A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
While we lay becalmed, several canoes came off to us, but the people
having heard of our guns, it was not without great difficulty that they
were persuaded to come under our stern: After having bought some of
their clothes, as well as their fish, we began to make enquiries
concerning their county, and learnt, by the help of Tupia, that, at the
distance of three days rowing in their canoes, at a place called
_Moore-wennua_, the land would take a short turn to the southward, and
from thence extend no more to the west. This place we concluded to be
the land discovered by Tasman, which he called _Cape Maria van Diemen_,
and finding these people so intelligent, we enquired farther, if they
knew of any country besides their own: They answered, that they never
had visited any other, but that their ancestors had told them, that to
the N.W. by N. or N.N.W. there was a country of great extent, called
_Ulimaroa_, to which some people had sailed in a very large canoe; that
only part of them returned, and reported, that after a passage of a
month they had seen a country where the people eat hogs. Tupia then
enquired whether these adventurers brought any hogs with them when they
returned? They said No: Then, replied Tupia, your story is certainly
false, for it cannot be believed that men who came back from an
expedition without hogs, had ever visited a country where hogs were to
be procured. It is however remarkable, notwithstanding the shrewdness of
Tupia's objection, that when they mentioned hogs it was not by
description but by name, calling them _Booah_, the name which is given
them in the South-sea islands; but if the animal had been wholly unknown
to them, and they had no communication with people to whom it was known,
they could not possibly have been acquainted with the name.
About ten o'clock at night, a breeze sprung up at W.N.W. with which we
stood off north; and at noon the next day, the Cavalles bore S.E. by E.
distant eight leagues; the entrance of Doubtless Bay S. by W. distant
three leagues; and the north-west extremity of the land in sight, which
we judged to be the main, bore N.W. by W.: Our latitude by observation
was 34° 44' S. In the evening, we found the variation to be 12°41' E. by
the azimuth, and 12° 40' by the amplitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account