Chap. IX Departure From Batavia; Touching at the Isle of France; Return to France
The 16th of October, I set sail alone from the road of Batavia, in order to anchor in seven fathom and a half, bottom of soft ooze, about a league in the offing. I was thus half a mile W. N. W. of the beacon, which is left on the starboard side, when you enter the road of Batavia. The isle of Edam bore N. N. E. ½ E. three leagues. Onrust, N. W. by W. two leagues and a third. Rotterdam, N. 2° W. a league and a half. The Etoile, who could not get her bread before it was late, weighed at three o’clock in the morning; and steering for the lights, which I kept lighted all night, she came to an anchor near me.
Particulars concerning the course which must be taken in going out from Batavia.
As the course for leaving Batavia is interesting, I hope I shall be allowed to mention the particulars of that which I have taken. On the 17th we were under sail, by five o’clock in the morning, and we steered N. by E. in order to pass to the eastward of the isle of Rotterdam, about half a league; then N. W. by N. in order to pass to the southward of Horn and Harlem; then W. by N. and W. by S. to range to the northward of the isles of Amsterdam and Middelburg, upon the last of which there is a flag; then west, leaving on the starboard side a beacon, placed south of the Small Cambuis. At noon we observed in 5° 55′ of south latitude, and we were then north and south with the S. E. point of the Great Cambuis, about one mile. From thence I steered between two beacons, placed, the one to the southward of the N. W. point of the Great Cambuis, the other east and west of the isle of Anthropophagi, or Canibals, otherwise called Pulo Laki. Then you range the coast at what distance you will or can. At half past five o’clock, the currents setting us towards the shore, I let go a stream-anchor in eleven fathoms, oozy bottom, the N. W. point of the bay of Bantam bearing W. 9° N. about five leagues, and the middle of Pulo Baby, N. W. ½ W. three leagues.
In order to sail out of Batavia, there is another passage besides that which I have taken. When you leave the road, range the coast of Java, leaving on the larboard side a buoy, which serves as a beacon, about two leagues and a half from the town; then you range the isle of Kepert to the southward; you follow the direction of the coast, and pass between two beacons, situated, the one to the southward of Middelburg island, the other opposite this, on a bank which joins to the point of the main land; you then find the beacon, which lies to the southward of the small Cambuis, and then the two routes unite. The particular chart which I give of the run from Batavia, exactly points out both tracks.
Clearing the straits of Sonda.
The 18th, at two o’clock in the morning we were under sail; but we were forced to anchor again in the evening: it was not till the 19th in the afternoon that we cleared the straits of Sonda, passing to the northward of Prince’s island. At noon we observed in 6° 30′ south latitude, and at four o’clock in the afternoon, being about four leagues off the N. W. point of Prince’s island, I took my departure upon the chart of M. d’Après, in 6° 21′ south lat. and 102° east longitude, from the meridian of Paris. In general, you can anchor every where along the coast of Java. The Dutch keep some small stations on it, at short distances from each other, and every station has orders to send a soldier on board the ships which pass, with a register, on which he begs that the ship’s name, from whence she come, and whither she is bound, may be inscribed. You put into this register what you please; but I am far from blaming the custom of keeping it, as it may be the means of getting news of a ship, concerning which, one is often in great anxiety, and as the soldier who carries it on board always brings along with him fowls, turtle, and other refreshments, which he turns to good account. There was now no longer any scorbutic complaint, at least, no apparent one on board my ships; but several of the crew were ill of a bloody-flux. I therefore resolved to shape my course for the Isle of France, without waiting for the Etoile, and on the 20th I made her the signal for that purpose.
Run to the isle of France.
In this run we found nothing remarkable, except the fine weather, which has much shortened the voyage. We had constantly a very fresh wind at S. E. Indeed we stood in need of it, for the number of the diseased encreased daily, they recovered but slowly, and besides the bloody-flux, some were likewise afflicted with hot fevers, of which one of my carpenters died in the night between the 30th and the 31st. My masts likewise gave me much concern; I had reason to fear that the main-mast would break five or six feet below the cat-harpings; we fished it, and to ease it, we got down the main-top-gallant-mast, and always kept two reefs in the main-top-sail. |1768. November.| |Sight of the isle of Rodrigue.|These precautions considerably retarded our run; yet notwithstanding this, on the 18th day after leaving Batavia, we got sight of the Isle of Rodrigue133, and the second day after that, of the Isle of France.
The 5th of November, at four o’clock in the evening, we were north and south of the north east point of the Isle of Rodrigue, whence I concluded the following difference in, our reckoning from Prince’s island to Rodrigue. M. Pingré has there observed 60° 52′ east longitude from Paris, and at four o’clock, I was, by my reckoning, in 61° 26′. These supposing, that the observation made upon the isle at the habitation, had been taken two minutes to the westward of the point with which I bore north and south at four o’clock, my difference in a run of twelve hundred leagues, was thirty-four minutes a-stern of the ship; the difference of the observations made on the 3d, by M. Verron, gave for the same time 1° 12′ a-head of the ship.
Land-fall at the Isle of France.
We had sight of Round Island the 7th at noon; at five o’clock in the evening we bore north and south with its middle. We fired some guns at the beginning of night, hoping that the fire on the Cannoniers Point would be lighted; but this fire, which M. d’Aprés mentions in his instructions, is now never lighted; so that, after doubling the Coin de Mire, which you may range as close as you please, I was much embarrassed in order to avoid a dangerous shoal, which runs above half a league out into the sea off the Cannoniers Point. I kept plying, in order to keep to windward of the port, firing a gun from time to time; at last, between eleven and twelve o’clock at night, one of the pilots of the harbour, who are paid by the king, came on board. I then thought I was out of danger, and had given him the charge of the ship, when at half past three o’clock he run us a-ground, near the Bay of Tombs. |Danger which the frigate runs.| Luckily there was no swell; and the manœuvre which we quickly made, in order to endeavour to cast the ship off shore, succeeded; but it may easily be conceived, how great our grief would have been, if after happily avoiding so many dangers, we had been cast away close to our port, through the fault of an ignorant fellow, to whom we were obliged to leave the management of the ship, by the regulation of the service. We got off with the loss of only forty-five feet of our false keel, which was carried away.
Nautical advice.
This accident, of which we had like to have been the victims, gives me an opportunity of making the following reflection: When you are bound for the Isle of France, and see that it is impossible to reach the entrance of the port in day-time, prudence requires, that you must take care in time, not to be too much entangled with the land. It is necessary to keep all night on the off side, and to windward of Round-island, not lying-to, but plying to windward, under a good deal of sail, on account of the currents. Besides, there is anchorage between the little isles; we have found from thirty to twenty-five fathom there, and a sandy bottom; but one must only anchor there in an extreme case of necessity.
Anchorage of the Isle of France.
On the 8th, in the morning, we entered the port, where we moored that day. The Etoile appeared at six o’clock in the evening, but could not come in till the next morning. Here we found our reckoning was a day too late, and we again followed the date of the whole world.
Particulars of our proceedings there.
The first day of my arrival, I sent all my sick people to the hospital, I gave in an account of what I wanted in provisions and stores, and we immediately fell to work in preparing the frigate for heaving down. I took all the workmen in the port, that could be spared, and those of the Etoile, being determined to depart as soon as I should be ready. The 16th and 18th we breamed the frigate. We found her sheathing worm-eaten, but her bottom was as sound as when she came off the stocks.
We were obliged to change some of our masts here. Our main-mast had a defect in the heel, and therefore might give way there, as well as in the head, where the main-piece was broken. I got a main-mast all off one piece, two top-masts, anchors, cables, and some twine, which we were in absolute want of. I returned my old provisions into the king’s stores, and took others for five months. I likewise delivered to M. Poivre, the intendant of the Isle of France, all the iron and nails embarked on board the Etoile; my alembic and recipient, many medicines, and a number of merchandises, which now became useless to us, and were wanted in this colony. I likewise gave three and twenty soldiers to the legion, as they asked my leave to be incorporated in it. Messieurs Commerçon and Verron, both consented to defer their return to France; the former, in order to enquire into the natural history of these isles, and of Madagascar; the latter, in order to be more ready to go and observe the transit of Venus in India; I was likewise desired to leave behind M. de Romainville, an engineer, some young volunteers, and some under-pilots, for the navigation in the several parts of India.
Loss of two officers.
We were happy, after so long, a voyage, to be still in a condition to enrich this colony with men and necessary goods. The joy which I felt on this occasion, was cruelly converted into grief, by the loss which we here suffered, by the death of the chevalier du Bouchage, ensign of the king’s ships, and a man of distinguished merit, who joined all the qualities of the heart and mind which endear a man to his friends, to that knowledge which forms a complete sea-officer. The friendly care and all the skill of M. de la Porte, our surgeon, could not save him. He expired in my arms, the 19th of November, of a flux, which had begun at Batavia. A few days after, a young son of M. le Moyne, commissaire-ordonnateur of the marine, who embarked as a volunteer with me, and had lately been made a garde de la marine134, died of a pectoral disease.
In the Isle of France I admired the forges, which have been established there by Messrs. Rosting and Hermans. There are few so fine ones in Europe, and the iron which they make is of the best kind. It is inconceiveable how much perseverance, and how great abilities have been necessary to make this undertaking more complete, and what sums it has cost. He has now nine hundred negroes, from which M. Hermans has drawn out and exercised a battalion of two hundred men, who are animated by a kind of ambition. They are very nice in the choice of their comrades, and refuse to admit all those who have been guilty of the least roguery. Thus we see sentiments of honour combined with slavery135.
1768. December.
During our stay here, we constantly enjoyed the fairest weather imaginable. The 5th of December, the sky began to be covered with thick clouds, the mountains were wrapt in fogs; and every thing announced the approaching season of rain, and the hurricane which is felt in these isles almost every year. |Departure from the Isle of France.| The 10th I was ready to set sail. The rain and the wind right on end did not allow it. I could not sail till the 12th in the morning, leaving the Etoile just when she was going to be careened. This vessel could not be fit for going out before the end of the month, and our junction was now no longer necessary. This store-ship left the isle of France towards the end of December, and arrived in France a month after me. I took my departure at noon, in the observed S. lat. of 20° 22′ and 54° 40′ east longitude from Paris.
Run to the Cape of Good Hope.
The weather was at first very cloudy, with squalls and rain. We could not see the isle of Bourbon. As we got further from the land, the weather cleared up by degrees. The wind was fair and blew fresh; but our new main-mast soon caused us as much anxiety as the first. It described so considerable an arch at the head, that I durst not make use of the top gallant-sail, nor carry the top-sails hoisted up.
Bad weather which we meet with.
From the 22d of December to the 8th of January, we had a constant head-wind, bad weather, or calms. I was told, that these west winds were quite without example at this season. They however retarded us for a fortnight successively, during which we kept trying or beating to windward with a very great sea. We got sight of the coast of Africa before we had any soundings. When we first saw this land, which we took to be the Cape of Shoals, (Cabo dos Baxos) we had no bottom. On the 30th we sounded 78 fathom, and from that day we kept on Bank Aguilhas, being almost constantly in sight of the land. |1768. January.| We soon fell in with several Dutch ships, of the Batavia fleet; their fore-runner set sail from thence on the 20th of October, and the fleet the 6th of November; the Dutch were still more surprised than we were at the westerly winds blowing so much out of season.
At last, on the 18th of January in the morning, we had sight of Cape False, and soon after of the land of the Cape of Good Hope. |Nautical advice.| I must here observe, that five leagues E. S. E. of Cape False, there is a very dangerous rock under the water; that to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, there is a reef extending about one third of a league to the offing, and that at the foot of the Cape itself there is a rock running out to sea to the same distance. I was come up with a Dutch ship, which I had perceived in the morning, and I had shortened sail, in order not to pass by her, but to follow her if she intended to enter in the night-time. At seven o’clock in the evening, she took in her top-gallant-sails, studding-sails, and even top-sails; I then stood out to sea, and plyed all night, with a very fresh southerly wind, varying from S. S. E. to S. S. W.
At day-break, the currents had set us near nine leagues to the W. N. W. the Dutch ship was above four leagues to the leeward of us, and we were obliged to croud sail, in order to make good again what we had lost. Therefore those who must pass the night on their boards, with the intention of entering the bay of the Cape in the morning, would do well to bring-to at the eastern point of the Cape of Good Hope, keeping about three leagues off shore; being in this position, the currents will set them in a good situation for entering early in the morning. At nine o’clock in the morning we anchored in Table-bay, at the Cape, at the head of the road, and we moored N. N. E. and S. S. W. Here were fourteen ships of several nations, and several others arrived during our stay. Captain Carteret had sailed from hence on Epiphany-day. We saluted the town with fifteen guns, and they returned the salute with an equal number.
We touch at the Cape of Good Hope.
We had all possible reasons to be content with the governor and inhabitants of the Cape of Good Hope; they were desirous of procuring us all that is useful and agreeable. I shall not stop to describe this place, which every body knows. The Cape immediately depends upon Europe, and not upon Batavia, neither with regard to its civil and military administration, nor to the appointment of persons to places. It is even sufficient to have had an employment at the Cape, to exclude one from obtaining one at Batavia. However, the council of the Cape corresponds with that of Batavia, with regard to commercial affairs. It consists of eight persons, among which is the governor, who is the president. The governor does not belong to the court of justice, where the second in command presides; he only signs the sentences of death.
There is a military station at False Bay, and one at the bay of Saldagna. The latter, which forms an excellent harbour, sheltered from all winds, could not be made the chief place, because it has no water. They are now working to encrease the settlement at False Bay; there the ships anchor in winter, when they are forbid lying in the bay of the Cape. There you find the same assistance, and every thing as cheap as at the Cape itself. The distance over land of these two places, is eight leagues, and the road very bad.
Particulars concerning the vineyards at Constantia.
Nearly half way between them both is the district of Constantia, which produces the famous wine of that name. This vineyard, where they cultivate the Spanish muscade vines, is very small, but it is not true that it belongs to the company, or that it is surrounded, as people believe here, by walls, and watched. It is distinguished into High and Little Constantia, separated by a hedge, and belonging to two different proprietors. The wine which is made there is nearly alike in quality, though each of the two Constantias has its partisans. In common years they make a hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty barriques of this wine, of which the company takes a third at a stated price, and the rest is sold to every buyer that offers. The price at present is thirty piastres or dollars the barrel of seventy bottles of white wine, and thirty-five piastres for the same quantity of red wine. My officers and myself went to dine with M. Vanderspie, the proprietor of High Constantia. He treated us in the best manner possible, and we there drank a good deal of his wine, both at dinner, and in tasting the different sorts, in order to make our provision of them.
The soil of Constantia is a sandy gravel, lying on a gentle slope. They cultivate the vines without props, and leave only a small number of buds when they cut them. They make the wine by putting the grapes without their grains into the vessel. The full casks are kept in a cellar level with the ground, in which the air has a free circulation. As we returned from Constantia, we visited two country-houses belonging to the governor. The largest, named Newland, has a garden which is much larger than the company’s, at the Cape. This last we have found much inferior to the reputation it has acquired. Some long walks of very high horn-beams, give it the appearance of a garden for fryars, and it is planted with oaks, which thrive very ill there.
Situation of the Dutch at the Cape.
The Dutch plantations have spread very much on the whole coast, and plenty is every where the consequence of cultivation, because the cultivator is free, subject to the laws only, and sure of his property. There are inhabitants almost a hundred and fifty leagues off the capital; they have no other enemies to fear than the wild beasts; for the Hottentots do not molest them. One of the finest parts of the Cape is the colony, which has been called Little Rochelle. This is a settlement of French, driven out of France by the repeal of the edict of Nantes. It surpasses all the rest in the fertility of the soil, and the industry of the colonists. They have given this adopted mother the name of their old country, which they still love, though it has treated them so hardly.
The government sends caravans, out from time to time to search the interior parts of the country. One was out for eight months in 1763. This detachment advanced to the northward, and made, as I was told, some important discoveries; however, this journey had not the success which one might have expected; discontent and discord got amongst them, and forced the chief to return home, leaving his discoveries imperfect. The Dutch got sight of a yellow nation, with long hair, and seeming very ferocious to them.
On this journey they found a quadruped of seventeen feet high, of which I have given the drawing to M. de Buffon; it was a female suckling a young one, (fawn) which was only seven feet high. They killed the mother, and took the fawn alive, but it died after a few days march. M. de Buffon assured me that this is the animal which naturalists call the giraffe. None of them had been seen after that which was brought to Rome in the time of Cæsar, and shewn there in the amphitheatre. About three years ago they have likewise found and brought to the Cape, a quadruped of great beauty, which is related to the ox, horse, and stag, and of which the genus is entirely new. It only lived two months at the Cape; I have likewise given M. de Buffon an exact drawing of this animal, whose strength and fleetness equal its beauty. It is not without reason that Africa has been named the mother of monsters.
Departure from the Cape.
Being provided with good provisions, wines, and refreshments of all sorts, we set sail from the road of the Cape the 17th in the afternoon. We passed between the isle of Roben and the coast; at six o’clock in the evening, the middle of that isle bore S. by E. ½ E. about four leagues distant, from whence I took my departure in 33° 40′ south latitude, and 15° 48′ east longitude from Paris. I wanted to join M. Carteret, over whom I had certainly a great advantage in sailing; but he was still eleven days before me.
I directed my course so as to get sight of St. Helena, in order to make sure of putting in at Ascension island, an anchorage which I intended to make beneficial to my crew. |Sight of St. Helena.|Indeed we got sight of it the 29th, at two o’clock after noon, and the bearings which we set of it gave us no more than eight or ten leagues difference in our reckoning. |1769. February.| In the night between the 3d to the 4th of February, being in the latitude of Ascension island, and being about eighteen leagues from it by my reckoning, I went only under the two top-sails. At day-break we saw the isle nearly nine leagues distant, and at eleven o’clock we anchored in the north west creek, or Creek of the Mountain of the Cross, in twelve fathoms, bottom of sand and coral. According to the Abbé la Caille’s observations, this anchorage is in 7° 54′ south latitude, and 16° 19′ west longitude from Paris.
|Stopping at Ascension.|
We had hardly cast anchor, when I hoisted out the boats, and sent out three detachments to catch turtle; the first in the N. E. creek, the second in the N. W. creek, opposite which we were; and the third in the English creek, which is in the S. W. of the island. Every thing promised a favourable capture; there was no other ship than ours, the season was advantageous, and we entered with the new moon. As soon as the detachments, were set off, I made every thing ready for fishing my two greater masts under the rigging, viz. the main mast with a fore-top-mast, the heel upwards; and the fore-mast which was split horizontally between the cheeks, with an oak fish.
In the afternoon the bottle was brought to me which contains the paper whereon the ships of every nation generally write their name, when they touch at Ascension island. This bottle is deposited in a cavity of the rocks of this bay, where it is equally sheltered from rain and the spray of the sea. In it I found written the Swallow, that English ship which captain Carteret commanded, and which I was desirous of joining. He arrived here the 31st of January, and set sail again on the first of February; thus we had already gained six days upon him, after leaving the cape of Good Hope. I inscribed the Boudeuse, and sent back the bottle.
The 5th was spent in fishing our masts under the rigging, which is a very nice operation in a road where the sea is rough; in over-hauling our rigging, and embarking the turtle. The fishery was abundant; seventy turtle had been turned in the night, but we could only take on board fifty-six, the others were set at liberty again. We observed at our anchorage 9° 45′, variation N. W. |Departure from Ascension.| The 6th, at three o’clock in the morning, the turtle being got on board, and the boats hoisted in, we began to weigh our anchors; at five o’clock we were under sail, happy on account of our capture, and of the hope that our next anchorage would be in our own country. Indeed, we had had a great many since our departure from Brest.
In leaving Ascension isle, I kept my wind in order to range the Cape Verd isles as close as possible. |Passing of the line.| The 11th in the morning we passed the line for the sixth time on this voyage, in 20° of estimated longitude. Some days after, when, notwithstanding the fish with which we had strengthened our fore-mast, it cut a very bad figure, we were obliged to support it by preventer-shrouds, getting down the fore-top-gallant-mast, and almost always keeping the fore-top-sail close reefed, and sometimes handed.
Meeting with the Swallow.
The 25th in the evening we perceived a ship to windward, and a-head of us; we kept sight of her during the night, and joined her the next morning; it was the Swallow. I offered captain Carteret all the services that one may render to another at sea. He wanted nothing, but upon his telling me that they had given him letters for France at the Cape, I sent on board for them. He presented me with an arrow which he had got in one of the isles he had found on his voyage round the world, a voyage that he was far from suspecting we had likewise made. His ship was very small, went very ill, and when we took leave of him, he remained as it were at anchor. How much he must have suffered in so bad a vessel, may well be conceived. There were eight leagues difference between his estimated longitude and ours; he reckoned himself so much more to the westward.
Error in the reckoning of our course.
We expected to pass to the eastward of the Açores, when the 4th of March in the morning we had sight of the Isle of Tercera, which we doubled in day-time, ranging very close along it. |1769. March.| The sight of this isle, supposing it well placed on M. Bellin’s great chart, would give us about sixty-seven leagues of error to the westward, in the reckoning of our run; which indeed is a considerable error on so short a track as that from Ascension to the Açores. It is true that the position of these isles in longitude, is still uncertain. But I believe, that in the neighbourhood of the Cape Verd islands, there are very strong currents. However, it was essential to us to determine the longitude of the Açores by good astronomical observations, and to settle their distances and bearings among themselves. Nothing of all this is accurate on the charts of any nation. They only differ by a greater or lesser degree of error. This important task has just been executed by M. de Fleurieu, ensign of the king’s ships.
I corrected my longitude in leaving the Isle of Tercera, by that which M. de Bellin’s great chart assigns to it. |Sight of Ushant.| We had soundings the 13th in the afternoon, and the 14th in the morning we had sight of Ushant. As the wind was scant, and the tide contrary to double this island, we were forced to stand off, the wind blowing very fresh at west, and a very great sea. |Squall which damaged our rigging.| About ten o’clock in the morning, in a violent squall, the fore-yard broke between the two jear-blocks, and the main-sail at the same instant was blown out of the bolt-rope from clue to ear-ring. We immediately brought to under our main, fore, and mizen-stay-sails, and we set about repairing the damage; we bent a new main-sail, made a fore-yard with a mizen-yard, a main-top sail-yard, and a studding-sail-boom, and at four o’clock we were again enabled to make sail. We had lost sight of Ushant, and whilst we lay-to, the wind and sea drove us into the channel.
Arrival at St. Maloes.
Being determined to put into Brest, I resolved to ply with variable winds, from S. W. to N. W. when the 15th in the morning our people came to inform me, that our fore-mast was near being carried away under the rigging. The shock it had received when its yard broke, had made it worse; and though we had eased its head by lowering the yard, taking in the reefs in the fore-sail, and keeping, the fore-top-sail upon the cap close reefed, yet we found, after an attentive examination, that this mast could not long resist the pitching caused by the great sea, we being close-hauled; besides this, all our rigging and blocks were rotten, and we had none to replace them; then how was it possible in such a condition to combat the bad weather of the equinoxes between two coasts? I therefore resolved to bear away, and conduct the frigate to St. Maloes. That was then the nearest port, which could serve us as an asylum. I entered it on the 16th in the afternoon, having lost only seven men, during two years and four months, which were expired since we had left Nantes.
Puppibus & læti Nautæ imposuere Coronas. Virg. Æneid. Lib. iv.