1770: “Who then is it that you do eat?”
August 7, 2020
By AHNZ
Today in history, 16 January, 1770, Cook and Banks visit Queen Charlotte Sound and here they meet some Maoris. They are alarmed to discover they are cannibals. Also, the burial practise of tying a stone to someone’s legs and letting them sink into the sea…
“As we rowd along something was seen floating upon the water which we took to be a dead seal; we rowd up to it and it provd to our great surprize to be the body of a Woman who seemd to have been dead some time….we inquird about the body we had seen. They told Tupia that the woman was a relation of theirs and that instead of Burying their dead their custom was to tie a stone to them and throw them into the sea, which stone they supposd to have been unloosd by some accident.”
The explorers find that the Maoris are eating dog and man and inquire…
“Why did not you eat the woman who we saw today in the water? – She was our relation. – Who then is it that you do eat? – Those who are killd in war.”
Who did the Maoris eat? Their fallen enemy.
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Ref. Banks’ journal
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/banks/17700116.html
Ref. 1769: Cook Rediscovers New Zealand
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