University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER II.

I can never forget the eighteen or twenty days during which
the light trade-winds were silently sweeping us towards the
islands. In pursuit of the sperm whale, we had been cruizing
on the line some twenty degrees to the westward of the Gallipagos;
and all that we had to do, when our course was determined
on, was to square in the yards and keep the vessel before
the breeze, and then the good ship and the steady gale did the
rest between them. The man at the wheel never vexed the old
lady with any superfluous steering, but comfortably adjusting his
limbs at the tiller, would doze away by the hour. True to her
work, the Dolly headed to her course, and like one of those characters
who always do best when let alone, she jogged on her way
like a veteran old sea-pacer as she was.

What a delightful, lazy, languid time we had whilst we were
thus gliding along! There was nothing to be done; a circumstance
that happily suited our disinclination to do anything. We
abandoned the fore-peak altogether, and spreading an awning
over the forecastle, slept, ate, and lounged under it the live-long
day. Every one seemed to be under the influence of some narcotic.
Even the officers aft, whose duty required them never to
be seated while keeping a deck watch, vainly endeavoured to
keep on their pins; and were obliged invariably to compromise
the matter by leaning up against the bulwarks, and gazing abstractedly
over the side. Reading was out of the question; take
a book in your hand, and you were asleep in an instant.

Although I could not avoid yielding in a great measure to the
general languor, still at times I contrived to shake off the spell,

and to appreciate the beauty of the scene around me. The sky
presented a clear expanse of the most delicate blue, except along
the skirts of the horizon, where you might see a thin drapery of
pale clouds which never varied their form or colour. The long,
measured, dirge-like swell of the Pacific came rolling along,
with its surface broken by little tiny waves, sparkling in the
sunshine. Every now and then a shoal of flying fish, scared
from the water under the bows, would leap into the air, and fall
the next moment like a shower of silver into the sea. Then you
would see the superb albicore, with his glittering sides, sailing
aloft, and often describing an arc in his descent, disappear on
the surface of the water. Far off, the lofty jet of the whale
might be seen, and nearer at hand the prowling shark, that
villainous footpad of the seas, would come skulking along, and,
at a wary distance, regard us with his evil eye. At times, some
shapeless monster of the deep, floating on the surface, would, as
we approached, sink slowly into the blue waters, and fade away
from the sight. But the most impressive feature of the scene
was the almost unbroken silence that reigned over sky and water.
Scarcely a sound could be heard but the occasional breathing of
the grampus, and the rippling at the cut-water.

As we drew nearer the land, I hailed with delight the appearance
of innumerable sea-fowl. Screaming and whirling in
spiral tracks, they would accompany the vessel, and at times
alight on our yards and stays. That piratical-looking fellow,
appropriately named the man-of-war's hawk, with his blood-red
bill and raven plumage, would come sweeping round us in
gradually diminishing circles, till you could distinctly mark the
strange flashings of his eye; and then, as if satisfied with his
observation, would sail up into the air and disappear from the
view. Soon, other evidences of our vicinity to the land were
apparent, and it was not long before the glad announcement of
its being in sight was heard from aloft,—given with that peculiar
prolongation of sound that a sailor loves—"Land ho!"

The captain, darting on deck from the cabin, bawled lustily
for his spy-glass; the mate in still louder accents hailed the
mast-head with a tremendous "where-away?" The black cook
thrust his woolly head from the galley, and Boatswain, the dog,
leaped up between the knight-heads, and barked most furiously.

Land ho! Aye, there it was. A hardly perceptible blue
irregular outline, indicating the bold contour of the lofty
heights of Nukuheva.

This island, although generally called one of the Marquesas,
is by some navigators considered as forming one of a distinct
cluster, comprising the islands of Ruhooka, Ropo, and Nukuheva;
upon which three the appellation of the Washington
Group has been bestowed. They form a triangle, and lie within
the parallels of 8° 38″ and 9° 32″ South latitude, and 139° 20′
and 140° 10′ West longitude from Greenwich. With how little
propriety they are to be regarded as forming a separate group
will be at once apparent, when it is considered that they lie in
the immediate vicinity of the other islands, that is to say, less
than a degree to the north-west of them; that their inhabitants
speak the Marquesan dialect, and that their laws, religion, and
general customs are identical. The only reason why they were
ever thus arbitrarily distinguished, may be attributed to the
singular fact, that their existence was altogether unknown to
the world until the year 1791, when they were discovered by
Captain Ingraham, of Boston, Massachusetts, nearly two centuries
after the discovery of the adjacent islands by the agent of
the Spanish Viceroy. Notwithstanding this, I shall follow the
example of most voyagers, and treat of them as forming part and
parcel of the Marquesas.

Nukuheva is the most important of these islands, being the
only one at which ships are much in the habit of touching, and
is celebrated as being the place where the adventurous Captain
Porter refitted his ships during the late war between England
and the United States, and whence he sallied out upon the large
whaling fleet then sailing under the enemy's flag in the surrounding
seas. This island is about twenty miles in length and nearly
as many in breadth. It has three good harbours on its coast;
the largest and best of which is called by the people living in its
vicinity `Tyohee,' and by Captain Porter was denominated
Massachusetts Bay. Among the adverse tribes dwelling about
the shores of the other bays, and by all voyagers, it is generally
known by the name bestowed upon the island itself—Nukuheva.
Its inhabitants have become somewhat corrupted, owing to their
recent commerce with Europeans; but so far as regards their

peculiar customs and general mode of life, they retain their
original primitive character, remaining very nearly in the same
state of nature in which they were first beheld by white men.
The hostile clans, residing in the more remote sections of the
island, and very seldom holding any communication with foreigners,
are in every respect unchanged from their earliest
known condition.

In the bay of Nukuheva was the anchorage we desired to reach.
We had perceived the loom of the mountains about sunset; so
that after running all night with a very light breeze, we found
ourselves close in with the island the next morning: but as the bay
we sought lay on its farther side, we were obliged to sail some
distance along the shore, catching, as we proceeded, short glimpses
of blooming valleys, deep glens, waterfalls, and waving groves,
hidden here and there by projecting and rocky headlands, every
moment opening to the view some new and startling scene of
beauty.

Those who for the first time visit the South Seas, generally
are surprised at the appearance of the islands when beheld from
the sea. From the vague accounts we sometimes have of their
beauty, many people are apt to picture to themselves enamelled
and softly swelling plains, shaded over with delicious groves, and
watered by purling brooks, and the entire country but little
elevated above the surrounding ocean. The reality is very different;
bold rock-bound coasts, with the surf beating high
against the lofty cliffs, and broken here and there into deep inlets,
which open to the view thickly-wooded valleys, separated by the
spurs of mountains clothed with tufted grass, and sweeping down
towards the sea from an elevated and furrowed interior, form the
principal features of these islands.

Towards noon we drew abreast the entrance to the harbour,
and at last we slowly swept by the intervening promontory, and
entered the bay of Nukuheva. No description can do justice to
its beauty; but that beauty was lost to me then, and I saw
nothing but the tri-coloured flag of France trailing over the stern
of six vessels, whose black hulls and bristling broadsides proclaimed
their warlike character. There they were, floating in
that lovely bay, the green eminences of the shore looking down
so tranquilly upon them, as if rebuking the sternness of their

aspect. To my eye nothing could be more out of keeping than
the presence of these vessels; but we soon learnt what brought
them there. The whole group of islands had just been taken
possession of by Rear Admiral Du Petit Thouars, in the name of
the invincible French nation.

This item of information was imparted to us by a most extraordinary
individual, a genuine South-Sea vagabond, who came
alongside of us in a whale-boat as soon as we entered the bay,
and by the aid of some benevolent persons at the gangway was
assisted on board, for our visitor was in that interesting stage of
intoxication when a man is amiable and helpless. Although he
was utterly unable to stand erect or to navigate his body across
the deck, he still magnanimously proffered his services to pilot
the ship to a good and secure anchorage. Our captain, however,
rather distrusted his ability in this respect, and refused to recognise
his claim to the character he assumed; but our gentleman
was determined to play his part, for by dint of much scrambling
he succeeded in getting into the weather-quarter boat, where he
steadied himself by holding on to a shroud, and then commenced
issuing his commands with amazing volubility and very peculiar
gestures. Of course no one obeyed his orders; but as it was impossible
to quiet him, we swept by the ships of the squadron with
this strange fellow performing his antics in full view of all the
French officers.

We afterwards learned that our eccentric friend had been a
lieutenant in the English navy; but having disgraced his flag by
some criminal conduct in one of the principal ports on the main,
he had deserted his ship, and spent many years wandering among
the islands of the Pacific, until accidentally being at Nukuheva
when the French took possession of the place, he had been appointed
pilot of the harbour by the newly constituted authorities.

As we slowly advanced up the bay, numerous canoes pushed
off from the surrounding shores, and we were soon in the midst
of quite a flotilla of them, their savage occupants struggling to
get aboard of us, and jostling one another in their ineffectual
attempts. Occasionally the projecting out-riggers of their slight
shallops running foul of one another, would become entangled
beneath the water, threatening to capsize the canoes, when a
scene of confusion would ensue that baffles description. Such

strange outcries and passionate gesticulations I never certainly
heard or saw before. You would have thought the islanders
were on the point of flying at one another's throats, whereas they
were only amicably engaged in disentangling their boats.

Scattered here and there among the canoes might be seen
numbers of cocoa nuts floating closely together in circular
groups, and bobbing up and down with every wave. By some
inexplicable means these cocoa nuts were all steadily approaching
towards the ship. As I leaned curiously over the side endeavouring
to solve their mysterious movements, one mass far in
advance of the rest attracted my attention. In its centre was
something I could take for nothing else than a cocoa nut, but
which I certainly considered one of the most extraordinary specimens
of the fruit I had ever seen. It kept twirling and dancing
about among the rest in the most singular manner, and as it drew
nearer I thought it bore a remarkable resemblance to the brown
shaven skull of one of the savages. Presently it betrayed a pair
of eyes, and soon I became aware that what I had supposed to
have been one of the fruit was nothing else than the head of an
islander, who had adopted this singular method of bringing his
produce to market. The cocoa nuts were all attached to one
another by strips of the husk, partly torn from the shell and
rudely fastened together. Their proprietor inserting his head
into the midst of them, impelled his necklace of cocoa nuts
through the water by striking out beneath the surface with his
feet.

I was somewhat astonished to perceive that among the number
of natives that surrounded us not a single female was to be seen.
At that time I was ignorant of the fact that by the operation of
the "taboo" the use of canoes in all parts of the island is rigorously
prohibited to the entire sex, for whom it is death even to
be seen entering one when hauled on shore; consequently, whenever
a Marquesan lady voyages by water, she puts in requisition
the paddles of her own fair body.

We had approached within a mile and a half perhaps of the
foot of the bay, when some of the islanders, who by this time had
managed to scramble aboard of us at the risk of swamping their
canoes, directed our attention to a singular commotion in the
water ahead of the vessel. At first I imagined it to be produced

by a shoal of fish sporting on the surface, but our savage friends
assured us that it was caused by a shoal of "whinhenies" (young
girls), who in this manner were coming off from the shore to
welcome us. As they drew nearer, and I watched the rising and
sinking of their forms, and beheld the uplifted right arm bearing
above the water the girdle of tappa, and their long dark hair
trailing beside them as they swam, I almost fancied they could
be nothing else than so many mermaids:—and very like mermaids
they behaved too.

We were still some distance from the beach, and under slow
headway, when we sailed right into the midst of these swimming
nymphs, and they boarded us at every quarter; many seizing
hold of the chain-plates and springing into the chains; others,
at the peril of being run over by the vessel in her course, catching
at the bob-stays, and wreathing their slender forms about the
ropes, hung suspended in the air. All of them at length succeeded
in getting up the ship's side, where they clung dripping
with the brine and glowing from the bath, their jet-black tresses
streaming over their shoulders, and half enveloping their otherwise
naked forms. There they hung, sparkling with savage
vivacity, laughing gaily at one another, and chattering away with
infinite glee. Nor were they idle the while, for each one performed
the simple offices of the toilette for the other. Their
luxuriant locks, wound up and twisted into the smallest possible
compass, were freed from the briny element; the whole person
carefully dried, and from a little round shell that passed from
hand to hand, anointed with a fragrant oil: their adornments
were completed by passing a few loose folds of white tappa, in a
modest cincture, around the waist. Thus arrayed they no longer
hesitated, but flung themselves lightly over the bulwarks, and
were quickly frolicking about the decks. Many of them went
forward, perching upon the head-rails or running out upon the
bowsprit, while others seated themselves upon the taffrail, or reclined
at full length upon the boats. What a sight for us
bachelor sailors! how avoid so dire a temptation? For who
could think of tumbling these artless creatures overboard, when
they had swam miles to welcome us?

Their appearance perfectly amazed me; their extreme youth,
the light clear brown of their complexions, their delicate features,

and inexpressibly graceful figures, their softly moulded
limbs, and free unstudied action, seemed as strange as beautiful.

The `Dolly' was fairly captured; and never I will say was
vessel carried before by such a dashing and irresistible party of
boarders! The ship taken, we could not do otherwise than yield
ourselves prisoners, and for the whole period that she remained
in the bay, the `Dolly,' as well as her crew, were completely in
the hands of the mermaids.

In the evening after we had come to an anchor the deck was
illuminated with lanterns, and this picturesque band of sylphs,
tricked out with flowers, and dressed in robes of variegated tappa,
got up a ball in great style. These females are passionately fond
of dancing, and in the wild grace and spirit of their style excel
everything that I have ever seen. The varied dances of the
Marquesan girls are beautiful in the extreme, but there is an
abandoned voluptuousness in their character which I dare not
attempt to describe.

Our ship was now wholly given up to every species of riot and
debauchery. Not the feeblest barrier was interposed between
the unholy passions of the crew and their unlimited gratification.
The grossest licentiousness and the most shameful inebriety prevailed,
with occasional and but short-lived interruptions, through
the whole period of her stay. Alas for the poor savages when
exposed to the influence of these polluting examples! Unsophisticated
and confiding, they are easily led into every vice,
and humanity weeps over the ruin thus remorselessly inflicted
upon them by their European civilizers. Thrice happy are they
who, inhabiting some yet undiscovered island in the midst of the
ocean, have never been brought into contaminating contact with
the white man.