bowman's islands discoveked. 



41S 



possible to contend with at once. In the morning the Africa 

 was found to be jammed between two rocks, from whence she 

 could not be disengaged. She was therefore abandoned. The 

 island upon which she was lost was named Pernicious Island. 

 Five men deserted here, and were left behind. Eight leagues 

 from Pernicious, an island, discovered at daybreak, was named 

 Aurora; and another, seen at sunset, was called Vesper. At 

 another, which they named the Island of Recreation, a party 

 sent on shore for salad and scurvy-grass for the sick had so 

 desperate an encounter with the natives, that, when a second 

 landing was proposed, not a man could be prevailed upon to 

 make the dangerous attempt. 



Roggewein was now convinced that no Terra Incognita was 

 to be discovered in the latitude he had kept, and therefore re- 

 solved, in accordance with his instructions, to return home by 

 way of the East Indies. His crews were so reduced that a 

 further loss of twenty men would compel him to abandon one 

 of his remaining vessels. The officers regretted this decision ; 

 for they were anxious to visit the lands named Solomon's Islands 

 by Mendana on account of their supposed wealth; but they 

 were now compelled to return by way of New Britain, the Mo- 

 luccas, and the East Indies. 



Not far from Recreation Island, a group was discovered by 

 the captain of the Tienhoven, and was named, from him, Bow- 

 man's Islands. The natives came off to the ships with fish, 

 cocoanuts, and plantains. They were generally white, except 

 that some were bronzed by the heat of the sun. They appeared 

 gentle and humane: their bodies were not painted, and were 

 clothed from the waist downward with fringes of woven silk. 

 Around their necks they wore strings of odoriferous flowers. 

 Roggewein describes them as altogether the most civilized and 

 honest nation he had seen in the South Sea: — "Charmed with 

 our arrival, they received us as divinities, and testified afterwards 

 great regret when they perceived we were preparing to depart : 



