Captain Cook in Tahiti
About one o'clock on Monday, the 10th of April, 1769, some of the people who were looking out for the island to which we were bound [Tahiti] said they saw…
From: 1769 C.E. To: 1769 C.E.
Location: Tahiti
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook by James Cook and Caleb George Cash, 1905.
Arrival at the Society Islands
About one o'clock on Monday, the 10th of April, 1769, some of the people who were looking out for the island to which we were bound [Tahiti] said they saw land ahead, in that part of the horizon where it was expected to appear; but it was so faint that whether there was land in sight or not remained a matter of dispute till sunset. The next morning, however, at six o'clock, we were convinced that those who said they had discovered and were not mistaken; it appeared to be very high and mountainous, and we knew it to be the same that had been called King George III's Island.
We were delayed in our approach to it by light airs and calms, so that in the morning of the 12th we were but little nearer than we had been the light before; but about seven a breeze sprang up, and before eleven several canoes were seen making towards the ship. There were but few of them, however, that would come near, and the people in those that did could not be persuaded to come on board.
In every canoe there were young plantains, and branches of a tree which the natives called E'Midho; these, as we afterwards learnt, were brought as tokens of peace and amity, and the people in one of the canoes handed them up the ship's side, making signals at the same time with great earnestness, which we did not immediately understand. At length we guessed that they wished that these symbols should be placed in some conspicuous part of the ship; we therefore immediately stuck them among the rigging, at which they expressed the greatest satisfaction. We then purchased their cargoes, consisting of cocoa-nuts and various kinds of fruit, which after our long voyage were very acceptable.
We stood on with an easy sail all night, and about seven o'clock in the morning we came to an anchor in Port-royal Bay, called by the natives Matavai. We were immediately surrounded by the natives in their canoes, who gave us cocoa-nuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit, and some small fishes, in exchange for beads and other trifles. They had with them a pig, which they would not part with for anything but a hatchet, and therefore we refused to purchase it; because if we gave them a hatchet for a pig now, we knew they would never afterwards sell one for less, and we could not afford to buy as many as it was probable we should want, at that price.
The bread-fruit grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling oak; its leaves are frequently a foot and a half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in consistence and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a child's head, and the surface is reticulated not much unlike a truffle; it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the handle of a small knife. The eatable part lies between the skin and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread; it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts; its taste is insipid, with a slight sweetness, somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke.
As soon as the ship was properly secured I went on shore with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and a party of men under arms. We were received from the boat by some hundreds of the inhabitants, whose looks at least gave us welcome, though they were struck with such awe that the first who approached us crouched so low that he almost crept upon his hands and knees. It is remarkable that he, like the people in the canoes, presented to us the same symbol of peace that is known to have been in use among the ancient and mighty nations of the northern hemisphere, the green branch of a tree. We received it with looks and gestures of kindness and satisfaction, and, observing that each of them held one in his hand, we immediately gathered everyone a bough, and carried it in our hands in the same manner.
During our walk the natives had shaken off their first timid sense of our superiority, and were become familiar; they went with us from the watering-place and took a circuit through the woods. As we went along we distributed beads and other small presents among them, and had the satisfaction to see that they were much gratified.
Our circuit was not less than four or five miles, through groves of trees which were loaded with cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, and afforded the most grateful shade. Under these trees were the habitations of the people, most of them being only a roof without walls; and the whole scene realized the poetical fables of Arcadia. We remarked, however, not without some regret, that in all our walk we had seen only two hogs, and not a single fowl.
The Inhabitants of Tahiti
The people are of the largest size of Europeans. The men are tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw measured six feet three inches and a half. The women of the superior rank are also in general above our middle stature, but those of the inferior class are rather below it, and some of them are very small.
Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive or brunette which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In those that are exposed to the wind and the sun it is considerably deepened, but in others that live under shelter, especially the superior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately smooth and soft; they have no tint in their cheeks which we distinguish by the name of colour. The shape of the face is comely, the cheek-bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent; the only feature that does not correspond with our ideas of beauty is the nose, which, in general, is somewhat flat; but their eyes, especially those of the women, are full of expression, sometimes sparkling with fire, and sometimes melting with softness; their teeth also are, almost without exception, most beautifully even and white, and their breath perfectly without taint.
The hair is almost universally black, and rather coarse; the men have beards, which they wear in many fashions, always, however, plucking out great part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat.
In their movements there is at once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and courteous. In their dispositions also they seemed to be brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge, so that we placed the same confidence in them as in our best friends.
Tattooing
The natives of Tahiti have a custom of staining their bodies nearly in the same manner as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call tattooing. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a small instrument something in the form of a hoe; that part which answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty, according to its size. When this is to be used, they dip the teeth into a mixture of water and a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from an oily nut that they burn instead of candles; the teeth are then placed upon the skin and the handle to which they are fastened being struck, by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain.
The operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed. It is performed upon the youth of both sexes when they are about twelve or fourteen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of the party. The women are generally marked in the form of a Z on every joint of their fingers and toes, and frequently round the outside of their feet; the men are also marked with the same figure, and both men and women have squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other devices, impressed upon their legs and arms, some of which we were told had significations, though we could never learn what they were.
But the parts on which these ornaments are lavished with the greatest profusion are the thighs and hips. These, in both sexes, are covered with a deep black, above which arches are drawn one over another as high as the short ribs. They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are not straight lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are shown by men and women with a mixture of ostentation and pleasure, whether as an ornament or as a proof of their fortitude and resolution in bearing pain we could not determine. The face in general is left unmarked.
Mr. Banks saw the operation of tattooing being performed upon a girl about thirteen years old. The instrument used upon this occasion had thirty teeth, and every stroke, of which at least a hundred were made in a minute, drew serum a little tinged with red. The girl bore it with most stoical resolution for about a quarter of an hour; but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had received in that time then became intolerable; she first complained in murmurs, then wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the operator to desist. He, however, was inexorable; and when she began to struggle she was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her a smart blow. Mr. Banks stayed in a neighbouring house an hour, and the operation was not over when he went away; yet it was performed but upon one side, the other having been done sometime before; and the arches upon the loins, in which they most pride themselves, and which give more pain than all the rest, were still to be done.
Dress in Tahiti
Their dress consists of cloth or matting of different kinds. The cloth is made of the bark of three different trees—the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and a tree that resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies.
When the trees are of a proper size they are pulled up and stripped of their branches, and the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of the trunks being then slit up lengthways is easily drawn off, and is carried to some running water, and there placed to soak. When it is sufficiently softened, the women-servants go down to the brook and separate the inner bark from the green outside.
Being thus prepared in the afternoon, the pieces are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the side of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other. In the morning, when it is nearly dry, the pieces adhere together, so that the whole may be raised from the ground in one piece. It is then beaten with instruments about a foot long and three inches thick made of a hard wood. The shape of this instrument is not unlike a square razor-strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its four faces is marked lengthways with small grooves of different degrees of fineness. They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mallet; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly, however, in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the appearance of threads; it is successively beaten with the other sides, last with the finest, and is then fit for use. The colours with which they dye this cloth are principally red and yellow. Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface.
The cloth, which will not bear wetting, they wear in dry weather, and the matting when it rains; they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads them, for in their garments nothing is cut into shape, nor are any two pieces sewed together.
The dress of the better sort of women consists of three or four pieces; one piece, about two yards wide and eleven yards long, they wrap several times round their waist, so as to hang down like a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg; two or three other pieces, about two yards and a half long and one wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon another, and then, putting the head through the holes, they bring the long ends down before and behind; they remain open at the sides, and give liberty to the arms; they are gathered round the waist, and confined with a girdle or sash of thinner cloth, which is long enough to go many times round them.
The dress of the men is the same, except that instead of suffering the cloth that is wound round the hips to hang down like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs so as to have some resemblance to breeches.
This is the dress of all ranks of people, and being universally the same as to form, the upper classes distinguish themselves from the lower by the quantity; some of them will wrap round them several pieces of cloth eight or ten yards long and two or three broad, and some throw a large piece loosely over their shoulders in the manner of a cloak, or perhaps two pieces, if they are great personages and are desirous to appear in state.
On their heads the women sometimes wear little turbans, and sometimes a dress which they value much more, and which, indeed, is much more becoming. This consists of human hair plaited in threads scarcely thicker than sewing silk. Mr. Banks has pieces of it above a mile in length without a knot. These they wind round the he in such a manner as produces a very pretty effect, and in a very great quantity; for I have seen five or six such pieces wound about the head of one woman. Among these threads they stick flowers of various kinds.
The men sometimes stick the tail-feather of the Tropic-bird upright in their hair, which is often tied in a bunch upon the top of their heads. Sometimes they wear a kind of garland made of flowers of various kinds stuck into a piece of the rind of a plantain, or of scarlet peas stuck with gum upon a piece of wood; and sometimes they wear a kind of wig made of the hair of men or dogs, or perhaps of cocoa-nut strings woven upon one thread, which is tied under their hair, so that these artificial honours of their head may hang down behind. Both sexes wear earrings, but they are placed only on one side. When we came they consisted of shell, stone, berries, red peas, or some small pearls; put our beads very soon supplanted them all.
Cook, James, and Caleb George Cash. The Life and Voyages of Captain James Cook: Selections with Introductions and Notes by C.G. Cash. Blackie & Son, 1905.
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