Page 616

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 22 August 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 Endeavour River to the Northern Extremity of the Country Index Search Contact us

Endeavour River to the Northern Extremity of the Country (continued) We continued at anchor all night, and between seven and eight o’clock in the morning, we saw three or four of the natives upon the beach gathering shell-fish; we discovered, by the help of our glasses, that they were women, and, like all the other inhabitants of this country, stark naked. At low water, which happened about ten o’clock, we got under sail, and stood to the S.W. with a light breeze at E. which afterwards veered to N. by E.: our depth of water was from six to ten fathom, except in one place, where we had but five. At noon, Possession Island bore N. 53 E. distant four leagues, the western extremity of the main land in sight bore S. 43 W. distant between four and five leagues, and appeared to be extremely low, the south west point of the largest island on the north west side of the passage bore N. 71 W. distant eight miles, and this point I called CAPE CORNWALL. It lies in latitude 10° 43’ S., longitude 219° W.; and some low lands that lie about the middle of the passage, which I called WALLIS’S ISLES, bore W. by S. ½ S. distant about two leagues: our latitude, by observation, was 10° 46’S. We continued to advance with the tide of flood W.N.W. having little wind, and from eight to five fathom water. At half an hour after one, the pinnace, which was ahead, made the signal for shoal water, upon which we tacked, and sent away the yawl to sound also: we then tacked again, and stood after them: in about two hours, they both made the signal for shoal water, and the tide being nearly at its greatest height, I was afraid to stand on, as running aground at that time might be fatal; I therefore came to an anchor in somewhat less than seven fathom, sandy ground. Wallis’s islands bore S. by W. ½ W. distant five or six miles, the islands to the northward extended from S. 73 E. to N. 10 E. and a small island, which was just in sight, bore N.W. ½ W. Here we found the flood tide set to the westward, and the ebb to the eastward. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 616 - 617, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/616.html