Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/347



LOG OF THE COLUMBIA 335

Pass'd the Island, or rather Rock of Pedro Branca, (or Blanco), 202 ' 202 ** at Daylight. It was of a conical shape and ap- pear'd perfectly white. At Noon, the Grand Lema Island bore WSW., 5 leagues. Hundreds of fishing boats in sight. At 3 P. M. pass'd the Lema, leaving it on our larboard hand. At 6 got a Pilot on, board, who agreed to carry us to Macao roads, for 25 Dollars. Stood between the Lema Islands all night, with a light breeze.

MACAO ROADS. COAST OF CHINA

8. This morning early anchor'd in Macao roads, 14 fm. muddy bottom. Not liking our situation weigh'd and shifted our berth nigher to Macao, and anchor'd in 4y 2 fm. Mud. The Fort at Macao bearing S. 8 8' W. 4 miles, and the outermost of the Nine Isles N. 8 E. Capt. Gray went to Macao in the pinnace. A Black fellow came on board and inform'd us that Capt. Kendrick, in the Lady Washington, lay in Lark's Bay, 203 and that the Brig had been dismasted in the Chinese seas about two months before, in a Tuffoon, being again bound for the NW. Coast. Kendrick was refitting his vessell again.

9. Capt. Gray return'd on board, he inform'd us that Capt. Kendrick saild for the NW. in September last, in company with a small tender he had fitted in Macao. He was out four days when the Tuffoon overtook him. The Brig laid on her Beam ends for some time before they cut away the Masts. She then righted, and the gale abating steer'd for Macao. The whole surface of the sea was cover'd with the Wrecks of Chinese Boats, and many of the poor fishermen was still hanging to pieces of the Boats. Capt. Kendrick pick'd up above thirty of the poor fellows, and was obliged to pass a great many that he cou'd not assist. He arriv'd in Larks Bay, the 7th day after the Gale. 204 A Macao Boat came along side, with

303 Pedra Branca. W. C. F.

2O2Y> The Columbia is following the usual route from the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands to China. Meares says: "The land generally made on the coast of China is about Pedro Blanco or White Rock." Meares' Voyages, 410. ed., p. 57.

303 Lark's Bay sometimes called Dirty Butter Bay a small harbour lying three or four leagues southwest of Macao, the Portuguese settlement near the mouth of the Canton River. The object of lying there was to save the payment of duty on the cargo, as the bay was out of the reach of Chinese authority at that time; see Delano s Voyages, p. 43-

304 It is by such scattered references as this that, by degrees, the intensely interesting story of Kendrick is being pieced together.