A Voyage Round the World (Forster)/Book 1/Chapter 7
1773.
June.
CHAP.VII.
Run from New Zeeland to O-Taheitee.
We entered Cook's Strait after noon, and standing down to the southward, beheld the immense ocean before us, which goes by the name of the South Sea. This vast expanse of sea, through which many former navigators had passed, in the happy climate of the torrid zone, but whose middle latitudes no European vessel, except the Endeavour bark, had hitherto attempted to explore, has always been believed to contain a large tract of land, distinguished by geographers with the name of a Southern Continent. Previous to the Endeavour's voyage, New Zeeland was thought the western coast of this unknown land, and certain pretended discoveries near America were asserted as its eastern shores. Captain Cook in that voyage having cut off both these by his course, and even penetrated to 40 degrees of south latitude without finding land, the southern continent was restrained within narrower limits, though these were still considerable enough to engage the attention of future navigators. We were now to enter on this unexplored part, and running to the eastward between the 50th and 40th degrees of south latitude, to search for undiscovered countries in the depth of winter. Many among our fellow-voyagers proceeded on this dangerous expedition in the firm belief that we should speedily find the coasts we went in quest of, whose novelty and valuable productions would amply reward our perseverance and fatigues. But captain Cook, and several others, judging from what had been done in the former voyage, and what they had already experienced on this, were far from expecting to discover new lands, and greatly doubted the existence of a southern continent.
Tuesday 3.We were still in the mouth of the strait at eight the next morning, and saw the high mountains of the southern isle loaded with snow, from whence they had their name, whilst the weather below was clear and mild, our thermometer being about 51° in the shade. Great shoals of cetaceous fish, of a perfectly black colour, with a white spot before the back-fin, passed by us. They were fired at from our vessel, and one of them being shot through the head, could no longer plunge under water, but began to beat about furiously on the surface, and tinged the sea with its blood. It seemed to be about three yards long, and was slender and blunt-headed, from whence our sailors called it the bottle-nose, a name which Dale applies to a very different fish, the beaked whale, of which the beak or nose resembles the neck of a bottle[1]. We went at the rate of three knots and a half at this time, so that it was not thought proper to bring to, for the sake of taking up the dead fish.
Wednesday 9.An infinite number of albatrosses, of all the three species, hovered about us, after we were out of sight of the land. The common or large sort were of diverse colours, which we believed to differ according to age, and that the oldest were almost wholly white, those next them somewhat more sprinkled with brown, and the youngest quite brown. Some of our sailors, who had formerly sailed on board of East-India ships, after comparing the facility of those voyages to the hardships of the present, propagated the ludicrous idea among their messmates, that these birds contained the departed souls of old India captains; who now, exiled to a part of the ocean which they shunned before, were forced to gather a precarious subsistence instead of enjoying their former affluence, and were made the sport of storms which they had never felt in their cabbins. This stroke, which may pass for witty enough, confirms what I have before observed of the original humour of sea-faring men.
The officers, who could not yet relish their salt provisions, after the refreshments of New Zeeland, had ordered their black dog, mentioned p. 135, to be killed, and sent the captain one half of it; this day therefore we dined for the first time on a leg of it roasted, which tasted so exactly like mutton, that it was absolutely undistinguishable. In our cold countries where animal food is so much used, and where to be carnivorous perhaps lies in the nature of men, or is indispensibly necessary to the preservation of their health and strength, it is strange that there should exist a Jewish aversion to dogs-flesh, when hogs, the most uncleanly of all animals are eaten without scruple. Nature seems expressly to have intended them for this use, by making their offspring so very numerous, and their encrease so quick and frequent. It may be objected, that the exalted degree of instinct, which we observe in our dogs, inspires us with great unwillingness to kill and eat them. But it is owing to the time we spend on the education of dogs, that they acquire those eminent qualities which attach them so much to us. The natural qualities of our dogs may receive a wonderful improvement, but education must give its assistance, without which the human mind itself, though capable of an immense expansion, remains in a very contracted state. In New Zeeland, and (according to former accounts of voyages) in the tropical isles of the South Sea, the dogs are the most stupid, dull animals imaginable, and do not seem to have the least advantage in point of sagacity over our sheep, which are commonly made the emblems of silliness. In the former country they are fed upon fish, in the latter on vegetables, and both these diets may have served to alter their disposition. Education may perhaps likewise graft new instincts; the New Zeeland dogs are fed on the remains of their masters' meals; they eat the bones of other dogs, and the puppies become true cannibals from their birth. We had a young New Zeeland puppy on board, which had certainly had no opportunity of tasting any thing but the mother's milk before we purchased it; however it eagerly devoured a portion of the flesh and bones of the dog, on which we dined to-day; while several others of the European breed taken on board at the Cape, turned from it without touching it.
Wednesd. 16.We kept standing to the south-eastward till the 16th at noon, attended by numerous birds of the petrel and albatross kind, together with now and then a skua, or Port-Egmont hen. Beds of sea-weeds frequently were seen floating on the sea, but we were now too much accustomed to their appearance, to attempt to draw any conclusions from it. The thermometer, which at our departure from New Zeeland, stood at 51° at eight o'clock in the morning, sunk in proportion as we came to the southward to 48°, and sometimes to 47° at the same time of day; but the temperature of the air upon the whole was extremely variable, and the weather equally unsettled. From thence it arose, that we daily observed rainbows, or parts of them about the horizon, especially in the morning. The wind during this time was likewise very changeable, and veered round the compass in a direction contrary to the course of the sun, that is, from west round by the north towards east, and so further on; but it chiefly prevailed from the easterly quarter, where we least expected it, so that our situation became tedious, and was made more irksome by frequent fogs, rains, and heavy swells. Having reached the latitude of 46° 17′ south, we directed our course to the north-eastward, as much as the wind would permit.
Wednesd. 23.On the 23d, the weather being mild and the wind very moderate, captain Furneaux came on board, and dined with us. He acquainted captain Cook, that all his people continued in good health, except one or two, who were infected with a nauseous disease, which is propagated by connections with the other sex. This information gave us great uneasiness, it being evident that the distemper had already reached New Zeeland, since our men must have received it there. Struck with the horrid consequences which this evil would entail on the New Zeelanders, we recapitulated the opportunities which those people had of catching the infection from Europeans. The first discoverer of this country, in 1642, Abel Janssen Tasman, had not the least amicable intercourse with the inhabitants, and none of his people appear to have been ashore upon it. Captain Cook, the next navigator, who visited it in the Endeavour Bark, 1769 and 1770, came from O-Taheitee and the Society Isles, where several of his people had contracted venereal complaints. However, as his passage lasted nearly two months, the surgeon reported, when they made the coast, that no man had any symptoms of the distemper about him. Notwithstanding this assurance captain Cook had the precaution, not to suffer any person to go on shore, who had been under cure, and might be suspected to have some latent remains of this infectious evil; and to preclude the possibility of communicating it to a guiltless people, he never suffered the women to come on board. M. de Surville, a French navigator, sailed from Pondichery in the St. Jean Baptiste, passed through the Straits of Malacca, touched at the Bashee Isles, went round Manila, saw land to the S.E. of New Britain, about the latitude of 10¾°, and longitude 158° east, which he called Port Surville; touched at New Zeeland, and proceeded to Callao, in South America, in order to trade there: but being drowned in the landing, and all his letters of recommendation being lost with him, the ship was detained near two years, and then sent to France, with all her merchandize. M. de Surville lay in Doubtless Bay, on the 9th of December, 1769, and saw the Endeavour standing past him, though captain Cook could not see his vessel, which lay under the land. What stay M. de Surville made there, and upon what terms he was with the natives, I know not; but the distance between this place and Queen Charlotte's Sound, and the want of intercourse between the inhabitants of both ports, make it improbable, even supposing the complaint to have existed among his crew, that it could have reached so far south.
The same thing may be said with regard to M. de Marion and captain Crozet, two French officers, whose expedition, in 1772, I have mentioned page 112; for the communications which their crews had with the natives, was confined to the environs of the Bay of Islands, in the northernmost part of the northern isle. Our two sloops were the next in order, which touched at New Zeeland; but we had not the least reason to suppose, that they carried any venereal complaint to that country. They had left the Cape of Good Hope, the last place where it is possible the sailors might contract this disorder, six months before they came to Queen Charlotte's Sound, five of which they had been at sea; an interval in which a radical cure may be expected, unless the disease be of too inveterate a nature. However, they were far from having any patients of this sort on board, and it is not likely that the poison could lay dormant during that long interval of time, in a set of men who had no other than salt provisions to live upon, and spirituous liquors to drink, and who were exposed to wet and cold, and all the rigours of southern climates. We therefore concluded, that from all the concurring circumstances, the venereal disease was indigenous in New Zeeland, and not imported by Europeans; and we have hitherto had no reason to alter our opinion on this subject. But if, in spite of appearances, our conclusions should prove erroneous, it is another crime added to the score of civilized nations, which must make their memory execrated by the unhappy people, whom they have poisoned. Nothing can in the least atone for the injury they have done to society, since the price at which their libidinous enjoyments were purchased, instils another poison into the mind, and destroys the moral principles, while the disease corrupts and enervates the body. (see pag. 212.) A race of men, who amidst all their savage roughness, their fiery temper; and cruel customs, are brave, generous, hospitable, and incapable of deceiving, are justly to be pitied, that love, the source of their sweetest and happiest feelings, is converted into the origin of the most dreadful scourge of life.
July.The wind still continued as changeable as before, till the beginning of July, having veered all round the compass against the sun, more than four times. During this space albatrosses, petrels, and sea-weeds, were frequently seen; rainbows also appeared almost every morning, nay one night we observed this phenomenon pretty strong, caused by the refracted light of the moon.
Friday 9.On the 9th of July we were nearly in the same longitude, where captain Cook, in the Endeavour, had reached 40° 22′ south[2], but our latitude was about two degrees and a quarter more southerly. Here we lost a young he-goat, which fell over board, and notwithsanding all possible means were tried for his recovery, such as chafing, injecting clysters of the fumes of tobacco, &c. our endeavours proved entirely ineffectual.
Saturday 17.July 17th, having past the longitude of 227° east, and being in about 40° south latitude, we began to run due north, after a very tedious course in search of the southern continent, the existence of which, in the latitudes we had now passed through, had been positively asserted. The uncomfortable season of the year, the many contrary winds, and the total want of interesting incidents united to make this run extremely tedious to us all, and the only point we had gained by it, was the certainty that no great land was situated in the South Sea about the middle latitudes. In five days time our latitude being 31° south, we began to lose sight of albatrosses and petrels, and the thermometer was risen to 61½, so that we began to change our winter clothes for others, considerably thinner, for the first time after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. The spirits of all our people were much exhilarated in proportion as we approached to the tropics, and our sailors diverted themselves with a variety of plays every evening. The genial mildness of the air was so welcome to us, after a long absence from it, that we could not help preferring the warm climates as the best adapted for the abode of mankind. Sunday 25.We saw a tropic bird on the 25th in the afternoon, a sure sign that we were arrived into the temperate climates below 30° of latitude. The setting sun illumined the clouds with the most brilliant tints of gold, which confirmed us in the opinion that the colours of the sky are no where so rich and beautiful as between or near the tropics.
Wednesd. 28.On the 28th we spoke with the Adventure, and heard that they had buried their cook three days ago, and that about twenty of her people were very ill of the scurvy. This was the more surprising to us, as we had but very few people affected with any symptoms of that disorder, and only one who was dangerously sick. The next day captain Cook sent one of his seamen with a warrant to act as cook on board the Adventure; and several of our gentlemen took the opportunity of going to dine with their friends. They found captain Furneaux and some others very ill of a rheumatic complaint, and many of the people had fluxes. Their carpenter was remarkable ill of the scurvy, and had great livid blotches on his legs. This difference between the salubrity of the two vessels probably arose from the want of fresh air in the Adventure, our sloop being higher out of the water, so that we could open more scuttles in bad weather than our consort. Our people likewise made a greater consumption of sour-krout and wort, and particularly applied the grains of the latter to all blotches and swelled parts, a regimen which had been omitted by those in the Adventure. On this occasion it is not improper to remark, that the scurvy is more dangerous August.and virulent in warm climates than in cold, As long as we had kept in high latitudes it did not make its appearance, or was at least confined to a few individuals, who were naturally of a bad habit of body; but we had scarcely had ten days of warm weather when one man died, and a number of others were affected with the worst symptoms of this dreadful distemper, on board the Adventure. It should therefore seem that the heat contributes to inflammation and putrefaction; and its general effect, even among those who had no dangerous scorbutic complaints, was a great degree of languor and debility.
Wednesday 4.On the 4th of August a young bitch, of the terrier breed, taken on board at the Cape of Good Hope, and covered by a spaniel, brought ten young ones, one of which was dead. The New Zeeland dog, mentioned above, which devoured the bones of the roasted dog, now fell upon the dead puppy, and ate of it with a ravenous appetite. This is a proof how far education may go in producing and propagating new instincts in animals. European dogs are never fed on the meat of their own species, but rather seem to abhor it. The New Zeeland dogs, in all likelihood, are trained up from their earliest age to eat the remains of their master's meals; they are therefore used to feed upon fish, their own species, and perhaps human flesh; and what was only owing to habit at first, may have become instinct by length of time. This was remarkable in our canibal-dog, for he came on board so young, that he could not have been weaned long enough to acquire a habit of devouring his own species, and much less of eating human flesh; however, one of our seamen having cut his finger, held it out to the dog, who fell to greedily, licked it, and then began to bite into it.
On the 6th, in the afternoon, being in about 19½ deg. of south latitude, we got the easterly trade-wind, which set in fresh after several calms, attended with heavy showers of rain. The sun being at this time still in the opposite hemisphere, was probably the cause of our meeting with this wind so much later than usual, the tropics being generally reckoned its limits. Agreeable to the observation which we now made, we had found the trade-wind, in August 1772, at Madeira, though that island is situated in 33° of north latitude. But the most remarkable occurence in our run was the nature of the winds previous to our obtaining the trade-wind. We had expected that, by going in a middle latitude between 50 and 40 deg. south, we should meet with regular westerly winds, which are common in our seas during the winter months; instead of this we found them veering round the compass in two or three days time, never settling in any other than the eastern quarter, and sometimes blowing with great violence. Thus the name of Pacific Ocean, which has formerly been given to the whole South Sea, is, in my opinion, applicable only to a part of it between the tropics, where the winds are steady and uniform, the weather in general fair and mild, and the sea not so much agitated as in higher latitudes.
Albecores, bonitos, and dolphins gave chace to many shoals of flying-fish, in the same manner as we had observed them in the Atlantic; while several large blackbirds, with long wings and forked tails, which are commonly called men of war (pelecanus aquilus, Linn.) soared at a vast height in the air, and sometimes descending into a lower region, viewed a fish swimming under them, and darted down with amazing velocity, never failing to strike the fish with their bill. It is a well known fact, that gannets, which are birds of the same genus in the English seas, catch fish in a similar manner. The fishermen on the coast frequently fix a pilchard or herring on the point of a knife fastened to a floating board, and the bird darting down upon it transfixes itself on the knife.
On the 11th, in the morning, we discovered a low island to the southward of us, which seemed about four miles long, and about six miles distant. It appeared to be almost level with the sea, only some groups of trees rose above the horizon, and among them a few cocoa-nut palms out-topped the rest. To people in our situation, exhausted with a tedious passage, the bare sight of land was sufficient to give some consolation, though we could not expect to reap any benefit from its productions; and therefore this island, though divested of every thing strikingly beautiful, yet pleased the eye by the simplicity of its form. Our thermometer was now constantly between 70 and 80 degrees in the morning; but the heat was far from being troublesome, as the fair weather was accompanied by a strong pleasant trade-wind, and our awnings were spread over the quarter-deck. This island, which was called Resolution Island, seems to have been seen by M. de Bougainville. Its latitude is 17° 24′ south, and its longitude 141° 39′ west from Greenwich. Our observation at noon was 17° 17′ south, our course being nearly east. In the evening, at half past six o'clock, we saw another island of the same nature as the preceding, about four leagues distant, which was named Doubtful Island. It being after sun-set, we stood to the northward till we had passed by it. The next morning,Thursday 12. before day-break, we were alarmed by the sudden appearance of breakers within half a mile a-head of us. We changed our course instantly, apprized our consort of the danger by proper signals, and then stood along the reef. As soon as it was light we distinguished an island of a circular form, including a large bason or lagoon of sea-water; the northern shores were covered with trees and palms in various clusters, which had a very elegant appearance; but all the rest was a narrow ledge of rocks, over which the surf beat Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/277 Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/278 Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/279 Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/280 Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/281 daily opportunities of confirming the observations already made upon this subject.
We stood on towards this island all night, and the favourable ideas which were raised by the accounts of former navigators, made us pass some happy hours in expectation of the morning. We resolved to forget our fatigues and the inclemencies of southern climates, the clouds which had hitherto hung lowering upon our brows were dispersed; the loathed images of disease and the terrors of death were fled, and all our cares at rest.
Lenibant curas, et corda oblita laborum.
Virgil.
- ↑ See Pennant's British Zoology.
- ↑ See Hawkesworth's Compilation, vol. II. p. 282.