A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 760 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12.

Mr Banks and Dr Solander attended the next morning in their usual capacity of market-men, but very few Indians appeared, and those who came brought no provisions.  Tootahah, however, sent some of his people for the canoe that had been detained, which they took away.  A canoe having also been detained that belonged to Oberea, Tupia, the person who managed her affairs when the Dolphin was here, was sent to examine whether any thing on board had been taken away:  And he was so well satisfied of the contrary, that he left the canoe where he found it, and joined us at the fort, where he spent the day, and slept on board the canoe at night.  About noon, some fishing-boats came abreast of the tents, but would part with very little of what they had on board; and we felt the want of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit very severely.  In the course of the day, Mr Banks walked out into the woods, that by conversing with the people he might recover their confidence and good-will:  He found them civil, but they all complained of the ill-treatment of their chief; who, they said, had been beaten and pulled by the hair.  Mr Banks endeavoured to convince them, that he had suffered no personal violence, which, to the best of our knowledge, was true; yet, perhaps, the boatswain had behaved with a brutality which he was afraid or ashamed to acknowledge.  The chief himself being probably, upon recollection, of opinion that we had ill-deserved the hogs, which he had left with us as a present, sent a messenger in the afternoon to demand an axe, and a shirt, in return; but as I was told that he did not intend to come down to the fort for ten days, I excused myself from giving them till I should see him, hoping that his impatience might induce him to fetch them, and knowing that absence would probably continue the coolness between us, to which the first interview might put an end.

The next day we were still more sensible of the inconvenience we had incurred by giving offence to the people in the person of their chief, for the market was so ill supplied that we were in want of necessaries.  Mr Banks therefore went into the woods to Tubourai Tamaide, and with some difficulty persuaded him to let us have five baskets of breadfruit; a very seasonable supply, as they contained above one hundred and twenty.  In the afternoon another messenger arrived from Tootahah for the axe and shirt; as it was now become absolutely necessary to recover the friendship of this man, without which it would be scarcely possible to procure provisions, I sent word that Mr Banks and myself would visit him on the morrow, and bring what he wanted with us.

Early the next morning he sent again to remind me of my promise, and his people seemed to wait till we should set out with great impatience:  I therefore ordered the pinnace, in which I embarked with Mr Banks and Dr Solander. about ten o’clock:  We took one of Tootahah’s people in the boat with us, and in about an hour we arrived at his place of residence, which is called Eparre, and is about four miles to the westward of the tents.

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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.