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AN

ACCOUNT

OF A

VOYAGE round the WORLD.

BOOK I.

CHA P. I.

The Paffage from Plymouth to Madeira, with fome Account: of that Ifland.

H

AVING received my commiffion, which was dated the 25th of May 1768, I went on board on the 27th, hoifted the pennant, and took charge of the ship, which then lay in the bafon in Deptford Yard. She was fitted for fea with all expedition; and ftores and provifions being taken on board, failed down the river on the 30th of July, and on the 13th of Auguft anchored in Plymouth Sound.

While we lay here waiting for a wind, the articles of war and the act of parliament were read to the ship's company, who were paid two months wages in advance, and told that they were to expect no additional pay for the performance of the voyage.

1768. May.

Friday 27.

July.' Saturday 30. Auguft. Saturday 13.

On Friday the 26th of Auguft, the wind becoming fair, Friday 26. we got under fail, and put to fea. On the 31ft, we faw Wednef. 31. feveral of the birds which the failors call Mother Carey's

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1768. September.

Thursday 1.

Friday 2.

Chickens, and which they suppose to be the forerunners of a ftorm; and on the next day we had a very hard gale, which brought us under our courfes, washed over-board a small boat belonging to the Boatfwain, and drowned three or four dozen of our poultry, which we regretted ftill more.

On Friday the 2d of September we faw land, between Cape Finifter and Cape Ortegal, on the coast of Gallicia, in Monday 5. Spain; and on the 5th, by an obfervation of the fun and moon, we found the latitude of Cape Finister to be 42° 53′ North, and its longitude 8° 46′ West, our first meridian being always fuppofed to pass through Greenwich; variation of the needle 21° 4′ W.

During this course, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had an opportunity of obferving many marine animals, of which no naturalift has hitherto taken notice; particularly, a new fpecies of the Onifcus, which was found adhering to the Medusa Pelagica; and an animal of an angular figure, about three paffing quite

inches long, and one thick, with a ho they con

through it, and a brown spot on one end, which they conjectured might be its ftomach; four of these adhered together by their fides when they were taken, so that at first they were thought to be one animal, but upon being put into a glass of water they soon separated, and swam about very briskly. These animals are of a new genus, to which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gave the name of Dagyfa, from the likeness of one fpecies of them to a gem: several specimens of them were taken adhering together fometimes to the length of a yard or more, and shining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal of a new genus they also discovered, which fhone in the water with colours ftill more beautiful and vivid, and which indeed exceeded in variety and brightness any thing that we had ever feen: the colouring and fplendour of these animals were equal to those

of

of an Opal, and from their refemblance to that gem, the
genus was called Carcinium Opalinum. One of them lived
several hours in a glass of salt water, fwimming about with
great agility, and at every motion displaying a change of co-
lours almost infinitely various. We caught also
also among the
rigging of the ship, when we were at the distance of about
ten leagues from Cape Finister, several birds which have not
been described by Linnæus; they were fuppofed to have come
from Spain, and our gentlemen called the species Motacilla
velificans, as they said none but failors would venture them-
felves on board a ship that was going round the world: one
of them was fo exhausted that it died in Mr. Banks's hand,
almost as soon as it was brought to him.

It was thought extraordinary that no naturalift had hitherto taken notice of the Dagyfa, as the fea abounds with them not twenty leagues from the coast of Spain; but, unfortunately for the cause of science, there are but very few of those who traverse the sea, that are either difpofed or qualified to remark the curiofities of which Nature has made it the repofitory.

1768.

September.

On the 12th we discovered the islands of Porto Santo and Monday 12. Madeira, and on the next day anchored in Funchiale road, and moored with the stream-anchor: but, in the night, the bend of the hawfer of the stream-anchor flipped, owing to the negligence of the person who had been employed to make it fast. In the morning the anchor was heaved up into the boat, and carried out to the fouthward; but in heaving it again, Mr. Weir, the Master's Mate, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and went to the bottom with the anchor; the people in the fhip faw the accident, and got the anchor up with all poffible expedition; it was however too late, the body came up intangled in the buoy-rope, but it was dead. VOL. II. When

B

1768. September.

Tuesday 13.

When the island of Madeira is first approached from the fea, it has a very beautiful appearance; the fides of the hills being entirely covered with vines almost as high as the eye can diftinguish; and the vines are green when every kind of herbage, except where they shade the ground, and here and there by the fides of a rill, is intirely burnt up, which was the cafe at this time.

On the 13th, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a boat, which our failors call the product boat, came on board from the officers of health,, without whofe permiffion no perfon is fuffered to land from on board a fhip. As foon as this permiffion was obtained, we went on fhore at Funchiale, the capital of the island, and proceeded directly to the house of Mr. Cheap, who is the English conful there, and one of the moft confiderable merchants of the place. This gentleman. received us with the kindness of a brother, and the liberality of a prince; he infifted upon our taking poffeffion of his houfe, in which he furnished us with every possible accommodation during our stay upon the island: he procured leave for Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to fearch the island for fuch natural curiofities as they fhould think worth their notice; employed perfons to take fish and gather shells, which time would not have permitted them to collect for themfelves; and he provided horses and guides to take them to any part of the country which they should chufe to vifit. With all these advantages, however, their excurfions were feldom pushed farther than three miles from the town, as they were only five days on fhore; one of which they spent at home, in receiving the honour of a vifit from the governor. The season was the worst in the year for their purpose, as it was neither that of plants nor infects; a few of the plants, however, were procured in flower, by the kind attention of Dr.

Heberden,

Heberden, the chief physician of the island, and brother to Dr. Heberden of London, who alfo gave them such specimens as he had in his possession, and a copy of his Botanical Obfervations; containing, among other things, a particular defcription of the trees of the island. Mr. Banks enquired after the wood which has been imported into England for cabinet work, and is here called Madeira mahogany: he learnt that no wood was exported from the island under that name, but he found a tree called by the natives Vigniatico, the Laurus indicus of Linnæus, the wood of which cannot eafily be distinguished from mahogany. Dr. Heberden has a book-cafe in which the vigniatico and mahogany are mixed, and they are no otherwife to be known from each other than by the colour, which, upon a nice examination, appears to be somewhat less brown in the vigniatico than the mahogany; it is therefore in the highest degree probable, that the wood known in England by the name of Madeira mahogany, is the vigniatico.

There is great reason to fuppofe that this whole island was, at fome remote period, thrown up by the explosion of fubterraneous fire, as every stone, whether whole or in fragments, that we faw upon it appeared to have been burnt, and even the fand itself to be nothing more than afhes: we did not, indeed, fee much of the country, but the people informed us that what we did fee was a very exact specimen of the reft.

The only article of trade in this ifland is wine, and the manner in which it is made is fo fimple, that it might have' been used by Noah, who is faid to have planted the first vineyard after the flood: the grapes are put into a square wooden vessel, the dimenfions of which are proportioned to the fize of the vineyard to which it belongs; the fervants then,

B 2

1768. September.

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