juft received, would confent to furniiih them with refreihments, they purfued
their courfe. They had obferved the fame productions here as on the Iile of
Lepers. The inhabitants are likewife of the fame fpecies, almoft naked,
wearing the fame ornaments of collars and bracelets, and. ufing the fame
Weapons.
P* 297* On the 27th, ranging the fame coàft, at about a league’s diftance, they faW^,
on a low point, a plantation of trees, laid out in walks like thofe of a garden.
Under the trees here was a beaten track, and the foil feemed to be fandy.
A cohfiderable number of inhabitants appeared about this part. But the boats
that went in fearch of anchorage returned with no better fuccefs than before,
p. 298. T h e weather now was dark, with fqualls and rain at intervals. Often, in the
day time, 'they thought they faw land, which proved to be mere fog banks,
and difappearèd when it cleared up.
Monfieur Bougainville called the lands they now difcovered Archipel des
Grandes Cyclades, the Archipelago of the Great Cyclades.. To judge of this
Archipelago by the lands pafled through, and by thofe they faw at a diftance, he
füppofès that it contains at leaft three degrees of latitude, and five of longitude.
p. 302. From the 29th of May, when they loft fight of thefe iilands, they failed
p. 303. weftward with a very freih eaft or fouth eaft wind. In the night, between the
4th and 5th of June, they fell in with a little fandy illand, which hardly rifes
above the water, and which, on that account, is a dangerous ihoal for ihips
failing in the night, or in hazy Weather. It was covered with birds. Monfieur
Bougainville Called it La Bâture de Diane, the Shoal o f Diana.
P- 3°3* The next day they faw many indications of land being near, and likewife a
new kind of flying-fiih, which feemed peculiar to thefe parts; they are black
with red wings, they appear to have four wings inftead of two, an'd fomewhat
exceed the common ones in fize.
p. 303. On the 6th a large fand bank appearing a-head, they altered their courie,
p. 306. which had hitherto been weft to north, to avoid running in with a coaft full
■ .o f
of ihoals and fand banks, from whence no advantage could be expeCted, and
which could not begot clear of, but by beating againft the reigning winds.
It was therefore become neceflary to fteer to the northward; efpecially, as they
had only bread for two months, and pulfe for forty days ; their fait provifion
was, indeed; in greater quantities, but it was fo noxious, that they preferred
the ihip rats to it, when they could catch them.
On the 10th, at day-break, land was again difcovered, which bore a more
pleafing afpeit than any they had feen before : it forms a great gulph Open to
the S. E. But the wretched condition to which they Were reduced, did not
allow them either to fpend time in vifiting this apparently rich and fertile
country, or to ftand to the weftward, in fearch of a paflage on the fouth fide of
New Guinea, which might open a new and ihort navigation to the Moluccas,
by the gulph of Carpentaria. They were now obliged to endeavour to get out
of the gulph in which they were, and in which they were more deeply engaged
than they at firft thought. And, to add to their perplexity, they .were in with
a dangerous ihore, with hard gales, much rain, a thick fog, and a heavy fea.'
However, on the 25th, at fun rifing, they difcovered a very high land, terminating
in a cape, which they doubled that day, to their great joy. This
cape, fo long wiihed for, as an outlet from thé gulph wherein they were embayed,
Monfieur Bougainville named Cape Deliverance; and the gulph of
which it forms the eaftermoft point, GolfedelaLouiJiade, the Gulph o f the
Loui/tade.
About feventy leagues to the northward of Cape Deliverance, on the 2&th
they fell in with land. But it being an open coaft, almoft inaçeeflible, as the
fea breaks upon it every where, they were obliged to fail on. About a dozen
petiaguas came pretty near the ihips, in which were people .as black as the
negroes of Africa. Their hair is curled, but long, and of a reddiih colour.
They wear bracelets and plates on the neck and forehead; and were armed
with bows and lances. They made a great noife, and it feemed as i f their
difpolition was far from pacific.