Robert Kerr

“ He lived till I got to the island of Celebes, and there died. As the islands from which I had taken him were very small and low, the largest being not more than five miles in compass, I was surprised to see with how many of the productions of Celebes he was acquainted; beside the cocoa-nut and palm, he knew the beetle-nut and the lime, and the moment he got a bread-fruit, he went to the fire and roasted it in the embers. He made us understand also, that in his country they had plenty of fish, and turtle in their season. ”

“ When the season is so far advanced as it was when we attempted the passage of this streight, it is a most difficult and dangerous undertaking, as it blows a hurricane incessantly night and day, and the rain is as violent and constant as the wind, with such fogs as often render it impossible to discover any object at the distance of twice the ship's length. This day our best bower cable being quite rubbed to pieces, we cut it into junk, and bent a new one, which we rounded with old rigging, eight fathom from the anchor. ”

“ When we came to the shore I landed, and walked a little way into the country, which as far as I could see was all downs, without a single tree or shrub. We saw the dung of many beasts, and had a glimpse of four, which ran away as soon as we came in sight, so that we could not certainly determine what they were; but we believed them to be guanicoes, many of which we afterwards saw come down to the water-side; they resemble our deer, but are much larger, the height of some being not less than thirteen hands; they are very shy and very swift. ”

“ Thus it happens, that the desire of preserving from reproach even the name that we leave behind us, or of procuring it honour, is one of the most powerful principles of action, among the inhabitants of the most speculative and enlightened nations. Posthumous reputation, upon every principle, must be acknowledged to have no influence upon the dead; yet the desire or obtaining and securing it, no force of reason, no habits of thinking can subdue, except in those whom habitual baseness and guilt have rendered indifferent to honour and shame while they lived. ”

“ When we had got about four miles to the eastward, it fell calm, and rained with great violence, during which there arose such a swell as I never remember to have seen: It came from the westward, and ran so quick and so high, that I expected every moment it would break: It set us very fast towards the shore, which is as dangerous as any in the world, and I could see the surge breaking at some distance from it, mountains high: Happily for us a fresh gale sprang up at south-east, with which, to our great joy, we were able to stand off ”

“ Mutton is scarcely to be procured, and hogs and poultry are dear; of garden-stuff and fruit-trees there is abundance, of which, however, none can be preserved at sea but the pumpkin; rum, sugar, and molasses, all excellent in their kind, may be had at a reasonable price; tobacco also is cheap, but it is not good. Here is a yard for building shipping, and a small hulk to heave down by; for, as the tide never rises above six or seven feet, there is no other way of coming at a ship's bottom.
When the boat which had been sent on shore returned, we hoisted her on board, and stood out to sea. ”

“ Soon after we were at anchor, several Indians came on board us, and I made them all presents of beads, ribbands, and other trifles, with which they appeared to be greatly delighted. This visit I returned by going on shore among them, taking only a few people with me in my jolly boat, that I might not alarm them by numbers. They received us with great expressions of kindness, and to make us welcome, they brought us some berries which they had gathered for that purpose, and which, with a few muscles, seem to be a principal part, if not the whole of their subsistence. ”

“ The soil in the valleys is rich, and of a considerable depth; and at the foot of almost every hill there is a brook, the water of which has a reddish hue, like that which runs through our turf bogs in England, but it is by no means ill tasted, and upon the whole proved to be the best that we took in during our voyage. We ranged the coast to the streight, and had soundings all the way from 40 to 20 fathom, upon a gravelly and sandy bottom. The most remarkable land on Terra del Fuego is a hill, in the form of a sugar-loaf, which stands on the west side not far from the sea ”

“ On the next morning, Thursday the 13th of July, the ship was very early crowded with our friends, and surrounded by a multitude of canoes, which were filled with the natives of an inferior class. Between eleven and twelve we weighed anchor, and as soon as the ship was under sail, the Indians on board took their leaves, and wept, with a decent and silent sorrow, in which there was something very striking and tender: The people in the canoes, on the contrary, seemed to vie with each other in the loudness of their lamentations, which we considered rather as affectation than grief. ”

“ We rigged the ship, bent the sails, unmoored, got springs upon our cables, loaded all our guns, and barricadoed the deck. At night every body slept under arms, and the next day we warped the vessel farther off from the bottom of the bay, towards the eastern shore, that we might have more room, fixed four swivel guns on the forepart of the quarter-deck, and took every other measure that appeared to be necessary for our defence. ”

“ At this wonderful scene we stood gazing for more than half an hour, during which time none of the swimmers attempted to come on shore, but seemed to enjoy their sport in the highest degree; we then proceeded in our journey, and late in the evening got back to the fort.
Upon this occasion it may be observed, that human nature is endued with powers which are only accidentally exerted to the utmost; and that all men are capable of what no man attains, except he is stimulated to the effort by some uncommon circumstances or situation. ”

“ We observed also, that they hauled a canoe, which lay under a shed upon the beach, up into the woods. These were not friendly appearances, and they were succeeded by others that were still more hostile; for these people spent all the remainder of the day in entering and rushing out of the woods, as if they had been making sallies to attack an enemy; sometimes shooting their arrows, and throwing their lances into the water towards the ship; and sometimes lifting their targets, and brandishing their swords at us in a menacing manner. ”

“ Early in the morning I sent the boats on shore for water, and soon after our people landed, three canoes put off from the south shore, and landed sixteen of the natives on the east point of the bay. When they came within about a hundred yards of our people they stopt, called out, and made signs of friendship: Our people did the same, shewing them some beads and other toys. At this they seemed pleased, and began to shout; our people imitated the noise they made, and shouted in return: The Indians then advanced, still shouting, and laughing very loud. ”

“ Yet if we admit that they are upon the whole happier than we, we must admit that the child is happier than the man, and that we are losers by the perfection of our nature, the increase of our knowledge, and the enlargement of our views.
Canoes were continually coming in during all this fore-noon, and the tents at the fort were crowded with people of both sexes from different parts of the island. I was myself busy on board the ship, but Mr Mollineux, our master, who was one of those that made the last voyage in the Dolphin, went on shore. ”

“ On no other principle than one involving some liberty, nay some duty of judging, can the intelligence of mankind be availing in the execution of projects. Divine authority alone, unequivocally made known, can dispense with acquiescence to the demands of reason, or render inefficient the most glaringly insuperable difficulties. How even the Lords of the Admiralty, or their delegate, Capt W. should assume such dispensing prerogatives, it is impossible to comprehend. ”

“ January, 1683, This month we were in the latitude of forty-seven degrees and forty minutes, where we espied an island bearing west from us; we having the wind at east north-east, we bore away for it; it being too late for us to go on shore, we lay by all night. The island seemed very pleasant to the eye, with many woods, I may as well say the whole land was woods. ”

“ I should indeed have thought myself at liberty to have obtained by force the refreshments, for want of which our people were dying, if it had been possible to have come to an anchor, supposing we could not have made these poor savages our friends; but nothing could justify the taking away their lives for a mere imaginary or intentional injury, without procuring the least advantage to ourselves. ”

“ The people, who kept abreast of the ship on the beach, made many signals; but whether they were intended to frighten us away, or invite us on shore, it is not easy to determine. We returned them by waving our hats and shouting, and they replied by shouting again. We did not put their disposition to the test by attempting to land; because, as the island was inconsiderable, and as we wanted nothing that it could afford, we thought it imprudent as well as cruel to risk a contest, in which the natives must have suffered by our superiority, merely to gratify an idle curiosity ”

“ I then requested, that the gentlemen whom I had on board might reside on shore during our stay, and that Mr Banks might go up the country to gather plants; but this he absolutely refused. I judged from his extreme caution, and the severity of these restrictions, that he suspected we were come to trade; I therefore took some pains to convince him of the contrary. I told him, that we were bound to the southward, by the order of his Britannic majesty, to observe a transit of the planet Venus over the sun, an astronomical phenomenon of great importance to navigation. ”

“ We now moored the ship in seventy-eight fathom, with the stream-anchor.
The next morning, while our people were employed in getting wood and water, and gathering celery and mussels, two canoes, full of Indians, came alongside of the ship. They had much the same appearance as the poor wretches whom we had seen before in Elizabeth's Bay. They had on board some seal's flesh, blubber, and penguins, all which they eat raw. Some of our people, who were fishing with a hook and line, gave one of them a fish, somewhat bigger than a herring, alive, just as it came out of the water. ”

“ As we had seen no inhabitants, nor any signs of inhabitants where we got our water, I intended to procure a further supply the next day from the same place, and endeavour also to recruit our wood; but about nine o'clock at night, we were suddenly surprised by a loud noise on that part of the shore which was a-breast of the ship: It was made by a great number of human voices, and very much resembled the war-whoop of the American savages; a hideous shout which they give at the moment of their attack, and in which all who have heard it agree there is something inexpressibly terrifying and horrid. ”

“ The turf of the lawns is quite clean and even, and the bottoms of the woods in many places clear of all bushes and underwoods; and the woods themselves usually terminate on the lawns with a regular outline, not broken, nor confused with straggling trees, but appearing uniform as if laid out by art. Hence across a great variety of the most elegant and entertaining prospects formed by the mixture of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies and over the slopes and declivities with which the place abounds. ”

“ Their disposition was free and open; they eat and drank whatever was given them; went without hesitation into every part of the ship, and were as familiar and merry with the crew as if they had been of long and intimate acquaintance. They were not, like the people on all the other islands that we had visited, quite naked, though they had only a slight covering for the waist, which consisted of a narrow piece of fine matting. Their canoes were very well and neatly made, having a hollow tree for the bottom, and planks for the sides, with a sail of fine matting, and an outrigger ”

“ About noon I returned to the ship.
The commerce which our men had found means to establish with the women of the island, rendered them much less obedient to the orders that had been given for the regulation of their conduct on shore, than they were at first. I found it necessary therefore to read the articles of war, and I punished James Proctor, the corporal of marines, who had not only quitted his station, and insulted the officer, but struck the master at arms such a blow as brought him to the ground. ”

“ At noon, I hoisted the boats in, and there being a great sea, with a dreadful surf rolling in upon the shore, and no anchorage, I thought it prudent to leave this place, with such refreshments as we had got. The people who had resided on shore, saw no appearance of metal of any kind, but several tools, which were made of shells and stones, sharpened and fitted into handles, like adzes, chissels, and awls. They saw several canoes building, which were formed of planks, sewed together, and fastened to several small timbers, that passed transversely along the bottom and up the sides. ”

“ While we lay here, we set up the armourer's forge on shore, and completed a great deal of iron-work that was much wanted. Our people had every morning an excellent breakfast made of portable soup, and wild celery, thickened with oatmeal: Neither was our attention confined wholly to ourselves, for the surgeon of the Tamar surrounded a piece of ground near the watering-place with a fence of turf, and planted it with many esculent vegetables as a garden, for the benefit of those who might hereafter come to this place. ”

“ The gloominess of the weather was indeed not only a disagreeable, but a most dangerous circumstance, as we were often long without being able to make an observation, and were, notwithstanding, obliged to carry all the sail we could spread, day and night, our ship being so bad a sailer, and our voyage so long, to prevent our perishing by hunger, which, with all its concomitant horrors, would otherwise be inevitable. ”