Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

strong: It was five fathom deep, and by the room it took up, it could not be less than three or four hundred fathom long. Fishing seems indeed to be the chief business of life in this part of the country; we saw about all their towns a great number of nets, laid in heaps like hay-cocks, and covered with a thatch to keep them from the weather, and we scarcely entered a house where some of the people were not employed in making them. The fish we procured here were sharks, stingrays, sea-bream, mullet, mackrel, and some others.

The inhabitants in this bay are far more numerous than in any other part of the country that we had before visited; it did not appear to us that they were united under one head, and though their towns were fortified, they seemed to live together in perfect amity.

It is high water in this bay at the full and change of the moon, about eight o'clock, and the tide then rises from six to eight feet perpendicularly. It appears from such observations as I was able to make of the tides upon the seacoast, that the flood comes from the southward; and I have reason to think that there is a current which comes from the westward, and sets along the shore to the S.E. or S.S.E. as the land happens to lie.3

SECTION XXV.

Range from the Bay of Islands round North Cape to Queen Charlotte's Sound; and a Description of that Part of the Coast.

ON Thursday the 7th of December, at noon, Cape Bret bore S.S.E. E. distant ten miles, and our latitude, by observation, was 34° 59′ S.; soon after we made several observations of the sun and moon, the result of which made our longitude 185° 36′ W. The wind being against us, we had made but little way. In the afternoon, we stood in shore, and fetched close under the Cavalles, from which islands the main trends W. by N.: Several canoes put off and

3 Some sketches of the Bay of Islands, and a good deal of valuable information about it, are given by Mr Savage in his Account of New Zea land, to which we shall be indebted hereafter.-E.

and followed us, but a light breeze springing up, I did not chuse to wait for them. I kept standing to the W.N.W. and N.W. till the next morning at ten o'clock, when I tacked and stood in for the shore, from which we were about five leagues distant. At noon, the westermost land in sight bore W. by S. and was about four leagues distant. In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze to the west, which in the evening came to the south, and continuing so all night, by day-light brought us pretty well in with the land, seven leagues to the westward of the Cavalles, where we found a deep bay running in S.W. by W. and W.S.W. the bottom of which we could but just see, and there the land appeared to be low and level. To this bay, which I called Doubtless Bay, the entrance is formed by two points, which lie W.N.W. and E.S. E. and are five miles distant from each other. The wind not permitting us to look in here, we steered for the westerinost land in sight, which bore from us W.N.W. about three leagues, but before we got the length of it it fell calm.

While we lay becalmed, several canoes came off to us, but the people having heard of our guns, it was not without great difficulty that they were persuaded to come under our stern After having bought some of their clothes, as well. as their fish, we began to make enquiries concerning their country, and learnt, by the help of Tupia, that, at the distance of three days rowing in their canoes, at a place called Moore-wennua, the land would take a short turn to the southward, and from thence extend no more to the west. This place we concluded to be the land discovered by Tasman, which he called Cape Maria van Diemen, and finding these people so intelligent, we enquired farther, if they knew of any country besides their own: They answered, that they never had visited any other, but that their ances tors had told them, that to the N.W. by N. or N.N.W. there was a country of great extent, called Ulimaroa, to which some people had sailed in a very large canoe; that only part of them returned, and reported, that after a passage of a month they had seen a country where the people eat hogs. Tupia then enquired whether these adventurers brought any hogs with them when they returned? They said No: Then, replied Tupia, your story is certainly false, for it cannot be believed that men who came back from an expedition without hogs, had ever visited a country where hogs

hogs were to be procured. It is however remarkable, notwithstanding the shrewdness of Tupia's objection, that when they mentioned hogs it was not by description but by name, calling them Booah, the name which is given them in the South-sea islands; but if the animal had been wholly unknown to them, and they had no communication with people to whom it was known, they could not possibly have been acquainted with the name.

About ten o'clock at night, a breeze sprung up at W.N. W. with which we stood off north; and at noon the next day, the Cavalles bore S.E. by E. distant eight leagues; the entrance of Doubtless Bay S. by W. distant three leagues; and the north-west extremity of the land in sight, which we judged to be the main, bore N.W. by W.: Our latitude by observation was 34° 44' S. In the evening, we found the variation to be 12° 41' E. by the azimuth, and 12° 40' by the amplitude.

Early in the morning, we stood in with the land, seven leagues to the westward of Doubtless Bay, the bottom of which is not far distant from the bottom of another large bay, which the shore forms at this place, being separated only by a low neck of land, which juts out into a peninsula that I have called Knuckle Point. About the middle of this Bay, which we called Sandy Bay, is a high mountain, standing upon a distant shore, to which I gave the name of Mount Camel. The latitude here is S4° 51' S. and longitude 186° 50′. We had twenty-four and twenty-five fathom water, with a good bottom; but there seems to be nothing in this bay that can induce a ship to put into it; for the land about it is utterly barren and desolate, and, except Mount Camel, the situation is low: The soil appears to be nothing but white sand, thrown up in low irregular hills and narrow ridges, lying parallel with the shore. But barren and desolate as this place is, it is not without inhabitants: We saw one village on the west side of Mount Camel, and another on the east side: We saw also five canoes full of people, who pulled after the ship, but could not come up with us. At nine o'clock, we tacked and stood to the northward; and at noon, the Cavalles bore S.E. by E. distant thirteen leagues; the north extremity of the land in sight, making like an island, bore N.W. 4 N. distant nine leagues; and Mount Camel bore S.W, by S. distance six leagues.

The

The wind being contrary, we kept plying northward till five o'clock in the evening of the 12th, when, having made very little way, we tacked and stood to the N.E. being two leagues to the northward of Mount Camel, and about at mile and a half from the shore, in which situation we had two-and-twenty fathom water.

At ten, it began to blow and rain, which brought us under double-reefed topsails; at twelve we tacked and stood to the westward till seven the next morning, when we tacked and stood again to the N.E. being about a mile to windward of the place where we tacked last night. Soon after it blew very hard at N.N.W. with heavy squalls and much rain, which brought us under our courses, and split the maintop-sail; so that we were obliged to unbend it and bend another: At ten it became more moderate, and we set the top-sails, double-reefed. At noon, having strong gales and heavy weather, we tacked and stood to the westward, and had no land in sight for the first time since we had been upon this coast.

We had now strong gales at W. and W.S.W.; and at half an hour past three we tacked and stood to the northward. Soon after, a small island lying off Knuckle Point bore S. W. distant half a league. In the evening, having split the fore and mizen topsails, we brought the ship under her courses; and at midnight we wore, and stood to the southward till five in the morning; when we tacked and stood to the N.W. and saw land bearing south, at the distance of eight or nine leagues; by this we discovered that we had fallen much to the leeward since yesterday morning. At noon, our latitude by observation was 34° 6′ S.; and the same land which we had seen before to the N.W. now bore S.W. and appeared to be the northern extremity of the country. We had a large swell rolling in from the westward, and therefore concluded that we were not covered by any land in that quarter. At eight in the evening, we tacked and stood to the westward, with as much sail as we could bear; and at noon the next day, we were in latitude 34° 10′, longitude 185° 45′ W. and by estimation about seventeen leagues from the land, notwithstanding our utmost endeavours to keep in with it.

On the 16th, at six in the morning, we saw land from the mast-head, bearing S.S.W.; and at noon it bore S. by W. distant fourteen leagues: While we were standing in for the shore we sounded several times, but had no ground

with ninety fathom. At eight, we tacked in a hundred and eight fathom, at about three or four miles from the shore, which was the same point of land that we had to the N. W. before we were blown off. At noon it bore S. W. distant about three miles; Mount Camel bore S. by E. distant about eleven leagues, and the westermost land in sight bore S. 75 W.; the latitude by observation was 34 20′ S. At four o'clock, we tacked and stood in shore, in doing which, we met with a strong rippling, and the ship fell fast to leeward, which we imputed to a current setting east. At eight, we tacked and stood off till eight the next morning; when we tacked and stood in, being about ten leagues from the land: At noon, the point of land which we were near the day before, bore S.S.W. distant five leagues. The wind still continued at west; and at seven o'clock, we tacked in thirty-five fathom, when the point of land which has been mentioned before, bore N.W. by N. distant four or five miles; so that we had not gained one inch to windward the last twenty-four hours, which confirmed our opinion that there was a current to the eastward. The point of land I called North Cape, it being the northern extremity of this country. It lies in latitude 34° 22′ S. longitude 186° 55′ W. and thirty-one leagues distant from Cape Bret, in the direction of N. 63 W. It forms the north point of Sandy Bay, and is a peninsula jutting out N.E. about two miles, and terminating in a bluff head that is flat at the top. The isthmus which joins this head. to the main land is very low, and for that reason the land of the Cape, from several situations, has the appearance of an island. It is still more remarkable when it is seen from the southward, by the appearance of a high round island at the S.E. point of the Cape; but this also is a deception; for what appears to be an island is a round hill, joined to the Cape by a low narrow neck of land. Upon the Cape we saw a Hippah or village, and a few inhabitants; and on the south-east side of it there appears to be anchorage, and good shelter from the south-west and north-west winds.

We continued to stand off and on, making N.W. till noon on the 21st, when North Cape bore S. 39 E. distant thirty-eight leagues. Our situation varied only a few leagues till the 23d, when, about seven o'clock in the evening, we saw land from the mast-head, bearing S. E. At eleven

VOL. XIII.

M

« ZurückWeiter »