Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Town Carteret, after twenty-seven and a half months at sea, at last,
found a port of call to his liking:
Here we breathed a good air, had the wholesome food and went
freely about in the country, which is extremely pleasant, and I began
to think myself already in Europe.
37
Six days into the new year, 1769,
Swallow
set out on the last lap
of her ill-fortuned voyage. She made calls at the uninhabited islands
of St Helena and Ascension. At the latter the men feasted on turtles.
They caught eighteen of these large creatures by the simple expedi-
ent of waylaying the females at night, when they came ashore to lay
their eggs, and turning them on their backs. Ascension was also an
island 'post office'. Captains calling there had developed the habit of
leaving messages in bottles recording their visit. It was by complying
with this habit that Carteret revealed his whereabouts to a famous
rival.
Three days after
Swallow's
departure on 1 February, Louis An-
toine de Bougainville called at Ascension. This first French circum-
navigator who had haunted Byron in Magellan's Strait in 1765 had
followed Wallis and Carteret from Europe and gradually gained on
them. He had called at the Cape after the Englishman and left quickly
in the hope of overtaking him. Arriving at Ascension on 4 February,
he discovered, to his delight, that he had already gained six days on
him in the southern Atlantic. Bougainville now lost no time in press-
ing his pursuit and, on 19 February, he came up with the
Swallow.
He
immediately sent one of his officers in a boat to enquire if the English
captain needed any assistance. Carteret politely declined and ques-
tioned his visitor about the identity of his own ship. The young man,
who, much to Carteret's disgust, presented himself dressed only in
a waistcoat and trousers, told a cock and bull story about his ship
being in the French East India Company's service and now return-
