From Egmont Island to Nova Britannia
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On Monday the 7th of September, I weighed anchor, but before I sailed, I took possession of this country, with all its islands, bays, ports, and harbours, for his Majesty George the Third, King of Great Britain; and we nailed upon a high tree a piece of board, faced with lead, on which was engraved the English Union, with the name of the ship, and her Commander, the name of the Cove, and the time of her coming in and sailing out of it. While we lay here, I sent the boat out to examine the harbours upon the coast, from one of which expeditions she returned with a load of cocoa-nuts, which she procured in a fine little harbour, about four leagues W.N.W. from the station we were in. The officer on board reported that the trees grew where he had gathered the fruit in great plenty; but as he had observed that several of them were marked, and that there were many huts of the natives near them, I did not think it proper that the boat should return: but the refreshment which now offered was of such importance to the sick, that I determined to go into the harbour with the ship, and place her so as to protect the men who should be employed to fell the trees, and cut off the cabbages and the fruit. We sailed from English Cove with the land breeze early in the morning, and in the evening secured the ship abreast of the grove, where the cocoa-nuts had been gathered, and at very little distance from the shore. Here we procured above a thousand cocoa-nuts, and as many of the cabbages as we could use while they were good, and I would have staid long enough to have given my people all the refreshments they wanted, but the season of the year made the shortest delay dangerous. There was too much reason to suppose that the lives of all on board depended upon our getting to Batavia while the monsoon continued to blow from the eastward; there was indeed time enough for any other ship to have gone three times the distance, but I knew it was scarcely sufficient for the Swallow in her present condition; and that if we should be obliged to continue here another season, it would probably become impossible to navigate her at all, especially as she had but a single sheathing, and her bottom was not filled with nails, so that the worms would have eaten through it; besides that our provision would long before that time have been totally exhausted. I therefore weighed anchor and quitted this station, which was much the best that had been our lot during the whole run from the Streight of Magellan, on the 9th in the morning, at break of day, with a light breeze from the land.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 592 - 593, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/593.html