Meteorological observations.
The thermometer[[96]] constantly kept between 19° and 20°, during this month, and even near the land. Towards the end of the month, we had five days west winds, with squalls and storms, which succeeded each other almost without interruption. It rained continually; and the scurvy made its appearance on eight or ten persons of the crew. Moistness is one of the most powerful causes of this disease. |Advantageous use of lemonade-powder at sea.| Each sailor got daily a pint of lemonade, prepared with a kind of powder, called powder of faciot; which we made great use of, during the course of this voyage. |Water deprived of its salt.| On the third of March I had likewise begun to make use of the distilling apparatus of M. Poissonier; and we continued till we arrived at New Britain to make use of the sea-water, which was by this means deprived of its salt; employing it in broth, and in boiling meat and legumes. The supply of water it procured us, during this long run, was a very great resource. |1768. April.| We lighted our fire at five in the evening, and put it out by five or six in the morning, making above a barrel of water every night. By way of sparing our fresh water, we always kneaded our bread with salt water.
Second division of lands; Archipelago of Bourbon.
The second of April, at ten in the morning, we perceived, to the N. N. E. a high and very sleep mountain, seemingly surrounded by the sea. I called it the Boudoir, or the Peak of the Boudeuse. |Sight of Taiti.| We stood to the northward, in order to make it plain, when we saw another land, bearing W. by N. the coast of which was not so high, but afforded an indeterminate extent to our eyes. We had a very urgent necessity for touching at some place where we might get refreshments and wood, and we flattered ourselves to find them on this land. It was a calm almost the whole day. In the evening a breeze sprung up, and we stood towards the land till two in the morning, when we stood off shore again, for three hours together. The sun rose obscured by clouds and haze; and it was nine o’clock in the morning before we could see the land again, its southermost point then bearing W. by N. We could no longer see the peak of the Boudeuse, but from the mast-head. The wind blew N. and N. N. E. and we stood as close upon it as we could, in order to fall into windward of the island. As we came nearer we saw, beyond its northermost point, a distant land, still further to northward, without our being able at that time to distinguish whether it joined to the first isle, or whether it formed a second.
Manœuvres in order to land there.
During the night, between the third and fourth, we turned to windward, in order to get more to the northward. With joy we saw fires burning on every part of the coast, and from thence concluded that it was inhabited.
The 4th, at day-break, we discovered that the two lands, which before appeared separate, were united together by a low land, which was bent like a bow, and formed a bay open to the N. E. We run with all sails set towards the land, standing to windward of this bay, when we perceived a periagua coming from the offing, and standing for the land, and making use of her sail and paddles. She passed athwart us, and joined a number of others, which sailed a-head of us, from all parts of the island. One of them went before all the rest; it was manned by twelve naked men, who presented us with branches of bananas; and their demonstrations signified that this was their olive-branch. |First traffic with these islanders.| We answered them with all the signs of friendship we could imagine; they then came along side of our ship; and one of them, remarkable for his prodigious growth of hair, which stood like bristles divergent on his head, offered us, together with his branch of peace, a little pig, and a cluster of bananas. We accepted his present, which he fastened to a rope that was thrown over to him; we gave him caps and handkerchiefs; and these first presents were the pledges of our alliance with these people.
The two ships were soon surrounded with more than an hundred periaguas of different sizes, all which had outriggers. They were laden with cocoa-nuts, bananas, and other fruits of the country. The exchange of these fruits, which were delicious to us, was made very honestly for all sorts of trifles; but without any of the islanders venturing to come aboard. We were obliged either to come into their periaguas, or shew them at a distance what we offered in exchange; when both parties were agreed, a basket or a net was let down by a rope; they put their goods in it, and so we did ours; giving before they had received, or receiving before they gave indifferently, with a kind of confidence, which made us conceive a good opinion of their character. We further saw no kind of arms in their periaguas, in which there were no women at this first interview. The periaguas kept along-side of the ships, till the approach of night obliged us to stand off shore, when they all retired.
We endeavoured, during night, to go to the northward, never standing further than three leagues from the land. All the shore was, till near midnight, covered as the night before, with little fires at a short distance from each other: it seemed as if it was an illumination made on purpose, and we accompanied it with several sky-rockets from both our ships.
Description of the coast as seen from the offing.