On this day ...
1 - 2 June 1769
Endeavour Voyage Maps
James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia
Transcript of Cook's Journal
Joseph Banks's Journal
Sydney Parkinson's Journal
Another Visit to Tootaha and the Transit of Venus
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The long-boat not having been got ready till Thursday in the afternoon, though all possible expedition was used to fit her out; the people on board, after having rowed most part of the night, brought her to a grappling just under the land of Imao. Soon after day-break, they saw an Indian canoe, which they hailed, and the people on board shewed them an inlet through the reef into which they pulled, and soon fixed upon a coral rock, which rose out of the water about one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, as a proper situation for their observatory: it was about eighty yards long and twenty broad, and in the middle of it was a bed of white sand, large enough for the tents to stand upon. Mr. Gore and his assistants immediately began to set them up, and make other necessary preparations for the important business of the next day. While this was doing, Mr. Banks, with the Indians of Otaheite, and the people whom they had met in the canoe, went ashore upon the main island, to buy provisions; of which he procured a sufficient supply before night. When he returned to the rock he found the observatory in order, and the telescopes all fixed and tried. The evening was very fine, yet their solicitude did not permit them to take much rest in the night: one or other of them was up every half hour, who satisfied the impatience of the rest by reporting the changes of the sky; now encouraging their hope by telling them that it was clear, and now alarming their fears by an account that it was hazey.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 138 - 139, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/138.html