An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.Collins, David
History
An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, Volume 2: An Account Of The English Colony In New South Wales, From Its First Settlement In 1788, To August 1801: With Remarks On The Dispositions, Customs, Manners, Etc. Of The Native Inhabitants Of That Country. To Which Are Added, Some Particulars Of New Zealand; Compiled, By Permission, From The Mss. Of Lieutenant-Governor King; And An Account Of The Voyage Performed By Captain Flinders And Mr. Bass.
Collins, David
New South Wales -- Description and travel
Early in the afternoon (of the 11th) a piece of land stood out from the
line of the coast like an island, but it was soon found to be joined to
the main by a sandy beach. The shore beyond it looked rugged and craggy,
and the land equalled the most sterile and stoney that had been seen. At
night the vessel stood off to the westward from abreast of a pyramidal
rock lying close to the main. At daylight the following morning, they
came in again with the land at the same place, and ran along the shore
with a fresh breeze at NW, the coast trending in a waving line to the SSE.
Towards noon the coast began to rise into chains of lofty mountains,
which ran along in nearly the same line as the coast. The latitude was 43
degrees 07 minutes, the longitude 145 degrees 42 minutes. A large smoke
that got up astern of the vessel was the first sign of inhabitants that
had been seen upon this west coast, the appearance of which was miserably
barren.
On the morning of the 13th they found that they had been carried in the
night to leeward of a break in the land, which had been seen the
preceding evening, and had the appearance of being the entrance to a
harbour. The north point of this imaginary inlet was named Point
St. Vincent. The coast here trended to the eastward, the land of which
was mountainous and steep to the sea. Some islands were in sight ahead,
lying near the land.
At 8 in the evening they passed the SW cape of Van Diemen's land,
hitherto known as that of New Holland. It is a narrow piece of land,
projecting from the higher land at no great distance, with two flattish
hummocks, that gave it some little resemblance to the Ram Head near
Plymouth. Having passed the Cape, they hauled up, and went between the
islands, which are De Witt's Isles, and the main. At sunset they were
about a mile and a half from the South Cape.
The south west and south Capes lie nearly east and west of each other,
and are distant about fifteen leagues. The intermediate coast forms the
southern boundary of Van Diemen's land; but if taken upon the more
extensive scale of the whole southern hemisphere, it appears, as the
south point of New Holland, to be of equal respectability with the
extremity of Terra del Fuego, and of the Cape of Good Hope, the south
points of the continents of America and Africa.
The relative situations of these three points, when viewed upon
a chart drawn on the plane of the equator, or upon an artificial globe,
are particularly striking. They will be found to lie at nearly equal
distances from each other in the circumference, and each extending
itself so directly towards the south, that, if continued on in the
same line, they would certainly meet somewhere near the pole. The effect
that is produced upon the whole globe, by this peculiar disposition of
three of its most prominent points, seems indeterminable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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