24A NOTE OF HISTORICAL INTEREST
PORT OF REFUGE is just around the corner to the N. and it is very
exposed and deep and the drop-off is shear. A yacht was wrecked
here in 1976 and now only the lead remains with much of its gear
now fitted on local boats.
The explorer, Maurelle, anchored here in 1781 and named the
bay Puerta del Refugio (Port of Refuge). Today an occasional
motor boat or rowing dinghy from nearby Longamapu may well be the
only vessels to be seen in the area. Imagine if you will, how it
looked to Maurelle who wrote, "By eight o'clock in the morning we
had more than a hundred canoes around the frigate carrying on
their traffic and the cries of the people who were in them were so
shrill and loud that it was impossible to hear one another speak
on board."
Maurelle was visited on the ship and feted ashore by the
Tupou (Chief) of that time who urged him to take "La Princessa" up
the harbour to Neiafu where he resided. As much as Maurelle would
have liked to have done so, he felt that once he had taken on
supplies of fresh food and water and made some necessary repairs,
he must be on his way to San BIas. So, after a visit of only a
few days, Maurelle reluctantly left Vava'u.