Streight of Magellan to Port Famine
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Indian upon the south shore, who kept waving to us as long as we were in sight: we saw also some guanicoes upon the hills, though Wood, in the account of his voyage, says there were none upon that shore. As soon as we had passed the first Narrow, we entered a little sea, for we did not come in sight of the entrance of the second Narrow till we had run two leagues. The distance from the first to the second Narrow is about eight leagues, and the course S.W. by W. The land is very high on the north side of the second Narrow, which continues for about five leagues, and we steered through it S.W. ½ W. with soundings from twenty to five and twenty fathom: we went out of the west end of this Narrow about noon, and steered south about three leagues for Elizabeth’s island; but the wind then coming right against us, we anchored in seven fathom. The island bore S.S.E. distant about a mile, and Bartholomew’s Island bore E.S.E. In the evening, six Indians upon the Island came down to the water side, and continued waving and hallooing to us for a long time; but as my people wanted rest, I was unwilling to employ them in hoisting out a boat, and the Indians seeing their labour fruitless, at length went away. While we were steering from Point Possession to the first Narrow, the flood set to the southward, but as soon as we entered the Narrow, it set strongly over to the north shore: it flows here at the full and change of the moon about ten o’clock. Between the first and the second Narrow the flood sets to the S.W. and the ebb to the N.E.: after the west end of the second Narrow is past, the course, with a leading wind, is S. by E. three leagues. Between the islands of Elizabeth and Saint Bartholomew, the channel is about half a mile over, and the water is deep: we found the flood set very strongly to the southward, with a great rippling, but round the Islands the tides set many different ways.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 34, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/071.html