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byron : tuamotus islands, 1769 
John Byron  : Tuamotus and Gibert Islands, 1765.

Extracts from
 AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGES UNDERTAKEN BY THE ORDER OF HIS PRESENT MAJESTY FOR MAKING Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere,
And successively performed by
COMMODORE BYRON, CAPTAIN CARTERET, CAPTAIN WALLIS, And CAPTAIN COOK,
In the DOLPHIN, the SWALLOW, and the ENDEAVOUR:
DRAWN UP
From the JOURNALS which were kept by the several COMMANDERS,
And from the Papers of JOSEPH BANKS, Esq;
By JOHN HAWKESWORTH, LL.D.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
Illustrated with CUTS, and a great Variety of CHARTS and MAPS relative to
Countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known.
VOLS. II. And III.
LONDON;
Printed for W. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand. M DCC LXXIII. (1773).
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/contents.html

Introduction.

As bibliographer Ronald L. Ravneberg has pointed out, the first edition of the Voyages has inconsistencies in pagination and errors caused by the typesetting of volume one being started at two points and by volumes two and three originally being paginated as a single volume.
In this online edition these original erroneous pagination and errors have been preserved as an aid to researchers wishing to consult the printed text of the first edition.

"The history of Europeans in Byron Bay began in 1770, when Captain James Cook found a safe anchorage and named Cape Byron after John Byron, who had circumnavigated the world and who was later the grandfather of English poet Lord Byron.
In the 1880s, when Europeans settled more permanently, streets were named for other English writers and philosophers.[5]"
- wikipedia: George Byron bay, New South Wales (July 2009)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Bay,_New_South_Wales#History

Additional Source Documents

1825 Lord Byron : Liliah and Floatboards.
Extracts from Voyage of the 'H.M.S. Blonde' to the Sandwich Islands in the Years 1825-26.
John Murray, Albemable Street, London.  1826. Pages 97, 137 and 138, 166, 206 to 209.

1911 Lord Byron : Childe Harold.
Extract from The Mid-Pacific Magazine, Volume 2, Number 2, August,1911, frontpiece.


Byron by Hawkworth : King George's Islands
Page 135

When we came to the westermost point of this island, we saw another, bearing S.W. by W. about four leagues distant.
We were at this time about a league beyond the inlet where we had left the natives, but they were not satisfied with having got rid of us quietly; for I now perceived two large double canoes sailing after the ship, with about thirty men in each, all armed after the manner of their country.
The boats were a good way to leeward of us, and the canoes, passing between the ship and the shore, seemed very eagerly to give them chace.
Upon this I made the signal for the boats to speak with the canoes, and as soon as they perceived it, they turned, and made towards the Indians, who seeing this, were seized with a sudden pannic, and immediately hauling down their sails, paddled back again at a surprising rate.
Our boats however came up with them; but notwithstanding the dreadful surf that broke upon the shore, the canoes pushed through it, and the Indians immediately hauled them up upon the beach.
Our boats followed them, and the Indians, dreading an invasion of their coast, prepared to defend it with clubs and stones, upon which our men fired, and killed two or three of them: one of them received three balls which went quite through his body; yet he afterwards took up a large stone, and died in the action of throwing it against his enemy.
This man fell close to our boats, so that the Indians who remained unhurt did not dare to attempt the carrying off his body, which gave us an opportunity to examine it; but they carried off the rest of their dead, and made the best of their way back to their companions at the inlet.
Our boats then returned, and brought off the two canoes which they had pursued.
One of them was thirty-two feet long, and the other somewhat less, but they were both of a very curious construction, and ...

Page 136

.... must have cost those who made them infinite labour.
They consisted of planks exceedingly well wrought, and in many places adorned with carving; these planks were sewed together, and over every seam there was a ship of tortoiseshell, very artificially fastened, to keep out the weather: their bottoms were as sharp as a wedge, and they were very narrow; and therefore two of them were joined laterally together by a couple of strong spars, so that there was a space of about six or eight feet between them: a mast was hoisted in each of them, and the sail was spread between the masts: the sail, which I preserved, and which is now in my possession, is made of matting, and is as neat a piece of work as ever I saw: their paddles were very curious, and their cordage was as good and as well laid as any in England, though it appeared to be made of the outer covering of the cocoa-nut.
When these vessels sail, several men sit upon the spars which hold the canoes together.

As the surf which broke very high upon the shore rendered it impossible to procure refreshments for the sick in this part of the island, I hauled the wind, and worked back to the inlet, being determined to try once more what could be done there.

Page 138

Our people, in rummaging some of the huts, found the carved head of a rudder, which had manifestly belonged to a Dutch longboat, and was very old and worm-eaten.
They found also a piece of hammered-iron, a piece of brass, and some small iron tools, which the ancestors of the present inhabitants of this place probably obtained from the Dutch ship to which the longboat had belonged, all which I brought away with me.
Whether these people found means to cut off the ship, or whether she was lost upon the island or after she left it, cannot be known; but there is reason to believe that she never returned to Europe, because no account of her voyage, or of any discoveries that she made, is extant.
If the ship sailed from this place in safety, it is not perhaps easy to account for her leaving the rudder of her longboat behind her; and if she was cut off by the natives, there must be much more considerable remains of her in the island, especially of her iron-work, upon which all Indian nations, who have no metal, set the highest value; we had no opportunities however to examine this matter farther.
The hammered-iron, brass, and iron tools, I brought away with me; but we found a tool exactly in the form of a carpenter’s adze, the blade of which was a pearl oyster-shell; possibly this might have been made in imitation of an adze which had belonged to the carpenter of the Dutch Ship, for among the tools that I brought away there was one which seemed to be the remains of such an implement, though it was worn away almost to nothing

Page 140

The next morning, at six o’clock, I made sail for the island which I intended to visit, and when I reached it, I steered S.W. by W. close along the north east side of it, but could get no soundings: this side is about six or seven leagues long, and the whole makes much the same appearance as the other, having a large salt water lake in the middle of it.
As soon as the ship came in sight, the natives ran down to the beach in great numbers: they were armed in the same manner as those that we had seen upon the other island, and kept abreast of the ship for several leagues.
As the heat of this climate is very great, they seemed to suffer much by running so far in the sun, for they sometimes plunged into the sea, and sometimes fell flat upon the sand, that the surf might break over them, after which they renewed the race with great vigour.

Page 142

We observed, that in the lake, or lagoon, there were two or three very large vessels, one of which had two masts, and some cordage aloft to support them.

To these two islands, I gave the name of KING GEORGE’S ISLANDS, in honour of his Majesty.
That which we last visited, lies in latitude 14° 41’S., longitude 149° 15’W.; the variation of the compass here was 5° E.


AN ACCOUNT OF THE VOYAGES UNDERTAKEN BY THE ORDER OF HIS PRESENT MAJESTY FOR MAKING Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere,
And successively performed by
COMMODORE BYRON, CAPTAIN CARTERET, CAPTAIN WALLIS, And CAPTAIN COOK,
In the DOLPHIN, the SWALLOW, and the ENDEAVOUR:
DRAWN UP
From the JOURNALS which were kept by the several COMMANDERS,
And from the Papers of JOSEPH BANKS, Esq;
By JOHN HAWKESWORTH, LL.D.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
Illustrated with CUTS, and a great Variety of CHARTS and MAPS relative to
Countries now first discovered, or hitherto but imperfectly known.
VOLS. II. And III.
LONDON;
Printed for W. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand. M DCC LXXIII. (1773).
http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/hv23/contents.html


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home catalogue history references appendix

Geoff Cater (1997-2007) : John Byron : Tuamotus and Gibert Islands,1765.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1765_Byron_Tuamotus.html