Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 2.: The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 2.: The Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
Forster says, "These natives appear to be of different race to those
living in Mallicolo. They speak a different language. They are of
medium height, but well-shaped, and their features are not
disagreeable. They were bronze in complexion, and they paint their
faces black or red; their hair is somewhat woolly and curly. The few
women I saw appeared very ugly. I have seen no pirogues on any part of
the coast. They live in houses covered with palm-leaves, and their
plantations are in straight lines and are surrounded by a hedge of
reeds."
It was useless to make a second attempt to land. Cook having bestowed
the name of Cape Traitor upon the scene of the collision, reached an
island, which he had seen the previous evening, and which the natives
called Tanna.
"The highest hill of the same range is of conical shape," says Forster,
"with a crater in the centre. It is reddish brown, and composed of a
mass of burnt stones, perfectly sterile. From time to time it emitted
a thick column of smoke like a great tree, increasing in width as it
ascended."
The _Resolution_ was at once surrounded by a score of pirogues, the
largest of which contained twenty-five men. The latter sought to
appropriate everything within their reach, buoys, flags, the hinges of
the rudder, which they tried to knock off. They only returned to the
shore after a four-pounder had been fired over their heads.
The vessel made for the shore, but all the trifles that were
distributed could not induce the natives to relinquish their attitude
of defiance and bravado. It was clear that the smallest
misunderstanding would lead to bloodshed.
Cook imagined these people to be cannibals, although pigs, fowls,
roots, and fruits abounded.
During the stay prudence prevented any one leaving the shore. Forster,
however, ventured a little way and discovered a spring of water, so
hot that he could not hold his finger in it longer than a second. In
spite of all their wishes, the English found it impossible to reach
the central volcano, which emitted torrents of fire and smoke as high
as the clouds, and projected enormously large stones into the air. The
number of extinct volcanoes in every direction was considerable, and
the soil was decidedly subject to volcanic eruptions. By degrees,
though without losing their reserve, the Tannians became more at home
with the strangers, and intercourse was less difficult.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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