Page:Captain Cook's Journal during His First Voyage Round the World.djvu/245

Dec. 1769.] and line and Seans; of the last they have some prodidgious large made all of a Strong Kind of Grass. The Mackerel are in every respect the same as those we have in England, only some are larger than any I ever saw in any other Part of the World; although this is the Season for this fish, we have never been able to Catch one with hook and line. The inhabitants of this Bay are far more numerous than at any other place we have yet been in, and seem to live in friendship one with another, although it doth not at all appear that they are united under one head. They inhabited both the Islands and the Main, and have a Number of Hippas, or Strong Holds, and these are all built in such places as nature hath in a great part fortified, and what she hath left undone the people themselves have finished. It is high water in this Bay at full and change of the Moon about 8 o'clock, and the tide at these times rises and falls upon a perpendicular 6 or 8 feet. It appears, from the few Observations I have been able to make of the Tides on the Sea-Coast, that the flood comes from the Southward, and I have lately had reasons to think that there is a current which comes from the Westward and sets along shore to the S.E. or S.S.E., as the Land lays.

Wednesday, 6th.—P.M., had a Gentle breeze at N.N.W., with which we kept turning out of the Bay, but gain'd little or nothing; in the evening it fell little wind; at 10 o'Clock it was Calm. At this time the tide or Current seting the Ship near one of the Islands, where we were very near being ashore; but, by the help of our Boats and a light Air from the Southward, we got clear. About an hour after, when we thought ourselves out of all danger, the Ship struck upon a Sunken rock and went immediately clear without receiving any perceptible damage. Just before the man in the Chains had 17 fathoms Water, and immediately after she struck 5 fathoms, but very soon Deepned to 20. This rock lies half-a-mile W.N.W. from the Northermost or outermost Island that lies on the S.E. side of the Bay. Had light Airs from the Land and sometimes Calm until 9 o'Clock a.m.; at this time we had got out of the Bay, and a breeze springing up at N.N.W., we stood out to Sea. At noon Cape Brett bore S.S.E. ½ S., distant 10 miles. Lat. observed, 34° 59′ S.

Thursday, 7th.—P.M., a fresh breeze from the Westward and Clear weather. At 3 o'Clock took several Observations of the Sun and Moon; the mean result of them gives 185° 36′ W. Long. from the Meridian of Greenwich. What winds we have had this 24 hours hath been against us, so that at Noon we had advanced but very little to the Westward.