Page 168

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 29 June 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 Circumnavigation of the Island Index Search Contact us

Circumnavigation of the Island (continued) The principal object of ambition among these people is to have a magnificent Morai, and this was a striking memorial of the rank and power of Oberea. It has been remarked, that we did not find her invested with the same authority that she exercised when the Dolphin was at this place, and we now learnt the reason of it. Our way from her house to the Morai lay along the sea side, and we observed every where under our feet a great number of human bones, chiefly ribs and vertebræ. Upon enquiring into the cause of so singular an appearance, we were told, that in the then last month of Owarahew, which answered to our December, 1768, about four or five months before our arrival, the people of Tiarrabou, the S.E. peninsula which we had just visited, made a descent at this place, and killed a great number of people, whose bones were those that we saw upon the shore: that, upon this occasion, Oberea, and Oamo, who then administered the government for his son, had fled to the mountains; and that the conquerors burnt all the houses, which were very large, and carried away the hogs and what other animals they found. We learnt also, that the turkey and goose, which we had seen when we were with Mathiabo, the stealer of cloaks, were among the spoils; this accounted for their being found among people with whom the Dolphin had little or no communication; and upon mentioning the jaw-bones, which we had seen hanging from a board in a long house, we were told, that they also had been carried away as trophies, the people here carrying away the jawbones of their enemies, as the Indians of North America do the scalps. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 168 - 169, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/168.html