THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC VOYAGE OF CIRCUMNAVIGATION--THE DOLPHIN
AND TAMAR--BYRON IN PATAGONIA--FALKLAND ISLANDS--ISLANDS OF
DISAPPOINTMENT--ARRIVAL AT TINIAN--BYRON VERSUS ANSON--THE VOYAGE
HOME--WALLIS AND CARTERET--THEIR OBSERVATIONS IN PATAGONIA--WALLIS
AT TAHITI--A DESPERATE BATTLE--NAILS LOSE THEIR VALUE--A TAHITIAN
ROMANCE--PITCAIRN'S ISLAND--QUEEN CHARLOTTE'S ISLANDS--NEW
BRITAIN--THE VOYAGE HOME--A MAN-OF-WAR DESTROYED BY FIRE.
In the year 1764, England was at peace with all the world, and his
majesty George III. conceived an idea which till then had penetrated
no royal brain,--that of sending out vessels upon voyages of discovery
in the single view of extending the domain of science and contributing
to the advance of geographical knowledge. Voyages had previously been
undertaken for purposes either of conquest, colonization, pillage, or
privateering; and discovery had usually been the result of accident,
and was generally subordinate to the grand business of plunder and
rapine. The king at once executed his design by giving the command of
the Dolphin and Tamar--the former a man-of-war of twenty-four guns,
and the latter a sloop of sixteen--to Commodore John Byron, who had
been one of the wrecked captains of Anson's fleet in 1740. The vessels
sailed from Plymouth on the 3d of July. Nothing of moment occurred
during their passage to Rio Janeiro, if we except the fact that Byron
noticed that no fish would come near his ship, though the sea was alive
with them at a little distance,--a circumstance which he attributed to
the Dolphin's copper sheathing. She was the first vessel upon which the
experiment of coppering the bottom had been tried.
Upon the Patagonian coast, Byron saw a party of the natives on
horseback, one of whom, who dismounted, he describes as follows:--"He
was of a gigantic stature, and seemed to realize the tales of monsters
in human shape: he had the skin of some wild beast thrown over his
shoulders, as a Scotch Highlander wears his plaid. Round one eye was
a large circle of white; a circle of black surrounded the other, and
the rest of his face was streaked with paint of different colors. His
height could not be less than seven feet. This frightful Colossus and
his whole company conducted themselves in a peaceable and orderly
manner which certainly did them honor." Byron entered Magellan's
Strait in December. During an anchorage here, a part of the men slept
on shore: they were always awakened from their first slumber by the
roaring of wild beasts, which the darkness of the night and the
loneliness of their situation rendered horrible beyond description. The
animals were prevented from invading the tent by the kindling of large
fires.
Having determined to await the arrival of the Florida,--a store-ship
which was to follow him,--Byron returned into the Atlantic and
discovered a group of islands, of which he took possession for King
George III. by the name of the Falkland Islands. Here the seals and
penguins were so numerous that it was impossible to walk upon the beach
without first driving them away. The men were also compelled to do
battle and fight hand-to-hand encounters with enormous and formidable
sea-lions, and with animals as large as a mastiff and as fierce as a
wolf. On returning to Port Desire, in February, 1765, the whales about
the ship rendered the navigation dangerous, and one of them blew a jet
of water over the quarterdeck. The Florida arrived about the same time,
and the Dolphin and Tamar took from her all the provisions they could
store. They then entered the Strait, and, for seven weeks and two days,
struggled with the terrible weather which at the period of the spring
equinox prevails in that tempestuous region. They made Cape Deseado on
the 8th of April, and soon after entered the South Sea.
Turning to the north as far as Juan Fernandez, and then making a long
stretch to the west, Byron discovered, on the 7th of June, in 14° 5'
south latitude and in 145° west longitude, a group of islands covered
with delightful groves and evidently producing cocoanuts and bananas in
abundance. Turtles were seen upon the shore; and the whole aspect of
the island was tropical and attractive in the extreme. But a violent
surge broke upon every point of the coast, and the steep coral rocks
which formed the shore rendered it unsafe to anchor. The sailors,
prostrated with scurvy, stood gazing at this little paradise with
sensations of bitter regret; and Byron accordingly named the group
the Islands of Disappointment. Two days later, however, he discovered
another group, to which he gave the name of King George's Islands.
Here the savages, in attempting to repel an invasion of their domain,
provoked reprisals, and two or three of them were killed: one, being
pierced by three balls which went quite through his body, took up a
large stone and died in the act of throwing it. Byron obtained several
boatloads of cocoanuts and a large quantity of scurvy-grass. After
discovering and naming Prince of Wales' and Duke of York's Islands,
Byron bore away for the Ladrones, a month's sail to the west.
In due time, and after a voyage accomplished without incident, the
two vessels arrived at the Ladrone island of Tinian, already famous
from the glowing description given of it by Lord Anson. They anchored
not far from the spot where the Centurion had lain, and in water so
clear that they could see the bottom at the depth of one hundred and
forty-four feet. Byron gives a very different account of the island
from that furnished by Anson,--a fact attributable to the circumstance
that he visited it during the rainy season. The undergrowth in the
woods was so thick, he says, that they could not see three yards before
them: the meadows were covered with stubborn reeds higher than their
heads, and which cut their legs like whipcord. Every time they spoke
they inhaled a mouthful of flies. In the Centurion's well they found
water that was brackish and full of worms. Centipedes bit and scorpions
bled. The ships rolled at anchor as never ships rolled before. The
rains were incessant. The heat was suffocating, being only nine degrees
less than the heat of the blood at the heart. Anson's cattle were very
shy; for it took six men three days and three nights to capture and
kill a bullock, whose flesh, when dragged home to the tents, invariably
proved to be fly-blown and useless.
After a stay of nine weeks at Tinian, Byron weighed anchor on the 30th
of September, with a cargo of two thousand cocoanuts. On the 5th of
October, he touched at the Malay island of Timoan. The inhabitants were
inclined to drive hard bargains and to part with as few provisions as
possible. They were even offended at the sailors hauling the seine and
taking fish upon their coast. Leaving this ungenerous island, they met
with a fortnight of light winds, dead calms, and violent tornadoes,
accompanied with rain, thunder, and lightning. On the 19th of October,
they hailed an English craft belonging to the East India Company and
bound from Bencoolen to Bengal. The master sent them a sheep, a turtle,
a dozen fowls, and two gallons of arrack. With this assistance Byron
easily reached Java, where he took in stores of rice and arrack.
Nothing of moment occurred during the run home, except the incident
of a collision between the Dolphin and a whale, in which the latter
appeared to be the greatest sufferer, as the water was deeply tinged
with blood. Byron arrived at Deal on the 7th of May, 1766. Each ship
had lost six men, including those that were drowned. This number was
so inconsiderable that it was deemed probable that more of them would
have died had they remained on shore. Byron, having discharged all the
duties devolving on him during this voyage with prudence and energy,
could not be held responsible for the poverty of the scientific results
obtained,--a circumstance owing to the absence of scientific men,
naturalists, mathematicians, astronomers, &c. The Government resolved
to make another effort, and to equip the expedition in a style more
adequate to its necessities. The Dolphin was immediately refitted and
furnished for a voyage to be made in the same seas under Captain Samuel
Wallis. The Swallow, a sloop of fourteen guns, was appointed to be her
consort, instead of the lumbering Tamar, and Captain Carteret, who had
accompanied Byron, was ordered to command her. The Prince Frederick
was appointed to accompany them as store-ship. They left Plymouth in
company on the 22d of August, 1766.
The run to Magellan's Strait offers no points of interest. They entered
into amicable relations with the Patagonians. These people, who, from
Magellan's and Byron's accounts, had obtained the reputation of being
giants of seven feet, were measured with a rod by Wallis. The tallest
were six feet six, while their average height was from five feet ten
to six feet. He invited several of them on board, where, following the
example of Magellan, he showed one of them a looking-glass. "This,
however," he says, "excited little astonishment, but afforded them
infinite diversion." The Prince Frederick took on board, by Wallis'
order, several thousand young trees, which had been carefully removed
with their roots and the earth about them, and transported them to the
Falkland Islands, where there was no growth of wood. Captain Carteret
climbed a mountain in the hope of obtaining a view of the South Sea: he
erected a pyramid, in which he deposited a bottle containing a shilling
and a paper,--a memorial which, he remarked, might possibly remain
there as long as the world endured. At other points the land was bare,
covered with snow, or piled to the clouds with rocks, looking like the
ruins of nature doomed to everlasting sterility and desolation.
A storm now disabled both ships, and Carteret found the Swallow to be
almost unmanageable. From this time forward, during the passage of the
Strait, the inhabitants they met seemed to be the most miserable of
human beings,--half frozen, half fed, half clothed. After four months'
dangerous and tedious navigation, they issued from the Strait into the
ocean on the 11th of April, 1767, bidding farewell to a region where in
the midst of summer the weather was tempestuous, "where the prospect
had more the appearance of chaos than of nature, and where, for the
most part, the valleys were without herbage and the hills without
wood." A storm here separated the Dolphin and the Swallow, and from
this point the adventures of Wallis and Carteret form two distinct
narratives. We shall follow the course of the Dolphin, and then return
to that of the Swallow.
Wallis sailed to the northwest for two months without incident,
discovering Whitsun Island and Queen Charlotte's Island in mid-ocean.
At last, on the 19th of June, he touched at Quiros' island of
Sagittaria: it had been lost for a century and a half, and its
existence even was doubted. The Dolphin was soon surrounded by hundreds
of canoes, containing at least eight hundred people. They did not
manifest hostile intentions, however, contenting themselves with
petty thefts. Wallis sent his boats to sound for an anchorage, and,
observing the canoes gather around them, fired a nine-pounder over
their heads. A skirmish followed, which resulted in the wounding of
several on both sides. But, on Wallis' attempting to enter the Bay of
Matavai, the islanders offered a determined resistance: three-hundred
canoes, manned by two thousand warriors, surrounded him and attacked
him with a hail of stones. Repulsed for a time, they twice rallied,
and hurled stones weighing two pounds on board, by means of slings. At
last a cannon-ball cut the canoe bearing the chief in halves, whereupon
canoes and warriors disappeared with the utmost precipitation. The
ship was now warped up to the shore, and the boats landed without
opposition. Mr. Furneaux, the lieutenant, took possession of the island
for his majesty, in honor of whom he called it King George the Third's
Island. The water proving to be excellent, rum was mixed with it, and
every man drank his majesty's health. The natives choosing to make a
demonstration at midnight, Wallis cleared the coast with his guns, and
sent the carpenters ashore with their axes, to destroy all the canoes
which in their precipitation they had left. Fifty canoes, some of
them sixty feet long, were thus broken up. These measures brought the
savages to terms, and boughs of plantains were soon exchanged and vows
of friendship pantomimically expressed. Trade was established, and a
tent erected at the watering place. The crew now lived sumptuously upon
fruits and poultry, and in a fortnight the commander hardly knew them
for the same people. This, as we have said, was the island which Cook
was to render famous under the name of Tahiti.
It was not long before it was discovered that nails, the principal
medium of exchange, seemed to have lost their value with the islanders.
Bringing forth large spikes from their pockets, they intimated
that they desired nails of a similar size and strength. It was now
ascertained that the sailors, having no nails of their own, had drawn
all the stout hammock-pins, and had ripped out the belaying cleats.
Every artifice was practised to discover the thieves, but without
success.
On the 11th of July, a tall woman of pleasing countenance and majestic
deportment came on board. She proved to be Oberea, sovereign of the
island. She seemed quite fascinated by Wallis, who was recovering
from a severe illness, and invited him to go on shore and perfect his
convalescence. He accepted the invitation, and the next day called upon
her at her residence,--an immense thatched roof raised upon pillars.
She ordered four young girls to take off his shoes and stockings and
gently chafe his skin with their hands. While they were doing this,
the English surgeon who accompanied Wallis took off his wig to cool
himself. Every eye was at once fixed upon this prodigy of nature. The
whole assembly stood motionless in silent astonishment. They would
not have been more amazed, says Wallis, had they discovered that the
surgeon's limbs had been screwed on to the trunk. Oberea accompanied
Wallis on his way back to the shore, and whenever they came to a little
puddle of water she lifted him over it.
It was now discovered that one Francis Pinckney, a seaman, had drawn
the cleats to which the main-sheet was belayed, and had then removed
and bargained away the spikes. Wallis called the men together,
explained the heinousness of the offence, and ordered Pinckney to be
whipped with nettles while he ran the gauntlet three times round the
deck. To prevent the ship from being pulled to pieces and the price of
provisions from being disproportionately raised, he directed that no
man should go ashore except the wooders and waterers.
Oberea now became romantic and tender. She tied wreaths of plaited
hair around Wallis' hat, giving him to understand that both the hair
and workmanship were her own. She made him presents of baskets of
cocoanuts, and of sows big with young. She said he must stay twenty
days more; and, when he replied that he should depart in seven days,
she burst into tears, and was with great difficulty pacified. When the
fatal hour arrived, she threw herself down upon the arm-chest and wept
passionately. She was with difficulty got over the side into her canoe,
where she sat the picture of helpless, unutterable woe. Wallis tossed
her articles of use and ornament, which she silently accepted without
looking at them. He subsequently bade her adieu more privately on
shore. A fresh breeze sprang up, and the Dolphin left the island on the
27th of July.
[Illustration: PARTING OF WALLIS AND OBEREA.]
On his way to Tinian he discovered several islands, one of which the
officers did their commander the honor of calling Wallis' Island. At
Tinian they found every article mentioned by Lord Anson, though it
required no little time and labor to noose a bullock or bag a banana.
When they left, each man had laid in five hundred limes. On the passage
to Batavia, and thence to Table Bay, the sick-list was very large,
and several men were lost by disease and accident. At the Cape, the
crew were attacked by the small-pox, and a pest-tent was erected upon
a spacious plain. The infection was not fatal in any instance. The
Dolphin anchored in the Downs on the 20th of May, 1768. Wallis was
enabled to communicate a paper to the Royal Society in time for that
body to give to Lieutenant Cook, then preparing for his first voyage,
more complete instructions by which to govern his movements.
We must now return to the Swallow, commanded by Philip Carteret,
and, as far as the Strait of Magellan, the consort of the Dolphin. A
storm, as we have said, separated them; and, while Wallis sailed to
the northwest, Carteret was driven due north. He was surprised to find
Juan Fernandez fortified by the Spanish, and did not think it prudent
to attempt a landing. Sailing now due west, he discovered an island to
which he gave the name of Pitcairn, in honor of the young man who first
saw it. This island we shall have occasion to mention more particularly
hereafter, as it became the scene of the romantic adventures of the
mutineers of the Bounty. The vessel had now become crazy, and leaked
constantly. The sails were worn, and split with every breeze. The men
were attacked by the scurvy; and Carteret began to fear that he should
get neither ship nor crew in safety back to England.
At last, on the 12th of August, land was discovered at daybreak, which
proved to be a cluster of islands, of which Carteret counted seven.
Ignorant that Mendana had discovered them in 1595, nearly two centuries
previously, and had given them the name of Santa Cruz, Carteret took
possession of them, naming them Queen Charlotte's Islands and giving a
distinctive appellation to each member of the archipelago. Cocoanuts,
bananas, hogs, and poultry were seen in abundance as they sailed along
the shore; but every attempt to land ended in bloodshed and repulse.
They now steered to the northwest, and, on the 26th of August, saw
New Britain and St. George's Bay, discovered and named by Dampier.
Anchoring temporarily, and again wishing to weigh anchor, Carteret
found, to his dismay, that the united strength of the whole ship's
company was insufficient to perform the labor. They spent thirty-six
hours in fruitless attempts, but, having recruited their strength by
sleep, finally succeeded. They had neither the strength to chase turtle
nor the address to hook fish. Cocoanut-milk gradually revived the men,
who also received benefit from a fruit resembling a plum.
The wind not allowing Carteret to follow Dampier's track around New
Britain, the idea struck him that St. George's Bay might in reality
be a channel dividing the island in twain. This the event proved to
be correct. On his way through, he noticed three remarkable hills,
which he called the Mother and Daughters, the Mother being the
middlemost and largest. Leaving the southern portion of the island
in possession of its old name, New Britain, he called the northern
portion New Ireland. On leaving the channel, the vessel was in such a
state that no time or labor could be any longer devoted to science or
geography: the essential point was to reach some European settlement.
Carteret discovered numerous islands and groups, and, after touching
at Mindanao, arrived at Macassar, on the island of Celebes, in March,
1768. He had buried thirteen of his men, and thirty more were at
the point of death: all the officers were ill, and Carteret and his
lieutenant almost unfit for duty. The Dutch refused him permission
to land, and Carteret determined to run the ship ashore and fight
for the necessaries of life, to which their situation entitled them,
and which they must either obtain or perish. A boat, bearing several
persons in authority, put out to them, and commanded them to leave at
once, at the same time giving them two sheep and some fowls and fruit.
Carteret showed them the corpse of a man who had died that morning,
and whose life would probably have been saved had provisions been
at once afforded him. This somewhat shocked them; and they inquired
very particularly whether he had been among the Spice Islands, and,
upon receiving a negative reply, which they appeared to believe,
directed him to proceed to a bay not far distant, where he would find
shelter from the monsoon and provisions in abundance. He proceeded,
therefore, to Bonthain, where he altered his reckoning, having lost
about eighteen hours in coming by the west, while the vessels that had
come by the east had gained about six. He stayed here two months, with
difficulty obtaining natives to replace the many seamen he had lost.
On the passage from Bonthain to Batavia, the ship leaked so fast that
the pumps, which were kept constantly at work, were hardly able to
keep her free. He arrived at Batavia on the 2d of June. Here the Dutch
authorities again placed every obstacle in his way; and it was the last
week in July before he could heave down the ship for repairs. These
being completed, he set sail for England.
On the 30th of January, 1769, he touched at Ascension, where it was the
custom, as the island was uninhabited, for every ship to leave a letter
in a bottle, with the date, name, destination, &c. With this custom
Carteret of course complied. Three weeks afterwards, he was overhauled
by a ship bearing French colors and sailing in the same direction as
himself. Carteret was very much surprised to hear the French captain
call him and his ship by name: he was still more surprised to hear
that the Dolphin had already returned to England, and had reported
his--Carteret's--probable loss in Magellan's Strait. "How did you learn
the name of my ship?" shouted Carteret through his trumpet. "From the
bottle at Ascension," was the reply. "And how did you hear of the
opinion formed in England of our fate?" "From the French gazette at
the Cape of Good Hope." "And who may you be, pray?" "A French East
Indiaman, Captain Bougainville." The vessel was La Boudeuse, whose
voyage round the world we shall narrate in the following chapter. The
Swallow anchored at Spithead on Saturday, the 20th of March, having
been absent three years wanting two days. No navigator had yet done
so much with resources so insufficient: Carteret's discoveries were
of the highest interest in a geographical point of view. He was a
worthy predecessor of Cook; and his achievements with a crazy ship
and a disabled crew prepared the public mind for the researches which
his already distinguished successor would be enabled to make with
the carefully equipped expedition which had lately started under his
command.
A harrowing incident which occurred at sea about this time produced a
painful sensation throughout Europe. The French man-of-war Le Prince,
being on her way from Lorient to Pondicherry by way of Cape Horn,
was discovered to be on fire. Smoke was noticed ascending almost
imperceptibly from one of the hatchways. The usual measures were
promptly taken, eighty marines being placed on duty with loaded muskets
to enforce obedience from the crew. The pumps and buckets were totally
inadequate to master the now raging flames; while the fresh water,
set running from the casks, was of equally little service. The yawl,
by the captain's orders, had been lowered: seven men seized it and
rowed rapidly away. Of the other boats, two were burned, and one was
swamped as it touched the water. The consternation now became general;
and the despairing shrieks of the dying, mingled with the cries of
the affrighted animals on board, rendered the scene one of terrible
confusion. The chaplain went about, granting a general absolution,
and extending the remission of their sins even to those who, to avoid
death by fire, committed suicide by leaping into the sea. There were
six women on board, two of them the cousins of the captain. They were
lowered into the water upon hen-coops, the captain bidding them an
eternal farewell, as it was his duty and his determination to perish
with the ship.
[Illustration]
The water was now alive with human beings, clinging to spars, oars,
barrels, and other floating materials. Upon one spar were nine men,
who had escaped the fury of one element, and were calmly awaiting
the fate which they were expecting from another. They were destined
to die by neither, but in a manner, if any thing, more horrible. The
flames, reaching the cannon, which by some fatal coincidence were
loaded, discharged them one by one. A ball, striking the spar by which
these nine devoted men were kept afloat, ploughed its way through them
all, killing several outright and mortally wounding the rest. Not
one escaped. The mast now fell into the sea, making terrible havoc
among those within its reach; while at every moment a gun launched
its reckless metal upon the water. The chaplain, clinging to a bit of
charred wood, edified all who heard him by his piety and resignation.
Once he tried to sink, but was brought back by the first lieutenant.
"Let me go," said he; "I am full of water, and it cannot avail to
prolong my sufferings." "In his holy company," says the lieutenant, in
his narrative, "I passed three hours: during which time I saw one of
the captain's cousins give up the effort to keep herself afloat, and
fall back and drown." This lieutenant, surviving the rest, hailed the
seven men in the yawl, by whom he was taken in, as were also the pilot
and the quartermaster. These ten persons were all that were saved out
of the three hundred who composed the vessel's crew. The frigate soon
blew up; and, after this frightful scene of her expiring agony, all
relapsed into silence.
The lieutenant assumed the command of the boat, and, rowing to the
remains of the wreck, ordered a search for stores and other articles
of which they had pressing need. They found a keg of brandy, fifteen
pounds of salt pork, a piece of scarlet cloth, twenty yards of coarse
linen, and a quantity of staves and ropes. With the scarlet and an
oar they made a mast and sail, with a key they made a pulley, and
with a stave a rudder. With this equipment, and without astronomical
instruments, they started upon their adventurous voyage, being six
hundred miles distant from the coast of Brazil.
Favored by a brisk breeze, they sailed during eight days, making
seventy-five miles every twenty-four hours. They were nearly naked,
and suffered terribly from exposure to the rays of a tropical July
sun. On the sixth day, a light rain gave them the hope of satisfying
their devouring thirst. They licked the drops from the sail, but
found them already bitterly impregnated with salt. They suffered as
much from hunger as thirst; for the salt pork, which had been found
to cause blood-spitting, had been abandoned on the fourth day. A
draught of brandy from time to time revived them somewhat, but burned
their stomachs without moistening them, causing them pain rather than
satisfaction. On the eighth night, the lieutenant passed ten hours at
the helm, not one of the remaining nine having the strength to relieve
him. It was not possible they could survive another day. The dawn
of the 3d of August brought with it the blessed sight of land, and,
collecting all their strength, to avoid being wrecked by the currents,
tides, and reefs, they landed in safety late in the afternoon. The
men rushed upon the beach, and, in their joy, rolled in the sand, and
mingled thanksgivings with their shouts of joy. They no longer appeared
like human beings, suffering having rendered their faces frightful to
behold. The lieutenant twisted a piece of red cloth about his loins
to show his rank to such inhabitants as they might fall in with. A
rapidly-flowing stream being discovered, they all rushed into it, and
lapped, rather than drank, its beneficent waters.
The place where they were was a Portuguese settlement, and they were
hospitably received by the colonists, who gave them shirts and manioc
in abundance. Proceeding to Pernambuco, where a Portuguese fleet was
stationed, they were welcomed with kindness by the officers, the
lieutenant being admitted to the admiral's mess, and the men being
distributed among the ships and placed on full pay. They were soon
restored to their country, and the lieutenant communicated to the
Government an official account of the disaster.
[Illustration: CHAIN OF PHOSPHORESCENT SELPAS.]
[Illustration: BOUGAINVILLE.]