458 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



sought, in the distant horizon, the favored land of which he had 

 spoken. 



The vessels kept on steadily to the westward, passing through 

 Navigator's Islands and the group which Quiros. had named 

 Espiritu Santo. To the latter Bougainville gave the name of 

 Grandes Cyclades, — one, however, not destined to be long re- 

 tained. He was at this time informed that Bar£, the servant of 

 M. de Commergon, the botanist of the Etoile, was a woman. 

 He went on board the store-ship to make investigations. He 

 thought the report incredible, as Bare' was already an expert 

 botanist, and had acquired the name, during his excursions with 

 his master among the snows of Magellan's Strait, — where he 

 carried provisions, fire-arms, and bundles of plants, — of being his 

 beast of burden. The first suspicion of him occurred at Tahiti, 

 where the natives, with the keen intuition of savages, cried out 

 in their dialect, "It is a woman !" and insisted on paying her 

 the attentions due to her sex. When Bougainville went on 

 board the Etoile, Bare, bathed in tears, admitted that she was a 

 woman. She said she was an orphan, had served before in men's 

 clothes, and that the idea of a voyage around the world had 

 inflamed her curiosity. Bougainville does her the justice to 

 state that she always behaved on board with the most scrupulous 

 modesty. She was not handsome, and was twenty-seven years of 

 age. She was the first woman that ever circumnavigated the globe. 



It was not long before the provisions began to give out, and 

 the crew were put upon half rations. The commander was soon 

 obliged to forbid the eating of old leather, as it was becoming as 

 scarce as biscuit and was quite as necessary. The butcher shed 

 tears upon sacrificing a favorite goat, and Bougainville turned 

 away his head as that sanguinary personage, with equally cruel 

 intent, whistled to a young Patagonian dog. Breakers, reefs, 

 and channels, where the tide ran fast and dangerously, indicated 

 the presence of land, to which was given the name of Louisiade. 

 This is a group of islands inhabited by Papuans. 



