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
On my present arrival at this place, I fully intended to have left not
only goats and hogs, but sheep, and a young bull, with two heifers, if I
could have found either a chief powerful enough to protect and keep
them, or a place where there might be a probability of their being
concealed from those who would ignorantly attempt to destroy them. But
neither the one nor the other presented itself to me. Tiratou was now
absent; and Tringoboohee, whom I had met with during my last voyage, and
who seemed to be a person of much consequence at that time, had been
killed five months ago, with about seventy persons of his tribe; and I
could not learn that there now remained in our neighbourhood any tribe,
whose numbers could secure to them a superiority of power over the rest
of their countrymen. To have given the animals to any of the natives who
possessed no such power, would not have answered the intention; for in a
country like this, where no man's property is secure, they would soon
have fallen a prey to different parties, and been either separated or
killed, but most likely both. This was so evident, from what we had
observed since our arrival, that I had resolved to leave no kind of
animal till Matahouah and the other chief solicited me for the hogs and
goats. As I could spare them, I let them go, to take their chance. I
have at different times, left in New Zealand not less than ten or a
dozen hogs, besides those put on shore by Captain Furneaux. It will be a
little extraordinary, therefore, if this race should not increase and be
preserved here, either in a wild or in a domestic state, or in both.
We had not been long at anchor near Motuara, before three or four
canoes, filled with natives, came off to us from the S.E. side of the
sound; and a brisk trade was carried on with them for the curiosities of
this place. In one of these canoes was Kahoora, whom I have already
mentioned as the leader of the party who cut off the crew of the
Adventure's boat. This was the third time he had visited us, without
betraying the smallest appearance of fear. I was ashore when he now
arrived, but had got on board just as he was going away. Omai, who had
returned with me, presently pointed him out, and solicited me to shoot
him. Not satisfied with this, he addressed himself to Kahoora,
threatening to be his executioner if ever he presumed to visit us
again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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