The Explorers (16 page)

Our party then took to their boats and began a firing of ball and swan shot. This, after a short skirmish, made them retreat hastily, leaving one dead and having several others wounded.

Their king, who was with the centre party, wore a beautiful turban of feathers and a very large cloak. He was a man of two or three and twenty, remarkably handsome, well made and of a much fairer complexion than the rest. Those of our party who wore fur caps were supposed by them to be females. Except the chiefs as before mentioned, all the natives were entirely naked, but had much disfigured themselves by painting their bodies with a red and white clay. Before they fight they make all the horrid faces imaginable, by way of defiance, which no doubt in many instances have great effect.

When in a good humour they are constantly laughing. At first we found them very curious in opening our shirts and taking off our hats etc. Their language is far from harsh and differs from that spoken in many parts of the same continent: the words
warree! warree! mallo! mallo!
they are constantly repeating, which words I rather think express astonishment.

A party of them one day followed me along the beach shouting. A pelican being within shot, I made signs to them to keep behind, and they immediately ran into the bushes. I then fired and killed the bird. This alarmed them so much that they could not be prevailed on to come near me for a considerable time and then they would not upon any account touch the bird, but kept at a great distance from the person who carried it. They have in general many dogs with them large and swift enough to catch the kangaroo; but they are if possible wilder than their masters.

On the 25th of October we fired a royal salute in commemoration of His Majesty's accession to the throne.
^†
Everything now appeared to wear a new aspect. The place, which upon our first arrival seemed to afford everything that could be wished, now proved the most deplorable, without water or soil sufficient to produce the common necessaries of life. It was therefore thought prudent to equip a boat with Mr Collins (a colonial officer) and seven men to be dispatched to the governor of Port Jackson to inform him of our arrival, proceedings, and to give him an account of the place.

T
E
P
AHI

Trans-Tasman Explorer, 1805-6

Te Pahi, leading chief of the Rangihoua on New Zealand's northern Bay of Islands, had long nurtured a desire to visit the strange new English colony. In late November 1805 the great chief got his chance, travelling by whaler first to Norfolk Island and then on to Sydney.

Te Pahi was feted in Sydney society, and must have cut a fine if rather terrifying figure, his deeply carved tattoos transforming his face into a largely immobile mask. His interactions with the Eora people give us an inkling of how different Maori and Aborigines were, and of how they regarded each other.

Te Pahi formed emphatic views about the society he was exploring, and he certainly impressed Governor King who made these notes about him.

Soon after the
Buffalo
anchored, Captain Houstoun waited on me with his guest, who was clad in the costume of his country. On being introduced he took up a number of his mats, laying them at my feet, and disposed of a stone
patoo patoo
in the same manner, after which he performed the ceremony of
etongi
or joining of noses.

After many exclamations of surprise at the house and other objects that attracted his passing attention, he gave me to understand that he had long desired the visit he had now accomplished, to which he had been encouraged by the reports of my two visitors at Norfolk Island in 1793, the request of his father, and the prospect of his country being benefited by his visit, as it had been for the great blessing bestowed on it by the introduction of potatoes at Tookee and Woodoo's return from Norfolk Island. He also added that leaving New Zealand was much against the wishes of his dependants, but that objection was much outweighed by the probable advantages they would derive from his visit, and concluded by saying that he considered himself under my protection. If I wished him to remain here, go to Europe, or return to his own country, he was resigned to either, and in the most manly confidence submitted himself and his sons to my directions. All this was said in such an imposing manner that no doubt could be entertained of his sincerity.

As I was anxious that no kindness should be wanting to impress him with a full sense of the hospitality I wished to make him sensible of, he with his eldest son, named Tookey, lived with me and eat at the table, whilst a very good room was allotted for his lodgings and that of his sons.

Tip-a-he is five feet eleven inches high, stout, and extremely well made. His age appears about forty-six or forty-eight. His face is completely tattooed with the spiral marks shown in
Hawkesworth's and Cook's Second Voyage
, which, with similar marks on his hips and other parts of his body, point him out as a considerable chief or
etangatida etikitia
of the first class. To say that he was nearly civilised falls far short of his character, as every action and observation shows an uncommon attention to the rules of decency and propriety in his every action, and has much of the airs and manners of a man conversant with the world he lives in. In conversation he is extremely facetious and jocose and, as he never reflected on any person, so Tip-a-he was alive to the least appearance of slight or inattention in others.

He never missed any opportunity of gaining the most particular information respecting the cause and use of everything that struck his notice, and but few things there were of real utility that did not entirely engross his most serious attention. In communicating observations on his own country he was always very anxious to make himself understood, and spared no pains to convince us that the customs of his country were in several instances better than ours, many of which he looked upon with the greatest contempt, and some with the most violent and abusive disapprobation, of which the following is an instance:

Two soldiers and a convict were sent prisoners from Port Dalrymple to be tried by a criminal court for stealing some pork from the king's stores at that place. Tip-a-he attended their trial on the Friday, and one of them was ordered for execution on the following Monday. As is usual, they attended divine service on the Sunday. As everyone was much affected by their situation Tip-a-he was not wanting in commiseration; but the instant the service was ended he went to the criminals and embracing them accompanied them back to the jail, where it appeared they gave Tip-a-he a petition to present to me.

On returning to Government House he came into the room where I was writing, and in a very earnest manner, and I believe from the full force of conviction, he endeavoured to reason with me on the injustice of slaying men for stealing pork, and at the same time showing the severest sorrow and grief for their fate, which he concluded by taking the petition out of his pocket and giving it to me, at the same time shedding tears. He threw himself prostrate on the ground, sobbing most bitterly.

Observing that I did not give him any answer or hopes than by saying I should consider of it, he left the room and did not make his reappearance until the hour of dinner, having taken off the dress he had made here, and appeared very violent, exclaiming in most furious manner against the severity of our laws in sentencing a man to die for stealing pork, although he admitted that a man might very justly be put to death for stealing a piece of iron, as that was of a permanent use; but stealing a piece of pork which, to use his own expression, was eat and passed off, he considered as sanguine in the extreme. With much earnestness he urged his being allowed to take them to New Zealand, where taking provisions was not accounted a crime; and so earnest was he on this expedient that he went to the master of an American vessel, then lying here, to request he would take them to New Zealand, where his ship would be loaded with potatoes as a recompense for their passage.

During the three days that the fate of those criminals was pending Tip-a-he would take no nourishment whatever, and in several instances was inclined to be furious. However, on its being signified that two were forgiven and that neither of the others would be executed at Sydney, he came about by degrees, but would never be reconciled to the idea of men suffering death for taking wherewithal to eat—a natural reasoning for one who inhabits a country where everything of that kind is common, and where their other wants are but few.

A material object of Tip-a-he's visit here was to know if the ships that touched at the bay all belonged to King George, and whether the refreshments and assistance he and his people gave them were right and agreeable to me. On this subject I explained to him the difference between the English and American colours, and that both were equally entitled to his kindness. He complained that in one instance a New Zealander had been flogged by the captain of a whaler and hoped that I would give orders that no such act should be committed in future, and very liberally observed that he supposed the captain must have been a very bad man in his own country to commit such violence on a stranger who he had nothing to do with.

As all the whalers and other vessels which have visited Tip-a-he's residence have expressed the great convenience, hospitality and assistance they have uniformly received from this worthy chief and his people, I told him that I should impress on those who might visit him the necessity of their conducting themselves and people in a peaceable manner, and to give them articles in exchange for their potatoes and what stock he may in future have to spare—which the supplies of breeding swine and goats, with fowl etc., sent from Norfolk Island, will soon enable him to do.

To give him some proof of the estimation he was held in by me and the inhabitants of this place, I caused a medal to be made of silver with the following engraving: ‘Presented by Governor King to Tip-a-he, a Chief of New Zealand, during his visit at Port Jackson, in January, 1806'; and on the reverse: ‘In the reign of George the Third, by the Grace of God King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.' This medal was suspended by a strong silver chain round his neck.

With this and his other presents he was pleased and gratified—particularly with the numerous tools and other articles of iron given him from the public stores and by every class of individuals. As several New Zealanders of the lower class had come here by different vessels, it was a desirable and useful object to endeavour to get a number of people sent from that country to distribute about as shepherds. On communicating this wish to Tip-a-he he appeared to give very readily into the idea, but insisted on sending the middling order of people, who would be more expert at labour and tractable than the
emokis
or lower class, who were too idle and vicious to send here and from whom no good could be got.

Hence it appears, as well as from his general conversation, that the
emokis
are made to labour by the authority of the chiefs. How far our friend will be able to comply with his promise of sending some of his subjects here must depend on the degree of authority he possesses. From what I was able to learn, Tip-a-he's authority is very extensive. His residence we know to be on the north side of the Bay Islands, just within Point Pococke, where he has a considerable hippah, or fortified place. The district extending to the northward is called Why-po-poo; but he claims the whole country from Moodee Whenua across the island, which must be very extensive; and, as a proof of the accuracy of his assertions, he admits that Mowpah, who is chief about the River Thames, is his rival on the south and Moodee Whenua on the north.

On the subject of cannibalism we could get but little certain information, as Tip-a-he decidedly denied the existence of such a practice in his dominions, but said it was common in Mowpah's district. Ti-a-pe, a native of Moodee Whenua, also said it was a practice with Tip-a-he and his subjects. Where truth lies I am undecided; but I am of opinion, from everything I have heard and observed, that this practice most certainly prevails in New Zealand.

As our visitor was constant in his attendance at divine service, his ideas on the existence of a God and matters of religion were often conversed upon. The existence of a God who resides above they believe, and that his shadow frequently visits the earth; that it is in the power of the priests to invoke the appearance of this shadow (which is perceptible to them only) either for the purpose of succouring the sick or on any other exigency. The presence of the deity is made known by a gentle whistling. The rest of the cure or other benefit depends on the charms or incantations of the priests, in whose efficacy they have an implicit belief. The dead are buried, and they believe that the spirit ascends; but if it enjoys a new state, or this ‘death is an eternal sleep', we could not ascertain. But that there are future rewards and punishments they consider as certain; as well as the existence of an evil spirit as opposed to the deity, which they distinguish by the Otaheitian name of
Eatooa;
but they have no image to represent it, as have the Otaheitians.