Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 by John MacGillivray (recommended reading txt) 📖

from the signs and gestures of the natives on various occasions when explaining their mode of warfare, they are also used for charging and thrusting with, the neighbourhood of the armpit being the part aimed at as most vulnerable.

The spear in most common use tapers to a point at each end, more suddenly in front and very gradually behind where it usually terminates in a small knob with two or three ornamental rings. Sometimes a grommet, or ring of cordage, is worked upon the spear near one end, to prevent the hand slipping when making a thrust. There are many other kinds of spears variously barbed on one or both sides near the head. The fishing spear is usually headed by a bundle of about four or six slender, sharp-pointed pieces of wood, two feet in length, sometimes barbed at the point.

We obtained three clubs here-the only ones seen-one, closely resembling the stone-headed club of Darnley Island, consists of a wooden shaft, four feet long, sharp pointed at one end and at the other passing through a hole in the centre of a sharp-edged circular disk of quartz, shaped like a quoit, four inches in diameter; the second is twenty-seven inches in length, cut out of a heavy piece of wood, leaving a slender handle and cylindrical head, three and a half inches long, studded with knobs; the remaining one, a less formidable weapon than the others, is flat on both sides, with a serrated edge, and measures twenty-two inches in length and three in width.

ORNAMENTS.

The ornaments worn on this part of the coast are in general so precisely similar to those of the Louisiade, already described, that a brief allusion to them is sufficient. In both places we saw the same nose-sticks, combs stuck in the hair, flat circular earrings, woven and shell armlets, round ornaments made of melon shell, necklaces of dog's teeth and black seeds, and white cowries strung round the legs, arms, and neck. I observed here none of the human jaw bones worn as bracelets so frequently met with in the Louisiade, nor did painting the body appear to be carried to the same extent, although the mode of doing so was the same. Here too we sometimes saw the hair collected and twisted behind into a single or double queue, and procured a neatly constructed bushy wig of frizzled hair. A girdle of split rattan wound about a dozen times round the waist is in common use here, but I do not recollect having seen it in the Louisiade.

MANUFACTURES.

Among other articles of native manufacture I may mention large baked earthen pots* used in cooking, also very neatly made round flat-bottomed baskets in sets of four, partially fitting into each other, with a woven belt to suspend them from the shoulders by-in these various small articles are carried, among them the spatula and calabash, with lime to be used in betel chewing-and a netted bag, a foot and a half in width and one in depth. Their rope is beautifully made of the long tough stringy bark of a tree, strongly twisted and laid up in three strands, and for finer lines and twine a kind of flax, resembling the New Zealand, but still more the Manila sort, is used here. The finest sample of the prepared material which I saw measured eleven feet in length, and consisted of a bundle of rather fine white fibres. Although very much coarser than our hemp, it is of nearly uniform size, and possesses considerable strength, but breaks easily when knotted. We saw it in considerable quantity, but had no means of ascertaining the plant from which it is derived, probably, however, a banana of some kind. We occasionally saw pieces of a white soft papery cloth, apparently similar to the tapa of Polynesia, and like it made of the inner bark of some small tree, but it did not appear to be applied to much use.

(*Footnote. Similar to that figured.)

In the Louisiade we had not observed the betel pepper, but here it was found in common use-both the leaf and green fruit, especially the latter, being added to the lime and areca-nut. Still betel chewing, although a very general habit, is by no means universally practised, for many elderly people retained the original whiteness of the teeth. By the males it appears to be adopted only after attaining the state of manhood, and among the females is almost entirely confined to the old women.

The fondness of these people for flowers and strong-scented plants is remarkable-they wear them in their hair, thrust under the armlets and girdle, or as garlands round the neck. Among the chief favourites may be mentioned an amaranth with purple leaves, giving out a very rich colour upon pressure being applied, and a species of mint-like herb which they dry in bunches, and carry about with them.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

In addition to the drum formerly mentioned, and large shells-Cassis or Triton-with a hole at one end, used as trumpets, we saw a small Pandean pipe made of portions of reed of different lengths, and a tube of bamboo, two feet long, which gives out a sound like a horn when blown into.

FOOD.

The staple article of food is the yam, which is produced here in great abundance, of large size, and excellent quality. Several other tubers, or roots, are eaten. Among them is that of a species of Calladium, which requires much cooking to destroy its acridity. The coconut-tree grows everywhere. In the canoes we saw abundance of sugarcane in pieces two feet in length and an inch in thickness, and the natives brought off to us bananas, breadfruit, mangoes, and prepared arrowroot. To a certain extent also the natives feed upon fish, judging from the nets and fishing-spears seen among them. The former, although frequently thirty or forty feet in length, did not exceed eighteen inches in depth-they have small meshes, thin triangular wooden floats, and shells at the bottom as sinkers. Although we saw many pigs on shore in the village, only one was obtained by barter, in this one a spear wound behind the shoulder was made alongside the ship before handing it on board, but for what purpose we could not understand, as it did not kill the animal. Dogs also I have reason to believe are occasionally eaten, but whether cannibalism is ever practised by these people is a question which we have not the means of settling, as no evidence bearing upon the point could be obtained.

August 29th.

During our stay of thirteen days at this anchorage the wind has usually been strong from East to East-South-East, with dull, gloomy, squally weather, and occasionally showers of drizzling rain. Today, however, the rain was so heavy that we caught seven tons in the awning. To this haziness, which by obscuring distant objects was unfavourable for surveying purposes, we owed our long detention here. As our intercourse with the shore was limited to the two brief visits formerly mentioned, I made no addition to the collection, with the exception of a solitary Helix, nor was anything of zoological interest brought off by the natives, except a string of heads of a species of hornbill (Buceros plicatus) and feathers of a cassowary, a scarlet lory, and a few other birds. No fish were caught at the anchorage, probably on account of the nature of the bottom-a tenacious, greenish, muddy clay-and the strength of the current which prevented our lines from resting on the bottom. Observations made with the lead alongside at the time of high and low-water indicated by the shore showed in thirteen days' observations a rise and fall of only from two to six feet. Neither during the ebb nor the floodtide was there any appreciable difference in the direction of the current at our anchorage which set constantly to the westward between West and West-South-West, at the rate of from one to one and a half knots an hour. This current may reasonably be conjectured to come from the northward and sweep round the South-East cape of New Guinea (distant from this anchorage about fifty miles) thus making it appear probable that a clear passage exists between the South-East extreme of New Guinea and the western termination of the Louisiade Archipelago: indeed so far as Lieutenant Yule's observations were carried in this direction no reefs were seen to impede his progress to the north-east.

LEAVE THE BRUMER ISLANDS.

September 4th.

Five days ago we sailed from the Brumer Islands, and continued running lines of soundings off and on the coast, the inshore details being left as usual to the Bramble. On one occasion, while within a few miles of the shore, the water suddenly shoaled to twelve, ten, and six fathoms, rock or coral, although half an hour before no bottom could be got with a hundred fathoms of line-apparently an indication of a submarine barrier, more or less continuous, running at a variable distance from the shore, and following the general trend of the coast. The appearance of the land seen lately is very fine: the coast being backed by ranges of high mountains presenting a very diversified outline; one of them, named upon the chart Cloudy Mount, attains an elevation of 4,477 feet. Yesterday and today great numbers of a storm petrel (Thalassidroma leucogastra) have been following in our wake.

ANCHOR OFF DUFAURE ISLAND.

This afternoon, while off the eastern end of the bay called by Bougainville the Cul de sac de l'Orangerie, the Bramble was signalled to lead in towards the land off which we anchored at 9 P.M. in 30 fathoms.

From our anchorage we next morning saw on Dufaure Island, from which we were distant about three miles, a village in a grove of coconut trees behind a sandy beach, and the natives came off in considerable numbers bringing large quantities of coconuts and breadfruit;* they did not appear however to have any yams. Two or three small pigs, of the same description as that hitherto seen (Sus papuensis) were procured.

(*Footnote. This was of smaller size than it attains in the South Sea Islands; we cooked it in various ways but failed to make it palatable.)

OBTAIN TWO OPOSSUMS.

And we obtained two fine live opossums, of a rare and singular kind (Cuscus maculatus) for an axe apiece. They appeared to be quiet gentle animals, until much irritated, when they bite hard. We fed them at first on ripe coconuts, of which they were very fond; but latterly they became accustomed to pea-soup. They spent most of the day in sleep in a corner of the hen-coop where they were kept, each on its haunches with the tail coiled up in front, the body arched, and the head covered by the fore paws and doubled down between the thighs; at night, however, they were more active and restless, their large reddish-yellow eyes being then obscured by the dilated pupil, which during the day appears as a narrow vertical line. One was frequently taken on deck towards evening and allowed to climb about the rigging, moving very slowly, and endeavouring to get up as high as possible.

The natives resemble those seen at Brumer islands (from which we were distant about thirty-six miles) so closely that I saw no points regarding them deserving of separate notice, and their language is the same, judging from a small vocabulary of about seventy words. The only manufactured article new to us was a small wooden pillow* about a foot long and six inches high, with a slight concavity above to receive the neck of the person using it. Both women and children came off with the men to traffic with us and look at the ship, but none could be