^iy6g. we loft an officer and feme men in an engagement'with
'---- .---- ' the Indians; and taking notice that my ffiip was final], and
Fr id a / 19. 1 , , _ r ’
a bad failer, he infinuated that we muft have fuflered great
hardlhip in fo long a voyage; but, faid he, it is thought to be
fafer and pleafanter failing in the South Sea than any where
elfe. As I perceived that he waited for a reply, I faid, that
the great ocean, called the South Sea, extended almoft from
one pole to the other; and therefore although that part of
it which lay between the Tropics might juftly be called the
Pacific, on account o f the trade-winds that blow there all
the y e a r ; yet without the Tropics, on either fide, the winds
were variable, and the feas turbulent. In a llth is he readily
acquiefced, and finding that he could not draw from me any
thing to fatisfy his curiofity, by darting leading fubjefts of
converfation, he began to propofe his queftions in clireft
terms, and defired to know on which fide the equator I had
crofted the South Seas. As I did not think proper to anfwer
this queftion, and wiffied to prevent others of the fame kind
I rofe up fomewhat abruptly, and I believe with fome marks
o f difpleafure: at this he feemed to be a little difconcerted,
and I believe was about to make an apology for his curiofity,
but I prevented him, by defiring that he would make
my compliments to his Captain, and in return for his obliging
civilities prefent him with one o f the arrows that had
wounded my men, which I immediately went into my bedroom
to fe tch : he followed me, looking about him with
great curiofity, as indeed he had done from the time of his
firft coming on board, and having received the arrow, he
took his leave.
After he was gone, and we had made fail, I went upon
the deck, where my Lieutenant afked me, i f my vifitor had
entertained me with an account o f his voyage. This led me
to
to tell him the general purport of our converfation, upon '769.
which he affined me that the tale I had heard was a fiflion, , Feh_ra*rr-f
for, fays he, the boat’s crew could not keep their fecret fo Frida/ '9‘
well as their officer, but after a little converfation told one
o f our people, who was born at Quebec, and fpoke French;
that they had been round the globe as well as we. This
naturally excited a general curiofity, and with a very little
difficulty we learnt that they had failed from Europe in
company with another ffiip, which, wanting fome repair,
had been left at the file o f France ; that they had attempted
to pafs- the Streight of Magellan the firft fummer, but not
being able, had gone back, and wintered in the river De la
Plata; that the fummer afterwards they had been more fuc-
cefsful, and having palled the Streight, fpent two months at
the ifland of Juan Fernandes. My Lieutenant told me alfo,
that a boy in the French boat faid he had been upon that
ifland two years, and that while he was there, an Engliffi
frigate put into the road, but did not anchor, mentioning
the time as well as he could recoiled!, by which it appeared
that the frigate he had feen was the Swallow. On the boy’s
being afked how he came to be fo long upon the ifland of
Juan Fernandes, he faid that he had been taken upon the
Spanifh coaft in the Weft Indies in a fmuggling party, and
font thither by the Spaniards but that by the French Crip,
in whofe boat he came on board us, having touched there,
he had regained his liberty. After having received this information
from my Lieutenant, I could eafily account for
M. Bougainville’s having made a tack to fpeak to me, and
for the converfation and behaviour of my vifitor ; but I was
now more difpleafed at the queftions he had afked me than
before, for i f it was improper for him to communicate an
account of his voyage to me, it was equally improper for me
to communicate an account o f my voyage to him; and I
thought a