was a fhed or hut, which had been covered with their leaves, though most of them were now fallen off; about the hut lay a great number of the fhells of the fruit, fome of which appeared to be just fresh from the tree. We looked at the fruit very withfully, but not thinking it fafe to climb, we were obliged to leave it without tafting a single nut. At a little distance from this place we found plantains, and a bread-fruit-tree, but it had nothing upon it; and having now advanced about a quarter of a mile from the boat, three Indians rushed out of the wood, with a hideous fhout, at about the distance of an hundred yards; and, as they ran towards us, the foremost threw fomething out of his hand, which flew on one fide of him, and burned exactly like gunpowder, but made no report; the other two instantly threw their lances at us; and, as no time was now to be loft, we discharged our pieces, which were loaded with fmallfhot. It is probable that they did not feel the shot, for though they halted a moment they did not retreat, and a third dart was thrown at us. As we thought their farther approach might be prevented with lefs risk of life, than it would cost to defend ourselves against their attack if they fhould come nearer, we loaded our pieces with ball, and fired a fecond time: by this discharge it is probable that some of them were wounded, yet we had the fatisfaction to fee that they all ran away with great agility. As I was not difpofed forcibly to invade this country, either to gratify our appetites or our curiofity, and perceived that nothing was to be done upon friendly terms, we improved this interval, in which the deftruction of the natives was no longer neceffary to our own defence, and with all expedition returned towards our boat. As we were advancing along the fhore, we perceived that the two men on board made fignals that more Indians were coming down; and before we got into the water we faw feveral of them coming round a point, at the distance of about five hundred yards: it is probable that they had met with the three who first attacked us; for as foon as they faw us they halted, and seemed to wait till their main body should come up. We entered the water, and waded towards the boat. and they remained at their station without giving us any moleftation. As foon as we were a-board we rowed a-breaft 1770. September. 1770. a-breast of them, and their number then appeared to September. be between fixty and a hundred. We now took a view of them at our leifure; they made much the fame appearance of the New Hollanders, being nearly of the iame ftature, and having their hair fhort cropped; like them also they were all stark naked, but we thought the colour of their fkin was not quite fo dark; this, however, might perhaps be merely the effect of their not being quite fo dirty. All this while they were thouting defiance, and letting off their fires by four or five at a time. What thefe fires were, or for what purpose intended, we could not imagine; thofe who discharged them had in their hands a fhort piece of ftick, poffibly a hollow cane, which they swung fideways from them, and we immediately faw fire and fmoke, exactly refembling thofe of a mufket, and of no longer duration. This wonderful phænomenon was obferved from the ship, and the deception was fo great that the people on board thought they had fire-arms; and in the boat, if we had not been fo near as that we must have heard the report, we should have thought they had been firing vollies. After we had looked at them attentively fome time, without taking any notice of their flashing and vociferation, we fired fome mufquets over their heads; upon hearing the balls rattle among the trees they walked leifurely away, and we returned to the fhip. Upon examining the weapons they had thrown at us, we found them to be light darts about four feet long, very ill made, of a reed or bamboo cane, and pointed with hard wood, in which there were many barbs. They were difcharged with great force; for though we were at fixty yards distance, they went beyond us, but in what manner we could not exactly fee; poffibly they might be fhot with a bow, but we saw no bows among them when we furveyed them from the boat; and we were in general of opinion that they were thrown with a stick, in the manner practifed by the New Hollanders. This place lies in the latitude of 6o 15' S. and about fixty-five leagues to the N. E. of Port St. Auguftine, or Walche Caep, and is near what is called in the charts C. de la Colta de St. Bonaventura. The land here, like that in every other part of the coaft, is very low, 1770. low, but covered with a luxuriance of wood and herbage, that can scarcely be conceived. We faw the September. cocoa-nut, the bread-fruit, and the plantain tree, all flourishing in a state of the highest perfection, though the cocoa-nuts were green, and the bread-fruit not in feafon, befides most of the trees, fhrubs, and plants that are common to the South Sea iflands, New Zealand, and New Holland. Soon after our return to the fhip we hoisted in the boat, and made fail to the weftward, being refolved to fpend no more time upon this coaft, to the great fatisfaction of a very confiderable majority of the ship's company. But I am forry to fay, that I was strongly urged by fome of the officers to fend a party of men a-fhore, and cut down the cocoa-nut trees, for the fake of the fruit; this I peremptorily refufed, as equally unjust and cruel. The natives had attacked us merely for landing upon their coast, when we attempted to take nothing away; and it was therefore morally certain that they would have made a vigorous effort to defend their property, if it had been invaded, in which cafe many of them must have fallen a facrifice to our attempt, and perhaps also some of our own people. I should have regretted the neceffity of fuch a meafure, if I had been in want of the neceffaries of life; and certainly it would have been highly criminal, when nothing was to be obtained but two or three hundred of green cocoa-nuts, which would at most have procured us a mere tranfient gratification. I might indeed have proceeded farther along the coaft, to the northward and weftward, in fearch of a place where the fhip might have lain fo near the fhore as to cover the people with her guns when they landed; but this would have obviated only part of the mischief; and though it might have fecured us, it would probably, in the very act, have been fatal to the natives. Befides, we had reafon to think that before fuch a place would have been found, we fhould have been carried fo far to the weftward as to have been obliged to go to Batavia, on the north fide of Java; which I did not think fo fafe a paffage as to the fouth of Java, through the Streights of Sunda; the fhip alfo was fo leaky, that I doubted whether it would not be neceffary to heave her down at Batavia, 1770. which was another reason for making the best of our September, way to that place; efpecially as no difcovery could be expected in feas which had already been navigated, and where every coaft had been laid down by the Dutch geographers. The Spaniards indeed, as well as the Dutch, feem to have circumnavigated all the islands in New Guinea, as almost every place that is diftinguished in the chart has a name in both languages. The charts with which I compared fuch parts of this coafts as I vifited, are bound up with a French work, intitled, "Hiftoire des Navigations aux Terres Auftrales," which was published in 1756, and I found them tolerably exact; yet I know not by whom, nor when they were taken: and though New Holland and New Guinea are in them represented as two diftin& countries, the very history in which they are bound up, leaves it in doubt. I pretend, however, to no more merit in this part of the voyage, than to have established the fact beyond all controversy. As the two countries lie very near each other, and the intermediate space is full of islands, it is reasona¬ ble to suppose that they were both peopled from one common stock: yet no intercourse appears to have been kept up between them; for if there had, the cocoa-nuts, bread-fruits, plantains, and other fruits of New Guinea, which are equally neceffary for the fup→ port of life, would certainly have been transplanted to New Holland, where no traces of them are to be found. The author of the "Hiftoire des Navigati ons aux Terres Auftrales," in his account of La Maire's voyage, has given a vocabulary of the language that is fpoken in an island near New Britain, and we find, by comparing that vocabulary with the words which we learned in New Holland, that the languages are not the fame. If therefore it fhould appear, that the languages of New Britain and New Guinea are the fame, there will be reafon to fuppofe that New Britain and New Guinea were peopled from a common stock: But that the inhabitants of New Holland had a different origin, notwithstanding the proximity of the countries, СНАР CHA P. X. 1770. September. The Pallage from New Guinea to the Island of Savu, and the Tranfactions there. WE E made fail, from noon on Monday the 3d to Monday 3. noon on Tuesday the 4th, standing to the weftward, and all the time kept in foundings, having from fourteen to thirty fathoms; not regular, but sometimes more, fometimes less. At noon on the Tuesday 4 4th, we were in fourteen fathoms, and latitude 6° 44′ S. longitude 223° 51′ W. our course and distance fince the 3d at noon, were S. 76 W. one hundred and twenty miles to the westward. At noon, on the 5th of Sep- Wednes. 5. tember, we were in latitude 7° 25' S. longitude 225° 41' W. having been in foundings the whole time from ten to twenty fathoms. At half an hour after one in the morning of the next day, we paffed a small island which bore from us N. N. W. diftant between three and four miles; and at Thursd. 6. day-light we discovered another low ifland, extending from N. N. W. to N. N. E. diftant about two or three leagues. Upon this ifland, which did not appear to be very small, I believe I should have landed to examine its produce, if the wind had not blown too fresh to admit of it. When we paffed this island we had only ten fathoms water, with a rocky bottom; and therefore I was afraid of running" down the leeward, left I should meet with fhoal water and foul ground. These islands have no place in charts except they are the Arrou islands, and if these, they are laid down much too far from New Guinea. I found the fouth part of them to lie in latitude 7° 6' S. longitude 225° W. We continued to fteer W. S. W. at the rate of four miles and an half an hour, till ten o'clock at night, when we had forty-two fathoms, at eleven we had thirty-feven, at twelve forty-five, at one in the morn- Friday 7: ing forty-nine, and at three 120, after which we had no ground. At day-light we made all the fail we could, and at ten o'clock faw land, extending from N. N. W. |