The Solomon Islands and Their Natives Part 26

[301] I cannot gather the meaning of this latter part of the sentence and have rendered it literally. The same expression occurs in the account of Figueroa.

"Sailing all this day with a fair wind, we arrived at the island of San Christobal; and that night we entered a port because there was a threatening appearance in the weather. We landed in a town that was there, and the Indians fled, discharging some arrows. A soldier was wounded in the throat, but not seriously, and he was able to swallow some food. As we wished to leave the port with the rising moon, we embarked; and we named the port La Palma.

"We continued our voyage back to the ships; and when we had sailed about 4 leagues from the port, a canoe came off to look at us and to learn what people we were. As we had need of Indians for their language, we endeavoured to take the canoe; and so we coaxed them on, and of four which came in the canoe we took three alive, and one died whilst defending himself. In the evening, we arrived at the Puerto de la Visitacion de Nuestra Senora, where the ships lay.[302] I found that, on account of bad treatment, all the Indians whom we had taken in the islands had gone.

[302] From the short description of this harbour given on page 228, it is probably not Makira Harbour on the south coast of St.

Christoval; although from the time occupied by the brigantine in her return voyage along this south coast from Santa Anna to the ships, it must be in its vicinity.

"I gave a report to the General of what we had seen and accomplished in the expedition, telling him that there was no appearance of land further (in that direction), but that all the ma.s.s of the land, which was endless, lay to the west; and that, from this, he would perceive what ought to be done. A council of the captains and pilots was held to determine what steps should be followed in the prosecution of the voyage; and it was decided to refit the ships for this purpose; this, therefore, was the result of the general consultation. The ships were accordingly refitted;[303] but on Sat.u.r.day, the 7th of August, in the same year of 1568, all mustered together and made a protestation to the General and the captains with reference to the plan to be pursued. I told them briefly that because the ships were getting worm-eaten and rotten, and the rigging and cordage were not of much good, we should be determined to complete, without delay, the object for which we had come.

The General, in reply, said that it would be well that the brigantine should go in search of more provisions, of which we were in want; but I pointed out that this should not be done, because all the islands that we had visited were aroused, and the provisions hidden. They asked for my opinion as to returning to Peru, whence we had come; and I told them that we should not sail to the south of the Equinoctial, as we should be lost, on account of there being many people, scanty provisions, and but little water. I also said that if we were to direct our course to positions in lat.i.tudes which we should have time to reach, we should not have time to find land to the south-south-west and south, which would be a work of difficulty; and that such a new navigation, with 1,700 leagues of sea to cross on our return voyage, did not seem prudent. I therefore gave it as my opinion that we should steer north to reach the lat.i.tude of the first land we found, because it would be necessary, in order to shape a course from Peru, to go beyond the south tropic for thirty degrees and more; and I also said that when they should venture to make the return voyage, they should carry an abundance of water and provisions, because, otherwise, they would run the risk of all perishing. And so the pilots came to my view, which satisfied the protest that had been made; and I gave my opinion in the presence of a clerk who was Antonio de Cieza. Concerning the idea of my asking to found a settlement in these islands, I said that in that matter I did not know what the General intended to do, since the instructions concerning it were in his keeping. To this opinion they all came, and were of one mind without one that did not a.s.sent.[304]

[303] Figueroa refers to the ships being heaved down in this harbour.

[304] The impression, which this interesting pa.s.sage leaves on my mind, is that the Chief-Pilot prefers in his narrative to gloss over an incident which must have been full of disappointment to himself.

Further on in the narrative, he writes more freely on the subject (page 237). In Note IX. of the Geographical Appendix, I have given some further remarks on this pa.s.sage.

"At midnight on the following Monday, when all were asleep, the General ordered Gabriel Munoz and myself to go with some soldiers and make an entrance into a town in order to seize some Indians for interpreters (_para lenguas_). We went with 30 men, and took an Indian with his wife and young son; and all the rest of the Indians fled. We then returned to the ships; and straightway we made preparations for prosecuting our voyage.

"On the 11th of August of the same year, we left the Puerto de Nuestra Senora, which is in 11 south of the Equinoctial, in order to follow our voyage to Peru. Sailing to windward, at the end of 7 days after we had left the port, we weathered the island of San Christobal with the two islands of Santa Catalina and Santa Anna. On the Tuesday evening, having shortened sail, we had reached the islands of Santa Catalina and Santa Anna, which lay three leagues to the north-north-west. Looking around we did not see any more land, and here a strong south-east wind overtook us; and we shaped our course to the north-east-by-east."

In this manner the Spaniards left behind them the Isles of Salomon after a sojourn of six months in these islands; and, perhaps, a few reflections on their discoveries in this group, and on their dealings with the inhabitants, may be here apposite. They seem to have landed on, and to have taken formal possession of, almost every island of any size from Isabel eastward; they named all the large islands in the group with the exception of Bougainville; and the majority of the smaller islands also received their names. In the Geographical Appendix, I have given a list of the islands named by the Spaniards, which do not at present bear the names given them by their original discoverers.[305] It would be a graceful compliment to the memory of the gallant Gallego, who was the central figure of this expedition, if, after the lapse of more than three centuries, the Spanish names should be a.s.sociated with these islands in the Admiralty charts. The reason why such islands as Choiseul, Contrariete, Les Trois Surs, and the Ile du Golfe (Ugi), at present bear the names given to them by the French navigators, Bougainville and Surville, rather more than a century ago, is to be found, not in any intended act of injustice to the Spanish discoverers, but in the circ.u.mstance that the imperfect account of Figueroa,[306]

which omits many of the discoveries made in the brigantine, has been the only source of information available in the construction of the Admiralty charts. Those who have written most on the history of geographical discovery in these regions, Pingre, Dalrymple, Buache, and Fleurieu a century ago, and Burney in the early part of the present century, had only the account of Figueroa at their disposal.[307] The Journal of Hernan Gallego, the existence of which was doubted, would have been invaluable to them; and although a non-professional writer, I may be pardoned when I express my admiration at the manner in which M.

M. Buache and Fleurieu arrived at such correct inferences, based as they were on such scanty premises. One or two mistakes have arisen in the nomenclature of the present chart, which are due to misconceptions in the English translations of the account given by Figueroa, to wit, I may cite the instance of the Isle of Ramos... ... . The additional names which the Journal of Gallego enables us to identify with existing islands are, in truth, to be found in the general description of the Salomon Islands, which Herrera incorporated in his "Descripcion de les Indias Occidentales," which was published about 1601. But this description was, as just remarked, of a general character, and beyond confirming the suspicion that there were other accounts of Mendana's discoveries besides the relation of Figueroa, it was but of little service to the nautical geographer.

[305] _Vide_ Note X.

[306] Translated in great part from the original in the works of Pingre, Dalrymple, Fleurieu, and Burney. (Hechos de Don G. H. de Mendoza: par Dr. C. S. de Figueroa.)

[307] Pingre's "Memoire sur le choix et l'etat des lieux ou le pa.s.sage de Venus du 3 Juin, 1769;" Dalrymple's "Historical Collection of Voyages;" Fleurieu's "Decouvertes des Francois en 1768 et 1769 dans le sud-est de la Nouvelle Guinee" (also Eng. edit.); Burney's "Chronological History of Voyages and Discoveries," &c.

I come now to a less pleasant task, that of reviewing the character of the intercourse that prevailed between the Spaniards and the natives. It has been remarked by Commander Markham in his spirited sketch of the discoveries of Mendana, that the conduct of the Spaniards, in their intercourse with the islanders, was not otherwise than humane;[308] but I feel a.s.sured that a different opinion would have been expressed, if the writer had extended his inquiries further into the narrative of Gallego. During their six months' sojourn in this group, the loss of the Spaniards was but trifling in comparison with the losses they inflicted on the natives. In these numerous conflicts the natives must have lost not less than a hundred killed, whilst the Spaniards lost ten of their number; but a large proportion of these unfortunate islanders fell victims to the lamentable succession of reprisals for the ma.s.sacre of the watering-party at the Puerto de la Cruz, an act of retribution which the Spaniards had entirely brought upon themselves. In the great majority of instances the natives a.s.sumed the aggressive, but not in all; and although the Spaniards were often justifiably compelled to employ force in obtaining provisions, yet there was often nothing to excuse them in seizing the canoes, in cajoling natives alongside in order to capture them, or in carrying off with them from the group an unfortunate native with his wife and child. The natives kept on board the ships escaped on account of ill-treatment; and, as Gallego also writes, all the islands were aroused to such a degree by the visit of the Spaniards, that they concealed their provisions, and the ships began their return-voyage to Peru with scanty supplies of food and water... ... We must, however, judge of the conduct of the first discoverers of the Solomon Islands in the spirit of the age to which they belonged. The zeal, which led them to burn the temples dedicated to the worship of snakes and toads in the interior of Isabel, was appropriate to the spirit of an age in which expeditions were fitted out for the double purpose of discovering new territories and of reclaiming the infidel. Yet, if we lay aside the religious element, I doubt very much whether the lapse of three centuries has materially raised the standard by which our dealings with savage races should be guided. The white man kidnaps; the savage revenges the outrage on the next comer; the ship-of-war in its reprisal is of necessity equally indiscriminate; and thus feuds are re-opened with no single effort at conciliation.

[308] "The Cruise of the 'Rosario,'" 2nd edit., 1873 (p. 8).

We left the Spanish vessels when on the eve of their departure from the Isles of Salomon. Little could Mendana or Gallego have then believed that two centuries would pa.s.s away before the white man should again visit the scene of their discovery. The Chief-Pilot kept in his journal an almost daily record of the course and usually of the distance during the first portion of this return voyage; but as he was not so regular or so precise in noting the distance of each day's run, the lat.i.tudes, which he frequently records, enable me to follow this portion of the track with some degree of confidence.[309] It was on the 18th of August that they bore away to the north-eastward (N.E. by E.) with a strong south-east wind. Experiencing rain-squalls and calms, they kept a little to the north of this course, and on the 23rd they were in lat.i.tude 7 (full _largos_), being, as they computed, 36 leagues W. by N. from the Isle of Jesus.[310] It is apparent from the Journal that Gallego expected to find more land in this vicinity, and that he would willingly have gone in search of it. But the expedition had lost heart in the enterprise, and all that they desired was to return to Peru. A look-out was kept for several days, but not a sign of land was seen; and thereupon Gallego, stifling his own desire, thus records his lament in his journal: "As in the case of the archipelago of the islands, they did not allow me to explore further where I wished. And I hold for certain that if they had allowed me to go further, I should have brought them to a very prosperous and rich land, which will be discovered at G.o.d's pleasure by whomsoever He wills. We were not far from it now, and of its goodness I did not wish to speak, because they were all disheartened and desired to return to Peru."

[309] I have only indicated the general course in the return voyage, as a full translation would be tedious to the reader and would occupy too much of my s.p.a.ce.

[310] The bearing was to the southward of west, as the Isle of Jesus, according to Gallego's own observation, was in lat.i.tude 6.

Three days after, when they were in lat.i.tude 5 S., Gallego gives their distance and bearing from the Isle of Jesus as 45 leagues W.

by N.

Heading north-eastward with uncertain winds, they were obliged to steer S.E. by E. for six days as the wind shifted to the north-east. Finally, they headed to the northward again, and in the last day of August they pa.s.sed the 3rd parallel of south lat.i.tude. "Between 2 and 4 of south lat.i.tude," as Gallego writes, "we met abundant signs of land, such as palm-leaf matting, burnt wood, sticks, and _rosuras_,[311] which the sea derived from the land. From these signs we knew that we were near the land, although we did not discover it. We thought that it was New Guinea,[312] because it is not in a greater lat.i.tude than 4 south of the Equinoctial."

[311] Not translated.

[312] Gallego here adds: "Inigo Ortez de Retes discovered it (_i.e._, New Guinea) and no other: but Bernardo de la Torre did not see it: nor is there such a Cabo de Cruz (Cape of the Cross) as he says." I have placed this interesting reference to the discovery of New Guinea in a foot-note, as it is suddenly interposed in the narrative. In Note XI. of the Geographical Appendix, the reader may learn more, if so desirous.

New Guinea, however, lay some 1200 miles away; and the Spanish vessels were in the vicinity of the Gilbert Group, which lay probably about 300 miles to the eastward. On September 5th, with shifty and contrary winds, they crossed the Equator at about the 168th meridian of longitude east of Greenwich. The course pursued, in which it would appear the Chief-Pilot had not been consulted, was the subject of a protest made to the General. Thus writes Gallego: "I said to the pilot, Juan Henriquez, that we ought to pet.i.tion the General to direct our course to one place or another or to steer for one pole or the other, as we were expending our provisions and water in beating to windward. Since the General followed his own opinion and showed no desire to consult me, I made this request in the presence of Antonio de Cieza, Clerk, all of which appears more fully in the said pet.i.tion, which is in the possession of the said Clerk."

Steering to the north and subsequently to the N.E. by E., they reached the 4th parallel of north lat.i.tude on September 8th. "This day," writes the Chief-Pilot, "I signified to the 'Almiranta' that they should keep a good look-out from 6 up to 11, as we were heading for the land."

Altering their course to N.N.W., they reached the parallel of 6 on the 14th, the needle showing no declination to the north-east. On the 15th and 16th, they headed north-east, and on the 17th, steering north, they found themselves in 8. The surmise of Gallego proved correct. In this parallel, they discovered land.

"Two hours before dawn," as the Chief-Pilot writes, "we came upon the shoals and islands of San Bartolomeo, which trend north-west and south-east and are 15 leagues in length. The south-east extremity is in 8, and the north-west extremity lies in 8?. There are two lines of reefs with apparently channels between them. There seems to be another line about half-a-league distant. At the north-west, there are two islets, which lie one with the other east and west one league. The coast is steep-to; and we did not find any depth to anchor on the west side.

There were many houses and much people and _villos_ in these islands.

Between the islands, which number more than 20, a canoe was under sail, but it made for the sh.o.r.e. We launched the boat to go for water. They could only obtain a c.o.c.k of Castile, which they brought back with them.

The people fled, abandoning their houses. They came upon a chisel made from a nail, which appears to have belonged to some ships that had been there, and some pieces of rope. They did not find water, but the cocoa-nut palms were cut which showed how the inhabitants got their water.[313] These Indians drink "chicha,"[314] which is made from some fruits like pine-apples; and on this account there is an infinite number of flies. We beat to windward for three hours trying to find depth to anchor; but the water was a thousand fathoms (_estados_) deep. When the boat returned, we continued our voyage."

[313] This probably refers to cocoa-nut palms that had been cut for making "toddy," a practice to be found amongst the natives of the Line Islands at the present day.

[314] An Indian name for a drink prepared from maize.

Figueroa, in his scanty account, neither gives the name nor the lat.i.tude of this discovery, so that previous writers, who derived their information entirely from this source, were unable to identify these islands with those in the charts. However, with the materials afforded to me by the journal of Gallego, I have been able, after carefully following the track of the Spanish ships, to identify this discovery with the Musquillo Islands in the Ralick Chain of the Marshall Group.

Having followed their course northward from the vicinity of the Gilbert Group, to which I referred above (page 237), it was evident that they were about to pa.s.s through the Marshall Islands, and that if they should sight land, I had only to compare the description of Gallego with the present chart of this group, in order to identify this discovery with one of the atolls that there exist. (_Vide_ Note XII. of the Geographical Appendix.)

Continuing their course to the northward, they began to get short of water, and the people sickened and .....[315] On the 22nd of September, they attained the lat.i.tude of 11, and running due north along the meridian, they reached the lat.i.tude of 19? on October 2nd, when they discovered "a low islet enclosing the sea after the manner of a fishing-net, and surrounded by reefs." "We were hove-to all that night," ... writes Gallego, ... "believing that it was inhabited, and that we should be able to obtain water. But there were only sea-birds living on it; and its surface was sandy with some patches of bushes. It is probably two leagues in circuit: and is in lat.i.tude 19?

north of the Equinoctial. As it was the Day of San Francisco, we named it the Isle of San Francisco."

[315] "Murieron hartos." To avoid falling into a serious mistake, I have not translated this, more especially as Figueroa refers to no deaths on board during the voyage to Peru.

This island of San Francisco has not been identified by previous writers with any island in the present chart, as Figueroa supplied them with the lat.i.tude alone, but gave no reliable account from which they might be able to follow the previous track; nor, in fact, in the times of Burney and Krusenstern, who were the last to devote any considerable attention to the discoveries of Mendana, was this part of the Pacific sufficiently well known to enable even a confident surmise to be made. Commodore Wilkes, amongst others, has swept more than one phantom-island from this region. The track of the Spanish ships northward from the Marshall Group brought them, in fact, to a little coral-atoll, named Wake's Island in the present chart, and lying in 19 10' 54? N. lat. This is the Isle of San Francisco, which is but little altered in appearance in our own day.[316]

[316] _Vide_ Note XIII. of the Geographical Appendix for further information on this subject.

Keeping the same northerly course, they pa.s.sed the limit of the tropic of Cancer on October 7th; and in another week they had reached the lat.i.tude of 30. They now shaped their course north-east; and Gallego consulted the other pilots as to the position of the land, and as to the bearing of the Cabo de Fortunas[317] (Cape Fortune). "They told me in reply," ... . as the Chief Pilot informs us, ... . "that we were already in the vicinity of land, that this cape lay, in their opinion, 70 or 80 leagues to the north-by-west, that we were much to leeward of the land, that it was not practicable to reach the cape with this wind as the coast trended north-west and south-east, and that we could not live unless we fell in with the land."

[317] This cape is evidently referred to as on the Californian coast; I cannot identify it.

Could the Spaniards have known at this time what lay before them, the bravest heart amongst them would have quailed. Instead of being in the neighbourhood of the Californian coast whither they were steering, they had more than 3,000 miles of ocean to traverse and two long dreary months to struggle through, before they were fated to sight the land.

They were destined to pa.s.s through storms, the like of which Gallego had never witnessed during his 45 years' experience of the sea. The two ships were to be parted; and each was to pursue its solitary way in the fear that the missing ship had foundered. Such was the lot before them with sickness already amongst them, and with a failing store of water and provisions.

The Chief-Pilot thus continues his narrative--"On the 14th of this month (October), I continued to steer both ships in close company to the north-east. In the middle of the night there came a squall with a little rain. We shortened sail; and at that time the 'Almiranta' was to windward; but she allowed herself to fall to leeward for an hour, and when it dawned we could only see her from the top. Hoping to fall in with her, we carried only the fore-sail, and made no more sail all that day and night. We headed to the north-east until the second hour of the day; and because we did not see her, we took in all the sails. This was the 16th day of the month of October.

"Two hours after noon on Sunday the 17th, whilst we were yet hoping, we shortened sail because there was much wind from the south-east. We were driven before the gale; and as we were lying in the trough of the sea without any sails, the wind came upon us with all its fury from the north-east, such as I never beheld during the 45 years that I have been at sea, 30 of which I have served as pilot. Such boisterous weather, I have never witnessed, although I have seen storms enough. For a squall to take us when we were without sail, this was what frightened me. A sea struck us on the port side from the water-line to the middle hatch, which was battened down and caulked as I had ordered. We were deluged with water. Everything went its own way; and the soldiers and sailors were swimming about inside the ship, as they were trying to launch the boat, which was smashed and full of cables and water. The sailors were not able of themselves to do it; but G.o.d and His Blessed Mother willed that it should be done.[318] Then I ordered the sailors to unfurl a little of the sail; but before two gaskets were loosed, the fore-sail went into two thousand pieces, and only the bolt-ropes remained. For more than half-an-hour the ship was in great peril until the main-mast was cut away.[319] And soon I ordered them to make a sail of a _frecada_,[320] and of a piece of a bonnet (_boneta_); with this the ship was able to answer her helm ... ...[321] The weather began to clear. We were driven from our course more than 50 leagues, because the storm overtook us in lat.i.tude 32?, and when it began to clear we found ourselves in 30. When this weather came upon us we were 70 leagues south-east-by-south[322] from the Cabo de Fortunas; and when it began to clear we were 120 leagues, rather more than less.

[318] This reference to the launching of the boat, in order, I infer, to lighten the vessel, is ambiguously expressed. Figueroa, in his account, would appear to imply that the boat was merely relieved from its weight of ropes and water; but further on in his account, Gallego expressly refers to their being without a boat.

[319] Figueroa adds to this account. He says that the General gave the order to cut away the mainmast, and that it carried away a portion of the bulwarks.

[320] _Frazada_ in the account of Figueroa.

[321] "Para atras hechamos el camarote de popa a la mar."

[322] I cannot understand this bearing.

"We headed on our course with only the fore-sails, as we had no other sails, since the sailors had lost the bonnets overboard. On the 21st of October, the wind went round to the opposite quarter, and lasted until the 29th. Coursing north-east with much wind and sea, we sailed close-hauled on one tack or the other, because it was no longer possible to sail free as the sea would engulph us. The ship did not behave well in a beam sea, for soon she shipped seas on either side, and she lost as much way as she made. On the evening of the 29th of October, the wind went round to the south-east, and there was a heavy sea. The wind was so strong that we were unable to make any sails, as they were carried away.

All that night we lay in the trough of the sea with much wind and thunder and lightning, so that it seemed like the overwhelming of the world.[323] On the following morning I ordered them to clear away the sprit-sail and use it as a fore-sail, so that we might steer the ship.

Before we had run for a watch to the north-east, the wind went round to the south, and with such force that it carried away the sails and we were left without any sail. We employed _las frescadas_ (blankets?) for sails, and thus we went this day. Soon the wind lessened, and we hoisted the fore-sail and coursed north-east until the next day, which was the last day of October."