He landed the casks on shore from the four boats without interruption, while his soldiers preserved excellent order on the beach, forming themselves in two lines, the more effectually to answer their purpose. Instead of about two hundred natives, including women and children, which M. de Langle found there at about half after one, they were, at three o’clock, increased to the alarming number of one thousand and two hundred. M. de Langle’s situation became every instant more embarrassing; he found means, however, to ship his water, but the bay was almost dry, and he had not any hopes of getting off the long-boats till four in the afternoon. He and his detachment, however, stepped into them, and took post in the bow with his musket and musketeers, forbidding any one to fire without his command; which he knew would speedily be found necessary. Stones were now violently thrown by the Indians, who were up to their knees in water, and surrounded the long-boats, at the distance of about six feet; the soldiers, who were embarked, making feeble efforts to keep them off.
M. de Langle, still hoping to check hostilities, without effusion of blood, gave no orders, all this time, for firing a volley of musketry and swivels; but shortly after, a shower of stones, thrown with incredible force, struck almost every one in the long-boat. M. de Langle had only fired two shots, when he was knocked overboard, and massacred with clubs and stones by about two hundred Indians. The long-boat of the Boussole, commanded by M. de Boutin, was aground near the Astrolabe, leaving between them a channel unoccupied by the Indians. Many saved themselves by swimming, who fortunately got on board the barges, which keeping afloat, forty-nine persons were saved out of the sixty-one, of which the party consisted. M. Boutin was knocked down by a stone, but fortunately fell between the two long-boats, on board of which not a man remained in the space of about five minutes. Those who preserved their lives by swimming to the two barges, received several wounds; but those who unhappily fell on the other side were instantly despatched by the clubs of the remorseless Indians.
The crews of the barges, who had killed many of the islanders with their muskets, now began to make more room by throwing their water-casks overboard. They had also nearly exhausted their ammunition, and their retreat was rendered difficult, a number of wounded persons lying stretched out upon the thwarts, and impeding the working of the oars. To the prudence of M. Vaujaus, and the discipline kept up by M. Mouton, who commanded the Boussole’s barge, the public are indebted for the preservation of the forty-nine persons of both crews who escaped. M. Bouton had received five wounds in the head, and one in the breast, and was kept above water by the cockswain of the longboat who had himself received a severe wound. M. Colinet was discovered in a state of insensibility upon the grapnel-rope of the barge, with two wounds on the head, an arm fractured, and a finger broken. M. Lavaux, surgeon of the Astrolabe, was obliged to suffer the operation of the trepan. M. de Lamanon, and M. de Langle, were cruelly massacred with Talio, master at arms of the Boussole, and nine other persons belonging to the two crews. M. le Gobien, who commanded the Astrolabe’s long-boat, did not desert his post till he was left alone; when, having exhausted his ammunition, he leaped into the channel, and, notwithstanding his wounds, preserved himself on board one of the barges. A little ammunition was afterwards found, and completely exhausted on the infuriated crowd; and the boats at length extricated themselves from their lamentable situation.
At five o’clock the officers and crew of the Boussole were informed of this disastrous event; they were at that moment surrounded with about one hundred canoes, in which the natives were disposing of their provisions with security, and perfectly innocent of the catastrophe which had happened. But they were the countrymen, the brothers, the children of the infernal assassins, the thoughts of which so transported La Perouse with rage, that he could with difficulty confine himself to the limits of moderation, or hinder the crew from punishing them with death.
On the 14th of December, La Perouse stood for the island of Oyolava, which had been observed before they arrived at the anchorage which proved so fatal. This island is separated from that of Maouna, or of the Massacre, by a wide channel, and vies with Otaheite in beauty, extent, fertility, and population. At the distance of about three leagues from the north-east point, he was surrounded by canoes, laden with bread-fruit, bananas, cocoanuts, sugar-cane, pigeons, and a few hogs. The inhabitants of this island resemble those of the island of Maouna, whose treachery had been so fatally experienced. Some exchanges were conducted with these islanders with more tranquillity and honesty than at the island of Maouna, as the smallest act of injustice received immediate chastisement.
On the 17th they approached the island of Pola, but not a single canoe came off perhaps the natives had been intimidated by hearing of the event which had taken place at Maouna. Pola is a smaller island than that of Oyolava, but equally beautiful, and is only separated from it by a channel four leagues across. The natives of Maouna informed our visitors, that the Navigator’s Islands are ten in number, viz. Opoun, the most easterly, Leone, Fanfoue, Maouna, Oyolava, Calinasse, Pola Skika, Ossamo, and Ouera. These islands form one of the finest archipelagoes of the South Sea, and are as interesting with respect to arts, productions, and population, as the Society and Friendly Islands, which the English navigators have so satisfactorily described. In favor of their moral characters, little remains to be noticed; gratitude cannot find a residence in their ferocious minds; nothing but fear can restrain them from outrageous and inhuman actions. The huts of these islanders are elegantly formed; though they disdain the fabrications of iron, they finish their work with wonderful neatness, with tools formed of a species of basaltes in the form of an adze. For a few glass-beads, they batered large three-legged dishes of wood, so well-polished as to have the appearance of being highly varnished. They kept up a wretched kind of police; a few, who had the appearance of chiefs, chastised the refractory with their sticks, but their assumed power seemed generally disregarded; any regulations which they attempted to enforce and to establish, were transgressed almost as soon as they were promulgated. Never were sovereigns so negligently obeyed, never were orders enforced with such feeble shadows of authority.
Imagination cannot figure to itself more agreeable situations than those of their villages. All the houses are built under fruit-trees, which render them delightfully cool; they are seated on the borders of streams, leading down from the mountains. Though the principal object in their architecture is to protect them from offensive heat, the islanders never abandoned the idea of elegance. Their houses are sufficiently spacious to accommodate several families; and they are furnished with blinds, which are drawn to the windward to prevent the intrusion of the potent rays of the sun. The natives repose upon fine comfortable mats, which are cautiously preserved from humidity. Nothing can be said, by our travelers, of the religious rites of these natives, as no moral was perceived belonging to them. The islands are fertile, and their population is supposed to be considerable. Opun, Leone, and Fanfoue, are small; but Maoune, Oyolava, and Pola, may be classed among the largest and most beautiful in the South Sea. Cocoa island is lofty, and formed like a sugar-loaf; it is nearly a mile in diameter, covered with trees, and is separated from Traitors’ Island by a channel about a league wide.
At eight in the morning La Perouse brought to, to the west-south-west, at two miles from a sandy bay in the western part of the Great Island of Traitors, where he expected to find an anchorage sheltered from easterly winds. About twenty canoes instantly quitted the shore and approached the frigates in order to make exchanges; several of them were loaded with excellent cocoa-nuts, with a few yams and bananas; one of them brought a hog, and three or four fowls. It evidently appeared that these Indians had before some knowledge of Europeans, as they came near without fear, traded with honesty, and never refused to part with their fruit before they were paid for it. They spoke, however, the same language, and the same ferocity appeared in their countenances; their manner of tattooing, and the form of their canoes, were the same, but they had not, like them, two joints cut off from the little finger of the left hand; two individuals had, however, suffered that operation.
On the 27th of December, Vavao was perceived, an island which Captain Cook had never visited, but was no stranger to its existence, as one of the archipelago of the Friendly Islands; it is nearly equal in extent to that of Tongataboo, and is particularly fortunate in having no deficiency of fresh water. The two small islands of Hoongatonga are no more than two large uninhabitable rocks, which are high enough to be seen at the distance of fifteen leagues. Their position is ten leagues north of Tongataboo; but that island being low, it can hardly be seen at half that distance. On the 31st of December, at six in the morning, an appearance like the tops of trees, which seemed to grow in the water, proved the harbinger of Van Dieman’s point. The wind being northerly, La Perouse steered for the south coast of the island, which may, without danger, be approached within three musket-shots. Not the semblance of a hill is to be seen; a calm sea cannot present a more level surface to the eye. The huts of the natives were scattered irregularly over the fields, and not socially collected into a conversable neighborhood. Seven or eight canoes were launched from these habitations, and directed their course towards the vessels; but these islanders were awkward seamen, and did not venture to come near, though the water was smooth, and no obstacle impeded their passage. At the distance of about eight or ten feet, they leaped overboard and swam near the frigates, holding in each hand a quantity of cocoa-nuts, which they were glad to exchange for pieces of iron, nails, and hatchets; from the honesty of their dealings a friendly intercourse ensued between the islanders and the navigators, and they ventured to come on board.
Norfolk Island, off the coast of New South Wales, which they saw on the 13th of January, is very steep, but does not exceed eighty toises above the level of the sea. It is covered with pines, which appear to be of the same species as those of New Caledonia, or New Zealand. Captain Cook having declared that he saw many cabbage-trees in this island, heightened the desire of the navigators to land on it. Perhaps the palm which produces these cabbages is very small, for not a single tree of that species could be discovered. On the 26th, at nine in the morning, La Perouse let go the anchor at a mile from the north coast of Botany Bay, in seven fathoms water. An English lieutenant, and a midshipman, were sent on board his ship by Captain Hunter, commander of the Sirius. They offered him, in Captain Hunter’s name, all the services in his power; but circumstances would not permit him to supply them with provision, ammunition, or sails. An officer was despatched from the French to the English Captain, returning thanks, and adding, that his wants extended only to wood and water, of which he should find plenty in the bay. The journal of La Perouse proceeds no further. La Perouse, according to his last letters from Botany Bay, was to return to the Isle of France in 1788.