This Man Came, With All The Savage Fury Imaginable In His
Countenance, And A Large Club In His Hand, With
Which he beat about him, in
order to shew us how he alone had killed the thief; when, at the
Same time,
we all knew that he had not been out of his house the whole time.
Thus ended this troublesome day; and next morning early, Tee, Otoo's
faithful ambassador, came again on board, to acquaint me that Otoo was gone
to Oparree, and desired I would send a person (one of the natives as I
understood), to tell him that I was still his Tiyo. I asked him why
he did not do this himself, as I had desired. He made some excuse; but, I
believe the truth was, he had not seen him. In short, I found it was
necessary for me to go myself; for, while we thus spent our time in
messages, we remained without fruit, a stop being put to all exchanges of
this nature; that is, the natives brought nothing to market. Accordingly, a
party of us set out with Tee in our company, and proceeded to the very
utmost limits of Oparree, where, after waiting some considerable time, and
several messages having passed, the king at last made his appearance. After
we were seated under the shade of some trees, as usual, and the first
salutations were over, he desired me to parou (that is, to speak).
Accordingly, I began with blaming him for being frightened and alarmed at
what had happened, since I had always professed myself his friend, and I
was not angry with him or any of his people, but with those of Tiarabou,
who were the thieves. I was then asked, how I came to fire at the canoes?
Chance on this occasion furnished me with a good excuse. I told them, that
they belonged to Maritata, a Tiarabou man, one of whose people had stolen
the musket, and occasioned all this disturbance; and if I had them in my
power I would destroy them, or any other belonging to Tiarabou. This
declaration pleased them, as I expected, from the natural aversion the one
kingdom has to the other. What I said was enforced by presents, which
perhaps had the greatest weight with them. Thus were things once more
restored to their former state; and Otoo promised on his part, that the
next day we should be supplied with fruit, &c. as usual.
We then returned with him to his proper residence at Oparree, and there
took a view of some of his dock-yards (for such they well deserve to be
called) and large canoes; some lately built, and others building; two of
which were the largest I had ever seen in this sea; or indeed any where
else, under that name. This done, we returned on board, with Tee in our
company; who, after he had dined with us, went to inform old Happi, the
king's father, that all matters were again accommodated.
This old chief was at this time in the neighbourhood of Matavai; and it
should seem, from what followed, that he was not pleased with the
conditions; for that same evening all the women, which were not a few, were
sent for out of the ship, and people stationed on different parts of the
shore, to prevent any from coming off; and the next morning no supplies
whatever being brought, on my enquiring into the reason, I was told Happi
was mataoued. Chagrined at this disappointment as I was, I forbore
taking any step, from a supposition that Tee had not seen him, or that
Otoo's orders had not yet reached Matavai. A supply of fruit sent us from
Oparree, and some brought us by our friends, served us for the present, and
made us less anxious about it. Thus matters stood till the afternoon, when
Otoo himself came to the tents with a large supply. Thither I went, and
expostulated with him for not permitting the people in our neighbourhood to
bring us fruit as usual, insisting on his giving immediate orders about it;
which he either did or had done before. For presently after, more was
brought us than we could well manage. This was not to be wondered at, for
the people had every thing in readiness to bring, the moment they were
permitted, and I believe thought themselves as much injured by the
restriction as we did.
Otoo desiring to see some of the great guns fire from the ship, I ordered
twelve to be shotted and fired towards the sea. As he had never seen a
cannon fired before, the sight gave him as much pain as pleasure. In the
evening, we entertained him with fire-works, which gave him great
satisfaction.
Thus ended all our differences, on which I beg leave to suggest the
following remarks. I have had occasion before, in this journal, to observe
that these people were continually watching opportunities to rob us. This
their governors either encouraged, or had not power to prevent; but most
probably the former, because the offender was always screened.[6] That they
should commit such daring thefts was the more extraordinary, as they
frequently run the risk of being shot in the attempt; and if the article
that they stole was of any consequence, they knew they should be obliged to
make restitution. The moment a theft of this kind was committed, it spread
like the wind over the whole neighbourhood. They judged of the consequences
from what they had got. If it were a trifle, and such an article as we
usually gave them, little or no notice was taken of it; but if the
contrary, every one took the alarm, and moved off with his moveables in all
haste. The chief then was mataoued, giving orders to bring us no
supplies, and flying to some distant part. All this was sometimes done so
suddenly, that we obtained, by these appearances, the first intelligence of
our being robbed.
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