Chapter 17

At nine o'clock, the King of Baracouta, accompanied by his brother and five or six other chiefs, came on board according to promise, and without betraying any symptoms of timidity. The party were immediately conducted to the captain's cabin, and entertained with wine and biscuit, which they appeared to partake of with considerable relish. His Majesty, however, had not come unprovided, his canoe having been stored with some calabashes of palm-wine, which he sent for and distributed freely. We partook of this wholesome beverage, but some of the natives mixed it with Madeira. I must not omit to mention that, whether as a point of etiquette, or intended as an expression of gratitude for the attentions they were receiving, the King, and his Chiefs, were particularly desirous of rubbing their long beards against those of our party who happened to be possessed of a similar ornament. Amongst other circumstances which gave them satisfaction, they were highly gratified by sitting on our chairs; and we have since learned, that, in their own residences, they are in the habit of using logs of wood for this purpose, a custom differing from many of the African nations.

A description of their dress, which was in the most fanciful savage taste, cannot fail to be interesting. In the first place, the body was completely smeared over with the kind of paint I have before described: His Majesty's colour, like that which distinguishes the imperial family of China, being yellow, while the livery of his attendants was dark red. The hair of the head was dressed in long small curls hanging down behind, and which, instead of hair powder and pomatum, were well stiffened with ochre and oil: in front, similar curls dividing from the forehead, hung down on each side below the ears, somewhat in the style of Vandyke's female portraits of the age of Charles I. The forehead was generally round, sufficiently elevated to give phrenological indications of a fair portion of intellect, and, perhaps, unusually well displayed by a custom which prevails of having the hair shorn in front an inch beyond the line of its natural growth, so as, in conjunction with the peculiar disposition of curls before described, to leave the part fully exposed. In some instances, seven or eight strings of beads, in imitation of the natural curls, were adjusted with much care over the forepart of the head, and conducted separately behind the ears, the end of each string reaching down to the shoulders. This singularly ornamental head-dress was surmounted by a flatfish low-crowned hat, with a narrow brim, the whole shape not a little resembling that of Mambrino's helmet; the frame-work, constructed of loosely wove split rattan, was covered over and ornamented with leaves, the bones of monkeys and other animals, and a few white, and occasionally red, feathers; the latter of which appeared to have been dyed in the blood of some animal. This hat was secured to the head by a skewer, which passed through the crown, and penetrated a tuft of hair collected above the vertex. The neck, arms, body above the hips, and the legs below the knee, were encircled by ornamental bands, in the form of bracelets, which were, for the most part, composed of strings of beads, or the vertebrae of small snakes; to the girdle, which thus surrounded the body, was appended, hanging down in front, the only article of covering which they can be said to wear, consisting of the skin of some animal, and which, in many instances, was decorated with a bunch of herbage. His Majesty, however, as a mark of distinction, wore also a similar covering behind.

After having been entertained in the cabin, we conducted the party along the main-deck, and shewed them our horses, oxen, pigs, &c., with the whole of which they were highly gratified, especially with the cow, whose tail was a source of ineffable delight to them, each of them handling it in succession, plucking out its hairs, and shaking it with every indication of astonishment. The band was directed to play for their amusement, and delighted them to such a degree, that they could not restrain themselves from running into the midst of it. The King's brother was so enraptured, that he capered about with excess of joy, making the most uncouth gestures in accordance with the music.

"So play'd Orpheus, and so danced the brutes."

Our more difficult task was yet to be encountered--the distribution of presents. His yellow Majesty was in the first place complimented with the whole of an iron hoop straightened out for the occasion, and also with half a dozen fishing-hooks; to his brother we gave half the quantity: while the minor chiefs received about a foot in length each. Some squabbling occurred during this arrangement, which was, at length, happily concluded, pretty much to the satisfaction of the whole party, and they left the ship in apparent good humour, evidently highly gratified with their visit.

_Thursday, Nov. 1_.--A heavy fall of rain disappointed us in an arrangement to visit the chiefs on shore.

_Friday, Nov. 2_.--Notwithstanding it continued to rain heavily at intervals, I went on shore in company with Messrs. Galler and Morrison, for the purpose of arranging with the King for the establishment of a market. On landing, we were surrounded by a number of natives, who treated us with more kindness than on our preceding visit, not forgetting, however, both male and female, from the youngest to the oldest, to importune us incessantly for iron; it was almost dangerous to take particular notice of any individual, for they immediately assumed it as an indication of a disposition to make them a present, and began to double their importunities. Not finding the King or his chiefs on the beach, we sent to announce our arrival, yet we had to wait two hours before they condescended to appear. During this time, Mr. Galler amused himself with shooting monkeys; which appeared to afford some interest and amusement to the natives, who assisted in pointing out _the game_, and laughed heartily whenever he missed his aim.

At length the King arrived, and we explained as well as we could the object of our visit, to which he listened with great attention, appearing to comprehend, so as finally to accede to our wishes. He then proposed, in order to preserve a mutual good understanding, that, in the event of any breach of faith on the part of their people, we should immediately communicate the same to the chiefs, who would take care to have the delinquent properly punished; while, on the other hand, if any of our people were guilty of improper conduct towards them, they would represent it to our chief. This proposal, after a deliberate discussion, was agreed to on both, sides, the contract confirmed by drinking palm-wine, and a mutual exchange of presents, as follows, we tendered an axe to the King, and he returned the compliment by presenting us with a fowl.

We now proposed to accompany his Majesty back to his village. With this he appeared perfectly acquiescent, taking me by the hand, and leading me forward, as if he were conducting me to the point proposed; but we soon found that his real intention was to lead us to our boats. We still, however, imagined that this was only with the view of taking us some nearer way home; but when we wished him to enter the boat, with the intention of coasting it to another part of the shore, he positively declined, giving us to understand that his house was not good enough to receive us, and that it contained nothing in the shape of refreshments sufficient to do honour to the visit. We were, however, predetermined, and, as our interpreter was acquainted with the way, proceeded with Captain Smith and Mr. Jeffery, in addition to our former party. When we arrived, we were ready to admit that his Majesty had some reason not to be over-anxious for our company: for neither was the road, nor the accommodations of his hut, calculated either for a visit of pleasure or ceremony; in many parts the path was not only slippery, but interrupted by roots of trees and pools of water; added to which, it lay through a thick jungle, which swarmed with myriads of ants. His Majesty's hut was a mere thatched roof, the eaves of which nearly reached to the ground, supported by posts, and with only one end protected from the weather; the chief articles of furniture were logs of wood, as substitutes for stools, and an inclined plane of wood, five feet in length, to serve the purpose of a bed, the pillow of which was a round bar, three or four inches in diameter, supported at the proper height by two brackets. The king's brother, who had arrived first, received us with much good humour, but regretted that he had nothing to entertain us with. In a short time, however, a calabash of stale palm-wine was handed in, which, having first tasted, according to the African custom, with a view of proving that it contained no poison, he presented to us. After resting a short time, we returned to our boats.

In order to prosecute the formation of the now colony with the greatest energy, every hand which could possibly be spared, was sent on shore. A better approach to Point William, the acclivity being more gentle, was discovered this morning, and a large party immediately employed in clearing away the timber and brushwood, for the purpose of making a broad road through it.

_Saturday, Nov. 3_.--The Eden was moved nearer to Point William and the Adelaide Islands, for the greater convenience of landing the working parties, stores, &c. The steam-vessel and her prizes also left their anchorage in the bay, and moved into Clarence Cove. Not a single canoe was visible on the water, and very few natives on the shore; we were informed by our interpreter, that they were occupied with the funeral of a chief, but suspect that the different tribes were assembled in council to discuss the subject of our arrival, and our evident intention to form a settlement among them.

_Nov. 4_.--Some native chiefs were much delighted with sitting in our chairs; but, when the Captain presented them with a few knives, small looking-glasses, and other trinkets, their delight was raised to rapture, expressed by clapping their hands and singing certain short sentences in a high tone of voice, at the same time bowing their heads, as if to indicate their readiness to admit our superiority. We were afterwards informed, that these songs were in our praise, and implied the following meaning:--"Truly you are come to do us good." We entertained them with palm-wine, Madeira, biscuit, fish, and yams; we found, however, on this, as on all other occasions, that these unsophisticated people preferred their native viands to our European delicacies. They appeared much interested with the three European females we had on board; but, whether they had sufficient taste to prefer them to their native beauties, I shall not pretend to determine. After remaining two hours on board, they took their leave, and returned to the shore.

_Monday, November 5_.--Anderson, who had been absent two days, returned this morning in a large canoe of seventeen paddles, accompanied by the same party of chiefs who had visited us yesterday, with, however, an addition of the king's son. Before coming alongside, they pulled round the ship, singing most loudly and merrily. Though Captain Owen was on shore, they were taken into the cabin, and entertained until his return, after which he gave a present to each of them. Notwithstanding this liberality, the principal chief fixed his covetous eye upon an axe, and expressed a most eager desire to become possessed of it. Captain Owen, however, notwithstanding his wish to conciliate the natives as much as possible, did not think proper to gratify his cupidity; but he promised, that it should be presented to the King at the next interview with him. In the afternoon, a tornado arose and drove most of the canoes away; the chiefs, however, remained on board until it was over, and then left us under an arrangement that the Captain should pay a visit to the King on the following Wednesday.

_Tuesday, Nov. 6_.--We had a wet morning, succeeded by a fine day. Many canoes, full of natives, came alongside. About noon, a native was discovered, by the master-at-arms, to have stolen an axe, which he had secreted in a piece of canvas that he had picked up and tied round his waist in the manner of an apron. On taking it from him, he made a desperate attempt to escape, by running down the ship's side into a canoe, from whence he made his way over several others, with a view of reaching his own, but he was arrested in his progress. A warm discussion now arose among the chiefs present, as to the punishment he ought to be subjected to, having been taken _flagrante delicto_, under their own eyes. Captain Owen, to evidence his high displeasure at the transaction, cut the matter short, by ordering them all out of the ship. This gave rise to another commotion and discussion, the result of which was, that the culprit was assailed on all sides by his countrymen with their paddles; even a boy in the same canoe inflicted several blows, and he was finally severely injured about the head and body, when, with the blood streaming from various parts, he was compelled to leap into the sea, in order to wash it away, before they would allow him to re-enter his own boat. His punishment, however, did not terminate with the above discipline; for as he assisted in paddling his canoe ashore, his countrymen followed him with every denunciation of vengeance. On landing in the neighbourhood of our market, he was seized, conducted a short distance from the beach, and surrounded by an immense crowd of the natives. Mr. Jeffery, who happened to be near the spot, penetrated into the midst of them, with a view of ascertaining the nature of the affair, when, to his surprise, he was immediately laid hold of, and tied hand to hand with the bleeding prisoner. It may be imagined that this proceeding excited considerable alarm in Mr. Jeffery, who was led to infer that the wounds of the prisoner had been inflicted by our people, and that the natives were about to retaliate upon himself. A soldier, who was passing at the moment, lost no time in giving an alarm at the camp, when Capt. Harrison came with a party of soldiers to the assistance of our comrade; but Mr. Jeffery had, by this time, contrived to disengage his hand; and, our people appearing, the natives desisted from farther attempts upon him. It turned out that their object in offering this apparent violence, was merely to secure an evidence on our side of the final punishment of their countryman, which they now proceeded to carry into effect in the following extraordinary manner:--the poor wretch was, in the first place, tied hand and foot with his back to a tree, after which a discussion took place, between the chiefs and a man, whom we conceived to be a priest. This being finished, one of the chiefs, who, in consequence of the prominent part he played in this dramatic scene, was ever after known among us by the honourable name of Cut-throat, very coolly stepped up to the prisoner, the whole of the natives at the same time falling on their knees, and was proceeding with great deliberation to cut his throat, when Captain Harrison and Mr. Jeffery hastened forward, and prevented the perpetration of the act by holding back his arm, and making signs that our chief was coming. Fortunately, Capt. Owen was actually coming on shore at this juncture, and, having passed to the centre of the assembly, by means of signs succeeded in explaining that it was not his wish to have the man so severely punished. He then took him by the hand, led him through the crowd, and thus liberated him from the sanguinary vengeance of his own countrymen. During the whole of this trying occasion, the prisoner neither shrunk from the numerous and severe blows inflicted upon him in the earlier part of it; nor, in the latter part, did he indicate the slightest symptom of fear. This is one of the many traits we met with of either the great fortitude or little sensibility of these islanders.

We were much surprised at finding a Demi-John in the woods at the back of our encampment; it certainly indicates that we are not the first Europeans who have visited this spot.

_Wednesday, November 7_.--Anderson, accompanied by two chiefs, came on board at 9 A.M. to say, that the King was on the beach, waiting for our boat to fetch him off. At eleven, the Captain, accompanied by several of his officers, myself, the band, and a party of marines, with a variety of presents, went in three boats for the purpose of paying our intended visit to his Majesty. We landed at a small cove, three miles to the eastward of the ship, since known by the name of King-Cove, and were conducted by the chiefs to a small open place in the woods, at the distance of about a hundred yards from the rocky shore, where the natives had placed a number of stones in the water in such manner as to leave a channel for only one canoe to land at a time. When the Captain was seated, a small ram, and several calabashes of palm-wine, were brought forward. After waiting an hour, the King arrived, when the Captain, rising to receive him, ordered a red cloak to be thrown over his shoulders, and a velvet cap to be put on his head; as his Majesty wore his native hat, ornamented with a pair of ram's horns on the fore part of it, it became necessary to place the velvet one above it, and secure it in its position by means of a bone skewer, which, piercing both at the same time, fastened them effectually to the tuft of hair on the top of the head. The sight of our presents, but more particularly the quantity of iron, excited so uncontrollably the feelings of the royal party, that the good order previously observed, could now no longer be maintained; we were pressed upon on all sides, and with such an inconceivable clatter and confusion of tongues, that the bellowing of cattle would have been comparatively musical to our ears; however, to do them justice, notwithstanding this horrid din, they did not make the least attempt upon our persons or property. It was noticed that the King himself gave away several small pieces of iron to certain individuals, probably an act of policy, which, by leading others to expect a similar token of royal favour, would restrain them from attempting to help themselves, and thus diminish the quantum of his own presents. During this scene of confusion, we retired to the beach and entered our boats, the crowd following us to the shore, and many even into the water. On this occasion, we calculated that there could not have been less than two thousand natives assembled, including many women, but they were kept apart from the men. Mr. Galler spoke to some of them; but they were excessively timid, although the men endeavoured to encourage familiarity by placing some of the younger women's hands into his. One peculiarity was remarked on the present occasion, that many of the natives had lost one of their hands, and some both, indeed we found this so common in the island, that there was no doubt of the deprivation of this part of the body being resorted to as a punishment. Before returning to the ship, I went with Messrs. Galler and Jeffery to visit the works at Clarence, when we were informed that the men employed in clearing the jungle, had discovered the Indian-rubber tree, and one or two other indigenous plants which had not been previously noticed.

_Thursday, November 8th_.--The importance of our acquiring a knowledge of the language of the natives of this island, must be obvious. In order to promote this object. Captain Owen selected an active and intelligent young man of the name of Elwood, who volunteered to reside for a week at a village in the interior of the island; and he left the ship this morning in pursuance of the plan. The Captain this day fixed upon a spot for the site of a house intended for his own residence: he also gave the name of Paradise to a portion of ground which had been cleared to form a garden for the use of the colony, and changed the appellation of Glover's Stairs for that of Jacob's Ladder. This consists of a flight of 150 steps, leading from the beach to the acclivity on which Clarence is situated that had been constructed, since our arrival, by Mr. Glover, and his body of English artificers.

_Friday, 9_.--During the night there had been much thunder and lightning, succeeded, in the morning, by heavy rains, which went off at eleven o'clock, and recommenced at two, accompanied by strong gusts of wind; at four, it cleared up again: scarcely a canoe or native was to be seen throughout the day.

_Saturday, 10_.--The weather is to-day extremely fine, and yet very few canoes or natives have been seen: and none have approached the ship. We apprehend that something has occurred to displease them--a suspicion afterwards confirmed. In the afternoon, at the time I happened to be on shore, a deputation of seven chiefs came to Mr. Jeffery, at Newmarket, with a complaint that our Kroomen had been cutting down the palm-trees for the leaves to thatch their huts with; and, also, that they were much annoyed by the frequent firing of muskets. In reply to the latter complaint, Mr. Jeffery explained to them, that the firing proceeded only from the attempts of our officers to shoot monkeys; to confirm which statement, the purser very opportunely came up at the instant with a large monkey and a small deer, which he had just shot. They did not, however, appear properly satisfied; for they shook their heads, and intimated that, if we persevered in cutting down the palms, it would not only deprive them of the advantages of that valuable tree, but, by diminishing the quantity of wood, extend the system of firing musketry farther into the interior of the country. At length, with a view of settling all grievances, and convincing them we had no intention of inflicting any injury, we took them a short distance beyond the points our men were occupied in clearing, and, placing a quantity of iron on the ground, gave them, by signs, to understand, that we would give them all that iron for the land contained within that boundary. The nature of this treaty for purchase, they appeared to understand well, and signified their assent by placing sticks, at equal distances from each other, in the line proposed. Mr. Jeffery, at the same time, marking a tree as an evidence of the agreement on our side. The quantity of land of which we had thus made a _bonâ fide_ purchase, was equal to about a square mile in extent. The treaty was afterwards more fully ratified, and the property involved formally taken possession of by a public act, which will be duly noticed. Both parties being now satisfied, we returned to Newmarket, the natives accompanying us, and, sitting down in a row together, farther confirmed the bargain by plentiful libations of palm-wine.

_Sunday, 11_.--At half-past one divine service was performed by Captain Owen, when four of the natives attended, and behaved with great decorum; they also made signals to their companions in the canoes to avoid all noises which might disturb us.

_Monday, 12_.--A numerous deputation of chiefs, gaily dressed, came to our camp at Clarence, to conclude a definitive arrangement respecting the land we had purchased on Saturday. Captain Owen accompanied them to the boundary line, and marked an additional number of trees, to define the limits with more accuracy. He also promised them additional payments: after which he took four of the principal chiefs on board, drank palm-wine with them, and made them a variety of presents. Confidence was now fully restored, and great numbers of both sexes visited us before the day terminated.