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66
i77°-
March.
people at the laft extremity, as upon thefe ftages a fight may
be carried on with much advantage againft thofe below, who
may be reached with great effecT by darts and ftones, which
it is impoffible for them to throw up with equal force. And
indeed the forts themfelves feem to be no farther ferviceable
than by enabling the pofleffors to reprefs a hidden attack;
for as there is no fupply of water within the lines, it would
be impoffible to fuftain a fiege. A confiderable Hock of
fern-root and dry-fifh is indeed laid up in them; but they
maybe referved againft feafons'of fcarcity, and that fuch
feafons there are, our obfervations left us no room to doubt;
befides, while an enemy ffiould be prowling in the neighbourhood,
Government,
it would be eafy to fnatch a fupply of water from
the fide of the hill, though it would be impoffible to dig up
fern root or catch filh.
In this diftrift, however, the people feemed to live in a
flare of confcious fecurity, and to avail themfelves of their
advantage: their plantations were more numerous, their
canoes were more decorated, and they had not only finer
carving, but finer clothes. This part of the coaft alfo was
much the moft populous, and poffibly their apparent peace
and plenty might arife from their being united under one
Chief, or King; for the inhabitants of all this.part of the
country told us, that they were the fubjefts of Teratu | when
they pointed to the refidence of this Prince, it was in a direction
which we thought inland; but which, when we knew
the country better, we found to be the Bay of Plenty.
It is much to be regretted that we were obliged to leaye
this country without knowing any thing of Teratu but his
name. As an Indian monarch, his territory is certainly ex-
tenfive: he was acknowledged from Cape Kidnappers to the
northward, and weft ward as far as the Bay of Plenty, a length
of
of coaft upwards of eighty leagues,- and we do not yet know
how much farther weftward his dominions may extend, t
Poffibly the fortified towns which we faw in the Bay of
Plenty may be his barrier; efpecially as at Mercury Bay he
was not acknowledged, nor indeed any other Angle Chief:
for wherever we landed, or fpoke with the people upon that
coaft, they told us that we were at but a fmall diftance from
their enemies.
In the dominions of Teratu we faw feveral fubordinate
Chiefs, to whom great refpeft was paid, and by whom juf-
tice was probably adminiftered; for upon our complaint to
one of them, of a theft that had been committed on board
the ffiip by a man that came with him, he gave him feveral
blows and kicks, which the other received as the chaftife-
ment of authority, againft which no refiftance was to be
made, and which he had no right to refent. Whether this
authority was pofiefied by appointment or inheritance we
could not learn; but we obferved that the Chiefs, as well
here as in other parts, were elderly men. In other parts,
however, we learnt that they poflefied their authority by inheritance.
The little focieties which we found in the fouthem parts
feemed to have feveral things in common, particularly their
fine clothes and fifhing nets. Their fine clothes, which poffibly
might be the fpoils of war, were kept in a fmall hut,
which was eredled for that purpofe in the middle of the town:
the nets we faw making in almoft every houfe, and the feveral
parts being afterwards collected were joined together. Lefs
account feems to be made of the women here than in the
South Sea iflands; fuch at leaft was the opinion of Tupia,
who complained of it as an indignity to the fex. We obferved
that the two fexes eat together ; but how they divide
I 2 their