On the 28th, we saw a great number of birds about the ship, which continued till the 30th, when about two o'clock in the afternoon we saw land, bearing W.1\2 N. which proved to be the islands Saypan, Tinian, and Aiguigan. At sun-set, the extremes of them bore from N.W.1/2 N. westward to S.W.; and the three islands had the appearance of one. At seven, we hauled the wind, and stood off and on all night; and at six the next morning, the extremes of the islands, which still made in one, bore from N.W. by N. to S.W. by S. distant five leagues. The east side of these islands lies N.E. by N. and S.W. by S. Saypan is the northermost; and from the north-east point of that island to the south-west point of Aiguigan, the distance is about seventeen leagues. These three islands are between two and three leagues distant from each other; Saypan is the largest, and Aguigan, which is high and round, the smallest. We steered along the east side of them, and at noon hauled round the south point of Tinian, between that island and Aiguigan, and anchored at the south-west end of it, in sixteen fathom water, with a bottom of hard sand and coral rock, opposite to a white sandy bay, about a mile and a quarter from the shore, and about three quarters of a mile from a reef of rocks that lies at a good distance from the shore, in the very spot where Lord Anson lay in the Centurion. The water at this place is so very clear that the bottom is plainly to be seen at the depth of four-and-twenty fathom, which is no less than one hundred and forty-four feet.

As soon as the ship was secured, I went on shore, to fix upon a place where tents might be erected for the sick, which were now very numerous; not a single man being wholly free from the scurvy, and many in the last stage of it. We found several huts which had been left by the Spaniards and Indians the year before; for this year none of them had as yet been at the place, nor was it probable that they should come for some months, the sun being now almost vertical, and the rainy season set in. After I had fixed upon a spot for the tents, six or seven of us endeavoured to push through the woods, that we might come at the beautiful lawns and meadows of which there is so luxuriant a description in the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage, and if possible kill some cattle. The trees stood so thick, and the place was so overgrown with underwood, that we could not see three yards before us, we therefore were obliged to keep continually hallooing to each other, to prevent our being separately lost in this trackless wilderness. As the weather was intolerably hot, we had nothing on besides our shoes, except our shirts and trowsers, and these were in a very short time torn all to rags by the bushes and brambles; at last however, with incredible difficulty and labour, we got through; but, to our great surprise and disappointment, we found the country very different from the account, we had read of it: The lands were entirely overgrown with a stubborn kind of reed or brush, in many places higher than our heads, and no where lower than our middles, which continually entangled our legs, and cut us like whipcord; our stockings perhaps might have suffered still more, but we wore none. During this, march we were also covered with flies from head to foot, and whenever we offered to speak we were sure of having a mouthful, many of which never failed to get down our throats. After we had walked about three or four miles, we got sight of a bull, which we killed, and a little before night got back to the beach, as wet as if we had been dipt in water, and so fatigued that we were scarcely able to stand. We immediately sent out a party to fetch the bull, and found that during our excursion some tents had been got up, and the sick brought on shore.

The next day our people were employed in setting up more tents, getting the water-casks on shore, and clearing the well at which they were to be filled. This well I imagined to be the same that the Centurion watered at; but it was the worst that we had met with during the voyage, for the water was not only brackish, but full of worms. The road also where the ships lay was a dangerous situation at this season, for the bottom is hard sand and large coral rocks, and the anchor having no hold in the sand, the cable is in perpetual danger of being cut to pieces by the coral; to prevent which as much as possible, I rounded the cables, and buoyed them up with empty water-casks. Another precaution also was taught me by experience, for at first I moored, but finding the cables much damaged, I resolved to lie single for the future, that by veering away or heaving in, as we should have more or less wind, we might always keep them from being slack, and consequently from rubbing, and this expedient succeeded to my wish. At the full and change of the moon, a prodigious swell tumbles in here, so that I never saw ships at anchor roll so much as ours did while we lay here; and it once drove in from the westward with such violence, and broke so high upon the reef, that I was obliged to put to sea for a week; for if our cable had parted in the night, and the wind had been upon the shore, which sometimes, happens for two or three days together, the ship must have inevitably been lost upon the rocks.

As I was myself very ill with the scurvy, I ordered a tent to be pitched for me, and took up my residence on shore; where we also erected the armourer's forge, and began to repair the iron-work of both the ships. I soon found that the island produced limes, sour oranges, cocoa-nuts, breadfruit,[42] guavas, and paupas in great abundance; but we found no water-melons, scurvy-grass, or sorrel.

[Footnote 42: See a particular description of the bread-fruit, in the 8th chapter of Lieut. Cook's voyage.]

Notwithstanding the fatigue and distress that we had endured, and the various climates we had passed through, neither of the ships had yet lost a single man since their sailing from England; but while we lay here two died of fevers, a disease with which many were seized, though we all recovered very fast from the scurvy. I am indeed of opinion that this is one of the most unhealthy spots in the world, at least during the season in which we were here. The rains were violent, and almost incessant, and the heat was so great as to threaten us with suffocation. The thermometer, which was kept on board the ship, generally stood at eighty-six, which is but nine degrees less than the heat of the blood at the heart; and if it had been on shore it would have risen much higher. I had been upon the coast of Guinea, in the West Indies, and upon the island of Saint Thomas, which is under the Line, but I had never felt any such heat as I felt here. Besides the inconvenience which we suffered from the weather, we were incessantly tormented by the flies in the day, and by the musquitos in the night. The island also swarms with centipedes and scorpions, and a large black ant, scarcely inferior to either in the malignity of its bite. Besides these, there were venomous insects without number, altogether unknown to us, by which many of us suffered so severely, that we were afraid to lie down in our beds; nor were those on board in a much better situation than those on shore, for great numbers of these creatures being carried into the ship with the wood, they took possession of every birth, and left the poor seamen no place of rest either below or upon the deck.

As soon as we were settled in our new habitations, I sent out parties to discover the haunts of the cattle, some of which were found, but at a great distance from the tents, and the beasts were so shy that it was very difficult to get a shot at them. Some of the parties which, when their haunts had been discovered, were sent out to kill them, were absent three days and nights before they could succeed; and when a bullock had been dragged seven or eight miles through such woods and lawns as have just been described, to the tents, it was generally full of flyblows, and stunk so as to be unfit for use: Nor was this the worst, for the fatigue of the men in bringing down the carcase, and the intolerable heat they suffered from the climate and the labour, frequently brought on fevers which laid them up.[43] Poultry however we procured upon easier terms: There was great plenty of birds, and they were easily killed; but the flesh of the best of them was very ill-tasted, and such was the heat of the climate that within an hour after they were killed it was as green as grass, and swarmed with maggots. Our principal resource for fresh meat was the wild hog, with which the island abounds. These creatures are very fierce, and some of them so large that a carcase frequently weighed two hundred pounds. We killed them without much difficulty, but a black belonging to the Tamar contrived a method to snare them, so that we took great numbers of them alive, which was an unspeakable advantage; for it not only ensured our eating the flesh while it was sweet, but enabled us to send a good number of them on board as sea-stores.

[Footnote 43: "But we had cast anchor on the wrong side of the island, and, to our great disappointment, found cattle very scarce," &c. &c.]

In the mean time we were very desirous of procuring some beef in an eatable state, with less risk and labour, and Mr Gore, one of our mates, at last discovered a pleasant spot upon the north-west part of the island, where cattle were in great plenty, and whence they might be brought to the tents by sea. To this place, therefore, I dispatched a party, with a tent for their accommodation, and sent the boats every day to fetch what they should kill; sometimes however there broke such a sea upon the rocks, that it was impossible to approach them, and the Tamar's boat unhappily lost three of her best men by attempting it. We were now, upon the whole, pretty well supplied with provisions; especially as we baked fresh bread every day for the sick and the fatigue of our people being less, there were fewer ill with the fever; But several of them were so much disordered by eating of a very fine-looking fish which we caught here, that their recovery was for a long time doubtful. The author of the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage says,[44] that the people on board the Centurion thought it prudent to abstain from fish, as the few which they caught at their first arrival surfeited those who eat of them. But not attending sufficiently to this caution, and too hastily taking the word surfeit in its literal and common acceptation, we imagined that those who tasted the fish when Lord Anson first came hither, were made sick merely by eating too much; whereas, if that had been the case, there would have been no reason for totally abstaining afterwards, but only eating temperately. We however bought our knowledge by experience, which we might have had cheaper; for though all our people who tasted this fish, eat sparingly, they were all soon afterwards dangerously ill.

[Footnote 44: The other account indicates a little more gratitude:--"Our people had as much good beef and broth as we could possibly expend; with guavas, oranges, lemons, limes, plenty of excellent cabbages, which grow on the cocoa-trees, and the bread-fruit, for which these islands are justly famous; and not only poultry like those in England, but wild fowl of various sorts,"]

Besides the fruit that has been mentioned already, this island produces cotton and indigo in abundance, and would certainly be of great value if it were situated in the West Indies. The surgeon of the Tamar enclosed a large spot of ground here, and made a very pretty garden; but we did not stay long enough to derive any advantage from it.[45]

[Footnote 45: The descriptions of this island given by the author of Anson's Voyage, and in the other account of this one, so often referred to, are both more favourable than Byron's; a circumstance which may, perhaps, be accounted for on very common principles, without any impeachment of the respective authorities. The former description was purposely omitted in our 10th volume, as it was judged advisable to introduce it in this place, so that the reader might directly compare it with that which is given in the text. Here it follows entire:--

"Its length is about twelve miles, and its breadth about half as much; it extending from the S.S.W to N.N.E. The soil is every where dry and healthy, and somewhat sandy, which being less disposed than other soils to a rank and over luxuriant vegetation, occasions the meadows and the bottoms of the woods to be much neater and smoother than is customary' in hot climates. The land rises by easy slopes, from the very beach where we watered to the middle of the island; though the general course of its ascent is often interrupted and traversed by gentle descents and valleys; and the inequalities that are formed by the different combinations of these gradual swellings of the ground; are most beautifully diversified with large lawns, which are covered with a very fine trefoil, intermixed with a variety of flowers, and are skirted by woods of tall and well-spread trees, most of them celebrated either for their aspect or their fruit. The turf of the lawns is quite clean and even, and the bottoms of the woods in many places clear of all bushes and underwoods; and the woods themselves usually terminate on the lawns with a regular outline, not broken, nor confused with straggling trees, but appearing uniform as if laid out by art. Hence across a great variety of the most elegant and entertaining prospects formed by the mixture of these woods and lawns, and their various intersections with each other, as they spread themselves differently through the vallies and over the slopes and declivities with which the place abounds. The fortunate animals too, which for the greatest part of the year are the sole lords of this happy soil, partake in some measure of the romantic cast of the island, and are no small addition to its wonderful scenery: For the cattle, of which it is not uncommon to see herds of some thousands feeding together in a large meadow, are certainly the most remarkable in the world; for they are all of them milk-white, except their ears, which are generally black. And though there are no inhabitants here, yet the clamour and frequent parading of domestic poultry, which range the woods in great numbers, perpetually excite the ideas of the neighbourhood of farms and villages, and greatly contribute to the cheerfulness and beauty of the place. The cattle on the island we computed were at least ten thousand; and we had no difficulty in getting near them, as they were not shy of us. Our first method of killing them was shooting them; but at last, when by accidents to be hereafter recited, we were obliged to husband our ammunition, our men ran them down with ease. Their flesh was extremely well tasted, and was believed by us to be much more easily digested, than any we had ever met with. The fowls too were exceeding good, and were likewise run down with little trouble; for they could scarce fly further than an hundred yards at a flight, and even that fatigued them so much, that they could not readily rise again; so that, aided by the openness of the woods, we could at all times furnish ourselves with whatever number we wanted. Besides the cattle and the poultry, we found here abundance of wild hogs: These were most excellent food; but as they were a very fierce animal, we were obliged either to shoot them, or to hunt them with large dogs, which we found upon the place at our landing, and which belonged to the detachment which was then upon the island amassing provisions for the garrison of Guam. As these dogs had been purposely trained to the killing of the wild hogs, they followed us very readily, and banted for us; but though they were a large bold breed, the hogs fought with so much fury, that they frequently destroyed them, so that we by degrees lost the greatest part of them."

"But this place was not only extremely grateful to us from the plenty and excellency of its fresh provisions, but was as much perhaps to be admired for its fruits and vegetable productions, which were most fortunately adapted to the cure of the sea scurvy, which had so terribly reduced us. For in the woods there were inconceivable quantities of cocoa-nuts, with the cabbages growing on the same tree; There were besides guavoes, limes, sweet and sour oranges, and a kind of fruit peculiar to these islands, called by the Indians Rima, but by us the Bread-fruit, for it was constantly eaten by us during our stay upon the island instead of bread, and so universally preferred to it, that no ship's bread was expended during that whole interval. It grew upon a tree which is somewhat lofty, and which, towards the top, divides into large and spreading branches. The leaves of this tree are of a remarkable deep green, are notched about the edges, and are generally from a foot to eighteen inches in length. The fruit itself grows indifferently on all parts of the branches; it is in shape rather elliptical than round, is covered with a rough rind, and is usually seven or eight inches long; each of them grows singly and not in clusters. This fruit is fittest to be used when it is full grown, but is still green; in which state its taste has some distant resemblance to that of an artichoke bottom, and its texture is not very different, for it is soft and spungy. As it ripens it grows softer and of a yellow colour, and then contracts a luscious taste, and an agreeable smell, not unlike a ripe peach; but then it is esteemed, unwholesome, and is said to produce fluxes. Besides the fruits already enumerated, there were many other vegetables extremely conducive to the cure of the malady we had long laboured under, such as water-melons, dandelion, creeping purslain, mint, scurvy-grass, and sorrel; all which, together with the fresh meats of the place, we devoured with great eagerness, prompted thereto by the strong inclination which nature never fails of exciting in scorbutic disorders for these powerful specifics. It will easily be conceived from what hath been already said, that our cheer upon this island was in some degree luxurious, but I have not yet recited all the varieties of provision which we here indulged in. Indeed we thought it prudent totally to abstain from fish, the few we caught at our first arrival having surfeited those who eat of them; but considering how much we had been inured to that species of food, we did not regard this circumstance as a disadvantage, especially as the defect was so amply supplied by the beef, pork, and fowls already mentioned, and by great plenty of wild fowl; for I must observe, that near the centre of the island there were two considerable pieces of fresh water, which abounded with duck, teal, and curlew: Not to mention the whistling plover, which we found there in prodigious plenty."

"And now perhaps it may be wondered at, that an island so exquisitely furnished with the conveniences of life, and so well adapted, not only to the subsistence, but likewise to the enjoyment of mankind, should be entirely destitute of inhabitants, especially as it is in the neighbourhood of other islands, which in some measure depend upon this for their support. To obviate this difficulty, I must observe, that it is not fifty years since the island was depopulated. The Indians we had in our custody assured us, that formerly the three islands of Tinian, Rota, and Guam, were all full of inhabitants; and that Tinian alone contained thirty thousand souls: But a sickness raging amongst these islands, which destroyed multitudes of the people, the Spaniards, to recruit their numbers at Guam, which were greatly diminished by this mortality, ordered all the inhabitants of Tinian thither; where, languishing for their former habitations, and their customary method of life, the greatest part of them in a few years died of grief. Indeed, independent of that attachment which all mankind have ever shown to the places of their birth and bringing up, it should seem from what has been already said, that there were few countries more worthy to be regretted than this of Tinian."

"These poor Indians might reasonably have expected, at the great distance from Spain, where they were placed, to have escaped the violence and cruelty of that haughty nation, so fatal to a large proportion of the whole human race: But it seems their remote situation could not protect them from sharing in the common destruction of the western world, all the advantage they received from their distance being only to perish an age or two later. It may perhaps be doubted, if the number of the inhabitants of Tinian, who were banished to Guam, and who died there pining for their native home, was so great, as what we have related above; but, not to mention the concurrent assertion of our prisoners, and the commodiousness of the island, and its great fertility, there are still remains to be met with on the place, which evince it to have been once extremely populous: For there are, in all parts of the island, a great number of ruins of a very particular kind; they usually consist of two rows of square pyramidal pillars, each pillar being about six feet from the next, and the distance between the rows being about twelve feet; the pillars themselves are about five feet square at the base, and about thirteen feet high; and on the top of each of them there is a semi-globe, with the flat part upwards; the whole of the pillars and semi-globe is solid, being composed of sand and stone cemented together, and plastered over. If the account our prisoners gave us of these structures was true, the island must indeed have been extremely populous; for they assured us that they were the foundations of particular buildings set apart for those Indians only, who had engaged in some religious vow; and monastic institutions are often to be met with in many Pagan nations. However, if these ruins were originally the bases of the common dwelling-houses of the natives, their numbers must have been considerable; for in many parts of the island they are extremely thick planted, and sufficiently evince the great plenty of former inhabitants. But to return to the present state of the island."

"Having mentioned the conveniences of this place, the excellency and quantity of its fruits and provisions, the neatness of its lawns, the stateliness, freshness, and fragrance of its woods, the happy inequality of its surface, and the variety and elegance of the views it afforded, I most now observe, that all these advantages were greatly enhanced by the healthiness of its climate, by the almost constant breezes which prevail there, and by the frequent showers which fall, and which, though of a very short and almost momentary duration, are extremely grateful and refreshing, and are perhaps one cause of the salubrity of the air, and of the extraordinary influence it was observed to have upon us, in increasing and invigorating our appetites and digestion. This was so remarkable, that those amongst our officers, who were at all other times spare and temperate eaters, who, besides a slight breakfast, made but one moderate repast a day, were here, in appearance, transformed into gluttons; for instead of one reasonable flesh meal, they were now scarcely satisfied with three, and each of them so prodigious in quantity, as would at another time have produced a fever or a surfeit: And yet our digestion so well corresponded with the keenness of our appetites, that we were neither disordered nor even loaded by this repletion; for after having, according to the custom of the island, made a large beef breakfast, it was not long before we began to consider the approach of dinner as a very desirable, though somewhat tardy incident."

"And now having been thus large in my encomiums on this island, in which, however, I conceive I have not done it justice, it is necessary I should speak of those circumstances in which it is defective, whether in point of beauty or utility."

"And first, with respect to its water. I must own, that before I had seen this spot, I did not conceive that the absence of running water, of which it is entirely destitute, could have been so well replaced by any other means, as it is in this island; for though there are no streams, yet the water of the wells and springs, which are to be met with every where near the surface, is extremely good; and in the midst of the island there are two or three considerable pieces of excellent water, whose edges are as neat and even, as if they had been basons purposely made for the decoration of the place. It must, however, be confessed, that with regard to the beauty of the prospects, the want of rills and streams is a very great defect, not to be compensated either by large pieces of standing water, or by the neighbourhood of the sea, though that; by reason of the smallness of the island, generally makes a part of every extensive view."

"As to the residence upon the island, the principal inconvenience attending it is the vast numbers of musquitoes, and various other species of flies, together with an insect called a tick, which, though principally attached to the cattle, would yet frequently fasten upon our limbs and bodies, and if not perceived and removed in time, would bury its head under the skin, and raise a painful inflammation. We found here, too, centipedes and scorpions, which we supposed were venomous, but none of us ever received any injury from them."]

While we lay here, I sent the Tamar to examine the island of Saypan, Which is much larger than Tinian, rises higher, and, in my opinion, has a much pleasanter appearance. She anchored to the leeward of it, at the distance of a mile from the shore, and in about ten fathom water, with much the same kind of ground as we had in the road of Tinian.

Her people landed upon a fine sandy beach which is six or seven miles long, and walked up into the woods, where they saw many trees which were fit for top-masts.

They saw no fowls, nor any tracks of cattle; but of hogs and guanicoes there was plenty. They found no fresh water near the beach, but saw a large pond inland, which they did not examine. They saw large heaps of pearl oyster-shells thrown up together, and other signs of people having been there not long before: Possibly the Spaniards may go thither at some season of the years, and carry on a pearl fishery. They also saw many of those, square pyramidal pillars which are to be found at Tinian, and which are particularly described in the account of Lord Anson's voyage.

On Monday the 30th of September, having now been here nine weeks, and our sick being pretty well recovered, I ordered, the tents to be struck, and with the forge and oven carried back to the ship; I also laid in about two thousand cocoa-nuts, which I had experienced to be so powerful a remedy for the scurvy, and the next day I weighed, hoping, that before we should get the length of the Bashésland, the N.E. monsoon would be set in. I stood along the shore to take in the beef-hunters; but we had very little wind this day and the next till the evening, when it came to the westward and blew fresh: I then stood to the northward till the morning of the 3d, when we made Anatacan, an island that is remarkably high, and the same that was first fallen in with by Lord Anson.