greater; and likely to increase as the country is cleared and inhabited--because rain is now almost too plentiful, though corn ripens well and is of excellent quality. As a convict colony, it of course partakes of the evils I have mentioned; but it does so in a far less degree, partly because the convicts sent there were of a less profligate and more reclaimable class than those landed at Sydney, and partly because an excellent local government restrained the licentious, and encouraged the moral to a far greater extent than was, or perhaps could be effected among the more numerous and dispersed population of Sydney and its environs.
On the 17th, we sailed out of the picturesque Derwent, an arm of the sea extending inland many miles beyond Hobart Town, and thence worked our way southward round the Land of Van Diemen. We then steered westward, or as much so as the contrary winds would admit, until we made the land off King George Sound on the 6th of March; and a few hours afterwards moored in the principal anchorage, called Princess Royal Harbour; a wide but shallow place, with a very narrow entrance. The country round King George Sound has a dull, uniform aspect; there are no mountains or rivers;[3] few trees are visible; white, sandy patches; scrubby bushes; bare masses of granite; and a slightly undulating outline meet and disappoint the eye of a stranger.
A few straggling houses, ill-placed in an exposed, cheerless situation, were seen by us as we entered the harbour; and had inclination been our guide, instead of duty, I certainly should have felt much disposed to ‘put the helm up,’ and make all sail away from such an uninviting place.
Next day, however, we found that appearances were worse than the reality; for behind a hill, which separates the harbour from the sound, a thick wood was discovered, where there were many trees of considerable size; and in the midst of this wood I found Sir Richard Spencer’s house, much resembling a small but comfortable farm-house in England. This sort of isolated residence has a charm for some minds; but the loss of society, the numerous privations, and the vastly retrograde step necessarily taken in civilized existence by emigrating to perfectly new countries, are I think stronger objections to the plan than usually occur to persons who have not seen its consequences in actual operation.
At this time there were about thirty houses, or cottages, in the neighbourhood of the sound and harbour; some had small gardens; but, generally speaking, there was no appearance of agriculture, excepting immediately around Sir Richard’s house, where a few fields had been cleared and cultivated in the midst of the wood.
There is an extraordinary degree of local magnetic attraction about this place. We could not ascertain the amount of variation with any degree of accuracy until our compasses were placed upon a sandy beach of considerable extent, near the sea. Wherever there was stone (a kind of granite) near the instruments, they were so much affected as to vary many degrees from the truth, and quite irregularly: those on board were not influenced, at least not more than a degree. We were also perplexed by the irregular and peculiar tides; but as they are mentioned elsewhere, I will refrain from farther remark on them here.
We had a good opportunity of seeing several of the aborigines; for not only were there unusual numbers of neighbouring natives then about the settlement, but a strange tribe, called ‘Cocotu,’ had lately arrived from a distance, and as the residents wished to conciliate them, a ‘corobbery’ was proposed, and Mr. Darwin ensured the compliance of all the savages by providing an immense mess of boiled rice, with sugar, for their entertainment.
About two hours after dark the affair began. Nearly all the settlers, and their visitors, had assembled on a level place just outside the village, while the native men belonging to both tribes were painting, or rather daubing and spotting their soot-coloured bodies with a white pigment, as they clustered round blazing fires. When all was ready--the fires burning brightly--the gloom at a little distance intense, by contrast, and the spectators collected together--a heavy tramp shook the ground, and a hundred prancing demon-like figures emerged from the darkness, brandishing their weapons, stamping together in exact accordance, and making hoarse guttural sounds at each exertion. It was a fiendish sight, almost too disagreeable to be interesting. What pains savage man takes--in all parts of the world where he is found--to degrade his nature; that beautiful combination which is capable of so much intelligence and noble exertion when civilized and educated. While watching the vagaries of these performers, I could not but think of our imprudence in putting ourselves so completely into their power: about thirty unarmed men being intermixed with a hundred armed natives. The dancers were all men; a short kangaroo-skin cloak was thrown about their hips, and white feathers were stuck round their heads: many were not painted, but those who were had similar figures on their breasts; some a cross, others something like a heart. Many had spears, and all had the ‘throwing-stick’; and a kind of hatchet,[4] in a girdle round the waist. Much of the dancing was monotonous enough, after the first appearance, reminding me of persons working in a treadmill; but their imitation of snakes, and kangaroos, in a kind of hunting dance, was exceedingly good and interesting. The whole exhibition lasted more than an hour, during most of which time upwards of a hundred savages were exerting themselves in jumping and stamping as if their lives depended on their energetic movements. There was a boy who appeared to be idiotic, or afflicted with a kind of fit; but the man who was holding him seemed to be quite unconcerned about his convulsive efforts, saying, “by and bye he would be a doctor” (as I was told by a resident who understood the language), which reminded me of what Falkner says of the Patagonians.[5] After the corobbery the natives collected round the house where the feast was preparing; and it will not be easy to forget the screams of delight that burst from old and young as they looked in at the door and saw the tub in which their rice was smoking. Before the food was distributed they were told to sit down, which they immediately did, in a circle round the house. They separated, of their own accord, into families, each little party lighting a small fire before them. Their behaviour, and patience, were very remarkable and pleasing. One family had a native dog, which in size, colour, and shape, was like a fox, excepting that the nose was not quite so sharp, nor the tail so bushy.
Most of the aborigines had rather good countenances, and well-formed heads, as compared with those about Sydney, or in Van Diemen’s land. The lathy thinness of their persons, which seemed totally destitute of fat, and almost without flesh, is very remarkable. I have since seen some drawings of South African aborigines, executed under the critical eye of Doctor Andrew Smith, by the correct hand of Mr. Charles Bell, which are so like the natives who live near King George Sound in colour, as well as countenance, and extraordinary shape, that they might be taken for full-length portraits of the latter instead of Africans.
Many of these natives have features smaller and less marked than are usual among savages; but their foreheads are higher and more full: they are not tall, few exceeding five feet eight inches in height: and the women are wretched objects. Some of the men had pieces of bone stuck through the cartilage of the nose, which, I heard, was to prevent their being killed by another tribe, who were seeking to revenge the death of one of their own party. I was told also, that when any death occurs in one tribe, the first individual of another that is encountered is sacrificed by the bereaved party, if strong enough; but I suspect my informant confused revenge for manslaughter with the strange story--that for every death in one tribe, however caused, a life must be taken from another. Should it be true, however, the scarcity of aboriginal population would have an explanation in addition to those which various writers have given. These natives bury their dead in a short grave; the body being laid on its side, with the knees drawn up to the chin.
During our stay at this place we caught plenty of fish, of twenty different kinds, with a seine; yet with such an abundant supply close at hand, the settlers were living principally on salt provisions.
Before quitting King George Sound I must add my slight testimony to the skill and accuracy with which Flinders laid down and described those parts of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land that I have seen. His accounts also of wind, weather, climate, currents, and tides, are excellent; and there are other points of information in his large work, useful to many, but especially to seamen, which would be well worth separating from the technicalities among which they are almost lost in the present cumbersome volumes.
March 13th. We sailed, and advanced towards Cape Leuwin, but it was the 18th before our little ship was sufficiently far westward of that promontory to steer for my next object, the Keeling Islands.
From the 27th to the 30th we had a severe gale of wind, when near the situation of those remote isles, and on the 31st were in much doubt whether they lay eastward or to the west of us. There was most reason to induce me to steer eastward--indeed I was about to give orders to that effect just as the sun was setting, (no land being seen from the mast-head, though the horizon was clear)--when a number of gannets flew past the ship towards the west. We steered directly after them, and early next morning (after making but little way during a fine night) saw the Keelings right ahead, about sixteen miles distant.
A long but broken line of cocoa-palm trees, and a heavy surf breaking upon a low white beach, nowhere rising many feet above the foaming water, was all we could discern till within five miles of the larger Keeling, (there are two distinct groups) and then we made out a number of low islets, nowhere more than thirty feet above the sea, covered with palm-trees, and encircling a large shallow lagoon.
We picked our way into Port Refuge (the only harbour), passing cautiously between patches of coral rock, clearly visible to an eye at the mast-head, and anchored in a safe, though not the best berth. An Englishman (Mr. Leisk) came on board, and, guided by him, we moved into a small but secure cove close to Direction Island.
Many reasons had induced me to select this group of coral islets for such an examination as our time and means would admit of; and, as the tides were to be an object of especial attention in a spot so favourably situated for observing them, a tide-guage was immediately placed. Its construction was then new, and, being found to answer, I will describe it briefly. Two poles were fixed upright, one on shore (above high water mark, and sheltered from wind), the other in the sea beyond the surf at low water. A block was fastened to the top of each pole, and a piece of well-stretched log-line ‘rove’ through them.[6] One end of the line was attached to a board that floated on the water; the other suspended a leaden weight, which traversed up and down the pole, on shore, as the float fell or rose with the tide. Simple as this contrivance was, and useful as we should have found it in many places where the surf or swell made it difficult to measure tides at night, without using a boat, I never thought of it till after we left King George Sound.
Until the 12th every one was actively occupied; our boats were sent in all directions, though there was so much wind almost each day as materially to impede surveying. Soundings on the seaward sides of the islands could seldom be obtained; but two moderate days were eagerly taken advantage of to go round the whole group in a boat, and get the few deep soundings which are given in the plan.[7] The two principal islands (considering the whole southern group as one island,) lie north and south of each other, fifteen miles apart; and as soundings were obtained two miles north of the large island, it may be inferred, I think, that the sea is not so deep between the two as it is in other directions. Only a mile from the southern extreme of the South Keeling, I could get no bottom with more than a thousand fathoms of line.
The southern cluster of islets encircle a shallow lagoon, of an oval form, about nine miles long, and six wide. The islets are mere skeletons--little better than coral reefs, on which broken coral and dust have been driven by sea and wind till enough has been accumulated to afford place and nourishment for thousands of cocoa-palms. The outer edges of the islands are considerably higher than the inner, but nowhere exceed about thirty feet above the mean level of the sea. The lagoon is shallow, almost filled with branching corals and coral sand. The small northern island is about a mile in diameter; a strip of low coral land, almost surrounding a small lagoon, and thickly covered with cocoa-nut trees.
These lonely islands (also called Cocos,) were discovered in 1608-9 by Captain William Keeling, who was in the East India Company’s service, and held a commission from King James I.[8] Little or no notice was taken of them from that time till 1823, when one Alexander Hare, a British subject, established himself and a small party of Malays, upon the Southern Keeling Island, which he thought a favourable place for commerce, and for maintaining a seraglio of Malay women, whom he confined to one island,--almost to one house.
In 1826, or within a year of that time, Mr. J. C. Ross, some time master of a merchant ship, took up his abode on the south-eastern islet of the group; and in a very short time Hare’s Malay slaves, aggrieved by his harsh treatment of them, especially by his taking away the women, and shutting them up on an island which the Malay men might not approach, deserted in a body, and claimed protection from Mr. Ross. Hare then left the Keelings, and about a year afterwards was arrested in his lawless career by death, while establishing another harem at Batavia.
From that time Mr. Ross and the Malays lived peaceably, collecting cocoa-nut oil, turtle, tortoise-shell, and bicho do mar; and occasionally sailing to the Mauritius, Singapore, or Batavia, to dispose of them, and buy necessaries with their produce. Another Englishman, Mr. C. Leisk, who had served as mate of Mr. Ross’s ship, lived with him, and they both had wives (English) and children, the whole party residing together in a large house of Malay build--just such a structure as one sees represented upon old japanned work. At the time of our visit Mr. Ross was absent on one of their trading excursions, and his deputy, Leisk, was left in charge of everything.
By some strange misconception, not intentional act of injustice, Mr. Ross had refused to give Hare’s slaves their freedom, for fear that the executors of that man should demand their value from him; but he paid them each two rupees a week, in goods (at his own valuation), provided that they worked for him, both men and women, as he thought proper. Mr. Leisk told me this, and said that “many of the Malays were very discontented, and wanted to leave the island.” “No wonder,” thought I, “for they are still slaves, and only less ill used than they were by the man who purchased them.”
These Malays were allowed to rear poultry, which they sometimes sold to shipping. They were also allowed to have the produce of a certain number of cocoa-nut trees, and might catch fish and turtle for their own use; but the sale of turtle to shipping, when they touched there, and the immense crops of cocoa-nuts which are produced annually on all the islets of the group were monopolized by Mr. Ross for his sole advantage. One daily task imposed upon the Malay women was to “husk” a hundred nuts, collected for them by the men, who extract a gallon of oil from every ten.
Another kind of oil, said to be very good, is derived from the fat tail of a large land-crab, which feeds on cocoa-nuts. About a pint and a half may be obtained from one crab. The manner in which these creatures--nearly the size of a large cray-fish--tap the nuts in order to get at their contents is curious. Numbers of windfall nuts, in a comparatively soft state, are always to be found lying about under the trees: a crab seizes one of these, and pegs away at the eyes (each nut has three eyes) with one of its claws, that is long and sharp, purposely, it would seem, until it opens a hole, through which the crab extracts the juice, and some of the solid part.
The manner of ascending tall palm-trees is similar to that described at Otaheite, and requires strength as well as agility: both which are also shown by these Malays in their chases after turtle among the shallows and coral ‘thickets’ of the lagoon, where they abound. A party of men go in a light boat and look for a fine turtle in some shallow place. Directly one is seen, they give chase in the boat, endeavouring to keep it in a shallow, and tolerably clear place, till it begins to be tired by its exertions to escape then, watching a favourable moment, a man jumps out of the boat and seizes the turtle. Away it darts, with the man on its back grasping its neck until he can get an opportunity, by touching ground with his feet, to turn it over, and secure his prize. Only the more active men can succeed well in this sort of fishing.
Other unusual things were seen by us at this place, one or two of which I will mention. There are fish that live by feeding upon small branches of the coral, which grows in such profusion in the lagoon. One species of these fish is about two feet and a half long, of a beautiful green colour about the head and tail, with a hump on its head, and a bony kind of mouth, almost like that of a turtle, within which are two rows of saw-like teeth.--Mr. Stokes saw a dog, (bred on the island), catch three such fish in the course of a few hours by chasing them in shallow water, springing after them, almost as a kangaroo springs on land. Sometimes one would take shelter under a rock, when the dog would drive it out with his paw, and seize it with his mouth as it bolted.
Among the great variety of corals forming the walls around the immediately visible basement, and the under-water forests of the Keeling islands, there is more difference than between a lily of the valley and a gnarled oak. Some are fragile and delicate, of various colours, and just like vegetables to the eye, others are of a solid description, like petrified tropical plants; but all these grow within the outer reef, and chiefly in the lagoons.[9]
The wall, or outer reef, about which so much has been said and thought, by able men, without their having arrived at any definite conclusion, is solid and rock-like, with a smooth surface; and where the surf is most violent, there the coral is fullest of animated matter. I was anxious to ascertain if possible, to what depth the living coral extended, but my efforts were almost in vain, on account of a surf always violent, and because the outer wall is so solid that I could not detach pieces from it lower down than five fathoms. Small anchors, hooks, grappling irons, and chains were all tried--and one after another broken by the swell almost as soon as we ‘hove a strain’ upon them with a ‘purchase’ in our largest boats. Judging however, from impressions made upon a large lead, the end of which was widened, and covered with tallow hardened with lime, and from such small fragments as we could raise, I concluded that the coral was not alive at a depth exceeding seven fathoms below low water. But this subject has been, or will be, fully discussed by Mr. Darwin, therefore I need say no more.
As if in speaking of these singular, though so small islands,--where crabs eat cocoa-nuts, fish eat coral, dogs catch fish, men ride on turtle, and shells are dangerous man-traps,[10]--any thing more were necessary to ensure the voyager’s being treated like the old woman’s son who talked to her about flying-fish,--it must yet be said that the greater part of the sea-fowl roost on branches, and that many rats make their nests at the top of high palm-trees.
Except sea-fowl and the domestic creatures[11] which have accompanied man to the Keelings, there is no bird or animal; but a kind of land-rail, which is numerous. Besides the palm there are upon the largest islets other trees, particularly a kind of teak, and some less valuable wood, from which a vessel was built.
Fresh water is not scarce on the larger islets of the group, but it is only to be got by digging wells in the coral foundation, covered as it is by vegetation. In these wells, about six feet deep, the water rises and falls as the tide of the ocean flows and ebbs; which I believe to be the case at most other coral islands where there is fresh water. It appears that the fresh water of heavy rains is held in the loose soil, (a mixture of coral, sand, and decayed vegetable substances,) and does not mix with the salt water which surrounds it, except at the edges of the land. The flowing tide pushes on every side, the mixed soil being very porous, and causes the fresh water to rise: when the tide falls the fresh water sinks also. A sponge full of fresh water placed gently in a basin of salt water, will not part with its contents for a length of time if left untouched. The water in the middle of the sponge will be found untainted by salt for many days; perhaps much longer, if tried.
A word about the inhabitants, and I leave the Keelings. No material difference was detected by me between the Malays on these islands, and the natives of Otaheite or New Zealand. I do not mean to assert that there were not numbers of men at each of those islands to whom I could not trace resemblances (setting individual features aside,) at the Keelings; I merely say that there was not one individual among the two hundred Malays I saw there whom I could have distinguished from a Polynesian Islander, had I seen him in the Pacific.
Two boys attracted my notice particularly, because their colour was of a brighter red[12] than that of any South American or Polynesian whom I had seen, and upon enquiry I found that these two boys were sons of Alexander Hare and a Malay woman.
Excepting the two English families I have mentioned, all on the Keelings in 1836, were Mahometans. One of their number officiated as priest; but exclusive of an extreme dislike to pigs, they showed little outward attention to his injunctions. As no Christian minister had ever visited the place, and there was no immediate prospect of one coming there, I was asked to baptize the children of Mrs. Leisk. So unusual a demand occasioned some scruples on my part, but at last I complied, and performed the appointed service in Mr. Ross’s house; where six children of various ages were christened in succession. This and other facts I have mentioned respecting these sequestered islands shew the necessity that exists for some inspecting influence being exercised at every place where British subjects are settled. A visit from a man-of-war, even once only in a year, is sufficient (merely in prospect) to keep bad characters in tolerable check, and would make known at head quarters the more urgent wants of the settlers.
In observing the sun’s meridian altitude at this place, the sextants were used, which I have adverted to before (p. 396), and the latitude deduced from their results only differed two or three seconds from that obtained by stars, without using the additional glass: I forgot to say, in speaking of the Galapagos, how useful those instruments were there; enabling us to measure the sun’s meridian altitude in an artificial horizon when nearly eighty degrees high. I would not say this in favour of my own invention, if I did not feel certain that seamen will find it useful, and that somebody ought to tell them of it, for their own sake. (These sextants were made by Worthington.)
I was informed by the residents that between October and April, they are occasionally visited by severe gales of wind, at times almost hurricanes, so strong as to root up trees, strip the leaves off others, and unroof or blow down houses. These storms begin between south-east and south, and when they abate draw towards the west (by the south) there ending. For those who take interest in the course of storms I subjoin extracts from Mr. Ross’s Journal given to me by Leisk.[13] Earthquakes have been felt several times, I was told by Mr. Leisk, but I could get only one extract from the Journal which mentioned a shock.[14]
On the 12th we sailed, carrying a good sea-stock of cocoa-nuts, pigs, poultry, pumpkins, and turtle. Maize and sugar-cane might have been had, if wanted. We first went round the northern Keeling:--on this island, about a mile across and but a few feet above the ocean, two English vessels have been lost since 1825, and probably other ships met a similar fate there in earlier years, when its existence was hardly known. We found the current setting towards the north-west, as I had been led to expect; but, from what I could observe, during our stay, as well as from oral information, I am led to believe that the current only sets strongly during about the last half of the flood tide, and the first half of the ebb; and that during the other six hours there is little or no current; as is the case off Cape Horn, and in many other places.[15]
Our passage to the Mauritius was slow, but in smooth water. Tropic birds, a few terns, and gannets were seen, at intervals, when passing the neighbourhood of the Chagos Islands, and at our approach to the island Rodriguez. We anchored in Port Louis, at the Mauritius, on the 29th of April: sailed thence on the 9th of May: passed near Madagascar--thence along the African shore--and anchored in Simon’s Bay, at the Cape of Good Hope, on the 31st. From that well-known place we went to St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia, Pernambuco, the Cape Verde Islands, and the Azores; and anchored at Falmouth, on the 2d of October, after an absence of four years and nine months from England.
From Falmouth we went to Plymouth; and thence, calling at Portsmouth, to the Thames. On the 28th our anchor was let go at Greenwich; and, after the chronometer rates were ascertained, the Beagle dropped down to Woolwich, where she was paid off on the 17th of November.
Greenwich was the last station at which observations were made; and, singularly enough, Mr. Usborne and his companions came on board as we anchored there. Independent of the gratification of meeting them again, after so wide a separation, it may be supposed how my mind was relieved by his safe return from a very successful expedition, in which he had surveyed the whole coast of Peru, from Atacama to Guayaquil, without loss or accident. Although his own life was seriously risked on two or three occasions, by shots fired under misapprehension; I must not omit to mention that hostilities were suspended for a whole day, at Arica, between the land-forces and an attacking squadron, in order that Mr. Usborne might carry on his operations. Throughout the survey of the Peruvian coast, the cordial assistance of Mr. Wilson, Chargé d’affaires at Lima, was found to be of paramount consequence.
I would now speak of the steady support and unvarying help which I received from the officers of the Beagle: but where all did so much, and all contributed so materially to the gatherings of the voyage, it is unnecessary to particularise, farther than by saying that Mr. Stokes’s services hold the first place in my own estimation.
In this long voyage, rather exceeding that of Vancouver, fatal disease was unknown, except in the lamented case of the purser, and in that mentioned at Rio de Janeiro; neither of which had the least reference to the particular service on which the Beagle was employed: and it is perhaps remarkable, that while the Beagle was in commission, between February 1829 and November 1836, no serious illness, brought on or contracted while on service, happened on board; neither did any accident of consequence occur in the ship; nor did any man ever fall overboard during all that time.
The freedom from illness must be attributed, under Providence, to active employment, good clothing, and wholesome food,[16] in healthy, though sometimes disagreeable climates: and our immunity from accident[17] during exposure to a variety of risks, especially in boats, I attribute, referring to visible causes, to the care, attention, and vigilance of the excellent officers whose able assistance was not valued by me more than their sincere friendship.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] At New Zealand the southern large island is usually called the Middle Island.
[2] For no difference could be detected, under ordinary circumstances.
[3] Unless a few brackish, indeed salt-water, brooks can be termed rivers.
[4] This hatchet is made of two pieces of stone, joined together by a lump of gum, almost as hard as the stone: it is used for notching trees, that the men may climb after opossums.
[5] Page 163.
[6] A very small metal chain would be better, because a line, however stretched, will shrink after being wetted by rain, and give out again as it dries.
[7] This plan of the Keeling Islands will be found in the third (Mr. Darwin’s) volume.
[8] Of these facts I was credibly informed, on the authority of the late Captain Horsburgh; and presumptive evidence of their reality is afforded by the following extract from the work of a well-known historian.
Extract from a Summary of Universal History, translated from the French of M. Anquetil, First Edition, page 50. London, 1800--
In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, a Venetian galley, deeply laden, was driven on shore at the Isle of Wight. The sight of the riches it contained excited a desire of attempting to open a trade with Turkey, through which the merchandize of India was transported. The advantages arising from this Turkish trade to the Eastern merchants shewed that it might be rendered still more lucrative if it were carried on by a direct route. In order that no measures of prudence which seemed likely to ensure success to this grand enterprise might be omitted, the queen sent to explore the two routes already opened, that of the Cape of Good Hope, by Captain Stephens, in 1582, and that of the Strait of Magellan, in 1587. From the reports which they made, it was conceived impossible for England to appropriate to itself, by means of single ships, a part of that commerce, to the prejudice of two nations, jealous, and well established; and, that, while it employed all the exertions of industry, it would be necessary also to show a respectable force. These considerations, highly judicious, gave rise to the East India Company, which sent out its first adventure with a capital of £74,000, and four ships equipped from that sum. In 1601 the company was established under the auspices of the state, which granted it a charter of protection for a time limited.
Lancaster, who commanded this squadron, behaved like a private merchant, entered into a treaty of commerce with the King of Achen, and found means to establish a small factory, but not without experiencing some marks of displeasure from the Portuguese. He took on board a considerable quantity of pepper and other spices. His successful return encouraged the company to send out three ships under the command of Henry Middleton. The latter, however, began to assume a higher tone than that of a plain merchant. He found the Dutch and Portuguese engaged in war; not on their own account, as appeared, but as auxiliaries, the one of the King of Ternate, and the other of the King of Tidore. It seemed most advantageous to Middleton at that period to espouse the part of the Portuguese. The Dutch were incensed, and threw impediments in his way, which, however, did not prevent him from returning with a very rich cargo; but the company sent out another squadron under Edward Michael Bourne, who assumed with the Dutch that air of superiority which his force authorized, and threatened open hostilities in case they interrupted the English commerce. To support these threats, William Keeling arrived, in 1608, with a body of regular troops. The Dutch made no resistance, and even applied to the English to defend them against the inhabitants of Banda; but after this service they behaved with duplicity to their benefactors, and fettered their commerce: yet Keeling found means to return with a very rich cargo, and, what is remarkable, without the loss of a single man.
[9] One kind of coral, while alive, stings human flesh painfully when touched by it. Another kind is so hard that it gives sparks when struck by steel.
[10] Chama gigantea. There is a large one in the United Service Museum.
[11] Rats and mice included; which swarm on those islands.
[12] Brighter by comparison; their colour was that of copper in its very reddest state--without any tinge of yellow.
[13] “April 4th, 1835. Wind south, blowing very hard all day, with a hard cloudy sky. 5th. Blowing heavily from the same point; with rain. 6th. Wind S.E. still blowing heavily, with rain. 7th. Wind increasing, at midnight the tops of many trees blown off; trees falling, and roofs of houses suffering, wind still S.E. At two A.M. on the 8th wind south; several houses laid flat; excessive thunder and lightning, with torrents of rain. About three A.M. the storm abating, and drawing to the west; at four, moderate west wind. 9th. N.W. light breeze, clear weather; went with a party (Mr. Ross, Leisk, &c.) to South-East Bay (inside South-East Island), found the bay strewed with dead fish of all sorts and sizes, which we supposed to have been killed by the fresh water. Numbers of trees blown down every where, and the earth cut through in many places by the runs of rain-water.” On the 26th of November 1835, a south-east gale increased almost to a hurricane, causing similar effects, though less in number, because it lasted only two hours, and then ended by shifting to the westward, and moderating.
[14] That notice says, “May 25, 1830, weather calm and sultry, light N.E. breeze: about 1·30 A.M. an earthquake, of a rocking description, was felt. It continued about three minutes, and made our wooden house reel and strain considerably.”
[15] Varying from three parts, to one-quarter of a tide difference between the time of low water and the beginning of flood stream.
[16] See Appendix, No. 48.
[17] Excepting that mentioned in vol. i. p. 445.
XXVII. REMARKS ON THE EARLY MIGRATIONS OF THE HUMAN RACE
Having ended my narrative of the Beagle’s voyage, I might lay down the pen: but there are some reflections, arising out of circumstances witnessed by myself, and enquiries since made respecting them, that I feel anxious to lay before those who take interest in such subjects; and who will detect fallacies which I, in a purblind search after truth, may have overlooked.
A few of these reflections bear on the origin and migration of the human race: and, deeply feeling the difficulty of the subject, as well as my comparative ignorance and inability, I would beg that my remarks may be viewed solely as those of a sailor who writes for the younger members of his profession--not as the scheme of a theorist.
Before mentioning the particular facts which have fallen under my own observation, and made most impression on me, in connexion with this subject, it may be well to defend myself from any imputation of indulging hastily formed or capricious ideas, by saying that from boyhood I have always taken interest in observing the various countenances, heads, shapes, sizes, colours, and other peculiarities of the human race; especially of those varieties in which education has not masked the mind, by teaching man to restrain or conceal his emotions. The result of this attention to outward tokens, occasionally retained more distinctly in my recollection by sketches, has been a conviction that external form, especially of the head and features, is exceedingly dependent upon mind; and that as the human being is more or less educated, accustomed to better or worse habits, more or less obliged to think and act for himself; so will his external appearance vary for better or worse, and become, in a great degree, the index of his mental quality. This power of mind over matter exists in each individual, who besides may receive from his parents, outward peculiarities, and general inclinations, but in a modified degree: since the child partakes of the nature of both father and mother, (perhaps even, slightly, of that of a foster mother, if one is employed). That such hereditary peculiarities are not to be quickly or easily altered, every one will admit; but that they may be gradually changed, and in a few generations altogether obliterated, by pains being taken with successive children, many facts have been published which seem to prove incontrovertibly. This ought to give great encouragement to the exertions of parents in educating their children,[1] since exterior expression, if not feature, as well as the infinitely more important result, actual character, may depend so much upon training the mind aright. Supposing this to be the case, it is not surprising to find savages so very different from civilized men in outward feature, as well as in mind; or to see them, where civilization has not been known, precisely in the same condition now, as that in which we learn they were several centuries ago.
Some years since I read a long article in the “Dictionnaire Classique” under the head of “Homme,” which described a great many distinct races of men--at least thirteen: and at the same time I saw a map which professed to show the geographical distribution of those several distinct races. Almost the first spot which my eye rested on was Tierra del Fuego, coloured black, to indicate that its inhabitants were black; and upon reference to the “Dictionnaire Classique” I found that the Fuegians were there described as being black, like the natives of Van Diemen’s Land. This mistake, so extraordinary considering the numerous voyagers who have seen the natives of Tierra del Fuego during the last three hundred years, stimulated me to inquire further into the data upon which that division of the human family into separate ‘races’ was founded. The more I have sought, the more evidence has appeared to demonstrate the erroneous nature of such a view; and the probability, nay certainty, that all men are of one blood.
In the course of years spent in various quarters of the world, I have had opportunities of leisurely considering people from all the principal countries. I have read much of what has been written, during late years, on the subject of their resemblance, or difference; and the conclusion to which I have been obliged to come is--that there is far less difference between most nations, or tribes (selecting any two for the comparison), than exists between two individuals who might be chosen out of either one of those nations or tribes; colour and hair alone excepted.
In the city of Lima there are now at least twenty-three distinct varieties of the human race, which are not only recognised and well known in that capital, but have been carefully enumerated and described by Stevenson, in the following table. All these varieties have arisen from the intermarriages of three, the Spaniard, the aboriginal Peruvian, and the negro: and among their descendants almost any coloured skin, or kind of hair, may be matched. It may be observed that although negro and white produce the zambo, which is a dark copper; and although it may be inferred from the table that zambo and some lighter variety would produce a lighter shade of copper-colour--there is still the long black hair, and scarcity of beard, observed in most American aborigines, to be accounted for. This peculiarity, however, may be derived from white and negro: and I think it would not be difficult to show that every variety of hair and colour might be produced from these two originals only.
CASTES arising from the mixture of European, Indian, and Negro.
+----------+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------+ | Father. | Mother. | Child. | Colour, &c. | +----------+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------+ |European | European | Creole | White. | |Creole | Creole | Creole | White. | |White | Indian | Mestiso | ⁶⁄₈ white, ²⁄₈ Indian, fair.| |Indian | White | Mestiso | ⁴⁄₈ white, ⁴⁄₈ Indian. | |White | Mestiso | Creole | White, often very fair. | |Mestiso | White | Creole | White, rather sallow. | |Mestiso | Mestiso | Creole | Sallow, often light hair. | |White | Negro | Mulatto | ⅞ white, ⅛ negro, often | | | | | fair. | |Negro | White | Zambo | ⁴⁄₈ white, ⁴⁄₈ negro, dark | | | | | copper. | |White | Mulatto | Quarteron | ⁶⁄₈ white, ²⁄₈ negro, fair. | |Mulatto | White | Mulatto | ⅝ white, ⅜ negro, tawny. | |White | Quarteron | Quinteron | ⅞ white, ⅛ negro, very | | | | | fair. | |Quarteron | White | Quarteron | ⁶⁄₈ white, ²⁄₈ negro, tawny.| |White | Quinteron | Creole | White, light eyes, fair | | | | | hair. | |Negro | Indian | Chino | ⁴⁄₈ negro, ⁴⁄₈ Indian, dark.| |Indian | Negro | Chino | ²⁄₈ negro, ⁶⁄₈ Indian. | |Negro | Mulatto | Zambo | ⅝ negro, ⅜ white. | |Mulatto | Negro | Zambo | ⅝ negro, ⅜ white. | |Negro | Zambo | Zambo | ¹⁵⁄₁₆ negro, ¹⁄₁₆ white. | |Zambo | Negro | Zambo | ⅞ negro, ⅛ white. | |Negro | Chino | Zambo Chino | ¹⁵⁄₁₆ negro, ¹⁄₁₆ Indian. | |Chino | Negro | Zambo Chino | ⅞ negro, ⅛ Indian. | |Negro | Negro | Negro | Black. | +----------+-----------+-------------+-----------------------------+
Colours are classed according to appearances: a child receives more of the colour of the father than of the mother.[2]
That colour is not alone dependant upon, or caused by climate, however much it may be altered by exposure to sun and wind, or by seclusion, no person can doubt who has at all attended to the subject, and read the opinions of men who have made it their study: but that its various hues may be derived from intermarriage, without any change of climate, this table goes far to prove.[3]
Having seen how all the varieties of colour may be produced from white, red, and black, we pause, because at fault, and so we should remain, did we rely on our own unassisted reason. But, turning to the Bible, we find in the history of those by whom the earth was peopled, after the flood, a curse pronounced on Ham and his descendants; and it is curious that the name Ham should mean “heat--brown--scorched,” while that of Cush his son, means “black:” that Japheth should imply “handsome,” and that Shem, from whose line our Saviour was descended, should mean “name--renown--he who is put or placed.” I cannot myself read this explanation of Cush, and the denunciation “Cursed be Canaan--a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren,” without believing that Cush was a negro, and that from the intermarriages of his descendants with those of Shem and Japheth, came hosts of mulatto, copper, or dark-coloured men who peopled a great part of Asia, Polynesia, America, parts of Africa, and part of Australia. According to this view the black descendants of Cush overspread part of Africa, Australia, and Van Diemen’s Land, New Guinea, and portions of other islands: while white families, children of Japheth and Shem, spread over Asia Minor, the Caucasian district, great part of Northern Asia, and the whole of Europe.
We read, in another place, that Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines, and sent them away eastward from Canaan, unto the east country: many years before this separation, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, an Egyptian slave belonging to Abraham, was established in the country next to the eastward of Canaan; and as his descendants were “not to be numbered for multitude,” it follows that those of some of the sons above mentioned must have migrated to a great distance.[4] It is likely that some of Abraham’s bond-women were either black or mulatto, being descendants of Ham; perhaps of Cush: and it is hardly possible that Hagar should not have been dark, even black, considering her parentage;[5] in which case Ishmael would have been copper-coloured, or mulatto,[6] and some, if not all of Abraham’s sons by concubines, would have been of those colours. If this be assuming too much, there can be no doubt that in the next generation Esau, or Edom, was a red man, and that his descendants, the numerous Edomites, or Idumeans, were also red: now as Esau married the daughter of Ishmael, we have, in this case, distinct evidence of the origin of a race of red, or copper-coloured men. Had the common colour of the human race been at that time red, Esau’s colour would not have been remarked: had it been black, Cush would have been no distinctive appellation. It must then have been originally fair, as no colours are mentioned in the Scripture, with reference to the human race, except fair, red, and black.
A rapid increase of flocks and herds, as well as population; a consequent diminution of vegetable food; jealousies and disputes between the children of bond-women and those of the free, and the comparative indifference of fathers to the offspring of their slaves, must have stimulated migration in every direction; and, when once begun, no doubt the love of novelty, and desire of finding countries still better than those yet explored, increased, and eventually perpetuated that passion for wandering which we see to this day in the Arab, the migratory Malay, the roving Tartar, and the ever-restless South American Indian.
Climate, habits, and food operate to cause a considerable change in the form and size, though their permanent effect on the colour of the human race is slight. The effect of climate, considered alone, may be seen in the descendants of English families settled in some parts of North America, in Australia, or Van Diemen’s Land; countries where neither habits nor food differ much from those of England. We see there that our sturdy thick-set labourer’s son becomes a tall lathy youth, though perhaps none of his family while in England exceeded the middle height: and not only does the form alter, but the gait and voice acquire peculiarities which mark the American born, the Australian, or the Tasmanian. Exposure to cold, wet, and wind, together with but little walking exercise, shortens the legs, and increases the stoutness of body, as may be seen in the Fuegian, the Esquimaux, and the Laplander,--in fishermen, sailors, coachmen, and others; but, activity on foot, warmth, and a fine climate, have contrary effects, which may be shown by the youth above mentioned, by the African Negro, by the Indian, by the South Sea Islander, and others. Habits require little notice, for we can hardly look around us without seeing many instances of faculties or forms altered in one way or other, by exercise or the want of it, or by certain customs: porters, smiths, dancers, grooms, jockeys, are remarkable instances. That food is a material agent in affecting the human form I think no one can doubt; and when all three combine to cause alterations, how considerable must be the change effected. That colour may be altered a little by seclusion and particular diet, or by exposure to wind and sun, need not be remarked, except for the purpose of adding that a change so caused is not permanent, or transmitted to children, like peculiarity of form. The Otaheitans used to shut themselves up for a month at a time, and eat only particular food, in order to become fairer; yet their descendants are as dark at this day as their fathers were when Wallis first discovered them in 1786.
I will now endeavour to point out those lines of communication across the oceans which appear to me, as a seaman, the most likely to have been followed by the earliest wanderers. Of overland routes I say nothing, because where land extends, in the vicinity of water, there is no obstacle sufficient to prevent the migration of animals, as well as men; neither need I notice intervals of sea which can easily be crossed.
Wandering eastward, from Asia Minor, roving tribes may have begun to people Eastern Asia and the Indian Archipelago, while other parties were exploring Africa; and while the sons of Japhet were advancing northward, and towards the west. A slight acquaintance with ancient history informs us at how early a period extensive commerce was carried on by ships,--to Britain in the west, and to the Indian Archipelago in the east; before which time it is obvious that those extreme regions must have been tolerably well peopled: but it is not possible that they could have been so without the employment of ships, boats, canoes, or rafts. The earliest explorers of unknown lands must have been naturally enterprising, and habitually disposed to wander. Children brought up under such instructors as their migratory parents, always eager to seek for new countries, would increase their roving inclinations; and as long as another region could be found, doubtless they would try to explore it, partly from a ruling passion and habit, partly for the sake of procuring food with greater ease, and partly in consequence of feuds among themselves, which, in such a state of society, must end in the defeat and expulsion, if not subjugation or destruction of the weaker party. Add to these motives, those which I mentioned in a previous page, consequent upon intermarriage between various castes or colours, the desire of independence, or the love of wealth,[7] and more than enough reasons appear to account for the early dispersion of the human race, provided they possessed the means of migration.
That in the early ages large trees were more abundant near the water side in many countries than they now are, appears indisputable; but even as we see them in many uncivilized though inhabited countries, how numerous are huge trunks, out of which canoes might be formed, with fire, with stones, and with shells. Considering the abundance of trees once standing in places, perhaps easy of access, whence the hand of man may have long since cleared them away, and the quantity of animal,[8] as well as vegetable food which may have abounded where then there had been no arch-destroyer,--how easy, comparatively speaking, may it have been, in those early ages, to fell, hollow out, and launch great trunks of trees, which, secured two and two, and covered over, would form excellent vessels. Like the double canoes of modern Polynesians, they might have carried a platform, above the reach of common waves, on which families and their provisions could voyage in security. Neither refined art nor any tool would have been required in the construction: with fire to hollow and to divide, stones, shells, and bones would have sufficed for so simple a work, and thus enabled the least informed savages to make sea-worthy and even burthensome vessels.
Unlike some modern canoes, however, these primitive vessels would have been capable of sailing only before the wind, or nearly so, and would therefore have been almost at the disposal of every breeze, when once at sea. Hence, in attempting to follow their course, we must attentively consider prevailing winds, and by no means omit to regard currents, of which the first sailors could have known nothing, and which must have caused the mis-direction, if not loss, of many early adventurers.
In alluding to easily constructed rafts, and double canoes, I do not for an instant dream of excluding better vessels, which no doubt, were soon constructed after men began to roam by sea;[9] but I wish to show, so far as I am able, how readily means of transport were accessible to the first wanderers.
I must pause for a moment to explain why I consider these explorers as savages, although they were spoken of before as descendants of Abraham and his countrymen, who were civilized. Let us suppose, for illustration, that a party of men and women left Asia Minor in a civilized state. Before they had wandered far, no writing materials or clothes would have remained (had they even possessed them), and their children would have been taught only to provide for daily wants, food, and perhaps some substitute for clothes, such as skins. Their grand-children would have been in a still worse condition as to information or traces of civilization, and each succeeding generation would have fallen lower in the scale, until they became savages in the fullest sense of the word; from which degraded condition they would not rise a step by their own exertions; so long as they received no assistance, no glimmerings of intelligence, from others who had branched off from the main trunk at a much later period, and had means of preserving more knowledge. The degree of degradation would depend upon climate, disposition, description and quantity of food, recollection of origin and traditions, keeping up old observances, and intercourse with other families, tribes, or nations, among whom more traces of their common origin and descent might have been preserved. Were a dozen men and women now cast away upon unknown land--supposing that not one of the party could read or write--that there was no substance with which they could clothe themselves except the skins of animals--that the climate was variable--that they had neither tools nor arms--that the extent of habitable land admitted of their wandering--that it had no other human inhabitants, and that it should be visited by none for the space of some hundred years after the arrival of this party,--in what state would their descendants be found by the next adventurers who might land on the shores of that country?
India, China, Mexico, Peru, regions separated from the central seat of population, but advanced in civilization at the earliest period of their history with which we are acquainted, preserve traditional accounts of superior men who arrived there, and first began to improve the condition of their people, but we are not told whence those men came. No one, however, can read about those countries, as well as Tartary, Japan, and Polynesia, without being struck by the traces of Hebrew ceremonies and rites, by the evidences of the worship of Baal, or by remains of Arkite observances, scattered through the more populous, if not through all the nations upon earth.
That man could have been first created in an infant, or a savage state, appears to my apprehension impossible; (for a moment taking a view of the case, unaided by Scripture;) because--if an infant--who nursed, who fed, who protected him till able to subsist alone? and, if a savage, he would have been utterly helpless. Destitute of the instinct possessed by brutes,--with organs inexperienced (however perfect), and with a mind absolutely vacant; neither his eye, his ear, his hand, nor his foot would have been available, and after a few hours of apathetic existence he must have perished. The only idea I can reconcile to reason is that man was created perfect in body, perfect in mind, and knowing by inspiration enough for the part he had to perform;--such a being it would be worse than folly to call savage.
Have we a shadow of ground for thinking that wild animals or plants have improved since their creation? Can any reasonable man believe that the first of a race, species, or kind, was the most inferior? Then how for a moment could false philosophers, and those who have been led away by their writings, imagine that there were separate beginnings of savage races, at different times, and in different places? Yet I may answer this question myself; for until I had thought much on the subject, and had seen nearly every variety of the human race, I had no reason to give in opposition to doubts excited by such sceptical works, except a conviction that the Bible was true, that in all ages men had erred, and that sooner or later the truth of every statement contained in that record would be proved.
To return to the lines and means of communication:--
Following the various routes of population into the Indian Archipelago, to Japan, to Kamschatka, and to Australia, we are stopped by the vast Pacific--except at one point, Kamschatka, and there, by the Aleutian isles, is an easy road to America. Now it is not probable that intercourse should have been begun by water, between various points on those extensive shores, (reaching from 60°, N. lat., to 40°, S. lat.), without numerous accidents happening, such as vessels, boats, canoes, or rafts being carried out of sight of land by storms; when, ignorant how to steer as their crews must have been, they were driven before the wind till they reached some unknown land, or were engulfed in ocean.
Many such vessels, out of the numbers which must have been tempest-tost among currents and dangers of every kind incident to navigation, may have failed in finding land before their store of provision was consumed, and their crews reduced to the horrible necessity of feeding upon human flesh. When once the natural antipathy to cannibalism was overcome, recurrence to similar food would have been less revolting on other occasions; especially if, excited by rage or animosity, and deprived of animal food, men had accustomed themselves to anticipate satisfying their hunger by the flesh of a miserable slave, or even of a late friend whom accident had estranged and turned into a blood-thirsty enemy.
Looking over a modern chart of the Pacific we see a multitude of islands scattered, like stars over the sky, from the Indian archipelago to Salas y Gomez;[10] whence to Mas-a-fuera, on the South American coast, the distance is not fourteen hundred miles; and to the main land itself, about eighteen hundred. It is possible that other islands may have existed, but we now find a comparatively short distance between Easter Island and South America; besides favouring circumstances of wind and weather which lead me to believe that a line of population went in that direction. It is not impossible that vessels should have crossed from New Zealand to South America, running always before the fresh westerly winds so prevalent southward of 38°; neither is it at all unlikely, on the contrary it is highly probable, that Chinese or Japanese Junks were driven to the Sandwich Islands; perhaps across to the North American coast.
Between the tropics in the Pacific an easterly trade wind is found during more than half the year; but it is not generally known (except by readers of voyages) that from November to March there is much west wind, rain, and occasional tempest, between the vicinity of the equator, and about fifteen degrees south. This westerly monsoon, for such in fact it is, sometimes is steadily regular, and at others interrupted by calms, storms,[11] or heavy rains. The eastern limit to which it usually reaches is about 110° W. long., but there is reason to suppose, that it extends at times, irregularly, to the Galapagos Islands, if not to the adjacent continent, when Guayaquil is suffering from heavy torrents of rain. While the sun is far south, this westerly monsoon extends to the tropic of Capricorn, between the meridians of 150° E. and 120° W. longitude. At other times of the year the tropical regions of the Pacific are refreshed by pleasant easterly winds, varying in moderate strength, and in their direction from the northward or southward of east.
Beyond the region of tropical or trade winds, an almost continual succession of westerly winds is found to prevail. In those middle latitudes easterly winds sometimes blow; but their amount is not more than one-fifth that of the west winds, throughout the year.
In the Southern Atlantic and Southern Indian ocean similar winds prevail, between the parallels of 30° and 60°. Instances in profusion may be found in narratives of voyages, where very small vessels, boats, or canoes, have made long passages across an open ocean, or have passed months in ignorance of their geographical situation, enduring the most dreadful privations. In the event of a float, whether raft, canoe, or rudely constructed vessel, being carried out of sight of land by current or wind, or by both, and taken into a steady trade, or lasting westerly wind, it would be impossible for her to struggle against it for many days; she must eventually run before it as the last expedient, with the hope, often forlorn, of falling in with some land to leeward.
When we reflect on the tedious coasting voyages undertaken formerly, even in historical times; and on the quantities of provision embarked for those long passages; may we not infer that the earliest explorers would take as much food with them as their rafts or vessels could carry; and therefore, that if driven out to sea, they were capable, in some instances at least, of holding out for a considerable length of time without having recourse to the last alternative.
If a vessel were drifted from Easter Island[12] by a north-west wind (occasional in July, August, or September,) she would be carried towards the coast of Chile; she might be drifted directly there, or she might be driven eastward for a time, and then, in consequence of wind changing, drifted towards the north; so that it would be uncertain whether Chile, Peru, the Galapagos Islands, Mexico, or the wide ocean would receive the lost wanderers. It is also possible that a vessel may have been driven to South America from the neighbourhood of New Zealand; but this does not appear nearly so probable as the former conjecture. That the Araucanians about Valdivia originally arrived in that country by water, from the west, is I think indicated by what is stated in page 400 of this volume.
But while man was thus spreading eastward across the Pacific, are we to suppose that no vessel was ever blown off the coast of Africa, or that of Spain, and drifted by easterly winds across the Atlantic? How easy is the voyage, before a steady trade wind, from the Canary or Cape Verde Islands to the West Indies or Brazil; from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of America. Tradition in Brazil says that such arrivals took place there, and certainly there is a resemblance in some points between the Patagonians and what history states of the Guanches.
Let us now turn to the Negro population, descendants of Cush. Spreading to the south and west, they may have overrun extensive regions in Africa, but by no means to the exclusion of the mixed varieties of men, who also explored and colonized that continent, chiefly towards the northern and central regions. From the coast opposite Madagascar a party of negroes might have embarked to cross the Mosambique Channel, or they might have been driven off by a storm while coasting along near Algoa Bay, in which cases the current, always setting south-westward along that coast, would have hurried them into the region of strong westerly winds, by which they must have been carried, if their vessel and provisions held out, to the coast of New Holland, or to Van Diemen’s Land. Now it is worth notice that the men of the south-western quarter of Australia are exceedingly like some of those who frequent the countries near Algoa Bay--and that the native dances and superstitions are very similar; while the aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land, though of like colour, are shorter, stouter, and have coarser features; differences which might be expected to result from living in a wetter, windier, and colder climate. That other negroes arrived on the northern shores of Australia, brought there as slaves by red men, or making their escape from Asiatic masters, is probable: and from one or other source, if not from each, the black men in Australia and Van Diemen’s Land may have been derived. That red men must have landed in Australia, we now know by the notices of late travellers, and their presence accounts for the colour observable in many of the so-called blacks, whose actual hue, when washed, is a deep brown--next to black, certainly, but with a perceptible red tinge. They are nearly the variety which would be produced by the intermarriage of a Negro and a Chino (see table, page 643,) called Zambo-chino in Lima: but there are gradations of colour, as might be expected, and varieties of hair; some being more or less woolly, others frizzled, almost like that of a mulatto.[13]
The occasional peculiarities of outward form, on which so much stress has been laid, to the prejudice of the Hottentots especially, are considered by able anatomists whom I have consulted to be of no more real consequence than that existing in a six-fingered family. On their authority it may be shown that such occasional deviations from ordinary conformation, which are sometimes continued in particular families, and therefore might be found in a whole tribe who were originally but one family, in no degree constitute distinct species. From them we learn also that all varieties of the human race are alike in their anatomical structure, and that intermarriage between any two varieties whatever is productive of a prolific offspring.
Considerable stress has been laid on language as a means of tracing affinities or descents; but with great deference for the learned men who have devoted so much time to following its intricate traces, I would ask whether, when a language was not written, or in any manner fixed, it was not liable to vary continually as fresh separations of families into tribes occurred; and whether therefore it is possible to do more than classify unwritten languages, following some few traces of resemblance which may occasionally be marked, and detecting the root, though not the branch? In such an interesting pursuit, however, every sign, even the faintest, is valuable;--but only men of deep research and extensive learning can advantageously pursue this method of inquiry into the migrations and early history of our race.
I believe it will be found that the remarks I have ventured to make in the preceding pages, are by no means at variance with most of their deductions; and I much regret that our opportunities of collecting words, and modes of expression, were not such as to enable me to add many to their collections.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Not in overburthening their tender minds with the contents of books, or over exciting them with a whirl of ideas calculated to rouse even the listless spoiled child of fortune from his apathetic indifference--but in a wholesome mixture of general education, bodily as well as mental, adapted to their years, and calculated to prepare them, in their respective stations, for doing their duty happily to their Maker, and to their fellow-men.
[2] Stevenson’s South America, vol i. p. 286.
[3] It did not, however, satisfy me as to the production of a bright red copper colour; but of that I afterwards saw an excellent example at the Keeling Islands. See page 636.
[4] See Genesis, Chap. xiii. for evidence of the necessity there was to emigrate in those early times.
[5] Herodotus, lib. ii.
[6] The Arabs, next to the Jews the most marked people on earth, who have preserved their genealogies in an unbroken line, assert that they are descended from Ishmael; their colour is the same as that of the Malays, the Polynesian islanders, and the Americans.
[7] Real wealth--not money, its symbol and equivalent now.
[8] For proofs of the extraordinarily rapid manner in which animals multiply when comparatively unmolested by man, we need only turn to South America.
[9] The Piragua now used at Chilóe, and by the savages of the Chonos Archipelago, exactly resembles in every minute detail the Maseulah boat of Madras. Its ‘sacho,’ or wooden anchor with a stone in the middle, is precisely like that used in Chinese and Japanese Junks: but doubtless these coincidences may be accidental.
[10] Near Easter Island.
[11] During these storms, which begin very suddenly, not only vessels are driven out of their course, but birds, insects, and seeds are carried to great distances.
[12] At Easter Island in 1722, Roggewein found idolaters and fire-worshippers, and he says that one of the chief idols was called Dago. In 1774, people differently disposed, were found there by Cook; the idols still remained, but no traces were observed of fire-worship.
[13] Of the natives of Van Diemen’s Land Cook remarks that their hair differed in texture from that of the natives of New South Wales, being in Adventure Bay as woolly as that of any native of Guinea, while that of the aborigines of New South Wales was naturally long and black, though cropped short.--Cook’s Voyage, 1769-71.
Bligh says that the aborigines of Van Diemen’s Land are black, and that their hair, “which resembled the wool of the Caffres,” was separated into shreds, and powdered with red ochre. They were generally slender, tolerably well made, kept their shoulders back, and upon their prominent chests several had marks raised in the skin.--Bligh’s Voyage--Adventure Bay, 1788-1792.
Flinders saw only one native of this country, but his appearance much resembled that of the inhabitants of New South Wales. He had also marks raised upon the skin, and his face was blackened, and hair ruddled, as is sometimes practised by them. The hair was either cropped close, or naturally short, but it had not the appearance of being woolly.
In Marion’s voyage a skirmish with the natives of Van Diemen’s Land took place, after relating which, the writer says, “on entering among the trees they found a dying savage. This man was a little more than five feet seven inches in height, (French measure). His breast was marked like those of the Mosambique Caffres, and his skin appeared as black; but, on washing off the soot and dirt, his natural colour appeared to have a reddish tinge.”