Page 653

Voyages in the Southern Hemisphere, Vols. II - III

Table of Contents On this day ... 28 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 Passage from New South Wales to New Guinea Index Search Contact us

Passage from New South Wales to New Guinea (continued) We continued standing to the northward with a fresh gale at E. by E. and S.E. till six in the evening, having very irregular soundings, the depth changing at once from twenty-four fathom to seven. At four, we had seen the land from the mast-head, bearing N.W. by N.; it appeared to be very low, and to stretch from W.N.W. to N.N.E. distant four or five leagues. We now hauled close upon a wind till seven, then tacked and stood to the southward till twelve, at which time we wore and stood to the northward till four in the morning, then laid the head of the vessel off till day-light, when we again saw the land, and stood in N.N.W. directly for it, with a fresh gale at E. by S. Our soundings during the night were very irregular from seven to five fathom, suddenly changing from deep to shallow, and from shallow deep, without in the least corresponding with our distance from the land. At half an hour after six in the morning a small low island, which lay at the distance of about a league from the main, bore N. by W. distant five miles: this island lies in latitude 8° 13’ S., longitude 221° 25’ W.; and I find it laid down in the charts by the names of Bartholomew and Whermoysen. We now steered N.W. by W. W.N.W. W. by N. W. by S. and S.W. by W. as we found the land lie, with from five to nine fathom; and though we reckoned we were not more than four leagues from it, yet it was so low and level that we could but just see it from the deck. It appeared however to be well covered with wood, and among other trees, we thought we could distinguish the cocoa-nut. We saw smoke in several places, and therefore knew there were inhabitants. At noon we were about three leagues from the land; the westermost part of which that was in sight bore S. 79° W. Our latitude by observation was 8° 19’ S. and longitude 221° 44’ W. The island of St. Bartholomew bore N. 74 E. distant 20 miles. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 653, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/653.html