11 March 1770

James Cook's Journal: Daily Entries

Table of Contents On this day ... 11 March 1770 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Joseph Banks's Journal Sydney Parkinson's Journal The authorised published account of Cook's Voyage by John Hawkesworth 1770 Index Search Contact us Search for Nautical Term in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine...

11 March 1770 Sunday 11th Winds between the West and N.W. a fresh gale and clear weather. Stood away NNE close upon a wind without seeing any land untill 2 AM when we discover'd an Island bearing NWBN distant 4 or 5 Leagues. two hours after this we saw the land a head upon which we tack'd and stood off untill 7 6 oClock then Stood in in order to take a nearer View of the land ^it At 11 oClock being about 3 Leagues from the land and and the wind seem'd to incline on shore, we tack'd and Stood off to the southward and now we thought that the land to the southward or that we have been sailing round these two days past was an Island, beca^use there appeared an open Channel between the North part of that land and the south part of the other in which we thought we saw the small Island we were in with on the 6th instant, but when I came to lay this land down upon paper from the several bearings I had taken it appear'd that there was but little reason to suppose it an Id   on the Contrary, I hard^ly have a doubt but what it joins to and makes a part of the main land the western extremety of which bore from ^at Noon N 59° West and the Island seen in the morning So 59° West distant 5 Leagues - Latd Obsd 46°.24' So This Island I have named after Dr Solander / Latde 46°.31' So Longde 192°..49' Wt / it is nothing but a barren rock of about a Mile in circuit remar[k]ably high and lies full 5 Legues from the Main. The shore of the main lies nearest EBS and WBN and forms a large open Bay in which there is no appearence of a harbour or other place of safety for shipping against SW and southerly winds. The face of the Country bears a very ruged asspeckt being full of high craggy hills on the summits of which were several patches of snow, however the land is not wholy barren we could see wood not only in the Vallies but on several of the hills, but we saw no signs of inhabitants — Voyaging Accounts © Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 199, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17700311.html