The Mutiny of the Bounty | Page 6

of water or dirt, she lifted me over with as little trouble
as it would have cost me to have lifted over a child, if I had been well.'
The following morning Captain Wallis sent her a present by the gunner,
who found her in the midst of an entertainment given to at least a
thousand people. The messes were put into shells of cocoa-nuts, and
the shells into wooden trays, like those used by our butchers, and she
distributed them with her own hands to the guests, who were seated in

rows in the open air, round the great house. When this was done, she
sat down herself upon a place somewhat elevated above the rest, and
two women, placing themselves, one on each side of her, fed her, she
opening her mouth as they brought their hands up with the food. From
this time, provisions were sent to market in the greatest abundance. The
queen frequently visited the captain on board, and always with a
present, but she never condescended to barter, nor would she accept of
any return.
One day, after visiting her at her house, the captain at parting made her
comprehend by signs, that he intended to quit the island in seven days:
she immediately understood his meaning, and by similar signs,
expressed her wish that he should stay twenty days; that he should go
with her a couple of days' journey into the country, stay there a few
days, return with plenty of hogs and poultry, and then go away; but on
persisting in his first intention, she burst into tears, and it was not
without great difficulty that she could be pacified. The next time that
she went on board, Captain Wallis ordered a good dinner for her
entertainment and those chiefs who were of her party; but the queen
would neither eat nor drink. As she was going over the ship's side, she
asked, by signs, whether he still persisted in leaving the island at the
time he had fixed, and on receiving an answer in the affirmative, she
expressed her regret by a flood of tears; and as soon as her passion
subsided, she told the captain that she would come on board again the
following day.
Accordingly, the next day she again visited the ship twice, bringing
each time large presents of hogs, fowls, and fruits. The captain, after
expressing his sense of her kindness and bounty, announced his
intention of sailing the following morning. This, as usual, threw her
into tears, and after recovering herself, she made anxious inquiry when
he should return; he said in fifty days, with which she seemed to be
satisfied. 'She stayed on board,' says Captain Wallis, 'till night, and it
was then with the greatest difficulty that she could be prevailed upon to
go on shore. When she was told that the boat was ready, she threw
herself down upon the arm-chest, and wept a long time, with an excess
of passion that could not be pacified; at last, however, with the greatest

reluctance, she was prevailed upon to go into the boat, and was
followed by her attendants.'
The next day, while the ship was unmooring, the whole beach was
covered with the inhabitants. The queen came down, and having
ordered a double canoe to be launched, was rowed off by her own
people, followed by fifteen or sixteen other canoes. She soon made her
appearance on board, but, not being able to speak, she sat down and
gave vent to her passion by weeping. Shortly after a breeze springing
up, the ship made sail; and finding it now necessary to return into her
canoe, 'she embraced us all,' says Captain Wallis, 'in the most
affectionate manner, and with many tears; all her attendants also
expressed great sorrow at our departure. In a few minutes she came into
the bow of her canoe, where she sat weeping with inconsolable sorrow.
I gave her many things which I thought would be of great use to her,
and some for ornament; she silently accepted of all, but took little
notice of any thing. About ten o'clock we had got without the reef, and
a fresh breeze springing up, our Indian friends, and particularly the
queen, once more bade us farewell, with such tenderness of affection
and grief, as filled both my heart and my eyes.'
The tender passion had certainly caught hold of one or both of these
worthies; and if her Majesty's language had been as well understood by
Captain Wallis, as that of Dido was to Æneas, when pressing him to
stay with her, there is no doubt it would have been found not less
pathetic--
Nec te noster amor, nec te data dextera quondam, Nec moritura tenet
crudeli funere Dido?
This lady, however,