A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 13 by Robert Kerr

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Prince's Island, where we lay about ten days, is, in the Malay language,
called _Pulo Selan_, and in the language of the inhabitants, _Pulo
Paneitan_. It is a small island, situated in the western mouth of the
Streight of Sunda. It is woody, and a very small part of it only has
been cleared: There is no remarkable hill upon it, yet the English call
the small eminence which is just over the landing-place the Pike. It was
formerly much frequented by the India ships of many nations, but
especially those of England, which of late have forsaken it, as it is
said, because the water is bad; and touch either at North Island, a
small island that lies on the coast of Sumatra, without the east
entrance of the streight, or at Mew Bay, which lies only a few leagues
from Prince's Island, at neither of which places any considerable
quantity of other refreshments can be procured. Prince's Island is,
upon the whole, certainly more eligible than either of them; and though
the water is brackish if it is filled at the lower part of the brook,
yet higher up it will be found excellent.

The first and second, and perhaps the third ship that comes in the
season, may be tolerably supplied with turtle; but those that come
afterwards must be content with small ones. Those that we bought were of
the green kind, and at an average cost us about a half-penny or three
farthings a pound. We were much disappointed to find them neither fat
nor well flavoured; and we imputed it to their having been long kept in
crawls or pens of brackish water, without food. The fowls are large, and
we bought a dozen of them for a Spanish dollar, which is about
five-pence a-piece: The small deer cost us two-pence a-piece, and the
larger, of which two only were brought down, a rupee. Many kinds of fish
are to be had here, which the natives sell by hand, and we found them
tolerably cheap. Cocoa-nuts we bought at the rate of a hundred for a
dollar, if they were picked; and if they were taken promiscuously, one
hundred and thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty: We procured also
some pine-apples, water melons, jaccas, and pumpkins; besides rice, the
greater part of which was of the mountain kind, that grows on dry land;
yams, and several other vegetables, at a very reasonable rate.

The inhabitants are Javanese, whose Raja is subject to the Sultan of
Bantam. Their customs are very similar to those of the Indians about
Batavia; but they seem to be more jealous of their women, for we never
saw any of them during all the time we were there, except one by chance
in the woods, as she was running away to hide herself. They profess the
Mahometan religion, but I believe there is not a mosque in the whole
island: We were among them during the fast, which the Turks call
_Ramadan_, which they seemed to keep with great rigour, for not one of
them would touch a morsel of victuals, or even chew their betel, till
sun-set.

Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except
the addition of the nuts of the palm, called _Cycas circinalis_, with
which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick,
and some of our hogs poisoned.

Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what
means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told
us, that, they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the
sun; then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards,
pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we
learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when
they mix them with their rice to make it go farther.

The houses of their town are built upon piles, or pillars, four or five
feet above the ground: Upon these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which
are placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave a free
passage for the air from below; the walls also are of bamboo, which are
interwoven, hurdlewise, with small sticks, that are fastened
perpendicularly to the beams which form the frame of the building: It
has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with palm leaves, that
neither the sun nor the rain can find entrance. The ground over which
this building is erected, is an oblong square. In the middle of one side
is the door, and in the middle between that and the end of the house,
towards the left hand, is a window: A partition runs out from each end
towards the middle, which, if continued, would divide the whole floor
into two equal parts, longitudinally; but they do not meet in the
middle, so that an opening is left over-against the door: Each end of
the house therefore, to the right and left of the door, is divided into
two rooms, like stalls in a stable, all open towards the passage from
the door to the wall on the opposite side: In that next the door to the
left hand, the children sleep; that opposite to it, on the right hand,
is allotted to strangers; the master and his wife sleep in the inner
room on the left hand, and that opposite to it is the kitchen. There is
no difference between the houses of the poor and the rich, but in the
size; except that the royal palace, and the house of a man, whose name
was _Gundang_, the next in riches and influence to the king, were walled
with boards, instead of being wattled with sticks and bamboo.

As the people are obliged to abandon the town, and live in the
rice-fields at certain seasons, to secure their crops from the birds and
the monkies, they have occasional houses there for their accommodation.
They are exactly the same as the houses in the town, except that they
are smaller, and are elevated eight or ten feet above the ground instead
of four.

The disposition of the people, as far as we could discover it, is good.
They dealt with us very honestly, except, like all other Indians, and
the itinerant retailers of fish in London, they asked sometimes twice,
and sometimes thrice as much for their commodities as they would take.
As what they brought to market belonged, in different proportions, to a
considerable number of the natives, and it would have been difficult to
purchase it in separate lots, they found out a very easy expedient, with
which every one was satisfied: They put all that was bought of one kind,
as plantains, or cocoa-nuts, together; and when we had agreed for the
heap, they divided the money that was paid for it among those of whose
separate property it consisted, in a proportion corresponding with their
contributions. Sometimes, indeed, they changed our money, giving us 240
doits, amounting to five shillings, for a Spanish dollar, and
ninety-six, amounting to two shillings, for a Bengal rupee.

They all speak the Malay language, though they have a language of their
own, different both from the Malay and the Javanese. Their own language
they call _Catta Gunung_, the language of the mountains; and they say
that it is spoken upon the mountains of Java, whence their tribe
originally migrated, first to Mew Bay, and then to their present
station, being driven from their first settlement by tygers, which they
found too numerous to subdue.

We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds
of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the
most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water
which we had taken in at Prince's Island should have any share in our
sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the ship
between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr Banks was
among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his life. We were
very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was nothing better
than an hospital, in which those that were able to go about were too few
to attend the sick, who were confined to their hammocks; and we had
almost every night a dead body to commit to the sea. In the course of
about six weeks, we buried Mr Sporing, a gentleman who was in Mr Banks's
retinue, Mr Parkinson, his natural history painter, Mr Green, the
astronomer, the boatswain, the carpenter and his mate, Mr Monkhouse, the
midshipman, who had fothered the ship after she had been stranded on the
coast of New Holland, our old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the
ship's cook, the corporal of the marines, two of the carpenter's crew, a
midshipman, and nine seamen; in all three-and-twenty persons, besides
the seven that we buried at Batavia.[165] On Friday the 15th of March,
about ten o'clock in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope,
in seven fathom, with an oozy bottom. The west point of the bay, called
the Lion's Tail, bore W.N.W., and the castle S.W., distant about a mile
and a half. I immediately waited upon the governor, who told me that I
should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to
provide a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not a few; and a
house was soon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and
boarded at the rate of two shillings a-head per day.

[Footnote 165: In the Biog. Brit. where a summary of Cook's Voyages is
given, an observation is made on this melancholy part of the narrative,
which the reader may not be displeased to see copied here. "It is
probable that these calamitous events, which could not fail of making a
powerful impression on the mind of Lieutenant Cook, might give occasion
to his turning his thoughts more zealously to those methods of
preserving the health of seamen, which he afterwards pursued with such
remarkable success." These methods will be amply detailed
hereafter.--E.]

Our run from Java Head to this place afforded very few subjects of
remark that can be of use to future navigators; such as occurred,
however, I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we
got the general south-east trade-wind, during which time we did not
advance above 5 deg. to the southward, and 3 deg. to the west, having variable
light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry weather, and an
unwholesome air, occasioned probably by the load of vapours which the
eastern trade-wind and westerly monsoons bring into these latitudes,
both which blow in these seas at the time of the year when we happened
to be there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10 deg. or 12 deg. S., and the
westerly as far as 6 deg. or 8 deg.; in the intermediate space the winds are
variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome; it certainly
aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and
particularly the flux, which was not in the least degree checked by any
medicine, so that whoever was seized with it considered himself as a
dead man; but we had no sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to
feel its salutary effects: We buried indeed several of our people
afterwards, but they were such as had been taken on board in a state so
low and feeble that there was scarcely a possibility of their recovery.
At first we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have been
brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince's Island,
or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least
reason to believe that this suspicion was well-grounded, for all the
ships that came from Batavia at the same season, suffered in the same
degree, and some of them even more severely, though none of them touched
at Prince's Island in their way.

A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies about the ship for several
nights successively, and as these birds are known to roost every night
on shore, we thought them an indication that some island was not far
distant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which, in different
charts, is very differently laid down both in name and situation.

The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java, is about 3 deg. W.,
and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track
of ships, to the longitude of 288 deg. W., latitude 22 deg. S., after which it
increased apace, so that in longitude 295 deg., latitude 23 deg., the variation
was 10 deg. 20' W.: In seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude,
it increased two degrees; in the same space farther to the west, it
increased five degrees: In latitude 28 deg., longitude 314 deg., it was 24 deg.,
20', in latitude 29 deg., longitude 317 deg., it was 26 deg. 10', and was then
stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but
in latitude 34 deg., longitude 333 deg., we observed it twice to be 28 deg. 1/4 W.,
and this was its greatest variation, for in latitude 35 deg. 1/2 longitude
337 deg., it was 24 deg., and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape
Anguillas it was 22 deg. 30', and in Table Bay 20 deg. 30' W.

As to currents, it did not appear that they were at all considerable,
till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagascar; for
after we had made 52 deg. of longitude from Java Head, we found, by
observation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it
was the same when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing
partly to a current setting to the westward, partly to our not making
proper allowances for the setting of the sea before which we run, and
perhaps to an error in the assumed longitude of Java Head. If that
longitude is erroneous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of
the charts of which I made use in reducing the longitude from Batavia to
that place, for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia
is well determined. After we had passed the longitude of 307 deg., the
effects of the westerly currents began to be considerable; for, in three
days, our error in longitude was 1 deg. 5': The velocity of the current kept
increasing as we proceeded to the westward, in so much, that for five
days successively after we made the land, we were driven to the S.W. or
S.W. by W., not less than twenty leagues a-day; and this continued till
we were within sixty or seventy leagues of the Cape, where the current
set sometimes one way, and sometimes the other, though inclining rather
to the westward.

After the boobies had left us, we saw no more birds till we got nearly
abreast of Madagascar, where, in latitude 27 deg. 3/4 S., we saw an
albatross, and after that time we saw them every day in great numbers,
with birds of several other sorts, particularly one about as big as a
duck, of a very dark brown colour, with a yellowish bill. These birds
became more numerous as we approached the shore, and as soon as we got
into soundings, we saw gannets, which we continued to see as long as we
were upon the bank which stretches off Anguillas to the distance of
forty leagues, and extends along the shore to the eastward, from Cape
False, according to some charts, one hundred and sixty leagues. The real
extent of this bank is not exactly known; it is, however, useful as a
direction to shipping when to haul in, in order to make the land.

While we lay here, the Houghton Indiaman sailed for England, who,
during, her stay in India, lost by sickness between thirty and forty
men; and when she left the Cape, had many in a helpless condition with
the scurvy. Other ships suffered in the same proportion, who had been
little more than twelve months absent from England; our sufferings,
therefore, were comparatively light, considering that we had been absent
near three times as long.

Having lain here to recover the sick, procure stores, and perform
several necessary operations upon the ship and rigging, till the 13th of
April, I then got all the sick on board, several of whom were still in a
dangerous state, and having taken leave of the governor, I unmoored the
nest morning, and got ready to sail.[166]

[Footnote 166: Some remarks concerning the Cape of Good Hope are now
given in the original. They are omitted here, as being only
supplementary to other accounts, and because we shall elsewhere have an
opportunity of drawing the reader's attention very fully to the subject.
The same thing may be said respecting some notices of St Helena,
contained in this section. Whatever is of value in either of these
accounts, will be had recourse to on another occasion.--E.]

On the morning of the 14th we weighed and stood out of the bay; and at
five in the evening anchored under Penquin, or Robin Island: We lay here
all night, and as I could not sail in the morning for want of wind, I
sent a boat to the island for a few trifling articles which we had
forgot to take in at the Cape. But as soon as the boat came near the
shore, the Dutch hailed her, and warned the people not to land, at their
peril, bringing down at the same time six men armed with muskets, who
paraded upon the beach. The officer who commanded the boat not thinking
it worth while to risk the lives of the people on board for the sake of
a few cabbages, which were all we wanted, returned to the ship. At first
we were at a loss to account for our repulse, but we afterwards
recollected, that to this island the Dutch at the Cape banish such
criminals as are not thought worthy of death, for a certain number of
years, proportioned to the offence, and employ them as slaves in digging
lime-stone, which, though scarce upon the continent, is in plenty here;
and that a Danish ship, which by sickness had lost great part of her
crew, and had been refused assistance at the Cape, came down to this
island, and sending her boat ashore, secured the guard, and took on
board as many of the criminals as she thought proper to navigate her
home: We concluded therefore that the Dutch, to prevent the rescue of
their criminals in time to come, had given order to their people here to
suffer no boat of any foreign nation to come ashore.

On the 25th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we weighed, with a light
breeze at S.E., and put to sea. About an hour afterwards, we lost our
master, Mr Robert Mollineux, a young man of good parts, but unhappily
given up to intemperance, which brought on disorders that put an end to
his life.

We proceeded in our voyage homeward without any remarkable incident; and
in the morning of the 29th we crossed our first meridian, having
circumnavigated the globe in the direction from east to west, and
consequently lost a day, for which we made an allowance at Batavia.

At day-break on the first of May, we saw the island of Saint Helena; and
at noon we anchored in the road before James's fort.

We staid here till the 4th, to refresh, and Mr Banks improved the time
in making the complete circuit of the island, and visiting the most
remarkable places upon it. At one o'clock in the afternoon of the 4th of
May, we weighed and stood out of the road, in company with the Portland
man-of-war, and twelve sail of Indiamen.

We continued to sail in company with the fleet, till the 10th in the
morning, when, perceiving that we sailed much heavier than any other
ship, and thinking it for that reason probable that the Portland would
get home before us, I made the signal to speak with her, upon which
Captain Elliot himself came on board, and I delivered to him a letter
to the Admiralty, with a box, containing the common logbooks of the
ship, and the journals of some of the officers. We continued in company,
however, till the 23d in the morning, and then there was not one of the
ships in sight. About one o'clock in the afternoon, died our first
lieutenant, Mr Hicks, and in the evening we committed his body to the
sea, with the usual ceremonies. The disease of which he died was a
consumption, and as he was not free from it when we sailed from England,
it may truly be said that he was dying during the whole voyage, though
his decline was very gradual till we came to Batavia: The next day I
gave Mr Charles Clerk an order to act as lieutenant in his room, a young
man who was extremely well qualified for that station.

Our rigging and sails were now become so bad, that something was giving
way every day. We continued our course, however, in safety till the 10th
of June, when land, which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered by
Nicholas Young, the same boy that first saw New Zealand; on the 11th we
run up the Channel, at six in the morning of the 12th we passed Beachy
Head, at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an
anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal.

APPENDIX.

_An Abstract of the_ VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, _performed by_ LEWIS DE
BOUGAINVILLE, _Colonel of Foot, and Commander of the Expedition, in the
Frigate_La Boudeuse, _and the Store-ship_ L'Etoile, _in the Years_
1766-7-8 _and_ 9. (_Drawn up expressly for this Work_.)

The restitution of the Falkland Islands to the Spaniards was the first
object of this voyage. So early as February 1764, France had commenced a
settlement on them, and in all probability would have ensured its
prosperity; but the property was claimed by Spain, in virtue of the old
and at best imaginary rights conferred on that power by the Pope to the
lands of the western hemisphere, of which they were held to be a part.
It is sometimes more politic, and perhaps almost always more convenient,
to avoid war, by the display of generosity in concession, than to run
the hazard of expensive contension, and an unprofitable issue, by the
obstinate maintenance of dubious advantages. Such seems to have been the
opinion of the French king, in this instance. He acknowledged the claim
of the Spaniards, and accordingly gave orders for the delivering up of
the settlement. In this determination, it is probable, he was
strengthened by the apprehension of the difficulties of supporting and
defending an establishment, at so great a distance from his dominions.
M. Bougainville, the person who had proposed the settlement, and in a
considerable degree accomplished it, by carrying out several French
families, and cultivating and stocking some parts of the islands, was
appointed to execute a formal surrender; and he was further instructed,
after doing so, to traverse the South Sea between the tropics, for the
purpose of making discoveries, and to return home by the East Indies.
The fulfilment of these directions constitutes his voyage round the
world, with a short, but it is believed satisfactory abstract of which,
it is now intended to supply the reader. The account of the voyage was
drawn up and published by Bougainville himself, and has always been
highly esteemed by his countrymen, who are commonly patriotic enough in
their commendations. In this instance, however, if one may judge from
the concurrence in opinion of others, their praise has not been
injudicious; though it must be admitted on the other hand, that the
partiality is ridiculous, which would place it above the narratives of
Anson's and Cook's Voyages. Bougainville seems to have been a man of
talents, of refined taste, and considerable literary acquirements; and
his work, though, as he says in his introduction, written for seamen
chiefly, yet presents some very interesting features to the general
reader, and not a little information to scientific observers. He has
thought proper to apologize for his deficiency in composition; but it is
questionable if this be not mere affectation, common with writers who
are far from thinking too meanly of themselves, for the reasons they
chuse to state in the way of deprecating critical severity, and
abundantly disposed to attach magnitude of consequence to the very
particulars which they have employed to indicate their own inferiority.
A translation of his work by Mr John Reinhold Forster, was published at
London 1772, and contains additional notes. This has principally been
consulted in drawing up the present abstract, which is intended as a
companion to the accounts of voyages it is the object of our work to
give entire. This is the proper place for its insertion, if it be right
to insert it at all, and opportunities will present themselves as we
proceed, for giving similar abstracts of other voyages.

Bougainville had under his command the frigate La Boudeuse, carrying 26
twelve-pounders, and the store-ship L'Etoile, appointed to supply him
with provisions and stores, and to accompany him during the whole of his
voyage. His establishment consisted of eleven commissioned officers,
three volunteers, and two hundred sailors, &c. The prince of
Nassau-Sieghen obtained leave from the king to go out on this
expedition, and availed himself of it. He sailed from Nantes on the 15th
November, 1766, purposing to make the river La Plata, where two Spanish
frigates, appointed to receive possession of the islands, were to wait
for his arrival. A squall of wind occasioned him much confusion, and
forced him to put into Brest, whence, after having undergone several
repairs and alterations, which the deficient state of his vessel
rendered necessary, he departed on the 5th December, but not without
being obliged to cut his cable, as the east wind and the ebb tide
prevented his tacking about to keep clear of the shore. A pretty
constant and fresh wind accompanied him, till he got sight of the
Salvages on the 17th, in the afternoon. These are uninhabited islands or
rocks, lying to the north of the Canary islands, and belong to the
Portuguese, who, although making little or no use of them, are jealously
careful to prevent others from visiting or profiting by them. The sight
of these rocks convinced M. Bougainville of a considerable error in his
reckoning, during even this short trip. Having rectified it, and made
observations for their position, he took a fresh departure on the 19th
December, at noon, when he got sight of the Isle of Ferro. On the 8th of
January, he crossed the Line between 27 deg. and 28 deg. of longitude, and on
the 31st of the same month, after an easy and uninteresting voyage, came
to an anchor in Monte Video bay, where the Spanish frigates had lain
expecting him four weeks. He made some observations on the currents
noticed during this voyage, which are well known to occasion much error
in the calculations of the navigator; but as these are not interesting
to the general reader, they are omitted here, and the more properly so,
because we have had frequent occasion to notice the subject in our
accounts of other voyages.