M. Verron made several observations during the month of May, and their results determined our longitude on the 5th, 9th, 13th, and 22d. We had not till now found so many differences between the observations and the ship’s reckoning, all falling on one side. On the 5th at noon I was more to the east than the observed longitude, by 4° 00′ 42″; on the 9th, by 4° 23′ 4″; on the 13th, by 3° 38′ 15″; and lastly, on the 22d, by 3° 35′. All these differences shew, that from the isle of Taiti, the currents had carried us much to the westward. By this means it might be explained, why all the navigators who have crossed the Pacific ocean have fallen in with New Guinea much sooner than they ought. They have likewise given this ocean not by far so great an extent from east to west as it really has. I must however observe, that whilst the sun was in the southern hemisphere, our reckoning has been to the westward of the observations; and that, after he passed to the other side of the line, our differences have changed. The thermometer during this month was commonly between 19° and 20°, it fell twice to 18°, and once to 15°.
Whilst we were amidst the great Cyclades, some business called me on board the Etoile, and I had an opportunity of verifying a very singular fact. For some time there was a report in both ships, that the servant of M. de Commerçon, named Baré, was a woman. His shape, voice, beardless chin, and scrupulous attention of not changing his linen, or making the natural discharges in the presence of any one, besides several other signs, had given rise to, and kept up this suspicion. But how was it possible to discover the woman in the indefatigable Baré, who was already an expert botanist, had followed his master in all his botanical walks, amidst the snows and frozen mountains of the the straits of Magalhaens, and had even on such troublesome excursions carried provisions, arms, and herbals, with so much courage and strength, that the naturalist had called him his beast of burden? A scene which passed at Taiti changed this suspicion into certainty. M. de Commerçon went on shore to botanize there; Baré had hardly set his feet on shore with the herbal under his arm, when the men of Taiti surrounded him, cried out, It is a woman, and wanted to give her the honours customary in the isle. The Chevalier de Bournand, who was upon guard on shore, was obliged to come to her assistance, and escort her to the boat. After that period it was difficult to prevent the sailors from alarming her modesty. When I came on board the Etoile, Baré, with her face bathed in tears, owned to me that she was a woman; she said that she had deceived her master at Rochefort, by offering to serve him in mens cloaths at the very moment when he was embarking; that she had already before served a Geneva gentleman at Paris, in quality of a valet; that being born in Burgundy, and become an orphan, the loss of a law-suit had brought her to a distressed situation, and inspired her with the resolution to disguise her sex; that she well knew when she embarked that we were going round the world, and that such a voyage had raised her curiosity. She will be the first woman that ever made it, and I must do her the justice to affirm that she has always behaved on board with the most scrupulous modesty. She is neither ugly nor handsome, and is no more than twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age. It must be owned, that if the two ships had been wrecked on any desart isle in the ocean, Baré’s fate would have been a very singular one.
CHAP. V.
Run from the great Cyclades; discovery of the gulph of Louisiade; extremity to which we are reduced there; discovery of new isles; putting into a port on New Britain.
From the 29th of May, when we lost sight of the land, I sailed westward with a very fresh east, or south east wind. |Direction of our course after leaving the Cyclades.| The Etoile considerably retarded our sailing. We sounded every four and twenty hours, finding no bottom with a line of two hundred and forty fathom. In day time we made all the sail we could, at night we ran under reefed top-sails, and hauling upon a wind when the weather was too dark. |1768. June.| The night between the 4th and 5th of June, we were standing to the westward under our top-sails by moon-shine, when at eleven o’clock we perceived some breakers, and a very low sand bank, to the southward, half a league from us. |Meeting with
breakers.| We immediately got the other tacks on board, at the same time making a signal of danger to the Etoile. Thus we ran till near five in the morning, and then we resumed our former course to W. S. W. in order to view this land. We saw it again at eight o’clock, at about a league and a half distance. It is a little sandy isle, which hardly rises above the water; and which, on that account, is a dangerous shoal for ships sailing at night, or in hazy weather. It is so flat, that at two leagues distance, with a very clear horizon, it can only be seen from the mast head; it is covered with birds; I called it the Shoal of Diana (la Bâture de Diane).
CHART
of the Discoveries
in the
SOUTH PACIFICK OCEAN
made by
M. de Bougainville
in 1768.
Continued.
Signs of land.