On this day ...
29 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
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On the 29th, not very early in the forenoon, Mr. Banks went to pay his court to Oberea, and was told that she was still asleep under the awning of her canoe: thither therefore he went, intending to call her up, a liberty which he thought he might take, without any danger of giving offence: but, upon looking into her chamber, to his great astonishment, he found her in bed with a handsome young fellow about five and twenty, whose name was OBADéE: he retreated with some haste and confusion, but was soon made to understand, that such amours gave no occasion to scandal, and that Obadée was universally known to have been selected by her as the object of her private favours. The lady being too polite to suffer Mr. Banks to wait long in her antichamber, dressed herself with more than usual expedition, and as a token of of [sic] special grace, clothed him in a suit of fine cloth and proceeded with him to the tents. In the evening, Mr. Banks paid a visit to Tubourai Tamaide, as he had often done before, by candle light, and was equally grieved and surprized to find him and his family in a melancholy mood, and most of them in tears: he endeavoured in vain to discover the cause, and therefore his stay among them was but short. When he reported this circumstance to the officers at the fort, they recollected that Owhaw had foretold, that in four days we should fire our great guns; and as this was the eve of the third day, the situation in which Tubourai Tamaide and his family had been found, alarmed them. The sentries therefore were doubled at the fort, and the Gentlemen slept under arms; at two in the morning, Mr. Banks himself went round the point, but found every thing so quiet, that he gave up all suspicions of mischief intended by the natives as groundless. We had however another source of security; our little fortification was now complete. The north and south sides consisted of a bank of earth four feet and an half high on the inside, and a ditch without ten feet broad and six deep; on the west side, facing the bay, there was a bank of earth four feet high, and pallisadoes upon that, but no ditch, the works here being at high-water mark; on the east side, upon the bank of the river, was placed a double row of water casks, filled with water; and as this was the weakest side, the two four pounders were planted there, and six swivel guns were mounted so as to command the only two avenues from the woods. Our garrison consisted of about five and forty men with small arms, including the officers, and the gentlemen who resided on shore; and our sentries were as well relieved as in the best regulated frontier in Europe.
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© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 107 - 108, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/107.html