Page 537

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 4 June 1770 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 Range from Botany Bay to Trinity Bay Index Search Contact us

Range from Botany Bay to Trinity Bay (continued) side, where ships might lie as in a bason. The land both upon the main and islands is high, and diversified by hill and valley, wood and lawn, with a green and pleasant appearance. On one of the islands we discovered with our glasses two men and a woman, and a canoe with an outrigger, which appeared to be larger, and of a construction very different from those of bark tied together at the ends, which we had seen upon other parts of the coast; we hoped therefore that the people here had made some farther advances beyond mere animal life than those that we had seen before. At six o’clock in the evening, we were nearly the length of the north end of the passage; the north westermost point of the main in sight bore N. 54 W. and the north end of the island N.N.E. with an open sea between the two points. As this passage was discovered on Whitsunday, I called it WHITSUNDAY’S PASSAGE, and I called the islands that form it CUMBERLAND ISLANDS, in honour of his Royal Highness the Duke. We kept under an easy sail, with the lead going all night, being at the distance of about three leagues from the shore, and having from twenty-one to twenty-three fathom water. At day-break, we were abreast of the point which had been the farthest in sight to the north west the evening before, which I named CAPE GLOUCESTER. It is a lofty promontory, in latitude 19° 59’ S. longitude 211° 49’ W. and may be known by an island which lies out at sea N. by W. ½ W. at the distance of five or six leagues from it, and which I called HOLBORNE ISLE; there are also islands lying under the land between Holborne Isle, and Whitsunday’s Passage. On the west side of Cape Gloucester the land trends away S.W. and S.S.W. and forms a deep bay, the bottom of which I could but just see from the mast-head: it is very low, and a continuation of the low land which we had seen at the bottom of Repulse Bay. This bay I called EDGCUMBE BAY, Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 537, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/537.html