Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/279

Archip. of the Recherche.]

inscription upon copper placed over his grave; William Hillier, one of my best men, also died of dysentery and fever before quitting the bay, and the surgeon had fourteen others in his list, unable to do any duty. At his well-judged suggestion, I ordered the cables, which the small size of the ship had made it necessary to coil between decks, to be put into the holds, our present light state permitting this to be done on clearing away the empty casks; by this arrangement more room was made for the messing and sleeping places; and almost every morning they were washed with boiling water, aired with stoves, and sprinkled with vinegar, for the surgeon considered the dysentery on board to be approaching that state when it becomes contagious.

At daylight of the 21st, having a fresh breeze at N.W., we prepared to depart, and hove short; but the ship driving before the sails were loosed, and there being little room astern, a second bower was dropped and a kedge anchor carried out. This last not holding after the bowers were weighed, a stream anchor was let go; and before the ship brought up, it was again necessary to drop the best bower. At this time we were not more than a cable's length from the rocks of Middle Island; and the ship being exposed to great danger with the least increase of wind, we got a spring on the stream cable and began to heave on the best bower. In the mean time the ship drove with both anchors a-head, which obliged me, on the instant, to cut both cables, heave upon the spring, and run up the jib and stay-sails; and my orders being obeyed with an alacrity not to be exceeded, we happily cleared the rocks by a few fathoms, and at noon made sail to the eastward.

This example proved the anchorage in the eastern part of Goose-Island Bay to be very bad, the sand being so loose as not to hold the ship with two anchors, though the water was smooth and the wind not more than a double-reefed-top-sail breeze; yet further westward, between Goose Island and the west beach, our anchor had held very well before. The most secure situation should seem to