Emigration to America.

[ Extracted from No.15 of Cobbet's Register, published on Saturday, 12th instant ].

Cobbett's arrival in America,&c.

On Wednesday evening, the 27th March, we embarked on board the Importer, D. Ogden, master, bound to New York, where we arrived on the 5th of May, with about 40 steerage passengers, farmers, and tradesmen, who were fleeing from ruin and starvation. In all respects that can be named our passage disagreeable, and upon one occasion very perilous, from lightning, which struck the ship twice, shivered two of the masts, killed a man, struck several people slightly, between two of whom I was sitting, without at all feeling the blow.

Some of our fellow-passengers have found great disappointment ; and, it is stated in some of the public papers here, that many hundreds have, during the last year, accepted of the offer of our Consul at New York to go and settle in Canada. You know that I have never advised any body to emigrate. I have always said that it is no place for manufacturers ; no place for men to live without work ; no place for a farmer who does not work himself ; no place in short, for any one who is not able and willing to work at the ordinary sorts of work ; but for such men there is every where a plentiful, happy, and easy life. None should come, however, who have any views of idleness ; and even for the industrious poor, I see no reason why they should expend their last shilling, and undergo all the miseries and dangers of a sea voyage, in order to save those who eat the taxes the expence of their share of poor-rates ; a man and his wife and a child or two cannot come under the expence of 35 guineas, at least. A single man 20 guineas, before he gets into work again ; and, as I always said, I never would, if I were in the place of such a man, expend my earnings on a sea voyage, and endure all its hardships, in order to remove one eye sore out of the way of corruption. Besides, there is the climate, which is not so good as ours, though it is not bad, and people often live to an old age. The country is good, but it will easily be conceived, that new face, an entire new scene, a separation from every friend, work done in a quite different way from it is in England ; it will easily be conceived, that all this makes such a dislocation in a man's mind as to make him very unhappy for a while. Then, he cannot expect to find work the first day. He must ask first, at any rate. Englishmen are sheepish ; and, they are sure to find rascals enough here to foster their disgust, merely for the sake of serving the cause of corruption at home. In short, I advice nobody to emigrate, but I will truly describe the country and the people. As to emigrating with a view of settling and farming in the new countries, it is neither more nor less than downright madness. It is what our English farmers know nothing at all about ; it is what they are not at all fit for ; and the far greater part of all such speculations end in disappointment, if not in ruin and premature death. I hope that our beloved country will shortly be fit for an honest and industrious man to live in ; but if any farmers come with money in their pockets, my advice is, not to give way either to enthusiastic admiration, or to instant disgust. But, to stop a little ; to look about them ; to see not only after good land, but a good market for its products. The western romance writers tell us, that the land in the Ohio is too good ; but Mr Mellish, in his valuable book, tells us, that beef and pork sell for three halfpence a pound. An excellent country for people who want to do nothing but eat. --Give me Long Island, where the land is not too good ; but where beef and pork sell for about eightpence a pound (I speak of English money); where good hay sells for five pounts a ton ; and where there is a ready market for every species of produce. One thing above all ; if an English farmer (I mean by English, people of the whole of the United Kingdom) comes here, with money in his pocket, let him resolve to keep it there for a year, and then he will be sure to do well. --All that I see around me here is well calculated to attract the attention and to please the sight of one, like myself, brought up in the country, always greatly delighted with, and somewhat skilled in, various pleasing and healthful pursuits. The The people are engaged busily in planting their Indian corn. The cherry trees, of which there are multitudes, planted in long avenues or rows, or round the fields, have dropped their blossom and begin to show their loads of fruit. The apple and pear orchards, in extent from one to twenty acres on each farm, are in full and beautiful bloom. The farms are small in extent ; no appearance of want amongst the labourers, who receive, in the country, about two shillings and threepence (our money) a-day, with board and lodging, and which board consists of plenty of excellent meat and fish of all sorts, the best of bread, butter, cheese, and eggs. That you may form some idea as to prices of living, I will state a few facts, which have already come within my own knowledge. We are at present at an inn, thirteen miles from New York. It is on the road to that city. Scarcely an hour in the day passes without a carriage of some sort offering for going thither, and to go by the regular stage costs three shillings. Mind, I shall always speak in English money, when I do not speak of dollars. We lodge and board in this inn, have each a bed-room and good bed, have a room to sit in ourselves ; we eat by ourselves ; and it really is eating. -- We have smoked fish, chops, butter, and eggs, for breakfast, with bread (the very finest I ever sa), crackers, sweet cakes ; and when I say that we have such and such things, I do not mean that we get them for show, or just enough to smell to ; but in loads. Not an egg, but a dish full of eggs. Not a snip of meat or of fish ; but a plateful. Lump sugar for our tea and coffee ; not broke into little bits the size of a hazle nut, but in good thumping pieces. For dinner, we have the finest of fish, bass, mackerel, lobsters ; of meat, lamb, veal, ham &c. ; asparagus in plenty ; apple pieces (through in the middle of May). The supper is like the breakfast, with preserved peaches and other things. And with all this an excellent cyder to drink, with the kindest and most obliging treatment, on the part of the landlord and landlady, and their sons and daughters, we pay no more than 22s. 6d. a week each. In England the same food and drink and lodging at an inn would cost us nearly the same sum every day. But there are two things which no money can purchase any where. The first is, no grumbling on the part of the landlady, except on account of our eating and drinking too little ; and the other is, that Mr Wiggins has no fastening but a bit of chip run in over the latch of the door, to a house which is full of valuable things of all sorts, and about which we leave all our things much more carelessly than we should do in our own house in any part of England. Here, then are we able to live at an inn, one of the most respectable in the whole country, at the rate of fifty pounds a year, while the pay of a common farming man is not much short of that sum.


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ANOTHER DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVESOF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. (From the Sydney Gazette, Nov. 8. 1815)

By the Governor Macquarrie, are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the Indian brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China, but was cut off and plundered, on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquesas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift, by which means she drove on shore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Captain Fowler had formed an intimacy with their chief, or king, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel--The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good chief was opposed to many other chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not a hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words, which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Capt. Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated, on the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive: he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other which he had entwined around his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people: and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye-sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow - creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their king, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; The mandate which had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed; and, commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth--'What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live--no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved, and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Noorheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling chief. The rebels are denominated the typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each other. Six of the adverse party were killed and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion: A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ship's bottoms there than he has any where else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels, when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object.--They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about fifteen years ago in a Missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite, observing at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--" Can't we go and take them?- What is there to hinder us?" was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. [ From the Sydney Gazette, Nov. 8. 1815.]

By the Governor Macquarrie are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the India brig Matilda, which sailed from this Colony in August 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquessas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange land, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Captain Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by the gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good Chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not a hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly , and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words, which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Captain Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated, on the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive--he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other which he had entwined round his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people: and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated.--Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed; and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eyesight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration, in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow-creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient Chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate, which had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed; and, commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth--'What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live--no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved, and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief. The rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each.--Six of the adverse party were killed and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.


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ANOTHER DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. ( From the Sydney Gazette, Nov. 8, 1815.) 

By the Governor Macquarrie are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the Indian brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August, 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquesas, on a sandal wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death, which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Captain Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not a hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words, which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Captain Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated upon the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive; he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other which he had entwined around his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people: and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye-sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate that had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed: and commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth:--"What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live--no man shall kill the King!"--Thus were their lives preserved and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief; the rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each. Six of the adverse party were killed, and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The Chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress, of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The Chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the Chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ships' bottoms there, than he has anywhere else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object. They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about 15 years ago in a missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite, observing, at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--"Cannot we go and take them? What is there to hinder us?"--was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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ANOTHER DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS.  [From the Sydney Gazette, November 8, 1815.] 

By the Governor Macquarrie  are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the India brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August, 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquesas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Captain Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good Chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling: he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not a hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words, which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Captain Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated upon the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive; he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other, which he had entwined around his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people, and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed; and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye - sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate that had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed;and commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth:--"What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live --no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief; the rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposing parties are horribly sanguinary towards each. Six of the adverse party were killed, and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The Chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress, of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The Chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the Chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ships' bottoms there, than he has anywhere else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object. They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about 15 years ago in a missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite, observing, at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--"Cannot we go and take them? What is there to hinder us?"--was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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ANOTHER DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. [From the Sydney Gazette, November 8, 1815]

By the Governor Macquarrie are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the India brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August, 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquesas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Captain Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good Chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not an hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words; which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Captain Fowler  and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated upon the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive; he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other, which he had entwined round his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people, and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed; and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye-sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow-creature--whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient Chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate that had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed; and commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth--"What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live --no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved--and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief--the rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each. Six of the adverse party were killed, and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler  was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The Chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The Chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the Chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ships' bottoms there, than he has anywhere else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object. They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A Gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about 15 years ago in a missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite, observing, at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--"Cannot we go and take them?--What is there to hinder us?"--was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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ANOTHER DREADFUL MASSACRE BY THE NATIVES OF THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS. ( From the Sydney Gazette, Nov. 8, 1815)

By the Governor Macquarrie  are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the Indian brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August, 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquessas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Capt. Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good Chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not a hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words; which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Captain Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated upon the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive; he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other, which he had entwined round his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my chiefs and my people, and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed; and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye-sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow-creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient Chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate that had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed; and commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth-- "What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live --no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved--and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief; the rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each. Six of the adverse party were killed, and devoured by the rebels while Captain Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The Chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The Chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the Chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ships' bottoms there, than he has anywhere else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object. They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about 15 years ago, in a missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite; observing, at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--"Cannot we go and take them?--What is there to hinder us?"--was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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British Vessel plundered by the Natives of the Marquesas Islands.  [ From the Sydney Gazette, Nov. 8, 1815.]

By the Governor Macquarrie are arrived Captain Fowler, and part of the crew of the Indian brig Matilda, which sailed from this colony in August 1813, bound on a voyage to the Derwent and Eastern Islands, and from thence to China; but was cut off and plundered on the night of the 10th of April last, while lying at anchor in Duff's Bay, at the Island of Rooapoah, one of the Marquesas, on a sandal-wood voyage. Five of the crew (Poomootoo men) had previously deserted, and joining with some of the Rooapoah natives, took the opportunity of a dark night, and the wind blowing fresh right on the land, to cut the vessel adrift; by which means she drove ashore through a heavy surf, and was soon bilged and filled with water. When the cannibal natives saw that it was impracticable to get the vessel afloat, they concurred universally in the design of putting the whole of her crew to death; which appears to have been a constant practise among the different natives towards one another, when their canoes happen to fall upon a strange shore, through stress of weather, or from any other accident.

Capt. Fowler had formed an intimacy with their Chief, or King, Nooahetu, who presided at the horrible tribunal that had devoted the unfortunate mariners to instant slaughter. He withheld his assent to the murder; but had no hesitation in permitting the plunder of the vessel. The crew were informed by such expressions as they could understand, as well as by gesticulations that accompanied their vehement debate on the occasion, that their lives were dependent on the issue; the good Chief was opposed by many other Chiefs, who, though somewhat inferior in rank, were very far superior in number, supported by the common usages of the island, from which the exhibition of clemency appeared an insufferable deviation. He was seated, with his son by his side, on a mat in his own dwelling; he had been called to the supremacy of the island by the general wish of the people, as it was not an hereditary right, but an elective dignity. His people pressed their solicitations earnestly, and at length peremptorily demanded his assent to the sacrifice; which he for a length of time opposed by the force of words, which not seeming likely to prevail, he adopted a method which silenced the whole in an instant, and saved the lives of Capt. Fowler and his crew. Finding that all his expostulations were defeated upon the principle of undeviating custom, he deliberately took up two ropes that were near him, and fixing one round the neck of his son, and the other round his own, called to the Chief next in command, who immediately approached him. His conference was short and decisive; he first pointed to the cord that encircled the neck of his son, and then to the other, which he had entwined round his own. "These strangers are doomed to death," said he, "by my Chiefs and my people, and it is not fit that I, who am their King, should live to see so vile a deed perpetrated. Let my child and myself be strangled before it is performed; and then it never will be said that we sanctioned, even with our eye-sight, the destruction of these unoffending people."

The magnanimity of such a conduct could not do less than produce, even in the mind of the unenlightened savage, a paroxysm of surprise, mingled with a sentiment of admiration, in which the untaught man may possibly excel his fellow-creature, whose conceptions are moulded by tenets calculated to guard him from the extremes of passion. For a moment the people looked wildly upon their King, whose person they adored, because that his principles were good, and his government just and mild. They saw the obedient chief, to whom the order of strangulation had been imparted, staring with horror and amazement at the change which a few moments had produced; the mandate that had proceeded from the King's own lips must be obeyed; and commanded to perform the dreadful office, he proceeded to obey--when a sudden shout from the multitude awed him to forbearance. "The King! the King!" from every lip burst forth-- "What! kill the King! No, no, let all the strangers live --no man shall kill the King!" Thus were their lives preserved--and the vessel plundered of every thing on board her.

The floor of the Greenwich, which was burnt at Nooaheva, still remains, and is dry at low water. All her iron and copper have been taken out by the natives, who have a thorough knowledge of the use of these materials. That they are cannibals is well ascertained. They form distinct factions, and make war upon the ruling Chief; the rebels are denominated the Typees; and the opposite parties are horribly sanguinary towards each other. Six of the adverse party were killed, and devoured by the rebels while Capt. Fowler was among them, and the following detestable circumstance occurred on the occasion:--A native man belonging to Port Anna Maria, who was not tattooed, and in consequence prohibited from the eating of human flesh, on pain of death, impatient of the restraint, fell upon one of the murdered bodies, and darting his teeth into it in all the madness of a voracious fury, exhaled the crimson moisture, which had not yet coagulated.

The Chief of Port Anna Maria, who is very friendly to Europeans, is named Ke-atta-nooe, the first part of the name implying the outrigger of a canoe, and the latter signifying great. The dress of the men consists merely of a wrapper about the waist; the women are covered from the shoulders downwards to the ancles, and are generally fairer than the Taheitan women. The Chiefs have no distinguishing mark or ornament, but in the mode of wearing their hair; which the common orders wear tied up in a large knot on each side of the head, a stripe of which, extending from the forehead to the hollow of the neck, is kept shorn, which practice the Chiefs do not adopt. Captain Fowler supposes the worms to be more prevalent and destructive to the ships' bottoms there, than he has anywhere else witnessed; and to this cause attributes the caution of the natives in drawing up their largest canoes, some of which contain from 80 to 100 warriors. They are anxious after every kind of property carried among them for barter, and this is supposed their chief inducement for attacking vessels when they can do so with a probability of accomplishing their object. They have no knowledge of the use of muskets, and have none among them except a few at Port Anna Maria. A gentleman, at this time in Sydney, who resided among them about 15 years ago, in a missionary capacity, describes them as a people constantly employing their thoughts on plunder, and devising schemes for taking advantage of strangers. Their population is very numerous; which he remarked to some of them, to whom he gave a description of Otaheite; observing, at the same time, that its inhabitants were less numerous:--"Cannot we go and take them? What is there to hinder us?"--was immediately demanded. This anecdote we notice as a specimen of their natural inclination to hostility, in which, all accounts respecting them correspond.


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