A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The next day we were visited by a tribe or family, consisting of about
thirty persons, men, women and children, who came from the upper part of
the Sound. I had never seen them before. The name of their chief was
Tomatongeauooranuc, a man of about forty-five years of age, with a
cheerful open countenance; and, indeed, the rest of his tribe were, in
general, the handsomest of the New Zealand race I had ever met with.
By this time more than two-thirds of the inhabitants, of the Sound had
settled themselves about us. Great numbers of them daily frequented the
ships, and the encampment on shore; but the latter became, by far, the
most favourite place of resort, while our people there were melting some
seal blubber. No Greenlander was ever fonder of train-oil than our
friends here seemed to be. They relished the very skimmings of the
kettle, and dregs of the casks; but a little of the pure stinking oil
was a delicious feast, so eagerly desired, that I suppose it is seldom
enjoyed.
Having got on board as much hay and grass as we judged sufficient to
serve the cattle till our arrival at Otaheite, and having completed the
wood and water of both ships, on the 23d we struck our tents, and
carried every thing off from the shore, and next morning we weighed
anchor, and stood out of the cove. But the wind not being very fair, and
finding that the tide of ebb would be spent before we could get out of
the Sound, we cast anchor again a little without the island Motuara, to
wait for a more favourable opportunity of putting into the strait.
While we were unmooring and getting under sail, Tomatongeauooranuc,
Matahouah, and many more of the natives, came to take their leave of us,
or rather to obtain, if they could, some additional presents from us
before we left them. These two chiefs became suitors to me for some
goats and hogs. Accordingly, I gave to Matahouah two goats, a male, and
female with kid; and to Tomatongeauooranuc two pigs, a boar and a sow.
They made me a promise not to kill them; though, I must own, I put no
great faith in this. The animals which Captain Furneaux sent on shore
here, and which soon after fell into the hands of the natives, I was now
told were all dead; but I could get no intelligence about the fate of
those I had left in West Bay, and in Cannibal Cove, when I was here in
the course of my last voyage. However, all the natives whom I conversed
with, agreed, that poultry are now to be met with wild in the woods
behind Ship Cove; and I was afterward informed, by the two youths who
went away with us, that Tiratou, a popular chief amongst them, had a
great many cocks and hens in his separate possession, and one of the
sows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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