A voyage round the world

by comte Louis-Antoine de Bougainville

The Etoile comes down from Baragan to Montevideo.

The repair and loading of the Etoile took us up all October, and cost us a prodigious expence; we were not able to balance our accounts with the provisor-general, and the other Spaniards who had supplied our wants, till the end of this month. I paid them with the money I received, as a reimbursement for the cession of the Malouines, which I thought was preferable to a draught upon the king’s treasury. I have continued to do the same in regard to all the expences, at the various places we had occasion to touch at in foreign countries. I have bought what I wanted much cheaper, and obtained it much sooner by this means.

Difficulty of this navigation.

The 31st of October, by break of day, I joined the Etoile, some leagues from the Encenada; she having sailed from thence for Montevideo the preceding day. |1767. November.| We anchored there on the third of November, at seven in the evening. The necessity of finding out a channel, by constant soundings, between the Ortiz sandbank, and another little bank to the southward of it, both of which have no beacons on them, makes this navigation subject to great difficulties: the low situation of the land to the south, which therefore cannot be seen with ease, increases the difficulties. It is true, chance has placed a kind of beacon almost at the west point of the Ortiz bank. These were the two masts of a Portuguese vessel, which was lost there, and happily stands upright. In the channel you meet with four, four and a half, and five fathoms of water; and the bottom is black ooze; on the extremities of the Ortiz-bank, it is red sand. In going from Montevideo to the Encenada, as soon as you have made the beacon in E. by S. and have five fathoms of water, you have passed the banks. We have observed 15′ deg. 30. min. N. E. variation in the channel.

Loss of three sailors.

This small passage cost us three men, who were drowned; the boat getting foul under the ship, which was wearing, went to the bottom; all our efforts sufficed only to save two men and the boat, which had not lost her mooring-rope. I likewise was sorry to see, that, notwithstanding the repairs the Etoile had undergone, she still made water; which made us fear that the fault lay in the caulking of the whole water-line; the ship had been free of water till she drew thirteen feet.

Preparation for leaving Rio de la Plata.

We employed some days to stow all the victuals into the Boudeuse, which she could hold, and to caulk her over again; which was an operation, that could not be done sooner, on account of the absence of her caulkers, who had been employed in the Etoile; we likewise repaired the boat of the Etoile; cut grass for the cattle we had on board; and embarked whatever we had on shore. The tenth of November was spent in swaying up our top-masts and lower yards, and setting up our rigging, &c. We could have sailed the same day, if we had not grounded. On the 11th, the tide coming in, the ships floated, and we cast anchor at the head of the road; where vessels are always a-float. The two following days we could not sail, on account of the high sea; but this delay was not entirely useless. A schooner came from Buenos Ayres, laden with flour, and we took sixty hundred weight of it, which we made shift to stow in our ships. We had now victuals for ten months; though it is true, that the greatest part of the drink consisted of brandy. |Condition of the crews, at our sailing from Montevideo.| The crew was in perfect health. The long stay they made in Rio de la Plata, during which a third part of them alternately lay on shore, and the fresh meat they were always fed with, had prepared them for the fatigues and miseries of all kinds, which we were obliged to undergo. I left at Montevideo my pilot, my master-carpenter, my armourer, and a warrant-officer of my frigate; whom age and incurable infirmities prevented from undertaking the voyage. Notwithstanding all our care, twelve men, soldiers and sailors, deserted from the two ships. I had, however, taken some of the sailors at the Malouines, who were engaged in the fishery there; and likewise an engineer, a supercargo, and a surgeon; by this means my ship had as many hands as at her departure from Europe; and it was already a year since we had left the river of Nantes.

Departure from Montevideo.

The 14th of November, at half past four in the morning, wind due north, a fine breeze, we sailed from Montevideo. At half past eight we were N. and S. off the isle of Flores; and at noon twelve leagues E. and E. by S. from Montevideo; and from hence I took my point of departure in 34° 54′ 40″ S. lat. and 58° 57′ 30″ W. long. from the meridian of Paris. |Its position astronomically determined.| I have laid down the position of Montevideo, such as M. Verron has determined it by his observations; which places its longitude 40′ 30″ more W. than Mr. Bellin lays it down in his chart. I had likewise profited of my stay on shore, to try my octant upon the distances of known stars; this instrument always made the altitude of every star too little by two minutes; and I have always since attended to this correction. I must mention here, that in all the course of this Journal, I give the bearings of the coasts, such as taken by the compass; whenever I give them corrected, according to the variations, I shall take care to mention it.