Discovery of Otaheite
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were full of men, way-laid her in her course, and threw several stones into her, which wounded some of the people. Upon this, the officer on board fired a musquet, loaded with buck-shot, at the man who threw the first stone, and wounded him in the shoulder. The rest of the people in the canoes, as soon as they perceived their companion wounded, leapt into the sea, and the other canoes paddled away, in great terror and confusion. As soon as the boats reached the ship, they were hoisted on board, and just as she was about to stand on, we observed a large canoe, under sail, making after us. As I thought she might have some Chief on board, or might have been dispatched to bring me a message from some Chief, I determined to wait for her. She sailed very fast, and was soon along side of the ship, but we did not observe among those on board, any one that seemed to have an authority over the rest. One of them, however, stood up, and having made a speech, which continued about five minutes, threw on board a branch of the plantain tree. We understood this to be a token of peace, and we returned it, by handing over one of the branches of plantain that had been left on board by our first visitors: with this and some toys, that were afterwards presented to him, he appeared to be much gratified, and after a short time, went away.
The officers who had been sent out with the boats, informed me that they had sounded close to the reef, and found as great a depth of water as at the other islands: however, as I was now on the weather side of the island, I had reason to expect anchorage in running to leeward. I therefore took this course, but finding breakers that ran off to a great distance from the south-end of the island, I hauled the wind, and continued turning to windward all night, in order to run down on the east side of the island.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 436, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/436.html