Streight of Magellan to Otaheite
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by two other canoes at the west end of the island. About noon, the boats returned, laden with cocoa nuts, palm nuts, and scurvy-grass. Mr. Furneaux, who commanded the expedition, told me that the Indians had left nothing behind them but four or five canoes. He found a well of very good water, and described the island as being sandy and level, full of trees, but without underwood, and abounding with scurvy-grass. The canoes, which steered about W.S.W. as long as they could be seen from the mast-head, appeared to be about thirty feet long, four feet broad, and three and an half deep. Two of these being brought along side of each other, were fastened together, at the distance of about three feet asunder, by cross beams, passing from the larboard gunwale of one, to the starboard gunwale of the other, in the middle and near to each end.
The inhabitants of this island were of a middle stature, and dark complexion, with long black hair, which hung loose over their shoulders. The men were well made, and the women handsome. Their cloathing was a kind of coarse cloth or matting, which was fastened about their middle, and seemed capable of being brought up round their shoulders.
In the afternoon, I sent Lieutenant Furneaux with the boats again on shore. He had with him a mate and twenty men, who were to make a rolling way for getting the casks down to the beach from the well. I gave orders that he should take possession of the island, in the name of King George the Third, and give it the name of QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S ISLAND, in honour of her Majesty. The boats returned freighted with cocoa nuts and scurvy-grass, and the officer told me that he had found two more wells of good water, not far from the beach. I was at this time very ill, yet I went ashore with the Surgeon, and several of the people,
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 426, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/426.html