By Mr Wales with Dollond's 3 1/2 foot achromatic refractor, at 3h 28' 39" 1/4 \ By Mr Clerke with Bird's 2 feet |Appa- reflector, at 3 28 52 1/4 |rent And by me with an 18 inch reflector |time. made by Watkins, 3 28 53 1/4 / Latitude of the isle or place of observation, 20° 17' 39" S. Longitude per distance of the sun and moon, and moon and stars, 48 sets, 164° 41' 21" East. Ditto per watch 163 58 0
Mr Wales measured the quantity eclipsed by a Hadley's quadrant, a method never before thought of. I am of opinion it answers the purpose of a micrometer to a great degree of certainty, and is a great addition to the use of this most valuable instrument. After all was over, we returned on board, where I found Teabooma the chief, who soon after slipped out of the ship without my knowledge, and by that means lost the present I had made up for him.
In the evening I went ashore to the watering-place, which was at the head of a little creek, at a fine stream that came from the hills. It was necessary to have a small boat in the creek to convey the casks from and to the beach over which they were rolled, and then put into the launch; as only a small boat could enter the creek, and that only at high water. Excellent wood for fuel was here far more convenient than water, but this was an article we did not want. About seven o'clock this evening, died Simon Monk, our butcher, a man much esteemed in the ship; his death being occasioned by a fall down the fore-hatch-way the preceding night.
Early in the morning of the 7th, the watering-party, and a guard, under the command of an officer, were sent ashore; and soon after a party of us went to take a view of the country. As soon as we landed we made known our design to the natives, and two of them undertaking to be our guides, conducted us up the hills by a tolerably good path. In our route, we met several people, most or whom turned back with us; so that at last our train was numerous. Some we met who wanted us to return; but we paid no regard to their signs, nor did they seem uneasy when we proceeded. At length we reached the summit of one of the hills, from which we saw the sea in two places, between some advanced hills, on the opposite or S.W. side of the land. This was an useful discovery, as it enabled us to judge of the breadth of the land, which, in this part, did not exceed ten leagues.
Between those advanced hills, and the ridge we were upon, was a large valley, through which ran a serpentine river. On the banks of this were several plantations, and some villages, whose inhabitants we had met on the road, and found more on the top of the hill gazing at the ship, as might be supposed. The plain, or flat of land, which lies along the shore we were upon, appeared from the hills to great advantage; the winding streams which ran through out, the plantations, the little straggling villages, the variety in the woods, and the shoals on the coast, so variegating the scene, that the whole might afford a picture for romance. Indeed, if it were not for those fertile spots on the plains, and some few on the sides of the mountains, the whole country might be called a dreary waste. The mountains, and other high places, are, for the most part, incapable of cultivation, consisting chiefly of rocks, many of which are full of mundicks. The little soil that is upon them is scorched and burnt up with the sun; it is, nevertheless, coated with coarse grass and other plants, and here and there trees and shrubs. The country, in general, bore great resemblance to some parts of New Holland under the same parallel of latitude, several of its natural productions seeming to be the same, and the woods being without underwood, as in that country. The reefs on the coast and several other similarities, were obvious to every one who had seen both countries. We observed all the N.E. coast to be covered with shoals and breakers, extending to the northward, beyond the Isle of Balabea, till they were lost in the horizon. Having made these observations, and our guides not chusing to go farther, we descended the mountains by a road different from that by which we ascended. This brought us down through some of their plantations in the plains, which I observed were laid out with great judgment, and cultivated with much labour. Some of them were lying in fallow, some seemingly lately laid down, and others of longer date, pieces of which they were again beginning to dig up. The first thing I observed they did, was to set fire to the grass, etc. which had over-run the surface. Recruiting the land by letting it lie some years untouched, is observed by all the nations in this sea; but they seem to have no notion of manuring it, at least I have no where seen it done. Our excursion was finished by noon, when we returned on board to dinner; and one of our guides having left us, we brought the other with us, whose fidelity was rewarded at a small expence.
In the afternoon I made a little excursion along-shore to the westward, in company with Mr Wales. Besides making observations on such things as we met, we got the names of several places, which I then thought were islands; but upon farther enquiry, I found they were districts upon the same land. This afternoon a fish being struck by one of the natives near the watering-place, my clerk purchased it, and sent it to me after my return on board.
It was of a new species, something like a sun-fish, with a large long ugly head. Having no suspicion of its being of a poisonous nature, we ordered it to be dressed for supper; but, very luckily, the operation of drawing and describing took up so much time, that it was too late, so that only the liver and row were dressed, of which the two Mr Forsters and myself did but taste. About three o'clock in the morning, we found ourselves seized with an extraordinary weakness and numbness all over our limbs. I had almost lost the sense of feeling; nor could I distinguish between light and heavy bodies, of such as I had strength to move; a quart-pot, full of water, and a feather, being the same in my hand. We each of us took an emetic, and after that a sweat, which gave us much relief. In the morning, one of the pigs, which had eaten the entrails, was found dead. When the natives came on board and saw the fish hanging up, they immediately gave us to understand it was not wholesome food, and expressed the utmost abhorrence of it; though no one was observed to do this when the fish was to be sold, or even after it was purchased.
On the 8th, the guard and a party of men were on shore as usual. In the afternoon, I received a message from the officer, acquainting me that Teabooma the chief was come with a present consisting of a few yams and sugar-canes. In return, I sent him, amongst other articles, a dog and a bitch, both young, but nearly full grown. The dog was red and white, but the bitch was all red, or the colour of an English fox. I mention this, because they may prove the Adam and Eve of their species in that country. When the officer returned on board in the evening, he informed me that the chief came, attended by about twenty men, so that it looked like a visit of ceremony. It was some time before he would believe the dog and bitch were intended for him; but as soon as he was convinced, he seemed lost in an excess of joy, and sent them away immediately.
Next morning early, I dispatched Lieutenant Pickersgill and Mr Gilbert with the launch and cutter to explore the coast to the west; judging this would be better effected in the boats than in the ship, as the reef would force the latter several leagues from land. After breakfast, a party of men was sent on shore, to make brooms; but myself and the two Mr Forsters were confined on board, though much better, a good sweat having had an happy effect. In the afternoon a man was seen, both ashore and alongside the ship, said to be as white as an European. From the account I had of him (for I did not see him,) his whiteness did not proceed from hereditary descent, but from chance or some disease; and such have been seen at Otaheite and the Society Isles. A fresh easterly wind, and the ship lying a mile from the shore, did not hinder those good-natured people from swimming off to us in shoals of twenty or thirty, and returning the same way.
[* Wafers met with Indians in the Isthmus of Darien of the colour of a white horse. See his 'Description of the Isthmus', page 134. See also Mr de Paw's Philosophical Enquiries concerning Americans, where several other instances of this remarkable whiteness are mentioned, and the causes of it attempted to be explained.]