refembling a child's nine-pin, only much fmaller, and in this there is no more music than in a pea-whistle. They seem fenfible, indeed, that these inftruments are not musical, for we never heard an attempt to sing to them, or to produce with them any measured tones that bore the least resemblance to a tune. To what has been already faid, of the practice of eating human flesh, I shall only add, that in almost every cove where we landed we found fresh bones of men, near the place where fires had been made; and that among the heads that were brought on board by the old man, fome feemed to have false eyes, and ornaments in their ears, as if alive. That which Mr. Banks bought was fold with great reluctance by the poffeffor: the head was manifeftly that of a young perfon, about fourteen or fifteen years of age, and by the contufions on one fide appeared to have received many violent blows, and indeed a part of the bone near the eye was wanting. These appearances confirmed us in the opinion, that the natives of this country give no quarter, nor take any prisoners to be killed and eaten at a future time, as is faid to have been a practice among the Indians of Florida; for if prifoners had been taken, this poor young creature, who cannot be fuppofed capable of making much resistance, would probably have been one, and we knew that he was killed with the reft; for the fray had happened but a few days before. The towns, or Hippahs, of thefe people, which are all fortified, have been fufficiently defcribed already, and from the Bay of Plenty to Queen Charlotte's Sound, they seem to be the conftant refidence of the people; but above Poverty Bay, Hawke's Bay, Tegadoo, and Tolaga, .we faw no Hippahs, but fingle houses scattered at a distance from each other; yet upon the fides of the hills there were stages of a great length, furnished with stones and darts, probably as retreats for the people at the last extremity, as upon these stages a fight may be carried on with much advantage against thofe below, who may be reached with great effect by darts and ftones, which it is impoffible. for them to throw up with equal force. And indeed the forts themselves feem to be no farther ferviceable, than 1770. March. 1770. March. Govern ment. than by enabling the poffeffors to reprefs a fudden attack; for as there is no fupply of water within the lines, it would be impoffible to fuftain a fiege. A confiderable stock of fern-root and dry fish is indeed laid up in them, but they may be referved against seasons of scarcity, and that such seasons there are, our observations left us no room to doubt; befides, while an enemy fhould be prowling in the neighbourhood, it would be easy to fnatch a fupply of water from the side of the hill, though it would be impoffible to dig up fern-root or catch fish. In this district, however, the people feemed to live in a state of confcious fecurity, and to avail themselves of their advantage: their plantations were more numerous, their canoes were more decorated, and they had not only finer carving, but finer clothes. This part of the coaft also was much the most populous, and poffibly their apparent peace and plenty might arife from their being united under one Chief, or King; for the inhabitants of all this part of the country told us, that they were the fubjects of Teratu. When they pointed to the refidence of this Prince, it was in a direction which we thought inland, but which, when we knew the country better, we found to be the Bay of Plenty. It is much to be regretted, that we were obliged to leave this country without knowing any thing of Teratu by his name. As an Indian monarch, his territory is certainly extenfive; he was acknowledged from Cape Kidnappers to the northward, and weftward as far as the Bay of Plenty, a length of coaft upwards of eighty leagues; and we do not yet know how much farther weftward his dominions may extend: poffibly the fortified towns which we faw in the Bay of Plenty may be his barrier, especially as at Mercury Bay he was not acknowledged, nor indeed any other fingle Chief; for wherever we landed, or spoke with the people upon that coaft, they told us that we were at but a fmall diftance from their enemies. In the dominions of Teratu we faw feveral subordinate Chiefs, to whom great refpect was paid, and by whom juftice was probably administered; for upon our complaint to one of them, of a theft that had been committed committed on board the fhip by a man that came with The little focieties which we found in the southern parts feemed to have feveral things in common, partiticularly their fine clothes and fishing nets. Their fine clothes, which poffibly might be the fpoils of war, were kept in a fmall hut, which was erected for that purpose in the middle of the town: the nets we saw making in almost every house, and the feveral parts being afterwards collected were joined together. Lefs account seems to be made of the women here than in the South Sea iflands; fuch at leaft was the opinion of Tupia, who complained of it as an indignity to the fex. We obferved that the two fexes eat together; but how they divide their labour we do not certainly know. I am inclined to believe that the men till the ground, make nets, catch birds, and go out in their boats to fifh; and that the women dig up fern roots, colle& lobsters and other shell fifh near the beach, dress the victuals, and weave cloth: fuch at least were their employments when we had an opportunity of obferv. ing them, which was but seldom; for in general our appearance made a holiday wherever we went, men, women and children flocking round us, either to gratify their curiofity, or to purchase some of the valuable merchandize which we carried about with us, confifting principally of nails, paper, and broken glass. 1770. March. Of the religion of these people it cannot be fuppofed Religion. that we could learn much; they acknowledge the influence of fuperior beings, one of whom is fupreme, and the reft fubordinate; and gave nearly the fame account of the origin of the world, and the production of mankind, as our friends in Otaheite: Tupia, however, feemed to have a much more deep and extenfive knowledge of these subjects than any of the people here; 1770. March. Dead. here; and whenever he was difpofed to inftruct them, which he fometimes did in a long difcourfe, he was fure of a numerous audience, who listened in profound filence, with fuch reverence and attention, that we could not but wish them a better teacher. What homage they pay to the deities they acknowlege we could not learn; but we faw no place of public worship, like the Morais of the South Sea Islands; yet we saw, near a plantation of sweet potatoes, a small area, of a square figure, furrounded with ftones, in the middle of which one of the sharpened stakes which they use as a fpade was fet up, and upon it was hung a basket of fern roots upon inquiry, the natives told us, that it was an offering to the gods, by which the owner hoped to render them propitious, and obtain a plentiful crop. : As to their manner of difpofing of their dead, we could form no certain opinion of it, for the accounts that we received by no means agreed. In the northern parts, they told us that they buried them in the ground; and in the fouthern, that they threw them into the fea it is however certain that we saw no grave in the country, and that they affected to conceal every thing relating to their dead with a kind of mysterious fecrecy. But whatever may be the fepulchre, the living are themselves the monuments; for we faw fcarcely a single perfon of either fex whofe body was not marked by the fcars of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves as a teftimony of their regret for the lofs of a relation or friend: fome of these wounds we saw in a state so recent, that the blood was scarcely ftaunched, which fhews that death had been among them while we were upon the coaft; and makes it more extraordinary that no funeral ceremony fhould have fallen under our notice: fome of the fcars were very large and deep, and in many inftances had greatly disfigured the face. One monument indeed was obferved of another kind, the cross that was set up near Queen Charlotte's Sound. Having now given the beft account in my power of the customs and opinions of the inhabitants of New Zealand, with their boats, nets, furniture, and drefs, I fhall only remark, that the fimilitude between these particu particulars here and in the South Sea islands is a very trong proof that the inhabitants have the fame origin; and that the common ancestors of both, were natives of the fame country. They have both a tradition that their ancestors, at a very remote period of time, came from another country; and, according to the tradition of both, that the name of that country was HEAWIJE; but the fimilitude of the language feems to put the matter altogether out of doubt. I have already obferved, that Tupia, when he accosted the people here in the language of his own country, was perfectly understood; and I shall give a specimen of the fimilitude, by a lift of words in both languages, according to the dialect of the northern and fouthern islands of which New Zealand confifts, by which it will appear that the language of Otaheite does not differ more from that of New Zealand, than the language of the two islands from each other. 1770. March. OTAHEITE. |