The Messenger Brought With Him, By Way Of Assisting His Memory,
Twenty-Two Pieces Of Leaves, A Method Customary Amongst Them.
On my
receiving this extraordinary message, I went to the chief for better
information; and all I could learn
Of him was, that these fellows were a
sort of banditti, who had formed themselves into a body, with a resolution
of seizing and robbing our people wherever they found them, and were now
armed for that purpose: For which reason he wanted me to go along with him,
to chastise them. I told him, if I went they would fly to the mountains;
but he said, they were resolved to fight us, and therefore desired I would
destroy both them and their house; but begged I would spare those in the
neighbourhood, as also the canoes and the Whenooa. By way of
securing these, he presented me with a pig as a peace-offering for the
Whenooa. It was too small to be meant for any thing but a ceremony
of this kind. This sensible old chief could see (what perhaps none of the
others ever thought of) that every thing in the neighbourhood was at our
mercy, and therefore took care to secure them by this method, which I
suppose to be of weight with them. When I returned on board, I considered
of the chiefs request, which upon the whole appeared an extraordinary one.
I however resolved to go, lest these fellows should be (by our refusal)
encouraged to commit greater acts of violence; and, as their proceeding
would soon reach Ulietea, where I intended to go next, the people there
might be induced to treat us in the same manner, or worse, they being more
numerous. Accordingly I landed with forty-eight men, including officers, Mr
Forster, and some other of the gentlemen. The chief joined us with a few
people, and we began to march, in search of the banditti, in good order. As
we proceeded, the chief's party increased like a snow-ball. Oedidee, who
was with us, began to be alarmed, observing that many of the people in our
company were of the very party we were going against, and at last telling
us, that they were only leading us to some place where they could attack us
to advantage. Whether there was any truth in this, or it was only Oedidee's
fears, I will not pretend to say. He, however, was the only person we could
confide in. And we regulated our motions according to the information he
had given us. After marching some miles, we got intelligence that the men
we were going after had fled to the mountains; but I think this was not
till I had declared to the chief I would proceed no farther. For we were
then about crossing a deep valley, bounded on each side by steep rocks,
where a few men with stones only might have made our retreat difficult, if
their intentions were what Oedidee had suggested, and which he still
persisted in. Having come to a resolution to return, we marched back in the
same order as we went, and saw, in several places, people, who had been
following us, coming down from the sides of the hills with their arms in
their hands, which they instantly quitted, and hid in the bushes, when they
saw they were discovered by us. This seemed to prove that there must have
been some foundation for what Oedidee had said; but I cannot believe that
the chief had any such design, whatever the people might have. In our
return we halted at a convenient place to refresh ourselves. I ordered the
people to bring us some cocoa-nuts, which they did immediately. Indeed, by
this time, I believe many of them wished us on board out of the way; for
although no one step was taken that could give them the least alarm, they
certainly were in terror. Two chiefs brought each of them a pig, a dog, and
some young plantain trees, the usual peace-offerings, and with due ceremony
presented them singly to me. Another brought a very large hog, with which
he followed us to the ship. After this we continued our course to the
landing-place, where I caused several vollies to be fired, to convince the
natives that we could support a continual fire. This being done, we all
embarked and went on board; and soon after the chief following, brought
with him a quantity of fruit, and sat down with us to dinner. We had scarce
dined before more fruit was brought us by others, and two hogs; so that we
were likely to make more by this little excursion than by all the presents
we had made them. It certainly gave them some alarm to see so strong a
party of men march into their country; and probably gave them a better
opinion of fire-arms than they had before. For I believe they had but an
indifferent, or rather contemptible, idea of muskets in general, having
never seen any fired but at birds, &c. by such of our people as used to
straggle about the country, the most of them but indifferent marksmen,
losing generally two shots out of three, their pieces often, missing fire,
and being slow in charging. Of all this they had taken great notice, and
concluded, as well they might, that fire-arms were not so terrible things
as they had been taught to believe.
When the chiefs took leave in the evening, they promised to bring us next
day a very large supply of provisions. In the article of fruit they were as
good as their word, but of hogs, which we most wanted, they brought far
less than we expected. Going ashore in the afternoon, I found the chief
just sitting down to dinner. I cannot say what was the occasion of his
dining so late. As soon as he was seated, several people began chewing the
pepper-root; about a pint of the juice of which, without any mixture, was
the first dish, and was dispatched in a moment.
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