Travel of Georg Forster
Tanna - Vanuatu
Title
Blowing conchs as an alarm
Short description
Georg Forster describes the sound of blowing in a shell, which he heard on one of their excursions and which the natives used to tell them to get away from the volcano.
Text on source
We were thinking to go on towards it, as we had hitherto met with no bad accident, nor seen so much as a single native on our walk: however, our voices must have alarmed some of them in the plantations along which we passed, for we presently heard one or two blowing on great conchs, which, among many savage nations, and particularly in the South Seas, are used to alarm the country. At this sound we instantly resolved to retreat, and got safely down to the solfatarra which we had last discovered, unseen by any of the natives.
English translation
Folios/Pages
p. 298
Date
1774 08 11
Observations on the events description
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
Name
Role
Notes
Edit
Delete
Cook, James
Travel fellow
Forster, Johann Reinold
Travel fellow
Participants
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "Blowing conchs as an alarm" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 04 05.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
