*Hawke-
iworth’s
Voyages,
Vol. I.
■p. 269.
p. 274.
p . 2 7 5 .
p. 278.
p. 279.
p. 280.
this ifle, has likewife conducted the Engliih thither, whilft we lay in Rio de la
Plata. From hence, doubtlefs, he obferves, proceeds the knowledge of iron,
which I found among the natives. To this he adds, «‘ lam yet ignorant
“ whether the people of Taiti, as they owe their firft knowledge of iron to
“ the Engliih, may not likewife be indebted to them for the venereal difeafe,
“ which we found had been naturalized among them.” On the contrary, Captain
Wallis* feems to prove, from circumftances which ftrongly tend to confirm
his affertion, that the people under the command of the French navigator muft
have firft communicated the infection.
On the 16th of April they took their departure from Taiti, and foon after
perceived land to leeward, which Aotourou faid was an iiland called Oumaitia.
He gave them, at the fame time, to underftand, that it was inhabited by a
nation allied to his : to the, Iiland of Taiti and thofe which he had difcovered
near it, forming the fécond divifion of iiles in this vaft ocean, Monfieur
Bougainville gave the name of the Archipelago of Bourbon.
The 3d of May they difcovered more land to the N. W. which proved to
be an iiland extending two leagues E. and W. Its ihores are every where fteep,
and the' whole ifle is, as it were, nothing more than a high mountain, covered
with trees to its fummit, without either vallies or plains. They faw fires
on it ; fome huts covered with reeds, built under the ihadow of cocoa nut
trees; and about thirty men running along the fea fliore,1 upon which the fea
broke violently.
As they coafted along this ifle a periag.ua approached the ihips, but the people
in it kept at a diftance, and could not be prevailed upon to come on board.
Aotourou addreffed them in his language without being underftood. Soon after
feveral other periaguas arrived, fome of them under fail. The people in thefe,
lefs miftruftful, came near enough to make exchanges. They brought with
them yams, cocoa nuts, a water hen of a fuperb plumage, and fome pieces of
a very fine fhell, together with fluffs of the fame make as thofe of Taiti, but
much coarfer, and died with ugly red, brown and black colours, and fundry
other articles; for which they did not çhoofe to take iron, preferring little
bits of red fluffs.
Thefe
Thefe iflanders, who did not appear to be fo gentle as thofe of Taiti, were of P* *8i.
a middle fize, a&ive, and nimble. They paint their breaft and their th ighs,
almoft down to the knee, of a dark blue; their colour is bronzed; they fhave
or pluck out their beards; and they had all black hair, which flood upright 'on
the head. Their periaguas are made with a great deal of ikill, and have an
out-rigger.
In the evening of the 4th they difcovered more land to the W. S. W. which, p* »82.
on the 5th, they found to be a very fine iiland, interfperfed with mountains and
vaft plains, covered with cocoa nut and many other trees. They ranged along
its fouthern coaft without feeing any appearance of anchorage, the fea breaking
upon the ihore very violently. A great number of periaguas came around the p. 283.
ihips, without venturing- along-fide, the Indians in whioh feemed to invite
them by figns to come on ihore; but the breakers prevented it. Though the
ihips ran feven or eight knots at this time, yet the periaguas ’failed round them
with as much eafe as i f they had .been at anchor.
The next day they got fight of more land to the weftward, which appeared to p. 283.
be as high and of as great extent as the other iflands, from which it was about
-twelve leagues diiftant. But a thick fog that rofe in the afternoon, and continued
all the night and the enfuing day, prevented their viewing it more particularly.
They diftinguifhed at its N. E. extremity two little ifles of unequal fizes.
p. 283.
p. 284.
The longitude of thefe iflands is nearly the fame in which Abel Tafman was
by his reckoning, when he difcovered the Ifles of Amfterdam, Rotterdam,
Pylftaart, and that of Prince William. It is likewife the fame, which, within
a very little, is affigned to Solomon’s Ifles. To this chain of iflands, lying under
the fame meridian, and which make the third divifion, Monfieur Bougainville
gave the name of L ’ Archipel desNavigateurs, the Ar chipelago o f the Navigators.
On the 12th they difcovered another iiland, which he named UEnfant Perdu, 284
or the Forlorn Hope; a head wind prevented their approaching it, and their
fituation was become by this time almoft defperate. Bad weather had begun on
the 6th of this month, and continued, almoft without interruption, to the 20th
* O o I' jd ur•in. g
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