ACCOUNT OF MONS. DE BOUGAINVILLE’s VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD. PERFORMED BY ORDER OF THE FRENCH KING, In the years 1766, 1767, 1768, 1769. (continued 4)

On the morning of the 17th, while the ships were under sail, the Indians came off in great numbers, bringing fruit, poultry, and eggs, which they sold so reasonably, that even the common seamen could possess themselves of those refreshments, in very great abundance, so that both the ships had the appearance of large poulterers shops, and capital fruiterers warehouses on a market day.

This morning five of the Orencaies, or Chiefs of Button, came off in a boat of the European form, with Dutch colours hoisted at its poop. These people were dressed in jackets and long breeches, with turbans, and each of them had a silver-headed cane, with the Company’s marks on it. They gave Mons. Bougainville a Roe-buck, and received in return, each a quantity of silk stuffs. They paid many compliments to the French nation, freely drinking the health of his most Christian Majesty, and the king of Button, so freely, indeed, that they were, at length, obliged to be helped down the ship’s side into their boats.

The Commodore enquired of the Orencaies, whether any spices grew on the island of Button; to which they replied in the negative, and were easily credited, on account of the weakness of the Dutch settlement, which is nothing more than a few huts, built of the Bamboo cane, and enclosed with pallisadoes. The whole guard, on the part of the company, consists only of a Serjeant and three men. The coast opposite Button is enclosed, cultivated, and well-peopled; nor is the island itself less populous, or less fruitful.

In the morning the Indian pilot visited the Commodore, and informed him, that the south-east wind would blow freshest exactly at noon. This proved to be strictly true, and was a circumstance so well known to the natives, that all the boats which had surrounded the ship retired before the sun had gained his meridian altitude.

Mons. Bougainville, taking advantage of the pilot’s advice, got out to sea with a fair wind, steering for the island of Saleyor, which he discovered on the 18th.⁠—On this island the Dutch have a small settlement, the principal Resident at which is the book-keeper. This day at noon three islands were discovered, which were called North Island, South Island, and Isle of Passage; which last was so denominated from the ships passing near it, for the advantage of a safe navigation.

By day-light on the 19th they were within about a league of the coast of Celebes, which, in this part is described as one of the finest countries in the world. Immense herds of cattle graze on the plains, which are adorned with groves, while the coast is one continued plantation of the cocoa-nut tree. The plains are in most places cultivated and covered with houses, while the mountains behind them add dignity and ornament to the whole picture.

On this day Mons. Bougainville chased a Malayan boat, in the hope of obtaining a pilot acquainted with the coast; but she fled at his approach, nor even brought to, after he had fired several guns at her. He conjectures, that the Boudeuse was mistaken for a Dutch ship, and observes, that the generality of people on this coast are pirates, who are always made slaves of when they are taken by the Dutch.

The ships having, during the evening, steered between an island named Tanakeka, and three smaller isles, orders were given at midnight to carry all the sail possible, in order to come within sight of the isles of Alambai.

At midnight, between the 21st and 22d, a boat was observed advancing towards the ships; but, though guns were repeatedly fired she bore off, in the apprehension, as conjectured, that they were Dutch vessels.⁠—Mons. Bougainville’s observation is, that “these people are more afraid of the Dutch, than of the firing of guns.”⁠—And, indeed, this observation seems to be verified by another boat being equally studious to avoid them, a few hours afterwards.

In the afternoon of the 22d the north coast of Madura was seen from the mast-head, and a number of fishing boats were observed, some at anchor, and some employed in their business.⁠—On the following morning four ships were seen, two of which hoisted Dutch colours, and one of them was spoke with by the Boudeuse, which proved to be a snow from Malacca, bound for Japara.

Mons. Bougainville now coasted the land of Java, the shore of which is level, but the interior country abounds in lofty mountains.

On the morning of the 26th the coast of Java appeared with the rising sun. In the afternoon the Commodore spoke with a Dutchman, who commanded a boat bound for the isles of Amboina and Ternate, who said that, according to his reckoning, he was then twenty-six leagues from Batavia.

Having come to an anchor for the night, the ships sailed early in the morning of the 27th, and, on the following night, came to an anchor, in the fear of having even past the port of Batavia; but having sight of the church of that town in the morning, they sailed into, and soon anchored in the road, happy to have, after so many toils, difficulties and dangers, reached a spot which they conceived would soon put a period to all their misfortunes, by ensuring them a safe arrival in Europe.

Mons. Bougainville now proceeds to recite such incidents as happened during the time he was at Batavia, and gives some particulars respecting the Molucca islands.

We scarce know how to treat this subject with the delicacy with which it ought to be touched, as the readers of these volumes are already apprized of almost every interesting particular respecting Batavia; but we shall, with the utmost diligence, select such circumstances as our French historian has recorded, which have been either unknown to, or not treated of by the English navigators.

Mons. Bougainville, for reasons which would operate on every prudent Commander, resolved to make his stay at Batavia as short as possible; but the want of biscuit, a sufficient quantity of which was not baked, compelled him to stay longer than he had intended.

A Dutch officer came on board with a written paper, of which our Frenchman understood not a word: but the Cockswain having enquired who their visitants were, demanded a certificate, written and signed by the commanding officer. Mons. Bougainville, who had sent an officer on shore to wait on the Governor, declined to give any answer till his return. This Officer came back late in the evening with an account, that his Excellency was at his country-house, but that he had been with the Shebander, who promised to introduce the Commodore to the Dutch General, on the following day.

The heat of this climate requires, that visits should be made early in the morning: Mons. Bougainville therefore set out soon after day-break, and, after waiting on the Shebander, was by him conducted to the Governor General, who was then at one of his country residences about nine miles from the town.

The behaviour of this Chief of an important district was equally sincere and obliging: he approved of the conduct of the Resident at Boero, in his treatment of the French during the hour of their distress. He gave permission for the sick to be lodged in the hospital, and issued the proper orders for their being received. The furnishing of the necessary supplies was left to the Shebander, and when all matters of business were ended, the Governor asked the Commodore if he would salute the citadel. To this it was answered in the affirmative, on the condition that the salute should be properly returned. These preliminaries being adjusted, Mons. Bougainville went on board his ship, saluted with fifteen guns, and was complimented with the same number.

Considering the matter seriously, is not all this most egregious nonsense?⁠—A Frenchman agrees to waste a certain quantity of his Master’s powder, provided a Dutchman will blow into the air, an equal quantity of the powder of their High Mightinesses, the States General!

The sick people were now sent to the hospital, twenty-eight in number, most of whom were troubled with the bloody flux, and the rest with the scurvy.

The officers having taken lodgings in the town, fixed a day for paying a visit of ceremony to the Governor, at his country-seat, called Jacatra; after which they visited, in form, an officer called Schout-by-Nacht, or Rear Admiral, who is a member of the Regency, and has a vote in every matter respecting maritime affairs. This gentleman lives with a degree of splendor that would not disgrace a Prince.

Mons. Bougainville mentions the theatre of Batavia, as an elegant building; but of the performances he was not qualified to judge, from a total ignorance of the language. His curiosity impelled him to take a view of the Chinese comedies, but of these, also, he could form no judgment but from sight. Exclusive of the exhibitions on the regular theatres, he says, that a kind of pantomine is daily performed, on scaffolds erected in the Chinese quarter of the city. It is a singularity of the Chinese comedy, that the characters of men are represented by women; nor is it unfrequent to see the actors entertain the spectators with a boxing-match.

Our ingenious voyager represents the neighbourhood of Batavia as elegant beyond description.⁠—The neatness is all Dutch; the magnificence truly Parisian.⁠—A clergyman of Batavia, Mr. Mohr, distinguished for his immense riches, and his extensive knowledge, has erected, in the garden of one of his country-houses, one of the most superb observatories in the world, and has furnished it with great variety of instruments of the construction of European artists. Our author observes, that he “is doubtless the richest of all the children of Urania.”

The water of Batavia is of so bad a quality, that the people of fortune import Seltzer water from Holland, for their common drinking, at a most enormous expence. The houses of this city are built only one story high, on account of the frequent earthquakes, which would be of pernicious consequence to buildings of a lofty construction.

The riches of the Batavians are marked by the magnificent taste in which their houses are furnished; yet is the city said to be much inferior to what it was some years ago; and it is certain, that the rent of houses is not half as much as it was: yet will this place always be rich, through the refined policy of the Dutch, which makes it difficult for any man, after he has amassed a fortune, to transmit it to Europe: for any money intended to be sent to Holland, must pass through the hands of the Company, who charge eight per cent. for the care of sending it to Europe; exclusive of which, the current-money of Batavia would sustain a loss of no less than twenty-eight per cent. even if it could be smuggled out of the country.

The distinction of rank is observed in the strictest degree at Batavia. What the French call the Etiquette is never dispensed with. The gradation of rank is as follows, viz. the high Regency, the Court of Justice, the Ecclesiastics, the Company’s servants, the sea officers, and those of the military.

There is no appeal from the decisions of the Court of Justice. This court, about twenty years since, sentenced to death the Governor of Ceylon, who had been convicted of most infamous oppressions in his government; and he was executed opposite the citadel at Batavia.

If any of the respective sovereigns of the island of Java offend against the established Dutch policy, they are put to death in the most inhuman manner. On these melancholy occasions, the unhappy sufferers are dressed in white drawers, and are never beheaded, from a conviction prevalent among them, that appearing in any other dress, or visiting the other world without their heads, would be productive of the most fatal consequences: nor do the Dutch dare to controvert these opinions, as the immediate consequence of such a procedure on their part would be a revolt of that of the Javanese.

The Dutch Company have an exclusive right to a large part of the island of Java.⁠—The island of Madura did formerly belong to them, but the Chief of it revolted from their authority, and the son of this revolting king is at present the Governor of that very island, of which his father had been the Sovereign.

The Dutch, equally deep in every stroke of their politics, have seized the province of Balimburan, in consequence of the Sovereign of that district having revolted from their authority. It is asserted, that the English erected him a fort, and supplied him with arms and ammunition to combat that slavery, which he thought the more an indignity, because it was impelled by the mercantile world. After a war of two years, and after repeated battles, in the last of which the Javanese Prince and his family were made prisoners, the Dutch became final conquerors, and the routed Sovereign being lodged in the citadel of Batavia, soon fell a sacrifice to the grief that preyed on his mind. When Mons. Bougainville arrived at Batavia, it was in agitation to send the son and the other branches of this unhappy family to the Cape of Good Hope, in order that they might spend the remains of a wretched existence on the island of Roben. The several Chiefs of the different districts of the island of Java are surrounded with Dutch guards, so that they are Kings only in name. From these, however, the Dutch receive arrac, rice, sugar, coffee and tin; in return for which they supply opium, the sale of which is very profitable, from the great quantities consumed by the Javanese.

Our Commodore now proceeds to a description of the commerce of Batavia, and a recital of many particulars respecting the Molucca islands; but these particulars, or others so exceedingly resembling them, being recorded in many volumes of voyages, we shall pass them over in search of something really new, and respecting which our author appears to have been well informed.

Before the crews of the Boudeuse and Etoile had been ten days at Batavia, the diseases common to that climate began to attack them with all their fury. From a vigorous state of health the people were, in a few days, reduced to the brink of the grave; nor could the Commodore’s utmost diligence enable him to transact his affairs with a proper degree of dispatch, as the illness of the Shebander himself prevented the acceleration of his business.

Every officer on board the Boudeuse began to feel the fatal effects of the climate; and, at length, Aotourou felt the direful influence of this pestiferous clime; and it is supposed, that nothing but the readiness with which he took the prescriptions offered him, could have saved him from the most fatal consequences of the contagion. For a long time after he left Batavia, he distinguished it by the name of Enoua Matè, the land which kills.

Mons. Bougainville now proceeds to a description of his leaving Batavia, his touching at the isle of France, and his return to his native country, of which we shall have occasion to say but little, as the run from Batavia to Europe is universally well known, and has been previously described in the course of these volumes.

The ships sailed on the 16th of October, 1768, and cleared the streights of Sunda on the 19th in the afternoon. By this time the crew were all perfectly recovered of the scurvy, but a few of them remained ill of the bloody-flux. On the 20th the ships were in sight of the isle of France, and on the 8th of November, the Boudeuse anchored in the port of that island; the Etoile, which had been unavoidably left behind, anchoring in the same port on the following day.

At this place the ships were repaired, and the Commodore left behind him on the island several persons, who desired to add to the numbers already in that colony.

The Commodore expresses his happiness that he was enabled, after so tedious a voyage, to enrich this colony with inhabitants and necessaries; but he laments in the most pathetic terms the death of the Chevalier du Bouchage, an Ensign on board the King’s ship, whose abilities as an officer could be surpassed only by his virtues and accomplishments as a man.

Our author speaks, in the most lavish terms, of the forges for making iron, which are established on this island, and he even prefers them to those of Europe; how far he is justified in this preference, must be left to future navigators, or future artificers to determine.

Mons. Bougainville sailed from this place the 12th of December, 1768, leaving the Etoile behind him, to undergo some necessary repairs; and this ship did not arrive in France till a month after the Boudeuse. Without encountering any singular accident, our adventurers had sight of the Cape of Good Hope on the 18th of January, and came to an anchor in Table Bay on the following morning.

Our author very judiciously omits a description of the Cape, which has been so often and so accurately described by our circumnavigators, and other voyagers: one circumstance, however, he fails not to mention, that they killed a quadrupede, named the Giraffe, which was seventeen feet in height, and that they took the young one alive, which measured seven feet. “None of these (says our author) had been seen after that which was brought to Rome in the time of Cæsar, and shewn there in the amphitheatre.”

Mons. Bougainville sailed from the Cape on the 17th, and came to an anchor off the island of St. Helena on the 4th of February, where he remained till the 6th, and then got under sail in pursuance of his voyage to France.

On the 25th of this month the Commodore joined the Swallow, commanded by Captain Carteret: what passed in consequence of this junction the readers of these volumes are already acquainted with.

Nothing material happened from this time till they had sight of the isle of Ushant, when a violent squall of wind had nearly blasted all the blooming hopes of so fine a voyage. On the 15th the Commodore bore away for St. Maloes, which he entered on the following day, after an absence of two years and four months from his native country; during all which time he had buried only seven of his crew, a circumstance that will be deemed truly astonishing, when we reflect on the variety of dangers they had encountered; the amazing changes of climate they had experienced; the hair breadth perils they had escaped, and the estimated proportion of time that any man may be supposed to live, at any given age, when in full health, and breathing his native air. To what then shall we ascribe the unexampled success of Mons. Bougainville’s circumnavigation, but to the benevolent interposition of that particular providence, the existence of which hath been lately so boldly, and with such apparent weight of argument, denied.

Thus have we traced, with the pen of fidelity, this ingenious historian, from the milder climate of France to the frozen regions of the Magellanic streights; and from those streights through the intense burnings of the torrid zone, back again to the benevolent influence of the European sun; and abating that vanity peculiar to the French, and that nationality, which, if criminal, is a crime arising from a noble and praise-worthy cause, we must confess, that his narrative is as much more philosophical and ingenious, as it is more pert and flippant than the narratives of our English adventurers! Mons. Bougainville has introduced, in the body of his volume, a narrative of the establishment of the Spaniards in Rio de la Plata; and also an account of the missions in Paraguay, and the expulsion of the Jesuits from that province: but as these recitals seemed to have no immediate connection with the Commodore’s circumnavigation, we have not interrupted the narrative, thinking they would come in with more propriety immediately after the close of the voyage.

The river de la Plata takes a southerly course to the 34th degree latitude, where it is united with the river Uraguai, making one stream, which runs still southerly to the ocean. The Jesuits have advanced a false principle of geography, and other authors have fell into their errors, by supposing the river de la Plata to spring from the lake of Xaragés. This lake, which has been the subject of much enquiry, is now supposed to have no existence.

By order of the courts of Spain and Portugal, the Marquis of Valdelirais and Don George Menezés, undertook to determine the limits of possession of these two powers; and accordingly several Spanish and Portuguese officers, traveled this large district of America between the years 1751 and 1755. The Spaniards embarked on the river Paraguai, and the Portuguese proceeded from a settlement belonging to the Crown of Portugal, called Maragosso, situated on the interior boundaries of the Brazils, at about 12 degrees south latitude, and proceeded up the river Caourou, which, according to the maps of the Jesuits, is described as falling into the lake Xaragés. But how great was their surprize and disappointment at meeting in the 14th degree of south latitude, in the river Paraguai, without finding any thing to justify the supposition of the existence of the lake! Hence it was concluded, that the periodical inundations of the river over a considerable tract of the adjacent country, having been received in the low grounds, formed a body of water, which, by former navigators, was taken for the ideal lake.

The source of the Paraguai, or Rio de la Plata, is among the mountains, between the two oceans, and between five and six degrees south latitude, and it empties itself into the river of Amazons. The Uraguai arises in the Captainship of St. Vincent’s, in the Brazils; and the Parana in the mountains to the east north-east of Rio Janeiro, whence it flows to the westward, and then changes its course to the south.

It appears, from the account of the Abbé Prevost, that Diaz de Solis first discovered the Parana in 1515, and called it after himself, but that in 1526 Sebastian Cabot named it la Plata, or of silver, on account of the many pieces of silver which he observed in the possession of the natives of the adjacent country. The fort of Espirutu Santo was erected by Cabot, who had scarcely time to see it completed before it was levelled with the earth.

In 1535, Don Pedro de Mendoza, great Cup-bearer to the Emperor, sailed for the river de la Plata, and founded Buenos Ayres; but this undertaking proved extremely unsuccessful; and after Mendoza’s death, the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, unable to defend themselves against the depredations of the Indians, and living in perpetual dread of famine, fled for sanctuary to Assumption, now the capital of Paraguai, which was built by the followers of Mendoza, soon became well inhabited, and, of course, considerably enlarged. Don Pedro Artiz de Zarara, Governor of Paraguai, rebuilt Buenos Ayres, upon an improved plan, in the year 1580, and it soon became the principal resort of ships navigating the South Seas; soon after which it was an episcopal see, and the place of residence of the chief magistrate. The situation of Buenos Ayres is computed to be in 34 deg. 55 min. south latitude, and 61 deg. 5 min. west longitude from Paris. The inhabitants, including negroes, do not exceed twenty thousand, notwithstanding which, the town covers a very large space of ground, owing to the generality of the habitations having no more than a ground floor, with spacious courtyards and extensive gardens. The public market is held in a grand square, the angles of which are formed by the Governor’s palace, the town hall, the cathedral and the episcopal palace. There is no harbour at Buenos Ayres, so that ships of any considerable burden are obliged to sail to Encenada de Baragon, about ten leagues east south-east of the town, or else receive and deliver their freights by means of small boats.

Adjoining to the Jesuit’s convent, there is a building, called the house for the exercises of women, where married and unmarried people, without the consent of their husbands or friends, sequester themselves for the space of twelve days, during which time various religious exercises are practiced, almost without intermission. There are holy ceremonies appointed for the slaves; and such of the negroes, as pay four reals per annum to the Dominicans, are admitted members of some religious community, are intitled to certain holidays, to hear mass, and a decent interment at the expence of the friars.

This community of negroes acknowledge St. Benedict of Palermo, and the Virgin for their patrons; and on the days dedicated to these saints they select two persons to represent the kings of Spain and Portugal, who are followed by all the negroes of the order, parading through the streets from the rising to the sitting of the sun, singing, dancing, representing battles, and repeating religious incantations.

The grounds near Buenos Ayres are extremely fruitful, producing all the real necessaries of life; but it is entirely uncultivated at only three leagues distance; and in crossing the plains scarce a hovel is to be met with; so that passengers are frequently under the necessity of sleeping in their carriages, and those who go on horseback are often, for many successive nights, exposed to the inclemency of the weather. Horses and black cattle abound in these plains, and the latter are frequently killed by travellers, who take away sufficient for a few meals, and leave the rest for the birds and beasts of prey. The only furious animals known here are wild dogs and tygers: the former, which are said to have been originally brought from Europe, are both fierce and numerous; and perhaps owing to their food, and the climate seem, as it were, greatly to have altered their species; the latter are of the usual kind, but are not very frequently met with.

In the neighbourhood of Buenos Ayres wood is so extremely scarce, that very little is to be found that will even serve for fuel, and what is used in erecting and repairing houses, or in refitting vessels, is transported from Paraguai.

The Indians inhabiting this part of America are of a copper complexion, seldom exceeding five feet in stature, and of a very forbidding aspect. Their Chief is distinguished by a thong of leather tied round his forehead, to which are fastened several plates of copper. The arms they use are bows and arrows, nooses and balls. These balls are about the circumference of a two pound cannon ball, and being received in leathern cups at the end of cords of about six or seven feet long, they throw them when on horseback, with such amazing force and dexterity, as to be almost at a certainty of killing an animal at the distance of three hundred yards.

Some years ago a number of delinquents, escaping the punishment they were sentenced to, retreated to the north of the Maldonadoes, where being joined by some deserters and Indian women, they have formed a community of desperadoes. They frequently plunder the Spanish settlements, and carry their spoils to the boundaries of the Brazils, where they receive, in exchange for them, fire-arms and clothes, from the Paulists, another desperate race of robbers, supposed to be between six and seven hundred in number, who removed from Brazil farther to the north-west about the sixteenth century; since which time they have continually traversed the adjacent country in parties; and such travellers as are so unfortunate as to meet with them, generally fall victims to their cruelty and rapine.

The governments of Tucuman and Paraguai, with the missions of the Jesuits, are dependent upon the Governor-general of la Plata, who, in all matters relating to the silver mines of Potosi, is under the jurisdiction of the Viceroy of Peru. A mint having been lately established at Potosi, the silver will not in future be brought from thence in the ore, but refined on the spot.

Two hundred carts, attended by three hundred men, go annually from Buenos Ayres to fetch salt from the lakes adjacent to the sea in forty-three degrees latitude; and the necessity of obtaining salt is the only motive that induces the Spaniards to travel so far south of Buenos Ayres, where the country exhibits a melancholy prospect of dreary and uncultivated wilds.

The principal commerce of Buenos Ayres is with Peru and Chili, to which province they send cotton, mules, some skins, and about four hundred thousand Spanish pounds weight of the Paraguai herb, or South Sea tea every year; great part of this last article is consumed by the labourers in the Peruvian mines; it being esteemed a most excellent preventative against the effects of the noxious vapours arising from those inexhaustible funds of treasure.

Notwithstanding there is but little trade at Buenos Ayres, it is a place of such great riches, that the register ships frequently carry away a million of dollars each; and if they were inclined to extend their skin and fur trade, those articles alone would, undoubtedly, acquire them immense wealth.

Montevideo was built between forty and fifty years since, upon a peninsula, to the north of the river, and about ninety miles above its mouth. The town has a bay, affording safe anchorage, but in boisterous weather some skill must be exerted, to keep clear of a chain of hidden rocks off the east point of the bay, which are called Punta de las Carretas. The town of Montevideo affords every refreshment; and the air being particularly salubrious, renders it still more inviting to the sons of Neptune, who here find a happy renewal of that health and vigour, which, from various causes, must inevitably be impaired by a long residence on the stormy element.

The Jesuits took up their residence at Paraguay in the year 1580, and in the time of Philip the Third founded their celebrated missions, called indifferently by the Europeans Paraguai or Uraguai. These missions are thirty-seven in number; twenty-nine being on one side of the river Uraguai, and eight on the opposite shore.

The Jesuits undertook to convert the natives of this tract of America to the Roman Catholic religion, and in order to encourage them to pursue this very difficult task with a proper degree of spirit, they were rendered independent of the Governor’s authority, and allowed an annual stipend of sixty thousand piastres for their necessary expences. And in order to indemnify the Crown for this expence, a tax of one piastre per head was levied upon all the Indians between the age of eighteen and sixty.

Notwithstanding the many and great obstacles which would have dispirited less determined men, the Jesuits, by a steady perseverance, the most ardent zeal, and a strict attention to the genius and disposition of these savages, at length, civilized their manners, implanted in their minds the principles of the Christian religion, and made them happy within themselves and useful to the community.

In the year 1757 the Spanish monarch having given up the colonies on the left shore of the river to the Portuguese, in exchange for Santo Sacramento, with a view to suppress the smuggling trade, the Indians of the ceded colonies, disgusted at being driven from their cultivated lands, took up arms against the Spaniards. Don Joseph Andonaighi, Governor-general of the province de la Plata, and Don Joachim de Viana, Governor of Montevideo, marched against, and entirely defeated them. Soon after this battle the insurrections being quelled, Viana left Buenos Ayres, and was accompanied as far as the Maldonados by seven Indian families, where they settled, leading a life of exemplary prudence and industry. The situation of these reclaimed people gives an idea of what the poets call the golden age: they knew no distinction of rank, were neither incumbered with riches, nor oppressed with poverty; and as all their wants were supplied from the warehouses appointed to receive the produce of the common labour, they had no incitement to use sinister and clandestine means to obtain private property.

The country in which the missions are situated, reaches about four hundred and fifty miles east and west, and about six hundred miles north and south; and the number of the inhabitants is computed to be three hundred thousand. There are immense forests of all kinds of wood, and extensive meadows, watered by innumerable small rivers and brooks, which produce pasture sufficient for upwards of two millions of cattle.

The country was divided into districts, over each of which two Jesuits were appointed to preside; one of whom acted as Rector, and the other as his Curate. The Indians lived in the most abject state of submission to their Rectors, who severely chastised them for misdemeanours, and annually appointed a number of inferior officers, called Corregidors, to take cognizance of petty offences.

Near the church are two large buildings; one of which was inhabited by a great number of girls, who were instructed in various occupations. The other building was occupied by young negroe men, who were brought up to various handicraft professions; and one department of this building was appointed to the teaching of music, sculpture, architecture, &c. The Rector’s house stood between these buildings, and had communications with each, which he visited every day to see the provisions justly distributed, and the proper decorum in other respects strictly observed.

The entire expulsion of the Jesuits from the Spanish dominions having been resolved upon, Don Francis Buccarelli was appointed to carry this design into execution; and he accordingly sailed for Buenos Ayres, arrived there in the beginning of 1767, and immediately sent the dispatches with which he was charged, to the Governors of Peru and Chili, and the commanders of Cordoua, Mendoza, Corrientes, Santa-Fe, Salta, Montevideo, and Paraguay. These dispatches were accompanied by letters, strictly enjoining the persons, to whom the dispatches from the Court were directed, not to open them till an appointed day. As it was a matter of doubt, whether the Indians would tamely submit to see Jesuits arrested in the colonies, all the preparations for carrying the King’s orders into execution were conducted with the most profound secrecy. The time for accomplishing this grand design at length arrived, and the different Governors being previously instructed to open their letters, and to proceed according to their contents, with all imaginable dispatch.

The general execution began about two o’clock in the morning, when the Jesuits, with equal horror and astonishment, found their habitations invested by the Spanish troops.

They evinced a high degree of philosophical resignation and humility in quietly submitting to their fate, which they confessed was not so severe as their crimes deserved.

On the thirteenth of September a Cacique belonging to each colony, and all the corregidors, arrived at Buenos Ayres. These people were politically detached from their companions by the following stratagem, with a design of securing them as hostages, in case any resistance had been made. The Governor-general sent for them, under pretence of communicating the substance of the King’s letters; and these deluded people were not informed of the events that had happened, till they received the account from the mouth of the Governor, who gave them a general audience, immediately upon their arrival; when the Governor informed them, that he came to free them from the slavery they had long groaned under, and directing them to one of the houses formerly occupied by the Jesuits, they were there properly provided for at the King’s expence. The Jesuits had established other missions than those abovementioned to the south of Uraguay, and were making great progress southward of Chili, towards the island of Chiloé; but the unexpected turn of affairs in Europe utterly destroyed the work, the completion of which had been an object of great attention for a long series of years.

Vocabulary of the Language of Taiti Island.

Abobo, To-morrow.

Aibou, Come.

Ainé, Girl (fille)

Aiouta, There is some.

Aouererê, Black.

Aouero, Egg.

Aouri, Iron, gold, silver, every metal, or instrument of metal.

Aoutti, Flying fish.

Aouira, Lightning.

Apalari, To break or destroy.

Ari, Cocoa-nut.

Ateatea, White.

Ea, Root.

Eai, Fire.

Eame, Drink made of cocoa-nuts.

Eani, All manner of fighting.

Eivi, Little.

Eite, To understand.

Elao, A fly.

Emaa, A sling.

Emeitai, To give.

Emoe, To sleep.

Enapo, Yesterday.

Enoanoa, To smell well.

Enoo-te-papa, Sit down.

Enoua-Taiti, The country of Taiti.

Enoua-Paris, The country of Paris.

Eo, To sweat.

Eoe-tea, An arrow.

Eoe-pai, A paddle or oar.

Eonou, Turtle.

Eouai, Rain.

Eouri, A dancer.

Eouriaye, A dancing-girl.

Epouré, To pray.

Era, The sun.

Eraï, Heaven.

Ero, Ant.

Eri, King.

Erie, Royal.

Etai, Sea.

Eteina, Elder brother or sister.

Etouana, Younger brother or sister.

Etio, Oyster.

Etoi, A butcher.