Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing exploration to the south with a refreshed crew. To crown all he
was himself gravely ill with an intestinal disorder - near to death,
if his own lugubrious account is to be believed. He bitterly blamed
the master, Alexander Simpson, for provoking the hostility of the is-
landers. He blamed his crank and now leaky ship. He blamed his
lack of officers. In fact, as he lay weak and sweating in his cabin, he
blamed everyone but himself:
My ill state of health; the little regard that had been given to my
orders, the incensing and falling out with these people . . . the loss of
so many of my best men . . . the great number of sick . . . the little like-
lihood there was of getting any refreshments for them, the want of of-
ficers . . . were dispiriting incidents that at once blasted and damped
all my hopes, from being again in a condition to pursue the voyage any
farther, and this at the time when I had flattered myself I was at the
point of doing something worthwhile towards the desired end.
30
He summoned the master and the fit lieutenant to his sickbed
and asked them what they thought it best to do. They advised him to
turn northwards in order to pick up the known route which would
bring them to the Marianas and thence, by using the monsoons, to
Batavia. This was the way Anson, Byron and (though Carteret did not
know it) Wallis had gone. It was the only known way and, therefore,
the only way which offered any safety.
But Carteret did not take it. The adventurous spark, it seems,
had not been entirely extinguished. By sailing on a heading west by
north he hoped to reach New Britain, of which Dampier had writ-
ten enthusiastically and, perhaps, on the way to make fresh discover-
ies. On 20 August he fell in with a cluster of islands which were part
of the main Solomon group, though, of course, he did not know it.
Still dispirited, he, too readily, decided not to linger. Landing looked
hazardous and when the
Swallow
came close inshore the inhabitants
