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A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12




We found this place to be the western extremity of the island on the
north side, and that it lay in exactly the same latitude as the eastern
extremity on the same side. The distance between them is about fifty
miles due east and west, and a strong current sets westward along the
shore.

I was still confined to my bed, and it was with infinite regret that I
gave up the hopes of obtaining refreshments at this place, especially
as our people told me they saw hogs and poultry in great plenty as we
sailed along the shore, with cocoa-nut trees, plantains, bananas, and a
variety of other vegetable productions, which would soon have restored
to us the health and vigour we had lost, by the fatigue and hardships of
a long voyage; but no friendly intercourse with the natives could now be
expected, and I was not in a situation to obtain what I wanted by force.
I was myself dangerously ill, great part of my crew, as I have already
observed, was disabled, and the rest dispirited by disappointment and
vexation, and if the men had been all in health and spirits, I had not
officers to lead them on or direct them in any enterprise, nor even to
superintend the duties that were to be performed on board the ship.
These disadvantages, which prevented my obtaining refreshments at this
island, prevented me also from examining the rest that were near it. Our
little strength was every minute becoming less; I was not in a condition
to pursue the voyage to the southward, and was in danger of losing the
monsoon, so that no time was now to be lost; I therefore gave orders to
steer northward, hoping to refresh at the country which Dampier has
called _Nora Britannia_. I shall, however, give the best account I can
of the appearance and situation of the islands that I left behind me.

I gave the general name of _Queen Charlotte's Islands_ to the whole
cluster, as well to those I did not see distinctly, as to those that I
did; and I gave several of them particular names as I approached them.

To the southermost of the two, which when we first discovered land were
right a-head, I gave the name of _Lord Howe's Island_, and the other was
Egmont Island, of which some account has already been given. The
latitude of Lord Howe's Island is 11 deg. 10' S. longitude 164 deg. 43' E. The
latitude of Cape Byron, the north-east point of Egmont Island, is 10 deg.
40' S. longitude 164 deg. 49' E. The east sides of these two islands, which
lie exactly in a line with each other, about N. by W. and S. by E.
including the passage between them, extend about eleven leagues, and the
passage is about four miles broad; both of them appear to be fertile,
and have a pleasant appearance, being covered with tall trees, of a
beautiful verdure. Lord Howe's Island, though more flat and even than
the other, is notwithstanding high land. About thirteen leagues W.N.W.
1/2 N. by compass, from Cape Byron, there is an island of a stupendous
height, and a conical figure. The top of it is shaped like a funnel,
from which we saw smoke issue, though no flame; it is, however,
certainly a volcano, and therefore I called it _Volcano Island_. To a
long flat island that, when Howe's and Egmont's islands were right
a-head, bore N.W. I gave the name of _Keppel's Island_. It lies in
latitude 10 deg. 15' S. longitude, by account, 165 deg. 4' E. The largest of two
others to the S.E. I called _Lord Edgcumb's Island_. The small one I
called _Ourry's Island_. Edgcumb's Island has a fine, pleasant
appearance, and lies in latitude 11 deg. 10' S. longitude 163 deg. 14' E. The
latitude of Ourry's Island is 11 deg. 10' S. longitude 165 deg. 19' E. The other
islands, of which there were several, I did not particularly name.

The inhabitants of Egmont island, whose persons have been described
already, are extremely nimble, vigorous, and active, and seem to be
almost as well qualified to live in the water as upon the land, for they
were in and out of their canoes almost every minute. The canoes that
came out against us from the west end of the island, were all like that
which our people brought on board, and might probably, upon occasion,
carry about a dozen men, though three or four manage them with amazing
dexterity: We saw, however, others of a large size upon the beach, with
awnings or shades over them.

We got two of their bows, and a bundle of their arrows, from the canoe
that was taken with the wounded man; and with these weapons they do
execution at an incredible distance. One of them went through the boat's
washboard, and dangerously wounded a midshipman in the thigh. Their
arrows were pointed with flint, and we saw among them no appearance of
any metal. The country in general is woody and mountainous, with many
vallies intermixed; several small rivers flow from the interior part of
the country into the sea, and there are many harbours upon the coast.
The variation here was about 11 deg. 15' E.


SECTION V.

_Departure from Egmont Island, and Passage to Nova Britannia; with a
Description of several other Islands, and their Inhabitants._


We made sail from this island in the evening of Tuesday the 18th of
August, with a fresh trade-wind from the eastward, and a few squalls at
times. Al first we only hauled up W.N.W. for I was not without hope of
falling in with some other islands, where we might be more fortunate
than we had been at those we left, before we got the length of Nova
Britannia.

On the 20th, we discovered a small, flat, low island, and got up with it
in the evening. It lies in latitude 7 deg. 56' S. longitude 138 deg. 56' E. and
I gave it the name of _Gower's Island_. To our great mortification we
found no anchorage here, and could procure only a few cocoa-nuts from
the inhabitants, (who were much the same kind of people that we had seen
at Isle Egmont,) in exchange for nails, and such trifles as we had; they
promised, by signs, to bring us more the next day, and we kept off and
on all night. The night was extremely dark; and the next morning at
day-break, we found that a current had set us considerably to the
southward of the island, and brought us within sight of two more. They
were situated nearly east and west of each other, and were distant about
two miles. That to the eastward is much the smallest, and this we called
_Simpson's Island_; to the other, which is lofty, and has a stately
appearance, we gave the name of _Carteret's Island_. The east end of it
bears about south from Gower's island, and the distance between them is
about ten or eleven leagues. Carteret's Island lies in about the
latitude of 8 deg. 26' S. longitude 159 deg. 14' E. and its length from east to
west is about six leagues. We found the variation here 8 deg. 30' E. Both
these islands were right to windward of us, and we bore down to Gower's
Island. It is about two leagues and a half long on the western side,
which makes in bays: The whole is well wooded, and many of the trees are
cocoa-nut. We found here a considerable number of the Indians, with two
boats or canoes, which we supposed to belong to Carteret's Island, and
to have brought the people hither only to fish. We sent the boat on
shore, which the natives endeavoured to cut off; and hostilities being
thus commenced, we seized their canoe, in which we found about an
hundred cocoa-nuts, which were very acceptable. We saw some turtle near
the beach, but were not fortunate enough to take any of them. The canoe,
or boat, was large enough to carry eight or ten men, and was very neatly
built, with planks well jointed; it was adorned with shell-work, and
figures rudely painted, and the seams were covered with a substance
somewhat like our black putty, but it appeared to me to be of a better
consistence. The people were armed with bows, arrows, and spears; the
spears and arrows were pointed with flint. By some signs which they
made, pointing to our muskets, we imagined they were not wholly
unacquainted with fire-arms. They are much the same kind of people as we
had seen at Egmont island, and, like them, were quite naked; but their
canoes were of a very different structure, and a much larger size,
though we did not discover that any of them had sails. The cocoa-nuts
which we got here, and at Egmont island, were of infinite advantage to
the sick.

From the time of our leaving Egmont island, we had observed a current
setting strongly to the southward, and in the neighbourhood of these
islands we found its force greatly increased: This determined me, when I
sailed from Gower's island, to steer N.W. fearing we might otherwise
fall in with the main land too far to the southward; for if we had got
into any gulph or deep bay, our crew was so sickly, and our ship so bad,
that it would have been impossible for us to have got out again.

About eight o'clock in the morning of the 22d, as we were continuing our
course with a fine fresh gale, Patrick Dwyer, one of the marines, who
was doing something over the ship's quarter, by some accident missed his
hold and fell into the sea; we instantly threw overboard the canoe which
we had seized at Gower's island, brought the ship to, and hoisted out
the cutter with all possible expedition; but the poor fellow, though
remarkably strong and healthy, sunk at once, and we saw him no more. We
took the canoe on board again; but she had received so much damage by
striking against one of the guns, as the people were hoisting her
overboard, that we were obliged to cut her up.

In the night of Monday the 24th, we fell in with nine islands. They
stretch nearly N.W. by W. and S.E. by E. about fifteen leagues, and lie
in latitude 4 deg. 36' S. longitude 154 deg. 17' E. according to the ship's
account. I imagine these to be the islands which are called Ohang Java,
and were discovered by Tasman; for the situation answers very nearly to
their place in the French chart, which in the year 1756 was corrected
for the king's ships. The other islands, Carteret's, Gower's, and
Simpson's, I believe had never been seen by an European navigator
before. There is certainly much land in this part of the ocean not yet
known.

One of these islands is of considerable extent, the other eight are
scarcely better than large rocks; but though they are low and flat, they
are well covered with wood, and abound with inhabitants. The people are
black, and woolly-headed, like the negroes of Africa: Their weapons are
bows and arrows; and they have large canoes which they navigate with a
sail, one of which came near us, but would not venture on board.

We went to the northward of these islands, and steered W. by S. with a
strong south-westerly current. At eleven o'clock at night, we fell in
with another island of a considerable extent, flat, green, and of a
pleasant appearance. We saw none of its inhabitants; but it appeared by
the many fires which we saw in the night to be well peopled. It lies in
latitude 4 deg. 50' S. and bears west fifteen leagues from the northermost
of the Nine Islands, and we called it _Sir Charles Hardy's Island_.

At day-break the next morning, we discovered another large high island,
which, rising in three considerable hills, had, at a distance, the
appearance of three islands. We gave it the name of _Winchelsea's
Island_; it is distant from Sir Charles Hardy's island about ten
leagues, in the direction of S. by E. We had here the wind squally, with
unsettled weather, and a very strong westerly current.

About ten o'clock in the morning of the 26th, we saw another large
island to the northward, which I supposed to be the same that was
discovered by Schouten, and called the island of Saint John. Soon after
we saw high land to the westward, which proved to be Nova Britannia; and
as we approached it we found a very strong S.S. westerly current,
setting at the rate of no less than thirty-two miles a-day. The next
day, having only light winds, a north-westerly current set us into a
deep bay or gulph, which proved to be that which Dampier has
distinguished by the name of Saint George's Bay.

On the 28th, we anchored in a bay near a little island at the distance
of about three leagues to the N.W. of Cape Saint George, which was
called _Wallis's Island_. I found the latitude of this Cape to be about
5 deg. S. and its longitude by account 152 deg. 19' E. which is about two
thousand five hundred leagues due west from the continent of America,
and about one degree and a half more to the eastward than its place in
the French chart which has been just mentioned. In the afternoon I sent
the cutter to examine the coast, and the other boat to get some
cocoa-nuts, and haul the seine. The people in this boat caught no fish,
but they brought on board about an hundred and fifty cocoa-nuts, which
were distributed to the men at the surgeon's discretion. We had seen
some turtle as we were coming into the bay, and hoping that some of them
might repair to the island in the night, especially as it was sandy,
barren, and uninhabited, like the places these animals most frequent, I
sent a few men on shore to watch for them, but they returned in the
morning without success.

We anchored here only to wait till the boats could find a fit place for
our purpose; and several very good harbours being discovered not far
distant, we now endeavoured to weigh anchor, but, with the united
strength of our whole company, were not able: This was an alarming proof
of our debility, and with heavy hearts we had recourse to an additional
purchase; with this assistance, and our utmost efforts, we got the
anchor just clear of the bottom, but the ship casting in shore, it
almost immediately hooked again in foul ground. Our task was now to
begin again; and though all hands that were able to move applied their
utmost force, the whole remaining part of the day, with the greatest
purchase we could make, we were not able to stir it: We were very
unwilling to cut the cable, for though it was much worn, we could at
this time ill sustain the loss of it, as we intended to make small cord,
which we much, wanted, of the best part of it. We therefore, with
whatever reluctance, desisted for the night; and the next day, having a
little recruited our strength, we were more successful. We got the
anchor up; but we found it so much injured as to be wholly
unserviceable, the palm being broken.

From this place we sailed to a little cove about three of four miles
distant, to which we gave the name of _English Cove_. Here we anchored,
and immediately began to get wood and water, which we found in great
plenty, besides ballast. I also sent the boat out every day to different
places with the seine; but though there was plenty of fish, we were able
to catch very little,--a misfortune which was probably owing in part to
the clearness of the water, in part to the rockiness of the beach, and
perhaps in some degree also to our want of skill. We plied this labour
day and night, notwithstanding the want of success, and at the same time
had recourse to the hook and line, but, to our great mortification, not
a single fish would take the bait. We saw a few turtle, but they were so
shy that we could not catch one of them: Here, therefore, we were
condemned to the curse of Tantalus, perpetually in sight of what our
appetites most importunately craved, and perpetually disappointed in our
attempts to reach it. We got, however, from the rocks, at low water, a
few rock-oysters, and cockles of a very large size; and from the shore
some cocoa-nuts, and the upper part of the tree that bears them, which
is called the cabbage: This cabbage is a white, crisp, juicy substance,
which, eaten raw, tastes somewhat like a chesnut, but when boiled is
superior to the best parsnip; we cut it small into the broth that we
made of our portable soup, which was afterwards thickened with oatmeal,
and made a most comfortable mess: For each of these cabbages, however,
we were forced to cut down a tree; and it was with great regret that we
destroyed, in the parent stock, so much fruit, which perhaps is the most
powerful antiscorbutic in the world; but necessity has no law. This
supply of fresh vegetable, and especially the milk, or rather the water
of the nut, recovered our sick very fast. They also received great
benefit and pleasure from the fruit of a tall tree, that resembles a
plum, and particularly that which in the West Indies is called the
Jamaica Plum. Our men gave it the same name; it has a pleasant tartish
taste, but is a little woody, probably only for want of culture: These
plums were not plenty; so that having the two qualities of a dainty,
scarcity and excellence, it is no wonder that they were held in the
highest estimation.

The shore about this place is rocky, and the country high and
mountainous, but covered with trees of various kinds, some of which are
of an enormous growth, and probably would be useful for many purposes.
Among others, we found the nutmeg tree in great plenty; and I gathered a
few of the nuts, but they were not ripe: They did not indeed appear to
be the best sort, but perhaps that is owing partly to their growing
wild, and partly to their being too much in the shade of taller trees.
The cocoa-nut tree is in great perfection, but does not abound. Here
are, I believe, all the different kinds of palm, with the beetle-nut
tree, various species of the aloe, canes, bamboos, and rattans, with
many trees, shrubs, and plants, altogether unknown to me; but no
esculent vegetable of any kind. The woods abound with pigeons, doves,
rooks, parrots, and a large bird with black plumage, that makes a noise
somewhat like the barking of a dog, with many others which I can neither
name nor describe. Our people saw no quadruped but two of a small size
that they took for dogs; the carpenter and another man got a transient
glimpse of them in the woods as they were cutting spars for the ship's
use, and said they were very wild, and ran away the moment they saw them
with great swiftness. We saw centipieds, scorpions, and a few serpents
of different kinds, but no inhabitants. We fell in, however, with
several deserted habitations; and by the shells that were scattered
about them, and seemed not long to have been taken out of the water, and
some sticks half burnt, the remains of a fire, there is reason to
conclude that the people had but just left the place when we arrived. If
we may judge of the people by that which had been their dwelling, they
must stand low even in the scale of savage life: For it was the most
miserable hovel we had ever seen.

While we lay here, having cleared and lightened the ship, we heeled her
so as to come at her leak, which the carpenter stopped as well as he
could; we found the sheathing greatly decayed, and the bottom much eaten
by the worms, but we payed it as far as we could get at it with a
mixture of hot pitch and tar boiled together. The carpenter also cut
down many spars, for studding-sail booms, having but few left of those
which he had brought from England.

English Cove lies N.E. 1/2 N. three or four miles from Wallis's Island;
there is a small shoal on the starboard hand going in, which will be
easily seen by the seas breaking upon it. The water ebbs and flows once
in four-and-twenty hours; the flood came in about nine or ten o'clock,
and it was high water between three and four in the afternoon, after
which it ebbed all night, and was low water about six in the morning.
The water rises and falls between eight and nine feet, sometimes more,
sometimes less; but I doubt whether this fluctuation is not rather the
effect of the sea and land-breeze, than of a regular tide. We anchored
here with our best bower in twenty-seven fathom water, with a bottom of
sand and mud; we veered into the cove a cable and a half from the
anchor, moored head and stern with the stream anchor, and steadied with
hawsers on each bow; the ship then lay in ten fathom, at the distance of
a cable's length from the shore at the bottom of the cove, Wallis's
point bearing S.W. 1/2 S., distant about three or four miles. At this
place there is plenty of excellent wood and water, and good shingle
ballast. The variation was 6 deg. 1/2 E.

On Monday the 7th of September, I weighed anchor, but before I sailed, I
took possession of this country, with all its islands, bays, ports, and
harbours, for his majesty George the Third, king of Great Britain; and
we nailed upon a high tree a piece of board, faced with lead, on which
was engraved the English union, with the name of the ship, and her
commander, the name of the cove, and the time of her coming in and
sailing out of it.[59] While we lay here, I sent the boat out to examine
the harbours upon the coast, from one of which expeditions she returned
with a load of cocoa-nuts, which she procured in a fine little harbour,
about four leagues W.N.W. from the station we were in. The officer on
board reported that the trees grew where he had gathered the fruit in
great plenty; but as he had observed that several of them were marked,
and that there were many huts of the natives near them; I did not think
it proper that the boat should return: But the refreshment which now
offered was of such importance to the sick, that I determined to go into
the harbour with the ship, and place her so as to protect the men who
should be employed to fell the trees, and cut off the cabbages and the
fruit. We sailed from English Cove with the land-breeze early in the
morning, and in the evening secured the ship a-breast of the grove,
where the cocoa-nuts had been gathered, and at very little distance from
the shore. Here we procured above a thousand cocoa-nuts, and as many of
the cabbages as we could use while they were good, and I would have
staid long enough to have given my people all the refreshments they
wanted, but the season of the year made the shortest delay dangerous.
There was too much reason to suppose that the lives of all on board
depended upon our getting to Batavia while the monsoon continued to
blow from the eastward; there was indeed time enough for any other ship
to have gone three times the distance, but I knew it was scarcely
sufficient for the Swallow in her present condition: And that if we
should be obliged to continue here another season, it would probably
become impossible to navigate her at all, especially as she had but a
single sheathing, and her bottom was not filled with nails, so that the
worms would have eaten through it; besides that our provision would long
before that time have been totally exhausted. I therefore weighed anchor
and quitted this station, which was much the best that had been our lot
during the whole run from the Strait of Magellan, on the 9th in the
morning, at break of day, with a light breeze from the land.

[Footnote 59: The following quotation from the account of Bougainville's
voyage may interest the reader:--"A sailor, belonging to my barge, being
in search of shells, found buried in the sand, a piece of a plate of
lead, on which we read these remains of English words, HOR'D HERE ICK
MAJESTY. There yet remained the mark of the nails, with which they had
fastened this inscription, that did not seem to be of any ancient date.
The savages had, doubtless, torn off the plate, and broken it in pieces.
This adventure engaged us carefully to examine all the neighbourhood of
our anchorage. We therefore ran along the coast within the isle which
covers the bay; we followed it for about two leagues, and came to a deep
bay of very little breadth, open to the S.W. at the bottom of which we
landed, near a fine river. Some trees sawed in pieces, or cut down with
hatchets, immediately struck our eyes, and shewed us that this was the
place where the English put in at. We now had little trouble to find the
spot where the inscription had been placed. It was a very large and very
apparent tree, on the right-hand shore of the river, in the middle of a
great place, where we concluded that the English had pitched their
tents; for we still saw several ends of ropes fastened to the trees, the
nails stuck in the tree; and the plate had been torn off but a few days
before; for the marks of it appeared quite fresh. In the tree itself,
there were notches cut, either by the English or the islanders. Some
fresh shoots coming up from one of the trees which was cut down, gave us
an opportunity of concluding, that the English had anchored in this bay
but about four months ago. The rope which we found, likewise
sufficiently indicated it; for though it lay in a very wet place, it was
not rotten. I make no doubt but that the ship which touched here was the
Swallow, a vessel of 14 guns, commanded by Captain Carteret, and which
sailed from Europe in August 1766, with the Dolphin, Captain Wallis.
This is a very strange chance, by which we, among so many lands, come
to the very spot where this rival nation had left a monument of an
enterprize similar to ours." The name which B. gave to this harbour was
Port Praslin.--E.]

To this place we gave the name of _Carteret's Harbour_; It is about
W.N.W. four leagues from English Cove, and formed by two islands and the
main; the largest, which is to the N.W. we called _Cocoa-nut Island_,
and the other, which is to the S.E. we called _Leigh's Island_. Between
these two islands there is shoal water, and each of them forms an
entrance into the harbour; the south-east or weather entrance is formed
by Leigh's Island, and in this there is a rock that appears above water,
to which we gave the name of _Booby Rock_; the passage is between the
rock and the island, nor is the rock dangerous; there being deep water
close to it. The north-west, or lee entrance, is formed by Cocoa-nut
Island, and this is the best, because there is good anchorage in it, the
water in the other being too deep: We entered the harbour by the
south-east passage, and went out of it by the north-west. At the
south-east end of the harbour there is a large cove, which is secure
from all winds, and fit to haul a ship into. Into this cove a river
seemed to empty itself, but our boats did not examine it. In the
north-west part of the harbour there is another cove, which our boat did
examine, and from which she brought us very good water; this also is fit
for a ship to haul into, and very convenient for wooding and watering:
She may lie in any depth from thirty to five fathom, and at any distance
from the shore, with a bottom of soft mud. The harbour runs about S.E.
by S. and N.W. by N. and is about three miles long, and four cables'
length broad. We anchored in thirty fathom, near the north-west
entrance, and a-breast of the trees on Cocoa-nut Island.

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