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As bibliographer
Ronald L. Ravneberg has pointed out, the first edition of the Voyages has
inconsistencies in pagination and errors caused by the typesetting of volume
one being started at two points and by volumes two and three originally
being paginated as a single volume.
In this online
edition these original erroneous pagination and errors have been preserved
as an aid to researchers wishing to consult the printed text of the first
edition.
When we came
to the westermost point of this island, we saw another, bearing S.W. by
W. about four leagues distant.
We were at
this time about a league beyond the inlet where we had left the natives,
but they were not satisfied with having got rid of us quietly; for I now
perceived two large double canoes sailing after the ship, with about thirty
men in each, all armed after the manner of their country.
The boats
were a good way to leeward of us, and the canoes, passing between the ship
and the shore, seemed very eagerly to give them chace.
Upon this
I made the signal for the boats to speak with the canoes, and as soon as
they perceived it, they turned, and made towards the Indians, who seeing
this, were seized with a sudden pannic, and immediately hauling down their
sails, paddled back again at a surprising rate.
Our boats
however came up with them; but notwithstanding the dreadful surf that broke
upon the shore, the canoes pushed through it, and the Indians immediately
hauled them up upon the beach. Our boats followed them, and the Indians,
dreading an invasion of their coast, prepared to defend it with clubs and
stones, upon which our men fired, and killed two or three of them: one
of them received three balls which went quite through his body; yet he
afterwards took up a large stone, and died in the action of throwing it
against his enemy.
This man fell
close to our boats, so that the Indians who remained unhurt did not dare
to attempt the carrying off his body, which gave us an opportunity to examine
it; but they carried off the rest of their dead, and made the best of their
way back to their companions at the inlet.
Our boats
then returned, and brought off the two canoes which they had pursued.
One of them
was thirty-two feet long, and the other somewhat less, but they were both
of a very curious construction, and ...
Page 136
.... must have
cost those who made them infinite labour.
They consisted
of planks exceedingly well wrought, and in many places adorned with carving;
these planks were sewed together, and over every seam there was a ship
of tortoiseshell, very artificially fastened, to keep out the weather:
their bottoms were as sharp as a wedge, and they were very narrow; and
therefore two of them were joined laterally together by a couple of strong
spars, so that there was a space of about six or eight feet between them:
a mast was hoisted in each of them, and the sail was spread between the
masts: the sail, which I preserved, and which is now in my possession,
is made of matting, and is as neat a piece of work as ever I saw: their
paddles were very curious, and their cordage was as good and as well laid
as any in England, though it appeared to be made of the outer covering
of the cocoa-nut.
When these
vessels sail, several men sit upon the spars which hold the canoes together.
As the surf which broke very high upon the shore rendered it impossible to procure refreshments for the sick in this part of the island, I hauled the wind, and worked back to the inlet, being determined to try once more what could be done there.
Page 138
Our people,
in rummaging some of the huts, found the carved head of a rudder, which
had manifestly belonged to a Dutch longboat, and was very old and worm-eaten.
They found
also a piece of hammered-iron, a piece of brass, and some small iron tools,
which the ancestors of the present inhabitants of this place probably obtained
from the Dutch ship to which the longboat had belonged, all which I brought
away with me.
Whether these
people found means to cut off the ship, or whether she was lost upon the
island or after she left it, cannot be known; but there is reason to believe
that she never returned to Europe, because no account of her voyage, or
of any discoveries that she made, is extant.
If the ship
sailed from this place in safety, it is not perhaps easy to account for
her leaving the rudder of her longboat behind her; and if she was cut off
by the natives, there must be much more considerable remains of her in
the island, especially of her iron-work, upon which all Indian nations,
who have no metal, set the highest value; we had no opportunities however
to examine this matter farther.
The hammered-iron,
brass, and iron tools, I brought away with me; but we found a tool exactly
in the form of a carpenter’s adze, the blade of which was a pearl oyster-shell;
possibly this might have been made in imitation of an adze which had belonged
to the carpenter of the Dutch Ship, for among the tools that I brought
away there was one which seemed to be the remains of such an implement,
though it was worn away almost to nothing
Page 140
The next morning,
at six o’clock, I made sail for the island which I intended to visit, and
when I reached it, I steered S.W. by W. close along the north east side
of it, but could get no soundings: this side is about six or seven leagues
long, and the whole makes much the same appearance as the other, having
a large salt water lake in the middle of it.
As soon as
the ship came in sight, the natives ran down to the beach in great numbers:
they were armed in the same manner as those that we had seen upon the other
island, and kept abreast of the ship for several leagues.
As the heat
of this climate is very great, they seemed to suffer much by running so
far in the sun, for they sometimes plunged into the sea, and sometimes
fell flat upon the sand, that the surf might break over them, after which
they renewed the race with great vigour.
Page 142
We observed, that in the lake, or lagoon, there were two or three very large vessels, one of which had two masts, and some cordage aloft to support them.
To these two islands, I gave the name of KING GEORGE’S ISLANDS, in honour of his Majesty. That which we last visited, lies in latitude 14° 41’S., longitude 149° 15’W.; the variation of the compass here was 5° E.
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