Beechey Island

“ On the 3rd of July, at 11 o'clock in the morning, the ice-master signalled land to the north. After taking an observation Hatteras recognised Beechey Island, that general meeting-place of Arctic navigators. Almost all ships that adventure in these seas stop there. Franklin wintered there for the first time before getting into Wellington Strait, and Creswell, with Lieutenant McClure, after having cleared 170 miles on the ice, rejoined the Phoenix and returned to England. The last ship which anchored at Beechey Island before the Forward was the Fox ”

“ It ought to do so, doctor, but the wind does not always do what it ought. Look, that ice-bank seems impenetrable. Never mind, we will try to reach Griffith Island, sail round Cornwallis Island, and get into Queen's Channel without going by Wellington Channel. Nevertheless I positively desire to touch at Beechey Island in order to renew my coal provision. ”

“ As soon as the boats returned, all sail was made to the westward, where the prospect began to wear a more and more interesting appearance. We soon perceived, as we proceeded, that the land along which we were sailing, and which, with the exception of some small inlets, had appeared to be hitherto continuous from Baffin’s Bay, began now to trend much to the northward, beyond Beechey Island, leaving a large open space between that coast and the distant land to the westward, which now appeared like an island, of which the extremes to the north and south were distinctly visible. ”

“ Sir Edward Belcher had also been compelled to abandon his vessels, the Assistance and Pioneer: the four crews met at Beechey Island, and embarked on board their storeship, the North Star, which had been laid up for two years. They arrived in England late September. The reader will at once recognise the Resolute as the ship which was found in Baffin's Bay, in 1855, by Captain Buddington, of the New London whaler George Henry. She had forced her way, unaided by man, through twelve hundred miles of Arctic ice. ”

“ Richard Brydges Beechey, midshipman, and a crew of eight seamen and marines.
About ninety miles to the northward of Pitcairn, there is a coral formation, which has been named Oeno Island, after a whale-ship, whose master supposed that it had not before been seen ; though the discovery belongs to Mr. Henderson, the commander of a Calcutta trader. It is so low that it can be discerned at only a very few miles distance, and is highly dangerous to a night navigation.
“Lieutenant Belcher was sent to ascertain the depth of water round this island, with permission to land if unattended with danger ”

“ Without following the ships step by step through their laborious progress across Baffin’s Bay, down Lancaster Sound and Barrow’s Straits, we will carry them at once to Beechey Island, which lies at the south-eastern extremity of Wellington Channel, just at its entrance into Barrow’s Straits. Here, on the 27th of August, Mr Penny discovered undoubted traces of Sir John Franklin. Here, accordingly, the ships assembled to prosecute the examination. ”

“ Not one visitor to this happy island has taken leave of its amiable inhabitants without a feeling of regret. Captain Beechey says, 'When we were about to take leave, our friends assembled to express their regret at our departure. All brought some little present for our acceptance, which they wished us to keep in remembrance of them; after which they accompanied us to the beach, where we took our leave of the female part of the inhabitants. Adams and the young men pushed off in their own boat to the ship, determined to accompany us to sea, as far as they could with safety. ”

“ The fog was at the same time so thick that we could not see the shore; and it was not until some time afterwards, when we had neared the land by means of a long ground swell, for it was then quite calm, that we discovered the tops of the hills. On the 19th we saw King’s Island, which, though small, is high and rugged, and has low land at its bate, with apparently breakers off the south extreme. We had now advanced sufficiently far to the northward, to carry on our operations at midnight; an advantage in the navigation of an unfrequented sea which often precludes the necessity of lying to. ”

“ The Blossom, Captain Beechey commander, set sail from Spithead on the 19th May, 1825, and after doubling Cape Horn on the 26th December, entered the Pacific Ocean. After a short stay off the coast of Chili, Beechey visited Easter Island, where the same incidents which had marked Kotzebue's visit were repeated. The same eager reception on the part of the natives, who swam to the Blossom or brought their paltry merchandise to it in canoes, and the same shower of stones and blows from clubs when the English landed, repulsed, as in the Russian explorer's time, with a rapid discharge of shot. ”

“ The account which they transmitted home of this newly-discovered colony was, strange to say, as little attended to by government as that of Captain Folger, and nothing more was heard of Adams and his family for nearly twelve years, when, in 1825, Captain Beechey, in the Blossom, bound on a voyage of discovery to Behring Strait, touched at Pitcairn's Island. On the approach of the Blossom, a boat came off under all sail towards the ship, containing old Adams and ten of the young men of the island. ”

“ Such was the state of this beautiful island and its interesting and fascinating natives at the time when Captain Wallis first discovered and Lieutenant Cook shortly afterwards visited it. What they now are, as described by Captain Beechey, it is lamentable to reflect. All their usual and innocent amusements have been denounced by the missionaries, and, in lieu of them, these poor people have been driven to seek for resources in habits of indolence and apathy: that simplicity of character, which atoned for many of their faults, has been converted into cunning and hypocrisy ”

“ We know now the doctrine that this difference will engender; and we know the exception that it will call for. More than one writer have seen in Paumotu islanders specimens of a second race. More than one have seen only the same race under different conditions.
Now, Captain Beechey has found that this difference in the inhabitants coincides with the difference of the islands. The well-grown tribes of the Polynesian type are the tribes of the volcanic Islands, Pitcairn's and the Gambier group. The blacker variety is found on the low islands.
EASTER ISLAND.
Synonym.—Teape. ”

“ They frequently swam round their little island, the circuit of which is at the least seven miles. When the sea beat heavily on the island, they have plunged into the breakers, and swam to sea beyond them. This they sometimes did pushing a barrel before them, when it could be got off in no other way, and in this manner we procured several tons of water without a single cask being stove. The women are nearly as muscular as the men, and taller than the generality of their sex. Polly Young, who is not the tallest upon the island, measured five feet nine inches and a half. ”

“ Captain Beechey has observed, that the submarine slope is much less at the extremities of the more elongated atolls in the Low Archipelago, than at their sides; in speaking of Ducie’s Island he says [12] the buttress, as it may be called, which “has the most powerful enemy (the S.W. swell) to oppose, is carried out much further, and with less abruptness than the other.” In some cases, the less inclination of a certain part of the external slope, for instance of the northern extremities of the two Keeling atolls, is caused by a prevailing current which there accumulates a bed of sand. ”

“ Captain Beechey remarks, that those gigantic busts of stone which once existed on various parts of the island, of which Captain Cook found only two remaining, while Kotzebue found nothing more than a square pedestal in their place, have now altogether disappeared, and that a few heaps of rubbish only occupy a spot where it is doubtful whether one of the busts was erected or not. Pitcairn Island, he observes, affords a curious example of a race of men settling upon an island, erecting stone images upon its heights, and either becoming extinct, or having abandoned it ”

“ This man and Young were now the sole survivors out of the fifteen males that had landed upon the island. Young, as has been stated, was a man of some education, and of a serious turn of mind, and, as Beechey says, it would have been wonderful, after the many dreadful scenes at which they had assisted, if the solitude and tranquillity that ensued had not disposed them to repentance. ”

“ Lord Hood's Island, which Captain Beechey reached on the 14th of January, 1826, in latitude 21° 30′ S. and longitude 135° 33′ W.: and consists of an assemblage of small islets rising from a chain of coral even with, or a little above the water's edge. Upon these grow a variety of evergreen-trees thickly set, and presenting an inviting appearance; but the surf forbade all attempts at landing. It appears, however, that the islets. are not now inhabited, as Krusenstern reports them to have been, and as tho appearance of a square stone hut was sufficient to prove. ”

“ Commander Beechey’s object was now to make the best of his way to Chamisso Island, in Kotzebue Sound, as there were but three weeks left before the appointed time of rendezvous there; and accordingly every effort was directed toAvards that end.
“With the summer characteristics of this latitude – fine weather and a thick fog – we advanced,” says he, “to the northward, attended by a great many birds, nearly all the same kind as those which inhabit the Greenland Sea. In lat. ”

“ The group lies between the south end of New Ireland and the north end of the great Bougainville Island in the Solomon Archipelago, and consists of six low, well-wooded and fertile islands, enclosed within a barrier reef, forming a noble atoll, almost circular in shape. All the islands are thickly populated at the present day by natives, who are peaceable enough, and engage in bêche-de-mer and pearl-shell fishing. ”

“ Francisco, in California; examined the Tres Marias and Isabella Islands; surveyed the coast of Mexico from Mazatlan to several miles south of San Blas; determined the position of Cape Corrientes, a remarkable promontory 12,003 feet in height; touched at Acapulco; and proceeded from thence to Valparaiso, where she arrived on the 29th of April 1828.
Here Captain Beechey found orders to convey to Europe the remittances of specie from the different ports in the Pacific; the last of which money, amounting in the whole to upwards of 1,500,000 dollars, was embarked at Coquimbo on the 3d of June. ”

“ Captain Beechey approached them in the gig, and gave them several presents, for which they, in return, threw him some bundles of paste, tied up in large leaves, which was the common food of the natives. They tempted the Captain and his crew with cocoa-nuts and roots, and invited their approach by performing ludicrous dances; but, as soon as the visitors were within reach, all was confusion. A scuffle ensued, and on a gun being fired over their heads, all but four instantly plunged into the sea. The inhabitants of these islands are stated to be well-made, with upright and graceful figures. ”

“ Well, one does not care to destroy any one’s illusions, so the less said about Manahiki’s innocence and simplicity the better. The islanders are, at all events, a kindly and a cheerful people, and their home is the neatest and best kept island in the Pacific. A palm-bordered road of finest white sand, beautifully kept, and four miles long, runs without a bend or break from one end of the island to the other—this portion of the atoll forming a separate island, and containing most of the scanty population. ”

“ Off to the north the islands showed their mountain-tips against the sky, blue and continuous as some distant mainland. Talking with the mates and boat-steerers and Kanakas, Tom Dennis was entertained with many stories of those islands: how fox- and seal-farmers were scattered through the group; how small launches cruised the entire length of the island chain with impunity; how in time to come there would be a thriving island population where now were empty stretches of land or scattered communities of miserable natives. ”

“ Opposite Fortune Bay, which has several important arms, are the two islands of St Pierre and Miquelon, ceded by treaty in 1713 to France, as shelter for her fishermen, and now all that remains of French sovereignty in North America. In the neighbourhood of Bay St George, on the west coast (40 m. wide at the mouth and boasting a good harbour) are situated some of the most fertile lands in the island, well-timbered and containing large deposits of coal and other minerals. Three extensive arms run 20 m. inland from Bay of Islands, the seat of a profitable herring fishery. ”

“ The island had but very few inhabitants—perhaps ten or twelve men and double that number of women and children. No ship, they told us, had ever entered the lagoon but Bully Hayes' brig, and that was nine years before. There was nothing on the island to tempt a trading vessel, and even the sperm whalers, as they lumbered lazily past from Strong's Island to Guam, would not bother to lower a boat and "dicker" for pearl-shell or turtle. ”

“ Beekman had no idea where that island lay. That it had been unvisited, indeed avoided, by ships was obvious, and the reason was easy to discover. From the decks of a ship, if one by chance passed near it, nothing but arid rock, surrounded by dangerous reefs, could be seen. He had climbed, attended by the faithful Truda, the few other points whereby one could reach the top of the wall. There was no gulf or harbor on any other side. ”