Voyage of H.M.S. Pandora Part 13

The Governor, Mynheer Vanion, relates a circ.u.mstance that happened to him while hunting. In crossing a shallow part of the river, his black boy was snapped up by an alligator; but the Governor immediately dismounted, rescued the boy out of his mouth, and slew him.

The natives of Timor are subject to a cutaneous disease during their infancy, something similar to the small pox, but of longer duration. It seldom terminates fatally, and only seizes them once in their lives.[165-1]

On the 6th of October, we embarked on board the Rembang Dutch Indiaman, taking with us the prisoners and convicts. Our crew became very sickly in pa.s.sing the Straits of Alice [Allas]. We had frequent calms and sultry weather until the 12th. In pa.s.sing the island of Flores, a most tremendous storm arose. In a few minutes every sail of the ship was shivered to pieces; the pumps all choaked, and useless; the leak gaining fast upon us; and she was driving down, with all the impetuosity imaginable, on a savage sh.o.r.e, about seven miles under our lee. This storm was attended with the most dreadful thunder and lightning we had ever experienced. The Dutch seamen were struck with horror, and went below; and the ship was preserved from destruction by the manly exertion of our English tars, whose souls seemed to catch redoubled ardour from the tempest's rage. Indeed it is only in these trying moments of distress, when the abyss of destruction is yawning to receive them, that the transcendent worth of a British seaman is most conspicuous. Nor would I wish, from what I have observed above, to throw any stigma on the Dutch, who I believe would fight the devil, should he appear in any other shape to them but that of thunder and lightning.

It may be remarked, that the Straits of Alice are not so dangerous as those of Sapy [Sapi], and are for many reasons preferable; but it is so intricate a navigation that a Dutchman bound from Timor to Batavia, after beating about for twelve months, found himself exactly where he first started from.

On the 21st, we got through Alice, and saw three prow-vessels, who are a very daring set of pirates that infest those seas. On the 22nd, saw the islands of Kangajunk and Ulk, and run through the channel that is between them. Next day we saw the island of Madura.

On the 26th, saw the island of Java; and on the 30th, anch.o.r.ed at Samarang.

Immediately on our coming to anchor, we were agreeably surprised to find our tender here which we had so long given up for lost. Never was social affection more eminently pourtrayed than in the meeting of these poor fellows; and from excess of joy, and a recital of their mutual sufferings, from pestilence, famine, and shipwreck, a flood of tears filled every man's breast.

They informed us, the night they parted company with us, the savages attacked them in a regular and powerful body in their canoes; and their never having seen a European ship before, nor being able to conceive any idea of fire-arms, made the conflict last longer than it otherwise would; for, seeing no missive weapon made use of, when their companions were killed, they did not suspect any thing to be the matter with them, as they tumbled into the water. Our seven-barrelled pieces made great havoc amongst them. One fellow had agility enough to spring over their boarding-netting, and was levelling a blow with his war-club at Mr.

Oliver, the commanding-officer, who had the good fortune to shoot him.

On not finding the ship next day, they gave up all further hopes of her, and steered for Anamooka, the rendezvous Captain Edwards had appointed.

Their distress for want of water, if possible, surpa.s.sed that of our own, and had so strong an effect on one of the young gentlemen, that the day following he became delirious, and continued so for some months after it.

They at last made the island of Tofoa, near to Anamooka, which they mistook for it. After trading with the natives for provisions and water, they made an attempt to take the vessel from them, which they always will to a small vessel, when alone; but they were soon overpowered with the fire arms. They were, however, obliged to be much on their guard afterwards, at those islands which were inhabited.

After much diversity of distress, and similar encounters, they at last made the reef that runs between New Guinea and New Holland, where the _Pandora_ met her unhappy fate; and after traversing from sh.o.r.e to sh.o.r.e, without finding an opening, this intrepid young seaman boldly gave it the stem, and beat over the reef. The alternative was dreadful, as famine presented them on the one hand, and shipwreck on the other. Soon after they had pa.s.sed Endeavour Straits, they fell in with a small Dutch vessel, who shewed them every tenderness that the nature of their distress required.

They were soon landed at a small Dutch settlement; but the governor having a description of the _Bounty's_ pirates from our court, and their vessel being built of foreign timber, served to confirm them in their suspicions; and as no officer in the British navy bears a commission or warrant under the rank of lieutenant, where, by seal of office, their person or quality may be identified, they had only their bare _ipse dixit_ to depend on. They, however, behaved to them with great precaution and humanity. Although they kept a strict guard over them, nothing was withheld to render their situation agreeable; and they were sent, under a proper escort, to this place.

This settlement is reckoned next to Batavia, and is so lucrative, that the governor is changed every five years. The present governor's name is Overstraaten, a gentleman of splendid taste and unbounded hospitality, who lives in a princely style; and to the _otium dignitate_ of Asiatic luxury, has the happiness to join an honest hearty Dutch welcome.

A regiment of the Duke of Wirtemburg is doing duty here, amongst whom were several men of rank and fashion, who shewed us much civility and politeness.

The town is regular and beautiful, and the houses are built in a style of architecture, which has given loose to the most sportive fancy. Each street is terminated with some public building, such as a great marine school, for the education of young officers and seamen; an hospital for decayed officers in the Company's service; churches; the Governor's palace, &c. &c. Here the _utile dulce_ has not been neglected, and those objects of national importance are placed in a proper point of view, as the just pride and ornament of a great commercial people.

Such is the effect of early prejudices, that, under the muzle of the sun, a Dutchman cannot exist without snuffing the putrid exhalations from stagnant water, to which they have been accustomed from their infancy.

They are intersecting it so fast with ca.n.a.ls, that in a year or two this beautiful town will be completely dammed.

In a few days, we arrived at Batavia, the emporeum of the Dutch in the East; and our first care was employed in sending to the hospital the sickly remains of our unfortunate crew. Some dead bodies floating down the ca.n.a.l struck our boat, which had a very disagreeable effect on the minds of our brave fellows, whose nerves were reduced to a very weak state from sickness. This was a _coup de grace_ to a sick man on his _premier entree_ into this painted sepulchre, this golgotha of Europe, which buries the whole settlement every five years.

It is not the climate I am inveighing against; it is the Gothic, diabolical ideas of the people I indite.

Were they only Dutchmen who supplied the ravenous maw of death, it would be impertinence in me to make any comment on it; but when the whole globe lends its aid to supply this destructive settlement, and its baneful effects arising more from the letch a Dutchman has for stagnant mud than from climate, I hope the indulgent reader will pardon my spleen, when I tell them professionally that all the mortality of that place originates from marsh effluvia, arising from their stagnant ca.n.a.ls and pleasure-grounds.

The Chinese are here the Jews of the East, and as soon as they make their fortune, they go home. Let the amateurs of the Republican system read and learn. Be not surprised when it is observed, that these little great men, those vile hawkers of spice and nutmegs, exact a submission that the most absolute and tyrannical monarch who ever swayed a sceptre would be ashamed of. The compa.s.s of my work will not allow me to be particular; but I must instance one among many others. When an edilleer, or one of the supreme council, meets a carriage, the gentleman who meets him must alight, and make him a perfect bow in spirit; not one of Bunburry's long bows, but that bow which carries humility and submission in it, that sort of bow which every vertebrae in an English back is anchylosed against.

In our pa.s.sage from this to the Cape, before we left Java, one of the convicts had jumped over board in the night, and swam to the Dutch a.r.s.enal at Honroost. In pa.s.sing Bantan, we viewed the relics of Lord Cathcart. We met nothing particular in pa.s.sing the island of Sumatra, but experienced great death and sickness in going through the Straits of Sunda; and after a tedious pa.s.sage, arrived at the Cape of Good Hope.

Here we met with many civilities from Colonel Gordon; a gentleman no less eminent for his private virtues than his extraordinary military and literary accomplishments. From his labours, all the host of voyagers and historians of that part of the globe have been purloining; but it is to be hoped the world will, at some future period, be favoured with his works unmutilated.

The town is gay, and from length of habit, the inhabitants partake much of the manners of Bath; and, for a short season, behave with the utmost attention and tenderness. Their dress and customs are more characteristic of the English than Dutch. An uncommon rage for building has lately prevailed; and although they cannot boast of that chast.i.ty of style in which Samarang is built it is gaudy, and calculated to please the generality of observers.

Allow me to mention the singular manner in which the monkeys make depredations on the gardens here. They place a proper piquet, or advanced guard, as sentinels, when a party is drawn up in a line, who hand the fruit from one to another; and when the alarm is given by the piquet-guard, they all take flight, making sure that by that time the booty is conveyed to a considerable distance. But should the piquet be negligent in their duty, and suffer the main body to be surprised, the delinquents are severely punished.

The same ill-fated rage for ca.n.a.lling-murder prevails here. They have even contrived to carry ca.n.a.ls to the top of a mountain. The boors, or country-farmers, are a species of the human race, so gigantic and superior to the rest of mankind, in point of size and const.i.tution, that they may be called nondescripts.

Their hospital, as to scite, surpa.s.ses any in the world. It may be observed, however, that the architect, by the smallness of the windows, which only serve to exclude the light and air, seems to have studied, with much ingenuity, to render it a cadaverous stinking prison.

After being refreshed at the Cape, we pa.s.sed St. Helena, the island of Ascension, and arrived at Holland; and had the happiness, through the interposition of divine Providence, to be again landed on our native sh.o.r.e.

The Lat.i.tudes and Longitudes of the different places touched at or discovered by his Majesty's ship _Pandora_, taken with the greatest accuracy from the centre of the islands.

FINIS.

FOOTNOTES:

[165-1] This seems to be the earliest description of Yaws (_Framboesia_) in these islands. Originating in Africa this contagious disease is believed to have been disseminated by the slave trade. The Dutch or Portuguese traders carried it from Madagascar and East Africa to Ceylon, where it still bears the name of _Parangi Lede_, or Foreigners' Evil.

Though Hamilton did not observe it in the South Sea Islands the disease was probably there, for Mariner, who was in Tonga in 1810, described it as a well-established disease under the name of _Tona_.