Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
made hostile gestures. So Carteret sailed on, having failed to write
his name in the annals of exploration as the man who rediscovered
the fabled and long-lost Solomon Islands. He now continued parallel
to but out of sight of the archipelago and, on 28 August, he reached
the large islands of New Britain and New Ireland.
At last the travellers found a cove where they could drop anchor
in peace and safety, carry their sick ashore and gather food, water
and timber. New Ireland was not the brimming, natural larder
Dampier had represented it to be but the men were able to gather
coconuts in abundance. This they did by chopping trees down rather
than by the more energetic process of climbing the tall, slender
palms. Carteret, like Byron, set great store by the produce of the
coconut palm - not only its fruit but also its leafy crown, which he
called 'cabbage':
The milk, or rather water, of these nuts is an excellent and per-
haps the best anti-scorbutic that is in the world. The cabbage part of
this tree ... is a white, juicy crispy substance, has much of the taste,
when eaten raw of our chestnuts, but when boiled eats much like a
good parsnip. But you must cut down a tree for each cabbage which
makes a great destruction of these useful trees.
31
Frugal though the hospitality of this place was, Carteret's spirits
revived. He named it 'English Cove' and set up a plaque claiming New
Ireland and New Britain for King George.
When the
Swallow
weighed anchor, on 9 September 1767, it
ended a remarkable phase in the exploration of Oceania. The, often
unsung, achievements of Anson, Byron, Wallis and Carteret, were
considerable. They did not clear up the mystery of the great south-
ern continent. Their routes were dominated by prevailing winds and
the search for antiscorbutics. There was still much exploration to be
done and not before the end of the century would mariners and geo-
