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3765

July.

monkey newly dreffed: we alfo gave him bread, which he eat with a voracious appetite, and after having played a thousand antic tricks, he leaped overboard, jacket and trowfers and all, and fwam back again to his proa; after this feveral others fwam to the fhip, ran up the fide to the gun-room ports, and having crept in, fnatched up whatever lay in their reach, and immediately leaped again into the fea, and fwam away at a great rate, though fome of them, having both hands full, held up their arms quite out of the water, to prevent their plunder from being fpoiled. These people are tall, well proportioned, and clean-limbed their fkin is a bright copper colour, their features are extremely good, and there is a mixture of intrepidity and cheerfulness in their countenances that is very ftriking. They have long black hair, which some of them wore tied up behind in a great bunch, others in three knots: fome of them had long beards, fome only whiskers, and fome nothing more than a small tuft at the point of the chin. They were all of them ftark naked, except their ornaments, which confifted of fhells, very prettily difpofed and ftrung together, and were worn round their necks, wrifts, and waifts: all their ears were bored, but they had no ornaments in them when we saw them: fuch ornaments as they wear, when they wear any, are probably very heavy, for their ears hang down almost to their shoulders, and fome of them were quite split through. One of these men, who appeared to be a perfon of fome confequence, had a string of human teeth about his waift, which was probably a trophy of his military prowess, for he would not part with it in exchange for any thing that I could offer him. Some of them were unarmed, but others had one of the most dangerous weapons I had ever seen: it was a kind of fpear, very broad at the end, and ftuck full of thark's teeth, which are as sharp as a lancet, at the fides. for about three feet of its length. We fhewed them fome cocoa-nuts, and made signs that we wanted more; but instead of giving any intimation that they could fupply us, they endeavoured to take away those we had.

I fent out the boats to found after we brought to off the island, and when they came back, they reported

that

1765

July.

that there was ground at the depth of thirty fathom, within two cables length of the thore; but as the bottom was coral rock, and the foundings much too near the breakers for a fhip to lie in fafety, I was obliged again to make fail, without procuring any refreihments for the fick. This island, to which my officers Byron's gave the name of BYRON'S ISLAND, lies in latitude Island. 1° 18' S. longitude 173° 46′ E. the variation of the compass here, was one point E.

In our courfe from this place, we faw, for feveral days, abundance of fish, but we could take only sharks, which were become a good dish even at my own table. Many of the people now began to fall down with fluxes, which the Surgeon imputed to the exceffive heat, and almoft perpetual rains.

By the 21st, all our cocoa-nuts being expended, our Sunday 21. people began to fall down again with the fcurvy. The effect of these nuts alone, in checking this disease, is aftonishing many whofe limbs were become as black as ink, who could not move without the affistance of two men, and who, befides total debility, fuffered excruciating pain, were in a few days, by eating these nuts, although at fea, fo far recovered as to do their duty, and could even go aloft as well as they did before the diftemper feized them. For feveral days, about this time, we had only faint breezes, with smooth water, fo that we made but little way, and as we were now not far from the Ladrone Islands, where we hoped some refreshments might be procured, we most ardently wished for a fresh gale, efpecially as the heat was still intolerable, the glafs for a long time having never been lower than eighty-one, but often up to eighty-four; and I am of opinion that this is the hotteft, the longest, and most dangerous run that ever was made.

On the 18th, we were in latitude 13° 9' N. longi-tude 158° 50' E. and on the 22d, in latitude 14° 25' N. Monday 22. longitude 153° 11' E. during which time we had northerly current. Being now nearly in the latitude

*

of Tinian, I fhaped my courfe for that island,

СНАР.

1765. July.

Sund. 28.

Tuef. 30.

CHA P. XI.

The Arrival of the Dolphin and Tamar at Tinian, e Defcription of the prefent Condition of that Island, and an Account of the Tranfactions there.

O

N the 28th, we faw a great number of birds about the ship, which continued till the 30th, when about two o'clock in the afternoon we saw land, bearing W. N. which proved to be the islands Saypan, Tinian, and Aiguigan. At funfet, the extremes of them bore from N. W. N. westward to S. W. and the three islands had the appearance of one.

At

feven, we hauled the wind, and stood off and on all Wedn. 31. night; and at fix the next morning the extremes of the islands, which still made in one, bore from N. W. by N. to S. W. by S. diftant five leagues. The east fide of these islands lies N. E. by N. and S. W. by S. Saypan is the northernmoft; and from the north-east point of that ifland to the fouth-west point of Aiguigan the distance is about feventeen leagues. These three iflands are between two and three leagues diftant from each other; Saypan is the largeft, and Aiguigan, which is high and round, the fmalleft. We steered along the east fide of them, and at noon hauled round the south point of Tinian, between that island and Aiguigan, and anchored at the fouth-west end of it, in fixteen fathom water, with a bottom of hard fand and coral rock, oppofite to a white fandy bay, about a mile and a quarter from the shore, and about three quarters of a mile from a reef of rocks that lies at a good distance from the fhore, in the very fpot where Lord Anfon lay in the Centurion. The water at this place is fo very clear that the bottom is plainly to be feen at the depth of four and twenty fathom, which is no less than one hundred and fortyfour feet.

As foon as the fhip was fecured, I went on fhore, to fix upon a place where tents might be erected for the fick, which were now very numerous; not a fingle man being wholly free from the scurvy, and

many

many in the laft ftage of it. We found feveral huts which had been left by the Spaniards and Indians the year before; for this year none of them had as yet been at the place, nor was it probable that they should come for some months, the fun being now almost vertical, and the rainy feafon fet in. After I had fixed upon a spot for the tents, fix or seven of us endeavoured to push through the woods, that we might come at the beautiful lawns and meadows of which there is fo luxuriant a description in the account of Lord Anfon's Voyage, and if poffible kilt fome cattle. The trees ftood fo thick, and the place was fo overgrown with underwood, that we could not fee three yards before us, we therefore were obliged to keep continually hallooing to each other, to prevent our being separately loft in this trackless wildernefs. As the weather was intolerably hot, we had nothing on befides our shoes, except our fhirts and trowfers, and thefe were in a very fhort time torn all to rags by the bushes and brambles; at laft, however, with incredible difficulty and labour, we got through; but, to our great furprife and disappointment, we found the country very different from the account we had read of it: the lawns were entirely overgrown with a ftubborn kind of reed or brush, in many places higher than our heads, and no where lower than our middles, which continually entangled our legs, and cut us like whipcord; our ftockings perhaps might have ftill fuffered ⚫more, but we wore none. During this march we were alfo covered with flies from head to foot, and whenever we offered to speak we were fure of having a mouthful, many of which never failed to get down our throats. After we had walked about three or four miles, we got fight of a bull, which we killed, and a little before night got back to the beach, as wet as if we had been dipt in water, and fo fatigued that we were fcarcely able to stand. We immediately fent out a party to fetch the bull, and found that during our excurfion fome tents had been got up, and the fick brought on fhore.

1765.

July.

The next day our people were employed in fetting Auguft. up more tents, getting the water-cafks on fhore, and Thurid. 1. clearing the well at which they were to be filled. This well I imagined to be the fame that the Centurion

watered

1765. Auguft.

watered at; but it was the worst that we had met
with during the voyage, for the water was not only
brackish, but full of worms. The road alfo where the
fhips lay was a dangerous fituation at this feafon, for
the bottom is hard fand and large coral rocks, and the
anchor having no hold in the fand, is in perpetual
danger of being cut to pieces by the coral; to pre-
vent which as much as poffible, I rounded the cables,
and buoyed them up with empty water cafks. Another
precaution alfo was taught me by experience, for at
first I moored, but finding the cables much damaged,
I refolved to lie fingle for the future, that by veering
away
or heaving in, as we should have more or less
wind, we might always keep them from being flack,
and confequently from rubbing, and this expedient
fucceeded to my wish. At the full and change of the
moon, a prodigious fwell tumbles in here, fo that I
never faw ships at anchor roll fo much as ours did
while we lay here; and it once drove in from the weft-
ward with fuch violence, and broke fo high upon the
reef, that I was obliged to put to fea for a week; for
if our cable had parted in the night, and the wind
had been upon the shore, which fometimes happens
for two or three days together, the ship must inevit-
ably have been loft upon the rocks.

As I was myself very ill with the scurvy, I ordered a tent to be pitched for me, and took up my refidence on fhore; where we alfo erected the armourer's forge, and began to repair the iron-work of both the fhips. I foon found that the island produced limes, four oranges, cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit *, guavas, and paupas in great abundance; but we found no water-melons, fcurvy-grafs, or forrel.

Notwithstanding the fatigue and diftrefs that we had endured, and the various climates we had paffed through, neither of the fhips had yet loft a fingle man fince their failing from England; but while we lay here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were feized, though we all recovered very faft from the fcurvy. I am indeed of opinion that this is one of the most unhealthy fpots in the world, at least during the

*See a particular defcription of the bread-fruit, at the end of this volume,

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