_The Arrival of the Dolphin and Tamar at Tinian, a Description of the
present Condition of that Island, and an Account of the Transactions
there._
On the 28th, we saw a great number of birds about the ship, which
continued till the 30th, when about two o'clock in the afternoon we saw
land, bearing W.1\2 N. which proved to be the islands Saypan, Tinian, and
Aiguigan. At sun-set, the extremes of them bore from N.W.1/2 N. westward
to S.W.; and the three islands had the appearance of one. At seven, we
hauled the wind, and stood off and on all night; and at six the next
morning, the extremes of the islands, which still made in one, bore from
N.W. by N. to S.W. by S. distant five leagues. The east side of these
islands lies N.E. by N. and S.W. by S. Saypan is the northermost; and
from the north-east point of that island to the south-west point of
Aiguigan, the distance is about seventeen leagues. These three islands
are between two and three leagues distant from each other; Saypan is the
largest, and Aguigan, which is high and round, the smallest. We steered
along the east side of them, and at noon hauled round the south point of
Tinian, between that island and Aiguigan, and anchored at the south-west
end of it, in sixteen fathom water, with a bottom of hard sand and coral
rock, opposite to a white sandy bay, about a mile and a quarter from the
shore, and about three quarters of a mile from a reef of rocks that lies
at a good distance from the shore, in the very spot where Lord Anson lay
in the Centurion. The water at this place is so very clear that the
bottom is plainly to be seen at the depth of four-and-twenty fathom,
which is no less than one hundred and forty-four feet.
As soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore, to fix upon a place
where tents might be erected for the sick, which were now very numerous;
not a single man being wholly free from the scurvy, and many in the last
stage of it. We found several huts which had been left by the Spaniards
and Indians the year before; for this year none of them had as yet been
at the place, nor was it probable that they should come for some months,
the sun being now almost vertical, and the rainy season set in. After I
had fixed upon a spot for the tents, six or seven of us endeavoured to
push through the woods, that we might come at the beautiful lawns and
meadows of which there is so luxuriant a description in the Account of
Lord Anson's Voyage, and if possible kill some cattle. The trees stood
so thick, and the place was so overgrown with underwood, that we could
not see three yards before us, we therefore were obliged to keep
continually hallooing to each other, to prevent our being separately
lost in this trackless wilderness. As the weather was intolerably hot,
we had nothing on besides our shoes, except our shirts and trowsers, and
these were in a very short time torn all to rags by the bushes and
brambles; at last however, with incredible difficulty and labour, we got
through; but, to our great surprise and disappointment, we found the
country very different from the account, we had read of it: The lands
were entirely overgrown with a stubborn kind of reed or brush, in many
places higher than our heads, and no where lower than our middles, which
continually entangled our legs, and cut us like whipcord; our stockings
perhaps might have suffered still more, but we wore none. During this,
march we were also covered with flies from head to foot, and whenever we
offered to speak we were sure of having a mouthful, many of which never
failed to get down our throats. After we had walked about three or four
miles, we got sight of a bull, which we killed, and a little before
night got back to the beach, as wet as if we had been dipt in water, and
so fatigued that we were scarcely able to stand. We immediately sent out
a party to fetch the bull, and found that during our excursion some
tents had been got up, and the sick brought on shore.
The next day our people were employed in setting up more tents, getting
the water-casks on shore, and clearing the well at which they were to be
filled. This well I imagined to be the same that the Centurion watered
at; but it was the worst that we had met with during the voyage, for the
water was not only brackish, but full of worms. The road also where the
ships lay was a dangerous situation at this season, for the bottom is
hard sand and large coral rocks, and the anchor having no hold in the
sand, the cable is in perpetual danger of being cut to pieces by the
coral; to prevent which as much as possible, I rounded the cables, and
buoyed them up with empty water-casks. Another precaution also was
taught me by experience, for at first I moored, but finding the cables
much damaged, I resolved to lie single for the future, that by veering
away or heaving in, as we should have more or less wind, we might always
keep them from being slack, and consequently from rubbing, and this
expedient succeeded to my wish. At the full and change of the moon, a
prodigious swell tumbles in here, so that I never saw ships at anchor
roll so much as ours did while we lay here; and it once drove in from
the westward with such violence, and broke so high upon the reef, that I
was obliged to put to sea for a week; for if our cable had parted in the
night, and the wind had been upon the shore, which sometimes, happens
for two or three days together, the ship must have inevitably been lost
upon the rocks.
As I was myself very ill with the scurvy, I ordered a tent to be pitched
for me, and took up my residence on shore; where we also erected the
armourer's forge, and began to repair the iron-work of both the ships. I
soon found that the island produced limes, sour oranges, cocoa-nuts,
breadfruit,[42] guavas, and paupas in great abundance; but we found no
water-melons, scurvy-grass, or sorrel.
[Footnote 42: See a particular description of the bread-fruit, in the
8th chapter of Lieut. Cook's voyage.]
Notwithstanding the fatigue and distress that we had endured, and the
various climates we had passed through, neither of the ships had yet
lost a single man since their sailing from England; but while we lay
here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were seized, though
we all recovered very fast from the scurvy. I am indeed of opinion that
this is one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during
the season in which we were here. The rains were violent, and almost
incessant, and the heat was so great as to threaten us with suffocation.
The thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at
eighty-six, which is but nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at
the heart; and if it had been on shore it would have risen much higher.
I had been upon the coast of Guinea, in the West Indies, and upon the
island of Saint Thomas, which is under the Line, but I had never felt
any such heat as I felt here. Besides the inconvenience which we
suffered from the weather, we were incessantly tormented by the flies in
the day, and by the musquitos in the night. The island also swarms with
centipedes and scorpions, and a large black ant, scarcely inferior to
either in the malignity of its bite. Besides these, there were venomous
insects without number, altogether unknown to us, by which many of us
suffered so severely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds; nor
were those on board in a much better situation than those on shore, for
great numbers of these creatures being carried into the ship with the
wood, they took possession of every birth, and left the poor seamen no
place of rest either below or upon the deck.
As soon as we were settled in our new habitations, I sent out parties to
discover the haunts of the cattle, some of which were found, but at a
great distance from the tents, and the beasts were so shy that it was
very difficult to get a shot at them. Some of the parties which, when
their haunts had been discovered, were sent out to kill them, were
absent three days and nights before they could succeed; and when a
bullock had been dragged seven or eight miles through such woods and
lawns as have just been described, to the tents, it was generally full
of flyblows, and stunk so as to be unfit for use: Nor was this the
worst, for the fatigue of the men in bringing down the carcase, and the
intolerable heat they suffered from the climate and the labour,
frequently brought on fevers which laid them up.[43] Poultry however we
procured upon easier terms: There was great plenty of birds, and they
were easily killed; but the flesh of the best of them was very
ill-tasted, and such was the heat of the climate that within an hour
after they were killed it was as green as grass, and swarmed with
maggots. Our principal resource for fresh meat was the wild hog, with
which the island abounds. These creatures are very fierce, and some of
them so large that a carcase frequently weighed two hundred pounds. We
killed them without much difficulty, but a black belonging to the Tamar
contrived a method to snare them, so that we took great numbers of them
alive, which was an unspeakable advantage; for it not only ensured our
eating the flesh while it was sweet, but enabled us to send a good
number of them on board as sea-stores.
[Footnote 43: "But we had cast anchor on the wrong side of the island,
and, to our great disappointment, found cattle very scarce," &c. &c.]
In the mean time we were very desirous of procuring some beef in an
eatable state, with less risk and labour, and Mr Gore, one of our mates,
at last discovered a pleasant spot upon the north-west part of the
island, where cattle were in great plenty, and whence they might be
brought to the tents by sea. To this place, therefore, I dispatched a
party, with a tent for their accommodation, and sent the boats every day
to fetch what they should kill; sometimes however there broke such a sea
upon the rocks, that it was impossible to approach them, and the Tamar's
boat unhappily lost three of her best men by attempting it. We were now,
upon the whole, pretty well supplied with provisions; especially as we
baked fresh bread every day for the sick and the fatigue of our people
being less, there were fewer ill with the fever; But several of them
were so much disordered by eating of a very fine-looking fish which we
caught here, that their recovery was for a long time doubtful. The
author of the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage says,[44] that the people
on board the Centurion thought it prudent to abstain from fish, as the
few which they caught at their first arrival surfeited those who eat of
them. But not attending sufficiently to this caution, and too hastily
taking the word _surfeit_ in its literal and common acceptation, we
imagined that those who tasted the fish when Lord Anson first came
hither, were made sick merely by eating too much; whereas, if that had
been the case, there would have been no reason for totally abstaining
afterwards, but only eating temperately. We however bought our knowledge
by experience, which we might have had cheaper; for though all our
people who tasted this fish, eat sparingly, they were all soon
afterwards dangerously ill.
[Footnote 44: The other account indicates a little more gratitude:--"Our
people had as much good beef and broth as we could possibly expend; with
guavas, oranges, lemons, limes, plenty of excellent cabbages, which grow
on the cocoa-trees, and the bread-fruit, for which these islands are
justly famous; and not only poultry like those in England, but wild fowl
of various sorts,"]
Besides the fruit that has been mentioned already, this island produces
cotton and indigo in abundance, and would certainly be of great value if
it were situated in the West Indies. The surgeon of the Tamar enclosed a
large spot of ground here, and made a very pretty garden; but we did
not stay long enough to derive any advantage from it.[45]
[Footnote 45: The descriptions of this island given by the author of
Anson's Voyage, and in the other account of this one, so often referred
to, are both more favourable than Byron's; a circumstance which may,
perhaps, be accounted for on very common principles, without any
impeachment of the respective authorities. The former description was
purposely omitted in our 10th volume, as it was judged advisable to
introduce it in this place, so that the reader might directly compare it
with that which is given in the text. Here it follows entire:--
"Its length is about twelve miles, and its breadth about half as much;
it extending from the S.S.W to N.N.E. The soil is every where dry and
healthy, and somewhat sandy, which being less disposed than other soils
to a rank and over luxuriant vegetation, occasions the meadows and the
bottoms of the woods to be much neater and smoother than is customary'
in hot climates. The land rises by easy slopes, from the very beach
where we watered to the middle of the island; though the general course
of its ascent is often interrupted and traversed by gentle descents and
valleys; and the inequalities that are formed by the different
combinations of these gradual swellings of the ground; are most
beautifully diversified with large lawns, which are covered with a very
fine trefoil, intermixed with a variety of flowers, and are skirted by
woods of tall and well-spread trees, most of them celebrated either for
their aspect or their fruit. The turf of the lawns is quite clean and
even, and the bottoms of the woods in many places clear of all bushes
and underwoods; and the woods themselves usually terminate on the lawns
with a regular outline, not broken, nor confused with straggling trees,
but appearing uniform as if laid out by art. Hence across a great
variety of the most elegant and entertaining prospects formed by the
mixture of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with
each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies
and over the slopes and declivities with which the place abounds. The
fortunate animals too, which for the greatest part of the year are the
sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic
cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery:
For the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some
thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most
remarkable in the world; for they are all of them milk-white, except
their ears, which are generally black. And though there are no
inhabitants here, yet the clamour and frequent parading of domestic
poultry, which range the woods in great numbers, perpetually excite the
ideas of the neighbourhood of farms and villages, and greatly contribute
to the cheerfulness and beauty of the place. The cattle on the island we
computed were at least ten thousand; and we had no difficulty in getting
near them, as they were not shy of us. Our first method of killing them
was shooting them; but at last, when by accidents to be hereafter
recited, we were obliged to husband our ammunition, our men ran them
down with ease. Their flesh was extremely well tasted, and was believed
by us to be much more easily digested, than any we had ever met with.
The fowls too were exceeding good, and were likewise run down with
little trouble; for they could scarce fly further than an hundred yards
at a flight, and even that fatigued them so much, that they could not
readily rise again; so that, aided by the openness of the woods, we
could at all times furnish ourselves with whatever number we wanted.
Besides the cattle and the poultry, we found here abundance of wild
hogs: These were most excellent food; but as they were a very fierce
animal, we were obliged either to shoot them, or to hunt them with large
dogs, which we found upon the place at our landing, and which belonged
to the detachment which was then upon the island amassing provisions for
the garrison of Guam. As these dogs had been purposely trained to the
killing of the wild hogs, they followed us very readily, and banted for
us; but though they were a large bold breed, the hogs fought with so
much fury, that they frequently destroyed them, so that we by degrees
lost the greatest part of them."
"But this place was not only extremely grateful to us from the plenty
and excellency of its fresh provisions, but was as much perhaps to be
admired for its fruits and vegetable productions, which were most
fortunately adapted to the cure of the sea scurvy, which had so terribly
reduced us. For in the woods there were inconceivable quantities of
cocoa-nuts, with the cabbages growing on the same tree; There were
besides guavoes, limes, sweet and sour oranges, and a kind of fruit
peculiar to these islands, called by the Indians _Rima_, but by us the
_Bread-fruit_, for it was constantly eaten by us during our stay upon
the island instead of bread, and so universally preferred to it, that no
ship's bread was expended during that whole interval. It grew upon a
tree which is somewhat lofty, and which, towards the top, divides into
large and spreading branches. The leaves of this tree are of a
remarkable deep green, are notched about the edges, and are generally
from a foot to eighteen inches in length. The fruit itself grows
indifferently on all parts of the branches; it is in shape rather
elliptical than round, is covered with a rough rind, and is usually
seven or eight inches long; each of them grows singly and not in
clusters. This fruit is fittest to be used when it is full grown, but is
still green; in which state its taste has some distant resemblance to
that of an artichoke bottom, and its texture is not very different, for
it is soft and spungy. As it ripens it grows softer and of a yellow
colour, and then contracts a luscious taste, and an agreeable smell, not
unlike a ripe peach; but then it is esteemed, unwholesome, and is said
to produce fluxes. Besides the fruits already enumerated, there were
many other vegetables extremely conducive to the cure of the malady we
had long laboured under, such as water-melons, dandelion, creeping
purslain, mint, scurvy-grass, and sorrel; all which, together with the
fresh meats of the place, we devoured with great eagerness, prompted
thereto by the strong inclination which nature never fails of exciting
in scorbutic disorders for these powerful specifics. It will easily be
conceived from what hath been already said, that our cheer upon this
island was in some degree luxurious, but I have not yet recited all the
varieties of provision which we here indulged in. Indeed we thought it
prudent totally to abstain from fish, the few we caught at our first
arrival having surfeited those who eat of them; but considering how much
we had been inured to that species of food, we did not regard this
circumstance as a disadvantage, especially as the defect was so amply
supplied by the beef, pork, and fowls already mentioned, and by great
plenty of wild fowl; for I must observe, that near the centre of the
island there were two considerable pieces of fresh water, which abounded
with duck, teal, and curlew: Not to mention the whistling plover, which
we found there in prodigious plenty."
"And now perhaps it may be wondered at, that an island so exquisitely
furnished with the conveniences of life, and so well adapted, not only
to the subsistence, but likewise to the enjoyment of mankind, should be
entirely destitute of inhabitants, especially as it is in the
neighbourhood of other islands, which in some measure depend upon this
for their support. To obviate this difficulty, I must observe, that it
is not fifty years since the island was depopulated. The Indians we had
in our custody assured us, that formerly the three islands of Tinian,
Rota, and Guam, were all full of inhabitants; and that Tinian alone
contained thirty thousand souls: But a sickness raging amongst these
islands, which destroyed multitudes of the people, the Spaniards, to
recruit their numbers at Guam, which were greatly diminished by this
mortality, ordered all the inhabitants of Tinian thither; where,
languishing for their former habitations, and their customary method of
life, the greatest part of them in a few years died of grief. Indeed,
independent of that attachment which all mankind have ever shown to the
places of their birth and bringing up, it should seem from what has been
already said, that there were few countries more worthy to be regretted
than this of Tinian."
"These poor Indians might reasonably have expected, at the great
distance from Spain, where they were placed, to have escaped the
violence and cruelty of that haughty nation, so fatal to a large
proportion of the whole human race: But it seems their remote situation
could not protect them from sharing in the common destruction of the
western world, all the advantage they received from their distance being
only to perish an age or two later. It may perhaps be doubted, if the
number of the inhabitants of Tinian, who were banished to Guam, and who
died there pining for their native home, was so great, as what we have
related above; but, not to mention the concurrent assertion of our
prisoners, and the commodiousness of the island, and its great
fertility, there are still remains to be met with on the place, which
evince it to have been once extremely populous: For there are, in all
parts of the island, a great number of ruins of a very particular kind;
they usually consist of two rows of square pyramidal pillars, each
pillar being about six feet from the next, and the distance between the
rows being about twelve feet; the pillars themselves are about five feet
square at the base, and about thirteen feet high; and on the top of each
of them there is a semi-globe, with the flat part upwards; the whole of
the pillars and semi-globe is solid, being composed of sand and stone
cemented together, and plastered over. If the account our prisoners gave
us of these structures was true, the island must indeed have been
extremely populous; for they assured us that they were the foundations
of particular buildings set apart for those Indians only, who had
engaged in some religious vow; and monastic institutions are often to be
met with in many Pagan nations. However, if these ruins were originally
the bases of the common dwelling-houses of the natives, their numbers
must have been considerable; for in many parts of the island they are
extremely thick planted, and sufficiently evince the great plenty of
former inhabitants. But to return to the present state of the island."
"Having mentioned the conveniences of this place, the excellency and
quantity of its fruits and provisions, the neatness of its lawns, the
stateliness, freshness, and fragrance of its woods, the happy inequality
of its surface, and the variety and elegance of the views it afforded, I
most now observe, that all these advantages were greatly enhanced by the
healthiness of its climate, by the almost constant breezes which prevail
there, and by the frequent showers which fall, and which, though of a
very short and almost momentary duration, are extremely grateful and
refreshing, and are perhaps one cause of the salubrity of the air, and
of the extraordinary influence it was observed to have upon us, in
increasing and invigorating our appetites and digestion. This was so
remarkable, that those amongst our officers, who were at all other times
spare and temperate eaters, who, besides a slight breakfast, made but
one moderate repast a day, were here, in appearance, transformed into
gluttons; for instead of one reasonable flesh meal, they were now
scarcely satisfied with three, and each of them so prodigious in
quantity, as would at another time have produced a fever or a surfeit:
And yet our digestion so well corresponded with the keenness of our
appetites, that we were neither disordered nor even loaded by this
repletion; for after having, according to the custom of the island, made
a large beef breakfast, it was not long before we began to consider the
approach of dinner as a very desirable, though somewhat tardy incident."
"And now having been thus large in my encomiums on this island, in
which, however, I conceive I have not done it justice, it is necessary I
should speak of those circumstances in which it is defective, whether in
point of beauty or utility."
"And first, with respect to its water. I must own, that before I had
seen this spot, I did not conceive that the absence of running water, of
which it is entirely destitute, could have been so well replaced by any
other means, as it is in this island; for though there are no streams,
yet the water of the wells and springs, which are to be met with every
where near the surface, is extremely good; and in the midst of the
island there are two or three considerable pieces of excellent water,
whose edges are as neat and even, as if they had been basons purposely
made for the decoration of the place. It must, however, be confessed,
that with regard to the beauty of the prospects, the want of rills and
streams is a very great defect, not to be compensated either by large
pieces of standing water, or by the neighbourhood of the sea, though
that; by reason of the smallness of the island, generally makes a part
of every extensive view."
"As to the residence upon the island, the principal inconvenience
attending it is the vast numbers of musquitoes, and various other
species of flies, together with an insect called a tick, which, though
principally attached to the cattle, would yet frequently fasten upon our
limbs and bodies, and if not perceived and removed in time, would bury
its head under the skin, and raise a painful inflammation. We found
here, too, centipedes and scorpions, which we supposed were venomous,
but none of us ever received any injury from them."]
While we lay here, I sent the Tamar to examine the island of Saypan,
Which is much larger than Tinian, rises higher, and, in my opinion, has
a much pleasanter appearance. She anchored to the leeward of it, at the
distance of a mile from the shore, and in about ten fathom water, with
much the same kind of ground as we had in the road of Tinian.
Her people landed upon a fine sandy beach which is six or seven miles
long, and walked up into the woods, where they saw many trees which were
fit for top-masts.
They saw no fowls, nor any tracks of cattle; but of hogs and guanicoes
there was plenty. They found no fresh water near the beach, but saw a
large pond inland, which they did not examine. They saw large heaps of
pearl oyster-shells thrown up together, and other signs of people having
been there not long before: Possibly the Spaniards may go thither at
some season of the years, and carry on a pearl fishery. They also saw
many of those, square pyramidal pillars which are to be found at Tinian,
and which are particularly described in the account of Lord Anson's
voyage.
On Monday the 30th of September, having now been here nine weeks, and
our sick being pretty well recovered, I ordered, the tents to be struck,
and with the forge and oven carried back to the ship; I also laid in
about two thousand cocoa-nuts, which I had experienced to be so powerful
a remedy for the scurvy, and the next day I weighed, hoping, that before
we should get the length of the Bashé Island, the N.E. monsoon would be
set in. I stood along the shore to take in the beef-hunters; but we had
very little wind this day and the next till the evening, when it came to
the westward and blew fresh: I then stood to the northward till the
morning of the 3d, when we made Anatacan, an island that is remarkably
high, and the same that was first fallen in with by Lord Anson.