C H A P . V.
Departure from Egmont IJland, and Poff age to Nova Britannia
; with a Defcription of feveral other IJlands, and'
their Inhabitants.
Tuefday 18. eaftward, and a f ew fquans at times. At firft we only hauled
up W. N. W. for I was not without hope o f falling in with
fbme other iflands, where we might be more fortunate than
we had been at thofe we left, before we got the length o f
Nova Britannia.
TharHayao. On the 20th, we difcovered a fmall, flat, low ifland, and
got up with it in the evening : it lies in latitude 7 ° 56' S.,-
Gower’ s longitude 158° 56' E. and I gave it the name of G o w e r ’s
I s l a n d . T o our great mortification we found no anchorage
here, and could procure only a few cocoa-nuts from the inhabitants,
who were much the fame kind of people that we
had feen at Iile Egmont, in exchange for nails, and fuch
trifles as we had ; they promifed, by figns, to bring us more
the next day, and we kept off and on all night : the night
Friday 21. was extremely dark, and the. next morning, at day-break,
we found that a current had fet us confiderably to the fouth-
ward o f the ifland, and1 brought us within fight of two more.
They were fituated nearly eaft and- weft of each other, and
were diftant about two miles. That to the eaftward is much
simptbn’s the fmalleft, and this we called S im p s o n ’ s I s l a n d : to the
mand. other, which is lofty, and has a ftately appearance, we gave
2 the
the name o f C a r t e r e t ’s Is l a n d . The eaft end o f it bears
about fouth from Gower’s Ifland, and the diftance between
them is about ten or eleven leagues. Carteret’s Ifland,lies in Carteret’s
about the latitude 8° 26' S„ longitude 159° 14 E. and its man ’
length from eaft to weft is about fix leagues: we found the
variation here 8°) 30' E. Both thefe iflands were right to
windward o f us, and we bore down to Gower’s Ifland. It is
about two leagues and a half long on the weftern fide, which
makes in bays: the whole is well wooded, and many of the
trees are cocoa-nut. We found here a confiderable number
o f the Indians, with two boats or canoes, which we fuppofed
to belong to Carteret’s Ifland, and to have brought the people
hither only to fifh. We fent the boat on Ihore, which the
natives endeavoured to cut off, and hoftilities being thus
commenced, we feized their canoe, in which we found
about an hundred cocoa-nuts, which were very acceptable*
we faw fome turtle near the beach, but were not fortunate
enough to take any of them. The canoe, or boat, was large
enough to carry eight or ten men, and was very neatly
built, with planks well jointed: it was adorned with fhell-
work, and figures rudely painted, and the feams were
covered with a fubftance fomewhat like our black putty,
but it appeared to me to be o f a better confiftence. The people
were armed with bows, arrows, and fpears; the fpears and
arrows were pointed with flint. By fome figns which they
made, pointing to our mufkets, we imagined they were not;
wholly unacquainted with fire-arms. They are much the-
fame kind of people as we had feen at Egmont Ifland, and*
like them, were quite naked; but their canoes were o f as
very different ftrudture, and a much larger fize, though we;
did not difcover that any o f them had fails. The. cocoa-nuts
which we got here, and at Egmont Ifland, were o f infinites
advantage to the fick.
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