13th April 1769

Tahiti

The first part Cloudy and Squally, with Showers of rain; remainder, genteel breezes and clear weather. At 4 p.m. the North-East point of Royal Bay West 1/2 North; run under an easy sail all night, and had soundings from 22 to 12 fathoms 2 or 3 Miles from the Shore. At 5 a.m. made sail for the bay, and at 7 anchored in 13 fathoms.* (* Matavai Bay.) At this time we had but very few men upon the sick list, and these had but slite complaints. The Ship's company had in general been very healthy, owing in a great measure to the Sour kroutt, Portable Soup and Malt; the two first were served to the People, the one on Beef Days and the other on Banyan Days. Wort was made of the Malt, and at the discretion of the Surgeon given to every man that had the least simptoms of Scurvy upon him. By this means, and the Care and Vigilance of Mr. Monkhouse, the Surgeon, this disease was prevented from getting a footing in the Ship. The Sour Kroutt, the Men at first would not eat it, until I put it in practice--a method I never once Knew to fail with seamen--and this was to have some of it dressed every day for the Cabin Table, and permitted all the Officers, without exception, to make use of it, and left it to the Option of the men either to take as much as they pleased or none at all; but this practice was not continued above a Week before I found it necessary to put every one on board to an allowance; for such are the Tempers and disposition of Seamen in general that whatever you give them out of the common way--altho' it be ever so much for their good--it will not go down, and you will hear nothing but murmurings against the Man that first invented it; but the moment they see their superiors set a value upon it, it becomes the finest stuff in the world and the inventor an honest fellow. Wind easterly.

Note: The way of reckoning the day in Sea Journals is from Noon to Noon, but as the most material transaction at this Island must happen in the Day time, this method will be attended with ill conveniences in inserting the transactions of each day; for this reason I shall during our stay at this Island, but no longer, reckon the day according to the Civil account that is to begin and end at Midnight.

We had no sooner come to an Anchor in Royal Bay, as before-mentioned, than a great number of the Natives in their Canoes came off to the Ship and brought with them Cocoa Nuts, etc.; these they seem'd to set a great value upon. Amongst those that came off to the Ship was an elderly man whose Name was Owhaa, him the Gentlemen that had been here before in the Dolphin* (* Lieutenant Gore and Mr. Molineux, the Master.) knew and had often spoke of as one that had been of Service to them. This man (together with some others) I took on board and made much of, thinking that he might on some occasions be of use to us.

As our stay at this place was not likely to be very short, I thought it very necessary that some order should be observed in Traficking with the Natives, that such Merchandize as we had on board for that purpose might continue to bear a proper value, and not leave it to everyone's own particular fancy, which could not fail to bring on Confusion and Quarrels between us and the Natives, and would infallibly lessen the value of such Articles as we had to trafick with. In Order to prevent this, the following rules were ordered to be Observed; viz.:

Rules to be observed by every person in or belonging to His Majesty's Bark the Endeavour for the better Establishing a regular and uniform Trade for Provisions, etc., with the Inhabitants of George's Island:

1. To endeavour by every fair means to Cultivate a Friendship with the Natives, and to treat them with all imaginable humanity.

2. A Proper Person or Persons will be appointed to Trade with the Natives for all manner of Provisions, Fruits, and other Productions of the Earth; and no Officer or Seaman or other person belonging to the Ship, excepting such as are so appointed, shall Trade or offer to Trade for any sort of Provisions, Fruit or other Productions of the Earth, unless they have my leave so to do.

3. Every Person employ'd on shore on any duty whatsoever is strictly to attend to the same, and if by neglect he looseth any of His Arms or working Tools, or suffers them to be stole, the full value thereof will be charged against his pay, according to the Custom of the Navy in such Cases, and he shall receive such further punishment as the nature of the Offence may deserve.

4. The same Penalty will be inflicted upon every person who is found to Embezzle, Trade, or Offer to Trade with any of the Ship's Stores of what Nature so ever.

5. No sort of Iron or anything that is made of Iron, or any sort of Cloth or other useful or necessary Articles, are to be given in Exchange for anything but Provisions.

J.C.

As soon as the Ship was properly secured I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and the other Gentlemen,* (* Cook generally uses this term for the civilians on board.) with a Party of Men under Arms; we took along with us Owhaa--who took us to the place where the Dolphin watered, and made signs to us as well as we could understand that we might Occupy that ground, but it hapned not to be fit for our purpose. No one of the Natives made the least opposition at our landing, but came to us with all imaginable Marks of Friendship and Submission. We Afterwards made a Circuit through the Woods, and then came on board. We did not find the inhabitants to be numerous, and we imagin'd that several of them had fled from their habitations upon our Arrival in the Bay.

Joseph Banks Journal

Arrival Port Royal Bay This morn early came to an anchor in Port Royal bay King George the thirds Island. Before the anchor was down we were surrounded by a large number of Canoes who traded very quietly and civily, for beads cheifly, in exchange for which they gave Cocoa nuts Bread fruit both roasted and raw some small fish and apples. They had one pig with them which they refus'd to sell for nails upon any account but repeatedly offerd it for a hatchet; of these we had very few on board so thought it better to let the pig go away than to give one of them in exchange, knowing from the authority of those who had been here before that if we once did it they would never lower their price.

As soon as the anchors were well down the boats were hoisted out and we all went ashore where we were met by some hundreds of the inhabitants whose faces at least gave evident signs that we were not unwelcome guests, tho they at first hardly dare aproach us, after a little time they became very familiar. The first who aproachd us came creeping almost on his hands and knees and gave us a green bough the token of peace, this we receivd and immediately each gatherd a green bough and carried in our hands. They march'd with us about ½ a mile then made a general stop and scraping the ground clean from the plants that grew upon it every one of the principals threw his bough down upon the bare place and made signs that we should do the same: the marines were drawn up and marching in order dropd each a bough upon those that the Indians had laid down, we all folowd their example and thus peace was concluded. We then walkd into the woods followd by the whole train to whoom we gave beads and small presents.

In this manner we walkd for 4 or 5 miles under groves of Cocoa nut and bread fruit trees loaded with a profusion of fruit and giving the most gratefull shade I have ever experienced, under these were the habitations of the people most of them without walls: in short the scene we saw was the truest picture of an arcadia of which we were going to be kings that the imagination can form. Our pleasure in seeing this was however not a little allayd by finding in all our walk only 2 hogs and not one fowl. The Dolphins people who were with us told us that the people who we saw were only of the common sort and that the bettermost had certainly removd, as a proof of this they took us to the place where the Queens palace formerly stood of which there was no traces left. We howev[e]r resolved not to be discouraged at this but to proceed tomorrow morning in search of the place to which these superior people had retreated, in hopes to make the same peace with them as we have done with our freinds the blackguards.

Sydney Parkinson’s Journal

We made the island of Otaheite, called by the Dolphin's people George's Island, which is opposite to York Island. We entered Port Royal harbour, called by the natives Owarrowarrow, and anchored in nine fathom water, within half a mile of the shore. The land appeared as uneven as a piece of crumpled paper, being divided irregularly into hills and valleys; but a beautiful verdure covered both, even to the tops of the highest peaks. A great number of the natives came off to us in canoes, and brought with them bananas, cocoas, bread fruit apples, and some pigs; but they were errant thieves; and, while I was busied in the forenoon in trucking with them for some of their cloth, (an account of which will be given hereafter,) one of them pilfered an earthen vessel out of my cabin. It was very diverting to see the different emotions which the natives expressed at the manoeuvres of our ship.

They were very social, and several of them came on board; some of them remembered such of our people as had been there in the Dolphin, and seemed highly pleased at our arrival. The captain and Mr. Banks went on shore; but they returned greatly disappointed, as they could not find the principal inhabitants, and perceived that many of their houses had been taken down since the Dolphin left them.