The Explorers (17 page)

Polygamy exists. Tip-a-he told us of several wives he has had, one of whom he killed for having a troublesome tongue; nor could he help testifying his surprise that many of the women here did not suffer the same fate. He has fifty-two children living, but he now attaches himself to only one young woman, by whom he has a son now eight years old, who accompanies him on his visit and of whom he is very fond.

Of the natives of this country he had the most contemptible opinion, which both he and Tookey did not fail to manifest by discovering the utmost abhorrence at their going naked, and their want of ingenuity or inclination to procure food and make themselves comfortable, on which subject Tip-a-he on every occasion reproached them very severely. Their battles he treated as the most trifling mode of warfare, and was astonished that when they had their adversary down they did not kill him, which it seems is a custom among the New Zealanders and is carried to the most unrelenting pitch; indeed, no race of men could be treated with a more marked contempt than the natives of this country were by our visitors, who, it must be confessed, were infinitely their superiors in every respect.

Of Tip-a-he's independent and high spirits a better proof cannot be given than the following circumstance that occurred a week previous to his departure. Every person, particularly the officers and their wives, had made him presents of some baubles, as well as the greater part being of great use to him, which was clothing and iron tools of most description. An officer's wife had given him, among other things, a pair of earrings, which he very inconsiderately bestowed on a young woman. The donation was soon after discovered, and the earrings taken from the girl, on which Tip-a-he was reproached for his want of respect for the original donor who, before this unlucky event, was very much respected by him.

However, the instant he found that the earrings had been taken away, he packed every article up which he had received from that person (and among which were some very useful things) and sent them by one of his sons; nor could he ever be persuaded to speak or see the lady who gave him the things, and constantly expressed his disgust at hearing of the presents he had received being in any way mentioned except by himself; and, to do him justice, he always took every opportunity of speaking of the donors with the most grateful respect.

A few weeks after he arrived Te Pahi witnessed a skirmish near the Brickfields between two groups of Aborigines, in which a young warrior named Blewit was encircled. On 22 December 1805 the
Sydney Gazette
published an account of Blewit's predicament.

The animosity of his assailants was uncommonly remarkable; their party was far the most powerful and, confident of their superiority, took every advantage of their numbers. The flights of spears were seldom less than six, and managed with a precision that seemed to promise certain fatality. After 170 had been thus thrown, ten of the most powerful stationed themselves so as nearly to encircle the culprit, and front and rear darted their weapons at the same instant. His activity and strong presence of mind increased with the danger, and five he dexterously caught with his feeble target. The others he miraculously managed to escape.

One of his friends, enraged at the proceeding, threw a spear and received ten in return. Blewit turned one of the assailants' spears upon themselves and passed it through the body of old Whitaker: the affray then became general, but terminated without further mischief.

Tip-pa-he, who with several of his sons was present, regarded with contempt their warfare. He frequently discovered much impatience at the length of interval between the flights, and by signs exhorted them to dispatch. He considered the heel-a-man or shield an unnecessary appendage, as the hand was sufficient to put aside and alter the direction of any number of spears. He nevertheless praised highly the woomera or throwing stick, as from its elasticity he acknowledged the weapon to receive much additional velocity.

He was visibly chagrined when he saw the old man wounded through the body and would certainly have executed vengeance upon its author had he not been restrained by the solicitations of the spectators.

The natives have formed some extravagant notions of this stranger: they dread to approach him and as much as possible avoid him; but whether from a deference to his rank presumed from the very great attention shown him or from superstitious apprehensions excited by his appearance is indeterminable, though the latter by far the more probable conjecture.

One of his eldest sons, communing familiarly with a large group on the use of the spear, was very politely and generally acquiesced with. He requested the loan of one of their weapons, which was immediately presented; but as soon as he took it in his hand they all took to their heels, men, women and children, and could not by all his most friendly assurances be prevailed upon to return until he had lain it aside.

* Our method, on these expeditions, was to steer by compass, noting the different courses as we proceeded; and, counting the number of paces, of which two thousand two hundred, on good ground, were allowed to be a mile. At night when we halted, all these courses were separately cast up, and worked by a traverse table, in the manner a ship's reckoning is kept, so that by observing this precaution we always knew exactly where we were, and how far from home: an unspeakable advantage in a new country, where one hill, and one tree, is so like another that fatal wanderings would ensue without it. This arduous task was always allotted to Mr Dawes who, from habit and superior skill, performed it almost without a stop, or an interruption of conversation: to any other man, on such terms, it would have been impracticable.

† Sugar-gliders, and ringtail and brushtail possums.

* Their general favourite term of reproach is
gonin-patta
, which signifies, ‘an eater of human excrement'. Our language would admit a very concise and familiar translation. They have, besides this, innumerable others which they often salute their enemies with.

† An epidemic, apparently of smallpox, had swept through the Aboriginal population in April 1789.

† Tooth evulsion is part of some Aboriginal initiation ceremonies, whose secret nature may have made Colbee and Boladeree reluctant to discuss the practice. It is also interesting to note that Governor Phillip was missing a foretooth. Did this predispose the Aborigines to accept him?

* How easily people, unused to speak the same language, mistake each other, everyone knows. We had lived almost three years at Port Jackson (for more than half of which period natives had resided with us) before we knew that the word
bèeal
signified ‘no', and not ‘good', in which latter sense we had always used it without suspecting that we were wrong; and even without being corrected by those with whom we talked daily. The cause of our error was this. The epithet
weeree
, signifying ‘bad', we knew; and as the use of this word and its opposite afford the most simple form of denoting consent or disapprobation to uninstructed Indians, in order to find out their word for ‘good', when Arabanoo was first brought among us, we used jokingly to say that any thing which he liked was
weeree
, in order to
èeal
, which we translated and adopted for ‘good'; whereas he meant no more than simply to deny our inference, and say, ‘no—it is not bad'. After this, it cannot be thought extraordinary that the little vocabulary inserted in Mr Cook's account of this part of the world should appear defective—even were we not to take in the great probability of the dialects at Endeavour River and Van Diemen's Land differing from that spoken at Port Jackson. And it remains to be proved that the animal called here
Patagaram
is not there called
Kangaroo
.

† Machaon: A doctor to the Greeks in the Trojan War.

† Ladrones: outlaws.

†† This is Lieutenant Samuel Flinders who served under his captain, Matthew.

† Timor-laoet: an island off Ceram.

* A question suggests itself here: could the natives of the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria have learned the rite of circumcision from these Malay Mahometans? From the short period that the latter had frequented the coast, and the nature of the intercourse between the two people, it seems to me very little probable.

† Wallamoula: Woolloomooloo.

† Brick-field was near the site of what is now the University of Sydney.

†† The cemetery with its striking monuments was near the present Town Hall.

† Samoa, Tonga and Tahiti respectively.

†† Matthew Flinders' vessel was wrecked off the Queensland coast.

* Wooglemai, in the natives' language, signifies ‘one-eyed'. This native knew Gogy, as he used to go from time to time to Parramatta and Prospect Hill. The mountaineer called Bungin was an inhabitant of the south and had left the Canambaigle tribe because they wanted to kill him. He was the brother of a famous chief who had accidentally killed himself in falling from a tree. That chief was called Goonboole. He inhabited the mountains near Jervis Bay and was the terror of the neighbourhood.

* I had some boiled rice and sugar given to them. Bulgin ate it with greediness, but Wallarra ate only the sugar which I had to put on top. It would be difficult to describe his fright. He was standing with crossed arms and his eyes riveted on the ground. I had a second handful of sugar given to him which he ate; but when I again went near him his whole frame began to tremble.

† Nattai: south-west of Camden.

† The island was Mud Island.

†† John Sullivan was Undersecretary of State for War and the Colonies,

††† The aldermen were possibly gummy sharks.

† George III.

P
ÁLOO
M
ÁTA
M
ÔIGNA

What Is Money Made of?, 1806

Two indigenous proto-empires had developed in the Pacific by the time of European contact: the Hawaiian Islands and Tonga (now the only surviving Pacific Islands kingdom). In late May 1806 two Tongan royals arrived in Sydney on an extended visit. Their painful story was later heard by William Mariner, a cabin boy who had been shipwrecked on Tonga in 1806 and adopted by the king, Finau. By 1811 Mariner was back in England, where he dictated his recollections of Tonga to one Dr Martin, a man fascinated by the variety of human societies.

Stories of deprivation and death in the hinterlands are central to Australian exploration. For their part, the Tongan expeditioners nearly succumbed in the heart of Sydney Town. Their nobility was not recognised, and they were considered a mere nusiance by governors King and later Bligh, who grudgingly gave them shelter. Part of the problem was money. The idea of it seemed completely weird to the Tongans, no less weird than the landscape and the Aborigines seemed to many Europeans. At precisely the same time that the Royal Society in London was sponsoring explorers to deliver learned papers on the savages of the south seas, the Tongans were discussing money and morality with a sharpness worthy of Adam Smith.

Whilst Finow was yet at the Hapai Islands, he often held conversations at his kava parties with Filimóëátoo, respecting the state of affairs at Tonga.† Among other things, this chief related, that a ship from Botany Bay had touched there about a week before he arrived, on board of which there was a Tonga chief, Páloo Máta Môigna, and his wife, Fatafehi, both of whom had left Tonga before the death of Toogoo Ahoo, and had resided some years at the Fiji Islands, from which place they afterwards went along with one Selly (as they pronounced it) or, probably, Selby, an Englishman, in a vessel belonging to Botany Bay, to reside there.†† At this latter place he and his wife remained about two years, and now, on their return to Tonga, finding the island in such an unsettled state, they chose rather (notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of their friends) to go back again to Botany Bay.

The account they gave of the English customs at this place, and the treatment they at first met with, it may be worthwhile to relate. The first thing that he and his wife had to do, when they arrived at the governor's house, where they went to reside, was to sweep out a large courtyard and clean down a great pair of stairs. In vain they endeavoured to explain that in their own country they were chiefs and, being accustomed to be waited on, were quite unused to such employments.

Their expostulations were taken no notice of, and work they must. At first their life was so uncomfortable that they wished to die. No one seemed to protect them; all the houses were shut against them; if they saw anybody eating they were not invited to partake. Nothing was to be got without money, of which they could not comprehend the value, nor how this same money was to be obtained in any quantity. If they asked for it, nobody would give them any, unless they worked for it; and then it was so small in quantity that they could not get with it one-tenth part of what they wanted.

One day, whilst sauntering about, the chief fixed his eyes upon a cook's shop and, seeing several people enter and others again coming out with victuals, he made sure that they were sharing out food, according to the old Tonga fashion; and in he went, glad enough of the occasion. After waiting some time with anxiety to be helped to his share, the master of the shop asked him what he wanted and, being answered in an unknown language, straightway kicked him out, taking him for a thief that only wanted an opportunity to steal.