698 
THE VOYAGE OE H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 
to England, via Batavia, in the hired transport “ Waaksamheyd.” Starting from Port 
Jackson at the end of March 1791, he passed through St. George’s Channel (separating 
New Britain from New Ireland) in May, and after stopping a short time at Port Hunter, 
Duke of York Island, made the Admiralty Islands on the 31st of that month, and sailed 
along their northern coasts to the westward. Five large canoes came off to the 
“ Waaksamheyd,” with eleven natives in each canoe, who, although anxious to barter, 
refused to come alongside the ship. One of them made various motions for shaving by 
holding up something in his hand, with which he frequently scraped his cheek and chin, 
Causing Captain Hunter to infer that they had been visited by La Perouse on his way 
northward from Botany Bay, in which port Captain Hunter met the French Discovery 
ships, “La Boussole ” and “Astrolabe,” in March 1788. 1 
Early in the year 1791 the Parisian Society of Natural History called the attention 
of the Constituent Assembly to the fact that no information of La Perouse had been 
received for nearly three years. The hope of recovering at least some wreck of this 
expedition induced the Assembly to despatch two vessels, the “Recherche” and “Esperance,” 
under the command of Bruny D’Entrecasteaux, to search for intelligence of La Perouse. 
Arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in January 1792, D’Entrecasteaux received an 
exaggerated account of the report of Captain Hunter, one statement of which went so 
far as to say that the crew of the “Waaksamheyd” had distinguished, in the Admiralty 
Island canoes, Europeans clothed in the uniform of the French Marine, who displayed 
a white flag as a signal for the English to approach. 
This information, evidently incorrect from Captain Hunter’s own narrative, induced 
D’Entrecasteaux to visit the Admiralty group, where he arrived at the end of July 1792. 
He first proceeded to Jesu Maria Island, which is described as being surrounded by a 
reef and with apparently but few inhabitants. From Jesu Maria Island he proceeded 
to Yandola, where he communicated with the natives, but did not land owing to the 
surf which breaks on the reef surrounding the island. Thence he proceeded towards the 
Negros Islands on the northeast coast of the main Admiralty Island, and sailing along 
the north coast, communicated with the natives and made the first running survey 
of the group, but gained no intelligence of La Perouse, and finally left the islands on the 
1st August, without landing on any of them. 
In 1843 the islands were visited by the American clipper “Margaret Oakly,” whose 
crew landed at many points on the coast of the main island, which, according to 
Jacobs’ account, was called “ Marso ” by the natives ; they also visited many of the small 
outlying islands. Jacobs’ account 2 is full of interesting details, but evidently not entirely 
trustworthy ; such portions of it as are important will be referred to in the sequel. 
From 1843 there is no published account of the visit of any vessel to the Admiralty 
1 Hunter’s Journals. 
2 Scenes, Incidents, and Adventures in the Pacific Ocean, &c., by J. T. Jacobs, pp. 164-182, New York, 1844. 
