Page 105

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 28 April 1769 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Transcript of Cook's Journal Joseph Banks's Journal Sydney Parkinson's Journal An Excursion to the Eastward and interview with Oberea Index Search Contact us

An Excursion to the Eastward and interview with Oberea (continued) Canoes were continually coming in during all this forenoon, and the tents at the fort were crowded with people of both sexes from different parts of the Island. I was myself busy on board the ship, but Mr. Mollineux, our master, who was one of those that made the last voyage in the Dolphin, went on shore. As soon as he entered Mr. Banks’s tent he fixed his eyes upon one of the women, who was sitting there with great composure among the rest, and immediately declared her to be the person who at that time was supposed to be Queen of the island; she also, at the same time, acknowledging him to be one of the strangers whom she had seen before. The attention of all present was now diverted from every other object, and wholly engaged in considering a person who had made so distinguished a figure in the accounts that had been given of this island by its first discoverers; and we soon learnt that her name was OBEREA. She seemed to be about forty years of age, and was not only tall, but of a large make; her skin was white, and there was an uncommon intelligence and sensibility in her eyes: she appeared to have been handsome when she was young, but at this time little more than memorials of her beauty were left. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 105, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/105.html