Produced by Sue Asscher and Col Choat
CAPTAIN COOK'S JOURNAL.
FIRST VOYAGE.
(PLATE: PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK WITH A FACSIMILE OF HIS SIGNATURE.
Collotype, Waterlow & Sons Ltd.)
CAPTAIN COOK'S JOURNAL
DURING HIS
FIRST VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
MADE IN
H.M. BARK "ENDEAVOUR"
1768-71
A Literal Transcription of the Original MSS.
WITH
NOTES AND INTRODUCTION
EDITED BY
CAPTAIN W.J.L. WHARTON, R.N., F.R.S.
Hydrographer of the Admiralty.
Illustrated by Maps and Facsimiles.
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW
1893
43931
DEDICATED BY PERMISSION
TO
ADMIRAL H.R.H. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH,
K.G., ETC.,
WHOSE DEEP INTEREST IN ALL MATTERS CONNECTED WITH
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE BRITISH NAVY
IS WELL KNOWN TO ALL WHO HAVE HAD
THE PRIVILEGE OF SERVING WITH HIM.
PREFACE.
STRANGE it must appear that the account of perhaps the most celebrated
and, certainly to the English nation, the most momentous voyage of
discovery that has ever taken place--for it practically gave birth to the
great Australasian Colonies--has never before been given to the world in
the very words of its great leader. It has fallen out in this wise.
After the return of the Endeavour it was decided that a full and
comprehensive account of the voyage should be compiled. COOK'S JOURNAL
dealt with matters from the point of view of the seaman, the explorer,
and the head of the expedition, responsible for life, and for its general
success. The Journals of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander looked from the
scientific side on all that presented itself to their enthusiastic
observation.
What could be better than to combine these accounts, and make up a
complete narrative from them all?
The result, however, according to our nineteenth-century ideas, was not
altogether happy. Dr. Hawkesworth, into whose hands the Journals were
put, not only interspersed reflections of his own, but managed to impose
his own ponderous style upon many of the extracts from the united
Journals; and, moreover, as they are all jumbled together, the whole
being put into Cook's mouth, it is impossible to know whether we are
reading Cook, Banks, Solander, or Hawkesworth himself.
The readers of the day were not, however, critical. Hawkesworth's book,*
(* "Hawkesworth's Voyages" 3 volumes quarto 1773.) which undoubtedly
contains all the most generally interesting passages of the three
writers, gave a clear description of the events of the voyage in a
connected manner, and was accepted as sufficient; and in the excitement
of devouring the pages which introduced so many new lands and peoples,
probably few wished for more, and the Journals were put away as dealt
with.
Since that time it has been on several occasions in contemplation to
publish Mr. (after Sir Joseph) Banks' Journal; but this has never been
accomplished.
Cook's Journal was in triplicate. The Admiralty Orders of the day
enjoined that the captain should keep a journal of proceedings, a copy of
which was to be forwarded to the Admiralty every six months, or as soon
after as possible. In the case of this voyage the ship was two and a half
years from England before any opportunity of sending this copy occurred.
The ship was the whole of this time in new and savage lands. When Batavia
was reached the duplicate of Cook's Journal was sent home, and six months
later, when the ship arrived in England, the full Journal of the voyage
was deposited at the Admiralty.
The Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Philip Stephens, a personal friend
and appreciator of Cook, appears to have appropriated the Batavia
duplicate, as we find it in the hands of his descendants, and passing
thence by sale, first to Mr. Cosens in 1868, and then in 1890 to Mr. John
Corner.
The other and complete copy is still in possession of the Admiralty,
though in some unexplained manner it was absent for some years, and was
only recovered by the exertions of Mr. W. Blakeney, R.N.
A third copy of the Journal also terminates a few days before reaching
Batavia. It is in the possession of Her Majesty the Queen, and from its
appearance was kept for, and probably presented to, George III, who took
great interest in the voyage.
Neither private possessors nor the Admiralty have felt moved to publish
this interesting document until Mr. Corner acquired his copy, when, being
an enthusiastic admirer of Captain Cook, he determined to do so, and was
making preliminary arrangements, when he suddenly died, after a few
hours' illness. His son, anxious to carry out his father's wishes, which
included the devotion of any proceeds to the restoration of Hinderwell
Church--the parish church of Staithes, whence Cook ran away to sea--has
completed these arrangements, and the present volume is the result.
The text is taken from Mr. Corner's copy so far as it goes, paragraphs
from the Admiralty copy, which do not appear in the former, being added,
with a notation of their source.
The last portion, from October 23rd, 1770, which is only given in the
Admiralty copy, is necessarily taken from it.
The three copies are, practically, identical, except for the period
August 13th to 19th, 1770, during which the wording is often different,
though the events are the same.
It is not very difficult to account for this.
The two first-mentioned Journals are in the handwriting of an amanuensis,
Mr. Orton, the clerk. No autograph journal is, so far as is known, in
existence, but some rough original must have been kept, as both copies
bear internal evidence of having been written up after the lapse of an
interval after the events described.
This is markedly the case in the Australian part of the Journal.
It is known that Botany Bay was at first called by Cook, Stingray Bay, on
account of the number of rays caught there; but after Banks had examined
his collection, and found all his plants new to science, Cook determined
to call it Botany Bay. It is, however, called Botany Bay from the first
in the Journals.
The name, "New South Wales," was not bestowed without much consideration,
and apparently at one stage New Wales was the appellation fixed upon, for
in Mr. Corner's copy it is so called throughout, whereas the Admiralty
copy has "New South Wales."
It would therefore seem that about the period of the discrepant accounts
Mr. Corner's copy was first made, and that Cook, in the Admiralty copy,
which for this part is fuller, revised the wording of his description of
this very critical portion of the voyage.
The Queen's Copy has been written with especial care, and by several
different hands. It was evidently the last in point of time.
In reading COOK'S JOURNAL of his First Voyage it must be remembered that
it was not prepared for publication. Though no doubt the fair copies we
possess were revised with the care that characterises the man, and which
is evidenced by the interlineations and corrections in his own hand with
which the pages are dotted, it may be supposed, from the example we have
in the published account of his Second Voyage, which was edited by
himself, that further alterations and additions would have been made, to
make the story more complete, had he contemplated its being printed.
This does not, however, in any way detract from the interest of a
transcript of his record on the spot; and though many circumstances
recorded in Hawkesworth, from Banks or others, will not be found, it is
probable that an exact copy of the great navigator's own impressions, and
the disentanglement of them from the other interpolated matter, will be
welcome.
In printing this Journal the only alterations that have been made are the
breaking-up into chapters, with modern headings; the addition of
punctuation; and in the form of the insertion of the daily record of
wind, weather, and position of the ship. These in the original are on the
left hand page in log form. To save space they have been placed at the
end of every day's transactions.
The eccentricities in the spelling have been preserved. A good many of
these would seem to be due to Mr. Orton, the transcriber, as Cook's own
letters are generally correct in their orthography. The use of the
capital letter was usual at the time.
References will be found to sketches and plans which have not been
reproduced.
Cook's knack of finding names for localities was peculiarly happy. Those
who have had to do this, know the difficulty. Wherever he was able to
ascertain the native name, he adopts it; but in the many cases where this
was impossible, he manages to find a descriptive and distinctive
appellation for each point, bay, or island.
He seems to have kept these names very much to himself, as it is seldom
the officers' logs know anything of them; and original plans, still in
existence, in many cases bear different names to those finally pitched
upon.
Cook's names have rarely been altered, and New Zealand and Australian
places will probably for all time bear those which he bestowed.
In the orthography of his native names he was not so successful. The
constant addition of a redundant "o" has altered many native sounds, such
as Otaheite for Tahiti, Ohwhyhee for Hawaii; while his spelling generally
has been superseded by more simple forms. This is a matter, however, in
which great difficulties are found to the present day by Englishmen,
whose language presents no certain laws for rendering any given sound
into a fixed combination of letters.
Cook's language is unvarnished and plain, as a sailor's should be. His
incidents, though often related with circumstance, are without
exaggeration; indeed if any fault is to be found, it is that he takes
occurrences involving much labour and hardship as such matters of course,
that it is not easy for the reader, especially if he be a landsman, to
realise what they really entail.
Cook was assiduous in obtaining observations to ascertain the Variation
of the compass--i.e., the difference between the direction shown by the
magnetic needle and the true north. He is constantly puzzled by the
discrepancies in these observations made at short intervals. These arose
from the different positions of the ship's head, whereby the iron within
a certain distance of the compass is placed in different positions as
regards the needle working the compass card, the result being that the
needle is attracted from its correct direction in varying degree. This is
known as the Deviation of the compass. The cause of this, and of the laws
which govern it, were only discovered by Captain Flinders in 1805.
Happily for the navigators of those days, little iron entered into the
construction of ships, and the amount of the Deviation was not large,
though enough to cause continual disquiet and wonderment.
Cook's longitudes in this voyage are all given as west of Greenwich, not
divided into east and west, as is usual at this day. The latter system
again has only been adopted universally since his time.
Though Cook himself gives, at the beginning of the Journal, a note of the
method of reckoning days adopted, it may not be amiss to give further
explanation here.
It was the usual custom on board ships to keep what was known as Ship
time--i.e., the day began at noon BEFORE the civil reckoning, in which
the day commences at midnight. Thus, while January 1st, as ordinarily
reckoned, is from midnight to midnight, in ship time it began at noon on
December 31st and ended at noon January 1st, this period being called
January 1st. Hence the peculiarity all through the Journal of the p.m.
coming before the a.m. It results that any events recorded as occurring
in the p.m. of January 1st in the log, would, if translated into the
ordinary system, be given as happening in the p.m. of December 31st;
while occurrences in the a.m. of January 1st would be equally in the a.m.
of January 1st in both systems.
This puzzling mode of keeping the day at sea continued to a late period,
and was common to seamen of all nations.
The astronomical day, again, begins at noon AFTER the midnight at which
the civil day begins, and hence is a whole day later than the ship's day.
This does not enter into Cook's Journal, but one of the logs of the
Endeavour, extant, that of Mr. Green the astronomer, was kept in this
time, and the events of say Thursday, June 24th, of Cook's Journal, are
therein given as happening on Wednesday, June 23rd. These differences of
reckoning have been a fertile source of confusion in dates in many
voyages.
Besides Cook's Journals there are other Journals and Logs of the voyage
extant. Perhaps it may be necessary to state that a Log is the official
document in which the progress of the ship from hour to hour is recorded,
with such official notes as the alteration in sail carried, expenditure
of provisions and stores, etc. A Journal contains this information in a
condensed form, with such observations as the officer keeping it may feel
inclined to insert.
The ship's Log Book of the Endeavour is in the British Museum. Mr. R.M.
Hudson of Sunderland possesses Cook's own log, not autograph however,
presented by Cook to Sir Hugh Palliser, the ancestor of his wife.
The Journals of all the officers of the Endeavour are preserved at the
Public Record Office. There is, however, nothing to be got out of them,
as they are mainly copies one of the other, founded on the ship's log.
The portion of Mr. Molineux's, the Master's, Log that exists (at the
Admiralty) is a most beautifully kept and written document, enriched with
charts and sketches that attest the accuracy of Cook's remark, that he
was a "young man of good parts."
The log kept by Mr. Green, however, does contain a few original remarks,
some of which have been made use of. This book contains a mass of
astronomical observations, and witnesses to the zeal of this gentleman in
his especial duty.
He records in one place, when far away from land, his disgust that the
officers were unwilling to aid him in lunar observations. No doubt they
saw no particular use in them when there was no coast to fix; but there
is ample proof that he received every aid when Cook thought it necessary.
Sufficient charts have been placed in this book to enable the reader to
follow the more interesting parts of the voyage; some being reproductions
of Cook's own charts, others modern publications. In the case of the
coast of East Australia, the coast-line as laid down by Cook, and as now
known, are given side by side for comparison.
It must be understood, that although this book is styled CAPTAIN COOK'S
JOURNAL, he was on this voyage only a Lieutenant in Command, and
therefore only Captain by courtesy.
W.J.L. WHARTON.
FLORYS, WIMBLEDON PARK,
April 7th, 1893.
CONTENTS.
SKETCH OF CAPTAIN COOK'S LIFE.
LIST OF PERSONS WHO LEFT ENGLAND IN H.M.S. ENDEAVOUR, 26TH AUGUST, 1768.
CHAPTER 1. ENGLAND TO RIO JANEIRO.
CHAPTER 2. RIO JANEIRO TO TAHITI.
CHAPTER 3. TAHITI.
CHAPTER 4. TAHITI TO NEW ZEALAND.
CHAPTER 5. EXPLORATION OF NEW ZEALAND.
CHAPTER 6. EXPLORATION OF MIDDLE ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND.
CHAPTER 7. PASSAGE FROM NEW ZEALAND TO NEW HOLLAND.
CHAPTER 8. EXPLORATION OF EAST COAST OF AUSTRALIA.
CHAPTER 9. FROM TORRES STRAIT TO BATAVIA.
CHAPTER 10. BATAVIA TO CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
CHAPTER 11. CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO ENGLAND.
INDEX.
[ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. PORTRAIT OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK WITH A FACSIMILE OF HIS SIGNATURE.
COLLOTYPE, WATERLOW & SONS LTD.
2. MODERN CHART OF SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN SHOWING TRACK OF H.M.S. ENDEAVOUR,
1769 TO 1770.
3. FACSIMILE OF SATURDAY, 3RD JUNE, 1769.
4. CHART OF THE ISLAND OTAHEITE, BY LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK, 1769.
REPRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHED CHART.
5. TAHITI: TYPES OF CANOES.
6. CHART OF THE SOCIETY ISLES, DISCOVERED BY LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK, 1769.
REPRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHED CHART.
7. WAR CANOE OF NEW ZEALAND.
8. TRACK OF ENDEAVOUR FROM TORRES STRAIT TO JAVA. AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER
1770.
9. FACSIMILE OF TUESDAY, 23RD OCTOBER, 1770.
10. CHART OF NEW ZEALAND, EXPLORED IN 1769 AND 1770, BY LIEUTENANT I:
COOK, COMMANDER OF HIS MAJESTY'S BARK ENDEAVOUR, ENGRAVED BY I. BAYLY.
REPRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL PUBLISHED CHART.
11. PRINTERS' PLATE: Owl on books, distant town, hills, tree and moon.
"REST, PRAY, SLEEP."
Elliott Stock, 62, Paternoster Row.]
SKETCH OF CAPTAIN COOK'S LIFE.
CAPTAIN COOK'S life, or the account of so much of it as is recoverable,
has been so often recounted that there is no occasion to insert more in
this publication than is necessary as a reference to the reader, to
enable him to realise the career and character of the man.
Cook's first biographer, Andrew Kippis, wrote in 1788, and his work has
recently been republished.* (* "A Narrative of the Voyage round the
World, performed by Captain James Cook, with an Account of His Life" by
A. Kippis, D.D., F.R.S. London: Bickers & Son 1889.)
The latest and best life is by Walter Besant,* (* "Captain Cook" by
Walter Besant: "English Men of Action" London, Macmillan & Co. 1890.)
whose graceful pen has given us a fascinating, interesting, and, as far
as is possible, complete picture of this great Englishman. Many details
of Cook's private life are lost, but enough has been collected by Mr.
Besant to place our hero vividly before us, and a perusal of his work is
strongly recommended.
Many things in the following sketch are taken from Mr. Besant, to whom I
wish to tender my acknowledgments.
James Cook rose from nearly the lowest ranks. The second son of James
Cook, a Yorkshire labourer, and Grace his wife, he was born on the edge
of the Cleveland Hills on February 27th, 1728, in the little village of
Marton, which lies about four miles south-south-east of Middlesborough,
and five miles west of the well-known hill and landmark, Roseberry
Topping. Eight years later his father removed to Great Ayton, which lies
close under Roseberry Topping.
At the age of thirteen Cook, who, it is recorded, had had some elementary
schooling both at Marton and Great Ayton, was apprenticed to one
Sanderson, a draper and grocer of Staithes, a fishing village on the
coast, about fourteen miles from Ayton and nine north-west of Whitby.
A year later Cook went, or ran away, to sea, shipping at Whitby on board
the Freelove, a collier belonging to the brothers Walker.
In this hard school Cook learnt his sailor duties. No better training
could have been found for his future responsibilities. Here he learnt to
endure the utmost rigours of the sea. Constant fighting with North Sea
gales, bad food, and cramped accommodation, taught him to regard with the
indifference that afterwards distinguished him, all the hardships that he
had to encounter, and led him to endure and persevere where others, less
determined or more easily daunted by difficulties, would have hurried on,
and left their work incomplete.
All details of Cook's life during his thirteen years in the merchant
service are lost: what voyages he made, how he fared, whether he advanced
in general knowledge, all is gone. The only fact known is that in May
1755, when Cook was twenty-seven years of age, and mate of a vessel of
Messrs. Walker, then in the Thames, he, to avoid the press, then active
on account of the outbreak of the war with France, volunteered on board
H.M.S. Eagle, of 60 guns, as an able seaman.
Captain Hugh Palliser, who succeeded to the command of this ship in
October, was certainly Cook's warmest patron, and it would appear that
Cook did work superior to that of an able seaman in the Eagle. Be that as
it may, all that is absolutely known is that that ship took her share of
the fighting at the taking of Louisbourg and elsewhere on the North
American and West Indian Station, and returned to England in 1759.
By Palliser's interest Cook was now appointed master of the Mercury. It
is therefore evident that his qualifications as a navigator recommended
themselves to Palliser.
The Mercury went to North America, and here Cook did his first good
service recorded, namely, taking soundings in the St. Lawrence, to enable
the fleet then attacking Quebec to take up safe positions in covering the
army under Wolfe. This he accomplished with great skill, under many
difficulties, in the face of the enemy, much of it being done at night.
He was immediately employed in making a survey of the intricate channels
of the river below Quebec, and for many years his chart was the guide for
navigation. Cook was indeed a born surveyor. Before his day charts were
of the crudest description, and he must have somehow acquired a
considerable knowledge of trigonometry, and possessed an intuitive
faculty for practically applying it, to enable him to originate, as it
may truly be said he did, the art of modern marine surveying.
The expedition to Quebec concluded, Cook was appointed master of the
Northumberland, bearing Admiral Lord Colville's flag, and during that
ship's winter at Halifax he applied himself to further study of
mathematics and astronomy.
In 1762, the Northumberland being at Newfoundland during the capture of
that island from the French, Cook again was employed in surveys. This
attracted the attention of Captain Graves, the Governor, who conceived a
high opinion of his abilities in this respect.
In the latter part of 1762 Cook returned to England and married Elizabeth
Batts, daughter of a man in business at Wapping; but a few months
afterwards he was called upon by Captain Graves to go again to
Newfoundland to make marine surveys.
In this important work he was engaged until 1767, Captain Palliser, who
succeeded Captain Graves as Governor, being only too glad to avail
himself of Cook's services.
The charts he made during these years in the schooner Grenville were
admirable. The best proof of their excellence is that they are not yet
wholly superseded by the more detailed surveys of modern times. Like all
first surveys of a practically unknown shore, and especially when that
shore abounds in rocks and shoals, and is much indented with bays and
creeks, they are imperfect, in the sense of having many omissions; but
when the amount of the ground covered, and the impediments of fogs and
bad weather on that coast is considered, and that Cook had at the most
only one assistant, their accuracy is truly astonishing. The originals of
these surveys form part of the most precious possessions of the
Hydrographic Office of the Admiralty.
We now approach the crowning achievements of Cook's life.
After many years' neglect the exploration of the Pacific was awaking
interest. This great ocean, which very few, even to this day, realise
occupies nearly one half of the surface of the globe, had been, since the
first voyage of Magellan, crossed by many a vessel.
Notwithstanding, very little was known of the islands occupying its
central portion.
For this there were two reasons. First, the comparatively small area
covered by islands; secondly, the fact that nearly all who traversed it
had followed Magellan's track, or, if they started, as many did, from
Central America, they made straight for Magellan's discovery, the Ladrone
Islands. For this, again, there was a reason.
Few sailed for the purpose of exploration pure and simple; and even those
who started with that view found, when embarked on that vast expanse,
that prudence dictated that they should have a moderate certainty of, by
a certain time, falling in with a place of sure refreshment. The
provisions they carried were bad at starting, and by the time they had
fought their way through the Straits of Magellan were already worse;
water was limited, and would not hold out more than a given number of
days. Every voyage that is pursued tells the same story--short of water,
and eagerly looking out for an opportunity of replenishing it. The winds
were found to blow in fixed directions, and each voyager was fearful of
deviating from the track on which it was known they would be fair, for
fear of delays. And ever present in each captain's mind was the dread of
the terrible scourge, scurvy. Every expedition suffered from it. Each
hoped they would be exempt, and each in turn was reduced to impotence
from its effects.
It was the great consideration for every leader of a protracted
expedition, How can I obviate this paralyzing influence? And one after
another had to confess his failure.
It is yearly becoming more difficult for us to realise these obstacles.
The prevailing winds and currents in each part of the ocean are well
known to us: the exact distance and bearing from one point to another are
laid down in the chart; steam bridges over calm areas, and in many cases
conducts us on our entire journey at a speed but little inferior to that
of land travelling by railroad; modern science preserves fresh and
palatable food for an indefinite period; and, in a word, all the
difficulties and most of the dangers of long voyages have disappeared.
Take one element alone in long voyages--the time required. The average
progress of a ship in the eighteenth century was not more than fifty
miles a day. Nowadays we may expect as much as four hundred miles in a
full powered steamer, and not less than one hundred and fifty in a
well-fitted sailing ship.
But navigation, and more especially the navigation of the unknown
Pacific, was very different in Cook's days, when all the obstacles above
mentioned impeded the explorers, and impelled them to follow a common
track.
There were a few who had deviated from the common track.
The Spaniards, Mendana, Quiros, Torres, in the latter part of the
sixteenth century, starting first from their colonies in Peru, had
ventured along the central line of the Pacific, discovering the
Marquesas, certain small coral islands, the Northern New Hebrides, and
the Solomon Islands; but their voyages, mainly for fear of Drake and his
successors, were kept so secret that no one quite knew where these
islands lay.
Abel Tasman, in 1642, coming across the Indian Ocean from the westward,
had touched at Tasmania, or, as he called it, Van Diemen's Land, had
skirted the western coast of the north island of New Zealand without
landing, and had stretched away to the north-east, and found the Tonga
Group.
The English Buccaneers were not among these discoverers; Dampier, Woods
Rogers, and others, all went from Acapulco to the Ladrones, looking out
for the valuable Spanish galleons from
Manila, and they added little or nothing to the knowledge of the Pacific
and what it contained.
It was not therefore strange that the imagination of geographers ran riot
amongst the great unknown areas. They were impressed, as they looked at
the globes of the day, with the fact that, while the northern hemisphere
contained much land, the southern showed either water or blank spaces;
and starting with the ill-founded idea that the solid land in either
hemisphere should balance, they conceived that there must be a great
unknown continent in the southern part of the Pacific to make up the
deficiency. This was generally designated Terra Australis Incognita, and
many is the ancient chart that shows it, sketched with a free and
uncontrolled hand, around the South Pole. It was held by many that Tasman
had touched it in New Zealand; that Quiros had seen it near his island of
Encarnacion, and again at Espiritu Santo (New Hebrides), but no one had
been to see.
In George III's reign the desire to know more of this unknown ocean arose
in England. The king himself took great interest in it, and for the first
time since Queen Elizabeth's age, when Davis, Frobisher, Drake,
Narborough, and others, had gone on voyages of discovery, the pursuit was
renewed.
In 1764 the Dolphin and Tamor, under the command of Commodore Byron and
Captain Mouat, sailed on a voyage round the world. They spent some time,
as ordered, in exploring the Falkland Islands, and, after a two months'
passage through Magellan Strait, they stood across the Pacific. They,
however, also followed near the well-beaten track, and passing north of
the Paumotus, of which they sighted a few small islands, they too made
for the Ladrones. As usual, they suffered much from scurvy, and the one
idea was to get to a known place to recover. Byron returned in May 1766,
having added but little to the knowledge of the Pacific, and the Dolphin
was again sent in the August of the same year, with the Swallow, under
the command of Captains Wallis and Carteret, on a similar voyage.
They did somewhat better. After the usual struggle through the long and
narrow Strait of Magellan, against the strong and contrary winds that
continually blow, and which occupied four months, they got into the
Pacific.
As they passed out they separated, the Dolphin outsailing the Swallow,
and a dispassionate reader cannot well escape the conclusion that the
senior officers unnecessarily parted company.
The Dolphin kept a little south of the usual route, fell in with some of
the Paumotu Group, and finally discovered Tahiti, where she anchored at
Royal Bay, after grounding on a reef at its entrance, with her people, as
usual, decimated by scurvy. They were almost immediately attacked by the
natives, who, however, received such a reception that they speedily made
friends, and fast friends too. The remainder of the month of the Dolphin
stay was marked with the most friendly intercourse, and she sailed with a
high opinion of Tahiti and the Tahitians; the Queen, Cook's Obereia,
being especially well disposed to them. Their communication with the
natives must, however, have been limited, as they remained too short a
time to learn the language, and we gather little of the manners and
customs from the account of the voyage.
After sailing from Tahiti we hear the same tale--sickness, want of water,
doubt of what was before them. After sailing by several small islands,
and an attempt to water at one, course was steered as before for the
Ladrones. Let Wallis tell his own story. He says:--
"I considered that watering here would be tedious and attended with great
fatigue; that it was now the depth of winter in the southern hemisphere;
that the ship was leaky, that the rudder shook in the stern very much,
and that what other damage she might have received in her bottom could
not be known. That for these reasons she was very unfit for the bad
weather which she would certainly meet with, either in going round Cape
Horn or through the Streight of Magellan; that if she should get safely
through the streight or round the Cape, it would be absolutely necessary
to refresh in some port; but in that case no port would be in her reach.
I therefore determined to make the best of my way to Tinian, Batavia, and
so to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope.
"By this rout, as far as we could judge, we should sooner be at home; and
if the ship should prove not to be in a condition to make the whole
voyage, we should still save our lives, as from this place to Batavia we
should probably have a calm sea, and be not far from a port."
These are scarcely the sentiments of a bold explorer, and we shall look
in vain for any similar ideas on the part of Cook. Here was a ship just a
year from England, just come from a convenient and friendly island, where
every refreshment and opportunity for refit were to be found, and the
only thought is how to get home again!
It was the vastly different conduct of Cook's voyages; the determination
that nothing should stop the main object of the expedition; his resource
in every difficulty and danger; that caused, and rightly caused, him to
be hailed as a born leader of such expeditions.
Wallis followed nearly on Byron's track: went from the Ladrones, through
the China Sea, to Batavia, and so home, arriving in May 1768.
The Swallow, under Captain Carteret, was navigated in a different spirit.
She was badly fitted out for such a voyage, had not even a forge, and all
the articles for trade were on board the Dolphin. But Carteret was not
easily daunted. He might, under the circumstances, when he found himself
alone, have abandoned the voyage; but he boldly went forward. Passing
from the Strait of Magellan, he touched at Juan Fernandez, and steering
somewhat south of Wallis's line, he passed south of Tahiti, discovering
Pitcairn's Island on his way, and some of the islands south of the
Paumotus.
By this time his people were severely afflicted with scurvy, and his ship
in a bad state; but Carteret only thought of getting to some place of
refreshment, from which he might afterwards pass on his voyage towards
the south, in the hope of falling in with the great southern Continent.
In this he was not fortunate. Missing all other islands, he fell across
the Santa Cruz Group, and hoping that he had found what he wanted, he
anchored and tried to water. The party were, however, attacked by the
natives, and several, including the master, were wounded and died by
poisoned arrows. All hope of a quiet refit was over, and his ship's
company being in a wretched condition, no forge or tools on board to
enable him to effect his many repairs, Carteret, who was himself very
ill, was obliged to give up all intention of exploration to the
southward. He got enough water to last him, and sailed on toward the
Solomon Islands. These he also just missed, but fell in with New Britain,
and passing between it and New Ireland, demonstrated for the first time
that these two large islands were not one, as had been supposed. He here
managed to do something to repair his leaky vessel, heeling and caulking
her, but got little but fruit for his scurvy-stricken crew. He was
attacked by the fierce islanders, and was altogether unable to do as much
as he evidently earnestly desired towards examining the islands.
Thence they struggled on by Mindanao to Makassar in Celebes, delayed by
contrary winds, disappointed of refreshments at every place they tried,
and losing men from scurvy. At Makassar they met with but an inhospitable
reception from the Dutch, who refused to permit them to receive
refreshments there, and after waiting at Bonthain, a place in Celebes,
several months, for the monsoon to change, they at last arrived at
Batavia, the only port in the Dutch Indies really open to ships, in June
1768. Thence, after heaving down and a thorough repair, they reached
home, via the Cape, on March 20th, 1769.
Of all the voyages before Cook's, Carteret's showed most determination
and true spirit of enterprise; and had his ship been better supplied, and
more suited to the exigencies of such a long cruise, he would, but for
one thing, have accomplished far more. This was the fatal disease, which
no captain had as yet succeeded in warding off, and which hampered and
defeated the efforts of the most enthusiastic. No man could go beyond a
certain point in disregarding the health of his crew.
These, then, were the kind of voyages, with their scanty fruits, to which
the English people were getting accustomed, and they were not such as to
encourage repetition.
In all the years that had elapsed since the Spaniards first sailed on the
Pacific, but little real knowledge of the lands in it had been gained.
Let us attempt to give a picture of what was known.
The Marquesas and Santa Cruz Group were known to exist; but of the
Solomons grave doubts were felt, as no man had seen them but Mendana, and
they were, if placed on a map at all, shown in very different longitudes.
Several voyagers had sighted different members of the extensive Paumotu
Group, but the varying positions caused great confusion.
Tahiti had been found by Wallis.
Tasman had laid down the south point of Tasmania, the western coast of
the North Island of New Zealand, and the Tonga Islands. Dampier and
Carteret had shown that New Britain and New Ireland were separate
islands, lying north-east of New Guinea. Quiros had found the northern
island of the New Hebrides.
But of none of these lands was anything really known. Those who had
visited them had merely touched. In no case had they gone round them, or
ascertained their limits, and their descriptions, founded on brief
experience, were bald and much exaggerated.
Let us turn to what was unknown.
This comprises the whole of the east coast of Australia, or New Holland,
and whether it was joined to Tasmania on the south, and New Guinea to the
north; the dimensions of New Zealand; New Caledonia and the New Hebrides,
with the exception of the fact that the northern island of the latter
existed; the Fiji Islands; Sandwich Islands; the Phoenix, Union, Ellice,
Gilbert, and Marshall Groups, with innumerable small islands scattered
here and there; the Cook Islands, and all the Society Islands except
Tahiti. The majority of the Paumotu Group. The coast of North America
north of 45 degrees north was unknown, and there was the great,
undefined, and imaginary southern Continent to disprove.
Whether other voyages of exploration would have been undertaken one
cannot say; but in 1768 the Royal Society put in a word.
A transit of Venus over the sun's disc was to occur in 1769, and
astronomers were anxious to take advantage of it, the object of the
observation being to ascertain the distance of the earth from the sun,
the fundamental base line in all astronomical measurements, and which was
very imperfectly known.
The Central Pacific afforded a favourable position, and the Royal Society
memorialised the king to send a ship for the purpose. The request was
granted, and at first Alexander Dalrymple, who had conducted marine
surveys in the East Indies, and was known as a scientific geographer, was
selected as observer. As, however, it was found that he also expected to
command the ship, the Admiralty positively refused to have anything to do
with him, and after some discussion James Cook was selected.
This says volumes for Cook's reputation at the time. To have risen
absolutely from the ranks was a great deal, but to be chosen as a master,
to command a ship, and undertake a scientific observation of this
importance, was a most exceptional occurrence, and speaks well for the
judgment of those who had the selection.
It seems that Mr. Stephens, the Secretary to the Admiralty, had much to
do with it. How Stephens had become acquainted with Cook history does not
relate, but doubtless his personal visits to the Admiralty in connection
with the completion of his charts of Newfoundland, from which he returned
every winter, had brought him into contact with the Secretary, who had
clearly formed a high opinion of him.
Cook, we may be sure, jumped at the chance, and his pride must have been
great when he found he was to receive a commission as Lieutenant.
This in itself was a most unusual step. The occasions on which a master
had been transferred to the executive line of the Royal Navy were very
rare, and many an admiral used his influence in favour of some deserving
officer in vain.
This was not without good reason, as the whole training of the Master of
those days was unfavourable to success in command of ships or men. The
exception was, however, in this case amply justified.
Cook was allowed to choose his vessel, and bearing in mind the dangers of
grounding in unknown seas, he pitched upon his old friends, the
stoutly-built, full-bottomed colliers of the North Sea trade.
His ship, the Endeavour, was a Whitby built vessel of three hundred and
seventy tons, and was known as H.M. Bark Endeavour, there being another
vessel, a cutter, of the same name in the Royal Navy. She was brought to
the dockyard at Deptford to fit out. Her appearance was, of course,
wholly different from that of a vessel built as a man-of-war, and we
shall see that this caused trouble at Rio Janeiro, where the combination
of merchant build and officers in uniform in an armed ship, aroused
suspicions in the mind of the Portuguese Viceroy.
It is nowhere directly stated whether the Endeavour was sheathed with
copper or not; but as Cook in the account of his second voyage expresses
himself as adverse to this method of protecting ships' bottoms, and the
operation is recorded of heeling and boot topping, which was cleaning and
greasing the part of the ship just below waterline, it may be concluded
that her sheathing was wood.
She proved a most suitable vessel. The log states she was a little crank,
but an admirable sea-boat. Her rate of sailing was of course, with her
build, slow, but her strength and flat bottom stood her in good stead
when she made acquaintance with a coral reef.
She mounted ten small carriage guns and twelve swivels.
Mr. Banks, a scientific botanist, afterwards well known as Sir Joseph
Banks, and for a long time President of the Royal Society, a gentleman of
private means, volunteered to accompany Cook, and took with him a staff
of his own, of artists and others.
He also induced Dr. Solander, a Swedish naturalist, afterwards attached
to the British Museum, to accompany him.
Mr. Charles Green, one of the assistants at the Royal Observatory at
Greenwich, was sent as astronomer.
This scientific staff added much to the success of the expedition.
Banks and Solander, both men of observation, were able to collect
specimens of natural history, and study the manners and customs of the
natives with whom they came in contact, which neither the time at Cook's
disposal nor his training enabled him to undertake; and though the
Journal of the former has never yet been published, and cannot at the
present time be traced, many interesting remarks were extracted by Dr.
Hawkesworth from it and went far to make his account of the voyage
complete.
Mr. Green also demands special notice.
One great question of the day amongst seamen and geographers was the
discovering of some ready and sure method of ascertaining the longitude.
Half the value of the explorations made up to this time had been lost
from this want. The recognised means of finding longitude was by the
observation of lunars; that is, accurately measuring the angular distance
between the centres of the moon and of the sun, or of the moon and some
star.
The motion of the moon is so rapid that this angular distance changes
from second to second, and thereby, by previous astronomical calculation,
the time at Greenwich at which its distance from any body is a certain
number of degrees can be ascertained and recorded.
By well-known calculations the local time at any spot can be obtained,
and when this is ascertained, at the precise moment that the angular
distance of sun and moon is observed, the difference gives the longitude.
This seems simple enough, but there is a good deal of calculation to go
through before the result is reached, and neither the observation nor the
calculation is easy, especially with the astronomical tables of those
days, and there were very few sailors who were capable of, or patient
enough to make them, nor was the result, as a rule, very accurate. For
one thing, the motions of the moon, which are extremely complicated, were
not enough known to allow her calculated position in the heavens to be
very accurate, and a very small error in this position considerably
affects the time, and therefore the longitude.
Luckily for Cook, the Nautical Almanac had just been started, and
contained tables of the moon which had not previously been available, and
which much lightened the calculations.
The great invention of the chronometer, that is, a watch that can be
trusted to keep a steady rate for long periods, was at this time
completed by Harrison; but very few had been manufactured, and
astronomers and sailors were slow to believe in the efficacy of this
method of carrying time about with a ship. Thus Cook had no chronometer
supplied to him.
Green had accompanied Mr. Maskelyne, afterwards Astronomer Royal, to
Barbados in 1763 in H.M.S. Princess Louisa, in order to test Harrison's
timekeeper, and also a complicated chair, from which it was supposed
observations of Jupiter's satellites could be observed on board ship; and
as this trial afforded the final triumph of the new method, one would
have thought that on a voyage of circumnavigation he would have made
every effort to get one of these watches.
Be this as it may, the Endeavour had no chronometer, and lunars were the
mainstay of the expedition.
In these observations Green was indefatigable. Cook, an excellent
observer himself frequently took part in them; but it was Green's
especial business, and no doubt to him is due the major part of the
determinations of accurate longitude, which is one of the very remarkable
points of this voyage.
Green's log, which is extant, is filled with lunar observations, and the
extraordinary coincidence between different observations attests the care
with which they were made. I dwell upon this because, while full of
admiration for Cook's knowledge, and his untiring zeal in every detail of
his expedition, it is evident, from a study of the original documents,
that without Green many opportunities of getting longitude would have
been lost, Cook having no time to spare to make use of them. Let us give
honour to whom honour is due.
The final results of the observations are not equally good, but this
arises from the errors, before referred to, in the moon's place in the
heavens as given in the almanac, which would vary with her position, and
affect the longitude accordingly. The astonishing thing is, not that some
longitudes are considerably in error, but that the majority of them are
so near the truth.
The Endeavour sailed from the Thames on June 30th, 1768, and was in
Plymouth Sound from July 14th to the 26th, when she finally sailed, Banks
and the scientific staff having joined here.
She carried a complement, all told, of ninety-four, and very close
stowage it must have been.
A list is given in this book, immediately before the "Journal," of every
person on board when the ship sailed from Plymouth.
The draught of the ship was 13 feet 6 inches, and her provisions were
calculated to last eighteen months. The original intention had been that
the transit of Venus should be observed at the Marquesas; but the
Dolphin's return before Cook sailed, with the news of the discovery of
Tahiti and its friendly inhabitants, caused this island to be finally
selected.
The exact text of Cook's orders cannot be given. They were secret orders;
but, curiously enough, while the covering letter, which enjoined him to
show them to nobody, which is dated July 30th, 1768, is duly entered in
Admiralty Records, the orders themselves, which should follow in the
letter book, are omitted. They have never been published. Nevertheless,
we can gather what they were.
Cook, in the published account of his Second Voyage, says he had
instructions to proceed directly to Tahiti, and afterwards to prosecute
the design of making discoveries in the Pacific by proceeding southward
to the latitude of 40 degrees, and if he did not find land to continue
his voyage to the west till he fell in with New Zealand, which he was
directed to explore, and thence to return to England by such route as he
should judge most convenient.
Precautions against the terrible scourge, scurvy, had not been forgotten.
Besides the supply of all anti-scorbutics then known, a special letter
was written to Cook directing him to take a quantity of malt to sea, for
the purpose of being made into wort, as a cure for scorbutic disorders,
as recommended by Dr. McBride.
The directions for its use were as follows:--
"The malt must be ground under the direction of the surgeon, and made
into wort, fresh every day, in the following manner:--
"1. Take one quart of ground malt, and pour on it three quarts of boiling
water. Stir them well, and let the mixture stand close covered up for
three or four hours, after which strain off the liquor.
"2. The wort, so prepared, is then to be boiled into a panada, with sea
biscuit or dried fruits generally carried to sea.
"3. The patient must make at least two meals a day of the said panada,
and should drink a quart or more of the fresh infusion as it may agree
with him, every twenty-four hours.
"4. The surgeon is to keep an exact account of its effects."
Though it is somewhat anticipating events, it is convenient to record
here the result of these efforts to defeat the hitherto unconquerable
enemy. Mr. Perry's report at the termination of the voyage is as
follows:--
"Sour krout, mustard, vinegar, wheat, inspissated orange and lemon
juices, saloup, portable soup, sugar, molasses, vegetables (at all times
when they could be got) were, some in constant, others in occasional use.
These were of such infinite service to the people in preserving them from
a scorbutic taint, that the use of the malt was (with respect to
necessity) almost entirely precluded.
"Again cold bathing was encouraged and enforced by example; the allowance
of salt beef and pork was abridged from nearly the beginning of the
voyage, and the sailors' usual custom of mixing the salt beef fat with
their flour, etc., was strictly forbad.
"Upon our leaving England, also, a stop was put to our issuing butter and
cheese, and throughout the voyage raisins were served with the flour
instead of pickled suet. At Tierra del Fuego we collected wild celery,
and every morning our breakfast was made with this herb, with ground
wheat and portable soup.
"We passed Cape Horn, all our men as free from scurvy as on our sailing
from Plymouth.
"Three slight cases of scorbutic disorders occurred before arriving at
Otaheite. Wort was given, with apparently good effect, and the symptoms
disappeared.
"No other cases occurred during the voyage, but the wort was served out
at sea as a regular article of diet."
To this it may be added, that no opportunity was, as appears by the
Journal, ever lost of getting wild celery and any other wild herb that
presented itself.
The personal washing is mentioned by Mr. Perry, and the tradition in the
Navy is, that the men's deck was more constantly scrubbed than had then
been usual; in fact, that unusual attention was paid to cleanliness.
Stoves were used to dry the decks below even in hot weather.
As this voyage forms the subject of this book, its events may be passed
over briefly.
Calling at Madeira--where the log records that the Endeavour was fired
upon by the fort on the Loo Rock through some misapprehension while
shifting berth, though Cook passes this by in silence--and Rio Janeiro,
Cook proceeded to double Cape Horn. His predecessors had struggled
through the Strait of Magellan, losing much time and wearing out their
men with the continual anchoring and weighing in that long and narrow
passage, rendered necessary by the constant foul and strong winds that
prevail. The idea was to avoid the heavy seas and gales of the open sea;
but Cook's action was amply justified by a more rapid passage without any
danger. Discovering several of the low coral atolls of the Paumotu Group,
he arrived at Tahiti on April 13th, 1769.
On July 13th, the transit of Venus having been observed under favourable
conditions on June 1st, he left Tahiti, exploring and mapping the Society
Islands immediately to the westward, never before visited, and then stood
to the southward. It may here be mentioned that it is only during the
last decade that Cook's charts of the Society Group have been superseded
by more elaborate surveys by the French.
Cook went to 40 degrees south, discovering one of the Austral Group on
his way, when, finding no sign of the hypothetical southern Continent,
and getting into very dirty weather, he first gained a more northern
latitude and favourable winds, and then stood for New Zealand.
On October 7th he arrived at Poverty Bay, and during the next six months
he completely circumnavigated and mapped the islands of New Zealand. He
had received on board at Tahiti a native, one Tupia, formerly the high
priest, and a man of much intelligence. Tupia proved to be of the utmost
service, as, to their astonishment and delight, they found that the
languages were sufficiently identical to enable him to act as a most
efficient interpreter; which made it possible to obtain information, and
establish relations with the New Zealanders which they could never have
succeeded in doing without him.
Cook now, after consideration, determined to explore the unknown east
coast of New Holland. The health of his ship's company, and the good
order on board, permitted him to make this good use of his time, instead
of hurrying on to a civilised port, as all his forerunners had had to do.
He struck Australia at its south-east point, and followed the whole coast
to the northward, mapping it as he went.
When nearing the northern end the voyage nearly came to a premature
conclusion by the ship grounding on a coral reef, twenty miles from the
land. Cook's seamanship was, however, equal to the occasion. The ship was
got off, much damaged and leaking severely, and carried into a little
port they discovered not far off. Here she was cleared out and laid upon
the ground, the tide sufficing to dry enough of her bottom to let the
carpenters repair it.
The wisdom of Cook's choice of a ship of the build of the Endeavour was
here very apparent. It was not every ship that could be safely beached in
this way without danger of falling over. After long delay she proceeded
on her voyage, and soon had a second narrow escape. The long line of
coral reefs that front the northern part of Eastern Australia, for a
distance of 1200 miles, approach the coast about the place where the ship
had grounded. The passage between the outer reef and the land is strewn
with shoals, and finding his further progress much impeded by them, and
fearful of a repetition of his disaster, Cook with some difficulty found
a channel to seaward, and gained the open ocean. He was, however, yet
determined to follow the land he was exploring, and more especially to
solve the great question as to whether Australia was joined to New Guinea
or no; and three days after his escape from the line of reefs he found
himself with a light wind, embayed on the outer side of them, with the
reefs close to him, and the ship drifting slowly but surely on them, the
heavy swell of the great ocean breaking mountains high on their outer
edge.
Here again calmness and promptitude saved him, and the ship was pushed
through a narrow channel in these terrible reefs into the smooth, though
reef-dotted, waters within. No event in the voyage is more dramatically
narrated, though without any exaggeration, than this hair-breadth escape.
With the caution born of recent dangers, Cook now slowly found his way
through the maze of reefs, by a route that no one has again followed, to
the northern point of Australia, and was rewarded for his pertinacity by
finding the channel now known as Torres Strait, which led him between New
Guinea and Australia.
Thus far Cook's enthusiasm in adventure and desire to explore had been
fully shared by his companions; but it is apparent that at this point
they fell short of his high standard. Cook, having secured his direct
passage to Batavia, and having still a little provision left, was anxious
to do still more in the way of discovery, and stood over to the
little-known New Guinea shore. It is evident, however, from Cook's
expressions, though he does not complain, that his people were pining for
fresh food and civilisation. Australia had produced them little but
occasional fish and a few turtle. The salt provisions of those days were
most unpalatable, and the effect of their continued hard work and
inadequate food for so long, for they were now over two years from
England, with no communication of any kind with the outer world, were
telling on them, though they were still free from scurvy.
Cook, therefore, after landing once in New Guinea, unwillingly turned his
ship's head towards Batavia.
The complaints grew louder as he passed by Timor without attempting to
communicate, and falling in with the island of Savu, he yielded to
importunity, and touched there to get refreshments.
Thence he went by the south shore of the chain of islands to Sunda Strait
and Batavia.
So far all had gone well. It was undoubtedly far the most successful
voyage ever made. Much had been done--more than his orders directed--to
explore unknown lands, and the dire enemy of seamen, scurvy, had been
conquered.
But his luck was not to last.
It was absolutely necessary to remain some time at Batavia, while the
roughly repaired damage to the ship was made good in the Dutch dockyard.
Two months and a half in the sickly climate of Batavia, during a bad time
of the year, wrought a sad change in his ship's company. The port they so
much desired proved but the door of the grave to many of them, and Cook
sailed for England on December 27th, 1770, with dysentery pervading the
ship. The surgeon had already died of it; so had the poor Tahitian,
Tupia, with two seamen, and one of Mr. Banks' artists.
Worse was, however, to follow. Day by day, as the ship slowly found her
way over the Indian Ocean towards the Cape, against the wet and unhealthy
north-west monsoon, the sick list grew larger. Man after man succumbed,
and before half the distance to Capetown was traversed twenty-two more
were carried off. Green, the astronomer, two more of Banks' staff, two
midshipmen, the boatswain and carpenter were among the number. The crew
was more than decimated.
The ship touched at the Cape, and war with France being expected, the
Endeavour joined the East India convoy, under H.M.S. Portland, at St.
Helena. The heavy-sailing, collier-built craft was not, however, when the
ships had crossed the line and got upon a wind, able to keep up with
them, and she once more found herself alone on her way.
Two more officers, the First Lieutenant, Mr. Hicks, and the Master, Mr.
Molineux, died after leaving the Cape, but not of dysentery, and the ship
finally reached England on June 12th, 1771.
Ninety-four persons left England in the Endeavour, of whom fifty-four
returned. Thirty-eight died on the voyage, out of which number thirty-one
died after reaching Batavia, most of them from fever and dysentery
contracted at that place.
After paying off in August 1771, the Endeavour was sold in 1775, and for
many years sailed as a collier in the North Sea.
This voyage gave a new impetus to discovery, and the immediate thought
was to resume it, under this heaven-born leader.
Cook was given little leisure, as it was nearly at once decided to send
him out again, and he was appointed to command the Resolution on November
28th, 1771, the interval having been occupied in considering what ships
should be employed.
Cook's experience of the qualities of the Endeavour caused him to uphold
the selection of similar vessels, for there were to be two, and the
Resolution and Adventure, of 462 and 336 tons respectively, both Whitby
built colliers, were bought for the voyage. Cook was promoted to
Commander, and Tobias Furnaux, in the Adventure, was placed under his
command. It was not, however, until April 1772 that they sailed.
It was originally intended that Banks should again accompany Cook, and
with a view to his better accommodation a poop was added to the
Resolution. The short trip, however, from Deptford to Sheerness proved to
Cook that the ship was dangerously over-weighted, and the poop was
removed, with the consequence that Banks did not sail. The alteration
delayed final departure until June 22nd from Sheerness, and July 13th
from Plymouth.
The naturalists on this voyage were two Forsters, Germans, father and
son; and as astronomers Mr. Wales sailed in the Resolution, and Mr.
Bayley in the Adventure. Two of Cook's former companions sailed as
Lieutenants: Clerke, who was Lieutenant, and Pickersgill, who was master
of the Endeavour when she reached England. This witnesses to the
confidence and enthusiasm that Cook inspired amongst those under him.
There were also other Endeavours amongst the junior officers.
The main object of the voyage was the settlement of the great question of
the southern Continent. Cook was directed to explore the whole region
about the South Pole, starting from the Cape of Good Hope, and working
eastward. The winter of the southern hemisphere was to be employed as
Cook thought fit.
This voyage brought Cook's qualities as a seaman and commander more
prominently to view even than the former. The conditions were very
different. Instead of mapping coasts and islands, the principal duty was
exploration of tempestuous seas in high latitudes, amongst ice, searching
in vain for the illusive southern land.
Cook carried it out thoroughly. No gales, no temperatures deterred him
from searching wherever the ships would safely sail, and it was only ice
in dense masses that turned him back.
What his people thought of it we do not know, but the Forsters have given
a piteous account of the privations and hardships of an exploration that
gave them little chance of exercising their special knowledge.
Cook was better provided with instruments for the determination of
longitude than before, and the ships carried four chronometric
timekeepers; but the proper method of making use of them was scarcely yet
realised, and the course of his voyage did not permit them to be of much
service.
Mindful of his former success in combating scurvy, and making use of his
experience, Cook carried with him all his former anti-scorbutics, and
redoubled his general precautions as to cleanliness, both of person and
ship. The result was complete immunity from more than symptoms of scurvy.
He was able to say, when he returned, that no man had died not only of
this disease, but of any other, due to the exposures of the voyage. Three
lost by accidents, and one from a complaint contracted before leaving
England, were the sole losses on a voyage lasting three years, and during
which the exposure to heat, cold, rain, and all the hardships of a sea
life was probably never surpassed.
Leaving the Cape on November 22nd, Cook stood at once to the southward,
intending to pass over a spot in latitude 54 degrees South, where in 1739
M. Bouvet sighted land that was generally supposed to be a part of the
Southern Continent, and which he had been especially directed to examine.
Gales, however, drove him from his course, and to this day Bouvet's
Islands (for Cook proved they could be nothing else) are doubtfully shown
upon charts.* (* They were again reported in 1825 by the Sprightly, an
English whaler, but Sir James Ross searched for them in 1840 without
success.) Cook soon got into the ice, and fought with it and gales of
wind, in snow and sleet and fog, working gradually eastwards from the
longitude of the Cape for four months. The ship penetrated to 67 degrees
South at one point, and kept as high a latitude as ice permitted
everywhere, but without discovering any land. Cook found to his great joy
that the ice yielded good fresh water, and replenished his water casks in
this manner, without any fear of falling short. With all his power of
communicating his enthusiasm to others, it may be doubted if they shared
his pleasure at finding that the search in these inclement regions need
not be curtailed from lack of this necessary.
At last, in the longitude of Tasmania, Cook hauled to the northward, and
headed for New Zealand, where, after sailing over eleven thousand miles
since leaving the Cape without once sighting land, he anchored in Dusky
Bay on March 26th, 1774, with the Resolution only, the Adventure having
parted company in thick weather on February 9th. Moving on to Queen
Charlotte's Sound, his old anchorage at the north end of Middle Island,
he found the Adventure there on May 18th. Captain Furneaux had, after
vainly searching for his consort, run for Tasmania, and explored the east
coast. He did not, however, clear up the point for which he states he
visited this coast, namely, whether it joined New Holland or not, as
strong winds from the eastward made him fearful of closing what he
thought was a deep bay, though really the Strait, and he sailed for the
rendezvous in New Zealand under the impression that Tasmania and
Australia were one.
The ships left New Zealand on June 7th, 1773, and, after making a wide
circuit to the south and east in search of land, arrived at Tahiti on
August 16th. A good many of the Adventure's people were ill with scurvy,
and Cook is much puzzled to know the reason why they were attacked while
his own crew were free. He puts it down to the greater trouble he had
taken to make all his men use wild celery and other herbs in New Zealand,
and no doubt this had its effect; but one cannot but suspect that the
constant care on his part to keep the ship clean and sweet below had much
to do with it. The Adventure had the same anti-scorbutics, and Cook
especially mentions that they were in use; but the personal efforts of
the captain in the direction of general sanitary precautions were, we
know, exercised in one case, while we know nothing of the other.
After a month's stay at Tahiti and the Society Islands, where the crews
were much benefited by fresh provisions, the ships sailed for the
Friendly Islands, never visited since Tasrnan's time, and touched at Eoa
and Tongatabu, or, as Tasman had called them, Middleburg and Amsterdam.
These were finally left on October 7th for New Zealand, which was made on
the 21st, and from this day to November 2nd the time was spent in
fruitless endeavours to get into Cook's Strait. Gale succeeded gale--no
uncommon thing here--and in one of them the Adventure parted company
never again to rejoin. Cook anchored in Queen Charlotte's Sound on
November 2nd, and waited until the 25th for his consort in vain. Whilst
here they gained further and indisputable proof of the cannibalistic
tendencies of the Maoris, some of the natives eating human flesh before
them. Cook has been much blamed for permitting this scene, which took
place on board; but there had been so much disputing in England as to the
possibility of the fact, that he could not resist the opportunity of
putting it beyond a doubt.
It was, however, to be shortly proved in a much more horrible manner, for
the Adventure, which only arrived at Queen Charlotte's Sound after the
Resolution left, had a boat's crew attacked, overpowered, and eaten by
the natives. The circumstances were never wholly known, as not a man
escaped; but the cooked remains were found, the natives decamping as the
search-party approached.
Cook sailed south on November 25th, 1773, and was soon again battling
with the ice, into which he pushed as far as was safe with as much
hardihood as if he had still had the second ship with him. He gained the
latitude of 67 degrees south, and worked eastward, searching religiously
for land--which, needless to say, he never found--his ropes frozen, and
sails like, as he says, plates of metal. Whatever the feelings of others
on board were, Cook never flinched from every effort to get south,
penetrating in one place to 71 degrees south, where he was stopped by
dense pack, until he found himself nearly in the longitude of Tierra del
Fuego, when, satisfied that no Southern Continent existed in the Pacific,
he, on February 6th, steered north, to continue exploration in more
genial weather and more profitable latitudes. All this time there was no
scurvy, and very little sickness of any kind; an indisputable proof of
the untiring supervision Cook exercised over the health of his men. The
object of his voyage, so far as the Southern Pacific was concerned, was
now accomplished, and Cook might have rounded Cape Horn, and made for the
Cape of Good Hope, completing his tour of the world in southern
latitudes; but such was not his idea of his duty. His own nervous words
will explain his feelings best:--
"We undoubtedly might have reached the Cape of Good Hope in April, and so
have put an end to the expedition so far as related to the finding of a
continent, which indeed was the first object of the voyage; but for me at
this time to have quitted this Southern Pacific Ocean with a good ship
expressly sent out on discoveries, a healthy crew, and not in want either
of stores or provisions, would have betrayed not only a want of
perseverance, but of judgment, in supposing the South Pacific Ocean to be
so well explored that nothing remained to be done in it. This, however,
was not my opinion; for, although I had proved there was no continent but
what must lie far to the south, there remained, nevertheless, room for
very large islands in places wholly unexamined, and many of those which
were formerly discovered are but imperfectly explored, and their
situation as imperfectly known. I was, besides, of opinion that my
remaining in this sea some time longer would be productive of
improvements in navigation and geography, as well as other sciences."
Cook mentions that, on communicating his intentions to his officers, they
all heartily concurred; and he adds, "Under such circumstances it is
hardly necessary to say that the seamen were always obedient and alert,
and they were so far from wishing the voyage at an end that they rejoiced
at the prospect of its being prolonged another year." This, be it
remembered, without a prospect of news from home or contact with
civilisation, for Cook's design was to pass again through the breadth of
the Pacific searching for islands as far as Quiros' discovery of Espiritu
Santo, which lay due north of New Zealand, and then to return through the
tempestuous regions they were now quitting to Cape Horn. Perhaps the
charms of Tahiti reconciled them.
This design Cook triumphantly carried out; though shortly after leaving
southern latitudes he was so ill of what he describes as a bilious
cholic, that his life was despaired of. He first searched for, and
visited, Davis' discovery of Easter Island, where he examined and
described the wonderful colossal, though rude, statues there found. He
then went to the Marquesas, a group but little known, where, after the
usual attempt of the natives to appropriate sundry articles, and the
consequent necessity of firing upon them, peaceful relations were
established, and a brisk trade in much-wanted refreshments was set up.
This did not last long, however, as the market was spoiled by some red
feathers, obtained at the Friendly Islands, being given for a pig; after
which nothing would buy provisions but these same red feathers, and these
being scarce, trade ceased. Cook therefore sailed once more for Tahiti.
On his way he touched at some of the coral atolls of the innumerable
Paumotu Group, and arrived at Matavai on April 22nd, again with not a
sick man on board.
Three weeks were spent here with much satisfaction to all. Provisions
were in plenty, the king and people very friendly, and all went well. The
islanders were preparing for an attack on Eimeo, a neighbouring island,
and a gathering of the fleets gave Cook an opportunity of learning much
of their naval power and manner of conducting war. He observed that the
general prosperity of Tahiti seemed to be at a much higher point than on
his former visit.
After another three weeks' stay at Huaheine, and Ulietea, also amongst
old friends, the Resolution sailed on June 4th to the west.
Discovering Palmerston and Savage Islands on the way, she called at
Namuka, one of the Friendly Group, thus extending the knowledge of those
islands gained the year before. Thence Cook sailed west, discovering
Turtle Island, but just passing out of sight to the southward of the
large Fiji Group, and thus lost the chance of adding them to his other
finds.
He was now bound for the New Hebrides, of which the northern island had
been discovered by Quiros. Bougainville, the French explorer, had, in
1768, passed just south of Quiros' Island, and named one or two others he
sighted, but had made no stay, and knew nothing of the extent of the
Group.
This was not Cook's fashion. He explored and circumnavigated the whole
Group, which extends in a long line for three hundred and fifty miles. He
touched first at Mallicolo, where, after a temporary disagreement,
friendship was formed. Passing Sandwich Island, Erromanga was landed
upon; but the suspicion of the natives here impelled them to attack the
boats, and no intercourse was established.
The ship then anchored in the convenient harbour of Resolution Bay in the
island of Tanna, and remained a fortnight, wooding and watering.
Observations on the hot springs that gush from the side of the volcano
bordering the harbour were made, and the relations with the natives were
altogether friendly. Sighting Anityeum, the southern member of the New
Hebrides, and making sure there was nothing beyond it, Cook returned
along the west side of the islands, passing eastward of them again,
between Mallicolo and Espiritu Santo. The latter island was closely
followed round its whole extent, and Quiros' Bay of St. Philip and St.
James identified in the great inlet in the northern side. Having laid
down the whole of this extensive group of islands, and very accurately
fixed the longitude by many lunar observations, Cook, on August 31st,
sailed to the westward to search for more lands.
His chart of the New Hebrides is still, for some of the islands, the only
one; and wherever superseded by more recent surveys the general accuracy
of his work, both in outline and position, is very remarkable. On several
occasions up to the present year (1893) Cook's recorded positions have
saved the adoption of so-called amendments reported by passing ships,
which would have been anything but amendments in reality.
Four days after leaving the New Hebrides Cook discovered New Caledonia.
He explored the whole of the eastern side of this large island, which is
three hundred miles in length, anchoring in one harbour inside the reefs
which border it, and making friends with the natives. Other attempts to
get inside the reefs were, however, unsuccessful, and after several
narrow escapes from shipwreck Cook gave up, to his regret, a complete
circumnavigation of the island. The summer approaching, he wished to
refit and recruit in New Zealand before once more standing south.
Norfolk Island was discovered and landed upon on the way, and Queen
Charlotte's Sound was once more reached on October 19th.
The Adventure's visit was ascertained from the Maoris, but Cook was much
puzzled by incompletely understood accounts of white men having been
killed. As far as could be gathered a ship had been lost on the coast,
and Cook was led to believe that this disaster had no reference to the
Adventure.
It was found that pigs and fowls left here on the former visit were still
in existence, and presumably thriving. It may here be mentioned, that
wherever Cook touched he invariably, so far as his stock allowed, left
animals to stock the country, and that New Zealand was, when the settlers
eventually came, found to be well supplied with pigs.
After a stay of three weeks the Resolution sailed, on November 10th, for
Cape Horn. She kept farther north than on the last occasion, the object
being to pass over new ground, and more completely disprove the existence
of any land.
The western part of Tierra del Fuego being reached, Cook followed the
shore to the south-east, mapping the outside of this dangerous and
inhospitable archipelago. On December 20th he put in to what he
afterwards called Christmas Sound, where large numbers of kelp geese were
obtained, giving the crew what Cook describes as a dainty Christmas
feast, though the flesh of these birds is as tough, fishy, and
unpalatable as can well be imagined; on this occasion, however, the
seamen seemed to have concurred in the verdict of their omnivorous
commander, to whom nothing ever came amiss. Be it remembered, however,
how long they had been on salt provisions, and that the South Sea
Islands, though pleasant in many respects, produced but little solid
food--no beef, mutton, or flesh of any quadruped but pigs, and those in
not very great plenty--while New Zealand gave them nothing but fish.
Rounding Cape Horn, he passed through the Strait Le Maire, and followed
the north shore of Staten Island, anchoring at one place to obtain seals
and birds.
Whilst praising the flavour of a young seal cub, Cook is compelled to
admit that the flesh of an old sea lion is abominable; a remarkable
statement as coming from him.
Leaving Staten Island, Cook steered east and discovered South Georgia,
named after the king. He followed the north coast of this desolate and
ice-clad island, obtaining more refreshment in the shape of seals,
penguins, and shags--unpalatable, but welcome food to men who had so long
subsisted on bad salt meat. From South Georgia the ship's head was once
more turned southwards, and before many days ice was again encountered.
In stormy and thick weather the Resolution made her way, disproving the
existence of a great tract of land laid down by speculative geographers,
until January 31st, 1775, when Sandwich Land was discovered in about
latitude 60 degrees south. This ice-covered group of islands was sketched
under great difficulties from gales, fogs, snow, and numerous icebergs;
and Cook then bore away along their parallel, to seek once more for
Bouvet's Islands to the eastward.
He found nothing, and on February 26th steered for the Cape of Good Hope,
even he being glad to leave this trying, tempestuous latitude. On March
23rd he anchored in Table Bay, having learnt from some vessels outside of
the safe arrival of the Adventure in England the year before, and of her
boat's crew having been eaten by the Maoris, which cleared up the mystery
of the wrecked ship.
The Resolution finally arrived at Spithead on July 29th, 1775, after an
absence of three years and eighteen days.
Captain Furneaux had, on leaving New Zealand, sailed straight for Cape
Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, and England, arriving just a year before the
Resolution.
Cook speaks most warmly of Captain Furneaux; but one cannot help
contrasting his action with Cook's. Left, by the separation, his own
master, he might have continued exploration, as did Cook. His ship was
staunch, his provisions in much the same condition as the Resolution's;
but he went straight home. His crew had suffered from scurvy, whereas
Cook's had not; but he says not one word of this, nor does he give any
reason why he gave up any further thought of the objects of the voyage,
except a search for Bouvet's Islands, which he also looked for on his
way.
It was the indomitable perseverance that led Cook to act so differently
that raised his reputation so far above all other leaders.
Thus ended this very remarkable voyage. Never was a ship's crew exposed
to more continual hardships, with so little to keep up interest and
excitement, as the people of the Resolution; and yet Cook is able to
record, with allowable pride, that only four lives had been lost, and
only one by a sickness contracted before leaving England.
Once more the scurvy was defeated; and, without a doubt, owing to the
intelligent action and untiring supervision of the captain. He gives a
full description of the measures adopted, and while giving full
acknowledgment to the anti-scorbutics with which he was supplied, he is
of opinion that the general sanitary precautions formed the best
prevention. Cleanliness of persons, bedding, clothes, and ship, were
continually enforced. All these were foreign to the sailors of the time,
and extraordinary it is that it was a man born in the lower rank of life,
and brought up in a collier, who had the sense to perceive that in these
lay the surest preventatives against this paralysing scourge.
Cook was promoted to captain--a proud position for the collier boy--and
elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; perhaps even a greater distinction
for a man of his bringing up. He contributed papers on his methods of
preventing scurvy, and on the tides of the Pacific.
He also employed himself in publishing the account of his recent voyage,
the only one which he himself edited.
He was not, however, long at rest. The Admiralty wished to send an
expedition to explore the north-western coasts of North America, and to
examine the Polar Sea from the Bering Straits side, with a view of the
discovery of a north-west passage. Cook seems to have volunteered for the
command without being actually asked, and, needless to say, was at once
accepted.
In February he once more received his commission to command the
Resolution, this time accompanied by the Discovery, a vessel very similar
to the Adventure, his consort during the last voyage. Clerke, a master's
mate in the Endeavour, and second lieutenant in the Resolution, was
appointed as commander to the Discovery. He, like Cook, was fated not to
return from this third journey to the great Pacific.
Others who had sailed with Cook before were ready to accompany him, once
more to encounter privations and find new lands.
Cook's orders were long and detailed, but were to the effect that he was
to proceed by way of the Cape of Good Hope to search in the Indian Ocean
for the land recently seen by M. Kerguelen; thence via Tahiti, on to the
coast of North America in about latitude 45 degrees, which he was to
follow to latitude 65 degrees, searching especially for any channel which
might lead to the north-east, as it was supposed there might be a passage
communicating with Hudson's Bay. He was further to look for any passage
north of North America to the Atlantic, and to make such other
explorations as might seem fit to him. A money reward of 20,000 pounds
was also offered in case of success in finding such a passage.
Chronometers were again carried, and more confidence in them being felt,
more use was made of them.
Cook took with him Omai, a young Society islander, who had induced
Captain Furneaux to take him to England, and whom Cook now engaged to
return to his native country.
The ships sailed on July 11th, 1776, and arrived at Table Bay on October
18th.
Sailing thence on November 30th, he passed and roughly mapped Prince
Edward's, Marion, and Croset's Islands, all of which had been discovered
by Marion de Fresne. He then struck Kerguelen's Land, spent Christmas Day
in one of its harbours, and mapped the eastern side of this large but
desolate island. He was unaware that Kerguelen had visited this island a
second time, and had gained much more information about it than he did in
his first voyage.
Cook had taken on board at the Cape as many cattle, horses, bulls, cows,
goats, and sheep as he could stow, with a view of landing them at Tahiti
or elsewhere, and it is without surprise that we learn that after several
weeks in these stormy seas a good many of them had died. When we consider
the size of the ships the wonder is where they found room for these
animals.
On January 26th the ships arrived in Tasmania, and anchored in Adventure
Bay, principally with a view of getting fodder for the remaining cattle.
Pigs were left here, according to Cook's usual custom.
After four days the ships sailed, and arrived in Queen Charlotte's Sound,
New Zealand, on February 12th, 1777. Here Cook learnt the history of the
attack on the Adventure's boat's crew from the chief who led it, but made
no attempt at reprisals, although urged by many other natives to kill
him. He seems to have been guided by the consideration that, as related
by the natives, it was a dishonest act of barter on the part of one of
the sailors which commenced the disturbance; and that occurring so long
before, no good purpose would be served by punishment. It says much for
his humane treatment of natives.
On leaving this, Cook records that he had at different times left about a
dozen pigs in New Zealand. These increased, and stocked the whole island
by the time the English settlers arrived.
On the way to Tahiti Cook fell across several islands belonging to what
was afterwards called after him, the Cook Group. He visited Mangaia,
Atiu, Takutea,* (* Spelt by Cook Mangeea, Wateeo, and Otakootaia.) and
the Hervey Islands. Relations were established with the natives, and Cook
was much interested at finding on Atiu three natives of the Society
Islands, the survivors of twelve, who had been blown away in a canoe, and
landed on this island, five hundred miles distant. As he remarks, this
throws great light on the manner in which the different islands of the
Pacific have been peopled.
Cook now made up his mind that he was too late to prosecute discovery
this year on the American Continent, it being well into April, and being
anxious to save the remaining cattle that he wished to land at Tahiti,
and which had been taken on board especially for this purpose, the island
being still far to windward, he bore away for the Friendly Islands for
fodder and refreshments. He landed on Palmerston on the way--an island
discovered last voyage--and arrived at Namuka* (* Cook's Anamooka.) on
May 1st, with not a sick man in the ships.
The ships remained in the Friendly Group for two months and a half,
visiting and mapping the different islands, and learning much of the
manners of this interesting race, seeing their great concerted dances,
and the ceremonies of coming of age of the heir to the throne. Cook here
first became acquainted with the mysterious rite of Tabu, which was
closely connected with his own death. A selection of useful animals,
including horses, were left at Tongatabu.
While at the Friendly Islands Cook heard of the Fiji Group, and saw some
of the natives, who had come over in a canoe. The intelligence he was
able to gather concerning them was imperfect, and he saw no reason to
justify a long detour to leeward to search for them, when his object was
to stock the Society Islands with the animals he had. Had he known their
size and importance, his course might possibly have been different. As it
was, he sailed for Tahiti, and discovering Tubuai, one of the Austral
Group, on his passage, arrived there on August 13th, 1777.
Six weeks were spent here, and the old friendships further cemented.
Bulls and cows and other animals were presented to the king. Cook also
attended at several ceremonies consequent on war being declared against
Eimeo, which included the offering of the dead body of a man, previously
killed for the purpose, to the war god. He positively refused to aid in
this war, which very shortly came to an end.
Eimeo was next visited, and here the theft of a goat, which Cook intended
to land at Huaheine, induced him to take severe measures to get it back.
Several war canoes and houses were destroyed before it was returned. At
Huaheine, Omai was established, with many valuable European articles in
his possession. Here again Cook acted with considerable severity in the
case of a thief cutting off his ears, and confining him on board. His
action has been questioned, but considering his humane character, and the
judgment that he always displayed in these questions, we are justified in
believing that he had good reason for departing from his ordinary custom
of mild treatment of natives. At Ulietea, or Raiatea, next visited, a
midshipman and a seaman of the Discovery deserted. Cook took his usual
step of confining some natives of importance, and informing their
relatives that they would be retained until the deserters were returned.
In this case he impounded the king's son and daughter, with the desired
effect, as the stragglers were soon brought back from Bolabola, whither
they had gone; but both Cook and Captain Clerke were nearly captured by
the natives when on shore in the interval.
It is only surprising that more of Cook's people did not attempt to
remain in these pleasant islands. The hardships of the sea press much on
certain natures, and the allurements of the easy and careless life of a
tropical island offered such a contrast, that it scarcely required the
desire of the natives to get white men with their superior knowledge, and
above all superior arms, to remain with them, to induce them to desert.
This last, however, made desertion more easy, and had not Cook taken
strong measures, no doubt the epidemic would have spread.
After visiting Bolabola, Cook sailed north, to prosecute the main object
of his voyage, the exploration of the north-west coast of America. On
December 24th he fell in with Christmas Island, which he so named from
the season. After mapping it, and getting many turtle, he continued his
course to the north, and discovered Atooi or Kauai, the western island of
the Sandwich Group.
Communicating with this island and another, he finally left on February
3rd, 1778, and on March 7th made the coast of North America, a little
south of the Columbia River. Gales ensued, and Cook missed the entrance
of Juan de Fuca Strait, making the land again a little north of it.
Anchoring first in Nootka Sound in Vancouver Island--though Cook did not
know it was an island--the ships continued their exploration to the
north-west, skirting the coast as near as stormy weather permitted them,
and calling at various places until the north-west extremity of the
Alaska Peninsula was reached. In one place, afterwards called Cook's
River, it was hoped that the desired passage eastward was found; but it
was soon discovered that it was merely an inlet.
Passing through the Aleutian Chain, east of Unalaska, Cook visited that
island, and continued his voyage through the Bering Sea, clinging to the
land as much as possible, and finally got into Bering Strait. Here he had
both continents in sight, and communicated with both sides.
Standing further north, he, in latitude 70 degrees 30 minutes north, came
across the icy barrier of the Arctic Sea. After vainly trying for a
passage in fog and strong wind, surrounded by loose ice, and after
mapping a good deal of the shores on both sides, the ships again turned
south at the end of August, exploring as they went first on the Asiatic
side, and afterwards on the American, especially examining Norton Sound.
In the beginning of October they once more arrived at Unalaska, and the
Resolution having sprung a dangerous leak, the opportunity was taken to
stop it.
On October 26th the ships sailed for the Sandwich Islands, where Cook had
determined to winter, for the double purpose of refreshing his crew,
gaining more knowledge of the Group, and being in a convenient position
for resuming his exploration in the spring.
The voyage just accomplished was very remarkable, whether for the amount
of coast mapped, which extended for between three and four thousand
miles, or for the determination with which it was prosecuted in
tempestuous and thick weather, on a most dangerous and inhospitable
coast, part of the time in ice. The crews were perfectly healthy, with no
sign of scurvy, and he brought both his ships off without any damage.
Maui, another of the Sandwich Group, was made on November 26th, and after
communicating, the ships stood over to Owhyhee (Hawaii). Wind was against
them, and it was not until January 17th that the two ships, having passed
along the north side of the island to the eastward, at last anchored in
Kealakekua Bay, on the south-west side.
The events which followed the arrival of the ships at Hawaii, which
terminated in Captain Cook's death, were not understood at the time, but
have been elucidated by the inquiries of the early missionaries, which
throw much light upon the beliefs of the islanders.
It appears that a tradition existed that a chief of earlier times, one
Rono, Orono, or Lono (the R and the L in the Pacific languages are almost
interchangeable), had, after killing his wife, become frantically insane,
and after travelling through the islands boxing and wrestling with all he
met, had departed in a canoe, prophesying that he would some day return
in an island with trees, hogs, and dogs. He was deified, and temples
erected in his honour.
When Cook's ships arrived it was believed that the prophecy was
fulfilled. Rono had returned as he had said, and the natives flocked to
do him honour. When Cook landed he was received with adoration, the
crowds prostrating themselves, and the priests escorting him with much
ceremony. Led to a temple, he was clothed with red cloth, had pigs
offered to him, and was generally treated in a manner which, though
satisfactory as showing the friendly feelings of the natives, was
puzzling to the Europeans. This continued throughout their stay, presents
of all kinds being showered upon them. The officers, however, observed
that the warrior chiefs were not so enthusiastic as the priests and
common people. The death of a seaman, who was buried on shore in the
presence of a large concourse, would seem to have been the first
circumstance that threw doubts upon the godlike character of the
visitors; but the ready way in which the fence of a Morai or sacred
inclosure, which included various images, was granted for fuel, shows
that the priests still held to their idea. The king, Taraiopu (or
Terreooboo, as his name was written by Captain King), arrived shortly
after the ships anchored, and showed himself to be as much impressed with
the public belief as any of his subjects.
Thus matters continued during the eighteen days the ships remained; but
towards the end of this time the natives began to show anxiety that they
should be gone. The drain of hogs and other provisions, which were poured
upon the visitors, doubtless led to anxious thoughts as to how long this
was to last; and probably those members of the community who were less
amenable to the influence of the priests, and were jealous of their own
authority, were by no means so certain that the popular opinion of the
supernatural nature of the white men was correct.
The ships sailed on February 4th, but, as ill-luck had it, the Resolution
sprung her foremast in a gale, and Cook resolved to return to Kealakekua
Bay for repairs. Here they again anchored on the 11th.
Their reception was, however, very different.
No crowd of canoes round the ship; no enthusiastic mass of natives on
shore. Everything was silence.
What had happened was that the king had departed, leaving the bay under
"tabu," i.e., a sacred interdict.
The priests, however, received them with as much friendliness as before,
and the Morai was given up to them as a place of repairs for the damaged
mast.
The king hurried back on hearing of the return of the ships, and removed
the tabu; but the native disposition was changed. Some of the party on
shore had persuaded women to break the tabu.
Whether this affected relations is uncertain, but the inhabitants
generally exhibited considerable hostility, and headed by some chiefs,
showed an inclination to attack a watering party. Thefts followed, and
the capture of a canoe as a reprisal caused a scuffle on the beach, in
which the Englishmen were worsted by the crowd, though a friendly chief
soon restored order.
Instructions were now given to the party on shore at the Morai to permit
no natives to approach in the night, and a musket was fired at one of
them who came near.
On the morning of February 14th the Discovery's cutter was found to have
been stolen.
Cook at once decided to have recourse to his usual practice, and get
either the king or some principal chief on board, as a hostage till it
was returned. He at the same time gave orders to prevent any canoes from
leaving the bay, in order that he might, if necessary, seize them, and
sent his boats to carry this out. Guns were fired from the ships at two
large canoes that attempted to pass. Cook himself landed with a small
armed force, and went in search of the king, who at once consented to
come on board. The conduct of Taraiopu throughout showed that he had
perfect confidence in Cook, and was entirely friendly, whether he still
believed in the Rono theory or not.
While walking down to the boat, the natives, who were momentarily
increasing in numbers, implored the king not to go. His wife joined her
entreaties. Taraiopu hesitated. At this moment a man ran up and cried,
"It is war; they have killed a chief!" One of the guard boats had, in
fact, fired at a canoe attempting to leave the bay, and killed a man. The
natives at once ran to arms, and Cook, seeing his intentions frustrated,
walked towards the boat. A native attacked him with a spear, and Cook
shot him with his gun. Still, no further attack was made, but the men in
the boats hearing Cook's shot, and seeing the excited crowd, commenced to
fire without orders. Cook still moved to the shore, calling to his men to
cease firing; but whilst so doing, and with his back to the exasperated
natives, he was stabbed in the back with a dagger, and fell with his face
in the water.
There was then general confusion. The boats were a little way from the
beach, and several of the marines were also killed, before they could
reach them. Cook's body was at once dragged off by the natives.
The boats returned on board amid general consternation, and it is
mentioned that a general silence reigned on board when it was known that
their beloved commander had fallen.
The party at the Morai were shortly after attacked, but beat off the
assailants, and reinforcements were sent from the ships. Lieutenant King,
a favourite officer of Cook's, behaved with great discretion, and
assisted by some of the priests, made a truce, during which the mast and
other articles on shore for repairs were got off.
The sailors were mad for reprisals, but Captain Clerke, on whom the
command devolved, decided on pacific measures, and every attempt was made
to recover Cook's body. All that was obtained, however, were some of his
bones, which were brought down with much solemnity by a chief, and
delivered wrapped up in new cloth and red feathers.
It was known in after years that Cook's body had been instantly cut up;
the flesh was burnt, as was the custom with great chiefs and many of the
bones were preserved with great honour in a Morai dedicated to Rono.
It seems clear that Cook's death was due to a revulsion of feeling on the
part of some of the natives, who no longer believed in his divine
character, but that many regarded the outrage with horror. When the first
Europeans came to reside on the island, and learnt the story from the
native side, they found universal regret prevailing at this untoward
occurrence.
Cook left officers imbued with his own noble sentiments. No general
attack was made in revenge for what they saw was the result of
misunderstanding, although they were ignorant of the exact circumstances
which led, first to the uncommon and extraordinary veneration with which
he had been treated, and then to the sudden change in the native
behaviour.
It was found necessary to fire on the natives who prevented the watering
party from working, and some of the sailors on this duty burnt some
houses; but before the ships left, friendly relations were again
established, and many natives visited them.
After Cook's remains had been committed to the sea, the prosecution of
the voyage was determined upon, although Captain Clerke was in the last
stage of consumption, and as soon as the Resolution's mast could be
repaired, the two vessels once more departed, on February 22nd, 1779.
Cook's intentions were carried out as if he had still been in command.
The remainder of the Sandwich Group was mapped, and the ships proceeded
once more to the north. Calling at Petropavlovsk in Avatcha Bay,
Kamtchatka, they again passed through Bering Strait, and sought in vain
for a passage either to the north-east or north-west, being everywhere
baffled by dense masses of ice. Captain Clerke at last abandoned the
struggle, and repassed Bering Strait on his way south on August 1st.
On August 22nd Captain Clerke died.
This officer had accompanied Captain Cook in all his voyages, and had
also circumnavigated the globe in the Dolphin with Captain Byron before.
No man had seen more of the Pacific, and he proved himself, during his
short period of command, a worthy successor of Cook.
Captain Gore, who had been with Cook on his First Voyage, now succeeded,
King being put as Commander into the Discovery, and the two ships made
the best of their way home, via Macao and the Straits of Sunda, arriving
at the Nore on October 4th, 1780, after an absence of four years and two
months. During the whole of this voyage not the slightest symptom of
scurvy appeared in either ship, so completely were Cook's precautions
successful.
Cook had six children. Three died young. Of the others, all boys, the
eldest, James, entered the Navy, and lived to be a Commander, when, in
1794, he was drowned. The second, Nathaniel, also in the Navy, was lost
in a hurricane in 1780. The third died when at Cambridge. They none of
them lived to be married, and no descendant of the great navigator has
perpetuated his race.
Of Cook's private life during his brief intervals at home we know
nothing. A man rising from the ranks, and of his reserved character,
would have but few friends, when he had such short time to make them in
his new sphere. He lived at Mile End when at home, but after his death
his widow removed to Clapham, living there for forty years, at first with
her cousin, Isaac Smith, who had served with Cook in the Endeavour and
Resolution. She died in 1835, at the great age of ninety-three.
Of Cook's character, none could be a better judge than Captain King, who
writes as follows, after describing his death:--
"Thus fell our great and excellent commander. After a life of so much
distinguished and successful enterprise, his death, as far as regards
himself, cannot be considered premature, since he lived to finish the
great work for which he seems to have been designed. How sincerely his
loss was felt and lamented, by those who had so long found their general
security in his skill and conduct, and every consolation in their
hardships in his tenderness and humanity, it is neither necessary nor
possible for me to describe. The constitution of his body was robust,
inured to labour, and capable of undergoing the severest hardships. His
stomach bore without difficulty the coarsest and most ungrateful food.
Indeed, temperance with him was scarcely a virtue, so great was the
indifference with which he submitted to every kind of self-denial. The
qualities of his mind were of the same hardy, vigorous kind with those of
his body. His understanding was strong and perspicacious. His judgment in
whatever related to the service he was engaged in quick and sure. His
designs were bold and manly, and both in the conception and in the mode
of execution bore evident marks of a great original genius. His courage
was cool and determined, and accompanied by an admirable presence of mind
in the moment of danger. His manners were plain and unaffected. His
temper might, perhaps, have been justly blamed as subject to haughtiness
and passion, had not these been disarmed by a disposition the most
benevolent and humane. Those intervals of recreation, which sometimes
unavoidably occurred, and were looked for by us with a longing that
persons who have experienced the fatigues of service will readily excuse,
were submitted to by him with a certain impatience whenever they could
not be employed in making further provision for the more effectual
prosecution of his designs."
This is a pretty complete picture, and of a great man; a man who had
before him continually his duty, and who had in an eminent degree the
capacity to carry it out.
Though, under his determination to do this, he drove his people hard;
though he tried them with his irascibility; their conviction of his
greatness, their confidence in his leadership and in his justice, led
them to love him. He had no sympathy with the ordinary foibles and
weaknesses of his men. The charms of Tahiti, the paradise of the sailor,
were no charms for him; he hardly notices the attractive ladies of that
island; the attractions of the place to him were the abundance of
provisions, as a means of fitting his expedition for further exploration
and hardship. The strongest proof of his capacity as a commander is the
devotion of his officers. Those who know the Navy know how difficult it
is for any man who rises from the ranks to be successful in command. But
Cook was a gentleman born; he had the intuition of great minds for
fitting themselves to every position to which they may rise, and there is
never a whisper of disinclination to submit to the rule of the once
collier boy, the son of a labourer.
His intelligence is remarkably shown in his greatest triumph, the
suppression of scurvy. That it should be left to a man of little
education to discern the combination of means by which this enemy of long
voyages could be conquered, is the most remarkable thing about this
remarkable man. He himself notices the disinclination of the sailor to
any new article of food, especially when not particularly palatable; but
he soon found the means to induce them to understand that their lives
greatly depended upon these rather nasty messes. Sour krout; the
unsavoury portable soups of that day; the strange greens that Cook
insisted on hunting up at every land he visited, and boiling with their
ordinary food; the constant washing between decks; the drying below with
stoves, even in the hottest weather; the personal baths; the change of
wet clothing; the airing of bedding, were all foreign and repugnant to
the notions of the seamen of the day, and it required constant
supervision and wise management to enforce the adoption of these odd
foods and customs.
It is evident that it is to Cook's personal action the success was due.
Wallis and Byron had anti-scorbutics, but they suffered from scurvy;
Furneaux, sailing with Cook in the second voyage, under precisely similar
circumstances, suffered from scurvy. It was only in Cook's ships, and in
the Discovery, commanded and officered by men who had sailed with Cook,
and seen his methods, that exemption occurred.
Cook did more, incomparably more, than any other navigator to discover
new lands. This was only accomplished by dint of hard work; and yet his
men suffered less than in any ships, British or foreign, or similar
expeditions. Though his tracks were in new and unknown waters, we never
hear of starvation; he always manages to have an abundant supply of
water.
The completeness and accuracy of his accounts and charts are no less
remarkable.
M. de La Perouse, one of the foremost of the great French navigators,
told Captain Phillip, the founder of the Colony of New South Wales, that
"Cook had left him nothing but to admire." This was all but literally
true; wherever Cook went he finished his work, according to the
requirements of navigation of his time. He never sighted a land but he
determined its dimensions, its shape, its position, and left true guides
for his successors. His charts are still for some parts unsuperseded, and
his recorded observations still save us from hasty and incorrect
alterations desired by modern navigators.
Well may Englishmen be proud that this greatest of navigators was their
countryman.
PERSONS WHO LEFT ENGLAND IN H.M.S. ENDEAVOUR, 26TH AUGUST, 1768.
Those not otherwise disposed of were paid off on 1st August, 1771.
COLUMN 1: NAME.
COLUMN 2: RANK OR RATING.
COLUMN 3: DISPOSAL.
COLUMN 4: DATE.
James Cook : Lieutenant in Command.
Zachary Hicks : Lieutenant : Died : 25 May, 1771.
John Gore : Lieutenant.
Robert Molineux : Master : Died : 15 April, 1771.
Rich. Pickersgill : Master's Mate, Master, 16 April, 1771.
Chas. Clerke : Master's Mate, A.B., 20 August, 1768, Master's Mate, 17
April, 1771, Lieutenant, 26 May, 1771.
Francis Wilkinson : A.B., Master's Mate, 20 August, 1768.
John Bootie : Midshipman : Died : 4 February, 1771.
Jonathan Monkhouse : Midshipman : Died : 6 February, 1771.
Patrick Saunders : Midshipman, A.B., 24 May, 1770 : Deserted :
25 December, 1770.
Isaac Smith : A.B., Midshipman, 24 May, 1770, Master's Mate, 27 May, 1771.
William Harvey : Lieutenant's Servant, Midshipman, 8 February, 1771.
Jos. Magra : A.B., Midshipman, 27 May, 1771.
Isaac Manley : Master's Servant, Midshipman, 5 February, 1771.
William B. Monkhouse : Surgeon : Died : 5 November, 1770.
William Perry : Surgeon's Mate, Surgeon, 6 November, 1770.
Rich. Orton : Clerk.
Stephen Forwood : Gunner.
John Gathray : Boatswain : Died : 4 February, 1771.
John Satterly : Carpenter : Died : 12 February, 1771.
John Thompson : Cook : Died : 31 January, 1771.
Sam Evans : Quarter Master, Boatswain, 6 February, 1771.
Alex. Weir : Quarter Master : Drowned : 14 September, 1768.
Thos. Hardman : Boatswain's Mate, A.B., 26 March, 1769, Sailmaker,
2 February, 1771.
John Reading : Boatswain's Mate : Died : 29 August, 1769.
Benjamin Jordan : Carpenter's Mate : Died : 31 January, 1771.
John Ravenhill : Sailmaker : Died : 27 January, 1771.
George Nowell : A.B., Carpenter, 14 February, 1771.
Isaac Parker : A.B., Boatswain's Mate, 26 November, 1769.
Robt. Anderson : A.B., Quarter Master, 16 September, 1768.
James Gray : A.B., Quarter Master, 6 February, 1771.
Robert Taylor : Armourer : Died : 1 August, 1771.
Rich. Hutchins : A.B., Boatswain's Mate, 1 September, 1769.
Joseph Childs : A.B., Cook, 1 February, 1771.
Peter Flowers : A.B. : Drowned : 2 December, 1768.
Timothy Rearden : A.B. : Died : 24 December, 1770.
John Rainsay : A.B.
William Dawson : A.B.
Francis Haite : A.B. : Died : 1 February, 1771.
Sam Jones. : A.B.
James Nicholson : A.B. : Died : 31 January, 1771.
Forby Sutherland : A.B. : Died : 30 April, 1770.
Thomas Simmonds : A.B.
Rich. Hughes : A.B., Carpenter's Mate, 14 February, 1771.
Sam Moody : A.B. : Died : 31 January, 1771.
Isaac Johnson : A.B.
Robt. Stainsby : A.B.
William Collett : A.B.
Archibald Wolfe : A.B. : Died : 31 January, 1771.
Matthew Cox : A.B.
Chas. Williams : A.B.
Alex. Simpson : A.B.. : Died : 21 February, 1771.
Thos. Knight : A.B.
Hy. Stevens : A.B.
Thos. Jones (2) : A.B.
Antony Ponto : A.B.
Jeh. Dozey : A.B. : Died : 7 April, 1771.
Jas. Tunley : A.B.
Mich. Littleboy : A.B.
John Goodjohn : A.B.
John Woodworth : A.B. : Died : 24 December, 1770.
William Peckover : A.B.
Robt. Littleboy : A.B.
Henry Jeffs : A.B. : Died : 27 February, 1771.
William Howson : Captain's Servant : Died : 30 June, 1771.
Nathl. Morey : Lieutenant's Servant.
Thos. Jones : Surgeon's Servant : Discharged : 5 November, 1770.
Ed. Terrell : Carpenter's Servant, A.B. 1 September, 1769.
Thos. Jordan : Boatswain's Servant.
Thos. Matthews : Cook's Servant.
Danl. Roberts : Gunner's Servant : Died. : 2 February, 1771.
John Thurmand (Pressed at Madeira) : A.B. : Died : 3 February, 1771.
MARINES.
John Edgecombe : Sergeant R.M.
John Trusslove : Corporal : Died : 24 January, 1771.
Thos. Rossiter : Drummer.
William Judge : Private.
Hy. Paul : Private.
Danl. Preston : Private : Died : 16 February, 1771.
William Wiltshire : Private.
William Greenslade : Private : Drowned : 6 April, 1769.
Saml. Gibson : Private, Corporal, 26 January, 1771.
Thos. Dunster : Private : Died : 26 January, 1771.
Clement Webb : Private.
John Bowles : Private.
CIVILIANS AND STAFF.
Joseph Banks, Esquire.
Charles Solander : Naturalist.
Charles Green : Astronomer : Died : 29 January, 1771.
John Reynolds : Artist : Died : 18 December, 1770.
Sydney Parkinson : Artist : Died : 26 January, 1771.
Alexander Buchan : Artist : Died : 17 April, 1769.
Herman Sporing : Died : -- : 24 January, 1771.
James Roberts : Servant.
Peter Briscoe : Servant.
Thomas Richmond : Negro Servant : Frozen to death : 16 January, 1769.
George Dorlton : Negro Servant : Frozen to death : 16 January, 1769.
TOTAL LOSS.
1768: Drowned 2.
1769: Drowned 1.
1769: Frozen 2.
1769: Died 2.
1770: Died 5.
1771: Died 26.
Total: 38.
***
A JOURNAL OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF HIS MAJESTY'S BARK ENDEAVOUR, ON A VOYAGE
ROUND THE WORLD, BY
LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK, COMMANDER, COMMENCING THE 25TH OF MAY, 1768.
EXPLANATION (FROM JOURNAL).
IT is necessary to premise by way of explanation, that in this Journal
(except while we lay at George's Island) the day is supposed to begin and
end at noon, as for instance, Friday the 27th May, began at noon on
Thursday 26th, and ended the following noon according to the natural day,
and all the courses and bearings are the true courses and bearings
according to the Globe, and not by Compass. The longitude is counted West
from the meridian of Greenwich where no other place is particularly
mentioned. The proportional length of the log-line to the half minute
glass, by which the ships run was measured, is as thirty seconds is to
thirty feet.
While the ship lay in port or was coasting in sight of land, or sailing
in narrow seas, this Journal is not kept in the usual form, but the
degrees of Latitude and Longitude the ship passes over are put down at
the top of each page, by which together with the notes in the margin* an
easy reference will be had to the Chart. (* These notes in the margin
have not been printed. ED.)
CHAPTER 1. ENGLAND TO RIO JANEIRO.
REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES ON BOARD HIS MAJESTY'S BARK ENDEAVOUR.
1768.
[May to July 1768.]
RIVER THAMES, Friday, May 27th, to Friday, July 29th. Moderate and fair
weather; at 11 a.m. hoisted the Pendant, and took charge of the Ship,
agreeable to my Commission of the 25th instant, she lying in the Bason in
Deptford Yard. From this day to the 21st of July we were constantly
employed in fitting the Ship, taking on board Stores and Provisions, etc.
The same day we sailed from Deptford and anchored in Gallions reach, were
we remained until the 30th. The transactions of Each Day, both while we
lay here and at Deptford, are inserted in the Log Book, and as they
contain nothing but common Occurrences, it was thought not necessary to
insert them here.
[July to August 1768.]
July 30th to August 7th. Saturday, July 30th, Weighed from Gallions, and
made sail down the River, the same day Anchored at Gravesend, and the
next Morning weighed from thence, and at
Noon Anchored at the Buoy of the Fairway. On Wednesday, 3rd of August,
Anchored in the Downs in 9 fathoms of water, Deal Castle North-West by
West. On Sunday, 7th, I joined the Ship, discharged the Pilot, and the
next day saild for Plymouth.
Monday, 8th. Fresh Breezes and Cloudy weather the most part of these 24
hours. At 10 a.m. weighed and came to sail; at Noon the South Foreland
bore North-East 1/2 North, distant 6 or 7 Miles. Wind West by North,
North-West.
Tuesday, 9th. Gentle breezes and Cloudy weather. At 7 p.m. the Tide being
against us, Anchored in 13 fathoms of Water; Dungeness South-West by
West. At 11 a.m. Weighed and made Sail down Channel; at Noon, Beachy
Head, North by East 1/2 East, distant 6 Leagues, Latitude observed 50
degrees 30 minutes North. Wind North-West to North.
Wednesday, 10th. Variable: light Airs and Clear weather. At 8 p.m. Beachy
Head North-East by East, distant 4 Leagues, and at 8 a.m. it bore
North-East by North, 9 Leagues. Found the Variation of the Compass to be
23 degrees West; at Noon the Isle of Wight North-West by North. Wind West
by North, North-East by East.
Thursday, 11th. Light Airs and Clear weather. At 8 p.m. Dunnose North by
West 5 Leagues, and at 4 a.m. it bore North-North-East 1/2 East, distant
5 Leagues. Wind Variable.
Wednesday, 12th. Light Airs and Calms all these 24 Hours. At Noon the
Bill of Portland bore North-West 1/2 West, distant 3 Leagues. Latitude
Observed 50 degrees 24 minutes North. Wind Easterly.
Thursday, 13th. Ditto weather. At Noon the Start Point West 7 or 8 miles.
Latitude Observed 50 degrees 12 minutes North, which must be the Latitude
of the Start, as it bore West.* (* This is correct.) Wind Variable.
Sunday, 14th. Fine breezes and Clear weather. At 1/2 past 8 p.m. Anchored
in the Entrance of Plymouth Sound in 9 fathoms water. At 4 a.m. weighed
and worked into proper Anchoring ground, and Anchored in 6 fathoms, the
Mewstone South-East, Mount Batten North-North-East 1/2 East, and Drake's
Island North by West. Dispatched an Express to London for Mr. Banks and
Dr. Solander to join the Ship, their Servants and Baggage being already
on board. Wind North-Easterly.
Monday, 15th. First and latter parts Moderate breezes and fair; Middle
squally, with heavy showers of rain. I this day received an order to
Augment the Ship's Company to 85 Men, which before was but 70. Received
on board fresh Beef for the Ship's Company. Wind South-West to
South-East.
Tuesday, 16th. First part moderate and Hazey; Middle hard Squalls with
rain; the Latter moderate and fair. Received on board a supply of Bread,
Beer, and Water. A Sergeant, Corporal, Drummer, and 9 Private Marines as
part of the Complement. Wind South-South-East to North-East.
Wednesday, 17th. Little wind and Hazey weather. Sent some Cordage to the
Yard in order to be Exchanged for Smaller. Several Shipwrights and
Joiners from the Yard Employed on board refitting the Gentlemen's Cabins,
and making a Platform over the Tiller, etc. Wind South-East to East by
South.
Thursday, 18th. Little wind and Cloudy. Struck down 4 guns into the Hold.
Received on board 4 More, with 12 Barrels of Powder and several other
Stores. Shipwrights and Joiners Employed on board. Wind Easterly.
Friday, 19th. Former part little wind with rain; remainder fair weather;
a.m. Read to the Ship's Company the Articles of War and the Act of
Parliament, they likewise were paid two Months' Wages in advance. I also
told them that they were to Expect no additional pay for the performance
of our intended Voyage; they were well satisfied, and Expressed great
Cheerfulness and readiness to prosecute the Voyage. Received on board
another Supply of Provisions, Rum, etc. Wind North-West to South-West.
Saturday, 20th. First part little wind with rain; remainder fresh Gales
and thick rainy weather. Employed making ready for Sea. Wind
West-South-West.
Sunday, 21st. Fresh Gales and Ditto Weather. The Shipwrights having
finished their Work, intended to have sailed, instead of which was
obliged to let go another Anchor. Wind South-West, West-South-West.
Monday, 22nd. Fresh Gales, with heavy squalls of Wind and Rain all this
24 hours. Wind South-West.
Tuesday, 23rd. Ditto weather. Struck Yards and Topmasts; Anchored between
the Island and the Main His Majesty's Ship Gibraltar. Wind West by South.
Wednesday, 24th. Fresh Gales and Hazey weather; a.m. hove up the Small
Bower Anchor and got Topmasts and Yards. Wind West by South.
Thursday, 25th. Moderate and Cloudy weather; a.m. received on Board a
supply of Beer and Water, and returned all our Empty Casks. Loosed the
Topsails as a Signal for Sailing. Wind West, North by West, North-West by
West.
[Sailed from Plymouth.]
Friday, 26th. First part fresh Breezes and Cloudy, remainder little wind
and Clear. At 2 p.m. got under Sail and put to Sea, having on board 94
Persons, including Officers, Seamen, Gentlemen, and their Servants; near
18 Months' Provisions, 10 Carriage Guns, 12 Swivels, with good Store of
Ammunition and Stores of all kinds. At 8 the Dodman Point
West-North-West, distant 4 or 5 Leagues; at 6 a.m. the Lizard bore
West-North-West 1/2 West, 5 or 6 Leagues distant. At Noon Sounded and had
50 fathoms, Grey sand with small Stones and broken Shells. Wind North by
West, North-West, West by South; course South 21 degrees East; distance
23 miles; latitude 49 degrees 30 minutes North, longitude 5 degrees 52
minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 21 degrees West distant 23 miles.
Saturday, 27th. First part Light Airs and Clear weather, remainder fresh
breezes and Cloudy. Berthed the Ship's Company, Mustered the Chests and
Stove all that were unnecessary. Wind North-West, North-East, South-East;
course South-West; distance 77 miles; latitude 48 degrees 42 minutes
North, longitude 6 degrees 49 minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 29
degrees East, 80 miles.
Sunday, 28th. Former part fresh Gales and Hazey with rain; remainder a
Moderate breeze and Cloudy. Wind Easterly; course South 48 degrees West;
distance 130 miles; latitude 47 degrees 16 minutes North, longitude 9
degrees 7 minutes West; at noon Lizard North 40 degrees 5 minutes East;
69 leagues.
Monday, 29th. Light Airs and Hazey the Most part of these 24 hours with
some Rain. Wind North-Westerly; course South 21 degrees West; distance 41
miles; latitude 46 degrees 38 minutes North, longitude 9 degrees 29
minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 37 degrees 45 minutes East, 86
leagues.
Tuesday, 30th. Fresh Gales all these 24 Hours. At 1/2 past 1 p.m. Spoke
with His Majesty's Ship Guardaloupe; at 6 Close Reeft the Topsails, and
got down the Top Gallant Yards. Wind Westerly; course South 27 degrees
West; distance 33 miles; latitude 46 degrees 9 minutes North, longitude 9
degrees 52 minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 36 degrees East, 96
leagues.
Wednesday, 31st. First and Middle parts, Moderate breezes and Clear;
Latter, fresh Gales and Cloudy. At 6 p.m. loosed the 2nd Reef out of the
Topsails, and at 8 a.m. took them in again; at Noon Tacked and stood to
the North-West, having stood before to the Southward. Wind West to
South-West; course South 36 degrees East; distance 82 miles; latitude 45
degrees 3 minutes North, longitude 8 degrees 43 minutes West; at noon,
Lizard North-North-East, 105 leagues.
[September 1768. Plymouth to Madeira.]
Thursday, September 1st. Very hard gales, with some heavy showers of
Rain, the most part of these 24 Hours, which brought us under our two
Courses, Broke one of our Main Topmast phuttock Plates, washed overboard
a small Boat belonging to the Boatswain, and drowned between 3 and 4
Dozen of our Poultry, which was worst of all. Towards Noon it moderated,
so that we could bear our Maintopsail close Reefd. At Midnight wore and
stood to the Southward. Wind Westerly; course South 70 degrees West;
distance 20 miles; latitude 44 degrees 56 minutes North, longitude 9
degrees 9 minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 28 degrees 15 minutes West,
109 leagues.
Friday, 2nd. Fresh Gales and Cloudy the most part of these 24 hours. P.M.
got up the spare Mainsail to dry, it being Wet by the Water getting into
the Sail room, occasioned by the Ship being very Leakey in her upper
works. At 5 a.m. loosed 2 Reefs out of each Topsail, and saw the Land,
which we judged to be Cape Finister and Cape Ortugal. At 10 Tackt, being
about 4 miles off Shore, and stood to the North-West; at Noon, Cape
Ortugal bore East by South, distance about 8 Leagues. Wind North by West,
West, South-West, West-South-West; course South by West; distance 64
miles; latitude 43 degrees 53 minutes North, longitude 9 degrees 26
minutes West; at noon, Lizard North-North-East, 130 leagues.
Saturday, 3rd. First part little wind and Hazey, with rain; remainder
strong Gales with hard squalls, which brought us under our close Reeft
Topsails, and obliged us to strike Topgallant Yards. At 8 a.m. wore ship
and stood to the Southward. Wind South-West and West; course South 68
degrees 45 minutes West; distance 44 miles; latitude 44 degrees 9 minutes
North, longitude 10 degrees 20 minutes West; at noon, Lizard North 29 1/2
degrees East, 138 leagues.
Sunday, 4th. Fore part fresh Gales and Clear; remainder light Airs and
Calm. At 6 a.m. Cape Finister bore South by West 1/2 West, distance 10 or
11 leagues. Loosed all the Reefs out of the Topsails, and got Topgallant
Yards across. Wind Westerly, Calm; at noon, Island of Cyserga,* (*
Sisarga, near Coruna.) East-South-East 3 leagues.
Monday, 5th. Light breezes and Calm all these 24 hours. At 2 p.m. had an
Observation of the Sun and Moon, which gave the Longitude 8 degrees 42
minutes West from Greenwich. At 6 Cape Finister bore South by West 1/2
West, 6 Leagues. Variation of the Compass per Azimuth 18 degrees 42
minutes West. At Noon, Cape Finister South by East, distant 4 leagues;
latitude observed 43 degrees 4 minutes, therefore Cape Finister must lay
in latitude 42 degrees 53 minutes North.* (* This is correct.) Wind
Westerly, North-West, Calm.
Tuesday, 6th. Moderate breezes and Clear weather these 24 Hours. A.M.
found the Variation by the Mean of 5 Azimuth to be 21 degrees 40 minutes
West, 3 Degrees more than what it was found Yesterday, which I cannot
account for,* (* Cook, as all other navigators of his time, was unaware
of the deviation of the compass caused by the iron of the ship.) as both
Observations appeared to me to be equally well made. At 10.28 had an
Observation of the sun and moon, which gave the Longitude 9 degrees 40
minutes West from Greenwich. By this Observation Cape Finister must lay
in 8 degrees 52 minutes, and by that made yesterday in 8 degrees 40
minutes. The Mean of the two is 8 degrees 46 minutes West of Greenwich
the Longitude of the Cape,* (* The correct longitude is 9 degrees 15
minutes West.) its latitude being 42 degrees 53 minutes North. Wind
North-West; course South 42 degrees West; distance 70 miles; latitude 42
degrees 1 minute North, longitude 9 degrees 50 minutes West; at noon,
Cape Finister North 42 degrees East, 70 miles.
Wednesday, 7th. Moderate breezes and Clear weather; found the Variation
to be 21 degrees 4 minutes West. Wind West-North-West; course South by
West; distance 92 miles; latitude 40 degrees 29 minutes North, longitude
10 degrees 11 minutes West; at noon, Cape Finister North 13 degrees East,
49 leagues.
Thursday, 8th. Fresh Gales and Cloudy weather. A.M. Past by 2 Sail, which
were standing to the North-East. Wind West-North-West to West by South;
course South 4 degrees East; distance 111 miles; latitude 38 degrees 33
minutes North, longitude 10 degrees West; at noon, Cape Finister North 12
degrees East, 88 leagues.
Friday, 9th. First part fresh Gales; remainder moderate breezes and fine,
Clear weather. Set up the Topmast rigging, and found the Variation to be
19 degrees 50 minutes West. Wind West by North to North-East; course
South 40 degrees West; distance 116 miles; latitude 37 degrees 4 minutes
North, longitude 11 degrees 33 minutes West; at noon, Cape Finister North
20 degrees East, 124 leagues.
Saturday, 10th. A steady, fresh breeze and fine Clear weather. Found the
Variation of the Compys by the Evening and Morning Amplitude and by 2
Azimuth to be 20 degrees 59 minutes West. Wind North-East by East; course
South 36 minutes West; distance 130 miles; latitude 35 degrees 20 minutes
North, longitude 13 degrees 28 minutes West; at noon, Cape Finister North
24 degrees East, 166 leagues.
Sunday, 11th. The same Winds and weather Continue. Found the Variation to
be this Evening 18 degrees 54 minutes, and in the Morning 17 degrees 58
minutes West, they both being the mean result of several good
Observations. Wind North-East by East, North by East; course South 32
degrees West; distance 94 miles; latitude 34 degrees 1 minute North,
longitude 14 degrees 29 minutes West; at noon, Cape Finister North 26 1/2
degrees East, 198 leagues.
Monday, 12th. Moderate breezes and fine Clear weather. At 6 a.m. the
Island of Porto Santo bore North-West by West, distance 9 or 10 leagues.
Hauld the Wind to the westward at noon, the Deserters extending from
West-South-West to South-West by South, the Body of Madeira West 1/2
South, and Porto Santo North-North-West 1/2 West. Wind North-North-West;
course South 40 degrees West; distance 102 miles; latitude 32 degrees 43
minutes North, longitude 15 degrees 53 minutes West.
Tuesday, 13th. Fresh breezes and clear weather. At 8 p.m. anchored in
Funchal Road in 22 fathoms. Found here His Majesty's Ship Rose and
several Merchants' Vessels. In the Morning new berthed the Ship, and
Moor'd with the Stream Anchor, half a Cable on the Best Bower and a
Hawser and a half on the Stream Wind North-West.
MOORED IN FUNCHAL ROAD, MADEIRA, Wednesday, 14th. First part fine, Clear
weather, remainder Cloudy, with Squals from the land, attended with
Showers of rain. In the Night the Bend of the Hawsers of the Stream
Anchor Slip'd owing to the Carelessness of the Person who made it fast.
In the Morning hove up the Anchor in the Boat and carried it out to the
Southward. In heaving the Anchor out of the Boat Mr. Weir, Master's Mate,
was carried overboard by the Buoy rope and to the Bottom with the Anchor.
Hove up the Anchor by the Ship as soon as possible, and found his Body
intangled in the Buoy rope. Moor'd the Ship with the two Bowers in 22
fathoms Water; the Loo Rock West and the Brazen Head East. Saild His
Majesty's Ship Rose. The Boats employed carrying the Casks a Shore for
Wine, and the Caulkers caulking the Ship Sides. Wind Easterly.
Thursday, 15th. Squals of Wind from the Land, with rain the most part of
these 24 Hours. Received on board fresh Beef and Greens for the Ship's
Company, and sent on shore all our Casks for Wine and Water, having a
Shore Boat employed for that purpose. Wind North-East to South-East.
Friday, 16th. The most part fine, Clear weather. Punished Henry Stevens,
Seaman, and Thomas Dunster, Marine, with 12 lashes each, for refusing to
take their allowance of Fresh Beef. Employed taking on board Wine and
Water. Wind Easterly.
Saturday, 17th. Little wind, and fine Clear weather. Issued to the whole
Ship's Company 20 pounds of Onions per Man. Employed as Yesterday. Wind
Westerly.
Sunday, 18th. Ditto Weather. P.M. received on board 270 pounds of fresh
Beef, and a Live Bullock charged 613 pounds. Compleated our Wine and
Water, having received of the former 3032 Gallons, of the Latter 10 Tuns.
A.M. unmoor'd and prepar'd for Sailing. Funchall, in the Island of
Madeira, by Observations made here by Dr. Eberton, F.R.S., lies in the
latitude of 32 degrees 33 minutes 33 seconds North and longitude West
from Greenwich 16 degrees 49 minutes,* (* Modern determination is 32
degrees 38 minutes North, 16 degrees 54 minutes West.) the Variation of
the Compass 15 degrees 30 minutes West, decreasing as he says, which I
much doubt;* (* Cook was right: the variation was increasing.) neither
does this Variation agree with our own Observations. The Tides flow full,
and Change North and South, and rise Perpendicular 7 feet at Spring Tides
and 4 feet at Niep tides. We found the North point of the Diping Needle,
belonging to the Royal Society, to Dip 77 degrees 18 minutes. The
Refreshments for Shipping to be got at this place are Wine, Water, Fruit
of Several Sorts, and Onions in Plenty, and some Sweatmeats; but Fresh
Meat and Poultry are very Dear, and not to be had at any rate without
Leave from the Governour. Wind southerly, East-South-East, South-West.
[Sailed from Madeira.]
Monday, 19th. Light breezes and fine Clear weather. At Midnight Sailed
from Funchall. At 8 a.m. the high land over it bore North 1/2 East.
Unbent the Cables, stow'd the Anchors, and issued to the Ship's Company
10 pounds of Onions per Man. Ship's Draught of Water, Fore 14 feet 8
inches; Aft 15 feet 1 inch. Wind East-South-East; latitude 31 degrees 43
minutes North; at noon, High land over Funchall North 7 degrees East, 49
miles.
Tuesday, 20th. Light Airs and Clear weather. P.M. took several Azimuth,
which gave the Variation 16 degrees 30 minutes West. Put the Ship's
Company to three Watches. Wind variable; course South 21 degrees 30
minutes West; distance 28 miles; latitude 31 degrees 17 minutes,
longitude 17 degrees 19 minutes West; at noon, Funchall, Island of
Madeira, North 13 degrees East, 76 miles.
Wednesday, 21st. First part light Airs, remainder fresh Breezes and Clear
weather. Served Hooks and Lines to the Ship's Company, and employed them
in the day in making Matts, etc., for the Rigging. Wind South-West to
South-West by West; course South 60 degrees East; distance 60 miles;
latitude 30 degrees 46 minutes North, longitude 16 degrees 8 minutes
South; at noon, Funchall North 10 degrees West, 113 miles.
Thursday, 22nd. Genteel breezes and Clear weather. At 4 p.m. saw the
Salvages bearing South; at 6, the Body of the Island bore South 1/2 West,
distant about 5 leagues. Found the Variation of the Compass by an Azimuth
to be 17 degrees 50 minutes West. At 10 the Isles of Salvages bore West
by South 1/2 South, distance 2 leagues. I make those Islands to be in
latitude 30 degrees 11 minutes South, and South 16 degrees East, 58
leagues from Funchall, Madeira. Wind South-West; course South 35 degrees
30 minutes East; distance 73 miles; latitude 29 degrees 40 minutes North,
longitude 15 degrees 31 minutes West; at noon, Funchall North 21 degrees
West, 62 leagues.
Friday, 23rd. Light breezes and Clear weather. At 6 a.m. saw the Peak of
Teneriff bearing West by South 1/2 South, and the Grand Canaries South
1/2 West. The Variation of the Compass from 17 degrees 22 minutes to 16
degrees 30 minutes, Wind South-West, North-East; course South 26 degrees
West; distance 54 miles; latitude 28 degrees 51 minutes North, longitude
15 degrees 50 minutes West; at noon, Funchal North 12 degrees 45 minutes
West, 77 leagues.
Saturday, 24th. A fresh Breeze and Clear weather the most part of these
24 Hours. I take this to be the North-East Trade we have now got into. At
6 p.m. the North-East end of the Island of Teneriff West by North,
distance 3 or 4 Leagues. Off this North-East point lies some Rocks high
above the water. The highest is near the point, and very remarkable. By
our run from Yesterday at Noon this end of the Island must lie in the
latitude of 28 degrees 27 minutes and South 7 degrees 45 minutes East,
distance 83 leagues from Funchal, and South 18 degrees West, 98 miles
from the Salvages. At 1 a.m. the Peak of Teneriff bore West-North-West.
Found the Variation to be this morning 16 degrees 14 minutes West. The
Peak of Teneriff (from which I now take my departure) is a very high
Mountain upon the Island of the same name--one of the Canary Islands. Its
perpendicular higth from Actual Measurement is said to be 15,396 feet.*
(* The received height is 12,180 feet. Latitude 28 degrees 16 minutes
North, Longitude 16 degrees 38 minutes West.) It lies in the Latitude of
28 degrees 13 minutes North, and Longitude 16 degrees 32 minutes from
Greenwich. Its situation in this respect is allowed to be pretty well
determined. Wind North-East by East; latitude 27 degrees 10 minutes
North; at noon Peak of Teneriff North 18 degrees 45 minutes, 74 miles.
Sunday, 25th. A Steady Trade Wind and Clear Weather. The Variation by the
Amplitude this Evening was 14 degrees 58 minutes West. Wind East by
North, East-North-East; course South 41 degrees West; distance 126 miles;
latitude 25 degrees 36 minutes North; at noon Peak of Teneriff North 33
degrees 15 minutes East, 61 leagues.
Monday, 26th. Fresh breezes and somewhat Hazey. Variation by this Evening
Amplitude 15 degrees 1 minute West. Wind North-East by East; course South
22 degrees 15 minutes West; distance 122 miles; latitude 23 degrees 43
minutes North; at noon Peak of Teneriff North 29 degrees East, 317 miles.
Tuesday, 27th. Ditto weather. Served Wine to the Ship's Company, the Beer
being all Expended but 2 Casks, which I intend to keep some time Longer,
as the whole has proved very good to the last Cask. At Noon found the
Ship by Observation 10 miles a Head of the Log, which I suppose may be
owing to a Current setting in the same direction of the Trade Wind. Wind
North-East; course South 19 degrees West; distance 145 miles; latitude 21
degrees 26 minutes North; at noon, Peak of Teneriff, North 26 degrees
East, 154 leagues.
Wednesday, 28th. A Fresh Trade wind and Hazey weather. The Variation of
the Compass by the mean of Several Azimuth taken this Evening 12 degrees
46 minutes, and in the Morning by the same Method 12 degrees 43 minutes
West. This day's Log and Observed Latitude agree, which is not
reconcilable to Yesterday. Exercised the People at Small Arms. Wind
North-East, East-North-East; course South 12 degrees 30 minutes West;
distance 150 miles; latitude 18 degrees 59 minutes North; at noon, Peak
of Teneriff North 23 degrees 15 minutes East, 204 leagues.
Thursday, 29th. Fresh breezes and Hazey weather. The Variation 12 degrees
33 minutes West; the Observed Latitude ahead of that given by the Log 10
miles. Wind North-East by North; course South 14 degrees West; distance
90 miles; latitude 17 degrees 32 minutes North; at noon Peak of Teneriff,
North 33 degrees East, 236 leagues.
[Off Cape de Verd Islands.]
Friday, 30th. A Steady breeze and Pleasant weather. At 6 a.m. saw the
Island of Bonavista (one of the Cape de Verd islands), Extending from
South by East to South-West by South, distance 3 or 4 Leagues. Ranged the
East side of this Island at the Distance of 3 or 4 miles from the Shore,
until we were obliged to Haul Off to avoid a Ledge of Rocks which
stretched out South-West by West from the Body or South-East Point of the
Island 1 1/2 leagues. Had no ground with 40 fathoms a Mile without this
Ledge. The Island of Bonavista is in Extent from North to South about 5
leagues, is of a very uneven and hilly Surface, with low sandy beaches on
the East side. The South-East part of the Island, from which I take my
Departure, by an Observation this day at Noon lies in the latitude of 16
degrees North, and according to our run from Madeira in the longitude of
21 degrees 51 minutes West from Greenwich, and South 21 degrees West; 260
leagues from Tenerriff. Drawings Numbers 1 and 2 represent the appearance
of the East side of this Island, where (2) is the South-East point, with
the hill over it, which is high, of a round Figure, and the southermost
on the Island. Wind North-East; course South 12 degrees 30 minutes West;
distance 97 miles; latitude 15 degrees 37 minutes North per observation;
Teneriffe, North 20 degrees 43 minutes East, 262 1/3 leagues; at noon the
hill on the South-East Point of the Island Bonavista North 69 degrees
West, distant from the shore 3 leagues.
[October 1768.]
Saturday, October 1st. A steady gale and somewhat Hazey. Variation by
very good Azimuths this Evening 10 degrees 37 minutes, and by the same in
the Morning 10 degrees 0 minutes West; at Noon found the ship a Head of
the Log 5 Miles. Wind North, North-North-East; course South 12 degrees 12
minutes West; distance 114 miles; latitude 14 degrees 6 minutes North,
longitude 22 degrees 10 minutes West; at noon Island of Bonavista,
South-East point, North 9 degrees West, 116 miles.
Sunday, 2nd. First part a Steady breeze and pleasant weather, remainder
light breezes and Cloudy. At noon found the Ship by Observation ahead of
the Log 7 miles. Wind North by East, North-North-West; course South 1
degree West; distance 92 miles; latitude 12 degrees 34 minutes North,
longitude 22 degrees 10 minutes West; at noon Bonavista, South-East
point, North 5 degrees 45 minutes East, 69 leagues.
Monday, 3rd. Cloudy weather, with light winds and Calms. Variation by
this Evening Amplitude South 8 degrees 49 minutes West. A.M. hoisted out
a Boat to try if there was any Current; found one setting to the
South-East at the rate of 3/4 of a Mile per hour. Wind North, calm,
South-South-West 1/2 West; course South 3 degrees 30 minutes East;
distance 20 miles; latitude 12 degrees 14 minutes North, longitude 22
degrees 10 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 5
degrees East, 76 leagues.
Tuesday, 4th. Calm for the Greatest part of the 24 Hours. By an
Observation we had this Morning of the Sun and Moon found our Selves in
the Longitude of 22 degrees 32 minutes 30 seconds West from Greenwich;
that by account is 21 degrees 58 minutes, the Difference being 34 miles
Westerly, which does not agree with the Setting of the Current, for
having try'd it twice to-day and found it set to the East-South-East 1
Mile per Hour, and at the same time found the Ship to the Southward of
the Log by the Noon Observation 10 miles. Served Portable soup and Sour
kroutt to the Ship's Company. Wind variable; course South 53 degrees
West; distance 17 miles; latitude 11 degrees 53 minutes North, longitude
22 degrees 33 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 2
degrees East, 82 leagues.
Wednesday, 5th. Light breezes of Wind, sometimes Clear and sometimes
Cloudy weather. Variation 6 degrees 10 minutes West by an Amplitude and
Azimuth this evening. At noon found the Ship by the Observed Latitude 7
Miles to the Southward of the Log, and by the Observed Longitude 30
degrees to the Eastward of Yesterday's Observations; and as these
Observations for finding the Longitude (if carefully observed with good
Instrument) will generally come within 10 or 15 Miles of each other, and
very often much nearer, it therefore can be no longer in Doubt but that
there is a Current setting to the Eastward;* (* This was the Counter
Equatorial Current.) yet we cannot have had this Current long, because
the Longitude by account and that by Observation agree to-day, but
Yesterday she was 28 miles to the Westward of the Observation. Wind calm,
North-East, East; course South 29 degrees East; distance 57 miles;
latitude 10 degrees 56 minutes North, longitude 22 degrees 3 minutes
West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 2 degrees East, 101
leagues.
Thursday, 6th. First part light Breezes and Cloudy; Middle frequent heavy
Squalls, with rain, till towards Noon when we had again little wind.
Found the Variation by the mean of 3 Azimuth, taken this Morning, to be 8
degrees 52 minutes West, which makes the Variation found Yesterday
doubtful. Wind North-East, South-East, Southerly; course South 10 degrees
30 minutes West; distance 77 miles; latitude 9 degrees 40 minutes North,
longitude 22 degrees 28 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East
point, North 4 degrees East, 128 leagues.
Friday, 7th. Variable light Airs and Calm all these 24 Hours. At Noon
found the Current to set South-East 1/4 South one Mile per hour, and yet
by Observation at Noon I find the Ship 12 Miles to the Northward of
Account, a Circumstance that hath not hapned for many days, and which I
believe to be owing to the heavy Squalls we had Yesterday from the
South-East, which obliged us to put frequently before the Wind. Wind
Southerly, calm, Northerly; course South 5 degrees West; distance 10
miles; latitude 9 degrees 42 minutes North, longitude 22 degrees 19
minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 4 degrees East,
127 leagues.
[Between Cape de Verd Islands and Equator.]
Saturday, 8th. First part, light Airs and Clear weather; Middle, Squally,
with Thunder and Lightning all round; latter part, Moderate breezes and
Clear weather. Had several Azimuths both in the Evening and Morning,
which gave the Variation South 8 degrees 30 minutes West. At Noon found
by Observation that the Ship had outrun the Log 20 Miles, a Proof that
there is a Current setting to the Southward. Wind North-East by North to
East-South-East; course South by East; distance 78 miles; latitude 8
degrees 25 minutes North, longitude 22 degrees 4 minutes West; at noon,
Bonavista, South-East point, North 1 degree 45 minutes East, 152 leagues.
Sunday, 9th. Light Airs and fine Clear weather. Found the Variation by a
great Number of Azimuth made this Afternoon to be 8 degrees 21 minutes 30
seconds West, and by the Morning Amplitude 7 degrees 48 minutes. At Noon
try'd the Current, and found it set North-North-West 3/4 West, 1 1/8
miles per hour. The Shifting of the Current was conformed by the Observed
Latitude Wind East-South-East; course South 16 degrees West; distance 29
miles; latitude 7 degrees 58 minutes North, longitude 22 degrees 13
minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 2 degrees 40
minutes, 161 leagues.
Monday, 10th. First part, light breezes and Clear weather; Middle,
squally, with heavy Showers of Rain; latter, Variable, light Airs and
Calm and dark gloomy weather. At 3 p.m. found the Current to set
North-North-East 1/4 East, 1 1/4 Mile per Hour, and at Noon found it to
set North-East 3/4 North at the same rate, and the Variation to be 8
degrees 39 minutes West by the Mean of Several Azimuth. Wind South-East
by East, Southerly; course South; distance 10 miles; latitude 7 degrees
48 minutes North; longitude 22 degrees 13 minutes West; at noon,
Bonavista, South-East point, North 3 degrees East, 164 leagues.
Tuesday, 11th. Very Variable weather, with frequent Squalls rain, and
Lightning. By the Observed Latitude at Noon I find the Ship hath only
made 22 Miles Southing since the last Observation two days ago, whereas
the Log gives 55 Miles, a Proof that there is a Current setting to the
Northward. Wind South-East; course South 52 degrees West; distance 18
miles; latitude 7 degrees 36 minutes North, longitude 22 degrees 8
minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 3 degrees East,
168 leagues.
Wednesday, 12th. Much the same weather as Yesterday the first part, the
remainder mostly Calm and cloudy weather. A.M. try'd the Current and
found it set South by West 1/4 West, 1/2 Mile per Hour, which is not
agreeable to yesterday's remark. Wind variable; course South 33 degrees
30 minutes West; distance 20 miles; latitude 7 degrees 21 minutes North,
longitude 22 degrees 39 minutes West; at noon Bonavista North 5 degrees
East, 174 leagues.
Thursday, 13th. Light Airs of Wind, with some heavy showers of rain.
Variation by Azimuth and Amplitude this Evening 8 degrees 46 minutes
West. At Noon try'd the Current, and found it set South 3/4 East, 1/3 of
a Mile per Hour; but finding the Observation and Log agree, I am
inclinable to think it hath had no effect upon the Ship. Wind South-West,
West-South-West; course South 16 degrees 45 minutes East; distance 21
miles; latitude 7 degrees 1 minute North, longitude 22 degrees 32 minutes
West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 5 degrees East, 181
leagues.
Friday, 14th. Dark, gloomy weather, with much rain, the Wind Variable
from West-South-West to South-South-East, sometimes on one Tack and
sometimes on the other. Wind West-South-West to South-South-East; course
South 5 degrees East; distance 24 miles; latitude 6 degrees 38 minutes
North, longitude 22 degrees 30 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista,
South-East point, North 3 degrees 15 minutes, 188 leagues.
Saturday, 15th. First part, little wind and Cloudy; Middle, Squally, with
rain; latter part, light Airs and Clear weather. A little before Noon
took several Observations of the sun and moon, the mean result of which
gave the Longitude to be 23 degrees 46 minutes West from Greenwich, which
is 1 degree 22 minutes more Westerly than that by account carried on from
the last Observation; and the Observed Latitude is 24 Miles more
Northerly than the Log since the Last Observation 2 days ago, all of
which shows that the North-Westerly Current hath prevailed for this some
Days past. Wind South-South-West to South-East; course South 30 degrees
East per log; distance 12 miles; latitude 6 degrees 50 minutes North;
longitude 22 degrees 23 minutes West per account, 23 degrees 46 minutes
per sun and moon; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North by East,
187 leagues.
Sunday, 16th. First part Calm, the remainder Gentle breezes and fine,
Pleasant weather. At 3 hours 30 minutes 39 seconds Apparent time p.m. the
observed distance of the sun and moon's nearest Limb was 52 degrees 42
minutes 30 seconds; the Altitude of the sun's lower limb 32 degrees 39
minutes; the Altitude of the moon's lower limb 58 degrees 36 minutes; the
longitude of the Ship from the aforegoing Observations 23 degrees 33
minutes 33 seconds West from Greenwich, differing 13 minutes from those
made this Morning or Yesterday, the Ship laying all the time becalmed.
Variation of the Compass 8 degrees 45 minutes West. Wind South-East,
variable, North-East; course South 2 degrees East; distance 72 miles;
latitude 5 degrees 38 minutes North, longitude 23 degrees 45 minutes
West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 5 degrees 15 minutes
East, 208 leagues.
Monday, 17th. Variable, light Airs and Calm clear weather. 1/2 past 1
p.m. took two Distances of the sun and moon, the first of which gave the
Longitude 23 degrees 45 minutes 56 seconds, and the last 23 degrees 44
minutes West, the difference being not quite two miles, which shows how
near to one another these observations can be made. Wind South,
South-East, variable; course South by West 1/2 West; distance 11 miles;
latitude 5 degrees 17 minutes North, longitude 23 degrees 47 minutes
West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 5 degrees 15 minutes
East, 212 leagues.
Tuesday, 18th. Sometimes little wind, sometimes Squally, with rain and
Lightning. Wind South to East-South-East; course South 48 degrees West;
distance 45 miles; latitude 4 degrees 47 Minutes North, longitude 24
degrees 23 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East point, North 12
degrees East, 229 leagues.
Wednesday, 19th. Fresh breezes and Cloudy weather. The Observed Latitude
to the Northward of that given by the Log 9 miles, which I suppose must
be owing to a Current. Wind South by East to South-East by South; course
South 42 degrees West; distance 88 miles; latitude 3 degrees 44 minutes
North, longitude 25 degrees 23 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista,
South-East point, North 14 degrees East, 253 leagues.
Thursday, 20th. A Genteel gale and Clear weather. At a little before 5
p.m. had an Observation of the sun and moon, which gave the Longitude 25
degrees 46 minutes West from Greenwich, which is more Westerly than that
by account carried on from the last Observation; and the Observed
latitude being again to the Northward shows that there must be a current
setting between the North and West. Wind South by East to South-East by
South; course South 52 degrees West; distance 48 miles; latitude 3
degrees 16 minutes North, longitude 26 degrees 20 minutes West; at noon,
Bonavista, North 18 degrees 30 minutes East, 270 leagues.
[Crossing Equator.]
Friday, 21st. A moderate breeze, and for the most part clear weather.
Longitude per the Mean of 2 Observations of the sun and moon made at 4
hours 45 minutes and at 4 hours 54 minutes p.m., 26 degrees 33 minutes
West. Variation of the Compass 4 degrees 7 minutes West, and the Observed
Latitude at Noon to the Northward of the Log 7 Miles. Wind South-East to
South-South-East; course South 58 degrees West; distance 57 miles;
latitude 2 degrees 46 minutes North, longitude 27 degrees 11 minutes
West; at noon, Bonavista South-East point, North 21 degrees East, 281
leagues.
Saturday, 22nd. Moderate breezes and fine, pleasant weather. Variation 3
degrees 17 minutes West. Wind South-East by South; course South 43
degrees 15 minutes West; distance 87 miles; latitude 1 degree 40 minutes
North, longitude 28 degrees 12 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista,
South-East point, North 23 degrees East, 312 leagues.
Sunday, 23rd. A moderate, Steady breeze and fine Clear weather. The Ship
by Observation at Noon is 8 Miles to the Northward of the Log. Wind
South-South-East; course South; distance 5 miles; latitude 1 degree 40
minutes North, longitude 28 degrees 12 West; at noon, Bonavista,
South-East point, North 23 degrees East, 312 leagues.
Monday, 24th. First part ditto weather; remainder fresh Breezes and
Cloudy, with some flying Showers of rain. Variation per Azimuth this
morning 3 degrees West. At Noon by Observation found the Ship 11 Miles
ahead of the Log. Wind South by East to South-East by South; course South
49 degrees West; distance 50 miles; latitude 1 degree 7 minutes North;
longitude 28 degrees 50 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East
point, North 25 degrees East, 328 leagues.
Tuesday, 25th. A Genteel breeze and Clear weather, with a Moist Air. Soon
after sunrise found the Variation of the Compass to be 2 degrees 24
minutes West, being the Mean result of several very good Azimuths. This
was just before we crossed the Line in the Longitude of 29 degrees 29
minutes West from Greenwich. We also try'd the Diping Needle belonging to
the Royal Society, and found the North point to Dip 26 degrees below the
Horizon; but this Instrument cannot be used at Sea to any great degree of
accuracy on account of the Motion of the Ship, which hinders the Needle
from resting. However, as the Ship was pretty steady, and by means of a
Swinging Table I had made for that purpose, we could be Certain of the
Dip to two Degrees at most. The Observed Latitude and that by account
nearly Agree. Wind South-East to South-East by East; course South 30
degrees West; distance 95 miles; latitude 0 degrees 15 minutes South,
longitude 29 degrees 30 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East
point, North 26 degrees East, 358 leagues.
Wednesday, 26th. First part light Airs and Cloudy weather, the remainder
a Moderate Breeze and Cloudy. After we had got an observation, and it was
no longer Doubted that we were to the Southward of the Line, the Ceremony
on this occasion practis'd by all Nations was not Omitted. Every one that
could not prove upon the Sea Chart that he had before Crossed the Line
was either to pay a Bottle of Rum or be Duck'd in the Sea, which former
case was the fate of by far the Greatest part on board; and as several of
the Men chose to be Duck'd, and the weather was favourable for that
purpose, this Ceremony was performed on about 20 or 30, to the no small
Diversion of the Rest. Wind South-East to South-South-East; course South
31 degrees West; distance 77 miles; latitude 1 degree 21 minutes South,
longitude 30 degrees 18 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista, South-East
point, North 25 degrees 30 minutes East, 385 leagues.
Thursday, 27th. Fresh Gales and Close Cloudy weather. Variation 2 degrees
48 minutes West. Wind South-South-East to South-East; course South 38
degrees 15 minutes West; distance 79 miles; latitude 2 degrees 23 minutes
South, longitude 31 degrees 7 minutes West; at noon, Bonavista,
South-East point, North 26 degrees East, 410 leagues.
Friday, 28th. Fresh Breeze and fine Clear weather. At a little past 1
a.m. Longitude in by the 3 following Observations--viz., by the Moon and
the star Arietis, 32 degrees 27 minutes; by the Moon and Pollux, 32
degrees 0 minutes 15 seconds; by ditto, 31 degrees 48 minutes 32 seconds;
the mean of the whole is 32 degrees 5 minutes 16 seconds West from
Greenwich, which is 31 minutes more Westerly than the longitude by
account carried on since the last Observation. The two first observations
were made and computed by Mr. Green, and the last by myself. The star
Arietis was on one side of the Moon and Pollux on the other. This day at
Noon, being nearly in the latitude of the Island Ferdinand Noronha, to
the Westward of it by some Charts and to the Eastward by others, was in
Expectation of seeing it or some of those Shoals that are laid down in
most Charts between it and the Main; but we saw neither one nor a Nother.
We certainly passed to the Eastward of the Island, and as to the Shoals,
I don't think they Exhist, grounding this my Opinion on the Journal of
some East India Ships I have seen who were detain'd by Contrary winds
between this Island and the Main, and being 5 or 6 Ships in Company,
doubtless must have seen some of them did they lay as Marked in the
Charts.* (* There is a very dangerous reef, As Rocas, 80 miles west of
Fernando Noronha. The Endeavour passed 60 miles east of latter.) Wind
South-East to South-East by East; course South 33 degrees West; distance
93 miles, latitude 3 degrees 41 minutes South, longitude 32 degrees 29
minutes West.
Saturday, 29th. Fresh Breezes and pleasant weather. Variation of the
Compass 2 degrees 25 minutes West. Wind East-South-East; course South by
West; distance 101 miles; latitude 5 degrees 25 minutes South, longitude
32 degrees 48" West.
Sunday, 30th. A Steady breeze, and for the most part close cloudy
weather. Variation by several Azimuths 1 degree 31 minutes West. At noon
the observed latitude 7 miles southward of account. Wind East-South-East;
course South 3/4 West; distance 107 miles; latitude 7 degrees 8 minutes
South, longitude 33 degrees 4 minutes West.
Monday, 31st. A Fresh breeze and Clear weather. Variation 0 degrees 15
minutes West. Observed Latitude again to the Southward of the Log. Wind
East to East-South-East; course, South 1/2 West; distance 114 miles;
latitude 9 degrees 1 minute South, longitude 33 degrees 16 minutes West.
[November 1768. Between Equator and Rio.]
Tuesday, November 1st. Moderate breezes, for the most part Cloudy.
Variation by the mean of Several Azimuths 0 degrees 58 minutes West in
the Evening, and in the Morning found it to be 0 degrees 18 minutes West.
Wind East-South-East; course South 3/4 West; distance 98 miles; latitude
10 degrees 38 minutes South.
Wednesday, 2nd. A Steady breeze and fine pleasant weather. This
Afternoon, by the mean of Several Azimuths and the Amplitude, found the
Variation to be 0 degrees 34 minutes East, from which it appears that
about the aforegoing Noon we have Crossed the Line of no Variation in the
Latitude of 10 degrees 38 minutes South, and, according to the following
Observations, in 32 degrees 0 minutes West longitude from Greenwich. At 5
hours 5 minutes 0 seconds Apparent time a.m. the longitude of the Ship
and the Observation of the moon and the star Aldebaran was found to be 32
degrees 0 minutes 45 seconds; at 8 hours 17 minutes 0 seconds, per sun
and moon, 32 degrees 25 minutes 0 seconds; and at 9 hours 0 minutes 16
seconds, 32 degrees 19 minutes 0 seconds. The mean of the three is 32
degrees 14 minutes 55 seconds. And again at 7 hours 12 minutes 52
seconds, per sun and moon, 32 degrees 10 minutes 4 seconds; and at 7
hours 19 minutes 42 seconds, per sun and moon, 32 degrees 15 minutes 20
seconds. The mean of these two is 32 degrees 12 minutes 42 seconds, and
the mean of the whole is 32 degrees 13 minutes 43 seconds West from
Greenwich, which is less by a whole Degree than that by account, which is
a Considerable Error to be made in 5 Days in these low Latitudes. One
would think from this that we must have had a Current setting to the
Eastward, which is not likely that it should set against the settled
trade wind. The 3 first of these Observations were made by Mr. Green, and
the 2 last by myself. Wind East-South-East, South; course South by West;
distance 132 miles; latitude 12 degrees 48 minutes South, longitude 32
degrees 20 minutes West per Observation.
Thursday, 3rd. A Fresh Trade wind and fair weather. Variation per Azimuth
this Evening 0 degrees 47 minutes East, and at a little past 9 a.m.
longitude in per sun and moon 33 degrees 0 minutes West of Greenwich.
Wind East by South-East; course South 15 degrees West; distance 128
miles; latitude 14 degrees 51 minutes South, longitude 33 degrees 7
minutes West.
Friday, 4th. A Steady Gale and fair weather. P.M. Variation per Azimuth 1
degree 29 minutes West, ditto 1 degree 28 minutes West, and by the
Amplitude 1 degree 12 minutes West; mean 1 degree 23 minutes West, by
which it appears that we have again Crossed the Line of no Variation. At
1/2 past 9 a.m. the longitude of the Ship, per Observation of the sun and
moon, 33 degrees 26 minutes 30 seconds. Wind East by South; course South
19 degrees 30 minutes West; distance 125 miles; latitude 16 degrees 49
minutes South, longitude 33 degrees 37 minutes West.
Saturday, 5th. Fine pleasant weather. Variation per Azimuth this morning
3 degrees 21 minutes East, which makes me Doubtful of the Variation found
yesterday, tho' at the time I had not the least room to doubt of the
Accuracy of the Observations. Longitude per Observation 34 degrees 43
minutes 30 seconds West. Wind East to North-East; course South 30 degrees
35 minutes West; distance 109 miles; latitude 18 degrees 22 minutes
South, longitude 34 degrees 50 minutes West.
Sunday, 6th. First and Latter part squally, with heavy Showers of rain;
middle moderate and fair. I now determined to put into Rio de Janeiro in
preferance to any other port in Brazil or Falkland Islands, for at this
place I knew we could recruit our Stock of Provisions, several Articles
of which I found we should in time be in want of, and at the same time
procure Live Stock and refreshment for the People; and from the reception
former Ships had met with here I doubted not but we should be well
received. Wind North-North-East, variable, South; course South 55 degrees
West; distance 74 miles; latitude 19 degrees 3 minutes South, longitude
35 degrees 50 minutes West.
Monday, 7th. Moderate breezes and Clear weather. P.M. found the Variation
to be 4 degrees 49 minutes East. At 6 Sounded and had 32 fathoms Water;
the Bottom Coral Rocks, fine Sand and Shells, which Soundings we carried
upon a South-West 1/2 West Course 9 or 10 leagues, and then had no ground
with 100 fathom. We were by our account and per run afterwards 54 Leagues
East from the Coast of Brazil and to the Southward of the Shoals called
Abrollos, as they are laid down in Most Charts. Wind South-East to
North-East; course South 58 degrees West; distance 68 miles; latitude 19
degrees 46 minutes South, longitude 36 degrees 50 minutes West.
Tuesday, 8th. Fresh breezes and Cloudy weather. P.M. variation by the
Mean of 12 Azimuths 5 degrees 26 minutes East, and by an Amplitude in the
Morning 7 degrees 52 minutes. At 6 a.m. saw the Land of Brazil bearing
North-West 1/2 North, distance 8 or 10 leagues. At 8 Sounded, had 37
fathoms, Coarse Sand, broken Shells, and Coral Rocks. At 9 brought too
and Spoke with a Fishing Boat, who informed us that the land in sight lay
to the Southward of Santo Espiritu. It appears high and Mountainous; the
drawing Number (3) exhibits a View of this Land as it appeared from the
Ship (A), being near to Santo Espiritu, and a remarkable hill (B) bore
North-West 1/2 North, distance 7 or 8 leagues. Made Sail in Shore, the
wind being Southerly. Had from the above Depth to 14 fathoms the same
sort of Bottom. Found the Ship at Noon by Observation 10 Miles to the
Southward of account, which I suppose to be occasioned by a Current
setting between the South and West. Wind North-North-East, North by West,
South-South-West to South by West; course South 50 degrees West; distance
140 miles; latitude 21 degrees 16 minutes South, longitude 37 degrees 35
minutes West.
Wednesday, 9th. First and Latter part Hazey, with a Moderate Breeze;
Middle, fresh Gales, with Thunder, Lightning, and rain. At 3 p.m. tack't
in 16 fathoms, distance from the Shore 5 Leagues, the land Extending from
the North-West by West to North-East. At 5 took the 2nd Reef in the
Topsails and got down Topgallant Yards, stood to the South-East until
Midnight, then tack'd, Sounding from 16 to 55 fathoms. At 8 a.m. Loosed
the Reefs out of the Topsails and got Topgallant Yards a Cross; unstowed
the Anchors and bent the Cables. At Noon Latitude Observed 21 degrees 29
minutes South, the Land Extending from South-West by South to
North-North-West, distance 4 leagues, Soundings from 55 to 10 fathoms.
Wind South-South-East, South-South-West, South; course South 62 degrees
15 minutes West; distance 28 miles; latitude 21 degrees 29 minutes South.
[Nearing Rio Janeiro.]
Thursday, 10th. Moderate breezes and Hazey upon the Land. Stood in for
the Shore South-West 1/2 West. Depth of water from 10 to 9 fathoms and
from 9 to 16 fathoms, being then 4 Leagues from the Land. From 16 fathoms
it shoalded gradually to 5 fathoms; then we tacked, being about 1 1/2
Leagues from the Shore. The extreams of the Land to the Southward, which
we took for Cape St. Thomas, bore South 3/4 West, distance 4 leagues. The
Land from Cape St. Thomas to the Northward lies North by East 1/2 East.
Along the Shore is low land covered with Wood and Sandy Beaches, but
inland are very high Mountains, the greatest part of them being hid in
the Clouds. Stood off until 5 in the Morning East and East by South.
Depth of Water 10, 20, 16, 23, and 30 fathoms. At Noon Latitude Observed
21 degrees 30 minutes; Depth of Water 14 fathoms; Grey sand with black
Specks. Extreams of the Land from South-West by West to North-North-West;
distance 12 or 14 leagues. Wind South-South-East, South-East by South,
South by East; course East 1/4 South; distance 17 miles; latitude 21
degrees 30 minutes South, longitude 37 degrees 43 minutes West per
account.
Friday, 11th. First and Latter parts, moderate breezes and fair, but
Cloudy and Hazey over the Land; middle, a fresh breeze and Cloudy. At 8
tack'd and Stood to the North-East. Extream of the Land to the southward,
which we took for Cape St. Thomas, South-West 1/2 South; distance 5 or 6
leagues; Depth of Water 13 fathoms, Grey sand. At 11 a.m. tack'd in 14
fathoms and Stood to the South-South-East, and at 3 a.m. Stood over a
Shoal or Bank of 6 fathoms, afterwards the Depth increased to 30 fathoms,
at Noon in 36 fathoms. Latitude Observed 22 degrees 37 minutes South,
which is 10 miles to the Southward of the Log. No Land in sight. Wind
South-East to East; course South 5 degrees West; distance 67 miles;
latitude 23 degrees 37 minutes South, longitude 37 degrees 49 minutes
West.
Saturday, 12th. Genteel breezes and fine Clear weather. At 2 p.m.
Sounded, but had no ground with 38 fathoms, and soon after sounded and
had none at 50 fathoms, from which it appears that we are to the
Southward of the Bank we have been upon this 2 days past. It Extends off
from the Land between the Latitude 21 degrees and 22 degrees nor less
than 18 or 20 Leagues, How much farther I know not. Standing in from Sea,
the Depth of Water very soon diminisheth from 30 to 20 and 17 fathoms,
afterwards gradually from 9, 8 and even to 6 fathoms; but between this
Shoal Water and the Main, which is 6 or 7 leagues, you will have 10, 12
and even 16 fathoms, till you come within 2 or 3 leagues of the Shore.
The Bottom is of Various kinds, sometimes Coral Rocks, Coral Rocks and
broken Shells, Coarse sand and broken Shells, Small Stones and at other
times fine Sand varying at almost every Cast of the Lead. At 5 p.m. saw
the Land bearing North-West by West 1/2 West, distance 10 or 12 leagues,
which proved to be the Island of Cape Frio; it appeared in two Hillocks,
and from the Deck looked like two Islands. Took several Azimuth of the
Sun, which gave the Variation 6 degrees 40 minutes East. At 8 a.m. the
Isle of Cape Frio bore West by North 4 leagues. This Island is situated
in the Latitude of 23 degrees 2 minutes South, and according to our
Reckoning in the Longitude of 38 degrees 45 minutes West from Greenwich,
but from many Circumstances I have good reason to think that our
reckoning is wrong and that it lies in the Longitude 41 degrees 10
minutes West. It is not of a Large Circuit, but Tolerable high, with a
hollow in the Middle, which makes it look like 2 Islands when it first
makes its appearance out of the Water. It lays not far from the Main,
which with the Island forms a right Angle, one side trending North and
the other West. To the northward of the Island and between it and the
Main there appears to lay several smaller Islands near each other. The
Main land on the Sea Coast appears to be low, but inland are high
Mountains. Drawing Number 4 exhibits a View of this Island when it bore
West-North-West, distance 4 leagues. Wind North-East, East-North-East;
course South 60 degrees 30 minutes West; distance 59 miles; latitude 23
degrees 6 minutes South; Isle of Cape Frio North 60 degrees East, 4
leagues.
Sunday, 13th. First and Latter parts a Genteel Sea breeze and Clear
weather, the Middle Calm. P.M. standing along Shore for Rio De Janeiro
observed that the land on the Sea Coast is high and Mountainous, and the
shore forms some small Bays or Coves wherein are Sandy Beaches. At 8
Shortned Sail; the Sugar Loaf Hill at the West Entrance to Rio De Janeiro
West-North-West, distant 4 or 5 leagues, at the same time was abreast of
2 Small rocky Islands, that lie about 4 Miles from the Shore. At 9 a.m.
Sprung up a light breeze at South-East, at which time we made Sail for
the Harbour, and sent the Pinnace with a Lieutenant before us up to the
city of Rio De Janeiro, to acquaint the Vice Roy with the reason that
induced us to put in here, which was to procure Water and other
refreshments, and to desire the Assistance of a Pilot to bring us into
proper Anchoring ground; at Noon Standing in for the Harbour.
[At Rio Janeiro.]
ARRIVAL AT RIO DE JANEIRO, Monday, 14th. Moderate Sea and Low breezes and
fine pleasant weather. At 5 p.m. Anchored in 5 fathoms just above the
Isle of Cobras, which lies before the City of Rio De Janeiro. A little
before we Anchor'd the Pinnace return'd and informed me that the Vice Roy
had thought proper to detain the Officer until I went ashore. Soon after
we Anchored a Boat came on board bringing several of the Vice Roy's
Officers, who asked many Questions in respect to the Ship: Cargo, from
whence she came, Number of Guns, Men, etc., all of which was Answered to
their satisfaction. They told me it was the Custom of the Port to Detain
the first Officer that came from any Ship on her first Arrival until a
Boat from the Vice Roy had Visited her; that my Officer would be sent on
board as soon as they got on shore, which was accordingly done. About
this time a Boat filled with Soldiers kept rowing about the Ship, which
had orders, as I afterwards understood, not to Suffer any one of the
Officers or Gentlemen, except myself, to go out of the Ship. In the
Morning I waited upon the Vice Roy and obtained leave to purchase
Provisions, Refreshments, etc., for the Ship, but obliged me to employ a
person to buy them for me under a pretence that it was the Custom of the
Place, and he likewise insisted (notwithstanding all I could say to the
contrary), on putting a Soldier into the Boats that brought anything to
or from the Ship, alledging that it was the Orders of his Court, and they
were such as he could not Dispence with, and this indignity I was obliged
to submit to, otherwise I could not have got the supplys I wanted; being
willing, as much as in me lay, to avoid all manner of Disputes that might
cause the least delay, and at the same time to Convince him that we did
not come here to Trade, as I believe he imagined--for he Certainly did
not believe a word about our being bound to the Southward to observe the
Transit of Venus, but looked upon it only as an invented story to cover
some other design we must be upon, for he could form no other Idea of
that Phenomenon (after I had explained it to him), than the North Star
Passing through the South Pole; these were his own words. He would not
permit the Gentlemen to reside ashore during our Stay here, nor permit
Mr. Banks to go into the country to gather plants, etc.; but not the
least hint was given me at this time that no one of the Gentlemen was to
come out of the Ship but myself, or that I was to be put under a Guard
when I did come; but this I was soon Convinced of after I took my leave
of His Excellency and found that an Officer was to attend upon me
whereever I went, which at first the Vice Roy pretended was only meant as
a Complement, and to order me all the Assistance I wanted. This day the
People were Employed in unbending the Sails, in fitting and rigging the
Spare Topmasts in the room of the others, and getting on shore Empty
Water Casks.
Tuesday, 15th. Fine pleasant weather. Received on board fresh Beef and
Greens for the Ship's Company, with which they was served every Day
During our Stay here. Got all the Empty Casks on shore, and set the
Coopers to Work to repair them; Heeld and Boot Topt the Starboard side.
Wednesday, 16th. Set up the Forge to repair the Iron Work; the People
employed in Heeling and Boot Topping the Larboard side, Blacking the
Yards, etc.
Thursday, 17th. Set some People to repair the Sails and the Caulkers to
Caulk the Ship; the rest of the People employed in the Hold and about the
Rigging. For 3 days past I have remonstrated to the Vice Roy and his
Officers against his putting a Guard into my Boat, thinking I could not
Answer it to the Admiralty the tamely submitting to such a Custom, which,
when practiced in its full force, must bring Disgrace to the British
Flag. On the other hand, I was loath to enter into Disputes, seeing how
much I was like to be delay'd and imbarrassed in getting the supplys I
wanted, for it was with much difficulty that I obtained leave for one of
my People to attend the Market to buy necessaries for my Table and to
assist the Agent to buy the things for the Ship. Having gained this Point
and settled everything with the Agent in regard to what was wanting for
the Ship, I resolved, rather than be made a Prisoner in my own Boat, not
to go any more ashore unless I could do it without having a Soldier put
into the Boat, as had hitherto been done; and thinking that the Vice Roy
might lay under some Mistake, which on proper Application might be
clear'd up, I therefore drew up a Memorial stating the whole case and
sent to the Vice Roy this afternoon; and thus a Paper War commenced
between me and His Excellency, wherein I had no other Advantage than the
racking his invention to find reasons for treating us in the manner he
did, for he never would relax the least from any one point.
Friday, 18th. This day I received an Answer to my Memorial, wherein he
tells me, amongst other things, that if I think it hard submitting to the
Customs of this Port I may leave it when I please; but this did not suit
my purpose at present, but I resolved to make my stay as short as
possible. I must own that the Memorial of the Vice Roy's was well drawn
up and very much to the Purpose, which is more than I can say of any of
the subsequent ones.
Saturday, 19th. Close cloudy weather. Employed getting aboard Rum, Water,
and other necessaries. Caulking and refitting the Ship. Punished John
Thurman, Seaman, with 12 Lashes for refusing to assist the Sailmaker in
repairing the Sails.
Sunday, 20th. First part cloudy weather; the Middle very hard Storms of
Wind and Rain; the Latter moderate, with rain. This Afternoon sent
Lieutenant Hicks in the Pinnace with an Answer to the Vice Roy's
Memorial, with orders not to Suffer a Soldier to be put into the Boat;
upon which the Guard Boat attended him to the Landing Place and reported
it to the Vice Roy, who refused to receive the Memorial, and ordered Mr.
Hicks on board Again; but in the Meantime they had put a Guard into the
Boat, which Mr. Hicks insisted should be order'd out, that he might
return on board in the same manner as he came, without a Guard; and upon
his refusing to return other way, all the Crew were by Arm'd force taken
out of the Boat (though they gave no provocation nor made the least
resistance) and hurried to Prison, where they remained until the next
day. Mr. Hicks was then put into one of their Boats, and brought on board
under the Custody of a Guard. Immediately upon my hearing of this I wrote
to the Vice Roy demanding my Boat and Crew and his Excellency's reason
for detaining her, and inclosed the Memorial he had before refused to
receive. This I sent by a petty Officer, as I had never objected against
a Guard being put into any of my Boats wherein was no Commissioned
Officer. He was admitted ashore and delivered the Letter, and was told an
Answer would be sent the next day. This evening, between 8 and 9 o'Clock,
came on an Excessive hard storm of Wind and Rain, the Longboat coming on
board the same time with 4 Pipes of Rum in her. The rope they got hold of
broke, and she went a Drift. The Yawl was immediately sent after her; but
the Longboat filling with Water, they brought her to a Grapnel and left
her, and the Yawl with the People got on board about 3 in the morning.
Early this Morning I sent to the Vice Roy to acquaint him with the loss
of our Boat, to desire leave and the Assistance of a Shore Boat to look
after her, and at the same time to demand the Pinnace and her Crew. After
some time the whole was granted, and we was so fortunate as to find the
Longboat the same Day, and likewise the 4 Pipes of Rum; but every other
thing that was in her was lost.
Monday, 21st. This Morning I received his Excellency's Answer to my last
Memorial and Letter. In his Letter he owns there was some indecency in
Detaining the Boat, but lays the Blame to my Officer, who only Executed
the orders I gave him with Spirit. In one part of his Memorial he says
that from the Built of the Ship and other Circumstances he Doubts that
she is the King's. This I thought proper to Answer in Writing by telling
his Excellency that I was ready to produce my Commission. Rain the most
part of this Day.
Tuesday, 22nd. Moderate breezes, with frequent Showers of Rain. Employed
getting on board Water, Provisions, etc. Caulking the Ship and repairing
the Sails.
Wednesday, 23rd. Fine pleasant weather. Employed as before and setting up
the Rigging. This day I received from the Vice-Roy an Answer to my last
Memorial, wherein he still keeps up his Doubts that she is not a King's
Ship, and accuseth my people of Smuggling, a thing I am very Certain they
were not guilty of, and for which his Excellency could produce no proof,
notwithstanding many Artful means were made use of to tempt such of our
People as were admitted ashore to Trade by the Very Officers that were
under His Excellency's own Roof. I thought it incumbent on me to Answer
this Memorial, in which I desir'd His Excellency to take into Custody any
one of my People that should be found trading even if it amounted to no
more than one of the Sailors selling his Cloaths from off his Back for a
Bottle of Rum--for what His Excellency called smuggling I was very
certain amounted to no more, and even this was only Suspicions of my own.
Thursday, 24th. This day a Spanish Packet (a Small Brig) from Buenos
Ayres put in here in her way to Spain. This Vessel belonged to his
Catholic Majesty, and notwithstanding the Vice-Roy had all along
pretended that the orders he had respecting Foreign Vessels were General,
yet this Vessel meet with very Different Treatment from us. No Guard was
put over her, and her Officers and Crew went wherever they pleased.* (*
The build and general appearance of the Endeavour not being that of a
man-of-war, the Portuguese authorities entertained suspicions regarding
her true character, which is not altogether surprising, considering the
times; but we can well understand Cook's indignation.)
Friday, 25th, Saturday, 26th. Employed getting on board Water as fast as
the Coopers could set up and repair the Casks, setting up the rigging and
Caulking the Ship's sides.
Sunday, 27th. Bent the Sails and Cleaned the Ship Fore and Aft.
Monday, 28th. Fine pleasant weather. The Caulkers having finished the
sides, paid them with Tar. This day I unexpectedly received an Answer
from my last Memorial, wherein were only a few weak Arguments to support
His Excellency's Suspicions that the Ship did not belong to the King, and
that my People Smugled. This Memorial I answered.
Tuesday, 29th. Employed Lashing the Casks that were on the upper Deck and
between Decks and making ready for Sea.
Wednesday, 30th. Punished Robert Anderson, Seaman, and William Judge,
Marine, with 12 Lashes Each, the former for leaving his Duty ashore and
attempting to desert from the Ship, and the latter for using abusive
language to the Officer of the Watch, and John Reading, Boatswain's Mate,
with 12 lashes for not doing his Duty in punishing the above two Men.
Sent a Shore to the Vice-Roy for a Pilot to Carry us to Sea, who sent one
on board together with a Large Boat, which I did not want, but it is the
Custom in this Port for the Pilots to have such a Boat to attend upon the
Ship they Pilot out, and for which you must pay 10 shillings per day,
besides the Pilot's fees, which is Seven pounds four Shillings Sterling.
[December 1768.]
Thursday, 1st December. Wind at South-East, which hinder'd us from
Sailing as we intended. Received on board a large Quantity of fresh Beef,
Greens and Yams for the Ship's Company.
Friday, 2nd. This morning sent a Packet for the Secretary of the
Admiralty on board the Spanish Pacquet, containing copies of all the
Memorials and Letters that have passed between the Vice-Roy and me, and
likewise another Packet containing Duplicates thereof I left with the
Vice-Roy to be by him forwarded to Lisbon. At 9 Weighed and came to Sail
and turned down the Bay. Peter Flower, Seaman, fell overboard, and before
any Assistance could be given him was drowned; in his room we got a
Portugue.
Saturday, 3rd. First part, moderate breezes at South-East; remainder,
fresh Gales at South with Rain. At 1 p.m. Anchored in 18 fathoms Water in
the Great Road (see Plan).
Sunday, 4th. Fore and Middle parts fresh Gales at South-South-East with
heavy rain; Latter, Variable Light Airs and fair weather. Hoisted in the
Long-boat and secured her.
Monday, 5th. First part, little wind and Cloudy; Middle, Thunder,
Lightning and Rain; latter, little wind at South-West and fair. At 4 a.m.
Weighed and tow'd down the Bay (being Calm) with an intent to go to Sea,
but having 2 Shott fired at us from Santa Cruze Fort was obliged to come
to an Anchor and to send a Boat to the Fort to know the Reason of their
firing, who it seems had no orders to let us pass, without which no Ship
can go to Sea. This surprized me not a little, as I had but this very
morning received a very Polite Letter from the Vice-Roy (in answer to one
I had wrote some days ago), wherein he wishes me a good voyage. I
immediately dispatched a petty Officer to the Vice-Roy to know the reason
why we was not permitted to pass the Fort; the Boat very soon return'd
with an order to the Captain of the Fort to let us pass, which Order had
been wrote some Days Ago, but either by Design or neglect had not been
sent. At 11 weighed in order to put to Sea, but before we could heave up
the Anchor, it got hold of a Rock, where it held fast in spite of all our
endeavours to Clear it until the Sea Breeze set in.
Tuesday, 6th. The Sea breeze continued all this day. At 2 p.m. the Ship
tended to the Wind, which cleared the Anchor. Hove it up and run higher
up the Bay and Anchored in 15 fathoms, a little below the Isle or Church
of Bon Voyage; found the cable very much rubbed several fathoms from the
Anchor.
Wednesday, 7th. First and latter part a Genteel breeze at South-East and
East; the Middle, Calm. At 5 a.m. weighed and tow'd out of the Bay; at 8
Discharged the Pilot and his Boat. A breeze of Wind Springing up Easterly
made Sail out to Sea, and sent a boat to one of the Islands laying before
the Bay to cut Brooms, a thing we was not permitted to do while we lay in
the Harbour; the Guard Boat which had constantly attended all the time we
lay in the Bay and Harbour did not leave us until the Pilot was
discharged. At noon the Sugar Loaf at the west Entrance of the Bay bore
North by West 1/2 West, distance, 8 or 9 miles.
[Description of Rio Janeiro.]
A DESCRIPTION OF THE BAY OR RIVER OF RIO DE JANEIRO.
The few days' delay we met with in getting out of Rio de Janeiro gave me
an opportunity of Drawing a Plan or Sketch of great part of the Bay, but
the Strict watch that was kept over us during our whole stay hinder'd me
from taking so accurate a Survey as I wisht to have done, and all the
Observations I could make was taken from on board the Ship. This Plan
hath no pretensions to accuracy, yet it will give a very good idea of the
place, differing not much from the truth in what is Essential.
The Bay of Rio de Janeiro, by some called a River--which its Name
Signifies--but this I think is improper, it being nothing more than a
Deep inlet of the Sea, into which no considerable fresh water River
Emptys itself that I could hear of. Be this as it will, it is Capacious
and Capable of Containing a vast Number of Shipping where they may ride
in perfect Security. The Entrance is Situated West by North 18 Leagues
from Cape Frio, and may be known by a remarkable Hill in the Form of a
Sugar Loaf, at the West Entrance of the Bay; but as all the Coast is
exceeding high, terminating at the top in Peaked Hills, it is much better
known by the Islands laying before it, one of which (called Rodonda) is
high and round in form of a Hay Stack, and lies South by West 2 1/2
leagues from the Sugar Loaf or Entrance of the Bay. A little without the
East Entrance of the Bay, and near the shore, lay 2 Islands near each
other: 3 leagues from the Eastward and 4 miles from the Shore are 2 low
Rocky Islands, which are the first you meet with in coming from the
Eastward or from Cape Frio.
To sail into Rio de Janeiro there is not the least Danger until you are
the length of the Fort of Santa Cruze, which stands on the point that
forms the East Entrance of the Bay or River; on the West Entrance is Fort
Lorio, built upon a Rock which lies close to the Main Land, the distance
from one Fort to the other is 3/4 of a mile East and West, but the
Channel for Shipping is not quite so broad by reason of Sunken Rocks
laying off each of the Forts; these rocks may not be properly placed in
the plan, being only laid down from the information of the Pilot. The
Narrowness of the Channell here causeth the Tides both Flood and Ebb to
run pretty strong, insomuch that you cannot Stem it without a fresh
breeze of Wind, nor is it safe Anchoring because the bottom is foul and
Rocky. By keeping in the Middle of the Channell you will not only avoid
being forced to come to an Anchor, but all other Dangers. Being got
within the entrance your Course up the Bay is North by West 1/2 West and
North-North-West something more than one League; this brings you the
length of the great Road, and North-West and West-North-West one league
more carrys you the length of the Ilha dos Cobras, which lies before the
City. Keep the North side of this Island close on board and Anchor above
it in 5 fathoms of water, where you see most Convenient before the
Monastery of Benedictines, which stands upon a hill at the North-West End
of the City. Small Ships and Vessels generally lay between the Town and
the Ilha dos Cobras, but in order to get there they must come round the
North side of the Island.
I shall now give the best description I can of the Different Forts that
are Erected for the Defence of the Bay. The first you meet with coming in
from Sea is a Battery of 22 Guns, seated in the Bottom of a sandy Bay,
which is on the South side of the Sugar Loaf, and can be designed for no
other use than to hinder an Enemy from landing in that valley, from
whence I suppose they may March up to the Town or round by the West side
of the Sugar Loaf to attack the Forts that are on that side of the
Entrance into the Bay, the first of which is Seated under the foot of the
Sugar Loaf on a low Isthmus which joyns the Peninsula or point of the Bay
with the Land of the Sugar Loaf. It appears to be a square of Stone Work
without a Ditch, with Bastions and furnished with Cannon. A little within
this fort are 2 battrys of 5 or 6 Guns each. They are designed to play
upon Shipping, but neither these battrys or the Fort are out of reach of
a Ship's Cannon. Hard by these batterys stands Fort Logie. It is an
irregular hexagon, built of Stone upon a Small Rock standing at the west
Entrance of the Bay, and is surrounded on all Sides by the Sea. It is
mounted with 14 or 15 guns, which are placed so as to play upon Shipping
going in and out of the Harbour. There is only one way to go into it,
which is by Steps Leading up to a Sally Port on the North-West side.
Opposite this is the Fort of Santa Cruze, built upon a low rocky point
that forms the East Entrance of the Bay. It hath the Appearance of a
Regular Fortification of Stone Work built upon the Slope of the Rock, on
which account there are in some places 2 Tier of Guns. It hath no Ditch
but on the Land side, where it is cut out of the Rock; in every other
part the Sea washes up to its Walls. It seems everywhere to be well
Mounted with Cannon Except on the land side, where none are wanting,
because they could be of no use, the land being so very high above it.
Yet, after all, neither this Fort nor those on the opposite shore do not
appear to be of any great Strength, even against Shipping, for which they
are wholly design'd, being the key of the Bay. They lay low, and Ships
may come so near as to have them entirely within the reach of their Guns;
but it would require 5 or 6 Sail of the line to insure Success. Between 2
and 3 Miles within the Entrance of the Bay, on the West Side, is the Isle
Borghleone, upon the east point of which is Erected a Battry of Stone,
and Mounted with 17 pieces of Cannon. Besides this, on the highest part
of the Island, is a Battry of 6 Guns mounted on an Open Platform. These
battrys are designed to play upon Shipping in the Bay, and seems not ill
designed for that purpose; yet they would be Obliged to Submit to the
Attack of Shipping or that of a Land force, there being nothing to hinder
the latter from Landing on the Island behind the Battrys. Opposite to
this Island, on the low point on the east side of the Bay, is the Battry
of St. Dominica of 7 Guns. A little without this Battry, on the East side
of the Bay, is a small but high Island, close to the Shore, on the Top of
which is the Church of Bonn Voyage, about half-way down the Cliff. Below
the Church is a Battry of 3 Guns. Neither the one nor the other of these
battry's are of much Consequence. They serve, indeed, to force Shipping
coming into the Bay between 2 Fires, and hinder them from Anchoring on
that side until they are silenced. The next fortification is that on the
Ilha dos Cobras, the east point and North side of which consists of a
Rampart Bastion and a Parrapet faced with Stones and mounted with Cannon,
but no Ditch, which is not much wanting, as the works are built on the
Edge of the rising Ground. The other side next the Town hath no other
inclosure but a plain wall without any Guns. It is said that the works on
this Island are in bad repair, on account of being so Extensive that they
would take more men to Defend them than they could spare, and, placing no
Dependancy on their Strength, let them go to decay. The ground on which
the Monastry of Benedictines Stands Commands the Works on the Island.
Over the South end of the City stands the Castle of St. Sebastian; it is
Seated upon a Hill, and Commands the whole Town; and this is all I know
of it, only that it is not counted a place of any great Strength. For the
Defence of these Forts and the Town the King of Portugal Maintains 7
Regiments of Regular Troops. Those I saw were well cloathed and in good
Condition; but this, as I was told, was not the Case with the whole.
Besides these Troops are 3 Regiments of Militia, 2 of Horse and one of
foot. These consist of the principal inhabitants of the place, who serve
without pay, Muster and Exercise in turns nine Months in the year, on
which account they rank with the Regular Troops.
The City of Rio de Janeiro is in the Latitude of 22 degrees 50 minutes
South and Longitude 42 degrees 15 minutes West from Greenwich.* (* Modern
determination, 22 degrees 54 minutes South, 43 degrees 10 minutes West.)
According to Observations made at Sea it is Seated on a plain close to
the Shore on the West side of the Bay, at the foot of Several high
Mountains. It is neither ill designed nor ill built. The Houses are
mostly stone, generally one and two Storys high, with Balconys to most of
them. The Streets are of a Convenient breadth, and Cross each other at
right Angles, and the whole City may be about 3 miles in Compass. It is
Govern'd by a Governor appointed by the King. The present Governor is Don
Anto Mendoyaz Fastada, who is no Friend to the English. It likewise is
the Residence of the Vice-Roy and Captain General of the States of
Brazil, who is as absolute as any Monarch on Earth, and the people to all
appearance as much Slaves. This City and Adjacent parts about the Bay are
said to contain 100,000 Souls; but not above a twentieth part are Whites.
The rest are blacks, many of whom are free, and seem to live in tolerable
Circumstances.
The city of Rio de Janeiro is supplied with Water from 2 Different parts
of the Adjacent Mountains. That which comes from the Southward is
Convey'd a Cross a Deep Valley by an Acquiduct, which Consists of a great
Number of Arches placed in 2 Rows, one upon the other; from thence in
pipes to a fountain which stands in the Middle of the Square before the
Vice-Roy's Palace. At another part of the City is a Reservoir, to which
the water is conveyed much in the same manner. From these 2 places, but
mostly from the former, the inhabitants fetch all they want, where there
is always a Centinel to keep order: and it is likewise here that the
Ships Water. They land their Casks upon a Smooth sandy beach about 100
yards from the Fountain, and upon application to the Vice-Roy you have a
Centinel to look after them and to clear the way for to come to the
fountain to fill water. Upon the whole, Rio de Janeiro is not a bad place
for Ships to put in at that want refreshments, not only because the
Harbour is safe and Commodious, but that Provision and all manner of
Refreshments may be had in tolerable plenty. Bread and Flour are,
however, Scarce and Dear, being brought hither from Europe, and are never
the better for that Passage. In lieu of these are to be had Yams and
Casada. All sorts of Grain--though it may be the produce of this
Country--is Dear. Fresh Beef (tho' bad) is to be had in plenty at about 2
1/4 pence per pound, and Jurked Beef about the same price. This is cured
with Salt, and dryd in the shade, the bones being taken out, and the Meat
cut into large but very thin slices. It eats very well, and if kept in a
dry place will remain good a long time at Sea. Rum, Sugar, and Molasses
are all good and Cheap. Tobacco is Cheap, but not good. Mutton they have
very little. Hogs and all sorts of Poultry are to be got, tho' in no
great plenty, and of Course rather dear. Garden Stuff and Fruit in
plenty, but none that will keep long at Sea except Pumpkins.
They have a Yard for building Shipping and a small Hulk for heaving down
by, there being no other method to come at a Ship's bottom, as the Tides
doth not rise above 6 or 7 feet. At the New and full Moon it is high
Water at that time about 8 o'clock, when the Land and Sea breezes are
regular, but when they are not the Course of Tides are alter'd. The Sea
breeze begins to blow about 10 or 12 o'clock, and continues until sunset,
when it dies away and is succeeded by the land breeze, which continues
most part of the night. From a little after sunrise until the Sea breeze
sets in it is generally Calm, and is then the Hotest and most
Disagreeable part of the whole day.