374 



THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



by beating against reigning winds. We had only bread 



for two months, and pulse for forty days ; the salt meat 



was in great quantities, but it was noxious, and we preferred 



Bougainville the rats. Thus it was by all means time to go to the North- 



Ncirth ward, and even to deviate a little to the Eastward of our 



course." 



He sailed three days, and then " a delicious smell 

 announced the vicinity of the land." Bougainville had 

 " seen but few lands which bore a finer aspect ; a low 

 ground, divided into plains and groves, lay along the sea- 

 shore, and from thence rose like an amphitheatre to the 

 mountains whose summits were lost in clouds." He 

 was on the South side of New Guinea near the Eastern 

 end, not far away from the point at which Torres in his 

 voyage from Espiritu Santo had made land. Torres, 

 greatly daring, had turned Westward, and had found 

 his Strait. But Bougainville had read no account of 

 Torres' route, and, though he thought it " probable " 

 that a strait existed, he dared not face the risk. Had he, 

 like Cook, two years later, had on board Dalrymple's 

 Chart, showing the track of Torres, it seems likely enough 

 he would have turned Westward, and that a French 

 and not an English captain would have been second to 

 thread the Strait. 



Not daring to sail West, Bougainville had to sail East, 

 and " to endeavour to get out of this gulf as soonaspossible." 

 He found himself in a position of extreme danger, caught 

 in a huge gulf, bristling with shoals and reefs and islets, 

 while a South-Eastern swell was heaving him towards 

 the land. During a dreadful fortnight, he fought to keep 

 the ship off land, and gradually groped a way Eastward. 

 For days the fog was so thick that the two ships were 

 obliged to fire guns in order to keep company. " In 

 the dark, in the midst of a sea strewn with shoals, we 

 were obliged to shut our eyes to all signs of danger." 

 Provisions were failing. The allowance of bread and pulse 

 was lessened. The pet dog and the pet goat were eaten, 

 and it was found necessary for medical reasons to forbid 

 the eating of old leather. 



