Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/232

6 vidual collections, and the Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, formed a library in my cabin for the use of all the officers. Every chart at the Admiralty, which related to Terra Australis and the neighbouring islands, was copied for us under the direction of the late hydrographer, Alexander Dalrymple, Esq.; who also enriched our stock of information by communicating all such parts of his works as were appropriate to the voyage.

The expense to officers of an outfit for several years, was much alleviated by the liberality of the Hon. East-India Company. The sum of £600. was ordered by the Court of Directors, to be paid as an allowance to the men of science, to the officers of the ship, and myself, for our tables; and the same sum to be given at the conclusion of the voyage. This allowance the directors were pleased to make, from the voyage being within the limits of the Company's charter, from the expectation of our examinations and discoveries proving advantageous to their commerce and the eastern navigation, and partly, as they said, for my former services.

On the 26th, I received orders to proceed round to Spithead; but the winds being generally from the westward, we did not arrive there before the end of June. A circumstance occurred during the passage, which, amongst many others, shewed the necessity there was for a regulation since adopted, to furnish His Majesty's ships with correct charts. No master had been appointed to the Investigator; nor was any officer on board intimately acquainted with the navigation of the Channel; and having been most of my life engaged in foreign voyages, I was under the necessity, after leaving the pilot in the Downs, to trust almost wholly to my chart, which was that of Mr. J. H. Moore. In working up under Dungeness, on the evening of May 28, we made a trip in shore, towards the town of Hythe, as I supposed from the chart. A little after six, the officer of the watch had reported our distance from the land to be near two leagues; and there being from 10 to 14 fathoms marked within two or three miles of it, and no mention of any shoal lying