July 16th.
The pinnace having returned yesterday and reported a clear passage for the ship to the westward close inshore, we got underweigh and returned on the same line by which we had come out, anchoring for the night in 19 fathoms water, under Observation Reef 2. Next day we rounded Brierly Island from the eastward, passed between it and Joannet Island, and after running a few miles further to the westward, anchored in 30 fathoms--15 miles West-North-West from Brierly Island, and two miles from the nearest of the Calvados Group. In passing Brierly Island the place appeared to be deserted. We saw a single canoe hauled up on the beach, but no natives.
On July 18th, after standing to the westward 32 miles, we hauled out south, and anchored in 22 fathoms, about eight miles from the nearest of the Calvados. We remained at this anchorage for the next three days.
INHABITANTS OF THE CALVADOS GROUP.
One day we were visited by a canoe from a neighbouring island, and on the following morning two more canoes came off. The people in one canoe kept at a safe distance, but those in the other came alongside, and after exhausting their stock of yams and other articles of barter, went off to their more cautious companions, and speedily returned to us with a fresh supply. The canoe was an old patched-up affair, and while one of the natives was standing up with a foot on each gunwale, a previous fracture in the bow, united only by pitch, gave way, and a piece of the side, four feet long, came out, allowing the water to rush in. The canoe would speedily have been swamped, had not the author of the mischief held on the piece in his hand, while some of the others bailed away as rapidly as possible, and the remainder paddled off with desperation, shouting loudly to the people in the second canoe for help. But their friends seemed as much frightened as themselves, not knowing the nature of the accident, and probably supposing that we had been roughly treating their companions they made sail for the shore, and did not stop until they had got half a mile away from the ship, when they waited until the damaged canoe came up in a sinking state, bailed her out, and after taking some people out of her, both made off, under sail, and we saw no more of them.
But for this accident I would probably have got a few words of their language to compare with those obtained at Brierly Island. Our visitors were profusely decorated with the red, feathery, leafy shoots of an Amaranthus, which they wore fastened in bunches about the ankles, waist, elbows, and in the hair. In other respects, I saw nothing among them different from what has already been described at Coral Haven.
THE LOUISIADE ARCHIPELAGO.
From this anchorage we enjoyed an extensive view of the south-eastern portion of the Louisiade Archipelago. On the extreme right is the large South-east Island, with its sharply undulating outline, and Mount Rattlesnake clearly visible, although distant 45 miles. Next, after a gap partially filled up by Pig Island, Joannet Island succeeds, 10 1/2 miles in length, not so high as South-east Island but resembling it in dimness of outline--its highest point, Mount Asp, is 1,104 feet in height. Next come the Calvados, of various aspect and size, some with the undulating outline of the larger islands, others rising more or less abruptly to the height of from four to upwards of nine hundred feet. They constitute a numerous group--upwards of 40--some of which, however, are mere rocks, are delineated upon the Rattlesnake's chart, and there are others to the northward. Behind them, in two of the intervals, the large and distant island of St. Aignan (so named after one of D'Entrecasteaux' lieutenants) fills up the background, falling low at its eastern extreme, but the western half high and mountainous, with an elevation of 3,279 feet. Further to the westward the last of the Calvados in this view was seen to form a remarkable peak, 518 feet in height, to which the name of Eddystone was applied; and still further to the left Ile Real, of D'Urville's chart, shoots up to the height of 554 feet, as a solitary rocky island with rugged outline and an abruptly peaked summit.
DUCHATEAU ISLANDS.
July 23rd.