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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 18th, in the afternoon, being three or four leagues off shore, I saw
a shoal-point, stretching from the land into the sea, a league or more.
The sea broke high on it; by which I saw plainly there was a shoal
there. I stood farther off, and coasted along shore, to about seven or
eight leagues distance; and at 12 a clock at night we sounded, and had
but twenty fathom, hard sand. By this I found I was upon another shoal,
and so presently steered off W. half an hour, and had then forty fathom.
At one in the morning of the 18th day, we had eighty-five fathom: by two
we could find no ground; and then I ventured to steer along shore again,
due N., which is two points wide of the coast (that lies N. N. E.) for
fear of another shoal. I would not be too far off from the land, being
desirous to search into it wherever I should find an opening, or any
convenience of searching about for water, etc. When we were off the
shoal-point I mention’d where we had but twenty fathom-water, we had in
the night abundance of whales about ship, some a-head, others a-stern,
and some on each side blowing and making a very dismal noise; but when
we came out again into deeper water they left us. Indeed, the noise that
they made by blowing and dashing of the sea with their tails, making it
all of a breach and foam, was very dreadful to us, like the breach of
the waves in very shoal-water, or among rocks. The shoal these whales
were upon had a depth of water sufficient, no less than twenty fathom,
as I said; and it lies in latitude 22° 22´. The shore was generally bold
all along; we had met with no shoal at sea since the Abrohlo-shoal, when
we first fell on the New Holland coast in the latitude of 28°, till
yesterday in the afternoon, and this night. This morning also, when we
expected by the draught we had with us, to have been eleven leagues off
shore, we were but four; so that either our draughts were faulty, which
yet hitherto and afterwards we found true enough as to the lying of the
coast; or else here was a tide unknown to us that deceived us; tho’ we
had found very little of any tide on this coast hitherto. As to our
winds in the coasting thus far, as we had been within the verge of the
general trade (tho’ interrupted by the storm I mentioned) from the
latitude of 28°, when we first fell in with the coast: and by that time
we were in the latitude of 25°; we had usually the regular trade-wind
(which is here S. S. E.), when we were at any distance from shore: but
we had often sea and land breezes, especially when near shore, and when
in Shark’s Bay; and had a particular N. west wind, or storm, that set us
in thither. On this 18 of August, we coasted with a brisk gale of the
true trade-wind at S.S.E., very fair and clear weather; but haling off
in the evening to sea, were next morning out of sight of land; and the
land now trending away N. easterly, and we being to the northward of it,
and the wind also shrinking from the S. S. E. to the E. S. E. (that is,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

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.

Major, Richard Henry

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

The 18th, in the afternoon, being three or four leagues off shore, I saw
a shoal-point, stretching from the land into the sea, a league or more.
The sea broke high on it; by which I saw plainly there was a shoal
there. I stood farther off, and coasted along shore, to about seven or
eight leagues distance; and at 12 a clock at night we sounded, and had
but twenty fathom, hard sand. By this I found I was upon another shoal,
and so presently steered off W. half an hour, and had then forty fathom.
At one in the morning of the 18th day, we had eighty-five fathom: by two
we could find no ground; and then I ventured to steer along shore again,
due N., which is two points wide of the coast (that lies N. N. E.) for
fear of another shoal. I would not be too far off from the land, being
desirous to search into it wherever I should find an opening, or any
convenience of searching about for water, etc. When we were off the
shoal-point I mention’d where we had but twenty fathom-water, we had in
the night abundance of whales about ship, some a-head, others a-stern,
and some on each side blowing and making a very dismal noise; but when
we came out again into deeper water they left us. Indeed, the noise that
they made by blowing and dashing of the sea with their tails, making it
all of a breach and foam, was very dreadful to us, like the breach of
the waves in very shoal-water, or among rocks. The shoal these whales
were upon had a depth of water sufficient, no less than twenty fathom,
as I said; and it lies in latitude 22° 22´. The shore was generally bold
all along; we had met with no shoal at sea since the Abrohlo-shoal, when
we first fell on the New Holland coast in the latitude of 28°, till
yesterday in the afternoon, and this night. This morning also, when we
expected by the draught we had with us, to have been eleven leagues off
shore, we were but four; so that either our draughts were faulty, which
yet hitherto and afterwards we found true enough as to the lying of the
coast; or else here was a tide unknown to us that deceived us; tho’ we
had found very little of any tide on this coast hitherto. As to our
winds in the coasting thus far, as we had been within the verge of the
general trade (tho’ interrupted by the storm I mentioned) from the
latitude of 28°, when we first fell in with the coast: and by that time
we were in the latitude of 25°; we had usually the regular trade-wind
(which is here S. S. E.), when we were at any distance from shore: but
we had often sea and land breezes, especially when near shore, and when
in Shark’s Bay; and had a particular N. west wind, or storm, that set us
in thither. On this 18 of August, we coasted with a brisk gale of the
true trade-wind at S.S.E., very fair and clear weather; but haling off
in the evening to sea, were next morning out of sight of land; and the
land now trending away N. easterly, and we being to the northward of it,
and the wind also shrinking from the S. S. E. to the E. S. E. (that is,

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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.

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.

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