the north side of the river, thirty leagues above its mouth, and built
on a peninsula, which lies convenient to secure from the east wind, a
bay of about two leagues deep, and one league wide at its entrance. At
the western point of this isle, is a single high mountain, which serves
as a look out, and has given a name to the town; the other lands, which
surround it, are very low. That side which looks towards a plain, is
defended by a citadel. Several batteries guard the side towards the sea
and the harbour. There is a battery upon a very little isle, in the
bottom of the bay, called Isle au François, or French-Island. [Sidenote:
Anchorage in this bay.] The anchorage at Montevideo is safe, though
sometimes molested by pamperos, which are storms from the south-west,
accompanied by violent tempests. There is no great depth of water in the
whole bay; and one may moor in three, four, or five fathoms of water in
a very soft mud, where the biggest merchant-ships run a-ground, without
receiving any damage; but sharp-built ships easily break their backs,
and are lost. The tides do not come in regular; according as the wind
is, the water is high or low. It is necessary to be cautious, in regard
to a chain of rocks that extends some cables-length off the east point
of the bay; the sea forms breakers upon them, and the people of this
country call them la Punta de las Carretas.
[Sidenote: It is an excellent place to put in at for refreshments.]
Montevideo has a governor of its own, who is immediately under the
orders of the governor-general of the province. The country round this
town is almost entirely uncultivated, and furnishes neither wheat nor
maize; they must get flour, biscuit, and other provisions for the ships
from Buenos Ayres. In the gardens belonging to the town, and to the
adjoining houses, they cultivate scarce any legumes; there is, however,
plenty of melons, calabashes, figs, peaches, apples, and quinces. Cattle
are as abundant there as in any other part of this country; which,
together with the wholesomeness of the air, makes Montevideo an
excellent place to put in at for the crew; only good measures must be
taken to prevent desertion. Every thing invites the sailor thither; it
being a country, where the first reflection which strikes him, on
setting his feet on shore, is, that they live there almost without
working. Indeed, how is it possible to resist the comparison of spending
one’s days in idleness and tranquility, in a happy climate, or of
languishing under the weight of a constantly laborious life, and of
accelerating the misfortunes of an indigent old age, by the toils of the
sea?
-----
Footnote 12:
It is now certain, that the animal, here called tyger, is the Couguara
or Brown (tyger) Cat, of Penn. Syn. quad. p. 179. a very large animal,
and very fierce in hot countries. F.
Footnote 13:
These balls are two round stones, of the size of a two-pound ball,
both enchased in a strap of leather, and fastened to the extremities
of a thong, six or seven feet long. The Indians, when on horseback,
use this weapon as a sling, and often hit the animal they are
pursuing, at the distance of three hundred yards.
Footnote 14:
The Paulists are another race of robbers, who left Brasil, and formed
a republic, towards the end of the sixteenth century.
Footnote 15:
Maté, or Paraguay-tea, or South-sea-tea, are pounded dry leaves of a
plant growing in South America, and chiefly in Paraguay. The Jesuits,
when in possession of the interior parts of the provinces of Paraguay,
got by a manœuvre similar to that of the Dutch, in regard to the
spice-trade, the exclusive commerce of this commodity. They cultivated
this plant in enclosures, upon the rivers Uraguai and Parana, and
wherever it grew wild, it was destroyed; and after the space of
nineteen years they became the sole masters of this trade, which was
very lucrative; for as this plant is thought to be an excellent
restorative, and a good paregoric, and therefore of indispensible
necessity to the workmen in the famous Peruvian mines, it is carried
constantly to Peru and Chili; the whole consumption of it being yearly
upon an average of 160,000 arrobas, of 25 pounds Spanish weight each;
and the price is, at a medium, thirty-six piasters per arroba, so that
this plant was worth to the Jesuits 5,760,300 piastres per ann. the
tenth part of which sum must be deducted out of the whole, for
instruments of agriculture, the erection and repairing of buildings
necessary for manufacturing this plant, feeding and cloathing of about
300,000 Indians and Negroes: so that still above five millions of
piastres were the clear yearly profit of the pious fathers. These
cunning men sold these leaves in powder on purpose that no botanist
might get a sight of them, and thus be enabled to find out the plant
to which the leaves belong, in case some plants should have escaped
their selfish destruction of them. Some writers call this plant Maté,
which is, I believe, the name of the vessel it is drank out of. Others
call it Caa, and make this the generic name of it, and its species are
Caa-cuys, Caa-mini, and Caa-guaz, the last of which is the coarsest
sort prepared, with the stalks left to it, for which reason it is
likewise called Yerva de Palos; but the Caa-mini or Yerva de Caamini
is the best sort and sold dearer; the Caa-cuys will not keep so long
as the other two sorts. This plant is thought to be the Ilex Cassine,
Linn. Sp. pl. p. 181. or the Dahoon-holly. Forster’s Flora Americ.
Septentr. p. 7. and Catesby car. i. t. 31. F.
-----
_CHAP. III._
_Departure from Montevideo; navigation to the Málouines; delivery of
them into the hands of the Spaniards; historical digression on the
subject of these islands._
[Sidenote: 1767. February.
Departure from
Montevideo.]
The 28th of February, 1767, we weighed from Montevideo, in company with
two Spanish frigates, and a tartane laden with cattle. I agreed with Don
Ruis, that whilst we were in the river, he should lead the way; but that
as soon as we were got out to sea, I was to conduct the squadron.
However, to obviate the dangers in case of a separation, I gave each of
the frigates a pilot, acquainted with the coasts of the Malouines. In
the afternoon we were obliged to come to an anchor, as a fog prevented
our seeing either the main-land, or the isle of Flores. The next morning
we had contrary wind; however, I expected that we should have weighed,
as the strong currents in the river favoured us; but seeing the day
almost at an end, without any signal being given by the Spanish
commodore, I sent an officer to tell him, that having had a sight of the
isle of Flores, I found myself too near the English sand-bank, and that
I advised we should weigh the next day, whether the wind was fair or
not. Don Ruis answered, that he was in the hands of the pilot of the
river, who would not weigh the anchor till we had a settled fair wind.
The officer then informed him from me, that I should sail by day-break;
and that I would wait for him, by plying to windward, or by anchoring
more to the north, unless the tides or the violence of the wind should
separate us against my will.
The tartane had not cast anchor the last night; and we lost sight of
her, and never saw her again. She returned to Montevideo three weeks
after, without fulfilling its intended expedition. [Sidenote: Storm in
the river.] The night was stormy; the pamperos blew very violently, and
made us drag our anchor; however, we cast another anchor, and that fixed
us. By day-break we saw the Spanish ships, with their yards and
top-masts struck, and had dragged their anchors much further than
ourselves. [Sidenote: 1767. March.] The wind was still contrary and
violent, the sea very high, and it was nine o’clock before we could
proceed under our courses and top-sails; at noon we lost sight of the
Spaniards, who remained at anchor, and the third of March in the evening
we were got out of the river.
[Sidenote: Voyage from Montevideo to the Malouines.]
During our voyage to the Malouines, we had variable winds from N. W. to
S. W. almost always stormy weather and high seas: we were obliged to try
under our main-sail on the 16th, having suffered some damage. Since the
17th in the afternoon, when we came into soundings, the weather was very
foggy. The 19th, not seeing the land, though the horizon was clear, and
I was east of the Sebald’s isles by my reckoning, I was afraid I had
gone beyond the Malouines, and therefore resolved to sail westward; the
wind, which is a rare circumstance, favoured my resolution. I proceeded
very fast in twenty-four hours, and having then found the soundings off
the coast of Patagonia, I was sure as to my position, and so proceeded
again very confidently to the eastward. Indeed, the 21st, at four
o’clock in the afternoon, we discovered the Sebald’s isles, remaining in
N. E. by E. eight or ten leagues distant, and soon after we saw the
coast of the Malouines. [Sidenote: Fault committed in the direction of
this course.] I could have spared myself all the trouble I had been in,
if I had in time sailed close-hauled, in order to approach the coast of
America, and so find the islands by their latitude.
The 23d the evening we entered and anchored in the great bay, where the
two Spanish frigates likewise came to an anchor on the 24th. They had
suffered greatly during their course; the storm on the 16th having
obliged them to bear away; and the commodore-ship, having shipped a sea,
which carried away her quarter-badges, broke through the windows of the
great cabbin, and poured a great quantity of water into her. Almost all
the cattle they took on board at Montevideo for the colony, died through
the badness of the weather. The twenty-fifth the three vessels came into
port, and moored.
[Sidenote: The Spaniards take possession of our settlement at the
Malouines.]
[Sidenote: April.]
The first of April I delivered our settlement to the Spaniards, who took
possession of it, by planting the Spanish colours, which were saluted at
sun-rising and sun-setting from the shore and from the ships. I read the
king’s letter to the French inhabitants of this infant colony, by which
his majesty permits their remaining under the government of his most
catholic majesty. Some families profited of this permission; the rest,
with the garrison, embarked on board the Spanish frigates, which sailed
for Montevideo the 27th in the morning[16].
[Sidenote: Historical details concerning the Malouines.]
Some historical remarks concerning these isles, will, I hope, not be
deemed unnecessary.
[Sidenote: Americo Vespucci discovers them.]
It appears to me, that the first discovery of them may be attributed to
the celebrated Americo Vespucci, who, in the third voyage for the
discovery of America, sailed along the northern coasts of them in 1502.
It is true, he did not know whether it belonged to an isle, or whether
it was part of the continent; but it is easy to conclude, from the
course he took, from the latitudes he came to, and from the very
description he gives of the coasts, that it is that of the Malouines.
[Sidenote: French and English navigators visit them after him.] I shall
assert with equal right, that Beauchesne Gouin, returning from the South
Seas in 1700, anchored on the east side of the Malouines, thinking he
was at the Sebald’s isles.
His account says, that after discovering the isle to which he gave his
own name, he anchored on the east side of the most easterly of Sebald’s
isles. I must first of all observe, that the Malouines, being in the
middle between the Sebald’s isles and the isle of Beauchesne, have a
considerable extent, and that he must have necessarily fallen in with
the coast of the Malouines, as is impossible not to see them, when at
anchor eastward of the Sebald’s isles. Besides, Beauchesne saw a single
isle of an immense extent; and it was not till after he had cleared it,
that he perceived two other little ones: he passed through a moist
country, filled with marshes and fresh-water lakes, covered with
wild-geese, teals, ducks, and snipes; he saw no woods there; all this
agrees prodigiously well with the Malouines. Sebald’s isles, on the
contrary, are four little rocky isles, where William Dampier, in 1683,
attempted in vain to water, and could not find a good anchoring-ground.
Be this as it will, the Malouines have been but little known before our
days—Most of the relations report them as isles covered with woods.
Richard Hawkins, who came near the northern coast of them, which he
called Hawkins’s Maiden-land, and who pretty well described them,
asserts that they were inhabited, and pretends to have seen fires there.
At the beginning of this century, the St. Louis, a ship from St. Malo,
anchored on the south-east side, in a bad bay, under the shelter of some
little isles, called the isles of Anican, after the name of the
privateer; but he only stayed to water there, and continued his course,
without caring to survey them.
[Sidenote: The French settle there.]
However, their happy position, to serve as a place of refreshment or
shelter to ships going to the South-Seas, struck the navigators of all
nations. In the beginning of the year 1763, the court of France resolved
to form a settlement in these isles. I proposed to government, that I
would establish it at my own expence, assisted by Messrs. de Nerville
and d’Arboulin, one my cousin-german, the other my uncle. I immediately
got the Eagle of twenty guns, and the Sphinx of twelve, constructed and
furnished with proper necessaries for such an expedition, by the care of
M. Duclos Guyot, now my second. I embarked several Acadian families, a
laborious intelligent set of people, who ought to be dear to France, on
account of the inviolable attachment they have shewn, as honest but
unfortunate citizens.
The 15th of September I sailed from St. Malo. M. de Nerville was on
board the Eagle with me. After touching twice, once at the isle of St.
Catharine, on the coast of the Brasils, and once at Montevideo, where we
took in many horses and horned cattle, we made the land of Sebald’s
isles the 31st of January, 1764. I sailed into a great bay, formed by
the coast of the Malouines, between its N. W. point, and Sebald’s isles;
but not finding a good anchoring ground, sailed along the north coast;
and, coming to the eastern extremity of these isles, I entered a great
bay on the third of February, which seemed very convenient to me, for
forming the first settlement.
[Sidenote: Account of the manner in which it was made.]
The same illusion which made Hawkins, Woods, Rogers, and others, believe
that these isles were covered with wood, acted likewise upon my fellow
voyagers. We were surprised, when we landed, to see that what we took
for woods as we sailed along the coast, was nothing but bushes of a tall
rush, standing very close together. The bottom of its stalks being
dried, got the colour of a dead leaf to the height of about five feet;
and from thence springs a tuft of rushes, which crown this stalk; so
that at a distance these stalks together have the appearance of a wood
of middling height. These rushes only grow near the sea side, and on
little isles; the mountains on the main land are, in some parts, covered
all over with heath, which are easily mistaken for bushes.
In the various excursions, which I immediately ordered, and partly made
in the island myself, we did not find any kind of wood; nor could we
discover that these parts had been frequented by any nation.
I only found, and in great quantity too, an exceeding good turf, which
might supply the defect of wood, both for fuel, and for the forge; and I
passed through immense plains, every where intersected by little
rivulets, with very good water. Nature offered no other subsistence for
men than fish and several sorts of land and water fowl. It was very
singular, on our arrival, to see all the animals, which had hitherto
been the only inhabitants of the island, come near us without fear, and
shew no other emotions than those which curiosity inspires at the sight
of an unknown object. The birds suffered themselves to be taken with the
hand, and some would come and settle upon people that stood still; so
true it is, that man does not bear a characteristic mark of ferocity,
which mere instinct is capable of pointing out to these weak animals,
the being that lives upon their blood. This confidence was not of long
duration with them; for they soon learnt to mistrust their most cruel
enemies.
[Sidenote: First year.]
The 17th of March, I fixed upon the place of the new colony, which at
first was only composed of twenty-seven persons, among whom were five
women, and three children. We set to work immediately to build them huts
covered with rushes, to construct a magazine, and a little fort, in the
middle of which a small obelisk was erected. The king’s effigy adorned
one of its sides, and under its foundations we buried some coins,
together with a medal, on one side of which was graved the date of the
undertaking, and on the other the figure of the king, with these words
for the exergue, “Tibi serviat ultima Thule.”[17]
However, to encourage the colonists, and encrease their reliance on
speedy assistance, which I promised them, M. de Nerville consented to
remain at their head, and to share the risks to which this weak
settlement was exposed, at the extremity of the globe, where it was at
that time the only one in such a high southern latitude. The fifth of
April, 1764, I solemnly took possession of the isles in the king’s name,
and the eighth I sailed for France.
[Sidenote: Second year.]
The fifth of January, 1765, I saw my colonists again, and found them
healthy and content. After landing what I had brought to their
assistance, I went into the straits of Magalhaens, to get a cargo of
timber, palisadoes and young trees, and I began a navigation, which is
become necessary to the colony. Then I found the ships of commodore
Byron, who, after surveying the Malouines for the first time, passed the
straits, in order to get into the South-seas. When I left the Malouines
the 27th of April following, the colony consisted of twenty-four
persons, including the officers.
In 1765 we sent back the Eagle to the Malouines, and the king sent the
Etoile, one of his store ships, with her. These two vessels, after
landing the provisions and new colonists, sailed together to take in
wood in the straits of Magalhaens. The settlement now began to get a
kind of form. The governor and the ordonnateur[18] lodged in very
convenient houses built of stone, and the other inhabitants lived in
houses of which the walls were made of sods. There were three magazines,
both for the public stores and those of private persons. The wood out of
the straits had served to build several vessels, and to construct
schooners for the purpose of surveying the coast. The Eagle returned to
France from this last voyage, with a cargo of train oil and seals-skins,
tanned in the island. Several, trials had been made towards cultivation,
which gave no reason to despair of success, as the greatest part of the
corn brought from Europe was easily naturalized to the country. The
encrease of the cattle could be depended upon, and the number of
inhabitants amounted then to about one hundred and fifty.
However, as I have just mentioned, commodore Byron came in January,
1765, to survey the Malouines. He touched to the westward of our
settlement, in a port which we had already named Port de la Croisade,
and he took possession of these islands for the crown of England,
without leaving a single inhabitant there. It was not before 1766, that
the English sent a colony to settle in Port de la Croisade, which they
had named Port Egmont; and captain Macbride, of the Jason frigate, came
to our settlement the same year, in the beginning of December. He
pretended that these parts belonged to his Britannic majesty, threatened
to land by force, if he should be any longer refused that liberty,
visited the governor, and sailed away again the same day.
Such was the state of the Malouines, when we put them into the hands of
the Spaniards, whose prior right was thus inforced by that which we
possessed by making the first settlement[19]. The account of the
productions of these isles, and the animals which are to be found there,
will furnish matter for the following chapter, and are the result of the
observations of M. de Nerville, during a residence of three years. I
believed it was so much more proper to enter upon this detail, as M. de
Commerçon has not been at the Malouines, and as their natural history is
in some regards important[20].
-----
Footnote 16:
When I delivered the settlement to the Spaniards, all the expences,
whatsoever, which it had cost till the first of April 1767, amounted
to 603,000 livres, including the interest of five per cent. on the
sums expended since the first equipment. France having acknowledged
the catholic king’s right to the Malouines, he, by a principle of the
law of nations, owed no reimbursement to these costs. However, as his
majesty took all the ships, boats, goods, arms, ammunition, and
provisions that belonged to our settlement, he being equally just and
generous, desired that we should be reimbursed for what we had laid
out; and the above sum was remitted to us by his treasurers; part at
Paris, and the rest at Buenos Ayres.
Footnote 17:
The inscription on this medal was as follows.
Settlement of the Isles Malouines, situated in 51° 30′ of S. latitude,
60° 50′ W. long. from the meridian of Paris, by the Eagle frigate,
captain P. Duclos Guyot, captain of a fire ship, and the sphinx sloop;
captain F. Chenard de la Giraudais, lieutenant of a frigate, equipped
by Louis Antoine de Bougainville, colonel of infantry, captain of a
ship, chief of the expedition, G. de Nerville, captain of infantry,
and P. d’ Arboulin, post-master general of France: construction of a
fort, and an obelisk, decorated with a medallion of his majesty Louis
XV. after the plans of A. L’Huillier, engineer and geographer of the
field and army, serving on this expedition; during the administration
of E. de Choiseul, duke of Stainville, in February, 1764.
And the exergue. Conamur tenues grandia.
Footnote 18:
An officer who has the care of the stores.
Footnote 19:
The author has on purpose omitted to mention, that the English are the
first discoverers of these isles. Captain Davis, in the expedition of
1592, under the command of Sir Thomas Cavendish, saw them; and so did
Sir Richard Hawkins two years after in 1594, and called them Hawkins’s
Maiden Land. In the year 1598 they were seen by the Dutchman Sebald de
Waert, and called Sebald’s isles, and with that name they were put in
all Dutch charts. Dampier discovered them likewise in 1683, but
suspected they had no water. Strong gave these isles, in the year
1689, the name of Falkland-Islands, which was adopted by the
celebrated astronomer Halley, and is now become of universal use in
all our maps and charts. The privateers in the times of the wars of
king William and queen Mary frequently saw these isles, and no sooner
than in 1699-1700 they were seen for the first time by a Frenchman
called Beauchesne Gouin. It is pretty evident from this account, that
the English have an undoubted prior claim to these barren rocks and
marshes, situated in a cold climate, subject to the severest rigours
of winter, without the benefit of woods to alleviate them; and on
which, was it not for the wretched fuel of turf, all the French,
English, and Spanish settlements would have been starved with cold. F.
Footnote 20:
The work which I now publish was already finished, when the History of
a Voyage to the Malouines, by Dom Pernetty, appeared, otherwise I
should have omitted the following accounts.
-----
_CHAP. IV._
_Detail of the natural history of the Isles Malouines._
A Country which has been but lately inhabited always offers interesting
objects, even to those who are little versed in natural history; and
though their remarks may not be looked upon as authorities, yet they may
satisfy, in part, the curiosity of the investigators of the system of
nature.
[Sidenote: First aspect they bear.]