Part 23

On the 19th in the evening we were ready to sail, but it seemed the weather always grew worse and worse. There was a high south wind, a deluge of rain, with thunder and tempestuous squalls, a great sea in the offing, and all the fishing birds retired into the bay. [Sidenote: Earthquake.] On the 22d in the morning, towards half an hour past ten o’clock, we sustained several shocks of an earthquake. They were very sensibly felt on board our ships, and lasted about two minutes. During this time the sea rose and fell several times consecutively, which greatly terrified those who were fishing on the rocks, and made them retreat to the boats. It seems upon the whole, that during this season the rains are uninterrupted here. One tempest comes on before the other is gone off, it thunders continually, and the nights are fit to convey an idea of chaotic darkness. Notwithstanding this, we daily went into the woods in search of thatch palms and cabbage trees, and endeavouring to kill some turtle doves. [Sidenote: Unsuccessful endeavours to find provisions.] We divided into several bodies, and the ordinary result of these fatiguing caravans, was, that we returned wet to the skin, and with empty hands. However, in these last days, we found some mangle-apples, and a kind of fruit called _Prunes de Monbin_[121]. These would have been of some service to us, had we discovered them sooner. We likewise found a species of aromatic ivy, in which our surgeons believed they had discovered an antiscorbutic quality; at least, the patients who used an infusion of it, and washed with it, found themselves better.

[Sidenote: Description of a fine cascade.]

We all went to see a prodigious cascade, which furnished the Etoile’s brook with water. In vain would art endeavour to produce in the palaces of kings, what nature has here lavished upon an uninhabited spot. We admired the assemblage of rocks, of which the almost regular gradations precipitate and diversify the fall of the waters; with admiration we viewed all these masses, of various figures, forming an hundred different basons, which contain the limpid sheets of water, coloured and shaded by trees of immense height, some of which have their roots in the very reservoirs themselves. Let it suffice that some men exist, whose bold pencil can trace the image of these inimitable beauties: this cascade deserves to be drawn by the greatest painter.

[Sidenote: Our situation grows worse every day.]

Mean while our situation grew worse every moment of our stay here, and during all the time which we spent without advancing homeward. The number of those who were ill of the scurvy, and their complaints encreased. The crew of the Etoile was in a still worse condition than ours. Every day I sent boats out to sea, in order to know what kind of weather there was. The wind was constantly at south, blowing almost a storm with a dreadful sea. Under these circumstances it was impossible to get under sail, especially as this could not be done without getting a spring upon an anchor that was to be slipped all at once; and in that case it would have been impossible in the offing to hoist in the boats that must have remained to weigh the anchor, which we could not afford to leave behind us. These obstacles determined me to go on the 23d to view a passage between Hammer island and the main land. I found one, through which we could go out with a south wind, hoisting in our boats in the channel. This passage had indeed great inconveniences, and happily we were not obliged to make use of it. [Sidenote: We leave Port Praslin.] It rained without intermission all the night between the 23d and 24th. At day-break the weather became fair and calm. We immediately weighed our small bower, fastened a warp to some trees, bent a hawser to a stream-anchor, and hove a-peek on the off-anchor. During the whole day we waited for the moment of setting sail; we already despaired of it, and the approach of night would have obliged us to moor again, when at half past five o’clock a breeze sprung up from the bottom of the harbour. We immediately slipt our shore-fast, veered out the hawser of the stream-anchor, from which the Etoile was to set sail after us, and in half an hour’s time we were got under sail. The boats towed us into the middle of the passage, where there was wind enough to enable us to proceed without their assistance. We immediately sent them to the Etoile to bring her out. Being got two leagues out to sea, we lay-to in order to wait for her, holding in our long-boat and small boats. At eight o’clock we began to see the Etoile which was come out of port; but the calm did not permit her to join us till two hours after midnight. Our barge returned at the same time, and we hoisted her in.

During night we had squalls and rain. The fair weather returned at day break. The wind was at S. W. and we steered from E. by S. to N. N. E. turning to northward with the land. It would not have been prudent to endeavour to pass to windward of it: we suspected that this land was New Britain, and all the appearances confirmed us in it. Indeed the lands which we had discovered more to the westward came very close to this, and in the midst of what one might have taken for a passage, we saw separate hummocks, which doubtless joined to the other lands, by means of some low grounds. Such is the picture Dampier gives of the great bay, which he calls St. George’s Bay, and we have been at anchor at the N. E. point of it, as we verified on the first days after our leaving the port. Dampier was more successful than we were. He took shelter near an inhabited district, which procured him refreshments, and whereof the productions gave him room to conceive great hopes concerning this country; and we, who were as indigent as he was, fell in with a desart, which, instead of supplying all our wants, has only afforded us wood and water.

When I left Port Praslin, I corrected my longitude by that which we obtained from the calculation of the solar eclipse, which we observed there; my difference was about 3°, which I was to the eastward. The thermometer during the stay which we made there, was constantly at 22° or 23°; but the heat was greater than it seemed to shew. I attribute the cause of this to the want of air, which is common here; this bason being closed in on all sides, and especially on the side of the reigning winds.

Footnote 115:

_Cornets_ are a species of shell-fish. F.

Footnote 116:

_Ouessant._

Footnote 117:

_Raz_ (or _rat_, a race or whirlpool) is a place in the sea where there is some rapid and dangerous current, or where there are different tides. Such a _rat_ is commonly to be met with in a strait or channel, but sometimes likewise in the high seas. See the _Dictionnaire Militaire portatif_, 12mo. 3 vols. 1758. Paris. F.

Footnote 118:

_Enseigne de Vaisseau._

Footnote 119:

This bird is a native of the Isle of Banda, one of the Moluccas, and is called by the Dutch _Kroon-Vogel_. Mr. Loten presented one, some years ago, alive to the late princess royal of England and of Orange. Mr. Brisson, in his Ornithology, vol. i. p. 279. t. 26. f. 1. very improperly calls it a crowned Indian pheasant (_Faisan couronné des Indes_); and Mr. Buffon, in his Planches Enluminées, tab. 118. follows Brisson, though everyone will be convinced that it is a pigeon, at the very first examination of its bill. Mr. Edwards has described and figured it, p. 269. t. 338. of the third volume of his Gleanings. Its plumage is blue, or lead-coloured; the size, that of a turkey. In that noble repository of natural history and learning, the British Museum, there is a fine specimen of it. F.

Footnote 120:

They were found in a creek of the great isle, which forms this bay; and which for that reason has been called Hammer Island, (_Isle aux Marteaux_).

Footnote 121:

It is not known to what genus this plant belongs; a general, but not systematical, description of it may be found in Mr. _Valmont de Bomare’s Dictionnaire d’ Histoire Naturelle_, article MONBAIN. F.

_CHAP. VI._

_Run from Port Praslin to the Moluccas; stay at Boero._

We put to sea again after a stay of eight days, during which time, as we have before observed, the weather had been constantly bad, and the wind almost always southerly. The 25th it returned to S. E. veering round to E. and we followed the direction of the coast at about three leagues distance. It rounded insensibly, and we soon discovered in the offing a succession of islands, one after the other. We passed between them and the main, and I gave them the names of the principal officers. We now no longer doubted that we were coasting New Britain. This land is very high, and seemed to be intersected with fine bays, in which we perceived fires, and other marks of habitations.

[Sidenote: Distribution of cloaths to the sailors.]

The third day after our departure I caused our field-tents to be cut up, and distributed trowsers to the two ships companies. We had already, on several occasions, made the like distributions of cloathing of all kinds. Without that, how would it have been possible that these poor fellows should be clad during so long a voyage, on which they were several times obliged to pass alternately from cold to hot, and to endure frequent deluges of rain? [Sidenote: Extreme want of victuals.] I had, upon the whole, nothing more to give them, all was exhausted, and I was even forced to cut off another ounce of the daily allowance of bread. Of the little provisions that remained, part was spoiled, and in any other situation all our salt provisions would have been thrown over-board; but we were under the necessity of eating the bad as well as the good, for it was impossible to tell when our situation would mend. Thus it was our case to suffer at once by what was past, which had weakened us; by our present situation, of which the melancholy circumstances were every instant repeated before us; and lastly, by what was to come, the indeterminate duration of which was the greatest of all our calamities. My personal sufferings encreased by those of others. However, I must declare that not one suffered himself to be dejected, and that our patience under sufferings has been superior to the most critical situations. The officers set the example, and the seamen never ceased dancing in the evenings, as well in the time of scarcity, as in that of the greatest plenty. Nor has it been necessary to double their pay[122].

[Sidenote: Description of the inhabitants of New Guinea.]

We had New Britain constantly in sight till the 3d of August, during which time we had little wind, frequent rain, the currents against us, and the ships went worse than ever. The coast trenched more and more to the westward, and on the 29th in the morning, we found ourselves nearer it than we had yet been: this approach procured us a visit from some periaguas; two came within hail of the frigate, and five others went to the Etoile. They carried each of them five or fix black men, with frizled woolly hair, and some of them had powdered it white. They had pretty long beards, and white ornaments round their arms, in form of bracelets. Their nudities were but indifferently covered with the leaves of trees. They are tall, and appeared active and robust. They shewed us a kind of bread, and invited us by signs to go ashore. We desired them to come on board; but our invitations, and even the gift of some pieces of stuff which we threw over-board, did not inspire them with confidence sufficient to make them venture along-side. They took up what was thrown into the water, and by way of thanks one of them with a sling flung a stone, which did not quite reach on board; we would not return them evil for evil, so they retired, striking all together on their canoes, and setting up loud shouts. They without doubt carried their hostilities farther on board the Etoile, for we saw our people fire several muskets, which put them to flight. Their periaguas are long, narrow, and with out-riggers; they all have their heads and sterns more or less ornamented with sculptures, painted red, which does honour to their skill.

The next day there came a much greater number of them, who made no difficulty of coming along-side the ship. One of their conductors, who seemed to be the chief, carried a staff about two or three feet long, painted red, with a knob at each end, which, in approaching us, he raised with both hands over his head, and continued some time in that attitude. All these negroes seemed to be dressed out in their best, some had their woolly hair painted red, others had plumes on their heads, certain seeds in their ears by way of ear-rings, or large white round plates hanging to their necks; some had rings passed through the cartilage of the nose; but an ornament pretty common to them all was bracelets, made of the mouth of a large shell, sawed asunder. We were desirous of forming an intercourse, in order to engage them to bring us some refreshments, but their treachery soon convinced us that we could not succeed in that attempt. They strove to seize what was offered them, and would give nothing in exchange. We could scarce get a few roots of yams from them; therefore we left off giving them, and they retired. Two canoes rowed towards the frigate at the beginning of night, but a rocket being fired for some signal, they fled precipitately.

[Sidenote: They attack the Etoile.]

Upon the whole, it seemed that the visits they made us these two last days had been with no other view than to reconnoitre us, and to concert a plan of attack; for the 31st, at day-break, we saw a swarm of periaguas coming off shore, a part of them passed athwart us without stopping, and all directed their course for the Etoile, which they had no doubt observed to be the smallest vessel of the two, and to keep astern. The negroes made their attacks with stones and arrows, but the action was short, for one platoon disconcerted their scheme, many threw themselves into the sea, and some periaguas were abandoned: from this time we did not see any more of them.

[Sidenote: Description of the northern part of New Britain.]

The coast of New Britain now ran W. by N. and W. and in this part it became considerably lower. It was no longer that high coast adorned with several rows of mountains; the northern point which we discovered was very low land, and covered with trees from space to space. The five first days of the month of August were rainy, the weather thick and unsettled, and the wind squally. We discovered the coast only by piecemeal, in the clear intervals, without being able to distinguish the particulars of it: however, we saw enough of it to be convinced that the tides continued to carry us a part of the moderate run we made each day. I then steered N. W. and N. W. by W. to avoid a cluster of islands that ly off the northern extremity of New Britain. [Sidenote: 1768. August.] The 4th in the afternoon we discovered two islands, which I take to be those that Dampier calls Matthias Island and Stormy or Squally Island. Matthias Island is high and mountainous, and extends to N. W. about eight or nine leagues. The other is not above three or four leagues long, and between the two lies a small isle. An island which we thought we perceived the 5th, at two o’clock in the morning, to the westward, caused us again to stand to the northward. We were not mistaken; for at ten o’clock the fog, which till then had been thick, being dissipated, we saw that island, which is small and low, bearing S. E. by S. The tides then ceased to set to the southward and eastward which seemed to arise from our having got beyond the northern point of New Britain, which the Dutch have called Cape Salomaswer. We were then in no more than 00° 41′ south lat. We had sounded almost every day without finding bottom.

[Sidenote: Isle of Anchorets.]

We steered west till the 7th, with a pretty fresh gale and fair weather, without seeing land. The 7th in the evening, the sky being very hazy, and appearing at sun-set to be a horizon of land from W. to W. S. W. I determined to steer S. W. by S. for the night; at daylight we steered west again. In the morning we saw a low land, about five or six leagues a-head of us. We steered W. by S. and W. S. W. to pass to the southward of it, and we ranged along it at about a league and a half distance. It was a flat island, about three leagues long, covered with trees, and divided into several parts, connected together by breakers and sand-banks. There are upon this island a great quantity of cocoa-nut trees, and the sea-shore is covered with a great number of habitations, from which it may be supposed to be extremely populous. The huts were high, almost square, and well covered. They seemed to us larger and handsomer than the huts built with reeds generally are, and we thought we again beheld the houses of Taiti. We discovered a great number of periaguas employed in fishing all round the island; none of them seemed to be disturbed at seeing us pass, from which we judged that these people, who were not curious, were contented with their fate. We called this island the Isle of Hermits, or Anchorets. Three leagues to the westward of this, we saw another low island from the mast-head.

[Sidenote: Archipelago; by us called the _Echiquier_.]

The night was very dark, and some fixed clouds to the southward made us suppose there was land; and, in fact, at day-light we discovered two small isles, bearing S. S. E. ¾ E. at eight or nine leagues distance. We had not yet lost sight of them, at half past eight o’clock, when we discovered another low island, bearing W. S. W. and a little after, an infinite number of little islands extending to W. N. W. and S. W. of this last, which might be about two leagues long; all the others, properly speaking, are nothing but a chain of little flat isles, or keys, covered with wood; which, indeed, was a very disagreeable discovery to us. There was, however, an island separated from the others, and more to the southward, which seemed to us more considerable. We shaped our course between that and the Archipelago of isles, which I called the Chess-board, (_l’Echiquier_) and which I wanted to leave to the northward. We were not yet near getting clear of it, This chain discovered, ever since the morning, extended much farther to the south-westward, than we were at that time able to determine.

[Sidenote: Danger which we run there.]

We endeavoured, as I have observed before, to double it to the southward; but in the beginning of the night, we were still engaged with it, without knowing precisely how far it extended. The weather being continually squally, had never shewn us at once, all that we had to fear; to add to our embarrassment, it became calm in the beginning of the night, and the calm scarce ended at the return of day. We passed the night under continual apprehensions of being cast ashore by the currents. I ordered two anchors to be got clear, and the cables bitted with a range along the deck, which was almost an unnecessary precaution; for we sounded several times without finding bottom. This is one of the greatest dangers of these coasts; for you have not the resource of anchoring at twice the ship’s length from the ledges, by which they are bounded. The weather fortunately continued without squalls; and about midnight a gentle breeze sprung up from the northward, which enabled us to get a little to the south-eastward. The wind freshened in proportion as the sun ascended, and carried us from these low islands; which, I believe, are uninhabited; at least, during the time we were carried near enough to discern them, we distinguished neither fires, nor huts, nor periaguas. The Etoile had been, during the night, in still greater danger than us; for she was a very long time without steerage-way, and the tide drew her insensibly towards the shore, when the wind sprung up to her relief. At two o’clock, in the afternoon, we doubled the westermost of the islands, and steered W. S. W.

[Sidenote: We get sight of New Guinea.]

The 11th, at noon, being in 2° 17′ south latitude, we perceived, to the southward, a high coast, which seemed to us to be that of New Guinea. Some hours after, we saw it more distinctly. The land is high and mountainous, and in this part extends to the W. N. W. The 12th, at noon, we were about ten leagues from the nearest land; it was impossible to observe the coast minutely at that distance there: it appeared to us only a large bay, about 2° 25′ south latitude; in the bottom of which, the land was so low, that we only saw it from the mast-head. We also judged from the celerity with which we doubled the land, that the currents were become favourable to us; but in order to determine with any exactness, the difference they occasioned in our estimated run, it would have been necessary to sail at a less distance from the coast. We continued ranging along it, at ten or twelve leagues distance; its direction was constantly W. N. W. and its height immense. We remarked particularly two very high peaks, neighbours to each other, which surpassed all the other mountains in height. We called them the Two Cyclops. We had occasion to remark, that the tides set to the N. W. The next day we actually found ourselves further off from the coast of New Guinea; which here tended away west. The 14th, at break of day, we discovered two islands and a little isle or key, which seemed to be between them, but more to the southward. Their corrected bearings are E. S. E. and W. N. W. They are at about two leagues distance from each other, of a middling height, and not above a league and a half in extent each.

[Sidenote: Direction of the winds and currents.]

We advanced but little each day. Since our arrival on the coast of New Guinea, we had pretty regularly a light breeze from east to N. E. which began about two or three o’clock in the afternoon, and lasted till about midnight; this breeze was succeeded with a longer or shorter interval of calm, which was followed by the land-breeze, varying from S. W. to S. S. W. and that terminated also towards noon, in two or three hours calm. The 15th, in the morning, we again saw the westmost of the two islands we had seen the preceding evening. We discovered at the same time other land, which seemed to us to be islands, extending from S. E. to W. S. W. very low, over which, in a distant point of view, we perceived the high mountains of the continent. The highest, which we set at eight o’clock in the morning, bearing S. S. E. by compass, detached from the others, we called the _Giant of Moulineau_, and we gave the name of _la Nymphe Alice_ to the westmost of the low islands, to the N. W. of Moulineau. At ten in the morning we fell into a race of a tide, where the current seemed to carry us with violence to N. and N. N. E. It was so violent, that till noon it prevented our steering; and as it carried us much into the offing, it became impossible for us to fix a positive judgment of its true direction. The water, in the first tide-line, was covered with the trunks of drift trees, sundry fruits and rock-weeds; it was at the same time so agitated, that we dreaded being on a bank; but sounding, we had no bottom at 100 fathom. This race of a tide seems to indicate either a great river in the continent, or a passage which would here divide New Guinea; a passage whose entrance would be almost north and south. According to two distances, between the sun and moon, observed with an octant, by the chevalier du Bouchage and M. Verron, our longitude, the 15th at noon, was 136° 16′ 30″ east of Paris. [Sidenote: Observations compared with the reckoning.] My reckoning continued from the determined longitude of Port Praslin; differed from it 2° 47′. We observed the same day 1° 17′ south latitude.