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Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.Major, Richard Henry

History

Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.

Name: Early Voyages to Terra Australis, Now Called Australia:: A Collection of Documents, and Extracts from Early Manuscript Maps, Illustrative of the History of Discovery on the Coasts of That Vast Island, from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Time of Captain Cook.
Author: Major, Richard Henry

Major, Richard Henry

Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Discoveries in geography -- Portuguese; Voyages and travels

The whole of the fifth day of the month was spent in removing the water,
and some of the merchandise, on shore; and afterwards, the captain in
the skiff, and the master in the shallop, endeavoured to return to the
vessel, but found the sea running so high, that it was impossible to get
on board. In this extremity, the carpenter threw himself out of the
ship, and swam to them, in order to inform them to what hardships those
left in the vessel were reduced; and he was sent back, with orders for
them to make rafts, by tying the planks together, and endeavour on these
to reach the shallop and skiff; but before this could be done, the
weather became so rough, that the captain was obliged to return,
leaving, with the utmost grief, his lieutenant and seventy men on the
very point of perishing on board the vessel. Those who had reached the
little island were not in much better condition; for, upon taking an
account of their water, they found they had not above eighty pints for
forty people; and on the larger island, where there were one hundred and
eighty, the stock was still less. Those who were on the little island
began to murmur, and to complain of their officers, because they did not
go in search of water on the neighbouring islands; and they represented
the necessity of this to Captain Pelsart, who yielded to their
remonstrances, but told them that before he went, he wished to
communicate this resolution to the rest of the people. It was with
difficulty that he gained their consent to this, for the master was
afraid that the other party would keep the captain with them. At length
they consented, but not till the captain had declared, that without the
consent of the company on the large island that he should go in search
of water, he would, rather than leave them, perish on board his ship.
When he got near to the island, he who commanded the boat told the
captain, that if he had anything to say, he must call out to the people;
for that they would not suffer him to go out of the boat. The captain
then attempted to throw himself overboard, in order to swim to the
island; but he was prevented, and the order given to pull off from the
shore. Thus he was obliged to return, having first left these words
written on a leaf of a tablet, that he was gone in the skiff to look for
water in the nearest country or islands that he could find.

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