Samoa Under the Sailing Gods
Chapter i — Arrival of the Sailing Gods
Chapter i
Arrival of the Sailing Gods
I
It is probably for little more than two centuries that Samoa has known us sailing gods. The first ship ever seen, was off the coast of Upolu. From the horizon one day she emerged—square-rigged we may assume—and gleaming sail after gleaming sail mounted above the rim of blue.
For those aboard—whoever they were—the island must have appeared very much as it does to-day. A somewhat narrow mountainous mass about forty-five miles in length and rising to heights of between three and four thousand feet, covered with dense bush running down to the sea, that has been well described as lending the appearance of "a rough green carpet thrown over the whole surface—a carpet fringed with white surf on reef or iron-bound coast." Then, as now, the brown, humped, dark-interiored houses of the natives would have grouped in loose clusters beneath the fringe of spindly palms that denotes the occupied land along the seaboard; only then there would have been no occasional trading-stations interspersed among them. But of this we have no account.
Of what happened ashore, however, legend has taken record. It was assumed, perhaps rightly, that a cataclysm had befallen. "Papalangi!" cried the onlookers in dismay, as the bellying sails continued to approach. "Papalangi!"—"The clouds are broken! The clouds are broken!" And papalangi—or the heaven-burster—is the white man called to this day in Samoa.
The new-comers—the discoverers of a kingdom, whoever they may have been—came not ashore, but stood on and off for awhile; and the wondering crowd who now lined the beach, or who to obtain a better view climbed the tall coconut-palms, watched, it is said, with intense interest the motions of the mysterious ship as she remained sailing about at some little distance from the land.
"'What can it be? Whence does it come? What does the strange thing contain?' were among the many questions asked … as they looked on in astonishment upon the strange visitor before them. It was generally felt that it must be an arrival from the spirit-land, and that it would be well to propitiate the gods supposed to be on board by offerings of food. Such were speedily placed along the beach, in the shape of O le Matini, or offerings to the gods, and petitions offered, praying the supposed spiritual visitors to be satisfied with the offerings presented; but, if they had come to take away men for food or sacrifice, that they would mercifully spare them, and go further to other settlements, where the population was greater." 1
After a time, some of the more courageous among the Samoans ventured off to the ship in their canoes; and great was their astonishment at the masts so tall and straight, the caverns beneath the decks, and the strange beings speaking an unknown tongue, who had no toes unto their feet, and pouches in their skins in which they were accustomed to dispose of various articles. The visitors to the ship returned ashore to describe their astonishment at these things, and they concluded, from portions of a carcass—probably that of a smoked pig—they had seen hanging up, that the new-comers were man-eaters: whence, it is suggested, they endeavoured to hasten the vessel's departure. The means adopted are not on record. Shortly after, the ship resumed her silent way along the coast of Upolu, and vanished thence as mysteriously as she had come.
1 J. B. Stair.
II
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Interior of a Samoan House
Of the Dutch discovery, it is recorded by an eighteenthcentury geographer, 1 that, on their quitting the Island of Recreation they steered a north-west course in order to reach New Britain, and three days after discovered in the latitude of 12° south, and in the longitude of 290, several islands, which at a distance appeared very beautiful, and on their approaching them, they plainly discovered that they were well planted with fruit trees. That the country produced roots, herbs, and corn in great plenty, and was laid out in large and regular plantations towards the coast. The inhabitants no sooner observed the ships, than they came in their boats, bringing fish, coconuts, Indian figs, and other refreshments; in return for which the Dutch gave them as usual, small looking-glasses, strings of beads, and other trifles.
"It soon appeared that these islands were fully populated, since many thousands of men and women, the former of whom were generally speaking armed with bows and arrows, came down to the shore to look at them. Among the rest they observed a very majestic personage, who, from his dress, and the honours that were paid him, they easily discovered to be the Prince or Sovereign of the nation. He presently stepped into his canoe with an agreeable young woman who sat by his side, upon which his canoe was immediately surrounded by a vast number of other vessels that crowded about it, and seemed intended for a guard. All the inhabitants of these islands were of the same complexion as the Europeans, except their being a little sun-burnt. They appeared to be a harmless good sort of people, and very brisk and likely; for they treated each other with visible marks of civility, and had nothing in their behaviour that was wild or savage. Their bodies were not painted like those of other Indians the Dutch had seen; but were cloathed from the girdle downwards, with a kind of silk fringes very neatly folded. On their heads they wore hats made of a very neat sort of stuff, and extremely large, to keep off the sun, and about their necks they wore collars of very beautiful and odoriferous flowers.
"The country appeared exquisitely charming, every one of these islands being finely diversified with hills and valleys, and affording the most delightful landskips. Some of them were 10, some 15, and others about twenty miles in compass. The Dutch thought fit to call them Bowman's islands, after the Captain of the Teinhoven who first discovered them.
"Many of the Dutch were extremely desirous of making a longer stay in so plentiful a country, and among such a civilized people, as it was morally certain, that by the help of the abundance of wholesome provisions with which the natives willingly furnished them, all their sick would in a month's time have perfectly recovered. These islands had besides one convenience superior to those they had before met with, as there was exceedingly good anchorage along their coasts, where the Dutch rode safely in 15 or 20 fathoms water. So many advantageous circumstances ought certainly to have prevailed on the Commodore and his officers to have remained there; but their heads were so full of an East India voyage, and they were so extremely fearful of missing the easterly monsoon, that they could not be brought to listen to the proposal.
"Weighing from Bowman's islands, they continued their course to the north-west."
The silk fringes very neatly folded, here mentioned, actually was tattooing.
1 The World Displayed, 1773.
III
In 1768 the Samoa group was again visited; this time by the French navigator, de Bougainville, who discovered Tutuila, in Eastern Samoa, and who also sighted Upolu. Like his predecessor he gave the archipelago a name that has not endured, calling it the "Iles des Navigateurs"—"being inspired, apparently, by the great number of canoes seen paddling about the shores, as they may be seen to this day." There is little to be learned from Bougainville's account.
Captain Cook heard of the islands in 1773, from the Tongans, or Friendly Islanders, who inhabit a group to the south, and noted some of their names. The Samoans perhaps are to be congratulated that Cook did not visit them, for his men are credited with introducing syphilis into the Pacific: a distemper practically, if not entirely, unknown in Samoa. Some, however, among the early voyagers to the Navigators appear to have left a legacy of disease, for there occur the passages in old Samoan prayers: "Here is kava for you, O sailing gods! Do not come on shore at this place; but be pleased to depart along the ocean to some other land." And again, this time to the household deity and the gods superior and inferior, with an offering of flaming fire, just before the evening meal.
"Calling upon someone to blow up the fire and make it blaze, and begging all to be silent, a senior member of the family would pray aloud as follows:—'This is light for you, O king and gods superior and inferior! If any of you are forgotten, do not be angry, this light is for you all…. Drive away from us sailing gods, lest they come and cause disease and death. Protect this family by your presence, and may health and long life be given to us all.'" 1
1 G. Turner
IV
Nearly twenty years after Bougainville, in December 1787, the Count de la Pérouse, with his exploring expedition of two ships, having failed to make Quiros's Isla de Gente Hermosa, or Island of the Handsome Nation (one of the Tokelau, or Union, Group, handed over by the Colonial Office to the New Zealand Samoan Administration about 1925), set sail for the Navigators Islands of Bougainville and arrived at Manua, in the eastern part of the archipelago, where he expected to procure provisions.
He perceived no canoes until he was in the channel between the cluster, but a heavy swell on which the two ships tossed about with a danger of falling aboard one another, prevented him from attending to the harangue of an old "Indian" who held a branch of kava in his hand and pronounced an oration of considerable length. This the Europeans, from what they had read, knew to be a sign of peace.
On the breeze reaching the ships, they made sail to get an offing from the coast and the canoes then came up. The islanders, La Pérouse said, were for the most part stoutly made and tall. They approached with fear and unarmed, and everything indicated that they were as peaceable as the natives of the Society or Friendly Islands. The Europeans obtained from them several curiosities belonging to their dress, five fowls, ten gallinules, a small pig, and the most beautiful dove that they had ever seen.
Though the canoes of these islanders were skilfully executed, commented La Pérouse, and afforded proof of ability in working in wood, he could not prevail on their occupants to take hatchets or any iron tools; and they preferred a few glass beads, which could be of no utility, to anything the French could offer them in iron or cloth.
The ships proceeded to the island of Tutuila, to the west of Manua, but still in the eastern part of the group, and ran along it to a distance of half a league, finding it surrounded with a barrier of coral rock, on which the sea broke violently. The reef nearly touched the shore and the coast formed several little coves, before which were openings, affording a passage for canoes and possibly even for boats. There were several villages at the heads of all these coves, from which came off an immense number of canoes, loaded with hogs, coco-nuts, and other fruits, which the Europeans purchased for glass beads. They saw, besides, water rushing in cascades from the mountains to the foot of the villages.
The ships let go anchor and three of their boats were launched. As night was coming on when they reached the shore, the "Indians" kindled a large fire to light the landingplace. They brought to the seamen birds, hogs, and fruits; and after an hour's stay, the boats returned on board. This would appear to be the first time recorded that Europeans set foot in Samoa.
The following day four boats set out for the purpose of procuring water, which was fine and easily obtained. A line of marines was drawn up between the shore and the "Indians," who numbered about two hundred and were prevailed to sit down under some coconut-trees some sixteen yards from the boats. Each had with him fowls, pigs, parrots, pigeons, or fruits; and they were all for selling them at once, which occasioned a little confusion.
The women, some of whom were found to be very pretty, offered, with their fruits and fowls, their favours to all who had beads to give them. In a little while they endeavoured to pass through the line of marines, who made too feeble a resistance to repulse them. Their manners were gentle, sprightly, and engaging. Against such attacks, said La Pérouse, a European who had sailed round the world, a Frenchman in particular, had no weapons of defence.
This episode called forth a passage in R. L. Stevenson's severe stricture on the conduct of Europeans in the Pacific, when, in In The South Seas, he mentions "the really decent women of Samoa" having prostituted themselves in public to the French, who, as he did not say, had conducted themselves thus in other countries.
The men, continues La Pérouse ambiguously, then came up, and the confusion increased; but some "Indians" who were taken to be chiefs appeared armed with sticks and re-established order. Each returned to his place, and the market recommenced, "to the great satisfaction of both buyers and sellers."
While everything was going forward, says La Pérouse, with the utmost tranquillity, and their casks were filling with water, he thought he might venture about two hundred paces to visit a delightful village, situate in the midst of a wood, or rather orchard, the trees of which were loaded with fruit. The houses were placed in a circle, about three hundred yards in diameter, the centre of which formed a beautiful green, while the trees, with which it was shaded, kept it delightfully cool. Women, children, and old men, accompanied him, and invited him into their houses. They spread the finest and freshest mats on the floor, which was formed of little pebbles, picked out for the purpose, and raised about two feet, to secure from dampness. He entered into the handsomest of the huts.
The most skilful architect, he remarked, could not have given a more elegant curve to the extremities of the ellipsis, which terminated this hut: and it was surrounded by a row of pillars, five feet distant from each other, formed of trunks of trees, very neatly worked, between which were mats, laid one over another like the scales of a fish, with great art, and gathered up with cords.
The domed, open-walled houses were thickly thatched.
This charming country, said La Pérouse, united the advan- tages of a soil fruitful without cultivation and a climate requiring no clothes. The coco-nut, plantain, guava, orange, and breadfruit-trees bestowed on these fortunate people abundance of wholesome nourishment; and fowls, hogs, and dogs, which lived on the surplus of their produce, afforded an agreeable change.
"They were so wealthy, and had so few wants, that they despised our cloths and instruments of iron, and would accept only beads: abundantly supplied with articles of real utility, they desired nothing but superfluities. They had sold at our market upwards of two hundred tamed wood-pigeons, which would only eat out of the hand; and they had bartered with us turtle doves, and beautiful parrots, as tame as the pigeons. What imagination would not conceive this delightful place to be the abode of felicity! These islanders, we were continually saying, must be the happiest people upon earth: surrounded with their wives and children, they pass their days serene and tranquil in the bosom of repose: they have no other care, but that of bringing up birds, and, like the first man, of gathering without labour the fruits that hang over their heads."
The following morning M. de Langle, the second-in-command, went ashore to obtain more water, and, contrary to instructions, proceeded to a place not under the protection of the frigates' guns. He was detained on shore by a low tide. The casks, however, were taken ashore, filled, and re-embarked. De Langle and his detachment then, for reasons which seem not sufficiently explained, posted themselves in the long-boats, in a posture of defence, and there it is represented they were the victims of an unprovoked attack, in which he and eleven others were massacred by the natives.
To those who know their character it is inconceivable that the Samoans attacked without provocation. About fifty years later, Stair, a missionary on the island of Upolu, was informed by an eyewitness that the trouble at Tutuila arose when the French, by way of punishment for some petty theft, hoisted a Samoan—one of a visiting party from Falelatai in Upolu—to the top of the mainmast of one of the long-boats by his thumb or hand. This apparently led to the attack. After the conflict had ceased, he says, the Tutuila natives, who had been averse to it, and may not have participated, buried the bodies of the French left on shore, treating them with every respect; while the party from Falelatai left the same night for Upolu, taking with them a boat captured from the French. It would appear that these same men had the hardihood to pay a friendly visit to the frigates, in canoes, the following day when the ships were cruising off Upolu.
V
In 1788, La Pérouse, having handed his journals to Governor Philip in Botany Bay, for transmission to Europe, sailed from New South Wales with his two ships. Neither he nor any of his company was ever seen again by a European. They were wrecked on one of the Santa Cruz Group, where survivors lived for many years.
In the year following occurred the famous mutiny of the Bounty, about a quarter of whose crew, as is well known, established themselves with Tahitian women on the uninhabited Pitcairn Island, where their descendants still remain. In 1790, however, Captain Edwards, in the Pandora frigate, was sent out by the British Admiralty under orders to proceed to Tahiti, and, failing to find the mutineers there, to visit the Friendly Islands and other parts of the Pacific, with the object of securing these men and bringing them to London for trial.
Edwards's visit on this quest (in the course of which apparently he unwittingly ignored smoke signals put up by the survivors of the La Pérouse expedition), in 1791, is the next recorded off Samoa. He did not at that time, it seems, know of the visit there by La Pérouse in 1787. His journal of the voyage being most extraordinarily meagre, is fortunately supplemented by that of George Hamilton, the Pandora's surgeon, who has been described as a coarse and vulgar man, more disposed to relate licentious scenes and adventures, in which he and his companions were engaged, than to give any information of proceedings and occurrences connected with the main object of the voyage. But at least it is a better record than that of Edwards.
Hamilton says that on June 18, 1791, they discovered an island of more considerable extent than any other hitherto discovered in the south. It was beautifully diversified with hills and dales, of twice the extent of Otaheite (Tahiti), and with a hardy warlike race of people. After trading a whole day with the natives, who seemed fair and honourable in their dealings, they proceeded on their voyage. This was Savaii, to the extreme west of Samoa—the largest of that group. Its position had been determined by La Pérouse.
On the 21st they came upon a very considerable island—Tutuila. It was well wooded with immense large trees, whose foliage spread like the oak; and there was a deal of shrubbery on it, bearing a yellow flower. The natives were remarkably handsome. "Neither sex wear any clothing but a girdle of leaves round their middle, stained with different colours. The women adorn their hair with chaplets of sweet-smelling flowers and bracelets, and necklaces of flowers round their wrists and neck."
On their first coming on board, says Hamilton, they trembled for fear. They were perfectly ignorant of fire-arms, "never having seen a European ship before." They made many gestures of submission, and were struck with wonder and surprise at everything they saw. Among other things, they brought aboard some "most remarkable fine puddings," which abounded with aromatic spiceries that excelled in taste and flavour the most delicate seed-cake. Hamilton suggests that as spices and aromatics are unknown in the South Seas, this was a matter worthy of the investigation of future circumnavigators.
"One woman among many others came on board. She was six feet high, of exquisite beauty, and exact symmetry, being naked, and unconscious of her being so, added a lusture to her charms; for, in the words of the poet, 'She needed not the foreign ornaments of dress; careless of beauty, she was beauty's self.' Many mouths were watering for her; but Captain Edwards, with great humanity and prudence, had given previous orders, that no woman should be permitted to go below, as our health had not quite recovered from the shock it received at Otaheite; and the lady was obliged to be contented with viewing the great cabin, where she was shewn the wonders of the Lord on the face of the mighty deep."
Hamilton having already recorded, "We now began to discover, that the ladies of Otaheite had left us many warm tokens of their affection," his reference to the health of the general crew is fairly plain. But in justice to the ladies of Tahiti I will quote him further. Of that island he said:
"This may well be called the Cytheria of the southern hemisphere, not only from the beauty and elegance of the women, but their being so deeply versed in, and so passionately fond of the Eleusinian mysteries; and what poetic fiction has painted of Eden, or Arcadia, is here realized, where the earth without tillage produces both food and cloathing, the trees loaded with the richest of fruit, the carpet of nature spread with the most odoriferous flowers, and the fair ones ever willing to fill your arms with love.
"It affords a happy instance of contradicting an opinion propagated by philosophers of a less bountiful soil, who maintain that every virtuous or charitable act a man commits, is from selfish and interested views. Here human nature appears in more amiable colours, and the soul of man, free from the gripping hand of want, acts with a liberality and bounty that does honour to his God.
"A native of this country divides every thing in common with his friend, and the extent of the word friend, by them, is only bounded by the universe, and was he reduced to his last morsel of bread, he cheerfully halves it with him; the next that comes has the same claim, if he wants it, and so in succession to the last mouthful he has. Rank makes no distinction in hospitality; for the king and the beggar relieve each other in common… Happy would it have been for these people had they never been visited by Europeans; for, to our shame be it spoken, disease and gunpowder is all the benefit they have ever received from us, in return for their hospitality and kindness. The ravages of the venereal disease is evident, from the mutilated objects so frequent amongst them, where death has not thrown a charitable veil over their misery, by putting a period to their existence.
"A disease of the consumptive kind has of late made great havoc amongst them; this they call the British disease, as they have only had it since their intercourse with the English."
Before evening—to return to Samoa—the women went ashore, and the men began to be troublesome and pilfering. The third lieutenant had a new coat stolen from his cabin; and they were making off with every bit of iron they could lay hands on—being educated apparently by this time as to its value.
"It now came on to blow fresh, and we were obliged to make off from the land. Those who were engaged in trade on board were so anxious, that we had got almost out of sight of their canoes before they perceived the ship's motion, when they all jumped into the water like a flock of wild geese; but one fellow, more earnest than the rest, hung by the rudder chains for a mile or two, thinking to detain her."
That evening, at five o'clock, the Pandora parted company with, and lost sight of her consort. False fires were burnt, and great guns and small arms were fired without success, as it came on thick blowing weather.
After cruising two days in search of the tender, the Pandora proceeded to the rendezvous at Tonga—the Friendly Islands; but it was not for four months that the tender was found—in Samarang. On the same night of parting company, the natives of the south-east end of Upolu had made a determined attack upon the little vessel in their canoes:
"and their never having seen a European ship before, nor being able to conceive any idea of fire-arms, made the conflict last longer than it otherwise would; for, seeing no missive weapon made use of, when their companions were killed, they did not suspect anything to be the matter with them, as they tumbled into the water. Our seven-barrelled pieces made great havoc amongst them,"