Celebrated Travels and Travellers Vol 2 First part chapter II - Captain Cook’s predecessors part 2c

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CHAPTER VIII of Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Volume II.

Thank you. Domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org. Recording by Malone. Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Volume 2 Great Navigators of the Eighteenth Century By Jules Verne First Part Chapter 2 Part 2 CAPTAIN COOK'S PREDECESSORS, 2C.

The trade wind was only met on the sixteenth, and the weather remained detestable. Above all, although Carteret navigated in the neighborhood of Danger Island, discovered in 1765 by Byron and by others, he saw no land. We probably were close by land, he says, which the fog prevented our seeing, for in these waters, numbers of birds constantly flew round the ship. Commodore Byron, in his last voyage, had passed the northern limits of this portion of the ocean, in which the Solomon Islands are said to be situated. And as I have been myself beyond the southern limit without seeing them, I have good reason for thinking that if these islands exist, they have been badly marked on all the charts.

This last supposition is correct, but the Solomon Islands do exist, and Carteret stopped there a few days later without recognizing them. The victuals were now all but consumed or tainted, the rigging and the sails torn by the tempest, half the crew on the sick list, when a fresh alarm for the captain arose. A leak was reported just below the lowed water line. It was impossible to stop it, as long as they were in the open sea. By unexpected good fortune land was seen on the morrow. Needless to say, what cries of delight, what acclamations followed this discovery. To use Carteret's own comparison, the feelings of surprise and comfort experienced by the crew can only be likened to those of a criminal, who at the last moment on the scaffold receives a reprieve. It was Nintendet Island, already discovered by Mendana. No sooner was the anchor cast than landing was hurried, in search of water supply. The natives were black, with woolly hair and perfectly naked. They appeared upon the shore, but fled again before the boat could come up with them. The leader of the landing party described the country as wild, bristling with mountains and impenetrable forests of trees and shrubs, reaching to the shore itself, through which ran a fine current of fresh water.

The following day the master was sent in search of an easier landing place, with orders to propitiate the natives, if possible, by presence. He was expressly enjoined not to expose himself to danger, to return if several pierogues advanced against him, not to leave the boat himself, and not to allow more than two men to land at once, whilst the remainder held themselves on the defensive.

Carteret at the same time sent his ship's boat on shore for water. Some natives attacked it with arrows, which fortunately hit no one. Meantime the sloop regained the swallow. The master had three arrows in his body, and half his crew were so dangerously wounded that three sailors and he himself died a few days later. This is what happened. Landing the fifth in succession, in a spot where he had noticed huts, he entered into friendly traffic with the natives. The latter soon increased in numbers, and several large pierogues advanced towards his sloop, and he was unable to rejoin it until the very moment when the attack commenced. Pursued by the arrows of the natives, who waded up to their shoulders into the water, chased by pierogues, he only succeeded in escaping after having killed several natives and foundered one of their boats.

This effort to find a more favourable spot where he might run the swallow ashore, having ended so unfortunately, Carteret heaved his ship down where he was, and efforts were made to stop the leak. If the carpenter, the only healthy man on board, did not succeed in perfectly stopping it, he at least considerably diminished it. Whilst a fresh landing for water was sought, the fire of the guns was directed upon the woods, as well as volleys of musketry from the sloop. Still the sailors worked for a quarter of an hour, when they were attacked by a shower of arrows, which grievously wounded one or two in the breast. The same measures were necessary each time they fetched water. At this juncture thirty of the crew became incapable of performing their duty. The master died of his wounds. Lieutenant Gower was very ill. Carteret himself, attacked by a bilious and inflammatory illness, was forced to keep his bed. These three were the only officers capable of navigating the swallow to England, and they were on the point of succumbing. To stay the ravages of disease it was necessary to procure provisions at all costs, and this was utterly impossible in this spot. Carteret weighed anchor on the 17th of August, after calling the island Eggmont, in honor of the Lord of the Admiralty, and the bay where he had anchored Swallow. Although convinced that it was identical with the land named Santa Cruz by the Spaniards, the navigator nevertheless followed the prevailing mania of giving new appellations to all the places he visited. He then coasted the shore for a short distance and ascertained that the population was large. He had many a crow to pick with the natives. These obstacles, and moreover the impossibility of procuring provisions, prevented Carteret's reconnoitering the other islands of this group, upon which he bestowed the name of Queen Charlotte.