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

[3] "They continued from time to time to ask if we were displeased with them, and seemed to bevery apprehensive that our present protestations of friendship were not quite sincere. We suspectedfrom this circumstance, that a fatal misunderstanding had happened between the natives and thecrew of some European ship, and we naturally thought of our consort the Adventure."--G.F.Next morning early, our friends, according to a promise they had made us the preceding evening, paying usa visit, brought with them a quantity of fine fish, which they exchanged for Otaheitean cloth, &c. and thenreturned to their habitations.On the 26th, we got into the after-hold four boat-load of shingle ballast, and struck down six guns, keepingonly six on deck. Our good friends the natives, having brought us a plentiful supply of fish, afterwardswent on shore to the tents, and informed our people there, that a ship like ours had been lately lost in thestrait; that some of the people got on shore; and that the natives stole their clothes, &c. for which severalwere shot; and afterwards, when they could fire no longer, the natives having got the better, killed themwith their patapatoos, and eat them, but that they themselves had no hand in the affair, which, they said,happened at Vanna Aroa, near Terrawhitte, on the other side of the strait. One man said it was two moonsago: But another contradicted him, and counted on his fingers about twenty or thirty days. They describedby actions how the ship was beat to pieces by going up and down against the rocks, till at last it was allscattered abroad.The next day some others told the same story, or nearly to the same purport, and pointed over the east bay,which is on the east side of the sound, as to the place where it happened. These stories making me veryuneasy about the Adventure, I desired Mr Wales, and those on shore, to let me know if any of the nativesshould mention it again, or to send them to me; for I had not heard any thing from them myself. When MrWales came on board to dinner he found the very people who had told him the story on shore, and pointedthem out to me. I enquired about the affair, and endeavoured to come at the truth by every method I couldthink of. All I could get from them was, "Caurey," (no); and they not only denied every syllable of whatthey had said on shore, but seemed wholly ignorant of the matter; so that I began to think our people hadmisunderstood them, and that the story referred to some of their own people and boats.[4][4] The natives were repeatedly questioned, and in every conversation we discovered someadditional circumstances, by which the fact was more clearly established. At last, however,observing that our enquiries on this subject were frequently repeated, they resolved to give us nofurther trouble, and by threats stopped short one of their own brethren, who had been prevailed uponto speak once more on the subject. Captain Cook being very desirous of obtaining some certaintyconcerning the fate of the Adventure, called Peeterre and another native into the cabin, both ofwhom denied that any harm had been done to the Europeans. We made two pieces of paper, torepresent the two ships, and drew the figure of the sound on a larger piece; then drawing the twoships into the sound, and out of it again, as often as they had touched at and left it, including our lastdeparture, we stopped a while, and at last proceeded to bring our ship in again: But the nativesinterrupted us, and taking up the paper which represented the Adventure, they brought it into theharbour, and drew it out again, counting on their fingers how many moons she had been gone. Thiscircumstance gave us two-fold pleasure, since, at the same time that we were persuaded our consorthad safely sailed from hence, we had to admire the sagacity of the natives. Still, however, there wassomething mysterious in the former accounts, which intimated that some Europeans were killed; andwe continued to doubt whether we had rightly understood this part of their conversation, till wereceived more certain intelligence at our return to the Cape of Good Hope."-- G.F.