Chapter VII: Introduction (7)

After much diversity of distress, and similar encounters, they at last made the reef that runs between New Guinea and New Holland, where the _Pandora_ met her unhappy fate; and after traversing from shore to shore, without finding an opening, this intrepid young seaman boldly gave it the stem, and beat over the reef. The alternative was dreadful, as famine presented them on the one hand, and shipwreck on the other. Soon after they had passed Endeavour Straits, they fell in with a small Dutch vessel, who shewed them every tenderness that the nature of their distress required.

They were soon landed at a small Dutch settlement; but the governor having a description of the _Bounty's_ pirates from our court, and their vessel being built of foreign timber, served to confirm them in their suspicions; and as no officer in the British navy bears a commission or warrant under the rank of lieutenant, where, by seal of office, their person or quality may be identified, they had only their bare _ipse dixit_ to depend on. They, however, behaved to them with great precaution and humanity. Although they kept a strict guard over them, nothing was withheld to render their situation agreeable; and they were sent, under a proper escort, to this place.

This settlement is reckoned next to Batavia, and is so lucrative, that the governor is changed every five years. The present governor's name is Overstraaten, a gentleman of splendid taste and unbounded hospitality, who lives in a princely style; and to the _otium dignitate_ of Asiatic luxury, has the happiness to join an honest hearty Dutch welcome.

A regiment of the Duke of Wirtemburg is doing duty here, amongst whom were several men of rank and fashion, who shewed us much civility and politeness.

The town is regular and beautiful, and the houses are built in a style of architecture, which has given loose to the most sportive fancy. Each street is terminated with some public building, such as a great marine school, for the education of young officers and seamen; an hospital for decayed officers in the Company's service; churches; the Governor's palace, &c. &c. Here the _utile dulce_ has not been neglected, and those objects of national importance are placed in a proper point of view, as the just pride and ornament of a great commercial people.

Such is the effect of early prejudices, that, under the muzle of the sun, a Dutchman cannot exist without snuffing the putrid exhalations from stagnant water, to which they have been accustomed from their infancy. They are intersecting it so fast with canals, that in a year or two this beautiful town will be completely dammed.

In a few days, we arrived at Batavia, the emporeum of the Dutch in the East; and our first care was employed in sending to the hospital the sickly remains of our unfortunate crew. Some dead bodies floating down the canal struck our boat, which had a very disagreeable effect on the minds of our brave fellows, whose nerves were reduced to a very weak state from sickness. This was a _coup de grace_ to a sick man on his _premier entree_ into this painted sepulchre, this golgotha of Europe, which buries the whole settlement every five years.

It is not the climate I am inveighing against; it is the Gothic, diabolical ideas of the people I indite.

Were they only Dutchmen who supplied the ravenous maw of death, it would be impertinence in me to make any comment on it; but when the whole globe lends its aid to supply this destructive settlement, and its baneful effects arising more from the letch a Dutchman has for stagnant mud than from climate, I hope the indulgent reader will pardon my spleen, when I tell them professionally that all the mortality of that place originates from marsh effluvia, arising from their stagnant canals and pleasure-grounds.

The Chinese are here the Jews of the East, and as soon as they make their fortune, they go home. Let the amateurs of the Republican system read and learn. Be not surprised when it is observed, that these little great men, those vile hawkers of spice and nutmegs, exact a submission that the most absolute and tyrannical monarch who ever swayed a sceptre would be ashamed of. The compass of my work will not allow me to be particular; but I must instance one among many others. When an edilleer, or one of the supreme council, meets a carriage, the gentleman who meets him must alight, and make him a perfect bow in spirit; not one of Bunburry's long bows, but that bow which carries humility and submission in it, that sort of bow which every vertebræ in an English back is anchylosed against.

In our passage from this to the Cape, before we left Java, one of the convicts had jumped over board in the night, and swam to the Dutch arsenal at Honroost. In passing Bantan, we viewed the relics of Lord Cathcart. We met nothing particular in passing the island of Sumatra, but experienced great death and sickness in going through the Straits of Sunda; and after a tedious passage, arrived at the Cape of Good Hope.

Here we met with many civilities from Colonel Gordon; a gentleman no less eminent for his private virtues than his extraordinary military and literary accomplishments. From his labours, all the host of voyagers and historians of that part of the globe have been purloining; but it is to be hoped the world will, at some future period, be favoured with his works unmutilated.

The town is gay, and from length of habit, the inhabitants partake much of the manners of Bath; and, for a short season, behave with the utmost attention and tenderness. Their dress and customs are more characteristic of the English than Dutch. An uncommon rage for building has lately prevailed; and although they cannot boast of that chastity of style in which Samarang is built it is gaudy, and calculated to please the generality of observers.

Allow me to mention the singular manner in which the monkeys make depredations on the gardens here. They place a proper piquet, or advanced guard, as sentinels, when a party is drawn up in a line, who hand the fruit from one to another; and when the alarm is given by the piquet-guard, they all take flight, making sure that by that time the booty is conveyed to a considerable distance. But should the piquet be negligent in their duty, and suffer the main body to be surprised, the delinquents are severely punished.

The same ill-fated rage for canalling-murder prevails here. They have even contrived to carry canals to the top of a mountain. The boors, or country-farmers, are a species of the human race, so gigantic and superior to the rest of mankind, in point of size and constitution, that they may be called nondescripts.

Their hospital, as to scite, surpasses any in the world. It may be observed, however, that the architect, by the smallness of the windows, which only serve to exclude the light and air, seems to have studied, with much ingenuity, to render it a cadaverous stinking prison.

After being refreshed at the Cape, we passed St. Helena, the island of Ascension, and arrived at Holland; and had the happiness, through the interposition of divine Providence, to be again landed on our native shore.

The Latitudes and Longitudes of the different places touched at or discovered by his Majesty's ship _Pandora_, taken with the greatest accuracy from the centre of the islands.

Names of Places. Latitudes. Longitudes.

Gomera, | 28 5 N | 17 8 W Canary, N.E. point, | 28 13 N | 15 38 W Teneriffe, Santa Cruz, | 28 27 N | 16 16 W Palma, | 28 36 N | 17 45 W St. Antonio, Cape de Verd Islands, crossing the Line, | 17 0 N | 25 2 W Rio Janeiro, | 22 54 S Patagonia, Straits of Magellan, Cape Julian, Staten Island, | 54 47 30 S | 63 58 27 W Cape Horn, | 55 59 S | 67 21 W Diego Ramarez, Easter Island, | 27 7 S | 109 42 W Ducie's Island, | 24 40 30 S | 124 40 30 W Lord Hood's Island, | 21 31 S | 135 32 30 W Carysfort Island, | 20 49 S | 138 33 W Maitea, | 17 52 S | 148 6 W Otaheite, Matavy Bay, | 17 29 S | 149 35 W Huaheine, Owharre Bay, | 16 44 S | 151 3 W Ulitea and Otaha, | 16 46 S | 151 33 W Bolobola, | 16 33 S | 151 52 W Mauruah, | 16 26 S | 152 33 W Whytutakee, | 18 52 S | 159 41 W Palmerston's Isles, | 18 0 S | 162 57 W Duke of York's Island, | 8 33 30 S | 172 4 3 W Duke of Clarence's Island, | 9 9 30 S | 171 30 46 W Chatham's Island, | 13 32 20 S | 172 18 20 W Ohatooah, | 13 50 S | 171 30 6 W Anamooka, | 20 16 S | 174 30 W Toomanuah, | 14 15 S | 169 43 W Otutuelah, | 14 30 S | 170 41 W Howe's Island, | 18 32 30 S | 173 53 W Bickerton's Island, | 18 47 40 S | 174 48 W Gardner's Island, | 17 57 S | 175 16 54 W Pylestaart, | 22 23 S | 175 39 W Eoah or Middleburgh, | 21 21 S | 174 34 W Tongataboo, | 21 9 S | 174 41 W Proby's Island, | 15 53 S | 175 51 W Wallis's Island, | 13 22 S | 176 15 45 W Grenville Island, | 12 29 S | 183 3 \ W | | 176 57 / E Pandora's Reef, | 12 11 S | 188 8 \ W | | 171 52 / E Mitre Island, | 11 49 S | 190 4 30 \ W | | 169 55 30 / E Cherry Island, | 11 37 30 S | 190 19 30 \ W | | 169 55 30 / E Pitt's Island, | 11 50 30 S | 193 14 15 \ W | | 166 45 45 / E Wells's Shoal, | 12 20 S | 202 2 \ W | | 157 58 / E Cape Rodney, \ Point of | 10 3 32 S | 212 14 5 \ W M. Clarence in shore, | | | 147 45 45 / E Cape Hood, / New Guinea | 9 58 6 S | 212 37 10 \ W | | 147 22 50 / E Murray's Isles, | 9 57 S | 216 43 \ W | | 143 17 / E Wreck Reef, | 11 22 S | 216 22 \ W | | 143 38 / E Batavia, | 6 10 S | 106 51 E Straits of Sunda, | 6 36 15 S | 105 17 30 E Cape of Good Hope, | 34 29 S | 18 23 E St. Helena, | 15 55 S | 5 49 W Ascension Island, | 7 56 S | 14 32 W

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[165-1] This seems to be the earliest description of Yaws (_Framboesia_) in these islands. Originating in Africa this contagious disease is believed to have been disseminated by the slave trade. The Dutch or Portuguese traders carried it from Madagascar and East Africa to Ceylon, where it still bears the name of _Parangi Lede_, or Foreigners' Evil. Though Hamilton did not observe it in the South Sea Islands the disease was probably there, for Mariner, who was in Tonga in 1810, described it as a well-established disease under the name of _Tona_.

INDEX

A.

Aitutaki Island,
visit to, 10, 40 _note_, 123;
Bligh supposed to be there, 102
Ale brewed at Namuka, 73
Anti-scorbutics, 100
Apia, 50 _note_
_Astrolabe_,
Pérouse's ship, 19;
relics of, 68 _note_
Australia, Northern,
sighted, 76;
landing on, 149

B.

Banks, Sir Joseph, 2, 112
Baring, carries letters to England, 84
Bark cloth, 115
Batavia, arrival at, 81
Beads found in Samoa, 56
Becke, Louis,
_The Mutineers_, 1;
_First Fleet Family_, 24
Bentham, Mr., Purser, 79, 118, 119
Blacks attack boats, 66, 149
_Blenheim_, wreck of, 3
Bligh, Captain, 1;
his character, 2;
boat voyage of, 2;
public sympathy with, 3;
supposed to be in Aitutaki, 102
Boat lost at Palmerston Island, 86, 126
Boat voyage
of Bligh, 2;
of Pereira, 3;
of Edwards, 22, 75, 147, 154
Bolabola visited, 39, 122
Bougainville,
warning, 20;
discovery of Samoa, 51, 56
_Bounty_,
fitting out, 2;
mutiny of, 2;
driver yard found, 9, 124;
anchor found, 34
_Boussole_,
Pérouse's ship, 19;
relics of, 68 _note_
Bread fruit,
plan to acclimatize, 1;
its uses, 112
Brewing ale at Namuka, 143
Broad, Mary, 23
Brown, John, 31;
his character, 105;
identifies mutineers, 105
Bryant, William, 23, 82
Bull taken by Mutineers, 36
Burkitt,
trial of, 25;
arrest of, 34;
executed, 37
Burn, Michael, acquitted, 37
Butcher, Convict, 24
Byron, _The Island_, 1
Byron, Captain, 40