The longitude of these isles is nearly the same in which Abel Tasman
was, by his reckoning, when he discovered the isles of Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, Pylstaart, those of Prince William, and the shoals of
Fleemskerk[112]. It is likewise the same which, within a very little, is
assigned to the Solomon’s isles. Besides, the periaguas, which we saw
sailing to the southward, seem to shew that there are other isles in
that part. Thus these isles seem to form a chain under the same
meridian; they make the third division, which we have named _l’Archipel
des Navigateurs_, or Archipelago of the Navigators[113].
On the 11th in the morning, having steered W. by S. since we got sight
of the last isles, we discovered a land bearing W. S. W. seven or eight
leagues distant. At first it was thought they were two separate isles,
and we were kept at a distance from them all day by a calm. On the 12th
we found that it was only one isle, of which, the two elevated parts
were connected by a low land, seemingly bending like a bow, and forming
a bay open to the N. E. The high land lies N. N. W. A head wind
prevented our approaching nearer than six or seven leagues of this
island, which I named _l’Enfant Perdu_, or the Forlorn Hope.
[Sidenote: Meteorological observations.]
The bad weather which began already on the 6th of this month, continued
almost uninterrupted to the 20th, and during all that time we had calms,
rains, and west winds to encounter. In general, in this ocean which is
called Pacific, the approach to lands is attended with tempests, which
are still more frequent during the decrease of the moon. When the
weather proves squally, and there are thick clouds fixed upon the
horizon, they are almost certain signs of some isles, and give timely
notice to be upon guard against them. It cannot be comprehended with
what precautions and what apprehensions, these unknown seas must be
navigated, as you are there on all sides threatened with the unexpected
appearance of lands and shoals, and these apprehensions are heightened
by the length of the nights in the torrid zone. We were obliged to make
way as it were blindfold, altering our course when the horizon appeared
too black before us. The scarcity of water, the want of provisions, and
the necessity of making advantage of the wind whenever it blew, would
not allow us to proceed with the slowness of a prudent navigation, and
to bring to, or stand on our boards, whenever it was dark.
[Sidenote: Critical situation we are in.]
The scurvy in the mean while made its appearance again. A great part of
the crew, and almost all the officers, had their gums affected, and the
mouth inflamed with it. We had no refreshments left, except for the
sick, and it is difficult to use one’s self to eat nothing but salt
flesh and dried pulse. At the same time there appeared in both ships
several venereal complaints, contracted at Taiti. They had all the
symptoms known in Europe. I ordered Aotourou to be searched; he was
quite ruined by it; but it seems in his country this disease is but
little minded; however, he consented to be taken care of by the
surgeons. Columbus brought this disease from America; here it is in an
isle in the midst of the greatest ocean. Have the English brought it
thither? Or ought the physician to win, who laid a wager, that if four
healthy stout men were shut up with one healthy woman, the venereal
complaint would be the consequence of their commerce?
The 22d at day break, as we stood to the westward, we saw a long high
land a-head. When the sun rose we discovered two isles; the most
southerly one bore from S. by E. to S. W. by S. and seemed to run N. N.
W. corrected, being about twelve leagues long in that direction. It
received the name of the day, _Isle de la Pentecôte_, Whitsuntide isle.
The second bore from S. W. ½ S. to W. N. W. the time when it first
appeared to us was the occasion of our giving it the name of Aurora. We
immediately stood as near as possible on the larboard tack, in order to
pass between the two isles. The wind failed us, and we were obliged to
bear away in order to pass to the leeward of the isle of Aurora. As we
advanced to the northward, along its eastern shore, we saw a little isle
rising like a sugar-loaf, bearing N. by W. which we called Peak of the
Etoile (_Pic de l’Etoile_). We continued to range the isle of Aurora a
league and a half distant. It runs N. and S. corrected from its
southermost point to about the middle of its length, which in the whole
is ten leagues. It then declines to the N. N. W. it is very narrow,
being to the utmost two leagues broad. Its shores are steep, and covered
with woods. At two o’clock in the afternoon we perceived the summits of
high mountains over this island, and about ten leagues beyond it. They
belonged to a land, of which at half past three we saw the S. W. point,
bearing S. S. W. by the compass, above the northern extremity of Aurora
island. After doubling the latter we steered S. S. W. when at
sun-setting a new elevated coast, of considerable extent, came in sight.
It extended from W. S. W. to N. W. by N. about fifteen leagues distant.
We made several boards during night to get to the S. E. in order to
discover whether the land which lay to S. S. W. of us joined to
Whitsuntide isle, or whether it formed a third isle. This we verified on
the 23d at day-break. We discovered the separation of the three islands.
The isles of Whitsuntide and Aurora are nearly under the same meridian,
two leagues distant from each other. The third isle lies S. W. of
Aurora, and in the nearest part, they are three or four leagues asunder.
Its north-west coast has at least twelve leagues in extent, and is high,
steep, and woody. We coasted it during part of the morning on the 23d.
Several periaguas appeared along the shore, but none seemed desirous to
come near us. We could see no huts, only a great number of smokes rising
out of the woods, from the sea-shore, up to the tops of the mountains.
We sounded several times very near the shore; but found no bottom with
fifty fathom of line.
[Sidenote: Landing up on one of the isles.]
About nine o’clock the sight of a coast, where it seemed landing would
prove easy, determined me to send on shore, in order to take in some
wood, which we were much in need of, to gain intelligence concerning the
country, and to endeavour to get refreshments from thence for our sick.
I sent off three armed boats, under the command of ensign[114] the
chevalier de Kerué, and we stood off and on, ready to send them any
assistance, and to support them by the artillery from both ships, if
necessary. We saw them land, without the islanders seeming to have
opposed their landing. In the afternoon, I and some other persons went
in a yawl to join them. We found our people employed in cutting wood,
and the natives helping them to carry it to the boats. The officer who
commanded our party, told me, that when he arrived, a numerous troop of
islanders were come to receive them on the beach, with bows and arrows
in hand, making signs that they should not come ashore; but that when,
notwithstanding their threats, he had given orders for landing, they had
drawn back several yards; that in proportion as our people advanced, the
savages retired; but always in the attitude of being ready to let go
their arrows, without suffering our people to come nearer them; that at
last, having given his people orders to stop, and the prince of Nassau
having desired to advance alone towards them, the islanders had ceased
to retire, seeing only one man come to them; that some pieces of red
cloth being distributed amongst them, had brought about a kind of
confidence between them. The chevalier de Kerué immediately posted
himself at the entrance of the wood, made the workmen cut down trees,
under the protection of the troops he had with him, and sent a
detachment in search of fruits. Insensibly the islanders approached in a
more friendly manner to all appearance; they even let our people have
some fruits. They would not have any nails or other iron, and likewise
constantly refused to exchange their bows and their clubs, only giving
us some arrows. They always kept in great numbers around our people,
without ever quitting their arms; and those who had no bows, held stones
ready to throw at our men. They gave us to understand, that they were at
war with the inhabitants of a neighbouring district. There actually
appeared an armed troop of them, coming in good order from the west part
of the island; and those who were near us seemed disposed to give them a
warm reception; but no attack was made.
[Sidenote: They attack the French.]
In this situation we found things when we came ashore. We staid there
till our boats were laden with fruits and wood. I likewise buried at the
foot of a tree, the act of taking possession of these isles, engraved on
an oak plank, and after that we embarked in our boats again. This early
departure, doubtless, ruined the project of the islanders to attack us,
because they had not yet disposed every thing for that purpose; at least
we were inclined to think so, by seeing them advance to the sea-shore,
and send a shower of stones and arrows after us. Some muskets fired off
into the air, were not sufficient to rid us of them; many advanced into
the water, in order to attack us with more advantage; another discharge
of muskets, better directed, immediately abated their ardour, and they
fled to the woods with great cries. One of our sailors was slightly
wounded by a stone.
[Sidenote: Description of the islanders.]
These islanders are of two colours, black and mulattoes. Their lips are
thick, their hair woolly, and sometimes of a yellowish colour. They are
short, ugly, ill-proportioned, and most of them infected with leprosy; a
circumstance from which we called the island they inhabit, Isle of
Lepers (_Isle des Lepreux_). There appeared but few women; and they were
not less disagreeable than the men; the latter are naked, and hardly
cover their natural parts; the women wear some bandages to carry their
children on their backs; we saw some of the cloths, of which they are
made, on which were very pretty drawings, made with a fine crimson
colour. I observed that none of the men had a beard; they pierce their
nose, in order to fix some ornaments to it. They likewise wear on the
arm, in form of a bracelet, the tooth of a babyroussa, or a ring of a
substance which I take to be ivory; on the neck they hang pieces of
tortoise-shells, which they signified to us to be very common on their
shores.
[Sidenote: Their weapons.]
Their arms are bows and arrows, clubs of iron-wood, and stones, which
they use without slings. The arrows are reeds, armed with a long and
very sharp point made of a bone. Some of these points are square, and
armed on the edges with little prickles in such a manner as to prevent
the arrow’s being drawn out of a wound. They have likewise sabres of
iron-wood. Their periaguas did not come near us; at a distance they
seemed built and rigged like those in the Isles of Navigators.
[Sidenote: Description of the place we landed at.]
The beach where we landed was of very little extent. About twenty yards
from the sea, you are at the foot of a mountain, which is covered with
trees, notwithstanding its great declivity. The soil is very light, and
of no great depth: accordingly the fruits, though of the same species
with those at Taiti, are not so fine and not so good here. We found a
particular species of figs here. There are many paths through the woods,
and spots enclosed by pallisadoes three feet high. We could not
determine whether they are intrenchments, or merely limits of different
possessions. We saw no more than five or six little huts, into which one
could not enter otherwise than by creeping on all-fours; and we were
however surrounded by a numerous people; I believe they are very
wretched, on account of the intestine war, of which we were witnesses,
and which brings great hardships upon them. We repeatedly heard the
harsh sound of a kind of drum, coming from the interior parts of the
wood, towards the summit of the mountain. This certainly gives the
signal to rally; for at the moment when the discharge of our muskets had
dispersed them, it began to beat. It likewise redoubled its sound, when
that body of enemies appeared, whom we saw several times. Our Taiti-man,
who desired to go on shore with us, seemed to think this set of men very
ugly; he did not understand a single word of their language.
[Sidenote: Continuation of our course among the lands.]
When we came on board, we hoisted in our boats, and made sail standing
to the S. W. for a long coast which we discovered, extending as far as
the eye could reach from S. W. to W. N. W. During night there was but
little wind, and it constantly veered about; so that we were left to the
mercy of the currents, which carried us to the N. E. This weather
continued all the 24th, and the night following; and we could hardly get
three leagues off the Isle of Lepers. On the 25th, at five in the
morning, we had a very fine breeze at E. S. E. but the Etoile, being
still under the land, did not feel it, and remained in a calm. I
advanced, however, all sails set, in order to observe the land, which
lay to westward. At eight o’clock we saw land in all parts of the
horizon; and we were, as it were, shut up in a great gulph. The isle of
Whitsuntide extended on the south side towards the new coast we had just
discovered; and we were not sure whether it was not connected, or
whether what we took to be the separation was any more than a great bay.
Several places in the remainder of the coast likewise shewed appearances
of passages, or of great gulphs. Among the rest there seemed to be a
very considerable one to the westward. Some periaguas crossed from one
land to the other. At ten o’clock we were obliged to stand towards the
Isle of Lepers again. The Etoile, which could no longer be seen from the
mast-head, was still becalmed there, though the E. S. E. breeze held out
at sea. We stood for the store-ship till four o’clock in the evening;
for it was not till then that she felt the breeze. It was too late when
she joined us to think of further discoveries. Thus the day of the 25th
was lost, and we passed the night making short tacks.
[Sidenote: Aspect of the country.]
The bearings we took on the 26th, at sun-rising, shewed us that the
currents had carried us several miles to the southward, beyond our
reckoning. Whitsuntide isle still appeared separated from the S. W.
land, but the passage seemed narrower. We discovered several other
openings on that coast, but were not able to distinguish the number of
isles which composed the Archipelago around us. The land seemed to us to
extend from E. S. E. to W. N. W. by the south (by compass); and we could
not see the termination of it. We steered from N. W. by W. gradually
coming round to west, along a fine shore covered with trees, on which
there appeared great pieces of ground, which were either actually
cultivated, or seemed to be so. The country appeared fertile; and some
of the mountains being barren, and here and there of a red colour,
seemed to indicate that it contained minerals. As we continued our
course we came to the great inlet, which we had observed to the westward
the day before. At noon we were in the middle of it, and observed the
sun’s height there. Its opening is five or six leagues wide; and it runs
due E. by S. and W. by N. Some men appeared on the south coast, and some
others came near the ships in a periagua; but as soon as they were
within musket shot, they would not come nearer, though we invited them;
these men were black.
We ranged the north coast at the distance of three quarters of a league;
it is not very high, and covered with trees. A number of negroes
appeared on the shore; even some periaguas came towards us; but with as
little confidence as that which came from the opposite coast. After
having run along this, for the space of two or three leagues, we saw a
great inlet, seeming to form a fine bay, at the entrance of which were
two islands. I immediately sent our boats well armed to reconnoitre it;
and during this time we stood on our boards, at one or two leagues
distance off more, often sounding without finding bottom, with 200
fathom of line.
[Sidenote: Attempts to search an anchorage.]
About five o’clock we heard a discharge of muskets, which gave us much
concern: it came from one of our boats, which, contrary to my orders,
had separated from the others, and unluckily was exposed to the attacks
of the islanders, being got quite close to the shore. Two arrows, which
were shot at the boat, served as a pretence for the first discharge. She
then went along the coast, and kept up a brisk fire from her muskets and
pedereroes, directing them both upon the shore, and upon three periaguas
which passed by her within reach of shot, and had shot some arrows at
her. A point of land intercepted the boat from our sight, and her
continual firing gave me reason to fear that she was attacked by a whole
fleet of periaguas. I was just going to send the long-boat to her
assistance, when I saw her quite alone, doubling the point, which had
concealed her. The negroes howled excessively in the woods, whither they
had all retired, and where we could hear their drum beating. I
immediately made signal to the boat to come on board, and I took my
measures to prevent our being dishonoured for the future, by such an
abuse of the superiority of our power.
[Sidenote: What prevents our anchoring there.]
The boats of the Boudeuse found that this coast, which we took to be
continued, was a number of isles; so that the bay is formed by the
junction of several channels, which separate them. However, they found a
pretty good sandy bottom there, in 40, 30, and 20 fathom; but its
continual inequality rendered this anchorage unsafe, especially for us,
who had no anchors to venture. It was, besides, necessary to anchor
there above half a league off shore, as the bottom was rocky nearer the
coast. Thus the ships could not have protected the boats, and the
country is so woody, that we would have been obliged always to have our
arms in hand, in order to cover the workmen against surprizes. We could
not flatter ourselves that the natives should forget the bad treatment
they had just received, and should consent to exchange refreshments. We
observed the same productions here as as upon the Isle of Lepers. The
inhabitants were likewise of the same species, almost all black, naked,
except their nudities, wearing the same ornaments of collars, and
bracelets, and using the same weapons.
[Sidenote: Another attempt to put in here.]
We passed this night on our boards. On the 27th in the morning we bore
away, and ranged the coast at about a league’s distance. About ten
o’clock we saw, on a low point, a plantation of trees, laid out in
walks, like those of a garden. Under the trees there was a beaten track,
and the soil seemed to be sandy. A considerable number of inhabitants
appeared about this part; on the other side of this point there was an
appearance of an inlet, and I hoisted the boats out. This was a
fruitless attempt; for it was nothing but an elbow formed by the coast,
and we followed it to the N. W. point, without finding any anchorage.
Beyond that point the land returned to N. N. W. and extended as far as
the eye could reach; it was of an extraordinary height, and shewed a
chain of mountains above the clouds. The weather was dark, with squalls
and rain at intervals. Often in day-time we thought we saw land a-head
of us; mere fog banks, which disappeared when it cleared up. We passed
all the night, which was a very stormy one, in plying with short boards,
and the tides carried us to the southward far beyond our reckoning. We
saw the high mountains all day on the 28th till sun-set, when they bore
from E. to N. N. E. twenty or twenty-five leagues distant.
[Sidenote: Conjectures concerning these lands.]
The 29th in the morning we saw no more of the land, having steered W. N.
W. I called the lands we had now discovered, Archipelago of the great
Cyclades (_Archipel des grandes Cyclades_). To judge of this Archipelago
by what we have gone through, and by what we have seen of it at a
distance, it contains at least three degrees of latitude, and five of
longitude. I likewise readily believe that Roggewein saw its northern
extremity in 11° of latitude, and called it _Thienhoven_ and
_Groningen_. As for ourselves, when we fell in with it, every thing
conspired to persuade us that it was the _Tierra Austral del Espiritù
Santo_. Appearances seemed to conform to Quiros’s account, and what we
daily discovered, encouraged our researches. It is singular enough, that
exactly in the same latitude and longitude where Quiros places his bay
of St. Philip and St. Jago, on a coast which at first sight seemed to be
that of a continent, we should find a passage exactly of the same
breadth which he assigns to the entrance of his bay. Has this Spanish
navigator seen things in a wrong light? Or, has he been willing to
disguise his discoveries? Was it by guess that the geographers made this
Tierra del Espiritu Santo the same continent with New Guinea? To resolve
this problem, it was necessary to keep in the same latitude for the
space of three hundred and fifty leagues further. I resolved to do it,
though the condition and the quantity of our provisions seemed to give
us reason to make the best of our way to some European settlement. The
event has shewn that little was wanting to make us the victims of our
own perseverance.
[Sidenote: Difference between the reckoning and the observations.]
M. Verron made several observations during the month of May, and their
results determined our longitude on the 5th, 9th, 13th, and 22d. We had
not till now found so many differences between the observations and the
ship’s reckoning, all falling on one side. On the 5th at noon I was more
to the east than the observed longitude, by 4° 00′ 42″; on the 9th, by
4° 23′ 4″; on the 13th, by 3° 38′ 15″; and lastly, on the 22d, by 3°
35′. All these differences shew, that from the isle of Taiti, the
currents had carried us much to the westward. By this means it might be
explained, why all the navigators who have crossed the Pacific ocean
have fallen in with New Guinea much sooner than they ought. They have
likewise given this ocean not by far so great an extent from east to
west as it really has. I must however observe, that whilst the sun was
in the southern hemisphere, our reckoning has been to the westward of
the observations; and that, after he passed to the other side of the
line, our differences have changed. The thermometer during this month
was commonly between 19° and 20°, it fell twice to 18°, and once to 15°.