(Footnote.  Hawkesworth Coll. volume 3 page 277.)

October 24.

Having fully weighed all these circumstances we bore up for Savu, and at four p.m. on the 24th anchored in Zeba Bay, on the north-west side of the island.  The bank on which the anchor was dropped was so steep that, although the anchor was in twelve fathoms, the vessel was, at the length of forty fathoms of cable, in twenty-two fathoms.  As we were bringing up, two muskets were fired from the shore, and a white flag, or rather a rag, was suspended to a pole, around which a group of people had collected.  This flag gave us no very favourable idea of the respectability of the place, and the meaning of the muskets we could not divine, nor indeed ever did discover, unless it was that we had anchored on bad ground:  the boat was then hoisted out and I went on shore, accompanied by Messrs. Bedwell and Cunningham, to where the flag was displayed.  On approaching the shore three people came down to direct us to the proper landing place; for in all other parts of the beach a heavy surf was breaking.  We were then conducted to a hut in the rear of the flagstaff, where we found from fifteen to twenty persons assembled; two of whom appeared, by their dress and from the respect paid to them by the rest, to be chiefs.  To these I addressed myself and inquired for the Dutch resident, but soon found there was none, and that one of those to whom we were speaking was the Rajah himself.  I afterwards found he was the identical Amadima of whom interesting mention is made by Peron in his historical account of Captain Baudin’s expedition.*

(Footnote.  Peron tome 1 pages 119, 151, 161, and 162.)

My inquiries were made partly by signs and partly by a few terms in the Malay language that we had collected from Captain Cook,* and from Labillardiere’s account of D’Entrecasteaux’s voyage.  Aer (water) was among the foremost of our inquiries, to which we added the terms for pigs, sheep, fowls, and coconuts, (vavee, doomba, mannu, and nieu).  Everything but water was plentiful and could be supplied by paying for them in rupees or bartering them for gunpowder.  On repeating the question for water, their constant reply was, trada aer! trada aer! (no water, no water).  No misunderstanding could have taken place, for on our inquiry, thinking it was for present use, they brought us some to drink.  They afterwards conducted us to a shallow well or spring in which there were about ten or fifteen gallons; and this was all there was near the sea.

(Footnote.  Hawkesworth Coll. volume 3 page 298.)

Amadima, on our landing, sent a horseman to the town with a message, who soon after returned with a paper which was shown to us; but, the substance being in Dutch, we could not understand its purport; the sum of seventy-four rix-dollars was, however, sufficiently plain to show that money was wanted, and this conjecture was afterwards strengthened by a petition whispered in my ear by Amadina himself for sato rupee (one rupee); but, not having provided myself with any, I could not satisfy his wants.