COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.CHAPTER XLIV.COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE—A STORM—SEPARATION OF THE SHIPS—AURORA AUSTRALIS—NEW ZEALAND—SIX WATER-SPOUTS AT ONCE—TAHITI AGAIN—PETTY THEFTS OF THE NATIVES—COOK VISITS THE TAHITIAN THEATRE—OMAI—ARRIVAL AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS—THE FLEET WITNESS A FEAST OF HUMAN FLESH—THE NEW HEBRIDES—NEW CALEDONIA—RETURN HOME—HONORS BESTOWED UPON COOK.The English Government now determined to despatch an expedition in search of the supposed Southern or Austral continent. A Frenchman, by the name of Benoit, had seen in 1709, to the south of the Cape of Good Hope, in latitude 54° and in longitude 11° East, what he believed to be land, naming it Cape Circumcision. Cook was placed in command of the Resolution and Adventure, and instructed to endeavor to find this cape andsatisfy himself whether it formed part of the great continent in question. He left Plymouth on the 13th of July, 1772, and the Cape of Good Hope on the 22d of November.A terrific gale soon drove both vessels from their course, washed overboard their live-stock, and well-nigh disabled the Resolution. The cold increased suddenly, and drawers and fearnaughts were served in abundance to the crew. Immense ice-islands now occupied the horizon, and the sea, dashing over them to the height of sixty feet, filled the air with its ceaseless roar. On Sunday, the 13th of December, they were in the latitude of Cape Circumcision, but ten degrees east of it. For weeks they kept in high Southern latitudes, now menaced by towering peaks of ice, now enclosed by immense fields and floating masses, till, towards the 1st of February, 1773, Cook came to the unwelcome conclusion that the cape discovered by Benoit was nothing more than a huge tract of ice, which, being chained to no anchorage and subject to no latitude, he had no reason to expect to find in the spot where the credulous Frenchman had discovered it sixty years before.On the 8th of February, the Resolution lost sight of the Adventure, and cruised three days in search of her, firing guns and burning false fires, but without success. On the 17th, between midnight and three in the morning, Cook saw lights in the sky similar to those seen in high Northern latitudes and known by the name of Aurora Borealis: the Aurora Australis had never been seen before. It sometimes broke out in spiral rays and in a circular form; its colors were brilliant, and it diffused its light throughout the heavens. On the 24th, a tremendous gale, accompanied with snow and sleet, made great havoc among the ice-islands, breaking them up, and largely increasing the number of floating and insidious enemies the ship had to contend with. These dangers were now, however, so familiar to the crew, that the apprehensions they caused were never of long duration, and were in some measure compensated by the seasonable supplies ofwater the ice-islands afforded them, and without which they would have been greatly distressed.On the 16th of March, Cook found himself in latitude 59°, longitude 146° East. He now determined to quit this quarter, where he was convinced he should find no land, and proceed to New Zealand to look for the Adventure and to refresh his crew. On the 26th, he anchored in Dusky Bay, New Zealand, after having been one hundred and seventeen days at sea, and having sailed eleven thousand miles without once seeing land. This point, the most southerly of New Zealand, had never been visited by a European before.While coasting to the northward, towards Queen Charlotte's Sound, where he expected to find the Adventure, Cook suddenly observed six water-spouts between his vessel and the land. Five of them soon spent themselves; the sixth started from a point three miles distant, and passed within fifty yards of the stern of the Resolution, though she felt no shock. The diameter of its base was about sixty feet: within this space the sea was much agitated and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube was formed, by which the water and air were carried up in a spiral stream to the clouds, from whence the water did not descend again, being dispersed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. "I have been told," says Cook, "that the firing of a gun will dissipate water-spouts; and I am sorry that we did not try the experiment, as we were near enough and had a gun ready for the purpose; but as soon as the danger was past I thought no more about it."On the 18th of May, the Resolution discovered the Adventure in Queen Charlotte's Sound: the crews of the two ships were overjoyed at meeting each other after a separation of fourteen weeks. The captain of the latter had seen upon the coast some natives of the tribe which had furnished Tupia to Cook's vessel upon his first voyage. They seemed quite concerned when informed that he had died at Batavia, and were anxious toknow whether he had been killed, and whether he had been buried or eaten.Before leaving the island, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips were planted in spots favorable to their growth, and the natives were made to understand their value as esculent roots. A ewe and ram were sent ashore from the Resolution,—the last pair of the large stock put on board at the Cape of Good Hope; but they probably ate a poisonous plant during the night, for they were found dead in the morning. The Adventure put ashore a boar and two sows, in the hope that they would multiply and replenish the island.The two ships sailed in company from New Zealand on the 7th of June, their purpose being to proceed to the eastward in search of land as far as longitude 140° West, between the latitudes of 41° and 46° South. During a long cruise, Cook saw nothing which induced in him the belief that they were in the neighborhood of any continent between the meridian of New Zealand and America. A fact which militated against it was, that they had, as is usual in all great oceans, large billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale. These billows never ceased with the cause which first put them in motion,—a sure indication that no land was near. They constantly passed low and half-submerged islands,—now consisting of coral shoals fretting the waves into foam, and now of islets clothed with verdure. On the 17th of August they arrived at Tahiti, after an entirely fruitless voyage.The thieving and cheating propensities of the natives appeared in bold relief during the sojourn of the English upon their coast. The latter sometimes paid in advance for promised supplies of hogs and fowls, in which case they were sure never to get them,—the wary trader making off with his axe, shirt, or nails, and dispensing with the necessity of fulfilling his engagement. The practice of over-reaching was not confined to the underlings of society, but extended even to thechiefs. A potentate of high warlike renown came one day to the side of the Resolution, and offered for sale a superb bundle of cocoanuts, which was readily bought by one of the officers. On untying it, it was found to consist of fruit which they had already once bought, and which had been tapped, emptied of the milk, and thrown overboard. The dishonest dignitary sat in his canoe at a distance, indicating by the glee and vigor of his pantomime that he enjoyed in a supreme degree the brilliant success of this mercantile fraud.KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.At another part of the coast, Cook and his officers were invited by Otoo, the king, to visit the theatre, where a play was to be enacted with music and dancing. The performers were five men and one woman, who was no less a personage than the king's sister. The instruments consisted of three drums only, and the music lasted about an hour and a half. The meaning of the play was not apparent to the English, except that it abounded in local allusions,—the name of Cook constantly recurring. The dancing-dress of the lady was very elegant, being ornamented with long tassels made of feathers, hanging from the waist downwards.RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.Cook left Tahiti early in September, taking with him a young savage named Poreo, who was smitten with a desire to visit foreign parts. At the neighboring island of Huaheine, a native named Omai, belonging to the middle class, was also taken on board. Cook thus speaks of him two years later:—"Omai has most certainly a good understanding, quick parts, and honest principles: he has a natural good behavior, which renders him acceptable to the best company, and a proper degree of pride, which teaches him to avoid the society of persons of inferior rank. He has passions of the same kind as other young men, but has judgment enough not to indulge them to an improper excess." Omai was taken back to Huaheine by Cook when he started upon his third voyage of discovery, in 1776. We shall have occasion hereafter to chronicle the incidents of this restoration.Cook arrived at Middlebourg, one of the Friendly Islands, early in October. Two canoes, rowed by three men each, came boldly alongside; and some of them entered the ship without hesitation. One of them seemed to be a chief, by the authority he exerted, and accordingly received a present of a hatchet and five nails. Tioony—such was this potentate's name—was thus cheaply conciliated. Cook and a party soon embarked in a boat, accompanied by Tioony, who conducted them to a little creek, where a landing was easily effected. Tioony brandished a branch of the tree of peace in his right hand, extending his left towards an immense crowd of natives, who welcomed the English on shore with loud acclamations. Not one of them carried a weapon of any sort: they thronged so thickly around the boat that it was difficult to get room to land. They seemed more desirous to give than receive; and many threw whole bales of cloth and armfuls of fruit into the boat, and then retiredwithout either asking or waiting for an equivalent. Tioony then conducted the strangers to his house, which was situated upon a fine plantation beneath the shade of shaddock-trees. The floor was laid with mats. Bananas and cocoanuts were set before them to eat, and a beverage was prepared for them to drink. This was done in the following manner:—Pieces of a highly-scented root were vigorously masticated by the natives; the chewed product was then deposited in a large wooden bowl and mixed with water. As soon as it was properly strained, cups were made of green leaves which held nearly half a pint, and presented to the English. No one tasted the contents but Cook,—the manner of brewing it having quenched the thirst of every one else. In this island, as well as in the neighboring one of Amsterdam, the people—both men and women—were observed to have lost one or both of their little fingers. Cook endeavored in vain to discover the reason of this mutilation; but no one would take any pains to inform him.Cook noticed with interest the sailing canoes of these islands. A remarkable feature was the sail,—which, being suspended by its spar from a forked mast, could be so turned that the prow of the boat became its stern, andvice versâ. They sailed with equal rapidity in either direction.CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.On his return to New Zealand in November, Cook found that his efforts to introduce new plants and animals had been frustrated by the natives. One of the sows had been incapacitatedby a severe cut in one of her hind-legs; the other sow and the boar had been sedulously kept separate. The two goats had been killed by a fellow named Gobiah, and the potatoes had been dug up. Cook here had the satisfaction of beholding a feast of human flesh. A portion of the body of a young man of twenty years was broiled and eaten by one of the natives with evident relish. Several of the ship's crew were rendered sick by the disgusting sight.The Adventure separated from her consort at this point; nor was she again seen during the remainder of the voyage. Cook left New Zealand early in December for a last attempt in the Southern Ocean. On the 12th he saw the first ice, and on the 23d, in latitude 67°, found his passage obstructed by such quantities that he abandoned all hopes of proceeding any farther in that direction, and resolved to return to the north. As he was in the longitude of 137°, it was clear that there must be a vast space of sea to the north unexplored,—a space of twenty-four degrees, in which a large tract of land might possibly lie.Late in February, 1774, Cook was taken ill of bilious colic, and for some days his life was despaired of. The crew suffered severely from scurvy. On the 11th of March, they fell in with Roggewein's Easter Island, which they recognised by the gigantic statues which lined the coast. They noticed a singular disproportion in the number of the males and females, having counted in the island some seven hundred men and only thirty women.Early in April, Cook arrived among the Marquesas Islands, discovered in 1595 by Mendana. On the 22d, he arrived at Point Venus, in Tahiti, where he had observed the transit in 1769, and of which the longitude was known: he was able, therefore, to determine the error of his watch, and to fix anew its rate of going. The natives, and especially Otoo, the king, expressed no little joy at seeing him again. On leaving Tahiti, Cook visited in detail the islands named Espiritu Santo by Quiros and Grandes Cyclades by Bougainville. As he determinedtheir extent and position, he took the liberty of changing their name to that of the New Hebrides.NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.Cook now discovered the large island of New Caledonia, whose inhabitants he mentions as possessing an excellent character. Subsequent navigators, however, ascertained them to be cannibals. They were much lower in the scale of intelligence than the Tahitians. Their canoes were of the most clumsy description, and were generally propelled in pairs by poles. Cook was unable to obtain provisions; and, as his crew were now suffering from famine, he returned to New Zealand, where he arrived on the 18th of October. He left again on the 10th of November, and anchored on the 21st of December in Christmas Sound, in Terra del Fuego. He doubled Cape Horn, discovered numerous islands of little importance, and finally headed the vessel for the Cape of Good Hope. He anchored in Table Bay on the 19th of March, 1775. He here found news of the Adventure, which had already passed the Cape on her way home. On the 30th of July, Cook landed at Plymouth, after an absence of three years and eighteen days. During this space of time he had lost but four men, and only one of these four by sickness. He was promoted to the rank of captain, was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and received the Godfrey Copley gold medal in testimony of the appreciation in which his efforts to preserve the health of his crew were held by the Government. He was now forty-seven years of age.A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.CHAPTER XLV.COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE—THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE—OMAI—HIS RECEPTION AT HOME—THE CREW FOREGO THEIR GROG—DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—NOOTKA SOUND—THE NATIVES—CAPE PRINCE OF WALES—TWO CONTINENTS IN SIGHT—ICY CAPE—RETURN TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—COOK IS DEIFIED—INTERVIEW WITH TEREOBOO—SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES—A SKIRMISH—PITCHED BATTLE AND DEATH OF COOK—RECOVERY OF A PORTION OF HIS REMAINS—FUNERAL CEREMONIES—LIFE AND SERVICES OF COOK.Cook might justly have retired at this period to private life, to enjoy his well-earned reputation. But the grand question of the Northwest Passage, now agitated by the press and the public, induced him once more to tempt the perils of foreign adventure. As every effort to force a passage through Baffin's or Hudson's Bay had signally failed, it was determined to make the experiment through Behring's Straits. On the 9thof February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of-war Resolution,—the vessel in which he had made his last voyage,—the Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to accompany the expedition. Both ships were equipped in a manner befitting the nature of their mission: they were well supplied with European animals and plants, which they were to introduce into the islands of the Pacific. Omai, the young Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed on board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret; but the consciousness that the treasures he carried with him would raise him to an enviable rank among his countrymen operated by degrees to alleviate his sorrow. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, and was followed, on the 10th of August, by the Discovery: both vessels joined company, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope.As we have already been frequently over the track now for the third time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, without detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ from those of his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's Land in December, and passed a fortnight of the month of February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand. Soon after he discovered an island which the natives called Mangya: he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a better pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in it. At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself and a party of English from a position of great danger by giving the natives an exaggerated account of the instruments of war used on board the two ships anchored in the offing. "These instruments," he said, "were so huge that several people could sit conveniently within them; and one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had it not been for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would have been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society IslandsCook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He was somewhat encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind would not be fruitless, for upon the same day the natives served up at his dinner a dish of turnips, being the produce of the seeds he had left there during his last voyage.The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed particularly the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his home and his friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother-in-law, came on board. There was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu, who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present of feathers; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was evident to the English that it was not the man, but his property, they were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was Omai's first reception among his countrymen. Had he not shown to them his treasure of red feathers, I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon him. I own I never expected it would be otherwise."The important news of the arrival of red feathers was conveyed on shore by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded early the next morning by a multitude of canoes crowded with people bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first a quantity of feathers not greater than might be plucked from a tomtit would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds; but such was the quantity of this precious article on board that its value fell five hundred per cent. before night. Omai was now visited by his sister; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was marked by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, however, that Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he had if left among his relatives: so it was determined to establishhim at the neighboring island of Huaheine. A large lot of land was obtained there from the chief, and the carpenters of the two ships set about building him a house fit to contain the European commodities that were his property. Cook told the natives that if Omai were disturbed or harassed he should upon his next visit make them feel the weight of his resentment. Omai took possession of his mansion late in October, and on Sunday, November 2, bade adieu to the officers of the ship. He sustained himself in this trying ordeal till he came to Cook, and then gave way to a passionate burst of tears. He wept abundantly while being conveyed on shore. "It was no small satisfaction to reflect," writes Cook, "that we had brought him back safe to the spot from which he was taken. And yet such is the strange nature of human affairs that it is probable we left him in a less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with us. He had tasted the sweets of civilized life, and must now become more miserable from being obliged to abandon all thoughts of continuing them." The career and destiny of Omai were perhaps more remarkable than those of any other savage: he was cherished by Cook, painted by Reynolds, and apostrophized by Cowper.During the stay of the vessels at the Society Islands, Cook induced the crews to give up their grog and use the milk of cocoanuts instead. He submitted it to them whether it would not be injudicious, by drinking their spirits now, to run the risk of having none left in a cold climate, where cordials would be most needed, and whether they would not be content to dispense with their grog now, when they had so excellent a liquor as that of cocoanuts to substitute in its place. The proposal was unanimously agreed to, and the grog was stopped except on Saturday nights.OMAI.Early in February, 1778, Cook made a most important discovery,—that of the archipelago now known as the Sandwich Islands, so named by Cook in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited five of these islands, one of which was Oahu. He found a remarkable similarity of manners and coincidence of language with those of the Society Islands, and in his journal asks the following question:—"How shall we account for this nation having spread itself in so many detached islands, so widely separated from each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean? We find it from New Zealand in the south to the Sandwich Islands in the north! And, in another direction, from Easter Island to the New Hebrides! That is, over an extent of three thousand six hundred miles north and south, and five thousand miles east and west!"From the Sandwich Islands Cook sailed to the northeast, and on the 7th of March struck the coast of America, upon the shores of the tract named New Albion by Sir Francis Drake. The skies being very threatening, he gave the name of Cape Foulweather to a promontory forming the northern extremity. Late in March the two vessels entered a broad inlet, to which Cook gave the name of King George's Sound; but it is better known now by its original name of Nootka Sound. Cook found the natives friendly and willing to sell and buy. They were under the common stature, their persons being full and plump without corpulence, their faces round, with high prominent cheeks, noses flattened at the base with wide nostrils, low forehead, small black eyes, thick round lips, and well-set though not remarkably white teeth. The color of their skin, when not incrusted with paint or dirt, was nearly as white as that of Europeans, and of that pale effete cast which distinguishes the Southern nations of Europe. A remarkable sameness characterized the countenances of the whole nation, the expression of all being dull and phlegmatic. It was not easy to distinguish the women from the men; and not a female was seen, even among those in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to being called handsome.Cook gives a very long and detailed account of the mannersand customs of these people, their habitations, weapons, food, domestic animals, language, and religious views, and concludes by remarking that they differ so essentially in every respect from the inhabitants of the various Pacific islands that it is impossible to suppose their respective progenitors were united in the same tribe, or had any intimate connection when they emigrated from their original settlements into the places where their descendants were now found.HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.Cook left Nootka Sound on the 26th of April, and early in May entered a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Proceeding on his course, as he supposed, toward Behring's Strait, he was surprised to find various indications that he was no longer in the sea, but ascending a wide and rapidly-flowing river. He was, however, encouraged to proceed by finding the water as salt as that of the ocean. Having traced the stream a distance of two hundred miles from its entrance, without seeing the least appearance of its source, and despairing of finding a passage through it to the Northern seas, Cook determined to return. Mr. King, one of the officers, was sent on shore to display the flag and take possession of the country and river in his majesty's name, and to bury in the ground a bottle containing some pieces of English coin of the year 1772. The vessels left the river—afterward named, by order of Lord Sandwich, Cook's River—on the 5th of June.On the 9th of August, Cook arrived at a point of land, in north latitude 66°, which he called Cape Prince of Wales, and which is the western extremity of North America. Had he sailed directly north from this spot, he would have passed through Behring's Straits. But the attraction of two small islands drew him to the westward, and by nightfall he anchored in a bay on the coast of Asia, having in the course of twenty-four hours been in sight of the two continents. On the 12th, while sailing to the north, both continents were in sight at the same moment. On the 17th, a brightness was perceived in the northern horizon, like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. But it was thought very improbable that they should meet with ice so soon. Still, the sharpness of the air and gloominess of the weather seemed to indicate some sudden change. The sight of a large field of ice soon left no doubt as to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At half-past two, being in latitude 71° and in twenty-two fathoms water, Cook found himself close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall and twelve feet out of water. It extended to the north as far as the eye could reach. A point of land upon the American coast obtained the name of Icy Cape.The season was now so far advanced that Cook abandoned all attempts to find a passage through to the Atlantic this year, and directed his attention to the subject of winter quarters. Discovering a deep inlet upon the American side, he named it Norton's Sound, in honor of Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. At Oonalaska, an island some distance to the south, he fell in with three Russian carriers, who had some store-houses and a sloop of thirty tons' burden. They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts which had been made by their countrymen, Kamschatka, Behring, and others, to navigate the Frozen Ocean.On the 26th of October, Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands, intending to spend the winter months there, and then todirect his course to Kamschatka, arriving there by the middle of May in the ensuing year. On the 26th of November, the two ships anchored at the archipelago of the Sandwich Islands and discovered several new members of the group. At Owhyhee, Cook found the natives more free from reserve and suspicion than any other tribe he had met; nor did they even once attempt a fraud or a theft. Cook's confidence, already great, was still further augmented by a singular, if not grotesque, incident.MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.The priests of the island resolved to deify the captain, under the name of Orono. One evening, as he landed upon the beach, he was received by four men, who immediately swathed him in red cloth, and then conducted him to a sort of sacrificial altar, where, by means of an indescribable ceremony, consisting of rapid speeches, offerings of putrid hogs and sugarcanes, invocations, processions, chants, and prostrations, they conferred upon him a celestial character and the right to claim adoration. At the conclusion, a priest named Kaireekeea took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and with which he then rubbed the captain's face, head, hands, arms, and shoulders. Ever after this, when Cook went ashore, a priest preceded him, shouting that Orono was walking the earth, and calling upon the people to humble themselves before him. Presents of pigs, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit were constantly made to him, and an incessant supply of vegetables sent to his two ships: no return was ever demanded or even hinted at. The offerings seemed to be made in discharge of a religious duty, and had much the nature of tribute. When Cook inquired at whose charge all this munificence was displayed, he was told that the expense was borne by a great man, named Kaoo, the chief ofthe priests, and grandfather of Kaireekeea: this Kaoo was now absent, attending Tereoboo, the king of the island.The king, upon his return, set out from the village in a large canoe, followed by two others, and paddled toward the ships in great state. Tereoboo gave Cook a fan, in return for which Cook gave Tereoboo a clean shirt. Heaps of sugarcane and bread-fruit were then given to the ship's crew, and the ceremonies were concluded by an exchange of names between the captain and the king,—the strongest pledge of friendship among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.It was not long before Tereoboo and his chiefs became very anxious that the English should bid them adieu. They imagined the strangers to have come from some country where provisions had failed, and that their visit to their island was merely for the purpose of filling their stomachs. "It was ridiculous enough to see them stroke the sides and pat the bellies of our sailors," says King, the continuator of Cook's journal, "and telling them that it was time for them to go, but that if they would come again the next bread-fruit season they should be better able to supply their wants. We had now been sixteen days in the bay; and, considering our enormous consumption of hogs and vegetables, it need not be wondered that they should wish to see us take our leave." When Tereoboo learned that the ships were to sail on the next day but one, he ordered a proclamation to be made through the villages, requiring the people to bring in presents to Orono, who was soon to take his departure.On the 4th of February, 1779, the vessels unmoored and sailed out of the harbor, after having received on board a present of vegetables and live stock which far exceeded any that had been made them either at the Friendly or Society Islands. The weather being, however, extremely unfavorable, they were compelled to return for shelter, and on the 11th dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as before. The foremastwas found to be much damaged, the heel being exceedingly rotten, having a large hole up the middle of it capable of holding four or five cocoanuts. The reception of the ships was very different from what it had been on their first arrival: there were no shouts, no bustle, no confusion. The bay seemed deserted, though from time to time a solitary canoe stole stealthily along the shore.FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.Toward the evening of the 13th, a theft committed by a party of the islanders on board the Discovery gave rise to a disturbance of a very serious nature. Pareea, a personage of some authority, was accused of the theft, and a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives immediately attacked the crew of the pinnace with a furious shower of stones and other missiles, and forced them to swim off with great precipitation to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately ransacked by the islanders, and would have been demolished, but for the interposition of Pareea, who, upon the recognition of his innocence, joined noses with the officers and seemed to have forgotten the blow he had received.When Captain Cook heard of what had happened, he expressed some anxiety, and said that it would not do to allow the islanders to imagine that they had gained an advantage. It was too late to take any steps that evening, however. A double guard was posted at the observatory, and at midnightone of the sentinels, observing five savages creeping toward him, fired over their heads and put them to flight. The cutter of the Discovery was stolen, toward morning, from the buoy where it was moored. At daylight, Cook loaded his double-barrelled gun and ordered the marines to prepare for action. It had been his practice, when any thing of consequence was lost, to get the king or several of the principal men on board, and to keep them as hostages till it was restored. His purpose was to pursue the same plan now. He gave orders to seize and stop all canoes that should attempt to leave the bay. The boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were therefore stationed across the mouth of the harbor. Cook went ashore in the pinnace, obtained an interview with the king, satisfied himself that he was in no wise privy to the theft committed, and invited him to return in the boat and spend the day on board the Resolution. Tereoboo readily consented, and, having placed his two sons in the pinnace, was on the point of following them, when an elderly woman, the mother of the boys, and a younger woman, the king's favorite wife, besought him with tears and entreaties not to go on board. Two chiefs laid hold of him, insisting that he should go no farther. The natives now collected in prodigious numbers and began to throng around Captain Cook and their king. Cook, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain to think of kidnapping the king without bloodshed, at last gave up the point.DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.Thus far, the person and life of Cook do not appear to have been in danger. An accident now happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. The ships' boats, in firing at canoes attempting to escape, had unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived just at the moment when Cook, after leaving the king, was walking slowly toward the shore. It caused an immediate and violent ferment: the women and children were at once sent off: the warriors put on their breastmats and armed themselves with spears and stones. One of the natives went up to Cook, flourishing a long iron spike by way of defiance, and threatening him with a large stone. Cook ordered him to desist, but, as the man persisted in his insolence, was at length provoked to fire a load of small shot. As the shot did not penetrate the matting, the natives were encouraged, by seeing the discharge to be harmless, to further aggression. Several stones were thrown at the marines: their lieutenant, Mr. Phillips, narrowly escaped being stabbed by knocking down the assailant with the butt end of his musket. Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones and a discharge of musketry immediately followed. The islanders, contrary to the expectations of the English, stood the fire with great firmness, and, before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon them with demoniacal shouts. Four marines were instantly killed; three others were dangerously wounded; Phillips received a stab between the shoulders, but, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the blow.The last time that Cook was seen distinctly, he was standing at the water's edge, calling out to the people in the boats to cease firing. It is supposed that he was desirous of stopping further bloodshed, and wished the example of desisting to proceed from his side. His humanity proved fatal to him; and he lost his life in attempting to save the lives of others. It was noticed that while he faced the natives none of them offered him any violence, deterred, perhaps, by the sacred character he bore as an Orono; but the moment he turned round to give his orders to the men in the boats, he was stabbed in the back and fell, face foremost, into the water. The islanders set up a deafening yell and dragged his body on shore, where the dagger with which he had been killed was eagerly snatched by thesavages from each others' hands, each one manifesting a brutal eagerness to have a share in his destruction."Thus fell," writes King, "our great and excellent commander. After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to finish the work for which he seemed designed, and was rather removed from the enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe: much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity."When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their commander had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of the Discovery, assumed the chief command of the expedition. The ships were in such a bad condition, and the discipline became so relaxed upon the withdrawal of the master-mind, that it was decided to employ pacific measures, rather than a display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the restitution of the remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers. The moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the natives using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt-offerings to their divinities. As they considered that of Cook as of a higher order, they cut it carefully in pieces, sending bits of it to different parts of the island. Upon the evening of the 15th, two priests brought clandestinely to the ship the portion they had received for religious purposes,—flesh without bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They said that this was all that remained of the body, the rest having been cut to pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones,except what belonged to the trunk, were in the possession of Tereoboo.The natives on shore passed the night in feasts and rejoicings, seeking evidently to animate and inflame their courage previous to the expected collision. The next day, about noon, finding the English persist in their inactivity, great bodies of them, blowing their conch-shells and strutting about upon the shore in a blustering and defiant manner, marched off over the hills and never appeared again. Those who remained compensated for the paucity of their numbers by the insolence of their conduct. One man came within musket-shot of the Resolution and waved Cook's hat over his head, his countrymen upon the water's edge exulting in his taunts and jeers. The watering-party sent upon their daily duty were annoyed to such an extent that they only obtained one cask of water in an afternoon. An attack upon the village was in consequence decided upon, and was executed by the marines in a vigorous and effective manner. A sanguinary revenge was taken for the death of their commander: many of the islanders were slain, and their huts were burned to the ground. This severe lesson was necessary, for the natives were strongly of opinion that the English tolerated their provocations because they were unable to suppress them, and not from motives of humanity. At last, a chief named Eappo, a man of the very first consequence, came with presents from Tereoboo to sue for peace. The presents were received, but answer was returned that, until the remains of Captain Cook were restored, no peace would be granted.On Saturday, the 20th, a long procession was seen to descend the hill toward the beach. Each man carried a sugarcane or two upon his shoulders, with bread-fruit and plantains in his hand. They were preceded by two drummers, who planted a staff with a white flag upon it by the water's edge and drummed vigorously, while the rest advanced one by one and depositedtheir presents upon the ground. Eappo, in a long feathered cloak, and with a bearing of deep solemnity, mounted upon a rock and made signs for a boat. Captain Clarke went ashore in the pinnace, ordering Lieutenant King to attend him in the cutter. Eappo went into the pinnace and delivered to the captain a quantity of bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth and covered with a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. The bundle contained the hands of the unfortunate commander entire; the skull, deprived of the scalp and the bones that form the face; the scalp, detached, with the hair cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both arms, the thigh and leg bones, but without the feet. The whole bore evident marks of having been in the fire, with the exception of the hands, the flesh of which was left upon them,—with several large gashes crammed with salt, apparently for the purpose of preventing decomposition. The lower jaw and feet, which were wanting, had been seized by different chiefs, Eappo said, and Tereoboo was using every means to recover them.The next morning Eappo came on board, bringing with him the missing bones, together with the barrels of Cook's gun, his shoes, and several other trifles that had belonged to him. Eappo was dismissed with orders to "taboo" the bay—that is, to place it under interdict—during the performance of the funeral ceremonies. This was done: not a canoe ventured out upon the water during the remainder of the day, and, in the midst of the silence and solemnity of the scene, the bones were placed in a coffin and the service of the Church of England read over them. They were then committed to the deep, beneath the booming thunders of the artillery of both vessels. "What our feelings were on this occasion," says King, "I leave the world to conceive: those who were present know that it is not in my power to express them."No one man ever contributed more to any science than did Captain Cook to that of geography. We have seen that on hisfirst voyage he discovered the Society Islands, determined the insular character of New Zealand, discovered the straits which cut that island in halves, and made a complete survey of both portions. He explored the eastern coast of New Holland, gave Botany Bay its name, and surveyed an extent of upward of two thousand miles. In his second voyage he resolved the problem of a Southern continent, having traversed that hemisphere in such a manner as to leave no probability of its existence, unless near the Pole, out of the reach of navigation and beyond the habitable limits of the globe. He discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the South Pacific except New Zealand; he settled the situations of numerous old discoveries, rectifying their longitude and remodelling all the charts. On his third voyage he discovered, to the north of the equator, the group called the Sandwich Islands,—a discovery which, all things considered, and from their situation and products, may be said to be the most important acquisition ever made in the Pacific. He explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast of America,—an extent of three thousand five hundred miles,—and ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America. "In short," says King, "if we except the Sea of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to the Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe." After Christopher Columbus, Cook acquired, and now, at a distance of nearly a century, still enjoys, the highest degree of popularity which ever fell to the lot of a navigator and discoverer.LAPÉROUSE.CHAPTER XLVI.LOUIS XVI. AND THE SCIENCE OF NAVIGATION—VOYAGE OF LAPÉROUSE—ARRIVAL AT EASTER ISLAND—ADDRESS OF THE NATIVES—OWHYHEE—TRADE AT MOWEE—SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN COAST—A REMARKABLE INLET—DISTRESSING CALAMITY—SOJOURN AT MONTEREY—RUN ACROSS THE PACIFIC—THE JAPANESE WATERS—ARRIVAL AT PETROPAULOWSKI—AFFRAY AT NAVIGATORS' ISLES—LAPÉROUSE ARRIVES AT BOTANY BAY, AND IS NEVER SEEN AGAIN, ALIVE OR DEAD—VOYAGES MADE IN SEARCH OF HIM—D'ENTRECASTEAUX—DILLON—D'URVILLE—DISCOVERY OF NUMEROUS RELICS OF THE SHIPS AT MANICOLO—THEORY OF THE FATE OF LAPÉROUSE—ERECTION OF A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY.Louis XVI., King of France, became at this period deeply interested in the study of the science of geography and navigation. Upon the perusal of the voyages, discoveries, and services of Cook, he conceived the idea of admitting the French nationto a share in the glory which the English were reaping from maritime adventure and exploration. He drew up a plan of campaign with his own hand, ordered the two frigates Boussole and Astrolabe to be prepared for sea, and gave the command of the expedition to Jean-François Galaup de la Pérouse,—better known as Lapérouse. The vessels were supplied with every accessory of which they could possibly have need. The instructions and recommendations received from the Academy of Sciences fill a quarto volume of four hundred pages. The fleet sailed from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785, and arrived at Concepçion, in Chili, late in February, 1786.After a short stay here, the two frigates again put to sea, and, early in April, anchored in Cook's Bay, in Easter Island. Here the two commanders landed, accompanied by about seventy persons, twelve of whom were marines armed to the teeth. Five hundred Indians awaited them at the shore, the greater part of them naked, painted, and tattooed, others wearing pendent bunches of odoriferous herbs about their loins, and others still being covered with pieces of white and yellow cloth. None of them were armed, and, as the boats touched the land, they advanced with the utmost alacrity to aid the strangers in their disembarkation. The latter marked out a circular space, where they set up a tent, and enjoined it strongly upon the islanders not to intrude upon this enclosure. The number of the natives had now increased to eight hundred, one hundred and fifty of whom were women. While the latter would seek, by caresses and agreeable pantomime, to withdraw the attention of the Frenchmen from passing events, the men would slyly pick their pockets. Innumerable handkerchiefs were pilfered in this way; and the thieves, emboldened by success, at last seized their caps from their heads and rushed off with them. It was noticed that the chiefs were the most adroit and successful plunderers, and that though, for appearance' sake, they sometimes ran after an offender, promising to bring him back,it was evident that they were running as slowly as they could, and that their object was rather to facilitate than to prevent their escape. Lapérouse was not saved from spoliation by his rank: a polite savage, having assisted him over an obstruction in the path, removed his chapeau and fled with the utmost rapidity. On re-embarking to return to the ships, only three persons had handkerchiefs, and only two had caps. Lapérouse stayed but a day on this island, having nothing to gain and every thing to lose. There was no fresh water to be found, the natives drinking sea-water, like the albatrosses of Cape Horn. In return for the hospitality with which they had been received, Lapérouse caused several fertile spots to be sown with beets, cabbages, wheat, carrots, and squashes, and even with orange, lemon, and cotton seeds. "In short," says Lapérouse, "we loaded them with presents, overwhelmed with caresses the young and children at the breast; we sowed their fields with useful grains; we left kids, sheep, and hogs to multiply upon their island; we asked nothing in exchange; and yet they robbed us of our hats and handkerchiefs, and threw stones at us when we left." The following reflection, which concludes Lapérouse's account of Easter Island, could only have proceeded from a Frenchman:—"I decided to depart during the night, flattering myself that when, upon the return of day, they should find our vessels gone, they would attribute our departure to our just resentment at their conduct, and that this conclusion might render them better members of society."Lapérouse now sailed to the northeast, intending to touch at the Sandwich Islands,—a distance of five thousand miles. He hoped to make some discovery during this long stretch, and placed sailors in the tops, animated by the promise of a prize to discover as many islands as possible. In the furtherance of this design, the two frigates sailed ten miles apart,—by which the visible horizon was considerably extended. Lapérouse was destined, however, to owe his celebrity to his misfortunes andnot to his discoveries: he arrived, on the 28th of May, at Owhyhee, without once making land. "The aspect of the island," he writes, "was charming. But the sea beat with such violence upon the coast, that, like Tantalus, we could only long for and devour with our eyes that which it was impossible for us to reach." This prospect was aggravated by the sight of one hundred and fifty canoes laden with pigs and fruit which put out from the shore: forty of them were capsized in attempting to come alongside while the frigates were under full sail. The water was full of swimming savages, struggling pigs, and tempting cocoanuts; but the necessity of making an anchorage before nightfall compelled them to seek another portion of the island.On the 30th of May, Lapérouse landed upon the island of Mowee, where he found the savages mild, polite, and commercially inclined. Exchanges of pigs and medals were made with great success. Lapérouse abstained from taking possession of the island in the name of the King of France,—Cook not having visited Mowee,—inasmuch as he considered European usages in this respect extremely ridiculous. "Philosophers must often have wept," he writes, "at seeing men, simply because they have cannon and bayonets, count sixty thousand of their fellow-creatures as nothing, and look upon a land which its inhabitants have moistened with their sweat and fertilized with the bones of their ancestors for centuries as an object of legitimate conquest."On the 23d of June, in latitude 60° north, Lapérouse struck the American coast: he recognised at once Behring's Mount St. Elias, whose summit pierced the clouds. From this point southward as far as Monterey, in Mexico, lay an extent of coast which Cook had seen but not surveyed. The exploration of this coast was a work essential to the interests of navigation and of commerce; and, though the season only allowed him three months, he undertook and executed it in a manner creditable to the navy of France. He discovered a harbor that hadescaped the notice of preceding navigators. This harbor or bay seems to have been a remarkable place. The water is unfathomable, and is surrounded by precipices which rise perpendicularly from the water's edge into the regions of eternal snow. Not a blade of grass, not a green leaf, grows in this desolate and sterile spot. No breeze blows upon the surface of the bay: its tranquillity is never troubled except by the fall of enormous masses of ice from numerous overhanging peaks. The air is so still and the silence so profound that the noise made by a bird in laying an egg in the hollow of a rock is distinctly heard at the distance of a mile and a half. To this wonderful bay Lapérouse gave the name of Frenchport.A painful accident occurred as the vessels, after a somewhat prolonged stay, were about departing from the spot. Three boats, manned by twenty-seven men and officers, were sent to make soundings in the bay, in order to complete the chart of the survey. They had strict orders to avoid a certain dangerous current, but became involved in it unawares. Two boats' crews perished, consisting of twenty-one men, the greater part of them under twenty-five years of age. Two brothers, by the name of Laborde, whom their superior officers never separated, but always sent together on missions of peril, were among the victims of the disaster. A monument was erected to their memory, and a record buried in a bottle beneath it. The inscription was thus conceived:—"At the entrance of this bay twenty-one brave sailors perish'd:Whoever you may be, mingle your tears with ours."LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.On the 13th of September, Lapérouse arrived at Monterey, after a cursory examination of the coast, determining its directions, but without exploring its sinuosities and inlets. The Spanish commander of the fort and of the two Californias had received orders from Mexico to extend all possible hospitality to the adventurers. He executed his instructions to the letter, sending immense quantities of fresh beef, eggs, milk, vegetables, and poultry on board, and then declining to hand in the bill. On the 24th, every thing being in readiness, the vessels started upon their route across the Pacific, the intention of Lapérouse being to make for Macao, on the Chinese coast. He hoped on his way to make many discoveries of islands upon this unknown sea,—the Spaniards, in their single beaten track from Acapulco to Manilla, never varying more than thirty miles to the north or south of their usual and average latitude. He also hoped not to find, in the longitude marked against it, a very doubtful island named Nostra Señora de la Gorta, that he might erase it from the charts. This he was unable to do, for the winds did not allow him to pass within a hundred miles of its supposed position. When half-way across the Pacific, he discovered a naked, barren rock, to which he gave the name of Necker, after the French Minister of Finance. He arrived at Macao on the 3d of January, 1787, after a voyage entirely free from incident or adventure. He spent three months here and at Manilla, and finally, on the 10th of April, started for the scene of the most important portion of his mission,—the coasts of Tartary and of Japan,—the waters which separate the mainland of the former from the islands of the latter being very imperfectly known to Europeans.Early in June, Lapérouse entered a sea never before ploughed by a European keel; and, as it was only known from Japanese or Corean charts, published by the Jesuits, it was his first object either to verify their surveys or to correct their errors. As the Jesuits travelled and made their calculations by land, Lapérouse added hydrographic details and observations to their data, which he found quite generally correct. His voyage in these latitudes set many doubts at rest. After several months spent in these labors, the expedition arrived at Petropaulowski in September of the same year. The officers were grievously disappointed in not finding letters and despatches from France,but one evening, during a Kamschatka gala ball, the arrival of a courier from Okhotsk was announced, and the ball was interrupted that the mail might be opened and delivered. The news was favorable for all, though, after so long an absence, it was natural that there should be evil tidings for some among so many. Lapérouse learned that he had been promoted in rank; and the Governor of Okhotsk caused this event to be celebrated by a grand discharge of artillery. M. de Lesseps, the interpreter attached to the expedition, was detached from it at this point by Lapérouse and sent across the continent by way of Okhotsk, Irkoutsk, and Tobolsk to St. Petersburg, and thence to Paris, with the ships' letters and Lapérouse's journal. It is from this journal, published at Paris, that we have obtained the details of the expedition as we have thus far chronicled them.The track of Lapérouse was now directly south, through the heart of the Pacific Ocean. He touched, on the 9th of December, at Maouna, one of Navigator's Isles. The vessels were at once surrounded by a hundred or more canoes filled with pigs and fruit, which the natives would only exchange for glass beads, which in their eyes were what diamonds are to Europeans. Delangle, the captain of the Astrolabe, went ashore with the watering party. The islanders made no objection to their landing their casks; but as the tide receded, leaving the boats high and dry upon the beach, they became troublesome, and finally forced Delangle to a trial of his muskets. For this they took a sanguinary vengeance. Delangle was killed by a single blow from a club, as was Lamanon, the naturalist. Eleven marines were savagely murdered, either with stones or heavy sticks, while twenty were seriously wounded. The rest escaped by swimming. Lapérouse did not feel himself sufficiently strong to attempt reprisals. The natives hurled stones with such force and accuracy that they were more than a match for as many musketeers. Besides, he had lost thirty-two men and two boats, and his situation generally was such that the slightestmischance would now compel him to disarm one frigate in order to refit the other. It was late in January, 1788, that he arrived at Botany Bay, in New Holland,—the last place in which he was ever seen, alive or dead.His last letter to the Minister of Marine was dated at Botany Bay, the 7th of February. In this he stated the route by which he intended to return home, and the dates of his anticipated arrivals at various points. His plan was to visit the Friendly Islands, New Guinea, and Van Diemen's Land, and to be at the Isle of France, near Madagascar, at the beginning of December. His letter arrived in due course at Paris, where the public mind was too much agitated by the throes of revolution to pay much heed to matters of such remote interest. At last, in the year 1791, the Society of Natural History called the attention of the Constituent Assembly to the fate of Lapérouse and his companions. The hope of recovering at least some wreck of an expedition undertaken to promote the sciences induced the Assembly to send two other ships to Botany Bay, with orders to steer the same course from that place that Lapérouse had traced out for himself. Some of his followers, it was thought, might have escaped from the wreck, and might be confined on a desert island or thrown upon some savage coast. Two ships were therefore fitted out, and placed under the command of Rear-Admiral d'Entrecasteaux.The ships returned in two years, without having obtained the slightest clue to the fate of Lapérouse: their commander had died of scurvy at Java. At the Friendly Islands, the first landing that Lapérouse was to make after leaving Botany Bay, the inhabitants, who remembered Cook perfectly, and who knew the difference between French and English, declared that Lapérouse had not visited them. As they were the most civilized and hospitable of all the Pacific islanders, it was thought improbable that he had ever sailed as far as the very first station of his route,—an opinion which was confirmed by finding notrace of him at any subsequent point of his intended track. No floating remnants of wood or iron work were anywhere discovered; and the public mind gradually settled into the conviction that the two unfortunate vessels were lost upon their passage from Botany Bay to the Friendly Islands. The cause was supposed to be neither fire, nor leakage, nor the effects of a stress of weather,—causes which could hardly be fatal at the same moment to two vessels. It was generally believed that, as the Boussole and Astrolabe were accustomed to keep as near each other as possible during the night, they both simultaneously dashed upon a hidden quicksand. In this manner, one vessel would not have been able to take warning in time by the disaster of the other.In the year 1813, one Captain Dillon, in the service of the British East India Company, putting in at one of the Feejee Islands, found there two foreign sailors, one of whom was a Prussian, the other a Lascar. At their request he transported them to the neighboring island of Tucopia, where he left them, the natives expressing no hostility toward them nor objections to their stay. In 1826,—thirteen years afterward,—Captain Dillon again touched at Tucopia, where he found them comfortable and contented. The Lascar sold the armorer a silver sword-hilt of French manufacture and bearing a cipher engraved upon it. It resulted from Dillon's inquiries that the natives had obtained many articles of iron and other metals from a distant island named Manicolo, where, as they said, two European ships had been wrecked forty years before. It immediately occurred to Dillon that this circumstance was connected with the loss of the vessel of Lapérouse, whose fate still remained involved in uncertainty. Aware of the interest felt in Europe in the fate of the unfortunate navigator, he sailed with the Prussian to Manicolo, but, being prevented from landing by the surf and the coral reef, bore away to New Zealand and proceeded on his voyage.REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.In 1827, Dumont d'Urville was sent out by the French Government in the sloop-of-war Astrolabe to explore the great archipelagoes of the Pacific, with incidental authority to follow up any clue he might discover to the fate of Lapérouse. At Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land, he heard some account of the efforts made by Dillon, and determined to conclude what he had begun. He sailed at once for Manicolo, and, after examining the eastern coast of the island without success, proceeded to the western. Here he found numerous articles of European manufacture in possession of the savages, who steadfastly refused to say whence they had obtained them or to point out the scene of any catastrophe or shipwreck. At last, the offer of a piece of red cloth induced a painted islander to conduct a boat's crew to the spot which is now regarded as that at which the lamented commander and his vessels met their untimely fate. Scattered about in the bed of the sea, at the depth of about twenty feet, lay anchors, cannon, and sheets of lead and copper sheathing, completely corroded and disfigured by rust. They succeeded in recovering many of them from the water,—an anchor of fourteen hundred pounds, a small cannon coated with coral, and two brass swivels, in a good state of preservation. Thus possessed of evidence which after the lapse of forty years must be considered as conclusive, d'Urville erected near the anchorage a cenotaph to the memory of the hapless navigator. It was placed in a small grove, and consecrated by a salute of twenty-one guns and three volleys of musketry.CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.The islanders were now profuse in their explanations of the circumstances attending the calamity. As far as d'Urville could interpret their language and their pantomime, the ships struck upon the reef during a gale in the night. One speedily sank, only thirty of her crew escaping; the other remained for a time entire, but afterwards went to pieces, her whole crew having been saved. From her timbers they constructed a schooner, in which labor they occupied seven moons or months, and then sailed away and never returned. What befell them after their second embarkation, what was the fate of their daring little vessel,—if indeed any such was ever built,—no one has survived to tell. It is safe to believe that both vessels were lost upon the island of Vanikoro, now one of the archipelago of the New Hebrides. It is supposed that Lapérouse was the first European navigator that visited it, Dillon the second, and d'Urville the third.
COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.CHAPTER XLIV.COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE—A STORM—SEPARATION OF THE SHIPS—AURORA AUSTRALIS—NEW ZEALAND—SIX WATER-SPOUTS AT ONCE—TAHITI AGAIN—PETTY THEFTS OF THE NATIVES—COOK VISITS THE TAHITIAN THEATRE—OMAI—ARRIVAL AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS—THE FLEET WITNESS A FEAST OF HUMAN FLESH—THE NEW HEBRIDES—NEW CALEDONIA—RETURN HOME—HONORS BESTOWED UPON COOK.The English Government now determined to despatch an expedition in search of the supposed Southern or Austral continent. A Frenchman, by the name of Benoit, had seen in 1709, to the south of the Cape of Good Hope, in latitude 54° and in longitude 11° East, what he believed to be land, naming it Cape Circumcision. Cook was placed in command of the Resolution and Adventure, and instructed to endeavor to find this cape andsatisfy himself whether it formed part of the great continent in question. He left Plymouth on the 13th of July, 1772, and the Cape of Good Hope on the 22d of November.A terrific gale soon drove both vessels from their course, washed overboard their live-stock, and well-nigh disabled the Resolution. The cold increased suddenly, and drawers and fearnaughts were served in abundance to the crew. Immense ice-islands now occupied the horizon, and the sea, dashing over them to the height of sixty feet, filled the air with its ceaseless roar. On Sunday, the 13th of December, they were in the latitude of Cape Circumcision, but ten degrees east of it. For weeks they kept in high Southern latitudes, now menaced by towering peaks of ice, now enclosed by immense fields and floating masses, till, towards the 1st of February, 1773, Cook came to the unwelcome conclusion that the cape discovered by Benoit was nothing more than a huge tract of ice, which, being chained to no anchorage and subject to no latitude, he had no reason to expect to find in the spot where the credulous Frenchman had discovered it sixty years before.On the 8th of February, the Resolution lost sight of the Adventure, and cruised three days in search of her, firing guns and burning false fires, but without success. On the 17th, between midnight and three in the morning, Cook saw lights in the sky similar to those seen in high Northern latitudes and known by the name of Aurora Borealis: the Aurora Australis had never been seen before. It sometimes broke out in spiral rays and in a circular form; its colors were brilliant, and it diffused its light throughout the heavens. On the 24th, a tremendous gale, accompanied with snow and sleet, made great havoc among the ice-islands, breaking them up, and largely increasing the number of floating and insidious enemies the ship had to contend with. These dangers were now, however, so familiar to the crew, that the apprehensions they caused were never of long duration, and were in some measure compensated by the seasonable supplies ofwater the ice-islands afforded them, and without which they would have been greatly distressed.On the 16th of March, Cook found himself in latitude 59°, longitude 146° East. He now determined to quit this quarter, where he was convinced he should find no land, and proceed to New Zealand to look for the Adventure and to refresh his crew. On the 26th, he anchored in Dusky Bay, New Zealand, after having been one hundred and seventeen days at sea, and having sailed eleven thousand miles without once seeing land. This point, the most southerly of New Zealand, had never been visited by a European before.While coasting to the northward, towards Queen Charlotte's Sound, where he expected to find the Adventure, Cook suddenly observed six water-spouts between his vessel and the land. Five of them soon spent themselves; the sixth started from a point three miles distant, and passed within fifty yards of the stern of the Resolution, though she felt no shock. The diameter of its base was about sixty feet: within this space the sea was much agitated and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube was formed, by which the water and air were carried up in a spiral stream to the clouds, from whence the water did not descend again, being dispersed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. "I have been told," says Cook, "that the firing of a gun will dissipate water-spouts; and I am sorry that we did not try the experiment, as we were near enough and had a gun ready for the purpose; but as soon as the danger was past I thought no more about it."On the 18th of May, the Resolution discovered the Adventure in Queen Charlotte's Sound: the crews of the two ships were overjoyed at meeting each other after a separation of fourteen weeks. The captain of the latter had seen upon the coast some natives of the tribe which had furnished Tupia to Cook's vessel upon his first voyage. They seemed quite concerned when informed that he had died at Batavia, and were anxious toknow whether he had been killed, and whether he had been buried or eaten.Before leaving the island, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips were planted in spots favorable to their growth, and the natives were made to understand their value as esculent roots. A ewe and ram were sent ashore from the Resolution,—the last pair of the large stock put on board at the Cape of Good Hope; but they probably ate a poisonous plant during the night, for they were found dead in the morning. The Adventure put ashore a boar and two sows, in the hope that they would multiply and replenish the island.The two ships sailed in company from New Zealand on the 7th of June, their purpose being to proceed to the eastward in search of land as far as longitude 140° West, between the latitudes of 41° and 46° South. During a long cruise, Cook saw nothing which induced in him the belief that they were in the neighborhood of any continent between the meridian of New Zealand and America. A fact which militated against it was, that they had, as is usual in all great oceans, large billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale. These billows never ceased with the cause which first put them in motion,—a sure indication that no land was near. They constantly passed low and half-submerged islands,—now consisting of coral shoals fretting the waves into foam, and now of islets clothed with verdure. On the 17th of August they arrived at Tahiti, after an entirely fruitless voyage.The thieving and cheating propensities of the natives appeared in bold relief during the sojourn of the English upon their coast. The latter sometimes paid in advance for promised supplies of hogs and fowls, in which case they were sure never to get them,—the wary trader making off with his axe, shirt, or nails, and dispensing with the necessity of fulfilling his engagement. The practice of over-reaching was not confined to the underlings of society, but extended even to thechiefs. A potentate of high warlike renown came one day to the side of the Resolution, and offered for sale a superb bundle of cocoanuts, which was readily bought by one of the officers. On untying it, it was found to consist of fruit which they had already once bought, and which had been tapped, emptied of the milk, and thrown overboard. The dishonest dignitary sat in his canoe at a distance, indicating by the glee and vigor of his pantomime that he enjoyed in a supreme degree the brilliant success of this mercantile fraud.KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.At another part of the coast, Cook and his officers were invited by Otoo, the king, to visit the theatre, where a play was to be enacted with music and dancing. The performers were five men and one woman, who was no less a personage than the king's sister. The instruments consisted of three drums only, and the music lasted about an hour and a half. The meaning of the play was not apparent to the English, except that it abounded in local allusions,—the name of Cook constantly recurring. The dancing-dress of the lady was very elegant, being ornamented with long tassels made of feathers, hanging from the waist downwards.RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.Cook left Tahiti early in September, taking with him a young savage named Poreo, who was smitten with a desire to visit foreign parts. At the neighboring island of Huaheine, a native named Omai, belonging to the middle class, was also taken on board. Cook thus speaks of him two years later:—"Omai has most certainly a good understanding, quick parts, and honest principles: he has a natural good behavior, which renders him acceptable to the best company, and a proper degree of pride, which teaches him to avoid the society of persons of inferior rank. He has passions of the same kind as other young men, but has judgment enough not to indulge them to an improper excess." Omai was taken back to Huaheine by Cook when he started upon his third voyage of discovery, in 1776. We shall have occasion hereafter to chronicle the incidents of this restoration.Cook arrived at Middlebourg, one of the Friendly Islands, early in October. Two canoes, rowed by three men each, came boldly alongside; and some of them entered the ship without hesitation. One of them seemed to be a chief, by the authority he exerted, and accordingly received a present of a hatchet and five nails. Tioony—such was this potentate's name—was thus cheaply conciliated. Cook and a party soon embarked in a boat, accompanied by Tioony, who conducted them to a little creek, where a landing was easily effected. Tioony brandished a branch of the tree of peace in his right hand, extending his left towards an immense crowd of natives, who welcomed the English on shore with loud acclamations. Not one of them carried a weapon of any sort: they thronged so thickly around the boat that it was difficult to get room to land. They seemed more desirous to give than receive; and many threw whole bales of cloth and armfuls of fruit into the boat, and then retiredwithout either asking or waiting for an equivalent. Tioony then conducted the strangers to his house, which was situated upon a fine plantation beneath the shade of shaddock-trees. The floor was laid with mats. Bananas and cocoanuts were set before them to eat, and a beverage was prepared for them to drink. This was done in the following manner:—Pieces of a highly-scented root were vigorously masticated by the natives; the chewed product was then deposited in a large wooden bowl and mixed with water. As soon as it was properly strained, cups were made of green leaves which held nearly half a pint, and presented to the English. No one tasted the contents but Cook,—the manner of brewing it having quenched the thirst of every one else. In this island, as well as in the neighboring one of Amsterdam, the people—both men and women—were observed to have lost one or both of their little fingers. Cook endeavored in vain to discover the reason of this mutilation; but no one would take any pains to inform him.Cook noticed with interest the sailing canoes of these islands. A remarkable feature was the sail,—which, being suspended by its spar from a forked mast, could be so turned that the prow of the boat became its stern, andvice versâ. They sailed with equal rapidity in either direction.CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.On his return to New Zealand in November, Cook found that his efforts to introduce new plants and animals had been frustrated by the natives. One of the sows had been incapacitatedby a severe cut in one of her hind-legs; the other sow and the boar had been sedulously kept separate. The two goats had been killed by a fellow named Gobiah, and the potatoes had been dug up. Cook here had the satisfaction of beholding a feast of human flesh. A portion of the body of a young man of twenty years was broiled and eaten by one of the natives with evident relish. Several of the ship's crew were rendered sick by the disgusting sight.The Adventure separated from her consort at this point; nor was she again seen during the remainder of the voyage. Cook left New Zealand early in December for a last attempt in the Southern Ocean. On the 12th he saw the first ice, and on the 23d, in latitude 67°, found his passage obstructed by such quantities that he abandoned all hopes of proceeding any farther in that direction, and resolved to return to the north. As he was in the longitude of 137°, it was clear that there must be a vast space of sea to the north unexplored,—a space of twenty-four degrees, in which a large tract of land might possibly lie.Late in February, 1774, Cook was taken ill of bilious colic, and for some days his life was despaired of. The crew suffered severely from scurvy. On the 11th of March, they fell in with Roggewein's Easter Island, which they recognised by the gigantic statues which lined the coast. They noticed a singular disproportion in the number of the males and females, having counted in the island some seven hundred men and only thirty women.Early in April, Cook arrived among the Marquesas Islands, discovered in 1595 by Mendana. On the 22d, he arrived at Point Venus, in Tahiti, where he had observed the transit in 1769, and of which the longitude was known: he was able, therefore, to determine the error of his watch, and to fix anew its rate of going. The natives, and especially Otoo, the king, expressed no little joy at seeing him again. On leaving Tahiti, Cook visited in detail the islands named Espiritu Santo by Quiros and Grandes Cyclades by Bougainville. As he determinedtheir extent and position, he took the liberty of changing their name to that of the New Hebrides.NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.Cook now discovered the large island of New Caledonia, whose inhabitants he mentions as possessing an excellent character. Subsequent navigators, however, ascertained them to be cannibals. They were much lower in the scale of intelligence than the Tahitians. Their canoes were of the most clumsy description, and were generally propelled in pairs by poles. Cook was unable to obtain provisions; and, as his crew were now suffering from famine, he returned to New Zealand, where he arrived on the 18th of October. He left again on the 10th of November, and anchored on the 21st of December in Christmas Sound, in Terra del Fuego. He doubled Cape Horn, discovered numerous islands of little importance, and finally headed the vessel for the Cape of Good Hope. He anchored in Table Bay on the 19th of March, 1775. He here found news of the Adventure, which had already passed the Cape on her way home. On the 30th of July, Cook landed at Plymouth, after an absence of three years and eighteen days. During this space of time he had lost but four men, and only one of these four by sickness. He was promoted to the rank of captain, was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and received the Godfrey Copley gold medal in testimony of the appreciation in which his efforts to preserve the health of his crew were held by the Government. He was now forty-seven years of age.
COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.
COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.
COOK'S SHIP BESET BY WATER-SPOUTS.
COOK'S SECOND VOYAGE—A STORM—SEPARATION OF THE SHIPS—AURORA AUSTRALIS—NEW ZEALAND—SIX WATER-SPOUTS AT ONCE—TAHITI AGAIN—PETTY THEFTS OF THE NATIVES—COOK VISITS THE TAHITIAN THEATRE—OMAI—ARRIVAL AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS—THE FLEET WITNESS A FEAST OF HUMAN FLESH—THE NEW HEBRIDES—NEW CALEDONIA—RETURN HOME—HONORS BESTOWED UPON COOK.
The English Government now determined to despatch an expedition in search of the supposed Southern or Austral continent. A Frenchman, by the name of Benoit, had seen in 1709, to the south of the Cape of Good Hope, in latitude 54° and in longitude 11° East, what he believed to be land, naming it Cape Circumcision. Cook was placed in command of the Resolution and Adventure, and instructed to endeavor to find this cape andsatisfy himself whether it formed part of the great continent in question. He left Plymouth on the 13th of July, 1772, and the Cape of Good Hope on the 22d of November.
A terrific gale soon drove both vessels from their course, washed overboard their live-stock, and well-nigh disabled the Resolution. The cold increased suddenly, and drawers and fearnaughts were served in abundance to the crew. Immense ice-islands now occupied the horizon, and the sea, dashing over them to the height of sixty feet, filled the air with its ceaseless roar. On Sunday, the 13th of December, they were in the latitude of Cape Circumcision, but ten degrees east of it. For weeks they kept in high Southern latitudes, now menaced by towering peaks of ice, now enclosed by immense fields and floating masses, till, towards the 1st of February, 1773, Cook came to the unwelcome conclusion that the cape discovered by Benoit was nothing more than a huge tract of ice, which, being chained to no anchorage and subject to no latitude, he had no reason to expect to find in the spot where the credulous Frenchman had discovered it sixty years before.
On the 8th of February, the Resolution lost sight of the Adventure, and cruised three days in search of her, firing guns and burning false fires, but without success. On the 17th, between midnight and three in the morning, Cook saw lights in the sky similar to those seen in high Northern latitudes and known by the name of Aurora Borealis: the Aurora Australis had never been seen before. It sometimes broke out in spiral rays and in a circular form; its colors were brilliant, and it diffused its light throughout the heavens. On the 24th, a tremendous gale, accompanied with snow and sleet, made great havoc among the ice-islands, breaking them up, and largely increasing the number of floating and insidious enemies the ship had to contend with. These dangers were now, however, so familiar to the crew, that the apprehensions they caused were never of long duration, and were in some measure compensated by the seasonable supplies ofwater the ice-islands afforded them, and without which they would have been greatly distressed.
On the 16th of March, Cook found himself in latitude 59°, longitude 146° East. He now determined to quit this quarter, where he was convinced he should find no land, and proceed to New Zealand to look for the Adventure and to refresh his crew. On the 26th, he anchored in Dusky Bay, New Zealand, after having been one hundred and seventeen days at sea, and having sailed eleven thousand miles without once seeing land. This point, the most southerly of New Zealand, had never been visited by a European before.
While coasting to the northward, towards Queen Charlotte's Sound, where he expected to find the Adventure, Cook suddenly observed six water-spouts between his vessel and the land. Five of them soon spent themselves; the sixth started from a point three miles distant, and passed within fifty yards of the stern of the Resolution, though she felt no shock. The diameter of its base was about sixty feet: within this space the sea was much agitated and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube was formed, by which the water and air were carried up in a spiral stream to the clouds, from whence the water did not descend again, being dispersed in the upper regions of the atmosphere. "I have been told," says Cook, "that the firing of a gun will dissipate water-spouts; and I am sorry that we did not try the experiment, as we were near enough and had a gun ready for the purpose; but as soon as the danger was past I thought no more about it."
On the 18th of May, the Resolution discovered the Adventure in Queen Charlotte's Sound: the crews of the two ships were overjoyed at meeting each other after a separation of fourteen weeks. The captain of the latter had seen upon the coast some natives of the tribe which had furnished Tupia to Cook's vessel upon his first voyage. They seemed quite concerned when informed that he had died at Batavia, and were anxious toknow whether he had been killed, and whether he had been buried or eaten.
Before leaving the island, potatoes, turnips, carrots, and parsnips were planted in spots favorable to their growth, and the natives were made to understand their value as esculent roots. A ewe and ram were sent ashore from the Resolution,—the last pair of the large stock put on board at the Cape of Good Hope; but they probably ate a poisonous plant during the night, for they were found dead in the morning. The Adventure put ashore a boar and two sows, in the hope that they would multiply and replenish the island.
The two ships sailed in company from New Zealand on the 7th of June, their purpose being to proceed to the eastward in search of land as far as longitude 140° West, between the latitudes of 41° and 46° South. During a long cruise, Cook saw nothing which induced in him the belief that they were in the neighborhood of any continent between the meridian of New Zealand and America. A fact which militated against it was, that they had, as is usual in all great oceans, large billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale. These billows never ceased with the cause which first put them in motion,—a sure indication that no land was near. They constantly passed low and half-submerged islands,—now consisting of coral shoals fretting the waves into foam, and now of islets clothed with verdure. On the 17th of August they arrived at Tahiti, after an entirely fruitless voyage.
The thieving and cheating propensities of the natives appeared in bold relief during the sojourn of the English upon their coast. The latter sometimes paid in advance for promised supplies of hogs and fowls, in which case they were sure never to get them,—the wary trader making off with his axe, shirt, or nails, and dispensing with the necessity of fulfilling his engagement. The practice of over-reaching was not confined to the underlings of society, but extended even to thechiefs. A potentate of high warlike renown came one day to the side of the Resolution, and offered for sale a superb bundle of cocoanuts, which was readily bought by one of the officers. On untying it, it was found to consist of fruit which they had already once bought, and which had been tapped, emptied of the milk, and thrown overboard. The dishonest dignitary sat in his canoe at a distance, indicating by the glee and vigor of his pantomime that he enjoyed in a supreme degree the brilliant success of this mercantile fraud.
KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.
KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.
KING OTOO'S SISTER DANCING.
At another part of the coast, Cook and his officers were invited by Otoo, the king, to visit the theatre, where a play was to be enacted with music and dancing. The performers were five men and one woman, who was no less a personage than the king's sister. The instruments consisted of three drums only, and the music lasted about an hour and a half. The meaning of the play was not apparent to the English, except that it abounded in local allusions,—the name of Cook constantly recurring. The dancing-dress of the lady was very elegant, being ornamented with long tassels made of feathers, hanging from the waist downwards.
RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
RECEPTION OF COOK AT THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
Cook left Tahiti early in September, taking with him a young savage named Poreo, who was smitten with a desire to visit foreign parts. At the neighboring island of Huaheine, a native named Omai, belonging to the middle class, was also taken on board. Cook thus speaks of him two years later:—"Omai has most certainly a good understanding, quick parts, and honest principles: he has a natural good behavior, which renders him acceptable to the best company, and a proper degree of pride, which teaches him to avoid the society of persons of inferior rank. He has passions of the same kind as other young men, but has judgment enough not to indulge them to an improper excess." Omai was taken back to Huaheine by Cook when he started upon his third voyage of discovery, in 1776. We shall have occasion hereafter to chronicle the incidents of this restoration.
Cook arrived at Middlebourg, one of the Friendly Islands, early in October. Two canoes, rowed by three men each, came boldly alongside; and some of them entered the ship without hesitation. One of them seemed to be a chief, by the authority he exerted, and accordingly received a present of a hatchet and five nails. Tioony—such was this potentate's name—was thus cheaply conciliated. Cook and a party soon embarked in a boat, accompanied by Tioony, who conducted them to a little creek, where a landing was easily effected. Tioony brandished a branch of the tree of peace in his right hand, extending his left towards an immense crowd of natives, who welcomed the English on shore with loud acclamations. Not one of them carried a weapon of any sort: they thronged so thickly around the boat that it was difficult to get room to land. They seemed more desirous to give than receive; and many threw whole bales of cloth and armfuls of fruit into the boat, and then retiredwithout either asking or waiting for an equivalent. Tioony then conducted the strangers to his house, which was situated upon a fine plantation beneath the shade of shaddock-trees. The floor was laid with mats. Bananas and cocoanuts were set before them to eat, and a beverage was prepared for them to drink. This was done in the following manner:—Pieces of a highly-scented root were vigorously masticated by the natives; the chewed product was then deposited in a large wooden bowl and mixed with water. As soon as it was properly strained, cups were made of green leaves which held nearly half a pint, and presented to the English. No one tasted the contents but Cook,—the manner of brewing it having quenched the thirst of every one else. In this island, as well as in the neighboring one of Amsterdam, the people—both men and women—were observed to have lost one or both of their little fingers. Cook endeavored in vain to discover the reason of this mutilation; but no one would take any pains to inform him.
Cook noticed with interest the sailing canoes of these islands. A remarkable feature was the sail,—which, being suspended by its spar from a forked mast, could be so turned that the prow of the boat became its stern, andvice versâ. They sailed with equal rapidity in either direction.
CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
CANOES OF THE FRIENDLY ISLANDS.
On his return to New Zealand in November, Cook found that his efforts to introduce new plants and animals had been frustrated by the natives. One of the sows had been incapacitatedby a severe cut in one of her hind-legs; the other sow and the boar had been sedulously kept separate. The two goats had been killed by a fellow named Gobiah, and the potatoes had been dug up. Cook here had the satisfaction of beholding a feast of human flesh. A portion of the body of a young man of twenty years was broiled and eaten by one of the natives with evident relish. Several of the ship's crew were rendered sick by the disgusting sight.
The Adventure separated from her consort at this point; nor was she again seen during the remainder of the voyage. Cook left New Zealand early in December for a last attempt in the Southern Ocean. On the 12th he saw the first ice, and on the 23d, in latitude 67°, found his passage obstructed by such quantities that he abandoned all hopes of proceeding any farther in that direction, and resolved to return to the north. As he was in the longitude of 137°, it was clear that there must be a vast space of sea to the north unexplored,—a space of twenty-four degrees, in which a large tract of land might possibly lie.
Late in February, 1774, Cook was taken ill of bilious colic, and for some days his life was despaired of. The crew suffered severely from scurvy. On the 11th of March, they fell in with Roggewein's Easter Island, which they recognised by the gigantic statues which lined the coast. They noticed a singular disproportion in the number of the males and females, having counted in the island some seven hundred men and only thirty women.
Early in April, Cook arrived among the Marquesas Islands, discovered in 1595 by Mendana. On the 22d, he arrived at Point Venus, in Tahiti, where he had observed the transit in 1769, and of which the longitude was known: he was able, therefore, to determine the error of his watch, and to fix anew its rate of going. The natives, and especially Otoo, the king, expressed no little joy at seeing him again. On leaving Tahiti, Cook visited in detail the islands named Espiritu Santo by Quiros and Grandes Cyclades by Bougainville. As he determinedtheir extent and position, he took the liberty of changing their name to that of the New Hebrides.
NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.
NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.
NEW CALEDONIAN DOUBLE CANOE.
Cook now discovered the large island of New Caledonia, whose inhabitants he mentions as possessing an excellent character. Subsequent navigators, however, ascertained them to be cannibals. They were much lower in the scale of intelligence than the Tahitians. Their canoes were of the most clumsy description, and were generally propelled in pairs by poles. Cook was unable to obtain provisions; and, as his crew were now suffering from famine, he returned to New Zealand, where he arrived on the 18th of October. He left again on the 10th of November, and anchored on the 21st of December in Christmas Sound, in Terra del Fuego. He doubled Cape Horn, discovered numerous islands of little importance, and finally headed the vessel for the Cape of Good Hope. He anchored in Table Bay on the 19th of March, 1775. He here found news of the Adventure, which had already passed the Cape on her way home. On the 30th of July, Cook landed at Plymouth, after an absence of three years and eighteen days. During this space of time he had lost but four men, and only one of these four by sickness. He was promoted to the rank of captain, was elected a member of the Royal Society of London, and received the Godfrey Copley gold medal in testimony of the appreciation in which his efforts to preserve the health of his crew were held by the Government. He was now forty-seven years of age.
A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.CHAPTER XLV.COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE—THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE—OMAI—HIS RECEPTION AT HOME—THE CREW FOREGO THEIR GROG—DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—NOOTKA SOUND—THE NATIVES—CAPE PRINCE OF WALES—TWO CONTINENTS IN SIGHT—ICY CAPE—RETURN TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—COOK IS DEIFIED—INTERVIEW WITH TEREOBOO—SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES—A SKIRMISH—PITCHED BATTLE AND DEATH OF COOK—RECOVERY OF A PORTION OF HIS REMAINS—FUNERAL CEREMONIES—LIFE AND SERVICES OF COOK.Cook might justly have retired at this period to private life, to enjoy his well-earned reputation. But the grand question of the Northwest Passage, now agitated by the press and the public, induced him once more to tempt the perils of foreign adventure. As every effort to force a passage through Baffin's or Hudson's Bay had signally failed, it was determined to make the experiment through Behring's Straits. On the 9thof February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of-war Resolution,—the vessel in which he had made his last voyage,—the Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to accompany the expedition. Both ships were equipped in a manner befitting the nature of their mission: they were well supplied with European animals and plants, which they were to introduce into the islands of the Pacific. Omai, the young Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed on board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret; but the consciousness that the treasures he carried with him would raise him to an enviable rank among his countrymen operated by degrees to alleviate his sorrow. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, and was followed, on the 10th of August, by the Discovery: both vessels joined company, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope.As we have already been frequently over the track now for the third time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, without detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ from those of his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's Land in December, and passed a fortnight of the month of February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand. Soon after he discovered an island which the natives called Mangya: he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a better pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in it. At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself and a party of English from a position of great danger by giving the natives an exaggerated account of the instruments of war used on board the two ships anchored in the offing. "These instruments," he said, "were so huge that several people could sit conveniently within them; and one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had it not been for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would have been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society IslandsCook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He was somewhat encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind would not be fruitless, for upon the same day the natives served up at his dinner a dish of turnips, being the produce of the seeds he had left there during his last voyage.The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed particularly the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his home and his friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother-in-law, came on board. There was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu, who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present of feathers; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was evident to the English that it was not the man, but his property, they were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was Omai's first reception among his countrymen. Had he not shown to them his treasure of red feathers, I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon him. I own I never expected it would be otherwise."The important news of the arrival of red feathers was conveyed on shore by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded early the next morning by a multitude of canoes crowded with people bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first a quantity of feathers not greater than might be plucked from a tomtit would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds; but such was the quantity of this precious article on board that its value fell five hundred per cent. before night. Omai was now visited by his sister; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was marked by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, however, that Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he had if left among his relatives: so it was determined to establishhim at the neighboring island of Huaheine. A large lot of land was obtained there from the chief, and the carpenters of the two ships set about building him a house fit to contain the European commodities that were his property. Cook told the natives that if Omai were disturbed or harassed he should upon his next visit make them feel the weight of his resentment. Omai took possession of his mansion late in October, and on Sunday, November 2, bade adieu to the officers of the ship. He sustained himself in this trying ordeal till he came to Cook, and then gave way to a passionate burst of tears. He wept abundantly while being conveyed on shore. "It was no small satisfaction to reflect," writes Cook, "that we had brought him back safe to the spot from which he was taken. And yet such is the strange nature of human affairs that it is probable we left him in a less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with us. He had tasted the sweets of civilized life, and must now become more miserable from being obliged to abandon all thoughts of continuing them." The career and destiny of Omai were perhaps more remarkable than those of any other savage: he was cherished by Cook, painted by Reynolds, and apostrophized by Cowper.During the stay of the vessels at the Society Islands, Cook induced the crews to give up their grog and use the milk of cocoanuts instead. He submitted it to them whether it would not be injudicious, by drinking their spirits now, to run the risk of having none left in a cold climate, where cordials would be most needed, and whether they would not be content to dispense with their grog now, when they had so excellent a liquor as that of cocoanuts to substitute in its place. The proposal was unanimously agreed to, and the grog was stopped except on Saturday nights.OMAI.Early in February, 1778, Cook made a most important discovery,—that of the archipelago now known as the Sandwich Islands, so named by Cook in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited five of these islands, one of which was Oahu. He found a remarkable similarity of manners and coincidence of language with those of the Society Islands, and in his journal asks the following question:—"How shall we account for this nation having spread itself in so many detached islands, so widely separated from each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean? We find it from New Zealand in the south to the Sandwich Islands in the north! And, in another direction, from Easter Island to the New Hebrides! That is, over an extent of three thousand six hundred miles north and south, and five thousand miles east and west!"From the Sandwich Islands Cook sailed to the northeast, and on the 7th of March struck the coast of America, upon the shores of the tract named New Albion by Sir Francis Drake. The skies being very threatening, he gave the name of Cape Foulweather to a promontory forming the northern extremity. Late in March the two vessels entered a broad inlet, to which Cook gave the name of King George's Sound; but it is better known now by its original name of Nootka Sound. Cook found the natives friendly and willing to sell and buy. They were under the common stature, their persons being full and plump without corpulence, their faces round, with high prominent cheeks, noses flattened at the base with wide nostrils, low forehead, small black eyes, thick round lips, and well-set though not remarkably white teeth. The color of their skin, when not incrusted with paint or dirt, was nearly as white as that of Europeans, and of that pale effete cast which distinguishes the Southern nations of Europe. A remarkable sameness characterized the countenances of the whole nation, the expression of all being dull and phlegmatic. It was not easy to distinguish the women from the men; and not a female was seen, even among those in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to being called handsome.Cook gives a very long and detailed account of the mannersand customs of these people, their habitations, weapons, food, domestic animals, language, and religious views, and concludes by remarking that they differ so essentially in every respect from the inhabitants of the various Pacific islands that it is impossible to suppose their respective progenitors were united in the same tribe, or had any intimate connection when they emigrated from their original settlements into the places where their descendants were now found.HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.Cook left Nootka Sound on the 26th of April, and early in May entered a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Proceeding on his course, as he supposed, toward Behring's Strait, he was surprised to find various indications that he was no longer in the sea, but ascending a wide and rapidly-flowing river. He was, however, encouraged to proceed by finding the water as salt as that of the ocean. Having traced the stream a distance of two hundred miles from its entrance, without seeing the least appearance of its source, and despairing of finding a passage through it to the Northern seas, Cook determined to return. Mr. King, one of the officers, was sent on shore to display the flag and take possession of the country and river in his majesty's name, and to bury in the ground a bottle containing some pieces of English coin of the year 1772. The vessels left the river—afterward named, by order of Lord Sandwich, Cook's River—on the 5th of June.On the 9th of August, Cook arrived at a point of land, in north latitude 66°, which he called Cape Prince of Wales, and which is the western extremity of North America. Had he sailed directly north from this spot, he would have passed through Behring's Straits. But the attraction of two small islands drew him to the westward, and by nightfall he anchored in a bay on the coast of Asia, having in the course of twenty-four hours been in sight of the two continents. On the 12th, while sailing to the north, both continents were in sight at the same moment. On the 17th, a brightness was perceived in the northern horizon, like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. But it was thought very improbable that they should meet with ice so soon. Still, the sharpness of the air and gloominess of the weather seemed to indicate some sudden change. The sight of a large field of ice soon left no doubt as to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At half-past two, being in latitude 71° and in twenty-two fathoms water, Cook found himself close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall and twelve feet out of water. It extended to the north as far as the eye could reach. A point of land upon the American coast obtained the name of Icy Cape.The season was now so far advanced that Cook abandoned all attempts to find a passage through to the Atlantic this year, and directed his attention to the subject of winter quarters. Discovering a deep inlet upon the American side, he named it Norton's Sound, in honor of Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. At Oonalaska, an island some distance to the south, he fell in with three Russian carriers, who had some store-houses and a sloop of thirty tons' burden. They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts which had been made by their countrymen, Kamschatka, Behring, and others, to navigate the Frozen Ocean.On the 26th of October, Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands, intending to spend the winter months there, and then todirect his course to Kamschatka, arriving there by the middle of May in the ensuing year. On the 26th of November, the two ships anchored at the archipelago of the Sandwich Islands and discovered several new members of the group. At Owhyhee, Cook found the natives more free from reserve and suspicion than any other tribe he had met; nor did they even once attempt a fraud or a theft. Cook's confidence, already great, was still further augmented by a singular, if not grotesque, incident.MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.The priests of the island resolved to deify the captain, under the name of Orono. One evening, as he landed upon the beach, he was received by four men, who immediately swathed him in red cloth, and then conducted him to a sort of sacrificial altar, where, by means of an indescribable ceremony, consisting of rapid speeches, offerings of putrid hogs and sugarcanes, invocations, processions, chants, and prostrations, they conferred upon him a celestial character and the right to claim adoration. At the conclusion, a priest named Kaireekeea took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and with which he then rubbed the captain's face, head, hands, arms, and shoulders. Ever after this, when Cook went ashore, a priest preceded him, shouting that Orono was walking the earth, and calling upon the people to humble themselves before him. Presents of pigs, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit were constantly made to him, and an incessant supply of vegetables sent to his two ships: no return was ever demanded or even hinted at. The offerings seemed to be made in discharge of a religious duty, and had much the nature of tribute. When Cook inquired at whose charge all this munificence was displayed, he was told that the expense was borne by a great man, named Kaoo, the chief ofthe priests, and grandfather of Kaireekeea: this Kaoo was now absent, attending Tereoboo, the king of the island.The king, upon his return, set out from the village in a large canoe, followed by two others, and paddled toward the ships in great state. Tereoboo gave Cook a fan, in return for which Cook gave Tereoboo a clean shirt. Heaps of sugarcane and bread-fruit were then given to the ship's crew, and the ceremonies were concluded by an exchange of names between the captain and the king,—the strongest pledge of friendship among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.It was not long before Tereoboo and his chiefs became very anxious that the English should bid them adieu. They imagined the strangers to have come from some country where provisions had failed, and that their visit to their island was merely for the purpose of filling their stomachs. "It was ridiculous enough to see them stroke the sides and pat the bellies of our sailors," says King, the continuator of Cook's journal, "and telling them that it was time for them to go, but that if they would come again the next bread-fruit season they should be better able to supply their wants. We had now been sixteen days in the bay; and, considering our enormous consumption of hogs and vegetables, it need not be wondered that they should wish to see us take our leave." When Tereoboo learned that the ships were to sail on the next day but one, he ordered a proclamation to be made through the villages, requiring the people to bring in presents to Orono, who was soon to take his departure.On the 4th of February, 1779, the vessels unmoored and sailed out of the harbor, after having received on board a present of vegetables and live stock which far exceeded any that had been made them either at the Friendly or Society Islands. The weather being, however, extremely unfavorable, they were compelled to return for shelter, and on the 11th dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as before. The foremastwas found to be much damaged, the heel being exceedingly rotten, having a large hole up the middle of it capable of holding four or five cocoanuts. The reception of the ships was very different from what it had been on their first arrival: there were no shouts, no bustle, no confusion. The bay seemed deserted, though from time to time a solitary canoe stole stealthily along the shore.FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.Toward the evening of the 13th, a theft committed by a party of the islanders on board the Discovery gave rise to a disturbance of a very serious nature. Pareea, a personage of some authority, was accused of the theft, and a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives immediately attacked the crew of the pinnace with a furious shower of stones and other missiles, and forced them to swim off with great precipitation to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately ransacked by the islanders, and would have been demolished, but for the interposition of Pareea, who, upon the recognition of his innocence, joined noses with the officers and seemed to have forgotten the blow he had received.When Captain Cook heard of what had happened, he expressed some anxiety, and said that it would not do to allow the islanders to imagine that they had gained an advantage. It was too late to take any steps that evening, however. A double guard was posted at the observatory, and at midnightone of the sentinels, observing five savages creeping toward him, fired over their heads and put them to flight. The cutter of the Discovery was stolen, toward morning, from the buoy where it was moored. At daylight, Cook loaded his double-barrelled gun and ordered the marines to prepare for action. It had been his practice, when any thing of consequence was lost, to get the king or several of the principal men on board, and to keep them as hostages till it was restored. His purpose was to pursue the same plan now. He gave orders to seize and stop all canoes that should attempt to leave the bay. The boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were therefore stationed across the mouth of the harbor. Cook went ashore in the pinnace, obtained an interview with the king, satisfied himself that he was in no wise privy to the theft committed, and invited him to return in the boat and spend the day on board the Resolution. Tereoboo readily consented, and, having placed his two sons in the pinnace, was on the point of following them, when an elderly woman, the mother of the boys, and a younger woman, the king's favorite wife, besought him with tears and entreaties not to go on board. Two chiefs laid hold of him, insisting that he should go no farther. The natives now collected in prodigious numbers and began to throng around Captain Cook and their king. Cook, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain to think of kidnapping the king without bloodshed, at last gave up the point.DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.Thus far, the person and life of Cook do not appear to have been in danger. An accident now happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. The ships' boats, in firing at canoes attempting to escape, had unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived just at the moment when Cook, after leaving the king, was walking slowly toward the shore. It caused an immediate and violent ferment: the women and children were at once sent off: the warriors put on their breastmats and armed themselves with spears and stones. One of the natives went up to Cook, flourishing a long iron spike by way of defiance, and threatening him with a large stone. Cook ordered him to desist, but, as the man persisted in his insolence, was at length provoked to fire a load of small shot. As the shot did not penetrate the matting, the natives were encouraged, by seeing the discharge to be harmless, to further aggression. Several stones were thrown at the marines: their lieutenant, Mr. Phillips, narrowly escaped being stabbed by knocking down the assailant with the butt end of his musket. Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones and a discharge of musketry immediately followed. The islanders, contrary to the expectations of the English, stood the fire with great firmness, and, before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon them with demoniacal shouts. Four marines were instantly killed; three others were dangerously wounded; Phillips received a stab between the shoulders, but, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the blow.The last time that Cook was seen distinctly, he was standing at the water's edge, calling out to the people in the boats to cease firing. It is supposed that he was desirous of stopping further bloodshed, and wished the example of desisting to proceed from his side. His humanity proved fatal to him; and he lost his life in attempting to save the lives of others. It was noticed that while he faced the natives none of them offered him any violence, deterred, perhaps, by the sacred character he bore as an Orono; but the moment he turned round to give his orders to the men in the boats, he was stabbed in the back and fell, face foremost, into the water. The islanders set up a deafening yell and dragged his body on shore, where the dagger with which he had been killed was eagerly snatched by thesavages from each others' hands, each one manifesting a brutal eagerness to have a share in his destruction."Thus fell," writes King, "our great and excellent commander. After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to finish the work for which he seemed designed, and was rather removed from the enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe: much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity."When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their commander had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of the Discovery, assumed the chief command of the expedition. The ships were in such a bad condition, and the discipline became so relaxed upon the withdrawal of the master-mind, that it was decided to employ pacific measures, rather than a display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the restitution of the remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers. The moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the natives using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt-offerings to their divinities. As they considered that of Cook as of a higher order, they cut it carefully in pieces, sending bits of it to different parts of the island. Upon the evening of the 15th, two priests brought clandestinely to the ship the portion they had received for religious purposes,—flesh without bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They said that this was all that remained of the body, the rest having been cut to pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones,except what belonged to the trunk, were in the possession of Tereoboo.The natives on shore passed the night in feasts and rejoicings, seeking evidently to animate and inflame their courage previous to the expected collision. The next day, about noon, finding the English persist in their inactivity, great bodies of them, blowing their conch-shells and strutting about upon the shore in a blustering and defiant manner, marched off over the hills and never appeared again. Those who remained compensated for the paucity of their numbers by the insolence of their conduct. One man came within musket-shot of the Resolution and waved Cook's hat over his head, his countrymen upon the water's edge exulting in his taunts and jeers. The watering-party sent upon their daily duty were annoyed to such an extent that they only obtained one cask of water in an afternoon. An attack upon the village was in consequence decided upon, and was executed by the marines in a vigorous and effective manner. A sanguinary revenge was taken for the death of their commander: many of the islanders were slain, and their huts were burned to the ground. This severe lesson was necessary, for the natives were strongly of opinion that the English tolerated their provocations because they were unable to suppress them, and not from motives of humanity. At last, a chief named Eappo, a man of the very first consequence, came with presents from Tereoboo to sue for peace. The presents were received, but answer was returned that, until the remains of Captain Cook were restored, no peace would be granted.On Saturday, the 20th, a long procession was seen to descend the hill toward the beach. Each man carried a sugarcane or two upon his shoulders, with bread-fruit and plantains in his hand. They were preceded by two drummers, who planted a staff with a white flag upon it by the water's edge and drummed vigorously, while the rest advanced one by one and depositedtheir presents upon the ground. Eappo, in a long feathered cloak, and with a bearing of deep solemnity, mounted upon a rock and made signs for a boat. Captain Clarke went ashore in the pinnace, ordering Lieutenant King to attend him in the cutter. Eappo went into the pinnace and delivered to the captain a quantity of bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth and covered with a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. The bundle contained the hands of the unfortunate commander entire; the skull, deprived of the scalp and the bones that form the face; the scalp, detached, with the hair cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both arms, the thigh and leg bones, but without the feet. The whole bore evident marks of having been in the fire, with the exception of the hands, the flesh of which was left upon them,—with several large gashes crammed with salt, apparently for the purpose of preventing decomposition. The lower jaw and feet, which were wanting, had been seized by different chiefs, Eappo said, and Tereoboo was using every means to recover them.The next morning Eappo came on board, bringing with him the missing bones, together with the barrels of Cook's gun, his shoes, and several other trifles that had belonged to him. Eappo was dismissed with orders to "taboo" the bay—that is, to place it under interdict—during the performance of the funeral ceremonies. This was done: not a canoe ventured out upon the water during the remainder of the day, and, in the midst of the silence and solemnity of the scene, the bones were placed in a coffin and the service of the Church of England read over them. They were then committed to the deep, beneath the booming thunders of the artillery of both vessels. "What our feelings were on this occasion," says King, "I leave the world to conceive: those who were present know that it is not in my power to express them."No one man ever contributed more to any science than did Captain Cook to that of geography. We have seen that on hisfirst voyage he discovered the Society Islands, determined the insular character of New Zealand, discovered the straits which cut that island in halves, and made a complete survey of both portions. He explored the eastern coast of New Holland, gave Botany Bay its name, and surveyed an extent of upward of two thousand miles. In his second voyage he resolved the problem of a Southern continent, having traversed that hemisphere in such a manner as to leave no probability of its existence, unless near the Pole, out of the reach of navigation and beyond the habitable limits of the globe. He discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the South Pacific except New Zealand; he settled the situations of numerous old discoveries, rectifying their longitude and remodelling all the charts. On his third voyage he discovered, to the north of the equator, the group called the Sandwich Islands,—a discovery which, all things considered, and from their situation and products, may be said to be the most important acquisition ever made in the Pacific. He explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast of America,—an extent of three thousand five hundred miles,—and ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America. "In short," says King, "if we except the Sea of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to the Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe." After Christopher Columbus, Cook acquired, and now, at a distance of nearly a century, still enjoys, the highest degree of popularity which ever fell to the lot of a navigator and discoverer.
A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.
A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.
A SANDWICH ISLAND KING PROCEEDING TO VISIT COOK.
COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE—THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE—OMAI—HIS RECEPTION AT HOME—THE CREW FOREGO THEIR GROG—DISCOVERY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—NOOTKA SOUND—THE NATIVES—CAPE PRINCE OF WALES—TWO CONTINENTS IN SIGHT—ICY CAPE—RETURN TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS—COOK IS DEIFIED—INTERVIEW WITH TEREOBOO—SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES—A SKIRMISH—PITCHED BATTLE AND DEATH OF COOK—RECOVERY OF A PORTION OF HIS REMAINS—FUNERAL CEREMONIES—LIFE AND SERVICES OF COOK.
Cook might justly have retired at this period to private life, to enjoy his well-earned reputation. But the grand question of the Northwest Passage, now agitated by the press and the public, induced him once more to tempt the perils of foreign adventure. As every effort to force a passage through Baffin's or Hudson's Bay had signally failed, it was determined to make the experiment through Behring's Straits. On the 9thof February, 1776, Cook received the command of the sloop-of-war Resolution,—the vessel in which he had made his last voyage,—the Discovery, of three hundred tons, being appointed to accompany the expedition. Both ships were equipped in a manner befitting the nature of their mission: they were well supplied with European animals and plants, which they were to introduce into the islands of the Pacific. Omai, the young Tahitian whom Cook had brought to England, was placed on board the Resolution, as it was not likely another opportunity would occur of sending him home. He left London with regret; but the consciousness that the treasures he carried with him would raise him to an enviable rank among his countrymen operated by degrees to alleviate his sorrow. The Resolution sailed from Plymouth on the 12th of July, and was followed, on the 10th of August, by the Discovery: both vessels joined company, early in November, at the Cape of Good Hope.
As we have already been frequently over the track now for the third time traversed by Cook, we shall merely give his route, without detailing his adventures, which did not materially differ from those of his former voyages. He arrived at Van Diemen's Land in December, and passed a fortnight of the month of February, 1777, in Queen Charlotte's Sound, New Zealand. Soon after he discovered an island which the natives called Mangya: he noticed that the inhabitants, for want of a better pocket, slit the lobe of their ear and carried their knife in it. At another island of the same group, Omai extricated himself and a party of English from a position of great danger by giving the natives an exaggerated account of the instruments of war used on board the two ships anchored in the offing. "These instruments," he said, "were so huge that several people could sit conveniently within them; and one of them was sufficient to crush the whole island at a shot." Had it not been for this formidable story, Omai thought the party would have been detained on shore all night. At one of the Society IslandsCook planted a pineapple and sowed some melon-seeds. He was somewhat encouraged to hope that endeavors of this kind would not be fruitless, for upon the same day the natives served up at his dinner a dish of turnips, being the produce of the seeds he had left there during his last voyage.
The Resolution soon anchored off Tahiti, and Cook noticed particularly the conduct of Omai, now about to be restored to his home and his friends. A chief named Ootu, and Omai's brother-in-law, came on board. There was nothing either tender or striking in their meeting. On the contrary, there seemed to be a perfect indifference on both sides, till Omai, having taken his brother down into the cabin, opened the drawer where he kept his red feathers and gave him three of them. Ootu, who would hardly speak to Omai before, now begged that they might be friends. Omai assented, and ratified the bargain with a present of feathers; and Ootu, by way of return, sent ashore for a hog. But it was evident to the English that it was not the man, but his property, they were in love with. "Such," says Cook, "was Omai's first reception among his countrymen. Had he not shown to them his treasure of red feathers, I question much whether they would have bestowed even a cocoanut upon him. I own I never expected it would be otherwise."
The important news of the arrival of red feathers was conveyed on shore by Omai's friends, and the ships were surrounded early the next morning by a multitude of canoes crowded with people bringing hogs and fruit to market. At first a quantity of feathers not greater than might be plucked from a tomtit would purchase a hog weighing fifty pounds; but such was the quantity of this precious article on board that its value fell five hundred per cent. before night. Omai was now visited by his sister; and, much to the credit of them both, their meeting was marked by expressions of the tenderest affection. Cook foresaw, however, that Omai would soon be despoiled of every thing he had if left among his relatives: so it was determined to establishhim at the neighboring island of Huaheine. A large lot of land was obtained there from the chief, and the carpenters of the two ships set about building him a house fit to contain the European commodities that were his property. Cook told the natives that if Omai were disturbed or harassed he should upon his next visit make them feel the weight of his resentment. Omai took possession of his mansion late in October, and on Sunday, November 2, bade adieu to the officers of the ship. He sustained himself in this trying ordeal till he came to Cook, and then gave way to a passionate burst of tears. He wept abundantly while being conveyed on shore. "It was no small satisfaction to reflect," writes Cook, "that we had brought him back safe to the spot from which he was taken. And yet such is the strange nature of human affairs that it is probable we left him in a less desirable situation than he was in before his connection with us. He had tasted the sweets of civilized life, and must now become more miserable from being obliged to abandon all thoughts of continuing them." The career and destiny of Omai were perhaps more remarkable than those of any other savage: he was cherished by Cook, painted by Reynolds, and apostrophized by Cowper.
During the stay of the vessels at the Society Islands, Cook induced the crews to give up their grog and use the milk of cocoanuts instead. He submitted it to them whether it would not be injudicious, by drinking their spirits now, to run the risk of having none left in a cold climate, where cordials would be most needed, and whether they would not be content to dispense with their grog now, when they had so excellent a liquor as that of cocoanuts to substitute in its place. The proposal was unanimously agreed to, and the grog was stopped except on Saturday nights.
OMAI.
OMAI.
OMAI.
Early in February, 1778, Cook made a most important discovery,—that of the archipelago now known as the Sandwich Islands, so named by Cook in honor of the Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty. He visited five of these islands, one of which was Oahu. He found a remarkable similarity of manners and coincidence of language with those of the Society Islands, and in his journal asks the following question:—"How shall we account for this nation having spread itself in so many detached islands, so widely separated from each other, in every quarter of the Pacific Ocean? We find it from New Zealand in the south to the Sandwich Islands in the north! And, in another direction, from Easter Island to the New Hebrides! That is, over an extent of three thousand six hundred miles north and south, and five thousand miles east and west!"
From the Sandwich Islands Cook sailed to the northeast, and on the 7th of March struck the coast of America, upon the shores of the tract named New Albion by Sir Francis Drake. The skies being very threatening, he gave the name of Cape Foulweather to a promontory forming the northern extremity. Late in March the two vessels entered a broad inlet, to which Cook gave the name of King George's Sound; but it is better known now by its original name of Nootka Sound. Cook found the natives friendly and willing to sell and buy. They were under the common stature, their persons being full and plump without corpulence, their faces round, with high prominent cheeks, noses flattened at the base with wide nostrils, low forehead, small black eyes, thick round lips, and well-set though not remarkably white teeth. The color of their skin, when not incrusted with paint or dirt, was nearly as white as that of Europeans, and of that pale effete cast which distinguishes the Southern nations of Europe. A remarkable sameness characterized the countenances of the whole nation, the expression of all being dull and phlegmatic. It was not easy to distinguish the women from the men; and not a female was seen, even among those in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to being called handsome.
Cook gives a very long and detailed account of the mannersand customs of these people, their habitations, weapons, food, domestic animals, language, and religious views, and concludes by remarking that they differ so essentially in every respect from the inhabitants of the various Pacific islands that it is impossible to suppose their respective progenitors were united in the same tribe, or had any intimate connection when they emigrated from their original settlements into the places where their descendants were now found.
HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.
HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.
HABITATIONS IN NOOTKA SOUND.
Cook left Nootka Sound on the 26th of April, and early in May entered a deep inlet, to which he gave the name of Prince William's Sound. Proceeding on his course, as he supposed, toward Behring's Strait, he was surprised to find various indications that he was no longer in the sea, but ascending a wide and rapidly-flowing river. He was, however, encouraged to proceed by finding the water as salt as that of the ocean. Having traced the stream a distance of two hundred miles from its entrance, without seeing the least appearance of its source, and despairing of finding a passage through it to the Northern seas, Cook determined to return. Mr. King, one of the officers, was sent on shore to display the flag and take possession of the country and river in his majesty's name, and to bury in the ground a bottle containing some pieces of English coin of the year 1772. The vessels left the river—afterward named, by order of Lord Sandwich, Cook's River—on the 5th of June.
On the 9th of August, Cook arrived at a point of land, in north latitude 66°, which he called Cape Prince of Wales, and which is the western extremity of North America. Had he sailed directly north from this spot, he would have passed through Behring's Straits. But the attraction of two small islands drew him to the westward, and by nightfall he anchored in a bay on the coast of Asia, having in the course of twenty-four hours been in sight of the two continents. On the 12th, while sailing to the north, both continents were in sight at the same moment. On the 17th, a brightness was perceived in the northern horizon, like that reflected from ice, commonly called the blink. But it was thought very improbable that they should meet with ice so soon. Still, the sharpness of the air and gloominess of the weather seemed to indicate some sudden change. The sight of a large field of ice soon left no doubt as to the cause of the brightness of the horizon. At half-past two, being in latitude 71° and in twenty-two fathoms water, Cook found himself close to the edge of the ice, which was as compact as a wall and twelve feet out of water. It extended to the north as far as the eye could reach. A point of land upon the American coast obtained the name of Icy Cape.
The season was now so far advanced that Cook abandoned all attempts to find a passage through to the Atlantic this year, and directed his attention to the subject of winter quarters. Discovering a deep inlet upon the American side, he named it Norton's Sound, in honor of Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons. At Oonalaska, an island some distance to the south, he fell in with three Russian carriers, who had some store-houses and a sloop of thirty tons' burden. They appeared to have a thorough knowledge of the attempts which had been made by their countrymen, Kamschatka, Behring, and others, to navigate the Frozen Ocean.
On the 26th of October, Cook left Oonalaska for the Sandwich Islands, intending to spend the winter months there, and then todirect his course to Kamschatka, arriving there by the middle of May in the ensuing year. On the 26th of November, the two ships anchored at the archipelago of the Sandwich Islands and discovered several new members of the group. At Owhyhee, Cook found the natives more free from reserve and suspicion than any other tribe he had met; nor did they even once attempt a fraud or a theft. Cook's confidence, already great, was still further augmented by a singular, if not grotesque, incident.
MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
MAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
WOMAN OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
The priests of the island resolved to deify the captain, under the name of Orono. One evening, as he landed upon the beach, he was received by four men, who immediately swathed him in red cloth, and then conducted him to a sort of sacrificial altar, where, by means of an indescribable ceremony, consisting of rapid speeches, offerings of putrid hogs and sugarcanes, invocations, processions, chants, and prostrations, they conferred upon him a celestial character and the right to claim adoration. At the conclusion, a priest named Kaireekeea took part of the kernel of a cocoanut, which he chewed, and with which he then rubbed the captain's face, head, hands, arms, and shoulders. Ever after this, when Cook went ashore, a priest preceded him, shouting that Orono was walking the earth, and calling upon the people to humble themselves before him. Presents of pigs, cocoanuts, and bread-fruit were constantly made to him, and an incessant supply of vegetables sent to his two ships: no return was ever demanded or even hinted at. The offerings seemed to be made in discharge of a religious duty, and had much the nature of tribute. When Cook inquired at whose charge all this munificence was displayed, he was told that the expense was borne by a great man, named Kaoo, the chief ofthe priests, and grandfather of Kaireekeea: this Kaoo was now absent, attending Tereoboo, the king of the island.
The king, upon his return, set out from the village in a large canoe, followed by two others, and paddled toward the ships in great state. Tereoboo gave Cook a fan, in return for which Cook gave Tereoboo a clean shirt. Heaps of sugarcane and bread-fruit were then given to the ship's crew, and the ceremonies were concluded by an exchange of names between the captain and the king,—the strongest pledge of friendship among the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.
It was not long before Tereoboo and his chiefs became very anxious that the English should bid them adieu. They imagined the strangers to have come from some country where provisions had failed, and that their visit to their island was merely for the purpose of filling their stomachs. "It was ridiculous enough to see them stroke the sides and pat the bellies of our sailors," says King, the continuator of Cook's journal, "and telling them that it was time for them to go, but that if they would come again the next bread-fruit season they should be better able to supply their wants. We had now been sixteen days in the bay; and, considering our enormous consumption of hogs and vegetables, it need not be wondered that they should wish to see us take our leave." When Tereoboo learned that the ships were to sail on the next day but one, he ordered a proclamation to be made through the villages, requiring the people to bring in presents to Orono, who was soon to take his departure.
On the 4th of February, 1779, the vessels unmoored and sailed out of the harbor, after having received on board a present of vegetables and live stock which far exceeded any that had been made them either at the Friendly or Society Islands. The weather being, however, extremely unfavorable, they were compelled to return for shelter, and on the 11th dropped anchor in nearly the same spot as before. The foremastwas found to be much damaged, the heel being exceedingly rotten, having a large hole up the middle of it capable of holding four or five cocoanuts. The reception of the ships was very different from what it had been on their first arrival: there were no shouts, no bustle, no confusion. The bay seemed deserted, though from time to time a solitary canoe stole stealthily along the shore.
FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.
FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.
FIGHT WITH ISLANDERS.
Toward the evening of the 13th, a theft committed by a party of the islanders on board the Discovery gave rise to a disturbance of a very serious nature. Pareea, a personage of some authority, was accused of the theft, and a scuffle ensued, in which Pareea was knocked down by a violent blow on the head with an oar. The natives immediately attacked the crew of the pinnace with a furious shower of stones and other missiles, and forced them to swim off with great precipitation to a rock at some distance from the shore. The pinnace was immediately ransacked by the islanders, and would have been demolished, but for the interposition of Pareea, who, upon the recognition of his innocence, joined noses with the officers and seemed to have forgotten the blow he had received.
When Captain Cook heard of what had happened, he expressed some anxiety, and said that it would not do to allow the islanders to imagine that they had gained an advantage. It was too late to take any steps that evening, however. A double guard was posted at the observatory, and at midnightone of the sentinels, observing five savages creeping toward him, fired over their heads and put them to flight. The cutter of the Discovery was stolen, toward morning, from the buoy where it was moored. At daylight, Cook loaded his double-barrelled gun and ordered the marines to prepare for action. It had been his practice, when any thing of consequence was lost, to get the king or several of the principal men on board, and to keep them as hostages till it was restored. His purpose was to pursue the same plan now. He gave orders to seize and stop all canoes that should attempt to leave the bay. The boats of both ships, well manned and armed, were therefore stationed across the mouth of the harbor. Cook went ashore in the pinnace, obtained an interview with the king, satisfied himself that he was in no wise privy to the theft committed, and invited him to return in the boat and spend the day on board the Resolution. Tereoboo readily consented, and, having placed his two sons in the pinnace, was on the point of following them, when an elderly woman, the mother of the boys, and a younger woman, the king's favorite wife, besought him with tears and entreaties not to go on board. Two chiefs laid hold of him, insisting that he should go no farther. The natives now collected in prodigious numbers and began to throng around Captain Cook and their king. Cook, finding that the alarm had spread too generally, and that it was in vain to think of kidnapping the king without bloodshed, at last gave up the point.
DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.
DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.
DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK.
Thus far, the person and life of Cook do not appear to have been in danger. An accident now happened which gave a fatal turn to the affair. The ships' boats, in firing at canoes attempting to escape, had unfortunately killed a chief of the first rank. The news of his death arrived just at the moment when Cook, after leaving the king, was walking slowly toward the shore. It caused an immediate and violent ferment: the women and children were at once sent off: the warriors put on their breastmats and armed themselves with spears and stones. One of the natives went up to Cook, flourishing a long iron spike by way of defiance, and threatening him with a large stone. Cook ordered him to desist, but, as the man persisted in his insolence, was at length provoked to fire a load of small shot. As the shot did not penetrate the matting, the natives were encouraged, by seeing the discharge to be harmless, to further aggression. Several stones were thrown at the marines: their lieutenant, Mr. Phillips, narrowly escaped being stabbed by knocking down the assailant with the butt end of his musket. Cook now fired his second barrel, loaded with ball, and killed one of the foremost of the natives. A general attack with stones and a discharge of musketry immediately followed. The islanders, contrary to the expectations of the English, stood the fire with great firmness, and, before the marines had time to reload, broke in upon them with demoniacal shouts. Four marines were instantly killed; three others were dangerously wounded; Phillips received a stab between the shoulders, but, having fortunately reserved his fire, shot the man who had wounded him just as he was going to repeat the blow.
The last time that Cook was seen distinctly, he was standing at the water's edge, calling out to the people in the boats to cease firing. It is supposed that he was desirous of stopping further bloodshed, and wished the example of desisting to proceed from his side. His humanity proved fatal to him; and he lost his life in attempting to save the lives of others. It was noticed that while he faced the natives none of them offered him any violence, deterred, perhaps, by the sacred character he bore as an Orono; but the moment he turned round to give his orders to the men in the boats, he was stabbed in the back and fell, face foremost, into the water. The islanders set up a deafening yell and dragged his body on shore, where the dagger with which he had been killed was eagerly snatched by thesavages from each others' hands, each one manifesting a brutal eagerness to have a share in his destruction.
"Thus fell," writes King, "our great and excellent commander. After a life of so much distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as regards himself, cannot be reckoned premature, since he lived to finish the work for which he seemed designed, and was rather removed from the enjoyment than cut off from the acquisition of glory. How sincerely his loss was felt and lamented by those who had so long found their general security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in their hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor possible for me to describe: much less shall I attempt to paint the horror with which we were struck, and the universal dejection and dismay which followed so dreadful and unexpected a calamity."
When the consternation consequent upon the loss of their commander had in some measure subsided, Clarke, the captain of the Discovery, assumed the chief command of the expedition. The ships were in such a bad condition, and the discipline became so relaxed upon the withdrawal of the master-mind, that it was decided to employ pacific measures, rather than a display of vigorous resentment, to obtain the restitution of the remains of Cook and of the four massacred soldiers. The moderation of the English produced no effect, however, the natives using the bodies of the marines in sacrificial burnt-offerings to their divinities. As they considered that of Cook as of a higher order, they cut it carefully in pieces, sending bits of it to different parts of the island. Upon the evening of the 15th, two priests brought clandestinely to the ship the portion they had received for religious purposes,—flesh without bone, and weighing about nine pounds. They said that this was all that remained of the body, the rest having been cut to pieces and burned: the head, however, and all the bones,except what belonged to the trunk, were in the possession of Tereoboo.
The natives on shore passed the night in feasts and rejoicings, seeking evidently to animate and inflame their courage previous to the expected collision. The next day, about noon, finding the English persist in their inactivity, great bodies of them, blowing their conch-shells and strutting about upon the shore in a blustering and defiant manner, marched off over the hills and never appeared again. Those who remained compensated for the paucity of their numbers by the insolence of their conduct. One man came within musket-shot of the Resolution and waved Cook's hat over his head, his countrymen upon the water's edge exulting in his taunts and jeers. The watering-party sent upon their daily duty were annoyed to such an extent that they only obtained one cask of water in an afternoon. An attack upon the village was in consequence decided upon, and was executed by the marines in a vigorous and effective manner. A sanguinary revenge was taken for the death of their commander: many of the islanders were slain, and their huts were burned to the ground. This severe lesson was necessary, for the natives were strongly of opinion that the English tolerated their provocations because they were unable to suppress them, and not from motives of humanity. At last, a chief named Eappo, a man of the very first consequence, came with presents from Tereoboo to sue for peace. The presents were received, but answer was returned that, until the remains of Captain Cook were restored, no peace would be granted.
On Saturday, the 20th, a long procession was seen to descend the hill toward the beach. Each man carried a sugarcane or two upon his shoulders, with bread-fruit and plantains in his hand. They were preceded by two drummers, who planted a staff with a white flag upon it by the water's edge and drummed vigorously, while the rest advanced one by one and depositedtheir presents upon the ground. Eappo, in a long feathered cloak, and with a bearing of deep solemnity, mounted upon a rock and made signs for a boat. Captain Clarke went ashore in the pinnace, ordering Lieutenant King to attend him in the cutter. Eappo went into the pinnace and delivered to the captain a quantity of bones wrapped up in a large quantity of fine new cloth and covered with a spotted cloak of black and white feathers. The bundle contained the hands of the unfortunate commander entire; the skull, deprived of the scalp and the bones that form the face; the scalp, detached, with the hair cut short, and the ears adhering to it; the bones of both arms, the thigh and leg bones, but without the feet. The whole bore evident marks of having been in the fire, with the exception of the hands, the flesh of which was left upon them,—with several large gashes crammed with salt, apparently for the purpose of preventing decomposition. The lower jaw and feet, which were wanting, had been seized by different chiefs, Eappo said, and Tereoboo was using every means to recover them.
The next morning Eappo came on board, bringing with him the missing bones, together with the barrels of Cook's gun, his shoes, and several other trifles that had belonged to him. Eappo was dismissed with orders to "taboo" the bay—that is, to place it under interdict—during the performance of the funeral ceremonies. This was done: not a canoe ventured out upon the water during the remainder of the day, and, in the midst of the silence and solemnity of the scene, the bones were placed in a coffin and the service of the Church of England read over them. They were then committed to the deep, beneath the booming thunders of the artillery of both vessels. "What our feelings were on this occasion," says King, "I leave the world to conceive: those who were present know that it is not in my power to express them."
No one man ever contributed more to any science than did Captain Cook to that of geography. We have seen that on hisfirst voyage he discovered the Society Islands, determined the insular character of New Zealand, discovered the straits which cut that island in halves, and made a complete survey of both portions. He explored the eastern coast of New Holland, gave Botany Bay its name, and surveyed an extent of upward of two thousand miles. In his second voyage he resolved the problem of a Southern continent, having traversed that hemisphere in such a manner as to leave no probability of its existence, unless near the Pole, out of the reach of navigation and beyond the habitable limits of the globe. He discovered New Caledonia, the largest island in the South Pacific except New Zealand; he settled the situations of numerous old discoveries, rectifying their longitude and remodelling all the charts. On his third voyage he discovered, to the north of the equator, the group called the Sandwich Islands,—a discovery which, all things considered, and from their situation and products, may be said to be the most important acquisition ever made in the Pacific. He explored what had hitherto remained unknown of the western coast of America,—an extent of three thousand five hundred miles,—and ascertained the proximity of the two great continents of Asia and America. "In short," says King, "if we except the Sea of Amur, and the Japanese Archipelago, which still remain imperfectly known to the Europeans, he has completed the hydrography of the habitable globe." After Christopher Columbus, Cook acquired, and now, at a distance of nearly a century, still enjoys, the highest degree of popularity which ever fell to the lot of a navigator and discoverer.
LAPÉROUSE.CHAPTER XLVI.LOUIS XVI. AND THE SCIENCE OF NAVIGATION—VOYAGE OF LAPÉROUSE—ARRIVAL AT EASTER ISLAND—ADDRESS OF THE NATIVES—OWHYHEE—TRADE AT MOWEE—SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN COAST—A REMARKABLE INLET—DISTRESSING CALAMITY—SOJOURN AT MONTEREY—RUN ACROSS THE PACIFIC—THE JAPANESE WATERS—ARRIVAL AT PETROPAULOWSKI—AFFRAY AT NAVIGATORS' ISLES—LAPÉROUSE ARRIVES AT BOTANY BAY, AND IS NEVER SEEN AGAIN, ALIVE OR DEAD—VOYAGES MADE IN SEARCH OF HIM—D'ENTRECASTEAUX—DILLON—D'URVILLE—DISCOVERY OF NUMEROUS RELICS OF THE SHIPS AT MANICOLO—THEORY OF THE FATE OF LAPÉROUSE—ERECTION OF A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY.Louis XVI., King of France, became at this period deeply interested in the study of the science of geography and navigation. Upon the perusal of the voyages, discoveries, and services of Cook, he conceived the idea of admitting the French nationto a share in the glory which the English were reaping from maritime adventure and exploration. He drew up a plan of campaign with his own hand, ordered the two frigates Boussole and Astrolabe to be prepared for sea, and gave the command of the expedition to Jean-François Galaup de la Pérouse,—better known as Lapérouse. The vessels were supplied with every accessory of which they could possibly have need. The instructions and recommendations received from the Academy of Sciences fill a quarto volume of four hundred pages. The fleet sailed from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785, and arrived at Concepçion, in Chili, late in February, 1786.After a short stay here, the two frigates again put to sea, and, early in April, anchored in Cook's Bay, in Easter Island. Here the two commanders landed, accompanied by about seventy persons, twelve of whom were marines armed to the teeth. Five hundred Indians awaited them at the shore, the greater part of them naked, painted, and tattooed, others wearing pendent bunches of odoriferous herbs about their loins, and others still being covered with pieces of white and yellow cloth. None of them were armed, and, as the boats touched the land, they advanced with the utmost alacrity to aid the strangers in their disembarkation. The latter marked out a circular space, where they set up a tent, and enjoined it strongly upon the islanders not to intrude upon this enclosure. The number of the natives had now increased to eight hundred, one hundred and fifty of whom were women. While the latter would seek, by caresses and agreeable pantomime, to withdraw the attention of the Frenchmen from passing events, the men would slyly pick their pockets. Innumerable handkerchiefs were pilfered in this way; and the thieves, emboldened by success, at last seized their caps from their heads and rushed off with them. It was noticed that the chiefs were the most adroit and successful plunderers, and that though, for appearance' sake, they sometimes ran after an offender, promising to bring him back,it was evident that they were running as slowly as they could, and that their object was rather to facilitate than to prevent their escape. Lapérouse was not saved from spoliation by his rank: a polite savage, having assisted him over an obstruction in the path, removed his chapeau and fled with the utmost rapidity. On re-embarking to return to the ships, only three persons had handkerchiefs, and only two had caps. Lapérouse stayed but a day on this island, having nothing to gain and every thing to lose. There was no fresh water to be found, the natives drinking sea-water, like the albatrosses of Cape Horn. In return for the hospitality with which they had been received, Lapérouse caused several fertile spots to be sown with beets, cabbages, wheat, carrots, and squashes, and even with orange, lemon, and cotton seeds. "In short," says Lapérouse, "we loaded them with presents, overwhelmed with caresses the young and children at the breast; we sowed their fields with useful grains; we left kids, sheep, and hogs to multiply upon their island; we asked nothing in exchange; and yet they robbed us of our hats and handkerchiefs, and threw stones at us when we left." The following reflection, which concludes Lapérouse's account of Easter Island, could only have proceeded from a Frenchman:—"I decided to depart during the night, flattering myself that when, upon the return of day, they should find our vessels gone, they would attribute our departure to our just resentment at their conduct, and that this conclusion might render them better members of society."Lapérouse now sailed to the northeast, intending to touch at the Sandwich Islands,—a distance of five thousand miles. He hoped to make some discovery during this long stretch, and placed sailors in the tops, animated by the promise of a prize to discover as many islands as possible. In the furtherance of this design, the two frigates sailed ten miles apart,—by which the visible horizon was considerably extended. Lapérouse was destined, however, to owe his celebrity to his misfortunes andnot to his discoveries: he arrived, on the 28th of May, at Owhyhee, without once making land. "The aspect of the island," he writes, "was charming. But the sea beat with such violence upon the coast, that, like Tantalus, we could only long for and devour with our eyes that which it was impossible for us to reach." This prospect was aggravated by the sight of one hundred and fifty canoes laden with pigs and fruit which put out from the shore: forty of them were capsized in attempting to come alongside while the frigates were under full sail. The water was full of swimming savages, struggling pigs, and tempting cocoanuts; but the necessity of making an anchorage before nightfall compelled them to seek another portion of the island.On the 30th of May, Lapérouse landed upon the island of Mowee, where he found the savages mild, polite, and commercially inclined. Exchanges of pigs and medals were made with great success. Lapérouse abstained from taking possession of the island in the name of the King of France,—Cook not having visited Mowee,—inasmuch as he considered European usages in this respect extremely ridiculous. "Philosophers must often have wept," he writes, "at seeing men, simply because they have cannon and bayonets, count sixty thousand of their fellow-creatures as nothing, and look upon a land which its inhabitants have moistened with their sweat and fertilized with the bones of their ancestors for centuries as an object of legitimate conquest."On the 23d of June, in latitude 60° north, Lapérouse struck the American coast: he recognised at once Behring's Mount St. Elias, whose summit pierced the clouds. From this point southward as far as Monterey, in Mexico, lay an extent of coast which Cook had seen but not surveyed. The exploration of this coast was a work essential to the interests of navigation and of commerce; and, though the season only allowed him three months, he undertook and executed it in a manner creditable to the navy of France. He discovered a harbor that hadescaped the notice of preceding navigators. This harbor or bay seems to have been a remarkable place. The water is unfathomable, and is surrounded by precipices which rise perpendicularly from the water's edge into the regions of eternal snow. Not a blade of grass, not a green leaf, grows in this desolate and sterile spot. No breeze blows upon the surface of the bay: its tranquillity is never troubled except by the fall of enormous masses of ice from numerous overhanging peaks. The air is so still and the silence so profound that the noise made by a bird in laying an egg in the hollow of a rock is distinctly heard at the distance of a mile and a half. To this wonderful bay Lapérouse gave the name of Frenchport.A painful accident occurred as the vessels, after a somewhat prolonged stay, were about departing from the spot. Three boats, manned by twenty-seven men and officers, were sent to make soundings in the bay, in order to complete the chart of the survey. They had strict orders to avoid a certain dangerous current, but became involved in it unawares. Two boats' crews perished, consisting of twenty-one men, the greater part of them under twenty-five years of age. Two brothers, by the name of Laborde, whom their superior officers never separated, but always sent together on missions of peril, were among the victims of the disaster. A monument was erected to their memory, and a record buried in a bottle beneath it. The inscription was thus conceived:—"At the entrance of this bay twenty-one brave sailors perish'd:Whoever you may be, mingle your tears with ours."LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.On the 13th of September, Lapérouse arrived at Monterey, after a cursory examination of the coast, determining its directions, but without exploring its sinuosities and inlets. The Spanish commander of the fort and of the two Californias had received orders from Mexico to extend all possible hospitality to the adventurers. He executed his instructions to the letter, sending immense quantities of fresh beef, eggs, milk, vegetables, and poultry on board, and then declining to hand in the bill. On the 24th, every thing being in readiness, the vessels started upon their route across the Pacific, the intention of Lapérouse being to make for Macao, on the Chinese coast. He hoped on his way to make many discoveries of islands upon this unknown sea,—the Spaniards, in their single beaten track from Acapulco to Manilla, never varying more than thirty miles to the north or south of their usual and average latitude. He also hoped not to find, in the longitude marked against it, a very doubtful island named Nostra Señora de la Gorta, that he might erase it from the charts. This he was unable to do, for the winds did not allow him to pass within a hundred miles of its supposed position. When half-way across the Pacific, he discovered a naked, barren rock, to which he gave the name of Necker, after the French Minister of Finance. He arrived at Macao on the 3d of January, 1787, after a voyage entirely free from incident or adventure. He spent three months here and at Manilla, and finally, on the 10th of April, started for the scene of the most important portion of his mission,—the coasts of Tartary and of Japan,—the waters which separate the mainland of the former from the islands of the latter being very imperfectly known to Europeans.Early in June, Lapérouse entered a sea never before ploughed by a European keel; and, as it was only known from Japanese or Corean charts, published by the Jesuits, it was his first object either to verify their surveys or to correct their errors. As the Jesuits travelled and made their calculations by land, Lapérouse added hydrographic details and observations to their data, which he found quite generally correct. His voyage in these latitudes set many doubts at rest. After several months spent in these labors, the expedition arrived at Petropaulowski in September of the same year. The officers were grievously disappointed in not finding letters and despatches from France,but one evening, during a Kamschatka gala ball, the arrival of a courier from Okhotsk was announced, and the ball was interrupted that the mail might be opened and delivered. The news was favorable for all, though, after so long an absence, it was natural that there should be evil tidings for some among so many. Lapérouse learned that he had been promoted in rank; and the Governor of Okhotsk caused this event to be celebrated by a grand discharge of artillery. M. de Lesseps, the interpreter attached to the expedition, was detached from it at this point by Lapérouse and sent across the continent by way of Okhotsk, Irkoutsk, and Tobolsk to St. Petersburg, and thence to Paris, with the ships' letters and Lapérouse's journal. It is from this journal, published at Paris, that we have obtained the details of the expedition as we have thus far chronicled them.The track of Lapérouse was now directly south, through the heart of the Pacific Ocean. He touched, on the 9th of December, at Maouna, one of Navigator's Isles. The vessels were at once surrounded by a hundred or more canoes filled with pigs and fruit, which the natives would only exchange for glass beads, which in their eyes were what diamonds are to Europeans. Delangle, the captain of the Astrolabe, went ashore with the watering party. The islanders made no objection to their landing their casks; but as the tide receded, leaving the boats high and dry upon the beach, they became troublesome, and finally forced Delangle to a trial of his muskets. For this they took a sanguinary vengeance. Delangle was killed by a single blow from a club, as was Lamanon, the naturalist. Eleven marines were savagely murdered, either with stones or heavy sticks, while twenty were seriously wounded. The rest escaped by swimming. Lapérouse did not feel himself sufficiently strong to attempt reprisals. The natives hurled stones with such force and accuracy that they were more than a match for as many musketeers. Besides, he had lost thirty-two men and two boats, and his situation generally was such that the slightestmischance would now compel him to disarm one frigate in order to refit the other. It was late in January, 1788, that he arrived at Botany Bay, in New Holland,—the last place in which he was ever seen, alive or dead.His last letter to the Minister of Marine was dated at Botany Bay, the 7th of February. In this he stated the route by which he intended to return home, and the dates of his anticipated arrivals at various points. His plan was to visit the Friendly Islands, New Guinea, and Van Diemen's Land, and to be at the Isle of France, near Madagascar, at the beginning of December. His letter arrived in due course at Paris, where the public mind was too much agitated by the throes of revolution to pay much heed to matters of such remote interest. At last, in the year 1791, the Society of Natural History called the attention of the Constituent Assembly to the fate of Lapérouse and his companions. The hope of recovering at least some wreck of an expedition undertaken to promote the sciences induced the Assembly to send two other ships to Botany Bay, with orders to steer the same course from that place that Lapérouse had traced out for himself. Some of his followers, it was thought, might have escaped from the wreck, and might be confined on a desert island or thrown upon some savage coast. Two ships were therefore fitted out, and placed under the command of Rear-Admiral d'Entrecasteaux.The ships returned in two years, without having obtained the slightest clue to the fate of Lapérouse: their commander had died of scurvy at Java. At the Friendly Islands, the first landing that Lapérouse was to make after leaving Botany Bay, the inhabitants, who remembered Cook perfectly, and who knew the difference between French and English, declared that Lapérouse had not visited them. As they were the most civilized and hospitable of all the Pacific islanders, it was thought improbable that he had ever sailed as far as the very first station of his route,—an opinion which was confirmed by finding notrace of him at any subsequent point of his intended track. No floating remnants of wood or iron work were anywhere discovered; and the public mind gradually settled into the conviction that the two unfortunate vessels were lost upon their passage from Botany Bay to the Friendly Islands. The cause was supposed to be neither fire, nor leakage, nor the effects of a stress of weather,—causes which could hardly be fatal at the same moment to two vessels. It was generally believed that, as the Boussole and Astrolabe were accustomed to keep as near each other as possible during the night, they both simultaneously dashed upon a hidden quicksand. In this manner, one vessel would not have been able to take warning in time by the disaster of the other.In the year 1813, one Captain Dillon, in the service of the British East India Company, putting in at one of the Feejee Islands, found there two foreign sailors, one of whom was a Prussian, the other a Lascar. At their request he transported them to the neighboring island of Tucopia, where he left them, the natives expressing no hostility toward them nor objections to their stay. In 1826,—thirteen years afterward,—Captain Dillon again touched at Tucopia, where he found them comfortable and contented. The Lascar sold the armorer a silver sword-hilt of French manufacture and bearing a cipher engraved upon it. It resulted from Dillon's inquiries that the natives had obtained many articles of iron and other metals from a distant island named Manicolo, where, as they said, two European ships had been wrecked forty years before. It immediately occurred to Dillon that this circumstance was connected with the loss of the vessel of Lapérouse, whose fate still remained involved in uncertainty. Aware of the interest felt in Europe in the fate of the unfortunate navigator, he sailed with the Prussian to Manicolo, but, being prevented from landing by the surf and the coral reef, bore away to New Zealand and proceeded on his voyage.REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.In 1827, Dumont d'Urville was sent out by the French Government in the sloop-of-war Astrolabe to explore the great archipelagoes of the Pacific, with incidental authority to follow up any clue he might discover to the fate of Lapérouse. At Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land, he heard some account of the efforts made by Dillon, and determined to conclude what he had begun. He sailed at once for Manicolo, and, after examining the eastern coast of the island without success, proceeded to the western. Here he found numerous articles of European manufacture in possession of the savages, who steadfastly refused to say whence they had obtained them or to point out the scene of any catastrophe or shipwreck. At last, the offer of a piece of red cloth induced a painted islander to conduct a boat's crew to the spot which is now regarded as that at which the lamented commander and his vessels met their untimely fate. Scattered about in the bed of the sea, at the depth of about twenty feet, lay anchors, cannon, and sheets of lead and copper sheathing, completely corroded and disfigured by rust. They succeeded in recovering many of them from the water,—an anchor of fourteen hundred pounds, a small cannon coated with coral, and two brass swivels, in a good state of preservation. Thus possessed of evidence which after the lapse of forty years must be considered as conclusive, d'Urville erected near the anchorage a cenotaph to the memory of the hapless navigator. It was placed in a small grove, and consecrated by a salute of twenty-one guns and three volleys of musketry.CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.The islanders were now profuse in their explanations of the circumstances attending the calamity. As far as d'Urville could interpret their language and their pantomime, the ships struck upon the reef during a gale in the night. One speedily sank, only thirty of her crew escaping; the other remained for a time entire, but afterwards went to pieces, her whole crew having been saved. From her timbers they constructed a schooner, in which labor they occupied seven moons or months, and then sailed away and never returned. What befell them after their second embarkation, what was the fate of their daring little vessel,—if indeed any such was ever built,—no one has survived to tell. It is safe to believe that both vessels were lost upon the island of Vanikoro, now one of the archipelago of the New Hebrides. It is supposed that Lapérouse was the first European navigator that visited it, Dillon the second, and d'Urville the third.
LAPÉROUSE.
LAPÉROUSE.
LAPÉROUSE.
LOUIS XVI. AND THE SCIENCE OF NAVIGATION—VOYAGE OF LAPÉROUSE—ARRIVAL AT EASTER ISLAND—ADDRESS OF THE NATIVES—OWHYHEE—TRADE AT MOWEE—SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN COAST—A REMARKABLE INLET—DISTRESSING CALAMITY—SOJOURN AT MONTEREY—RUN ACROSS THE PACIFIC—THE JAPANESE WATERS—ARRIVAL AT PETROPAULOWSKI—AFFRAY AT NAVIGATORS' ISLES—LAPÉROUSE ARRIVES AT BOTANY BAY, AND IS NEVER SEEN AGAIN, ALIVE OR DEAD—VOYAGES MADE IN SEARCH OF HIM—D'ENTRECASTEAUX—DILLON—D'URVILLE—DISCOVERY OF NUMEROUS RELICS OF THE SHIPS AT MANICOLO—THEORY OF THE FATE OF LAPÉROUSE—ERECTION OF A MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY.
Louis XVI., King of France, became at this period deeply interested in the study of the science of geography and navigation. Upon the perusal of the voyages, discoveries, and services of Cook, he conceived the idea of admitting the French nationto a share in the glory which the English were reaping from maritime adventure and exploration. He drew up a plan of campaign with his own hand, ordered the two frigates Boussole and Astrolabe to be prepared for sea, and gave the command of the expedition to Jean-François Galaup de la Pérouse,—better known as Lapérouse. The vessels were supplied with every accessory of which they could possibly have need. The instructions and recommendations received from the Academy of Sciences fill a quarto volume of four hundred pages. The fleet sailed from Brest on the 1st of August, 1785, and arrived at Concepçion, in Chili, late in February, 1786.
After a short stay here, the two frigates again put to sea, and, early in April, anchored in Cook's Bay, in Easter Island. Here the two commanders landed, accompanied by about seventy persons, twelve of whom were marines armed to the teeth. Five hundred Indians awaited them at the shore, the greater part of them naked, painted, and tattooed, others wearing pendent bunches of odoriferous herbs about their loins, and others still being covered with pieces of white and yellow cloth. None of them were armed, and, as the boats touched the land, they advanced with the utmost alacrity to aid the strangers in their disembarkation. The latter marked out a circular space, where they set up a tent, and enjoined it strongly upon the islanders not to intrude upon this enclosure. The number of the natives had now increased to eight hundred, one hundred and fifty of whom were women. While the latter would seek, by caresses and agreeable pantomime, to withdraw the attention of the Frenchmen from passing events, the men would slyly pick their pockets. Innumerable handkerchiefs were pilfered in this way; and the thieves, emboldened by success, at last seized their caps from their heads and rushed off with them. It was noticed that the chiefs were the most adroit and successful plunderers, and that though, for appearance' sake, they sometimes ran after an offender, promising to bring him back,it was evident that they were running as slowly as they could, and that their object was rather to facilitate than to prevent their escape. Lapérouse was not saved from spoliation by his rank: a polite savage, having assisted him over an obstruction in the path, removed his chapeau and fled with the utmost rapidity. On re-embarking to return to the ships, only three persons had handkerchiefs, and only two had caps. Lapérouse stayed but a day on this island, having nothing to gain and every thing to lose. There was no fresh water to be found, the natives drinking sea-water, like the albatrosses of Cape Horn. In return for the hospitality with which they had been received, Lapérouse caused several fertile spots to be sown with beets, cabbages, wheat, carrots, and squashes, and even with orange, lemon, and cotton seeds. "In short," says Lapérouse, "we loaded them with presents, overwhelmed with caresses the young and children at the breast; we sowed their fields with useful grains; we left kids, sheep, and hogs to multiply upon their island; we asked nothing in exchange; and yet they robbed us of our hats and handkerchiefs, and threw stones at us when we left." The following reflection, which concludes Lapérouse's account of Easter Island, could only have proceeded from a Frenchman:—"I decided to depart during the night, flattering myself that when, upon the return of day, they should find our vessels gone, they would attribute our departure to our just resentment at their conduct, and that this conclusion might render them better members of society."
Lapérouse now sailed to the northeast, intending to touch at the Sandwich Islands,—a distance of five thousand miles. He hoped to make some discovery during this long stretch, and placed sailors in the tops, animated by the promise of a prize to discover as many islands as possible. In the furtherance of this design, the two frigates sailed ten miles apart,—by which the visible horizon was considerably extended. Lapérouse was destined, however, to owe his celebrity to his misfortunes andnot to his discoveries: he arrived, on the 28th of May, at Owhyhee, without once making land. "The aspect of the island," he writes, "was charming. But the sea beat with such violence upon the coast, that, like Tantalus, we could only long for and devour with our eyes that which it was impossible for us to reach." This prospect was aggravated by the sight of one hundred and fifty canoes laden with pigs and fruit which put out from the shore: forty of them were capsized in attempting to come alongside while the frigates were under full sail. The water was full of swimming savages, struggling pigs, and tempting cocoanuts; but the necessity of making an anchorage before nightfall compelled them to seek another portion of the island.
On the 30th of May, Lapérouse landed upon the island of Mowee, where he found the savages mild, polite, and commercially inclined. Exchanges of pigs and medals were made with great success. Lapérouse abstained from taking possession of the island in the name of the King of France,—Cook not having visited Mowee,—inasmuch as he considered European usages in this respect extremely ridiculous. "Philosophers must often have wept," he writes, "at seeing men, simply because they have cannon and bayonets, count sixty thousand of their fellow-creatures as nothing, and look upon a land which its inhabitants have moistened with their sweat and fertilized with the bones of their ancestors for centuries as an object of legitimate conquest."
On the 23d of June, in latitude 60° north, Lapérouse struck the American coast: he recognised at once Behring's Mount St. Elias, whose summit pierced the clouds. From this point southward as far as Monterey, in Mexico, lay an extent of coast which Cook had seen but not surveyed. The exploration of this coast was a work essential to the interests of navigation and of commerce; and, though the season only allowed him three months, he undertook and executed it in a manner creditable to the navy of France. He discovered a harbor that hadescaped the notice of preceding navigators. This harbor or bay seems to have been a remarkable place. The water is unfathomable, and is surrounded by precipices which rise perpendicularly from the water's edge into the regions of eternal snow. Not a blade of grass, not a green leaf, grows in this desolate and sterile spot. No breeze blows upon the surface of the bay: its tranquillity is never troubled except by the fall of enormous masses of ice from numerous overhanging peaks. The air is so still and the silence so profound that the noise made by a bird in laying an egg in the hollow of a rock is distinctly heard at the distance of a mile and a half. To this wonderful bay Lapérouse gave the name of Frenchport.
A painful accident occurred as the vessels, after a somewhat prolonged stay, were about departing from the spot. Three boats, manned by twenty-seven men and officers, were sent to make soundings in the bay, in order to complete the chart of the survey. They had strict orders to avoid a certain dangerous current, but became involved in it unawares. Two boats' crews perished, consisting of twenty-one men, the greater part of them under twenty-five years of age. Two brothers, by the name of Laborde, whom their superior officers never separated, but always sent together on missions of peril, were among the victims of the disaster. A monument was erected to their memory, and a record buried in a bottle beneath it. The inscription was thus conceived:—
"At the entrance of this bay twenty-one brave sailors perish'd:Whoever you may be, mingle your tears with ours."
LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.
LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.
LAPÉROUSE'S DISASTER AT FRENCHPORT.
On the 13th of September, Lapérouse arrived at Monterey, after a cursory examination of the coast, determining its directions, but without exploring its sinuosities and inlets. The Spanish commander of the fort and of the two Californias had received orders from Mexico to extend all possible hospitality to the adventurers. He executed his instructions to the letter, sending immense quantities of fresh beef, eggs, milk, vegetables, and poultry on board, and then declining to hand in the bill. On the 24th, every thing being in readiness, the vessels started upon their route across the Pacific, the intention of Lapérouse being to make for Macao, on the Chinese coast. He hoped on his way to make many discoveries of islands upon this unknown sea,—the Spaniards, in their single beaten track from Acapulco to Manilla, never varying more than thirty miles to the north or south of their usual and average latitude. He also hoped not to find, in the longitude marked against it, a very doubtful island named Nostra Señora de la Gorta, that he might erase it from the charts. This he was unable to do, for the winds did not allow him to pass within a hundred miles of its supposed position. When half-way across the Pacific, he discovered a naked, barren rock, to which he gave the name of Necker, after the French Minister of Finance. He arrived at Macao on the 3d of January, 1787, after a voyage entirely free from incident or adventure. He spent three months here and at Manilla, and finally, on the 10th of April, started for the scene of the most important portion of his mission,—the coasts of Tartary and of Japan,—the waters which separate the mainland of the former from the islands of the latter being very imperfectly known to Europeans.
Early in June, Lapérouse entered a sea never before ploughed by a European keel; and, as it was only known from Japanese or Corean charts, published by the Jesuits, it was his first object either to verify their surveys or to correct their errors. As the Jesuits travelled and made their calculations by land, Lapérouse added hydrographic details and observations to their data, which he found quite generally correct. His voyage in these latitudes set many doubts at rest. After several months spent in these labors, the expedition arrived at Petropaulowski in September of the same year. The officers were grievously disappointed in not finding letters and despatches from France,but one evening, during a Kamschatka gala ball, the arrival of a courier from Okhotsk was announced, and the ball was interrupted that the mail might be opened and delivered. The news was favorable for all, though, after so long an absence, it was natural that there should be evil tidings for some among so many. Lapérouse learned that he had been promoted in rank; and the Governor of Okhotsk caused this event to be celebrated by a grand discharge of artillery. M. de Lesseps, the interpreter attached to the expedition, was detached from it at this point by Lapérouse and sent across the continent by way of Okhotsk, Irkoutsk, and Tobolsk to St. Petersburg, and thence to Paris, with the ships' letters and Lapérouse's journal. It is from this journal, published at Paris, that we have obtained the details of the expedition as we have thus far chronicled them.
The track of Lapérouse was now directly south, through the heart of the Pacific Ocean. He touched, on the 9th of December, at Maouna, one of Navigator's Isles. The vessels were at once surrounded by a hundred or more canoes filled with pigs and fruit, which the natives would only exchange for glass beads, which in their eyes were what diamonds are to Europeans. Delangle, the captain of the Astrolabe, went ashore with the watering party. The islanders made no objection to their landing their casks; but as the tide receded, leaving the boats high and dry upon the beach, they became troublesome, and finally forced Delangle to a trial of his muskets. For this they took a sanguinary vengeance. Delangle was killed by a single blow from a club, as was Lamanon, the naturalist. Eleven marines were savagely murdered, either with stones or heavy sticks, while twenty were seriously wounded. The rest escaped by swimming. Lapérouse did not feel himself sufficiently strong to attempt reprisals. The natives hurled stones with such force and accuracy that they were more than a match for as many musketeers. Besides, he had lost thirty-two men and two boats, and his situation generally was such that the slightestmischance would now compel him to disarm one frigate in order to refit the other. It was late in January, 1788, that he arrived at Botany Bay, in New Holland,—the last place in which he was ever seen, alive or dead.
His last letter to the Minister of Marine was dated at Botany Bay, the 7th of February. In this he stated the route by which he intended to return home, and the dates of his anticipated arrivals at various points. His plan was to visit the Friendly Islands, New Guinea, and Van Diemen's Land, and to be at the Isle of France, near Madagascar, at the beginning of December. His letter arrived in due course at Paris, where the public mind was too much agitated by the throes of revolution to pay much heed to matters of such remote interest. At last, in the year 1791, the Society of Natural History called the attention of the Constituent Assembly to the fate of Lapérouse and his companions. The hope of recovering at least some wreck of an expedition undertaken to promote the sciences induced the Assembly to send two other ships to Botany Bay, with orders to steer the same course from that place that Lapérouse had traced out for himself. Some of his followers, it was thought, might have escaped from the wreck, and might be confined on a desert island or thrown upon some savage coast. Two ships were therefore fitted out, and placed under the command of Rear-Admiral d'Entrecasteaux.
The ships returned in two years, without having obtained the slightest clue to the fate of Lapérouse: their commander had died of scurvy at Java. At the Friendly Islands, the first landing that Lapérouse was to make after leaving Botany Bay, the inhabitants, who remembered Cook perfectly, and who knew the difference between French and English, declared that Lapérouse had not visited them. As they were the most civilized and hospitable of all the Pacific islanders, it was thought improbable that he had ever sailed as far as the very first station of his route,—an opinion which was confirmed by finding notrace of him at any subsequent point of his intended track. No floating remnants of wood or iron work were anywhere discovered; and the public mind gradually settled into the conviction that the two unfortunate vessels were lost upon their passage from Botany Bay to the Friendly Islands. The cause was supposed to be neither fire, nor leakage, nor the effects of a stress of weather,—causes which could hardly be fatal at the same moment to two vessels. It was generally believed that, as the Boussole and Astrolabe were accustomed to keep as near each other as possible during the night, they both simultaneously dashed upon a hidden quicksand. In this manner, one vessel would not have been able to take warning in time by the disaster of the other.
In the year 1813, one Captain Dillon, in the service of the British East India Company, putting in at one of the Feejee Islands, found there two foreign sailors, one of whom was a Prussian, the other a Lascar. At their request he transported them to the neighboring island of Tucopia, where he left them, the natives expressing no hostility toward them nor objections to their stay. In 1826,—thirteen years afterward,—Captain Dillon again touched at Tucopia, where he found them comfortable and contented. The Lascar sold the armorer a silver sword-hilt of French manufacture and bearing a cipher engraved upon it. It resulted from Dillon's inquiries that the natives had obtained many articles of iron and other metals from a distant island named Manicolo, where, as they said, two European ships had been wrecked forty years before. It immediately occurred to Dillon that this circumstance was connected with the loss of the vessel of Lapérouse, whose fate still remained involved in uncertainty. Aware of the interest felt in Europe in the fate of the unfortunate navigator, he sailed with the Prussian to Manicolo, but, being prevented from landing by the surf and the coral reef, bore away to New Zealand and proceeded on his voyage.
REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.
REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.
REMNANTS OF THE WRECK.
In 1827, Dumont d'Urville was sent out by the French Government in the sloop-of-war Astrolabe to explore the great archipelagoes of the Pacific, with incidental authority to follow up any clue he might discover to the fate of Lapérouse. At Hobart Town, in Van Diemen's Land, he heard some account of the efforts made by Dillon, and determined to conclude what he had begun. He sailed at once for Manicolo, and, after examining the eastern coast of the island without success, proceeded to the western. Here he found numerous articles of European manufacture in possession of the savages, who steadfastly refused to say whence they had obtained them or to point out the scene of any catastrophe or shipwreck. At last, the offer of a piece of red cloth induced a painted islander to conduct a boat's crew to the spot which is now regarded as that at which the lamented commander and his vessels met their untimely fate. Scattered about in the bed of the sea, at the depth of about twenty feet, lay anchors, cannon, and sheets of lead and copper sheathing, completely corroded and disfigured by rust. They succeeded in recovering many of them from the water,—an anchor of fourteen hundred pounds, a small cannon coated with coral, and two brass swivels, in a good state of preservation. Thus possessed of evidence which after the lapse of forty years must be considered as conclusive, d'Urville erected near the anchorage a cenotaph to the memory of the hapless navigator. It was placed in a small grove, and consecrated by a salute of twenty-one guns and three volleys of musketry.
CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.
CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.
CONSECRATION OF THE CENOTAPH.
The islanders were now profuse in their explanations of the circumstances attending the calamity. As far as d'Urville could interpret their language and their pantomime, the ships struck upon the reef during a gale in the night. One speedily sank, only thirty of her crew escaping; the other remained for a time entire, but afterwards went to pieces, her whole crew having been saved. From her timbers they constructed a schooner, in which labor they occupied seven moons or months, and then sailed away and never returned. What befell them after their second embarkation, what was the fate of their daring little vessel,—if indeed any such was ever built,—no one has survived to tell. It is safe to believe that both vessels were lost upon the island of Vanikoro, now one of the archipelago of the New Hebrides. It is supposed that Lapérouse was the first European navigator that visited it, Dillon the second, and d'Urville the third.