LAPÉROUSE IN THE PACIFIC
On the first of November (1787), being in 26° 27' north latitude, and 175° 38' east longitude, we saw a great number of birds; among others, curlews and plovers, two species which never fly far from land. The weather was thick and squally; but all the parts of the horizon successively cleared up, except towards the south, where some large clouds remained constantly fixed; which made me think it likely that there was land in that point of the compass. I steered my course accordingly, and for two or three days we continued to see birds. By degrees, however, the signs of land left us; but it is probable that we passed by some island or flat rock of which we did not get sight, but which chance will perhaps present to future navigators. We now began to enjoy a serene sky, and it became at last possible to find the longitude by lunar observations, which we had not been able to do since our departure from Kaintschatka. The longitude by observation was a degree farther west than that which was given by our time-keeper No. 19.
We caught several doradoes and two sharks, and found them delicious eating, because we were all reduced to salt pork, which began to suffer from the influence of a burning clime. We repeated our lunar observations, and the difference was constantly the same. Having at length reached the tropic, the sky became clearer, and our horizon was of great extent; but we perceived no land, though we every day saw birds, which are never met with at a great distance from the shore. On the 4th of November, being in 23° 40' north latitude, and in 175° 58' 47" of west Iongitude, according to a series of observations made that very day, we caught a golden plover, which was still moderately fat, and which could not have been wandering long at sea. The 5th we crossed our own tract from Monterey to Macao; the 6th that of Captain Clerke from the Sandwich Islands to Kaintschatka, by which time the birds had entirely disappeared. Our ships laboured exceedingly by reason of a heavy swell from the east, which, like that from the west in the Atlantic Ocean , constantly pervails in this vast sea. Neither bonetas nor doradoes came in our way, nor anything, indeed, but a few flying fish; a grievous circumstance, as our fresh provision was entirely consumed in consequence of our depending rather too much upon the salt element for the improvement of our unpalatable fare. The 9th we passed by the south point of the shoal, or flat of Villa Lobos, according at least to the position assigned to it in the charts presented to me by M. Fleurieu. I proportioned my canvas in such a way as to cross its latitude in the day-time; but as we perceived neither birds nor weeds, I am inclined to think that, if such a shoal exist, it must be in a more western position, the Spaniards having always placed their discoveries in the great Pacific Ocean too near to the American coast. At this time the sea became somewhat smoother, and the breezes more moderate; but the sky was covered with thick clouds, and scarcely had we reached the 10th degree of north latitude, when it began to rain almost incessantly, at least during the day; for the nights were tolerably fine. The heat was suffocating, and the hygrometer had never indicated more humidity since our departure from Europe. We were breathing an air destitute of elasticity, which, joined to unwholesome aliments, diminished our strength, and would have rendered us almost incapable of exertion if circumstances had required it. I redoubled my care to preserve the health of the crew during this crisis, produced by too sudden a passage from cold to heat and humidity. I had coffee served out every day for breakfast; and I ordered the ship to be dried and ventilated between decks; while the rain-water served to wash the sailors' shirts. Thus did we turn to account even the unfavourable temperature of the climate which we were obliged to cross, and of which I dreaded the influence more than that of all the high latitudes that had occurred in the course of our voyage. On the 6th of November, for the first time we caught eight bonetas, which furnished a good repast to the whole crew, and to the officers, who, as well as myself, had no longer any provision but that of the hold. The rain and storms ceased, and the heavy sea subsided about the 15th, when we had reached the S' of north latitude. We then enjoyed a clear sky; a very extensive horizon made us easy about the night's run; and the air was so pure, the heavens so serene, and the light thence resulting so strong, that we could have perceived any danger as plainly as in open day. This fine weather accompanied us beyond the equator, which we crossed on the 21St of November, for the third time since we took our departure from Brest. We had been three times at the distance of about 60° from it to the north or south; and, according to the further plan of our voyage, we were not to revisit the northern hemisphere till we should enter the Atlantic Ocean in our way back to Europe. Nothing interrupted the monotony of this long run. We were steering a course nearly parallel to that which we had steered the preceding year in our passage from Easter Island to those that bear the name of Sandwich. During that passage we had been constantly surrounded with birds and bonetas, which afforded us wholesome and abundant food: in the present one, on the contrary, a vast solitude reigned around us, both the air and water of this quarter of the globe being nearly destitute of inhabitants. On the 23rd, however, we caught two sharks, which afforded two meals to the crew, and we shot on the same day a very lean curlew, apparently much fatigued. We supposed that it came from the Duke of York's island, from which we were about 100 leagues distant. It was hashed up and eaten at my table, and was scarcely better than the sharks. In proportion as we advanced in the southern hemisphere, the noddies, man-of-war birds, terns, and tropic birds flew more frequently round the ships. We took them for the harbingers of some island, which we were exceedingly impatient to fall in with; and murmured much at the fatality that had prevented our making the smallest discovery in the long line we had run down since our departure from Kamtschatka. These birds, which became innumerable when we had reached the fourth degree of south latitude, inspired us every moment with the hopes of making land; but, although the horizon was of prodigious extent, none could we see. We made, it is true, but little way. While we were under the second degree of south latitude, the breeze abandoned us, and was succeeded by light airs of wind from N. to W.N.W., of which I availed myself to gain a little easting, being afraid of falling to leeward of the Friendly Islands. During these calms we caught several sharks, which we preferred to salt meat, and shot sea-birds, which we hashed. Though very lean, and smelling and tasting of fish to a degree that was insupportable, they appeared to us, in our present want of fresh provisions, almost as good as woodcocks. Black goelettes, and others entirely white, which I believe peculiar to the South Sea, as I never saw any in the Atlantic Ocean, were so plenty that we killed more of them than of noddies or man-of-war birds. And yet the latter flew round the ships in such numbers, especially during the night, that we were stunned by the noise they made, and could with difficulty hear each other speak upon the quarter-deck. Our sport, which was tolerably successful, punished their insults, and afforded us tolerable food; but when we had passed the 6° they entirely disappeared. The light winds from N.W. to W., which had set in about the 3rd degree of south latitude, then gathered strength, and did not give over blowing till we had reached the 12th. A heavy swell from the west rendered our navigation exceedingly fatiguing; our cordage, rotted by the constantly wet weather we had experienced while exploring the coast of Tartary, kept breaking every moment; and, as we were fearful of exhausting our stock, was not replaced till the last extremity. Till the 2nd of December, when we reached 10° 50', squalls, storms, and rain constantly accompanied our course. The wind, though still blowing from the west, then grew more moderate; and as the weather cleared up, we were enabled to make lunar observations, in order to rectify the error of our timekeepers. Since our departure from Kamtschatka, they appeared to have lost five minutes of time, or, in other words, to indicate the longitude 1° 15' too far east. According to the above astronomical observations, of which the result was 170° 7' of longitude west, we passed exactly over the spot where Byron's islands of Danger are laid down; for we were exactly in their latitude; but as we neither saw land, nor the smallest sign of there being any near us, it is evident that their longitude has been mistaken; which was the more easy, as Byron regulated his navigation by the defective method of a deadreckoning. The following day, December the 2nd, we were in 11° 34' 47" south latitude, and 170° 7' 1" longitude west, according to astronomical observation, precisely in the same parallel of latitude as Quiros's Island of the Handsome Nation, and one degree farther east. I would willingly have run a few degrees westward in order to fall in with it; but the wind blew directly from that quarter; and the island is laid down in too uncertain a manner to be sought for by working to windward. I therefore thought it better to avail myself of the western gale in order to reach the parallel of Bougainville's Navigators Islands, a discovery due to the French, where we might hope to procure fresh provision, of which we were in the greatest want.
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