On the 5th, at four o’clock in the afternoon, some of our people thought they saw the land and breakers to the westward; they were mistaken, and we continued our course that way till ten in the evening. The remaining part of the night we lay-to, or made short boards, and at day-break we resumed our course, all sails set. For twenty-four hours past, several pieces of wood, and some fruits which we did not know, came by the ship floating: the sea too was entirely fallen, notwithstanding the very fresh S. E. wind that blew, and these circumstances together gave me room to believe that we had land pretty near us to the S. E. We likewise saw a new kind of flying fish in those parts; they are black, with red wings, seem to have four wings instead of two, and somewhat exceed the common ones in size.
The 6th, at half an hour past one o’clock in the afternoon, a sand-bank appeared about three quarters of a league distant a-head, and convinced me that it was time to alter the course, which I had always continued to westward. This sand extended at least half a league from W. by S. to W. N. W. Some of our people even were of opinion they saw a low land to the S. W. of the breakers. We stood to the northward till four o’clock, and then again to the westward. This, however, did not last long; for at half pass five o’clock, the men at the mast-heads saw fresh breakers to the N. W. and N. W. by W. about a league and a half from us. We approached nearer, in order to view them better. They were seen to extend above two miles from N. N. E. to S. S. W. and we could not see an end of them. In all probability they joined those which we had discovered three hours before. The sea broke with great violence on these shoals, and some summits of rocks appeared above water from space to space. This last discovery was the voice of God, and we were obedient to it. |Necessary alteration of the course.| Prudence not permitting us to pursue an uncertain course at night, in these dangerous parts, we spent it making short boards in that space, with which we had made ourselves acquainted in the preceding day; and on the 7th, in the morning, I gave orders to steer N. E. by N. abandoning the scheme of proceeding further westward in the latitude of 15°.
We had certainly great reason to believe, that the Tierra Austral del Espiritù Santo was no more than the Archipelago of the great Cyclades, which Quiros took to be a continent, and represented in a romantic light. When I persevered in keeping in the parallel of 15°, it was because I wanted to verify our conjectures, by getting sight of the eastern coasts of New Holland. Thus, according to the Astronomical Observations, (of which the uniformity for a month, and upwards, was a sufficient proof of their accuracy) we were already, on the 6th at noon, in 146° east latitude; that is one degree more to the westward than the Tierra del Espiritù Santo, as laid down by M. Bellin. Besides this, our repeated meeting with the breakers, which we had seen these three days; those trunks of trees, these fruits and sea-weeds, which we found at every moment; the smoothness of the sea, and the direction of the currents, all sufficiently marked the vicinity of a great land; and that it already surrounded us to the S. E. |Geographical reflections.| This land is nothing else than the eastern coast of New Holland. Indeed these numerous shoals, running out to sea, are signs of a low land; and when I see Dampier abandoning in our very latitude of 15° 35′, the western coast of this barren region, where he did not so much as find fresh water, I conclude that the eastern coast is not much better. I should willingly believe, as he does, that this land is a cluster of isles, the approach to which is made difficult by a dangerous sea, full of shoals and sand-banks. After such an explanation, it would have been rashness to risk running in with a coast, from whence no advantage could be expected, and which one could not get clear of, but by beating against the reigning winds. We had only bread for two months, and pulse for forty days; the salt-meat was in greater quantities; but it was noxious, and we preferred the rats to it, which we could catch. Thus it was by all means time to go to the northward, and even to deviate a little to the eastward of our course.
Unluckily the S. E. wind left us here; and when it returned, it put us into the most dangerous situation we had as yet been in. From the 7th, our course made good, was no better than N. by E. when on the 10th, at day-break, the land was discovered, bearing from east to N. W. |Discovery of new lands.| Long before the break of day, a delicious smell announced us the vicinity of this land, which forms a great gulph open to the S. E. I have seen but few lands, which bore a finer aspect than this; a low ground, divided into plains and groves, lay along the sea-shore, and from thence it rose like an amphitheatre up to the mountains, whose summits were lost in the clouds. There were three ranges of mountains; and the highest chain was above twenty-five leagues in the interior parts of the country. The wretched condition to which we were reduced, did not allow us, either to spend some time in visiting this beautiful country, that by all appearances, was fertile and rich; nor to stand to westward in search of a passage on the south side of New Guinea, which might open a new and short navigation to the Molucas, by the gulph of Carpentaria. Nothing, indeed, was more probable, than the existence of such a passage; it was even believed, that the land had been seen as far as W. by S. We were now obliged to endeavour to get out of this gulph as soon as possible, and by the way which seemed to be most open: indeed we were engaged much deeper in it than we at first thought. Here the S. E. wind waited us, to put our patience to the greatest trials.
Critical situation in which we are.
During the 10th, the calm left us at the mercy of a great south-eastern swell, which hove us towards the land. At four o’clock in the evening, we were no more than three quarters of a league distance from a little low isle, to the eastern point of which lies connected a ledge, which extends two or three leagues to the eastward. Towards five o’clock we had brought our head off, and we passed the night in this dreadful situation, making all our efforts to get off shore with the least breezes. On the 11th, in the afternoon, we were got to about four leagues from the coast; at two leagues distance you are out of soundings. Several periaguas sailed along the shore, on which we always saw great fires. Here are turtles; for we found the remains of one in the belly of a shark.
The same day, at sun-setting, we set the eastermost land, bearing E. by N. 2° E. by compass, and the westermost bearing W. N. W. both about fifteen leagues distant. The following days were dreadful; every thing was against us; the wind constantly blowing very fresh at E. S. E. and S. E. the rain; a fog so thick, that we were obliged to fire guns, in order to keep company with the Etoile, which still contained part of our provisions; and, lastly, a very great sea, which hove us towards the shore. We could hardly keep our ground by plying, being obliged to wear, and to carry but very little sail. Thus were we forced to make our boards; in the dark, in the midst of a sea, strewed with shoals; being obliged to shut our eyes to all signs of danger. The night between the 11th and 12th, seven or eight of the fish, which are called cornets[[115]], and which always keep at the bottom of the sea, leaped upon the gang-boards. There likewise came some sand and weeds from the bottom upon our fore-castle; it being left there by the waves that beat over it. |Multiplied dangers which we run.| I did not choose to sound; it would not have lessened the certainty of the danger, which was always the same, whatever expedient we could take. Upon the whole, we owe our safety to the knowledge we had of the land on the 10th in the morning, immediately before this continuance of bad and foggy weather. Indeed the winds being E. S. E. and S. E. I should have thought steering N. E. an excess of precaution against the obscurity of the weather. However this course evidently brought us into the most imminent danger of being lost, as the land extended even to E. S. E.
The weather cleared up on the 16th, the wind still remaining contrary; but we had at least got day-light again. At six o’clock in the morning we saw the land from north to N. E. by E. by compass, and we plyed in order to double it. On the 17th, in the morning, we did not see any land at sun-rising; but at half past nine o’clock we perceived a little island to the N. N. E. by compass, five or six leagues distant, and another land to N. N. W. about nine leagues off. Soon after we discovered in N. E. ½ E. four or five leagues distant, another little isle; which from its resemblance to Ushant[[116]], obtained the same name. We continued our board to N. E. by E. hoping to double all these lands, when, at eleven o’clock, we discovered more land, bearing N. E. by E. ½ E. and breakers to E N. E. which seemed to join Ushant. To the N. W. of this little isle, we saw another chain of breakers, extending half a league. The first isle likewise seemed to be between two chains of breakers.
All the navigators, who ever came into these parts, always dreaded to fall to the southward of New Guinea, and of finding a gulph there corresponding to that of Carpentaria, which it would have proved difficult for them to clear. Consequently they have all in good time got into the latitude of New Britain, at which they touched. They all followed the same track; we opened a new one, and paid dear for the honour of the first discovery. |Extremities to which we are reduced.| Unhappily hunger, the most cruel of our enemies, was on board. I was obliged to make a considerable diminution in the allowance of bread and pulse. It likewise became necessary to forbid the eating of that leather, which is wrapped round the yards, and any other old leather, as it might have had the most dreadful consequences. We had a goat remaining, which had been our faithful companion since we left the Malouines, where we had taken her on board. Every day she gave us some milk. The hungry stomachs of the crew, in a capricious instant, condemned her to death; I could only pity her; and the butcher who fed her such a long time, shed tears over the victim which he thus sacrificed to our hunger. A young dog, taken in the straits of Magalhaens, shared the same fate soon after.
On the 17th, in the afternoon, the currents had been so favourable, that we had again taken the N. N. E. board, standing much to windward of Ushant, and the shoals around it. But at four o’clock we were convinced, that these breakers extend much farther than we were at first aware of; some of them were seen even in E. N. E. and there was yet no end of them. We were obliged, during night, to return upon the S. S. W. tack, and in day-time the eastern one. On the 18th, during the whole morning, we saw no land; and we already gave ourselves up to the hope of having doubled these isles and breakers. Our joy was short; about one o’clock in the afternoon, an isle was seen in N. E. by N. by compass; and soon after it was followed by nine or ten others. Some of them bore E. N. E. and behind them a higher land extended to N. E. about ten leagues distant. We plyed to windward all night; the day following gave us a view of the same double chain of lands running nearly east and west, viz. to the southward, a number of little isles connected by reefs, even with the surface of the water, to the northward of which extended the higher lands. The lands we discovered on the 20th seemed to be less southward, and only to run E. S. E. This was an amendment in our position. I resolved to run boards of four and twenty hours; we lost too much time in putting about more frequently; the sea being extremely rough, and the wind blowing very hard and constantly from the same point: we were likewise obliged to make very little sail, in order to spare our crazy masts, and damaged rigging; our ships too went very ill, being in a bad sailing trim, and not having been careened for so long a time.