Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
[Illustration: New Zealanders. (Fac-simile of early engraving.)]
D'Urville continued to sail northward up the coast until the capes,
named by Cook Turn-again and Kidnappers, had been doubled, and Sterile
Island with its "Ipah" came in sight. In the Bay of Tolaga, as Cook
called it, the natives brought alongside the corvette pigs and
potatoes, which they readily exchanged for articles of little value. On
other canoes approaching, the New Zealanders who were on board the
vessel urged the commander to fire upon and kill their
fellow-countrymen in the boats; but as soon as the latter climbed up to
the deck, the first arrivals advanced to greet them with earnest
assurances of friendship. Conduct so strangely inconsistent is the
outcome of the compound of hatred and jealousy mutually entertained for
each other by these tribes. "They all desire to appropriate to
themselves exclusively whatever advantage may be obtained from the
visits of foreigners, and they are distressed at the prospect of their
neighbours getting any share." Proof was soon afforded that this
explanation is the right key to their behaviour.
Upon the _Astrolabe_ were several New Zealanders, but among them was a
certain "_Shaki_" who was recognized as a chief by his tall stature,
his elaborate tattooing, and the respectful manner in which he was
addressed by his fellow-islanders. Seeing a canoe manned by not more
than seven or eight men approaching the corvette, this "_Shaki_" and
the rest came to entreat D'Urville most earnestly to kill the new
arrivals, going so far as to ask for muskets that they might themselves
fire upon them. However, no sooner had the last comers arrived on board
than all those who were there already overwhelmed them with courtesies,
while the "_Shaki_" himself, although he had been one of the most
sanguinary, completely changed his tone and made them a present of some
axes he had just obtained. After the chief men of a warlike and fierce
appearance, with faces tattooed all over, had been a few minutes on
board, D'Urville was preparing to ask them some questions, with the aid
of a vocabulary published by the missionaries, when all at once they
turned away from him, leaped into their canoes and pushed out into the
open sea. This sudden move was brought about by their countrymen, who,
for the purpose of getting rid of them, slily hinted that their lives
were in danger, as the Frenchmen had formed a plot to kill them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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