Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/39

 The yawl and long-boat towed ahead; sweeps were used abaft. "We were not above 80 or 100 yards from the breakers. The same sea that washed the side of the ship rose in a breaker prodigiously high the very next time it did rise, so that between us and destruction was only a dismal valley, the breadth of one wave, and even now no ground could be felt with 120 fathom.

"The pinnace was by this time patched up, and hoisted out, and sent to tow. Still, we had hardly any hopes of saving the ship, and full as little our lives, as we were full ten leagues from the nearest land, and the boats not sufficient to carry the whole of us. Yet, in this truly terrible situation, not one man ceased to do his utmost, and that with as much calmness as if no danger had been near. All the dangers we had escaped were little in comparison with being thrown upon this reef, where the ship must be dashed to pieces in a moment."

A light air aided the efforts of the crew; a little offing was gained, a small opening in the reef was seen a quarter of a mile away; Cook strove to gain it. "We were still in the very jaws of destruction, and it was a doubt whether or no we could reach this opening. . . . To our surprise, we found the tide of ebb rushing out like a mill-stream." Using the ebb. Cook obtained an offing of a mile and a-half. Lieut. Hicks went in the small boat to examine another small opening, and reported favourably. "It was immediately resolved to try to secure the ship in it. Narrow and dangerous as it was, it seemed to be the only means of saving her as well as ourselves. A light breeze soon after sprang up at E.N.E., with which, the help of our boats and a flood tide, we soon entered the opening, and were hurried through in a short time by a rapid tide like a mill-race, which kept us from driving against either side, though the channel was not more than a quarter of a-mile broad—having two boats ahead of us sounding. . . . The channel we came in by I have named Providential Channel. . . . It is but a few days ago that I rejoiced at having got without the reef, but that joy was nothing when compared to what I now felt at being safe at an anchor within it."

The name "Providential Channel" remains on charts to this day; but it was not until 1893 that Captain Wharton,