Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/129

Prince of Wales' Islands.]

island, though of various kinds, were small and fit for little else than the fire. A species of silk-cotton plant was plentiful; the fibres in the pod are strong, and have a fine gloss, and might perhaps be advantageously employed in manufacture.

From two supplements of the sun's meridian altitude to the north, the latitude of our anchorage would be 10° 34′ 12″; but the supplements observed on the 31st having given 1′ 14″ too far south, the correct latitude is taken to be 10° 32′ 58". The longitude from nine sets of distances of the sun west of the moon, was 142° 23′; but by the corrected time keeper, which I prefer, it was 142° 10½′ east. To compare this longitude with that of captain Cook, it must be reduced to some point distinctly laid down by him, and I take Booby Island, which was in sight. According to that navigator, Booby Isle is in 140° 38′ east (Hawkesworth, III, 214); whereas I made it to lie in 141° 57′, or 1° 19′ further east, a difference which certainly appears very extraordinary; but it is still more so, that the island should be laid down 63′ of longitude to the west of the high, flat-topped York Isle, instead of 43′ or 44′. To show that the longitude by my time keeper was not much, if any thing too great, I have to observe, that in captain Bligh's manuscript chart of 1792, Mount Augustus is laid down from his time keepers in 142° 14′; and the mean of his lunar observations, taken eight days before and six days afterward, was 16′ more east. My time keeper now placed Mount Augustus in 142° 18′, or only 4′ more east than captain Bligh's chart, consequently in 12′ less than by his lunar observations; by which quantity it was also less than the nine sets of distances now taken by lieutenant Flinders.

No run of tide was perceptible at the anchorage, from eight in the morning to two p.m.; but it then set westward, and continued so to do until four next morning, and was then running one knot and a half. The time of high water appeared by the soundings, to be nearly as they gave it at Wednesday Island.

In the morning of the 3rd, the wind was moderate at E.S.E.,