towards that island, and in consequence the 25th was lost in making
short tacks, which were the more required, as the Etoile did not feel
the breeze till the evening.

The bearings taken on the 26th, shewed that the currents had taken them
several miles to the southward of their reckoning. Whitsun-isle still
appeared separated from the S.W. land, but by a narrower passage, and
what had before been considered a continued coast, was now found to be a
cluster of islands. Some agreeable appearances induced several attempts
at landing, but they were unavailing, and only exposed those that made
them to attacks from the natives, who seemed to concur with the natural
difficulties around their islands, in preventing too near an approach.
Bougainville bestowed the name of Archipelago of the Great Cyclades on
these very numerous isles, which lie in 30 deg. S. latitude, and 180 deg.
longitude west of Ferro, and which have been better known since the time
of Cook by the name of New Hebrides. During Bougainville's being on
board the Etoile about this time, transacting some necessary business,
he had the opportunity of verifying a report, which had for a good while
been circulated in both ships, viz. that M. de Commercon's servant,
named Bare, was a woman. Several suspicious circumstances had been
noticed as to her sex, and something amounting to a discovery of it had
been made, it seems, by the _very discerning_ people of Otaheite; but
now, she came to Bougainville, her face covered with tears, and
confessed it, giving a history of herself, and an explanation of her
reasons for undertaking so romantic an expedition. "She will be the
first woman," says Bougainville, "that ever made such a voyage, and I
must do her the justice to affirm, that she always behaved on board with
the most scrupulous modesty. She was neither ugly nor handsome, and not
more than twenty-six or twenty-seven years of age. It must be owned,
that if the two ships had been wrecked on any uninhabited island in the
ocean, the fate of Bare would have been a very singular one." The idea
perhaps is scarcely susceptible of embellishment, but one may wonder,
that it never struck the fancy of a poet.

On the 29th of May, they lost sight of the land, which had so much but
so fruitlessly engaged their attention, and sailed westward with a very
fresh south-east wind. This brought them on the 4th June, to a low flat
island, surrounded, by a dangerous shoal, to which with littl