Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owe - Volume 1 - John MacGillivray (feel good books to read TXT) 📗

when the net is closed in upon it, and hauled inboard with its contents. This mode of fishing would appear to be practised also at some of the islands of Polynesia, for similar seines are exhibited in the ethnological gallery of the British Museum from the Feejees and elsewhere. In addition to the seine, we had occasionally observed in canoes alongside the ship a small scoop-net with a very long handle, and once procured a fishing hook of singular construction. This last is represented by the right hand figure of the accompanying woodcut. It is seven inches in length, made of some hard wood, with an arm four and a half inches long, turning up at a sharp angle, and tipped with a slightly curved barb of tortoise-shell projecting horizontally inwards an inch and a half.

POISONOUS FISH.

During the afternoon one of the crew of a boat upon the reef, while incautiously handling a frog-fish (Batrachus) which he had found under a stone, received two punctures at the base of the thumb from the sharp dorsal spines partially concealed by the skin. Immediately severe pain was produced which quickly increased until it became intolerable, and the man lay down and rolled about in agony. He was taken on board the ship in a state of great weakness. The hand was considerably swollen, with the pain shooting up the arm to the axilla, but the glands there did not become affected. The pulse fell to as low as 40 beats in the minute, with a constant desire to vomit. Large doses of opium in the course of time afforded relief, but a fortnight elapsed before the man was again fit for duty.

SEARCH FOR A WATERING-PLACE.

June 23rd.

I accompanied Mr. Brown, the master, who was sent to examine and report upon a watering-place said to have been found a day or two ago on South-east Island, about four miles north from the ship. We found the coast thereabouts fringed with mangroves, a gap in which, margined by forest trees, indicated the place which we were in search of. The ebb-tide was scarcely beginning to make, yet a narrow band of shingle off the entrance of the creek had barely water enough upon it to allow the boat to cross. Beyond the bar we got into deep water, and after pulling up for 300 yards found it only brackish. Our further progress, however, was impeded by the narrowing of the creek, which besides was blocked up with dead trees and some rocks in its bed a few yards ahead of us. The fresh water being thus unattainable without much trouble, and the bar at the entrance adding to the difficulty of watering the ship there, we turned back to search elsewhere. While standing along shore to the eastward, opposite an opening in the low hills behind the coast we observed another breach in the mangroves backed by trees of a different description, and thought it worthy of examination. Tacking inshore we found a small bight, with shoal water, on a bank of mud extending right across, beyond which the entrance of a creek fringed with mangroves was discovered. Our hopes were still further raised, when, ascending about 200 yards, with a depth of two and three fathoms, the surface water was found to be quite drinkable. While passing the entrance on our return a great lizard, about five feet in length, rushed out from an adjacent swamp across a narrow strip of sandy beach and plunged into the water after receiving an ineffectual charge of small shot. The boat's crew pronounced it confidently to have been a young alligator, but, although in a very likely haunt for these animals, it was probably only a monitor.

ROUND ISLAND.

We then crossed over to Round Island, small, uninhabited, 230 feet in height, thickly covered with trees and underwood, and connected on the eastern side with the reef running across to Piron Island. The rock here is still mica slate, varying much in texture and composition, often highly ferruginous; the strata run East-South-East and West-North-West with a northerly dip of about 45 degrees.

June 24th.

In the course of the day no less than seven canoes with natives, including several women and children, came off to the ship boldly and without hesitation, as if confidence were now established. At one time we had five canoes alongside, with a brisk and noisy traffic going on. The people parted very readily with their weapons and ornaments, also coconuts in abundance, and a few yams and bananas, for strips of calico and pieces of iron hoop. Axes, however, were more prized than any other article, and the exhibition of one was certain to produce great eagerness to procure it, amidst much shouting and cries of kelumai! The purpose to which they applied the iron hoop we found was to substitute it for the pieces of a hard greenstone (nephrite) in the heads of their axes and adzes. The one figured above represents the usual form of these instruments. The V-shaped handle is a single piece of wood, and the stone, previously ground down to a fine edge, is fixed in a cleft at the end of the short arm, and firmly secured by cordage. This axe is usually carried by being hooked over the left shoulder with the handle crossing the breast diagonally.

Among our visitors today I noticed two who had large white patches on the skin, as if caused by some leprous complaint-one man had lost his nose, and in addition was affected with elephantiasis of the left foot.

NATIVES SHOW THIEVISH PROPENSITIES.

After leaving us two of the canoes paddled up to the tide pole on the neighbouring reef, and before a boat could reach them, the natives managed to secure the pigs of iron ballast with which it was moored. They communicated with two canoes, coming from the direction of Piron Island, which soon afterwards came under the stern. As one of the stolen pigs was seen partially concealed in the bow of one of the last comers the jollyboat was manned to recover it, when the canoes left in great haste with the boat in chase. As the boat approached a coconut was thrown overboard from the canoe, as if to cause delay by stopping to pick it up, but, the intended effect not being produced, the stolen ballast also was thrown out, when the boat of course returned. By Captain Stanley's orders two musket shots were fired over the canoes, while about 300 yards distant, to show that although in fancied security they were still within reach. The splash of the first bullet caused them to paddle off in great haste, and, when they again stopped, a second shot, striking the water beyond the canoes, sent them off to the shore at their utmost speed.

CANOES OF CORAL HAVEN DESCRIBED.

With a single exception, to be afterwards noticed, the canoes seen by us in Coral Haven are of the following description. The usual length is about twenty-five feet, and one of this size carries from seven to ten people. The body is formed by the hollowed-out trunk of a tree, tapering and rising at each end, short and rounded behind, but in front run out into a long beak. A stout plank on each side raises the canoe a foot, forming a gunwale secured by knees, the seam at the junction being payed over with a black pitch-like substance. This gunwale is open at the stern, the ends not being connected, but the bow is closed by a raised end-board fancifully carved and painted in front of which a crest-like wooden ornament fits into a groove running along the beak. This figurehead, called tabura, is elaborately cut into various devices, painted red and white, and decorated with white egg-shells and feathers of the cassowary and bird of paradise. The bow and stern also are more or less profusely ornamented with these shells, which besides are strung about other parts of the canoe, usually in pairs. An outrigger extends along nearly the whole length of the left or port side of the canoe. In its construction there are employed from six to eight poles, two inches in diameter, which rest against one side of the body of the canoe and are secured there, then passing out through the opposite side about five feet, inclining slightly upwards at the same time, are connected at the ends by lashing to a long stout pole completing the strong framework required for the support of the float. This last is a long and narrow log of a soft and very light wood (probably a cotton tree) rising a little and pointed at each end so as to offer the least possible resistance to the water. Four sticks passing diagonally downwards from each of the transverse poles are sunk into the float and firmly secure it. A strip of the inner portion of the outrigger frame is converted into a platform by long sticks laid lengthways close to each other-here the sails, masts, poles, spears, and other articles are laid when not in use. The paddles vary slightly in form but are usually about four feet in length, with a slender handle and a pointed lance-shaped blade. The number of men able to use the paddles is regulated in each canoe by that of supporting outrigger poles, the end of each of which, in conjunction with one of the knees supporting the gunwale, serves as a seat. One sitter at each end, being clear of the outrigger, is able to use his paddle on either side as requisite in steering, but the others paddle on the right or starboard side only. The man seated at the stern closes with his body the opening between the ends of the raised gunwale and thus keeps out the spray or wash of the sea. Still they require to bail frequently, using for this purpose the large shell of the Melo ethiopica. In calms and light airs these canoes of Coral Haven may be overtaken without difficulty by a fast-pulling ship's boat, but on going to windward with a moderate breeze and a little head-sea they appeared to have the advantage. The sails are from twelve to fifteen feet in length and a yard wide-made of coarse matting of the leaf of the coconut-tree stretched between two slender poles. The mast is stepped with an outward inclination into one of three or four holes in a narrow shifting board in the bottom of the canoe, and is secured near the top to a slender stick of similar length made fast to the outside part of the outrigger; a second pole is then erected stretching diagonally outwards and secured to the outer one near its centre. Against the framework thus formed the sails are stuck up on end side by side to the number of three or four, occasionally even five, and kept in their places by long sticks placed transversely, their ends as well as those of the mast being sharpened to serve as skewers which in the first instance secure the sails. While under sail either the bow or stern of the canoe may be foremost, this being regulated by the necessity of having the outrigger on the weather side, unless in a very light wind. From the sail being placed so far forward these canoes do not lay up close to the wind, but when going free considerable speed may be obtained.

CANOES OF ROSSEL ISLAND DESCRIBED.

Among the canoes which visited the ship one was of a quite different construction from the rest and resembled some of those which we had seen while passing along the northern side of Rossel Island. It contained seven men, and came from the eastward-probably from Piron Island. The body of a canoe of this class