A voyage round the world

by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

[94]. Rester en travers.

[95]. The continent, which the geographers place in these parts, ought to have been laid down only as a sign of land, which Quiros says he met with the 27th of January 1606. But these signs of continent Quiros found before he came to the isle of Sagittaria, which is the first he landed at, after sailing from Peru. See Mr. Dalrymple’s Historical Collection of Voyages in the South Pacific Ocean, part i. 107, 108, and the chart of the South Seas annexed. F.

[96]. Reaumur’s.

[97]. The people of Otahitee, or as our author wrongly calls it, Taiti, are not idolaters, according to the last published account, and therefore it is certain, that Mr. de B. took some ornamental figures for those of their divinities. Had this circumnavigator made a longer stay in this island, had he thoroughly studied the language of the country, and looked upon many things with a more philosophical, or less prejudiced eye, his account would have proved less subject to the mistakes it abounds with. The English, more used to philosophical enquiries, will give more faithful accounts in the work that is going to be published, of the great discoveries made by the British nation in those seas. F.

[98]. Rayés.

[99]. The cocoa-nuts, or the fruit of the cocos nucifera[cocos nucifera], Linn. is too well known to want any description. The plantains, or fruit of the musa paradisiaca[paradisiaca], Linn. is likewise well known to all navigators, as the produce of hot countries. The bread-fruit is a production of a tree not yet described by Dr. Linnæus; Lord Anson found it upon the isle of Tinian; Dampier and the great Ray take notice of this very useful and curious tree. Yams are the roots of a plant known under the name of dioscorea alata. The okra is the fruit of the hibiscus esculentus, Linn. The curassol is one of the annonas or custard-apples. In general it must be observed that the botanical knowledge of our author is very superficial, and though he enumerates these fruits as the growth of the isle of Otahitee, it cannot be ascertained with any degree of precision, whether our author is right or wrong; and the new light in which, by the indefatigable industry of our philosophers, the natural history of these countries will be placed, makes us the more ardently wish for the publication of their great discoveries. F.

[100]. This assertion of Mr. de B. proves him to be little acquainted with mining; since our best writers on that subject give a gently sloping ridge of mountains, with a fine turf, covered with groves of trees, and well supplied with water, amongst many more, as the characteristics of a place where it is probable to find minerals in: See Lehman’s Art des Mines Metalliques, vol. i. p. 17. But the whole isle of Otahitee seems to be produced by a Volcano, and the rocks on it are chiefly lava, consequently there are very little hopes of finding any regular veins with minerals on it, except some iron-stone, which has been liberally scattered by the benevolent hand of nature all over the various parts of the globe. F.

[101]. Supposed to be the marquis de Pau. F.

[102]. Lune en état de Guerre.

[103]. The stone employed by the inhabitants of Otahitee for chissels and other tools, and even for ornaments to be hung in the ears, is by all appearances a kind of lapis nephriticus, which when transparent is pale-green, very soft, and employed for the latter purpose; but when opaque, it is of a deeper hue and harder. In South America the same kind of stone is employed by the natives for ornaments; and is much valued among the Topayos, or Tapuyas, a nation in the interior parts of Brasil, living along the river of that name, which falls into the river of Amazons. This stone is called tapuravas by the Galibis, a nation in Guiana; the Europeans settled in these parts of the world, call it the Amazon’s-stone; the European jewellers think it to be jade, a kind of precious stone of the same colour brought from the east. It is said that stones of this kind are found near the river St. Jago, forty miles from Quito, in the province of las Esmeraldas, in Peru. They grow more and more scarce, being much coveted by the nations of Guiana, the Tapuyas, and some other Indian nations, and likewise frequently bought up by the Europeans. Barrere Nouvelle Relation de la France equinoxiale, Paris 1743, and Condamine Relation abregée d’un Voyage fait en descendant la Riviere des Amazones, Paris 1746. F.