try is probably well inhabited, and very fertile in trees anti
fruits ; the fea abounding in turtle and fiih. The very diftreffed
Rate o f Captain Carteret and his crew, is the fad but true apology
for bur wanting, from his able pen, a fuller account o f this
interefting ifland.
On ‘July 5th 1768, M. Bougainville anchored in the fame bay as
Captain Carteret did, and named it Port Prajlin. He obferved
here the pepper plant, and found wild hogs, numbers of birds,
and among others the great crowned pigeon ; variety of fnakes,
fcorpions, and the Angular infeát the walking leaf.
A m o n g the ferpents was the fea fnake, o f that fpecies which,
at p. 131, is fufpected to have been poifonous; this was verified
here. A íáilor was bitten as he was hawling the Seine, he was
very foon affeited with violent pains all over his body ; his fide
(the part on which he received the wound) became livid, and
fwelled greatly; the blood taken from him appeared diflblved :
he fuffered much for five or fix hours; at length, by the afliftance
©f the Venice treacle, or 91heriaca Andromacbi, with flower de luce
water, he fell into a violent perfpiration, and was quite cured *.
The natives o f Otaheite aifert that the bite is mortal. '
Dampier coafted the whole northern fide. Captain Carteret,
in his approach to the éaftern end, fell in with a group of little
files, to which he gave the name of the nine ijles. He pafled
between two larger, the moré fouthern he called Lord Anfon's ;
the more northern, Sir Charles Hardy's, in Lat. 4° ¿o' fouth,
Was flat, verdant, and appeared well inhabited. He foon after
S t . J o h n ’s pa w g t , John's, file, difccrvered by Schouten, arid feed by Dampier.
I s l a n d , &c.
* Bougainville’s Voyage, trariflatióri, p. 334.
It
It is: nine or ten leagues round, rifes into- high hummocks full
of lofty trees, with plantations and groves near the fhores, and
feemingly very populous. We now fall in with Dampier, with
cape St. Mary's, in Lat. s' M fbuth. The country was mountanous,
high, and wooded, with many points of land running into
the fea, forming between them as many fine bays. Here a man
of large fize approached thefhip, and fpoke a language different
from thofe Dampier had before feen. Proceeding north-weft-
ward, the whole extent of New Ireland, or the eoaft oppofite to St.
George's channel (afterwards traced by Captain Carteret) appears
before us. At fome diftance from it is a chain of files, of
which St. Johfts may be deemed one. They had been all named
b y ' the Dutch. Antony Caw's is lofty. Gerard Dennis's is the G e r a r d . r • - l j i D e n n i s ’ s# next, fourteen or fifteen leagues in circumference; high, wooded,
and mountanous, thick fet with plantations, and full o f cocoa
trees. The fhape was irregular, full o f points, forming fandy
bays; the ground cleared for plantations, and the foil o f a
brownifh red color. The next ifland, named Wifhart's, refembled W j s h a r t ’ s.
the preceding. Dampier alfo difcovered two other iflands fome-
what farther to the weft: One, ten leagues long, he named Mathias
; like many others, mountanous and woody, mixed with
Savannas, and cleared land; and near that a low and plain ifland,
cloathed with tall and large trees, as clofe to each other as they
could ftand. This he called the fqually, from the violent gales he
met with off the coaft.
In refpeft to the north fhore of New Ireland, I find that pur
navigator attempted to touch at only one place, which he named
Slinger's hay. This country feems, prodigioufly populous; his S u n g e r ’ s B a t .
# fhip