An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk IslandHunter, John
History
An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island
Hunter, John
New South Wales -- History -- Sources
As the settlement, which is now established on the coast of
New South Wales, will no doubt occasion a frequent intercourse
between the Mother Country and that part of the world, I conceive
it to be a duty in those, who, from their own experience and
observation, may be qualified to give any information in their
power, relative to the navigation to and from that distant
country: it is with this hope, that I presume to trouble your
lordships with an opinion, which, I can with truth say, has been
founded on my own experience and observation.
The passage from England to the Cape of Good Hope is already
so well known that it would be superfluous in me to make any
observations upon it. From the Cape to our settlement at Port
Jackson, the navigation is now much better known, than it was
when the first convoy to that country was left in my charge; it
is a plain and easy track; any person who is acquainted with the
common rules of navigation, and finding the variations of the
compass, may, with the necessary look-out, run across that
extensive ocean without danger: I have sailed over it twice, and
it has been crossed by many other ships since. The advantage of
being able to ascertain the ship's place in longitude, by
observations of the moon, will ever be satisfactory, but more
particularly through so vast a tract of sea, in which the error
of the log may considerably accumulate, when ships arrive upon
that coast where the land lies so nearly in a north and south
direction, there can be no difficulty in discovering what part of
the coast they are upon, their latitude observed will always
point that out, by applying to the general chart, given from the
authority of that most correct and able navigator Captain Cook.
When they arrive off Botany-Bay, Port Jackson, or Broken-Bay,
they will I hope receive some assistance into any of these
harbours, from the surveys done by me, copies of which I
delivered to the governor, as the different harbours were
completed, in order that fair copies might, as early as he should
judge proper, be transmitted home: but that nothing in my power
may be wanting to assist those who may be strangers on their
arrival off that part of the coast, separate copies of those
ports, with directions more full than were given with the first,
will be delivered at your lordship's board, with this, and also a
copy of the three harbours, on one sheet, connected with the
intermediate coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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