ARCHIBALD MENZIES' JOURNAL.
Feb. 5, 1794. Having by the fifth finished the letters and pack ages for England, and delivered them to Capt. Vancouver to be forwarded in the "Doedalus" store ship which was on the point of sailing for New South Wales, I was desirous of making another attempt to gain the summit of Mownaroa : for this purpose I con sulted with Tamaikamaika not only on the means but likewise on the best route for accomplishing such an object ; when he as sured me that the most likely way of succeeding was to ascend it from the South side of the Island, to which I must go by water in one of his canoes, and that he should take care to send with me a Chief well acquainted with the proper route, who should possess proper authority to protect me from any ill-usage in the journey and have ample power to procure provisions, attendants, or whatever else should be found necessary to accomplish so ardu ous an undertaking. With such flattering attention from the King, and such prospect as he represented of succeeding, I read ily accepted his generous offer and cheerfully consigned myself to the care and guidance of Rookea the Chief whom he now ap pointed to conduct the Expedition, and to whom he delivered the strictest injunctions respecting his charge : the business being thus settled we prepared for our departure on the following day : in the meantime Lieut. Baker and Mr. McKenzie of 'The Dis covery' and Mr. Haddington of 'The Chatham' expressed their desire of accompanying us and obtained leave from their Com manders to share in the pleasures as well as in the fatigues and hardships of this enterprise.
Feb. 6th. Being all equipped we set out from the vessels in the afternoon of the 6th of February, with the Chief and about zo paddlers, in a large double canoe belonging to the King, and before we left the Bay we were join'd by Mr. Howell who was to accompany us in another double canoe, with his own attendants.
We now proceeded along the shore to the southward for about four miles from Karakakooa, when we came to the Village of Haunanow, where we landed for the night. We expressed our desire of going further on but the Chief told us that there was not a place at the next village sufficient to accommodate so large a party, for which reason he wished us to remain here all night.
7th. Next day we embarked again, by day-light, in the two canoes and got but a short distance when we came opposite to a small village where the Chief wanted us to land to breakfast, but this we overrul'd by declaring that we were not hungry as we wished to get on as far as we could in the cool of the morning: the next stage was, however, such a long one that we afterwards regretted not having taken his advice, for the coast was dreary and rocky and the shore so steep and rugged that we found no place where we could land till it was near noon, when we entered a small bay surrounded at the bottom by a sandy beach and groves of Cocoa Palm Trees well croppd with fruit : here we landed at a small village called Honomazino where the King or dered us to be supplied with a stock of Cocoa-Nuts for our jour ney, and upwards of 200 of them were packed up for that pur pose, the greatest part of which were sent on men's hacks across the side of the mountain to meet us in our ascent on the other side.
After refreshing and resting ourselves in the heat of the day we were anxious to proceed again in the cool of the evening but the natives informed us that there was too much wind to get around the next point with the canoes, so that we were obliged to remain here for the night.
The country round us at this place was so rugged, dreary and barren, that the natives were obliged to depend a good deal upon the sea for their sustenance. When the fishing canoes came into the Bay in the evening we had an opportunity of observing their manner of traffic with one another as the. whole village, and peo ple even from other villages flocked about them and a brisk mar ket was kept up till they disposed of all their fish for small nails and bits of iron and sometimes we observed that they drove very hard bargains. Of these nails the fishermen make their fish hooks and no doubt are obliged, in their turn, to purchase pota toes, yams, cloth, &c from the Planters ; thus we find that nails and bits of iron here answer all the purposes of money and circu late amongst the natives in the same way that gold and silver does with us.