31. CHAPTER XXXI.
About a mile from the village we came to a halt.
It was a beautiful spot. A mountain stream here flowed at
the foot of a verdant slope; on one hand, it murmured along
until the waters, spreading themselves upon a beach of small,
sparkling shells, trickled into the sea; on the other, was a long
defile, where the eye pursued a gleaming, sinuous thread, lost
in shade and verdure.
The ground next the road was walled in by a low, rude
parapet of stones; and, upon the summit of the slope beyond,
was a large, native house, the thatch dazzling white, and, in
shape, an oval.
“Calabooza! Calabooza Beretanee!” (the English Jail),
cried our conductor, pointing to the building.
For a few months past, having been used by the consul as a
house of confinement for his refractory sailors, it was thus
styled to distinguish it from similar places in and about
Papeetee.
Though extremely romantic in appearance, on a near approach
it proved but ill adapted to domestic comfort. In
short, it was a mere shell, recently built, and still unfinished.
It was open all round, and tufts of grass were growing here
and there under the very roof. The only piece of furniture
was the “stocks,” a clumsy machine for keeping people in
one place, which, I believe, is pretty much out of date in most
countries. It is still in use, however, among the Spaniards in
South America; from whom, it seems, the Tahitians have borrowed
the contrivance, as well as the name by which all places
of confinement are known among them.
The stocks were nothing more than two stout timbers, about
twenty feet in length, and precisely alike. One was placed
edgeways on the ground, and the other resting on top, left, at
regular intervals along the seam, several round holes, the object
of which was evident at a glance.
By this time, our guide had informed us, that he went by the
name of “Capin Bob” (Captain Bob); and a hearty old Bob he
proved. It was just the name for him. From the first, so
pleased were we with the old man, that we cheerfully acquiesced
in his authority.
Entering the building, he set us about fetching heaps of dry
leaves to spread behind the stocks for a couch. A trunk of a
small cocoa-nut tree was then placed for a bolster—rather a
hard one, but the natives are used to it. For a pillow, they
use a little billet of wood, scooped out, and standing on four
short legs—a sort of head-stool.
These arrangements completed, Captain Bob proceeded to
“hannapar,” or secure us, for the night. The upper timber
of the machine being lifted at one end, and our ankles placed
in the semicircular spaces of the lower one, the other beam
was then dropped; both being finally secured together by an
old iron hoop at either extremity. This initiation was performed
to the boisterous mirth of the natives, and diverted ourselves
not a little.
Captain Bob now bustled about, like an old woman seeing
the children to bed. A basket of baked “taro,” or Indian
turnip, was brought in, and we were given a piece all round.
Then a great counterpane, of coarse, brown “tappa,” was
stretched over the whole party; and, after sundry injunctions
to “moee-moee,” and be “maitai”—in other words, to go to
sleep, and be good boys—we were left to ourselves, fairly put
to bed and tucked in.
Much talk was now had concerning our prospects in life;
but the doctor and I, who lay side by side, thinking the occasion
better adapted to meditation, kept pretty silent; and, before
long, the rest ceased conversing, and, wearied with loss
of rest on board the frigate, were soon sound asleep.
After sliding from one revery into another, I started, and
gave the doctor a pinch. He was dreaming, however; and,
resolved to follow his example, I troubled him no more.
How the rest managed, I know not; but, for my own part,
I found it very hard to get asleep. The consciousness of
having one's foot pinned; and the impossibility of getting it
anywhere else than just where it was, was most distressing.
But this was not all: there was no way of lying but straight
on your back; unless, to be sure, one's limb went round and
round in the ankle, like a swivel. Upon getting into a sort
of doze, it was no wonder this uneasy posture gave me the
nightmare. Under the delusion that I was about some gymnastics
or other, I gave my unfortunate member such a twitch,
that I started up with the idea that some one was dragging the
stocks away.
Captain Bob and his friends lived in a little hamlet hard by;
and when morning showed in the East, the old gentleman
came forth from that direction likewise, emerging from a
grove, and saluting us loudly as he approached.
Finding every body awake, he set us at liberty; and, leading
us down to the stream, ordered every man to strip and
bathe.
“All han's, my boy, hanna-hanna, wash!” he cried. Bob
was a linguist, and had been to sea in his day, as he many a
time afterward told us.
At this moment, we were all alone with him; and it would
have been the easiest thing in the world to have given him the
slip; but he seemed to have no idea of such a thing; treating
us so frankly and cordially, indeed, that even had we thought
of running, we would have been ashamed of attempting it.
He very well knew, nevertheless (as we ourselves were not
slow in finding out), that, for various reasons, any attempt
of the kind, without some previously arranged plan for leaving
the island, would be certain to fail.
As Bob was a rare one every way, I must give some account
of him. There was a good deal of “personal appearance”
about him; in short, he was a corpulent giant, over six
feet in height, and literally as big round as a hogshead. The
enormous bulk of some of the Tahitians has been frequently
spoken of by voyagers.
Beside being the English consul's jailer, as it were, he
carried on a little Tahitian farming; that is to say, he owned
several groves of the bread-fruit and palm, and never hindered
their growing. Close by was a “taro” patch of his, which he
occasionally visited.
Bob seldom disposed of the produce of his lands; it was all
needed for domestic consumption. Indeed, for gormandizing,
I would have matched him against any three common-council
men at a civic feast.
A friend of Bob's told me, that, owing to his voraciousness,
his visits to other parts of the island were much dreaded; for,
according to Tahitian customs, hospitality without charge is
enjoined upon every one; and though it is reciprocal in most
cases, in Bob's it was almost out of the question. The damage
done to a native larder in one of his morning calls, was more
than could be made good by his entertainer's spending the
holydays with him.
The old man, as I have hinted, had, once upon a time, been
a cruise or two in a whaling-vessel; and, therefore, he prided
himself upon his English. Having acquired what he knew of
it in the forecastle, he talked little else than sailor phrases, which
sounded whimsically enough.
I asked him one day how old he was. “Olee?” he exclaimed,
looking very profound in consequence of thoroughly understanding
so subtile a question—“Oh! very olee—'tousand 'ear
—more—big man when Capin Tootee (Captain Cook) heavey
in sight.” (In sea parlance, came into view.)
This was a thing impossible; but adapting my discourse to
the man, I rejoined—“Ah! you see Capin Tootee—well, how
you like him?”
“Oh! he maitai: (good) friend of me, and know my
wife.”
On my assuring him strongly, that he could not have been born
at the time, he explained himself by saying, that he was speaking
of his father, all the while. This, indeed, might very well
have been.
It is a curious fact, that all these people, young and old, will
tell you that they have enjoyed the honor of a personal acquaintance
with the great navigator; and if you listen to them, they
will go on and tell anecdotes without end. This springs from
nothing but their great desire to please; well knowing that a
more agreeable topic for a white man could not be selected.
As for the anachronism of the thing, they seem to have no idea
of it: days and years are all the same to them.
After our sunrise bath, Bob once more placed us in the stocks,
almost moved to tears at subjecting us to so great a hardship;
but he could not treat us otherwise, he said, on pain of the
consul's displeasure. How long we were to be confined, he did
not know; nor what was to be done with us in the end.
As noon advanced, and no signs of a meal were visible, some
one inquired whether we were to be boarded, as well as lodged,
at the Hotel de Calabooza?
“Vast heavey” (avast heaving, or wait a bit)—said Bob—
“kow-kow” (food) “come ship by by.”
And, sure enough, along comes Rope Yarn with a wooden
bucket of the Julia's villainous biscuit. With a grin, he said it
was a present from Wilson; it was all we were to get that day.
A great cry was now raised; and well was it for the land-lubber,
that he had a pair of legs, and the men could not use theirs.
One and all, we resolved not to touch the bread, come what
come might; and so we told the natives.
Being extravagantly fond of ship-biscuit—the harder the
better—they were quite overjoyed; and offered to give us every
day, a small quantity of baked bread-fruit and Indian turnip in
exchange for the bread. This we agreed to; and every morning
afterward, when the bucket came, its contents were at once
handed over to Bob and his friends, who never ceased munching
until nightfall.
Our exceedingly frugal meal of bread-fruit over, Captain
Bob waddled up to us with a couple of long poles hooked at
one end, and several large baskets of woven cocoa-nut branches.
Not far off was an extensive grove of orange-trees in full
bearing; and myself and another were selected to go with him,
and gather a supply for the party. When we went in among
the trees, the sumptuousness of the orchard was unlike any thing
I had ever seen; while the fragrance shaken from the gently
waving boughs, regaled our senses most delightfully.
In many places the trees formed a dense shade, spreading
overhead a dark, rustling vault, groined with boughs, and
studded here and there with the ripened spheres, like gilded
balls. In several places, the overladen branches were borne to
the earth, hiding the trunk in a tent of foliage. Once fairly in
the grove, we could see nothing else; it was oranges all
round.
To preserve the fruit from bruising, Bob, hooking the twigs
with his pole, let them fall into his basket. But this would not
do for us. Seizing hold of a bough, we brought such a shower
to the ground, that our old friend was fain to run from under.
Heedless of remonstrance, we then reclined in the shade, and
feasted to our heart's content. Heaping up the baskets afterward,
we returned to our comrades, by whom our arrival was
hailed with loud plaudits; and in a marvelously short time,
nothing was left of the oranges we brought, but the rinds.
While inmates of the Calabooza, we had as much of the
fruit as we wanted; and to this cause, and others that might be
mentioned, may be ascribed the speedy restoration of our sick
to comparative health.
The orange of Tahiti is delicious—small and sweet, with a
thin, dry rind. Though now abounding, it was unknown
before Cook's time, to whom the natives are indebted for so
great a blessing. He likewise introduced several other kinds
of fruit; among these were the fig, pine-apple, and lemon, now
seldom met with. The lime still grows, and some of the
poorer natives express the juice to sell to the shipping. It is
highly valued as an anti-scorbutic. Nor was the variety of
foreign fruits and vegetables which were introduced, the only
benefit conferred by the first visitors to the Society group.
Cattle and sheep were left at various places. More of them
anon.
Thus, after all that of late years has been done for these
islanders, Cook and Vancouver may, in one sense at least, be
considered their greatest benefactors.
