At six o’clock the next morning, we weighed and continued our course through the Streight: from Cape Holland to Cape Gallant, which are distant about eight leagues, the coast lies W. ½ S. by the compass: Cape Gallant is very high and steep, and between this and Cape Holland lies a reach about three leagues over, called English Reach. About five miles south of Cape Gallant lies a large island, called Charles’s Island, which it is necessary to keep to the northward of: we sailed along the north shore of it, at about two miles distance, and sometimes much less. A little to the eastward of Cape Holland is a fair sandy bay, called Wood’s Bay, in which there is good anchoring. The mountains on each side the Streight are, I think, higher, and of a more desolate appearance, than any other in the world; except perhaps the Cordeliers, both being rude, craggy, and steep, and covered with snow from the top to the bottom.

From Cape Gallant to Passage Point, which are distant about three leagues, the coast lies W. by N. by compass. Passage Point is the east point of Elizabeth’s bay, and is low land, with a rock lying off it. Between this and Cape Gallant there are several islands, some of them are very small; but the eastermost, which is Charles’s Island, that has been just mentioned, is two leagues long; the next is called Monmouth’s Island, and the westermost, Rupert’s Island: Rupert’s Island lies S. by E. of Point Passage. These islands make the Streight narrow; between Point Passage and Rupert’s Island it is not more than two miles over, and it is necessary to go to the northward of them all, keeping the north shore on board: we sailed within two cables’ length of it, and had no ground with forty fathom. At six in the evening, the wind shifted to the westward, upon which we stood in for Elizabeth’s Bay, and anchored in ten fathom with very good ground; the best anchoring however is in thirteen fathom, for there was but three or four fathom about a cable’s length within us. In this Bay there is a good rivulet of fresh water. We found the flood here set very strong to the eastward; and according to our calculation, it flows at the full and change of the moon about twelve o’clock. We found the variation two points easterly.

Voyaging Accounts