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
[* The _Reliance_ touched at the Cape of Good Hope and the Island
of St. Helena, whence she brought some Indiamen safe home under
her convoy. She arrived at Plymouth on the 26th of August, 1800.
Nothing remarkable occurred during the voyage, except the discovery of an
island, which, from its approach to the Antipodes of London, Captain
Waterhouse named Penantipode island. He determined its latitude by one
double altitude, and chronometer, to be 49 degrees 49 minutes 30 seconds S
and its longitude, 179 degrees 20 minutes E. It was seen in the middle of
the night; and as the nearest of the double altitudes by which its
latitude was determined was nearly an hour past noon, hence, and from the
change of place in the interval of four hours, the latitude ought not to
be depended on nearer than from 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The error of the
chronometer being uncertain at the time, no correction was applied to the
longitude, which may very probably be within half a degree, or much
nearer. When this island was seen, it was blowing a gale of wind. There
were seals on it, and it did not appear quite so large as Norfolk Island.]
Captain Waterhouse, in an excursion which he made to the north arm of
Broken Bay, wounded and secured a bird, of a species never seen before in
New South Wales, at least by any of the colonists. It was a large eagle,
which gave a proof of his strength, by driving his talons through a man's
foot, while lying in the bottom of the boat, with his legs tied together.
it stood about three feet in height, and during the ten days that it
lived was remarkable for refusing to be fed by any but one particular
person. Among the natives it was an object of wonder and fear, as they
could never be prevailed upon to go near it. They asserted, that it would
carry off a middling-sized kangaroo. Captain Waterhouse hoped to have
brought it to England; but it was one morning found to have divided the
strands of a rope with which it was fastened, and escaped. A drawing had
been made of it while in our hands, of which the annexed engraving is a
copy.
The _Martha_ schooner, having some time back sailed again to the
southward, returned on the 6th with a cargo of oil and seal skins. The
_Nautilus_ having left some of her people upon Cape Barren Island,
it appeared by their accounts, that the most productive time for the
seals among those islands was from November to May. They stated, that
they had much fine weather during the winter months, and met with very
little frost or severe cold. Cape Barren is in 40 degrees 26 minutes 20
seconds S latitude.
About this time many of the Irish prisoners lately arrived were afflicted
with dysenteric complaints, of which several died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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