134 Traiisacfions. 



In spite of my precautions, it was plain how very nearly I had made 

 an implacable enemy of Shaki. On returning ashore he might perhaps 

 have avenged on the officers or the naturalists of the " Astrolabe " what 

 he considered an affront offered to his dignity. This is what often 

 occurs to Europeans, especially among a people so irritable, so vindic- 

 tive, as those of New Zealand, where the chiefs are all independent, and 

 very jealous of one another. This latter sentiment, which renders the posi- 

 tion of Europeans so very uncertain, is carried beyond bounds among the 

 Natives ; they all want to profit exclusively in the advantages due to the 

 visits of strangers, and are jealous at seeing their neighbours participate 

 in them. We had a very extraordinary proof during our stay at Houa- 

 Houa [this is the nearest D'Urville gets to Uawa, the proper name of Tolosa 

 Bay]. 



Whenever fresh canoes arrived, the first-comers harassed me with re- 

 quests to fire on them, and kill those on board ; nevertheless, so soon as 

 the latter came alongside, the first-comers immediately entered into con- 

 versation with them, and received them as persons well known to them. 

 . . . . I could not refrain from laughing at this singular behaviour, 

 when all of a sudden a general movement, a sort of confused murmur, arose 

 amongst the Natives ; they cast unquiet glances overboard, and soon I 

 saw the trouble was occasioned by the arrival of a canoe manned by seven 

 or eight men only, among whom two seemed of superior rank. This time 

 our guests prayed and supplicated me earnestly to shoot the new-comers ; 

 they went so far as to demand muskets to shoot them themselves — in a word, 

 they employed all possible means to excite my anger against these strangers. 

 Far from acceding to these sanguinary wishes, I felt more inclined to receive 

 amicably those who were in such repute, and to assure them that they 

 would be well received. They appeared to hesitate for some time, and, 

 together with the evident desire to come on board, a shade of inquietude 

 and suspicion was apparent. In the meantime the conduct of the other 

 islanders towards them totally changed. Convinced that I would not 

 concede to their prayers, they assumed a very respectful manner towards 

 the new-comers. Shaki himself, until now so bold and most urgent that 

 I should fire on them, changed his tone suddenly ; he became modest and 

 silent, and so respectful to the two strangers that he offered them some 

 large hatchets which he had only acquired with much trouble, and to which 

 he seemed to attach as much value as to .his life. This procedure was 

 followed by all those who had not had time to hide what the}^ had received 

 from us. 



The two chiefs finally decided to come on board. I examined attentively 

 their completely tattooed faces and their warlike and fierce attitude. I 

 have never observed these double qualities so pronounced in any New- 

 Zealander before, not even in the terrible Hihi, of Waimate. [Hihi was a 

 well-known Nga-Puhi warrior and a very fleet runner. Much is to be found 

 a})out him in " Wars of the Northern against the Southern Tribes in the 

 Nineteenth Century.'"] I commenced to interrogate them, after having 

 made friends with them hy means of some presents, when all of a sudden 

 they quitted me abruptly, entered their canoe, and pushed off. Having 

 inquired the reason of this precipitate retreat. I found that the Natives 

 already on board, Shaki at their head, had insinuated to the companions 

 of these two chiefs that my intention was to kill them, and that their lives 

 were not safe on board the ship, wishing at all costs to drive them away. 

 These cunning savages could not imagine a better means than this fiction, 



