A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The next morning, I sent Lieutenant Furneaux to the shore, with the
boats manned and armed, and all kinds of trinkets, to establish a
traffic with the natives, for such refreshment as the place would
afford. I gave him orders also to find, if possible, an anchoring-place
for the ship. While we were getting out the boats, several canoes put
off from the island, but as soon as the people on board saw them make
towards the shore, they put back. At noon, the boats returned, and
brought with them a pig and a cock, with a few plantains and cocoa-nuts.
Mr Furneaux reported, that he had seen at least an hundred of the
inhabitants, and believed there were many more upon the island; but
that, having been all round it, he could find no anchorage, nor scarcely
a landing-place for the boat. When he reached the shore, he came to a
grappling, and threw a warp to the Indians upon the beach, who caught it
and held it fast. He then began to converse with them by signs, and
observed that they had no weapon among them, but that some of them had
white sticks, which seemed to be ensigns of authority, as the people who
bore them kept the rest of the natives back. In return for the pig and
the cock, he gave them some beads, a looking-glass, a few combs, with
several other trinkets, and a hatchet. The women, who had been kept at a
distance, as soon as they saw the trinkets, ran down in a crowd to the
beach, with great eagerness, but were soon driven away by the men, at
which they expressed much disappointment and vexation. While this
traffic was carrying on, a man came secretly round a rock, and diving
down, took up the boat's grappling, and at the same time the people on
shore who held the warp, made an effort to draw her into the surf. As
soon as this was perceived by the people on board, they fired a musket
over the man's head who had taken up the grappling, upon which he
instantly let it go, with marks of great terror and astonishment; the
people on shore also let go the rope. The boats, after this, lay some
time upon their oars, but the officer, finding that he could get nothing
more, returned on board. Mr Furneanx told me, that both the men and
women were clothed, and he brought a piece of their cloth away with him.
The inhabitants appeared to him to be more numerous than the island
could support, and for this reason, especially as he saw some large
double canoes upon the beach, he imagined there were islands of larger
extent, not far distant, where refreshments in greater plenty might be
procured, and hoped that they might be less difficult of access. As I
thought this a reasonable conjecture, I hoisted in the boats, and
determined to run farther to the westward. To this place, which is
nearly circular, and about two miles over, I gave the name of _Osnaburgh
Island_, in honour of Prince Frederick, who is bishop of that see. It
lies in latitude 17°51'S., and longitude 147°30'W.; the variation here
was 7°10' E.[51]
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