Day-Light No Sooner Broke Upon Us On The 21st, Than We Saw Upwards Of Sixty
Canoes Under Sail Going
Out of the harbour, and steering over for Ulietea.
On our enquiring the reason, we were told that the people
In them were
Eareeois, and were going to visit their brethren in the neighbouring
isles. One may almost compare these men to free-masons; they tell us they
assist each other when need requires; they seem to have customs among them
which they either will not, or cannot explain. Oedidee told us he was one;
Tupia was one; and yet I have not been able to get any tolerable idea of
this set of men, from either of them. Oedidee denies that the children they
have by their mistresses are put to death, as we understood from Tupia and
others. I have had some conversation with Omai on this subject, and find
that he confirms every thing that is said upon it in the narrative of my
former voyage.[2]
Oedidee, who generally slept on shore, came off with a message from Oree,
desiring I would land with twenty-two men, to go with him to chastise the
robbers. 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.
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