Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the crew once more came up to strength. She finally reached the
Downs on 18 May 1768 after a circumnavigation of one year and
nine months.
When Wallis set foot on English soil Carteret was still in
Celebes, having endured an eight-month Pacific crossing and be-
come embroiled in an angry dispute with Dutch colonial officials.
The points of interest about the Swallow's laboured passage around
the world concern the character of Carteret and his contribution to
the exploration of the random scattering of Pacific islands.
He was already a bitter man when he left the Patagonian coast.
He believed himself to be the victim of a conspiracy which had con-
demned him to cross the wide ocean with an unsuitable ship and
an inadequate crew. He recorded in his journal that for some days
his men fully expected to come upon the Dolphin searching for her
consort but that he laboured under no such delusion. Yet, angry and
frustrated though Carteret was, he never once thought of turning
back. He was determined to show the Admiralty and Wallis and any-
one else who despised the Swallow and her mariners that they could
accomplish what supposedly 'better' ships and men could not. There
was more of the committed explorer in Carteret than in either Byron
or Wallis. Yet even he was to be frustrated by the prevailing winds
of the South Sea and the need to seek out supplies of fresh food and
water.
His first disappointment came at Juan Fernandez. He made
straight for this delectable island from Cape Pilar with the intention
of making a leisurely stay there to prepare his ship and crew for the
Pacific crossing. For three weeks the little Swallow battled her way
towards this haven through hideous seas which gave her a chance to
reveal her more impressive qualities.
. . . about 5 o'clock, the wind all of a sudden shifted from NW, to
SW, and for the space of about an hour, it blew, I think stronger than
 
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