Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
he have for deliberately declining to seek the coast of
Terra Austral-
is
and refusing to sail through the Torres Strait, separating Australia
from New Guinea? The answer lies in his secret instructions. His im-
mediate objective was the Moluccas. He had to be sure of reaching
the Spice Islands in order to reconnoitre the possibilities for French
trade and to collect his sample plants. His cargo and his news were
urgently required at IÎle de France, so he could not afford to take up
more time in speculative forays around the coasts of the southern
continent. But he had another problem: if he did not make haste to
reach the Indies he would miss the monsoons which were to carry
him across the Indian Ocean and this would delay by several months
his arrival at IÎle de France. Bougainville's options had thus been re-
duced to one: he had to make for the Moluccas by the only known
route. This meant turning eastwards in order to circle the Louisi-
ades. This proved much more difficult than he had hoped. Day after
day the lookouts scanned the reefs and islands on their port beam
for some break that would enable the ships to get back on course.
But, as Bougainville and his men travelled farther and farther away
from their objective, there seemed no end to the shoals and the
breakers. It was as though they had become embayed in a vast gulf
from which there was no escape.
For over two weeks they sailed steadily eastwards, the fear of
wandering among these hostile coral outcrops until hunger and dis-
ease picked them off, one by one, growing stronger by the hour. So
it is easy enough to imagine the crews' relief when, on 25 June, they
sighted the easternmost point of the chain and thankfully named it
'Cape Deliverance'.
A northerly course brought the Frenchmen to New Ireland
where they at last found a safe anchorage. By a strange chance it
was precisely the same bay, English Cove, in which Carteret and his
men had sheltered. A reconnaissance party discovered nails, pieces
of tent ropes and the metal plate which Carteret had fixed to a tree.
