A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

SECTION XIV.An Account of a Spanish Ship visiting Otaheite; the present State of the Islands; with some Observationson the Diseases and Customs of the Inhabitants; and some Mistakes concerning the Women corrected.I shall now give some farther account of these islands; for, although I have been pretty minute in relatingthe daily transactions, some things, which are rather interesting, have been omitted.Soon after our arrival at Otaheite, we were informed that a ship about the size of the Resolution, had beenin at Owhaiurua harbour, near the S.E. end of the island, where she remained about three weeks; and hadbeen gone about three months before we arrived. We were told that four of the natives were gone awaywith her, whose names were Debedebea, Paoodou, Tanadooee, and Opahiah. At this time, we conjecturedthis was a French ship, but, on our arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, we learnt she was a Spaniard, whichhad been sent out from America.[1] The Otaheiteans complained of a disease communicated to them by thepeople in this ship, which they said affected the head, throat, and stomach, and at length killed them. Theyseemed to dread it much, and were continually enquiring if we had it. This ship they distinguished by thename of Pahai no Pep-pe (ship of Peppe), and called the disease Apa no Pep-pe, just as they call thevenereal disease Apa no Pretane (English disease), though they, to a man, say it was brought to the isle byM. de Bougainville; but I have already observed that they thought M. de Bougainville came from Pretane,as well as every other ship which has touched at the isle.[1] "We heard that about the time mentioned by the natives, Don Juan de Langara y Huarte, sent outfrom the port of Callao in Peru, had visited Otaheite, but what the particulars of that voyage are, hasnever transpired."--G.F.Were it not for this assertion of the natives, and none of Captain Wallis's people being affected with thevenereal disease, either while they were at Otaheite, or after they left it, I should have concluded that longbefore these islanders were visited by Europeans, this or some disease which is near akin to it, had existedamongst them. For I have heard them speak of people dying of a disorder which we interpreted to be thepox before that period. But, be this as it will, it is now far less common amongst them, than it was in theyear 1769, when I first visited these isles. They say they can cure it, and so it fully appears, for,notwithstanding most of my people had made pretty free with the women, very few of them wereafterwards affected with the disorder; and those who were, had it in so slight a manner, that it is easilyremoved. But among the natives, whenever it turns to a pox, they tell us it is incurable. Some of our peoplepretend to have seen some of them who had this last disorder in a high degree, but the surgeon, who madeit his business to enquire, could never satisfy himself in this point. These people are, and were, beforeEuropeans visited them, very subject to scrophulous diseases, so that a seaman might easily mistake onedisorder for another.[2][2] We anticipated such an opinion in a former volume, and cannot refrain quoting the followingobservations in support of it.--"The question, which has been agitated between the French andEnglish navigators, concerning the first introduction of this evil to Otaheite, might be decided veryfavourably for them both, by supposing the disease to have existed there previous to their arrival.The argument, that some of Captain Wallis's people received the infection, does not seem tocontrovert this supposition, but only proves, that the women, who prostrated themselves to his men,were free from it; which was, perhaps, owing to a precaution of the natives, who might beapprehensive of exposing themselves to the anger of the strangers, by conferring such a desperategift upon them. M. de Bougainville, with the politeness of a well-bred man, doubts whether the