Dana, Richard Henry, 1815-1882; Sailors; Seafaring life; Voyages and travels
say, with the highest indignation, to a Yankee trader who was
trying to persuade him to keep his money to himself, ``No! we no
all 'e same a' you!-- Suppose one got money, all got money. You,--
suppose one got money-- lock him up in chest.-- No good!''--
``Kanaka all 'e same a' one!'' This principle they carry so far
that none of them will eat anything in sight of others without
offering it all round. I have seen one of them break a biscuit,
which had been given him, into five parts, at a time when I knew
he was on a very short allowance, as there was but little to eat
on the beach.
My favorite among all of them, and one who was liked by both
officers and men, and by whomever he had anything to do with, was
Hope. He was an intelligent, kind-hearted little fellow, and I
never saw him angry, though I knew him for more than a year, and
have seen him imposed upon by white people, and abused by insolent
mates of vessels. He was always civil, and always ready, and never
forgot a benefit. I once took care of him when he was ill, getting
medicines from the ship's chests, when no captain or officer would
do anything for him, and he never forgot it. Every Kanaka has one
particular friend, whom he considers himself bound to do
everything for, and with whom he has a sort of contract,-- an
alliance offensive and defensive,-- and for whom he will often
make the greatest sacrifices. This friend they call aikane; and
for such did Hope adopt me. I do not believe I could have wanted
anything which he had, that he would not have given me. In return
for this, I was his friend among the Americans, and used to teach
him letters and numbers; for he left home before he had learned
how to read. He was very curious respecting Boston (as they called
the United States), asking many questions about the houses, the
people, &c., and always wished to have the pictures in books
explained to him. They were all astonishingly quick in catching at
explanations, and many things which I had thought it utterly
impossible to make them understand they often seized in an
instant, and asked questions which showed that they knew enough to
make them wish to go farther. The pictures of steamboats and
railroad cars, in the columns of some newspapers which I had, gave
me great difficulty to explain. The grading of the road, the
rails, the construction of the carriages, they could easily
understand, but the motion produced by steam was a little too
refined for them. I attempted to show it to them once by an
experiment upon the cook's coppers, but failed,-- probably as much
from my own ignorance as from their want of apprehension, and, I
have no doubt, left them with about as clear an idea of the
principle as I had myself. This difficulty, of course, existed in
the same force with respect to the steamboats; and all I could do
was to give them some account of the results, in the shape of
speed; for, failing in the reason, I had to fall back upon the
fact.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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