profoundly ignorant of its design, and the mystical word tabu crowns the query of the stranger.* The learned Mr. Forster, the companion of Cook, thus describes their proceedings : "The land which we now saw to the northward seems to be the same which that great navigator, Capt. Quiros, called Tierra del Espiritu Santo, and which at that time he supposed to make part of a continent. It is not improbable that the Bay of St. Philip and St. Iago, where he anchored, is situated within the small islands which lie before that great land. We really saw the appearance of a bay within them, but did not stop to examine it, only giving the small islands the name of Bartholomew Isles, from the day on which we saw them. "We were now entertained once more with the Island of Lepers, and Aurora remained at a great distance to the East. Our course continued to the North along the eastern shore of Tierra del Espiritu Santo, where we still discovered new islands, which were not seen by M. Bougainville. These small islands, as well as the main land, had all a very fertile aspect, being covered with fine forests, from whence numerous smokes ascended, which were so many signs of a great population. Having passed the night, standing off and on, we came abreast the northern islands the next morning, and took notice that even the large land extended no farther northward. Most of the small islands were very long, narrow, and bluff at one end, but formed a low flat point, running out to the northward. Their bluff part was commonly white, like a chalk cliff; and it was remarkable that we did not observe any cocoa-nut trees among their forests, which in some places consisted chiefly of club-wood. As we passed by their northern extremity, they formed a very beautiful prospect, gradually opening from each other, and clear of the main land. Steering to the westward we passed a projecting point on Tierra del Espiritu Santo, and opened a most spacious bay, of which the entrance could be no less than 5 leagues wide. The depth of the bay was proportioned to the width. The shores on each side seemed to run parallel for the space of 7 leagues, at the end of which the bay terminates. A fine beach was seen all along the bottom of it, and the land from thence, for many leagues within the country, consisted of hills of a very moderate height, and extensive populous valleys, which had the appearance of fertility and plenty. We stood over to its western shore, where we saw many natives, especially towards the evening; and likewise took notice of a canoe, similar to those which we had observed at Mallicollo; it came off, but the people in it kept at a distance from the ship, and would not come near, though we gave them ever so many invitations. The hill which formed the western shore was rather steep, but well inhabited, and covered with woods. A low flat point ran out from it a mile or two into the bay, and formed a kind of cove, where we wished to come to an anchor, as we were becalmed, and the night was coming on. We sounded several times, but found no bottom with 130 and 140 fathoms, about a mile from the shore. A faint breeze here assisted us to get into the middle of the bay, where we waited for daylight, and then continued to stand in to the southward, * Sandwich Islands Gazette, February 10, 1839. with light airs, which vanished towards noon. Two boats were sent after dinner to the beach, which runs along the bottom of the bay, in order to reconnoitre whether there was any port, or a river, which we could not discern from on board, being still above a league and a half distant. In the meanwhile three canoes put off from the shore, with triangular sails, and approached the ship very fast. In each of them we observed four or five men, to whom we called, so soon as we thought them within hearing. They were naked, and of the same colour as the Mallicollese, but taller and more stoutly formed; their hair seemed to be woolly, and their beards frizzled. They came so near as to accept a present of medals, nails, Taheitee cloth, and red baize; and we could observe them seizing upon the nails with peculiar eagerness, which seems to indicate that they were not unacquainted with them. They fastened a branch of the pepper plant to the same rope by which we had lowered down the nails to them; but it appeared that, besides this emblem of friendship, they had nothing else to give. "When they saw our boats coming back from the shore, they left us, it being then near sunset; Lieutenant Pickersgill, who had the command, reported that he found no soundings before he came within two or three cables' length of the shore, but that the bottom was good at this distance. He had found a fine river, which was deep enough for his boat at the entrance, and had landed on one of the banks, whilst a great number of natives appeared in the bushes on the opposite side. He made many signs of friendship, and called and beckoned to them to come over the water; but none of them venturing to accept the invitation, he re-embarked, and returned to the ship. The boats were hoisted in, and a breeze springing up, assisted us to go gradually out of the bay. Capt. Cook gave this bay the name of St. Philip and St. Iago; but it is still somewhat doubtful whether it is the same which Quiros has distinguished by that name; at least the port of Vera Cruz, which, according to that navigator, has room for a thousand ships, is not to be found in it. "The eastern point of the entrance was named Cape Quiros, and lies in lat. 14° 55′ S. The western point extends somewhat more to the northward, being in 14° 38′ S., and was named Cape Cumberland. We were off this point early the next morning, and advanced slowly out of the bay, along the northern coast of the island, being much detained by calms and light airs. Quiros had great reason to extol the beauty and fertility of this country; it is, to appearance, one of the finest in the world."-(Vol. ii. p. 373.) From off Cape Cumberland, Capt. Cook proceeded to the southward along the western coast. A variety of fish were observed, two albicores caught and a single dolphin. The land was high, the mountains steep, and many fires were observed at night. A southerly breeze springing up, obliged the ship to stand off and on during two days, when she reached the S.W. point of the island, which was named Cape Lisburne.* • Several fish of a most poisonous quality, described by Dr. Forster, were taken by the crew of the Resolution at the New Hebrides; and he notices that Quiros, when here, observed that his whole ship's crew were poisoned at the same place by a fish called pargo. The greater part of the fish taken were, however, good and wholesome. Dr. Forster adds, that "the natives seem to be well acquainted with the poisonous quality of the fish; it would be advisable, therefore, to inquire of them whether it may be eaten with safety, and they are everywhere good-natured enough to give fair warning when there is the least danger.”—Observations, p. 648. To the southward of Espiritu Santo are several islands, the largest of which, quite 7 leagues in circumference, was called Bartholomew Island by Cook. It is the N.E. point of the channel which Cook called Bougainville's Strait, separating it from Mallicollo. The middle of this channel, which is 8 miles broad, is in lat. 15° 48' S. PIC DE L'ETOILE, or STAR ISLAND, is the northernmost of the New Hebrides. It was thus named by Bougainville in 1768; it is very high, and not above 5 or 6 miles in circumference. Lat. about 14° 29′ S., lon. 168° 4′ E. The BANKS ISLANDS, which lie to the northward of the New Hebrides, were discovered by Capt. Bligh, May 14, 1789, during his remarkable voyage in an open boat from Toofoa to Timor, after the mutiny of the Bounty. Under the circumstances in which we have gained our knowledge of them, it cannot be remarkable that they are very imperfectly laid down on the charts. "At 6 in the morning we saw land from S.W. by S. to W.N.W., 6 to 8 leagues distant, which soon after appeared to be four islands, one of them much larger than the others, and all of them high and remarkable; at noon we discovered a small island and some rocks, bearing N.W. by N. 4 leagues, and another island, West, 8 leagues, so that the whole were six in number. On the 15th, at one in the morning, another island was discovered, bearing W.N.W. 5 leagues distant. A number of gannets, boobies, and men-of-war birds were seen. "These islands lie between the latitudes of 13° 16' and 14° 10' S. Their longitude, according to the reckoning, was between 167° 17′ and 168° 34′ E. The largest island I judged to be about 20 leagues in circuit, the others 5 or 6. The easternmost is the smallest island, having a high sugar-loaf hill. "The sight of these islands served only to increase the misery of our situation. We were very little better than starving, with plenty in view; yet to attempt procuring any relief was attended with so much danger, that prolonging of life, even in the midst of misery, was thought preferable, while there remained hope of being able to surmount our hardships. For my own part, I consider the general run of cloudy and wet weather to be a blessing of Providence. Hot weather would have caused us to die with thirst; and probably being so long constantly covered with rain or sea protected us from that dreadful calamity. "The islands are fertile and inhabited, as I saw smoke in several places.' They were so vaguely placed on the charts, that when D'Urville passed them, November 1, 1838, he was much embarrassed. His first discovery was an isolated rock, which he named Claire Island, in lat. 14° 20′ 45′′, lon. 167° 47′ 24", to the S.W. of the Sugar-loaf of Bligh. The latter consists of a uniform land, well wooded, in the middle of which rises a rounded peak, tolerably high and covered with wood. Its form is remarkably round. It terminates to seaward in small low cliffs. No indication of people on it. Its position, according to D'Urville, is lat. 14° 52′ 45′′, lon. 167° 45′ 15′′ E. To the West of it, 1 or 2 leagues distant, is the largest of the group. surmounted with very high peaks. At its N.E. point is another smaller isle, less Voyage of the Bounty, pp. 187-8. pleasing in its appearance, furnished with wood, but without cocoa-nut trees. The sea beats furiously on its shores, which otherwise appear safe. To the W.N.W. of it is another small high island. Between it and the larger, but much nearer the former, D'Urville saw two small low islets, covered with wood, and of small extent, which had escaped Bligh, but he was disposed to think that they might be the North Rocks, as none others were visible in the direction he indicates.* Capt. R. L. Hunter, of the ship Marshall Bennett, passed through the group in December, 1835, and could not reconcile the charts with what he saw. He states that the channel which passed through between two islands ought to be much farther to the southward if the northernmost was the Banks Islands. The southern island was not on the chart (it may therefore be called Bennett Island, as the commander's name elsewhere appears). Its North end was in lat. 14° 15' S., lon. 167° 26' E. The passage between these two islands is about 16 miles across, with breakers plainly visible on both sides from the mast-head, a very high but small island (Pic de L'Etoile) appearing to the S.E. The island (Bennett Island), which has not been previously seen, or has been omitted, lies due South of Banks Islands (?), distant, as above, about 14 or 16 miles; it is of good height and even appearance, sloping at the sides, and as large as any of the above-named islands, that is, apparently about 30 or 35 miles in circumference, with some inhabitants, several fires being seen. The weather was fine, and the nights clear.+ SANTA CRUZ ISLANDS. This group of islands was first discovered by Mendaña in 1595, but were not again seen until Carteret re-discovered them in 1767. Still we gained no complete account of them until they were examined by D'Entrecasteaux in 1793. In the Atlas of his voyage, published by M. Rossel, is a good chart of them by M. Beautemps Beaupré. The group is composed of seven larger islands, Vanikoro, Santa Cruz (Nitendi), Guerta, Volcano (Tinakoro), Edgecumbe, Ourry, and Lord Howe, besides several smaller ones to the N. and N.E. of Volcano Island. VANIKORO is the southernmost of the Santa Cruz group. It is an important island in the eyes of Europeans, not from its extent or riches, but from its being the scene of the disastrous loss of the two ships of La Pérouse, in 1788, an event which was not ascertained with any certainty until May, 1826, or thirty-eight years afterwards. Capt. Edwards, in the Pandora, who was sent in search of the mutineers of the Bounty, was apparently the first who saw Vanikoro, August 13, 1791. He called it Pitt Island. On May 19th, 1793, D'Entrecasteaux passed it 12 or 15 leagues to the West, and called it Ile de la Recherche, after his ship. This expedition, as is well known, was sent in search of the missing expedition of La Pérouse, and at this time it is believed that some of the survivors were still * Voyage de L'Astrolabe et La Zelée, tome v. pp. 5, 6. + Nautical Magazine, July, 1840, p. 468. Carteret supposed that he discovered them on August 10, 1767. His crew were in a very bad state from scurvy, and it was with the utmost joy that they hailed the appearance of the land. His first rencontre with the natives, however, was an unfortunate one; his master and three of his best men died from wounds they received in the affray. living on the scene of their calamity. D'Entrecasteaux thought it much smaller than it is, but fixed its position with great exactness. Capt. Duperrey, in the Coquille (and D'Urville with him on board), passed it in the night of the 1st-2nd August, 1823, but did not examine it. In May, 1826, Mr. Dillon, who had been much at the Feejee Islands, and had acquired the language, came to Tucopia, and found that his armourer had purchased the silver guard of a sword; there were some unknown cyphers on it, and, on inquiry of Martin Bushart, a Prussian, who had escaped from massacre and being eaten at the Feejees, in 1813, but who had lived at Tucopia ever since, he learnt that at the first of his visits he saw many European articles in the hands of the natives, which he, upon a more intimate acquaintance with the language, found out came from a distant island, named Mannicolo (Vanikoro), and that much more remained there. Other particulars led to the conclusion that these were from the missing expedition. On arriving at Calcutta he stated the circumstances to the Bengal government, and the consequence was, that he was despatched in the Research, at the expense of the Honourable Company, 6th of January, 1827, and reached the island in September. Here he made a minute examination of the reefs, and procured a great quantity of articles, guns, iron plates and braces, culinary utensils, a portion of the carving of the stern, broken china, &c., &c., which now form a very interesting trophy in the Galerie de la Marine, in the Louvre, in Paris. He remained here, in Ocili Harbour, from September 13th to October 8th following, and left but little for his successor to gather. The Astrolabe, under the celebrated Dumont D'Urville, anchored at Hobart Town after her voyage, and hearing a vague account of Dillon's discovery, started for Vanikoro, where she anchored February 22, 1828, and quitted it March 17th following, and made a more complete examination of the geography of the island. The name of the island is open to some remark. Dillon calls it always Mannicolo; D'Urville has adopted Vanikoro, although Mr. Gaimard, who was with him, says Vanikolo. The conversion of the two letters, and r, is simple, and not uncommon even among the same natives. Dillon has given almost every point, and by European names. The observations of D'Urville have all been given in the native and more correct names. It was again visited by D'Urville, in the Astrolabe and Zelée, in November, 1838, but without adding much to the previous knowledge. The Vanikoro group has but a very slender population. The coasts alone are inhabited, all the interior being only a dense forest, wild, and nearly impenetrable. Twelve or fifteen hundred was considered to be the outside of the population, according to D'Urville. The indolence of the men, their frequent wars, and the deleterious influence of the climate, unite to daily impoverish this miserable race, so that ere long they may become extinct. Like all others of the black race, they are timid and naturally hostile to Europeans. They are very jealous of their women, who are extremely ugly. The men are in general small, thin, and often attacked with ulcers, or covered with leprous spots. They are active, and sometimes have a pleasing countenance. They generally go naked, except a tapa around the loins. Their food consists of fresh turtle, shell-fish, taro, cocoa-nuts, |
