board the Etoile, and I had an opportunity of verifying a very singular
fact. For some time there was a report in both ships, that the servant
of M. de Commerçon, named Baré, was a woman. His shape, voice, beardless
chin, and scrupulous attention of not changing his linen, or making the
natural discharges in the presence of any one, besides several other
signs, had given rise to, and kept up this suspicion. But how was it
possible to discover the woman in the indefatigable Baré, who was
already an expert botanist, had followed his master in all his botanical
walks, amidst the snows and frozen mountains of the the straits of
Magalhaens, and had even on such troublesome excursions carried
provisions, arms, and herbals, with so much courage and strength, that
the naturalist had called him his beast of burden? A scene which passed
at Taiti changed this suspicion into certainty. M. de Commerçon went on
shore to botanize there; Baré had hardly set his feet on shore with the
herbal under his arm, when the men of Taiti surrounded him, cried out,
It is a woman, and wanted to give her the honours customary in the isle.
The Chevalier de Bournand, who was upon guard on shore, was obliged to
come to her assistance, and escort her to the boat. After that period it
was difficult to prevent the sailors from alarming her modesty. When I
came on board the Etoile, Baré, with her face bathed in tears, owned to
me that she was a woman; she said that she had deceived her master at
Rochefort, by offering to serve him in mens cloaths at the very moment
when he was embarking; that she had already before served a Geneva
gentleman at Paris, in quality of a valet; that being born in Burgundy,
and become an orphan, the loss of a law-suit had brought her to a
distressed situation, and inspired her with the resolution to disguise
her sex; that she well knew when she embarked that we were going round
the world, and that such a voyage had raised her curiosity. She will be
the first woman that ever made it, and I must do her the justice to
affirm that she has always behaved on board with the most scrupulous
modesty. She is neither ugly nor handsome, and is no more than
twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age. It must be owned, that if the
two ships had been wrecked on any desart isle in the ocean, Baré’s fate
would have been a very singular one.
-----
Footnote 108:
_Pilotes-côtiers._
Footnote 109:
_Pilote-pratique de la côte de France._
Footnote 110:
_Pilotes, Aide-pilotes, ou Pilotins._
Footnote 111:
_Aides-pilotes._
Footnote 112:
Valentyn and others say _Heemskirk_. See Dalrymple’s Historical
Collection of Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean, p. 83.
Footnote 113:
Tobia, the man who went away from Otahitee, on board the Endeavour,
according to the published _Journal of a Voyage round the World_, gave
our circumnavigators accounts of many more islands in these seas, some
of which were really found by our people; but many more were known
only from his narrative of an expedition of these islanders to the
west. As the number of these isles seems to be so considerable, it
would certainly deserve another expedition to discover them all; and
though at present the advantages seem to be of no great consequence,
which might be reaped from an intercourse with these islanders; it is
however certain, that the same objection might have been made to the
first discoverers of America; and every body is at present sensible of
the benefit accruing to these kingdoms from its American settlements.
F.
Footnote 114:
_Enseigne de la Marine._
-----
_CHAP. V._
_Run from the great Cyclades; discovery of the gulph of Louisiade;
extremity to which we are reduced there; discovery of new isles;
putting into a port on New Britain._
From the 29th of May, when we lost sight of the land, I sailed westward
with a very fresh east, or south east wind. [Sidenote: Direction of our
course after leaving the Cyclades.] The Etoile considerably retarded our
sailing. We sounded every four and twenty hours, finding no bottom with
a line of two hundred and forty fathom. In day time we made all the sail
we could, at night we ran under reefed top-sails, and hauling upon a
wind when the weather was too dark. [Sidenote: 1768. June.] The night
between the 4th and 5th of June, we were standing to the westward under
our top-sails by moon-shine, when at eleven o’clock we perceived some
breakers, and a very low sand bank, to the southward, half a league from
us. [Sidenote: Meeting with breakers.] We immediately got the other
tacks on board, at the same time making a signal of danger to the
Etoile. Thus we ran till near five in the morning, and then we resumed
our former course to W. S. W. in order to view this land. We saw it
again at eight o’clock, at about a league and a half distance. It is a
little sandy isle, which hardly rises above the water; and which, on
that account, is a dangerous shoal for ships sailing at night, or in
hazy weather. It is so flat, that at two leagues distance, with a very
clear horizon, it can only be seen from the mast head; it is covered
with birds; I called it the Shoal of Diana (_la Bâture de Diane_).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
CHART
_of the Discoveries_
in the
_SOUTH PACIFICK OCEAN_
_made by_
M. de Bougainville
_in 1768_.
_Continued._
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Sidenote: Signs of land.]
On the 5th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, some of our people thought
they saw the land and breakers to the westward; they were mistaken, and
we continued our course that way till ten in the evening. The remaining
part of the night we lay-to, or made short boards, and at day-break we
resumed our course, all sails set. For twenty-four hours past, several
pieces of wood, and some fruits which we did not know, came by the ship
floating: the sea too was entirely fallen, notwithstanding the very
fresh S. E. wind that blew, and these circumstances together gave me
room to believe that we had land pretty near us to the S. E. We likewise
saw a new kind of flying fish in those parts; they are black, with red
wings, seem to have four wings instead of two, and somewhat exceed the
common ones in size.
The 6th, at half an hour past one o’clock in the afternoon, a sand-bank
appeared about three quarters of a league distant a-head, and convinced
me that it was time to alter the course, which I had always continued to
westward. This sand extended at least half a league from W. by S. to W.
N. W. Some of our people even were of opinion they saw a low land to the
S. W. of the breakers. We stood to the northward till four o’clock, and
then again to the westward. This, however, did not last long; for at
half pass five o’clock, the men at the mast-heads saw fresh breakers to
the N. W. and N. W. by W. about a league and a half from us. We
approached nearer, in order to view them better. They were seen to
extend above two miles from N. N. E. to S. S. W. and we could not see an
end of them. In all probability they joined those which we had
discovered three hours before. The sea broke with great violence on
these shoals, and some summits of rocks appeared above water from space
to space. This last discovery was the voice of God, and we were obedient
to it. [Sidenote: Necessary alteration of the course.] Prudence not
permitting us to pursue an uncertain course at night, in these dangerous
parts, we spent it making short boards in that space, with which we had
made ourselves acquainted in the preceding day; and on the 7th, in the
morning, I gave orders to steer N. E. by N. abandoning the scheme of
proceeding further westward in the latitude of 15°.
We had certainly great reason to believe, that the Tierra Austral del
Espiritù Santo was no more than the Archipelago of the great Cyclades,
which Quiros took to be a continent, and represented in a romantic
light. When I persevered in keeping in the parallel of 15°, it was
because I wanted to verify our conjectures, by getting sight of the
eastern coasts of New Holland. Thus, according to the Astronomical
Observations, (of which the uniformity for a month, and upwards, was a
sufficient proof of their accuracy) we were already, on the 6th at noon,
in 146° east latitude; that is one degree more to the westward than the
Tierra del Espiritù Santo, as laid down by M. Bellin. Besides this, our
repeated meeting with the breakers, which we had seen these three days;
those trunks of trees, these fruits and sea-weeds, which we found at
every moment; the smoothness of the sea, and the direction of the
currents, all sufficiently marked the vicinity of a great land; and that
it already surrounded us to the S. E. [Sidenote: Geographical
reflections.] This land is nothing else than the eastern coast of New
Holland. Indeed these numerous shoals, running out to sea, are signs of
a low land; and when I see Dampier abandoning in our very latitude of
15° 35′, the western coast of this barren region, where he did not so
much as find fresh water, I conclude that the eastern coast is not much
better. I should willingly believe, as he does, that this land is a
cluster of isles, the approach to which is made difficult by a dangerous
sea, full of shoals and sand-banks. After such an explanation, it would
have been rashness to risk running in with a coast, from whence no
advantage could be expected, and which one could not get clear of, but
by beating against the reigning winds. We had only bread for two months,
and pulse for forty days; the salt-meat was in greater quantities; but
it was noxious, and we preferred the rats to it, which we could catch.
Thus it was by all means time to go to the northward, and even to
deviate a little to the eastward of our course.
Unluckily the S. E. wind left us here; and when it returned, it put us
into the most dangerous situation we had as yet been in. From the 7th,
our course made good, was no better than N. by E. when on the 10th, at
day-break, the land was discovered, bearing from east to N. W.
[Sidenote: Discovery of new lands.] Long before the break of day, a
delicious smell announced us the vicinity of this land, which forms a
great gulph open to the S. E. I have seen but few lands, which bore a
finer aspect than this; a low ground, divided into plains and groves,
lay along the sea-shore, and from thence it rose like an amphitheatre up
to the mountains, whose summits were lost in the clouds. There were
three ranges of mountains; and the highest chain was above twenty-five
leagues in the interior parts of the country. The wretched condition to
which we were reduced, did not allow us, either to spend some time in
visiting this beautiful country, that by all appearances, was fertile
and rich; nor to stand to westward in search of a passage on the south
side of New Guinea, which might open a new and short navigation to the
Molucas, by the gulph of Carpentaria. Nothing, indeed, was more
probable, than the existence of such a passage; it was even believed,
that the land had been seen as far as W. by S. We were now obliged to
endeavour to get out of this gulph as soon as possible, and by the way
which seemed to be most open: indeed we were engaged much deeper in it
than we at first thought. Here the S. E. wind waited us, to put our
patience to the greatest trials.
[Sidenote: Critical situation in which we are.]
During the 10th, the calm left us at the mercy of a great south-eastern
swell, which hove us towards the land. At four o’clock in the evening,
we were no more than three quarters of a league distance from a little
low isle, to the eastern point of which lies connected a ledge, which
extends two or three leagues to the eastward. Towards five o’clock we
had brought our head off, and we passed the night in this dreadful
situation, making all our efforts to get off shore with the least
breezes. On the 11th, in the afternoon, we were got to about four
leagues from the coast; at two leagues distance you are out of
soundings. Several periaguas sailed along the shore, on which we always
saw great fires. Here are turtles; for we found the remains of one in
the belly of a shark.
The same day, at sun-setting, we set the eastermost land, bearing E. by
N. 2° E. by compass, and the westermost bearing W. N. W. both about
fifteen leagues distant. The following days were dreadful; every thing
was against us; the wind constantly blowing very fresh at E. S. E. and
S. E. the rain; a fog so thick, that we were obliged to fire guns, in
order to keep company with the Etoile, which still contained part of our
provisions; and, lastly, a very great sea, which hove us towards the
shore. We could hardly keep our ground by plying, being obliged to wear,
and to carry but very little sail. Thus were we forced to make our
boards; in the dark, in the midst of a sea, strewed with shoals; being
obliged to shut our eyes to all signs of danger. The night between the
11th and 12th, seven or eight of the fish, which are called
_cornets_[115], and which always keep at the bottom of the sea, leaped
upon the gang-boards. There likewise came some sand and weeds from the
bottom upon our fore-castle; it being left there by the waves that beat
over it. [Sidenote: Multiplied dangers which we run.] I did not choose
to sound; it would not have lessened the certainty of the danger, which
was always the same, whatever expedient we could take. Upon the whole,
we owe our safety to the knowledge we had of the land on the 10th in the
morning, immediately before this continuance of bad and foggy weather.
Indeed the winds being E. S. E. and S. E. I should have thought steering
N. E. an excess of precaution against the obscurity of the weather.
However this course evidently brought us into the most imminent danger
of being lost, as the land extended even to E. S. E.
The weather cleared up on the 16th, the wind still remaining contrary;
but we had at least got day-light again. At six o’clock in the morning
we saw the land from north to N. E. by E. by compass, and we plyed in
order to double it. On the 17th, in the morning, we did not see any land
at sun-rising; but at half past nine o’clock we perceived a little
island to the N. N. E. by compass, five or six leagues distant, and
another land to N. N. W. about nine leagues off. Soon after we
discovered in N. E. ½ E. four or five leagues distant, another little
isle; which from its resemblance to _Ushant_[116], obtained the same
name. We continued our board to N. E. by E. hoping to double all these
lands, when, at eleven o’clock, we discovered more land, bearing N. E.
by E. ½ E. and breakers to E N. E. which seemed to join Ushant. To the
N. W. of this little isle, we saw another chain of breakers, extending
half a league. The first isle likewise seemed to be between two chains
of breakers.
All the navigators, who ever came into these parts, always dreaded to
fall to the southward of New Guinea, and of finding a gulph there
corresponding to that of Carpentaria, which it would have proved
difficult for them to clear. Consequently they have all in good time got
into the latitude of New Britain, at which they touched. They all
followed the same track; we opened a new one, and paid dear for the
honour of the first discovery. [Sidenote: Extremities to which we are
reduced.] Unhappily hunger, the most cruel of our enemies, was on board.
I was obliged to make a considerable diminution in the allowance of
bread and pulse. It likewise became necessary to forbid the eating of
that leather, which is wrapped round the yards, and any other old
leather, as it might have had the most dreadful consequences. We had a
goat remaining, which had been our faithful companion since we left the
Malouines, where we had taken her on board. Every day she gave us some
milk. The hungry stomachs of the crew, in a capricious instant,
condemned her to death; I could only pity her; and the butcher who fed
her such a long time, shed tears over the victim which he thus
sacrificed to our hunger. A young dog, taken in the straits of
Magalhaens, shared the same fate soon after.
On the 17th, in the afternoon, the currents had been so favourable, that
we had again taken the N. N. E. board, standing much to windward of
Ushant, and the shoals around it. But at four o’clock we were convinced,
that these breakers extend much farther than we were at first aware of;
some of them were seen even in E. N. E. and there was yet no end of
them. We were obliged, during night, to return upon the S. S. W. tack,
and in day-time the eastern one. On the 18th, during the whole morning,
we saw no land; and we already gave ourselves up to the hope of having
doubled these isles and breakers. Our joy was short; about one o’clock
in the afternoon, an isle was seen in N. E. by N. by compass; and soon
after it was followed by nine or ten others. Some of them bore E. N. E.
and behind them a higher land extended to N. E. about ten leagues
distant. We plyed to windward all night; the day following gave us a
view of the same double chain of lands running nearly east and west,
viz. to the southward, a number of little isles connected by reefs, even
with the surface of the water, to the northward of which extended the
higher lands. The lands we discovered on the 20th seemed to be less
southward, and only to run E. S. E. This was an amendment in our
position. I resolved to run boards of four and twenty hours; we lost too
much time in putting about more frequently; the sea being extremely
rough, and the wind blowing very hard and constantly from the same
point: we were likewise obliged to make very little sail, in order to
spare our crazy masts, and damaged rigging; our ships too went very ill,
being in a bad sailing trim, and not having been careened for so long a
time.
We saw the land on the 25th at sun-rising, extending from N. to N. N. E.
but it was now no longer low; on the contrary we saw a very high land,
seemingly terminating in a large cape. It was probable that the coast
after that should tend to the northward. We steered all day N. E. by E.
and E. N. E. without seeing any land more easterly than the cape which
we were doubling, with such a joy as I am not able to describe. On the
26th in the morning, the cape being much to leeward of us, and seeing no
other lands to windward, we were at last enabled to alter our course
again towards N. N. E. [Sidenote: We at last double the lands of the
gulph.] This cape which we had so long wished for, was named Cape
Deliverance, and the gulph, of which it forms the eastermost point,
Gulph of the Louisiade (_golfe de la Louisiade_). I think we have well
acquired the right of naming these parts. During the fortnight we passed
in this gulph, the currents have pretty regularly carried us to the
eastward. On the 26th and 27th it blew a hard gale, the sea was
frightful, the weather squally and dark. It was impossible to make any
way during night.
We were about sixty leagues to the northward from Cape Deliverance, when
on the 28th in the morning, we discovered land to the N. W. nine or ten
leagues, distant. It proved to consist of two isles, the most southern
of which, at eight o’clock, bore N. W. by W. by compass. Another long
and high coast appeared at the same time, bearing from E. S. E. to E. N.
E. This coast extended to the northward, and as we advanced north
eastward, it lengthened more, and turned to N. N. W. We however
discovered a space where the coast was discontinued, either by a
channel, or the opening of a large bay; for we thought we saw land at
the bottom of it. [Sidenote: We meet with new islands.] On the 29th in
the morning, the coast which lay to the eastward of us continued to
extend N. W. though our horizon was not terminated by it on that side. I
intended to come near it, and then to go along it in search of an
anchorage. At three o’clock in the afternoon, being near three leagues
off shore, we found bottom in forty-eight fathoms, white sand and broken
shells: we then stood for a creek which seemed convenient; but we were
becalmed, and thus the rest of the day was passed away fruitlessly.
During night we made several short boards, and on the 30th, by break of
day, I sent the boats with a detachment under the command of the
chevalier Bournand, to visit several creeks along the shore, which
seemed to promise an anchorage, as the bottom we had found at sea was a
favourable sign. I followed him under an easy sail, ready to join him at
the first signal he should give for that purpose.
[Sidenote: Description of the islanders.]
Towards ten o’clock, a dozen periaguas, of different sizes, came pretty
near the ships, but would not come along-side of them. There were
twenty-two men in the largest, in the middling ones eight or ten, and in
the least two or three. These periaguas seemed well built; their head
and stern are raised very much; they are the first we saw in these seas
that had no outriggers. These islanders are as black as the negroes of
Africa; their hair is curled, but long, and some of a reddish colour.
They wear bracelets, and plates on the neck and forehead; I know not of
what substance they were, but they seemed to be white. They are armed
with bows and lances (_sagayes_); they made a great noise, and it seemed
as if their disposition was far from pacific. [Sidenote: Unsuccessful
attempt to find anchorage here.] I recalled our boats at three o’clock;
the chevalier de Bournand reported that he had almost every where found
good anchoring ground, from thirty, twenty-five, twenty, fifteen to
eleven fathoms, oozy sand, but that it was in open road, and without any
river; that he had only seen one rivulet in all that extent. The open
coast is almost inaccessible, the sea breaks upon it every where, the
mountains extend to the very sea shore, and the ground is entirely
covered with woods. In some little creeks there are some huts, but they
are in very small number, for the islanders inhabit the mountains. Our
pinnace was followed by three or four periaguas, that seemed willing to
attack her. An islander actually rose several times to throw his lance
(_sagaye_); however, he did not throw it, and the boat returned on board
without skirmishing.
Our situation was upon the whole very hazardous. We had lands, hitherto
unknown, extending on one side from S. to N. N. W. by the E. and N. on
the other side from W. by S. to N. W. Unhappily the horizon was so foggy
from N. W. to N. N. W. that we could not distinguish any thing on that
side further than two leagues off. However, I hoped in that interval to
find a passage; we were too far advanced to return. It is true that a
strong tide coming from the north and setting to the S. E. gave us hopes
of finding an opening there. The strength of the tide was most felt from
four o’clock to half an hour past five in the evening; the ships, though
they had a very fresh gale, steered with much difficulty. The tide
abated at six o’clock. During night we plyed from S. to S. S. W. on one
tack, and from E. N. E. to N. E. on the other. The weather was squally,
with much rain.
[Sidenote: 1768. July.]
The 1st of July, at six in the morning, we found ourselves at the same
point which we left the preceding evening; a proof that there was both
flood and ebb. We steered N. W. and N. W. by N. At ten o’clock we
entered into a passage about four or five leagues broad, between the
coast which extended hither on the east side, and the land to the
westward. A very strong tide, whose direction is S. E. and N. W. forms,
in the middle of this passage, a race which crosses it, and where the
sea rises and breaks, as if there were rocks even with the surface of
the water. [Sidenote: Dangerous shores.]I called it Denis’s race
(_raz[117] Denis_), from the name of the master of my ship, an old and
faithful servant of the king. The Etoile, who passed it two hours after
us, and more to the westward, found herself there in five fathoms of
water, rocky bottom. The sea was so rough at that time, that they were
obliged to lay the hatch-ways. On board the frigate we sounded
forty-four fathoms, bottom of sand, gravel, shells, and coral. The
eastern coast began here to lower and tend to the northward. On it we
perceived, being nearly in the middle of the passage, a fine bay, which
to all appearance promised a good anchorage. It was almost a calm, and
the tide which then set to the N. W. carried us past it in an instant.
We immediately hauled our wind, intending to visit this bay. A very
violent shower of rain coming on at half an hour past eleven, prevented
our seeing the land and the sun, and obliged us to defer this scheme.
[Sidenote: New attempts to find an anchorage.]