Part 31 (1/2)

According to Galvano (page 234), a Spanish officer named Bernaldo de la Torre started from the Philippines in 1543, on a voyage to New Spain.

[409] Hakluyt Society's Publication, 1862, p. 238.

[410] Encyclopaedia Britannica (Article on ”New Guinea.”)

[411] Proceedings, Royal Geographical Society, 1884, p. 196.

NOTE XII. (Page 238.)

THE ISLANDS OF SAN BARTOLOMEO.--The Musquillo Islands of the Marshall Group, with which I have identified this discovery of the Spaniards, were thus named by Captain Bond in 1792.[412] They form a double atoll about 38 miles in length and trending N.W. and S.E.

The N.W. end is in lat.i.tude 8 10' N., and the S.E. end is in lat.i.tude 7 46' N. Captain Bond ranged along the coasts of above 20 small islands. At the N.W. end and isolated from the rest are two small islands about three miles apart. On comparing this description with that given by Gallego, the reader will have little doubt as to the ident.i.ty of the Musquillo Islands with the Spanish discovery. It is probable that Gallego considered this discovery to be near the position of an island discovered in 1536 in 14 N lat. by Toribio Alonzo de Salazar,[413] 328 Spanish leagues from the Mariana Islands, and named by him San Bartolomeo. This discovery of Salazar is marked in Krusenstern's General Atlas of the Pacific.

[412] Purdy's ”Oriental Navigator,” p. 689.

[413] Krusenstern's ”Memoires Hydrographiques,” St. Petersburgh, 1827: Part II, p. 49.

NOTE XIII. (Page 239.)

THE ISLE OF SAN FRANCISCO.--Wake's Island, with which I have identified the Isle of San Francisco, was discovered in 1796 by the ”Prince William Henry.” Commodore Wilkes, who fixed its position in 1840 (lat. 19 10' 54? N.; long 166 31' 30? E. of G), thus describes it. ”Wake's Island is a low coral one, of triangular form and eight feet above the surface. It has a large lagoon in the centre, which was well filled with fish of a variety of species; amongst these were some fine mullet. There is no fresh water on the island, and neither panda.n.u.s nor cocoa-nut tree. It has upon it the shrubs, which are usually found on the low Islands of the Pacific, the most abundant of which was Tournefortia. The short-tailed albatross is found here; birds quite tame though not as numerous as in other uninhabited islands. The appearance of the coral blocks and vegetation leads to this conclusion that the island is at times submerged or that at times the sea makes a complete breach over it.”[414] Wake's Island is about the size of the island described by Gallego. Its lat.i.tude, its isolated position, and the close agreement of Wilkes' description with that of Gallego, leave no room to doubt that Wake's Island and the Isle of San Francisco are one and the same ... Burney refers to a small island named San Francisco which is placed in the chart of the Galleon in Anson's voyage in lat. 19 north and 84 east of the Strait of San Bernardino; but he adds that it is too far to the east to be identified with the island discovered by Mendana.[415]

[414] ”Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition,” vol V.

p. 267.

[415] ”Chronol. History of Voy. and Disc.” vol I. p. 291.

NOTE XIV. (Page 251.)

THE LIST OF ISLANDS IN THE VICINITY OF TAUMACO WHICH WAS OBTAINED BY QUIROS IN 1606 FROM ONE OF THE NATIVES.--They are as follows, Chicayana, Guantopo, or Guaytopo, Taucalo, Pilen, Nupan, Pupam, Fonfono or Fonofono, Mecaraylay, Manicolo, Tucopia, Pouro. More than half of these islands can be identified with certainty, even after an interval of nearly three centuries.

Chicayana may be without a doubt identified with Sikyana or Sikai-ana, the present native name of the Stewart Isles which lie about 250 miles to the north-west of Taumaco, or as the Taumaco people reckoned, four days' sail in their large canoes. In fact, the native from whom Quiros obtained his information was originally from Chicayana, having been carried by contrary winds to Taumaco whilst endeavouring with a number of his fellow-islanders to reach the island of Mecaraylay. The Chicayana natives were described to Quiros as being very fair with long loose _red_ hair, some, however, being darker like mulattoes, but with hair neither curled nor quite straight. They possess much the same characters at the present day.[416]

[416] These islands, as far as is known, were not visited by Europeans until nearly two centuries after the visit of Quiros, when Captain Hunter came upon them in 1791.

Guaytopo or Guantopo was a larger island than those of Taumaco and Chicayana. Since it is placed three days' sail (native reckoning) from Taumaco and two days from Chicayana, it may have been one of the eastern islands of the Solomon Group. The inhabitants were said to have skins as fair as Europeans and red or black hair. They punctured their bellies in a pattern of a circle around the navel; and painted their bodies red down to the waist. The women were very handsome and were clothed with some light material from head to foot. The natives of Guaytopo, Taumaco, and Chicayana, were on very friendly terms and spoke the same language.

The islands of Pilen and Nupan are evidently the Pileni and Nupani of the adjacent Matema or Swallow Islands, which lie to the northward of the large island of Santa Cruz. Fonofono or Fonfono, which is stated to lie near Pilen and Nupan, may perhaps be the Lomlom of the same small group. It was described to Quiros as being ”many islands, small and flat,” with a good port. The inhabitants were said to be dun-coloured, and very tall.

Tucopia was subsequently visited by the Spanish navigator. In later times it has obtained a melancholy interest in connection with the fate of La Perouse. Mecaraylay is apparently in the vicinity of Guaytopo, but possessing a different language, its inhabitants being noted for the use of tortoise-sh.e.l.l ornaments. Its name suggests that of Makira, on the south coast of St. Christoval, in the neighbouring Solomon Group. Taucalo may perhaps be the volcanic island of Tinakula lying off the north coast of Santa Cruz Island.

It is stated to be near Taumaco.

The ”large country” called Manicolo is to be identified with the adjacent large island, named Vanikoro in the present Admiralty charts, which lies about 100 miles to the southward of Taumaco. It is referred by Captain Cook[417] to the Mallicolo of the New Hebrides, lying 4 further south, which he visited in 1774; but this view cannot be sustained. In the first place, it is stated to lie two days' sail from Tucopia. The following evidence, however, is sufficient of itself to settle the point. When Captain Dillon[418]

was on his way to Vanikoro in 1827, to ascertain the fate of La Perouse, he learned from the natives of the neighbouring island of Tucopia that the island he was going to was called _Malicolo_: but he subsequently ascertained on visiting the island in question, that it should be more correctly called _Mannicolo_ or _Vannicolo_. In his chart of the island, Captain Dillon calls it Mannicolo. The resemblance in name between these two islands in the New Hebrides, and Santa Cruz Groups has been a frequent cause of misconception in references to the narratives of the early navigators.

[417] ”Voyage towards the South Pole and round the World,” vol. II., p. 146.

[418] ”Discovery of the fate of La Perouse,” London, 1829: vol. I., p. 33.