From Saint George's Channel to Mindanao
Index
Search
Contact us
Having disengaged ourselves from this fierce and unfriendly people, we pursued our course along the other islands, which are between twenty and thirty in number, and of considerable extent; one in particular would alone make a large kingdom. I called them the ADMIRALTY ISLANDS, and should have been glad to have examined them, if my ship had been in a better condition, and I had been provided with such articles as are proper for an Indian trade, especially as their appearance is very inviting: they are clothed with the most beautiful verdure; the woods are lofty and luxuriant, interspersed with spots that have been cleared for plantations, groves of cocoa-nut trees, and houses of the natives, who seem to be very numerous. Nothing would be more easy than to establish an amicable intercourse with them, as they would soon be sensible that our superiority would render conflict vain, and traffic advantageous. I judge the middle of the largest to lie in latitude 2° 1° S., longitude 146° 4° E. and at the distance of five and thirty leagues from Queen Charlotte's Foreland in New Hanover, in the direction of W. ½ N. On the south side of this island, there is a small one, which rises conically in a high peak. The latitude of this peak is 2° 2° S. and it lies five degrees and an half westward of Cape Saint George in New Ireland. As we ran along the south side of the large island, we found it to be eighteen leagues long, in the direction of east and west; how far it runs to the northward, I do not know, but by its appearance there is reason to suppose a very considerable distance. I think it probable, in the highest degree, that these islands produce many valuable articles of trade, particularly spices, especially as they lie in the same climate and latitude as the Malaccas, and as I found the nutmeg-tree in a soil comparatively rocky and barren upon the coast of New Ireland.
 |
Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 605 - 606, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/605.html