In this bay the French navigators first discovered the use of the circle of lead or bone, which these people, and the inhabitants of Segalien Island, wear on the thumb like a ring; it greatly assists them in cutting and stripping the salmon with a knife, which is always hanging to their girdle. Their village was built upon low marshy land, which must doubtless be uninhabitable during the winter, but on the opposite side of the gulf, another village appeared on a more elevated situation. It was seated at the entrance of a wood, and contained eight cabins, larger and better constructed than the first. Not far from these cabins, they visited three yourts, or subterranean houses. They were sufficiently capacious to accommodate the inhabitants of the whole eight cabins during the severity of the inclement season. On the borders of this village several tombs presented themselves, which were larger and more ingeniously fabricated than the houses; each of them contained three, four, or five biers, decorated with Chinese stuffs, some pieces of which were brocade. Bows, arrows, and the other most esteemed articles of these people, were suspended in the interior of these monuments, the wooden door of which was closed by a bar, supported at each end by a prop.
The women are wrapped in a large robe of nankeen, or salmon’s skin, curiously tanned, descending as low as the ankle-bone, sometimes embellished with a border of fringe manufactured of copper, and producing sounds like those of little bells. Those salmon which furnish a covering for the fair, weigh thirty or forty pounds, and are never caught in summer; those which were taken by the French visiters did not exceed three or four pounds in weight; but that disadvantage was fully compensated by the extraordinary number, and the extreme delicacy of their flavor.
On the 2d of August, La Perouse sailed with a light breeze. On the 19th Cape Troun was perceived to the southward, and Cape Uries to the south-east-by-east; its proper direction, according to the Dutch chart: their situation could not possibly have been determined with more precision by modern navigators. In the evening of the 6th, they made the entrance of Avatcha Bay, or St. Peter and St. Paul. The light-house, erected by the Russians on the east point of the entrance, was not kindled during the night; as an excuse for which the governor declared the next day, that all their efforts to keep it burning had been ineffectual; the wind had constantly extinguished the flame, which was only sheltered by four planks of wood very indifferently cemented.
The government of Kamtschatka had been materially changed since the departure of the English, and was now only a dependency of that of Ochotsk. These particulars were communicated to our navigators by lieutenant Kaborof, governor of the harbor of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, having a sergeant and forty soldiers under his command. M. de Lessops, who acted as interpreter, and who perfectly understood the Russian language, wrote a letter, in La Perouse’s name, to the governor of Ochotsk, to whom La Perouse also wrote in French himself. He told him that the narrative of Cook’s last voyage had spread abroad the fame of the hospitality of the Kamtschadale government; and he flattered himself that he should be as favorably received as the English navigators, as his voyage, like theirs, was intended for the benefit of all maritime nations.
The Kamtschadales are of an imitative genius, and fond of adopting the customs of their conquerors. They have already abandoned the yourts, in which they were formerly accustomed to burrow like badgers, breathing foul air during the whole of the winter. The most opulent among them now build isbas, or wooden houses, like those of the Russians: they are divided into three small rooms, and are conveniently warmed by a brick stove. The inferior people pass their winters and summers in balagans, resembling wooden pigeon-houses, covered with thatch, and placed upon the tops of posts twelve or thirteen feet high, to which the women, as well as men, find a ladder necessary for their ascension. But these latter buildings will probably soon disappear; for the Kamtschadales imitate the manners and dresses of the Russians. It is curious to see in their little cottages, a quantity of cash in circulation; and it may be considered as a still greater curiosity, because the practice exists among so small a number of inhabitants. Their consumption of the commodities of Russia and China are so few, that the balance of trade is entirely in their favor, in consequence of which it is necessary to pay them the difference in roubles. The Kamtschadales, says La Perouse, appeared to me to be the same people as those of the Bay of Castries, on the coast of Tartary; they are equally remarkable for their mildness and their probity, and their persons are not very dissimilar.
The approach of winter now warned our navigators to depart; the ground, which, on their arrival on the 7th of September, was adorned with the most beautiful verdure, was as yellow and parched up on the 25th of the same month, as in the environs of Paris at the conclusion of December. La Perouse therefore gave preparatory orders for their departure, and, on the 29th, got under way. M. Kasloff came to take a final leave of him, and dined on board. He accompanied him on shore, with M. de Langle, and several officers, and was liberally entertained with a good supper, and a ball.
Induced by a western gale, La Perouse attempted to reach the parallel of Bougainville’s Navigator’s Islands, a discovery due to the French, where fresh provision might probably be procured. On the 6th of December, at three in the afternoon, he saw the most easterly island of that Archipelago, and stood on and off during the rest of the evening and night. Meaning to anchor if he met with a proper place, La Perouse passed through the channel between the great and the little islands that Bougainville left to the south; though hardly a league wide, it appeared perfectly free from danger. He saw no canoes until he was in the channel, yet he beheld several habitations on the windward side of the island, and a group of Indians sitting under the shade of cocoa nut trees, who seemed delighted with the prospect afforded by the frigates.
At break of day they were surprised not to see land to the leeward; nor was it to be discovered till six o’clock next morning. Charmed with the beautiful dawn of the following morning, La Perouse resolved to reconnoitre the country, take a view of the inhabitants at their own homes, fill water, and immediately get under way; prudence warning him against passing a second night at that anchorage, which M. de Langle also thought too dangerous for a longer stay. It was therefore agreed on to sail in the afternoon, after appropriating the morning in exchanging baubles for hogs and fruit. At the dawn of day the islanders had surrounded the two frigates, with two hundred different canoes laden with provision, which they would only exchange for beads, axes, and cloth; other articles of traffic, were treated by them with contempt. While a part of the crew was occupied in keeping them in order, and dealing, the rest were despatching empty casks on shore to be replenished with water. Two boats of the Boussole, armed, and commanded by Messrs. de Clonard and Colinet, and those of the Astrolabe, commanded by Messrs. de Monti and Bellegarde, set off with that view at five in the morning, for a bay at the distance of about a league. La Perouse followed close after Messrs. Clonard and Monti, in his pinnace, and landed when they did. It unfortunately happened that M. de Langle had formed a resolution to make an excursion in his jolly-boat to another creek, at the distance of about a league from their watering-place; from this excursion a dire misfortune ensued. The creek, towards which the long-boats steered, was large and commodious: these and the other boats remained afloat at low water, within half a pistol-shot of the beach, and excellent water was easily procured. Great order was observed by Messrs. de Clonard and de Monti. A line of soldiers was posted between the beach and the natives, who amounted to about two hundred, including many women and children. They were prevailed on to sit down under cocoa-trees, at a little distance from the boats; each of them had fowls, hogs, pigeons, or fruit, and all of them were anxious to dispose of their articles without delay, which created some confusion.
While matters were thus passing with perfect tranquillity, and the casks expeditiously flilling with water, La Perouse ventured to visit a charming village, situated in the midst of a neighboring wood, the trees of which were loaded with delicious fruit. The houses formed a circle of about one hundred and fifty toises in diameter, leaving an interior open space, beautifully verdant, and shaded with trees, which rendered the air delightfully cool and refreshing. Women, children, and aged men attended him, and earnestly importuned him to enter their houses; they even spread their finest mats upon the floor, decorated with chosen pebbles, and raised a convenient distance from the ground, to prevent offensive humidity. La Perouse condescended to enter one of the handsomest of these huts, which was probably inhabited by a chief, and was astonished to behold a large cabinet of lattice-work, on which as much taste and elegance were displayed as if it had been produced in the environs of Paris. This enchanting country, blessed with a fruitful soil without culture, and enjoying a climate which renders clothing unnecessary, holds out to these fortunate people an abundance of the most estimable food. The trees invite the natives to partake of the bread-fruit, the banana, the cocoa-nut, and the orange; while the swine, fowls, and dogs, which partake of the surplus of these fruits, afford them a rich variety of viands. The inhabitants of this enviable spot were so rich, and entirely free from wants, that they looked with disdain on the cloth and iron tendered by the French visitors, and only deigned to become customers for beads. Abounding in real blessings they languished only for superfluities.
The boats of the Boussole now arrived, loaded with water, and La Perouse made every preparation to get under way. M. de Langle at the same instant returned from his excursion, and mentioned his having landed in a noble harbor for boats, at the foot of a delightful village, and near a cascade of transparent water. He spoke of this watering-place as infinitely more commodious than any other, and begged La Perouse to permit him to take the lead of the first party, assuring him that in three hours he would return on board with all the boats full of water. Though La Perouse, from the appearance of things at this time, had no great apprehensions of danger, he was averse to sending boats on shore without the greatest necessity, especially among an immense number of people, unsupported and unperceived by the ships. The boats put off from the Astrolabe at half past twelve, and arrived at the watering-place soon after one; when, to their great astonishment, M. de Langle and his officers, instead of finding a large commodious bay, saw only a creek full of coral, through which there was no other passage than a winding channel of about twenty-five feet wide. When within, they had no more than five feet water; the longboats grounded, and the barges must have been in the same situation had they not been hauled to the entrance of the channel at a great distance from the beach. M. de Langle was now convinced that he had examined the bay at high-water only, not supposing that the tide at those islands rose five or six feet. Struck with amazement, he instantly resolved to quit the creek, and repair to that where they had before filled water; but the air of tranquillity and apparent good humor of the crowd of Indians, bringing with them an immense quantity of fruit and hogs, chased his first prudent idea from his recollection.