Apr 16-18, 1792 Home Flinders's Log Apr 22-24, 1792
Revised Sep 16 2021
Thursday April 19th 1792 Moderate Breezes with drizling Rain and unpleasant Weather Furled Sails –
Employed in the Main Hold – Hoisted the Boats before Dark as usual except the Launch – Light Airs
and rainy Weather
AM. Calm & Cloudy – 210 Garden Pots sent on shore by the Launch at 8 Fine Weather Loosed Sails to dry
– Carpenters caulking the Ships Sides – Received a moderate Supply of Hogs &c which are served
to the Ships Company as before – The Salters at work – Light Airs & Cloudy – Part of the
People employed in the Gun Room
Friday 20th Moderate Breezes & Cloudy Weather a few drops of Rain – The Observatory and 65 Garden Pots sent on shore by the Launch at 4 Handed Sails, Received a Turn of Water by the Launch Cleared Hawse – at 8 Moderate Breezes & fine Weather AM. Light Breezes & clear Weather 147 Garden Pots sent on shore at Day break – Washed and cleaned below fore and aft – Loosed Sails – the Ship tolerably well supplied especially with Bananas, Plantains and Apples – Carpenters employed caulking as before – Light Breezes & fine Weather
Saturday 21st Fine pleasant Weather Handed the Topsails – Unbent the Fore sail & Mizen stay sail – At 6 Cleared Hawse AM Light Breezes and clear Weather The Launch sent for Water at Day break – Cleaned below Unbent the Main topsail – Carpenters employed as before – Fresh Breezes – a long swell setting into the Bay and a great Surf breaking upon the Beach, the Dolphin Bank and the Coral Reef – The People washing and mending their Cloths – At Noon Fair Weather and pleasant
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known to be a Chief by any exterior Marks of respect his Subjects pay him or Authority he exercised over them. this Man a set of People as timid and effeminate as himself acknowledge as their Aree'raki or great Chief, who at this Time was at Eimeo or Morea to be out of the way of the Disturbances, which his Brother Orepea was left to settle, this Man shewed more Genius or Cunning than any Man I saw there & I believe is not wholly destitute of Courage
What Captain Cook says of the Fruitfulness of the Country, the general Character of the People, their lascivious Dances and Songs and their more lascivious Gestures, of the Arrehoi Society, their Way of living and some other particulars I believe to be true and therefore shall only mention those in which their Commerce with Europeans has occasioned a change, or which we did not find to answer his Discription. Of the last Class is thier Women. I expected to have found them equal if not superior to the English Ladies their Colour which Cook calls a fine Brunette is no other than a tolerable dark Copper colour, certainly there are some of them may be called fair, but thier Countenances are void of that Animation and languishing Softness he speaks so much of, and as for their Attachment if their is such a thing amongst them it proceeds from an Idea, that they shall get more from the Person they attach themselves to than they could from any other. I believe there are but few Instances where a superior offer would not break the Connection in a word Constancy at Oteheite is not one of the Virtues – and instead of those Gestures being a Mark of the Strength of their amorous Passions I rather think they are done in a political View to raise them they being so dead as to require it, possibly respecting their Beauty we might have but oo sanguine in our Expections, for if
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Apr 16-18, 1792 Home Flinders's Log Apr 22-24, 1792