After breakfast, I went with the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, over to the north side of the bay, to take a view of the country, and two fortified villages which we had discovered at a distance. We landed near the smallest of them, the situation of which was the most beautifully romantic that can be imagined; it was built upon a small rock, detached from the main, and surrounded at high water. The whole body of this rock was perforated by an hollow or arch, which possessed much the largest part of it; the top of the arch was above sixty feet perpendicular above the sea, which at high water flowed through the bottom of it: the whole summit of the rock above the arch was fenced round after their manner; but the area was not large enough to contain more than five or six houses; it was accessible only by one very narrow and steep path, by which the inhabitants, at our approach, came down, and invited us into the place; but we refused, intending to visit a much more considerable fort of the same kind at about a mile’s distance. We made some presents however to the women, and in the mean time we saw the inhabitants of the town which we were going to, coming towards us in a body, men, women, and children, to the number of about one hundred: when they came near enough to be heard, they waved their hands and called out Horomai; after which they sat down among the bushes near the beach: these ceremonies we were told were certain signs of their friendly disposition. We advanced to the place where they were sitting, and when we came up, made them a few presents, and asked leave to visit their Heppah; they consented with joy in their countenances, and immediately led the way. It is called WHARRETOUWA, and is situated upon a high promontory or point, which projects into the sea, on the north side, and near the head of the bay: two sides of it are washed by the sea, and these are altogether inaccessible; two other sides are to the land: up one of them, which is very steep, lies the avenue from the beach; the other is flat and open to the country upon the hill, which is a narrow ridge: the whole is inclosed by a pallisade about ten feet high, consisting of strong pales bound together with withes. The weak side next the land is also defended by a double ditch, the innermost of which has a bank and an additional pallisade; the inner pallisades are upon the bank next the town, but at such a distance from the top of the bank as to leave room for men to walk and use their arms, between them and the inner ditch: the outermost pallisades are between the two ditches, and driven obliquely into the ground, so that their upper ends incline over the inner ditch: the depth of this ditch, from the bottom to the top or crown of the bank, is four and twenty feet. Close within the innermost pallisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad; it is supported by strong posts, and is intended as a station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which lay ready for use. Another stage of the same kind commands the steep avenue from the beach, and stands also within the pallisade; on this side of the hill there are some little outworks and huts, not intended as advanced posts, but as the habitations of people who for want of room could not be accommodated within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, desirous of placing themselves under their protection. The pallisades, as has been observed already, run round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the sea as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a mount, they have reduced it not to one level, but to several, rising in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is inclosed within its separate pallisade; they communicate with each other by narrow lanes, which might easily be stopped up, so that if an enemy should force the outward pallisade, he would have others to carry before the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be obstinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a narrow passage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the steep ascent from the beach: it passes under one of the fighting stages, and though we saw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be considered as a place of great strength, in which a small number of resolute men may defend themselves against all the force which a people with no other arms than those that are in use here could bring against it. It seemed to be well furnished for a siege with every thing but water; we saw great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and dried fish piled up in heaps; but we could not perceive that they had any fresh water nearer than a brook, which runs close under the foot of the hill: whether they have any means of getting it from this place during a siege, or whether they have any method of storing it within the works in gourds or other vessels, we could not learn; some resource they certainly have with respect to this article, an indispensable necessary of life, for otherwise the laying up dry provisions could answer no purpose. Upon our expressing a desire to see their method of attack and defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting stage, which they call Porava, and another went into the ditch: both he that was to defend the place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war-song, and danced with the same frightful gesticulations that we had seen used in more serious circumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of that mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is the necessary prelude to a battle; for dispassionate courage, a strength of mind that can surmount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal spirits by which it is extinguished, seems to be the prerogative of those who have projects of more lasting importance, and a keener sense of honour and disgrace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few pains or pleasures besides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose but to provide for the day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an insult: they will march against each other indeed in cool blood, though they find it necessary to work themselves into passion before they engage; as among us there have been many instances of people who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a project which they formed when they were sober, but which, while they continued so, they did not dare to undertake.

Voyaging Accounts