LAPÉROUSE IN THE PACIFIC
On the 6th of December, at three in the afternoon, we got sight of the most easterly island of that Archipelago; stood towards it till eleven in the evening, and then stood on and off during the rest of the night. As I purposed anchoring, in case I met with a proper place, I passed through the channel between the great and the little islands that Bougainville left to the south. It is scarcely a league wide; but it appeared entirely free from danger. We were in mid-channel at noon, and at a mile's distance from the shore found the latitude by observation to be 14° 7' south, the southern point of one of the islands bearing south 36° west. That point is consequently situated in 14° 8' south latitude.
Though we did not perceive any canoes till we were in the channel, we had seen habitations on the windward side of the island, and a considerable group of Indians sitting in a circle under cocoanut trees , and appearing quietly to enjoy the sight afforded them by our frigates. They did not then launch a single canoe, or did they follow us along shore. This island, of about two hundred toifes elevation, is very steep, and covered to the top with large trees, among which we distinguished a great number of the cocoa-nut kind. The houses are built about halfway down the declivity, a situation in which the islanders breathe a cooler air than alongshore. Near them we remarked several spots of cultivated ground, planted probably with sweet potatoes or yams; but, upon the whole, the island appeared far
from fertile, and in any other part of the South Sea I should have thought it uninhabited. My mistake would have been the greater, as even two little islands, that form the western side of the channel through which we passed, have their inhabitants. We saw five canoes set out from them, and join eleven others that came from the eastern island. After having paddled several times round the two ships with an air of distrust, they at last ventured to approach, and make some exchanges with us, but of so trifling a kind that we only obtained about twenty cocoa-nuts and two blue gallinules. These islanders, like all those of the South Sea, were dishonest in their dealings; and after receiving the price of their cocoa-nuts beforehand, seldom failed to paddle away without fulfilling their part of the agreement. The amount of their thefts was, it is true, of little importance, a few bead necklaces with some scraps of red cloth, being hardly worth asking for again. We sounded several times in the channel with a line of a hundred fathoms, but got no ground, though at less than a mile's distance from the shore. We continued our course in order to double a point behind which we hoped to meet with shelter; but found that the island was not of the breadth indicated by M. de Bougainville's plan. It terminates, on the contrary, in a point, its greatest diameter being at most a league. We found that the east wind raised a surf upon the coast, which is surrounded with reefs; and saw plainly that it would be vain to seek an anchorage there. We then stood out of the channel, with the intention of running along the two islands to the west, which are both together nearly equal in extent to the more eastern one. A canal less than a hundred toifes wide separates them, and at their western extremity is a small island, which I should have called a large rock had it not been covered with trees. Before we doubled the two southern points it fell dead calm, and we were tossed about by a heavy swell, which made me fearful of running foul of the Astrolabe. Luckily some little puffs of air soon extricated us from that disagreeable situation, which had not permitted us to attend to the harangue of an old Indian, who held a branch of kava in his hand and delivered a discourse of considerable length. We knew, by reading a variety of voyages, that it was a sign of peace; and, while throwing him a few pieces of cloth, answered him by the word tayo, which, in the language of several nations inhabiting the islands of the South Sea, means friend; but we had not as yet had sufficient practice to understand and pronounce distinctly the words of the vocabularies that we had extracted from Cook's Voyages.
At length, when the breeze reached us, we made sail, in order to stand away from the coast and get out of the region of calms. All the canoes then came up alongside. In general they sail pretty well, but row very indifferently; and, as they overset at every moment, would be useless to anybody but such excellent swimmers as these islanders are. They are no more surprised or uneasy at such an accident than we are at the fall of a hat. Taking up the canoe on their shoulders, they empty the water out of it, and then get in again, with the certainty of having the same operation to perform half an hour after, it being almost as difficult to preserve an equilibrium in such ticklish vessels as upon the tight-rope. These islanders are in general tall, their mean height appearing to me to be five feet seven or eight inches. The colour of their skin nearly resembles that of the Algerines, or other nations of the coast of Barbary: their hair is long, and tied up on the top of their heads: their cast of countenance far from agreeable. I saw no more than two women; and even their features did not appear to be more delicately formed. The younger, who might be about eighteen years of age, had a dreadful and disgusting ulcer upon her leg. Several of the men also had large sores about their persons, possibly a beginning of leprosy; for I remarked two among them whose legs, covered with ulcers, and swelled to the size of their bodies, did not admit of a doubt as to the nature of their disease. They approached us with fear and without arms, every thing bespeaking them as peaceable as the inhabitants of the Society and Friendly Islands. At one time we thought they had entirely taken leave of us, and their apparent poverty easily reconciled us to their absence; but the wind having fallen in the afternoon, the same canoes, accompanied by several others, came two leagues into the offing to traffick with us anew. After quitting us they hail gone ashore, and now returned rather more richly laden than before. We obtained from them at different times several curious articles of dress, five fowls, ten gallinules, a small hog, and the most beautiful turtle-dove we had ever seen. Its body was white, its head of the finest purple, its wings green, and its breast checkered with red and black spots, like the leaves of the anemony. This charming bird was tame, and ate out of the hand and mouth; but it was not probable that we could convey it to Europe alive. And so it proved, its death only permitting us to preserve its feathers, which soon lost all their splendour. As the Astrolabe was constantly ahead in this day's run, all the canoes began their traffick with M. de Langle, who purchased two dogs, which we found excellent eating.
Although the canoes of these islanders are well constructed, and furnish a good proof of the skill with which they work in wood, we could never prevail on them to accept our hatchets or any other instrument of iron. They preferred a few glass beads, that could be of no use to them, to all the hardware and stuffs we offered them; and gave us in return, among other things, a wooden vessel filled with cocoa-nut oil, exactly of the shape of our earthen pots, and such as no European workman would undertake to fashion by any other means than a turning lathe. Their ropes are round, and twisted like our watch-chains: their mats are very fine; but their stuffs are inferior to those of the Easter and Sandwich Islands. It seems also that they are very scarce; for all the islanders were absolutely naked, and only sold us two pieces. As we were sure of meeting with a much more considerable island farther west, where we flattered ourselves we should at least find shelter, if not a port, we deferred making more extensive observations till after our arrival at that island, which, according to M. Bougainville's plan, is only separated from the last island we had upon our beam at nightfall by a channel eight leagues wide. I ran only three or four leagues to the westward after sunset, and passed the rest of the night in standing off and on under easy sail. At break of day I was very much surprised not to see the land to leeward, nor did I get sight of it till six o'clock in the morning, because the channel is infinitely wider than that laid down in the plan that served me as a guide. It is a great pity that the charts of a voyage which yields to none but that of Captain Cook in accuracy of observation, and in extent and importance of discoveries, should not have been drawn up with greater care and upon a larger scale.
We did not find ourselves opposite the north-east point of the island of Maouna till five o'clock in the evening. Intending to seek an anchorage there, I made a signal to the Astrolabe to haul her wind, that we might stretch backward and forward to windward of the island during the night, and have the whole of the next day before us to explore it in every part. Though we were three leagues from the land, two or three canoes came alongside the same evening, bringing with them hogs and fruit, which they exchanged for beads. Hence we conceived a high opinion of the riches of the island.
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