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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

from the true trade-wind to the sea-breeze, as the land now lay); we
could not get in with the land again yet a-while, so as to see it, tho’
we trim’d sharp and kept close on a wind. We were this 19th day, in
latitude 21° 42´. The 20th, we were in latitude 19° 37´, and kept close
on a wind to get sight of the land again, but could not get to see it.
We had very fair weather; and tho’ we were so far from the land as to be
out of sight of it, yet we had the sea and land-breezes. In the night we
had the land-breeze at S. S. E. a small gentle gale; which in the
morning about sun-rising would shift about gradually (and withal
increasing in strength), till about noon we should have it at E. S. E.
which is the true sea-breeze here. Then it would blow a brisk gale, so
that we could scarce carry our top-sails double rift; and it would
continue thus to three in the afternoon, when it would decrease again.
The weather was fair all the while, not a cloud to be seen; but very
hazy, especially nigh the horizon. We sounded several times this 20th
day, and at first had no ground; but had afterwards from fifty-two to
forty-five fathom, coarse brown sand, mixt with small brown and white
stones, with dints besides in the tallow.

The 21st day, also, we had small land-breezes in the night, and
sea-breezes in the day: and as we saw some sea-snakes every day, so this
day we saw a great many, of two different sorts or shapes. One sort was
yellow, and about the bigness of a man’s wrist, about four foot long,
having a flat tail about four fingers broad. The other sort was much
smaller and shorter, round and spotted, black and yellow. This day we
sounded several times, and had forty-five fathom, sand. We did not make
the land till noon, and then saw it first from our top-mast head. It
bore S. E. by E. about nine leagues distance, and it appeared like a
cape or head of land. The sea-breeze this day was not so strong as the
day before, and it veered out more; so that we had a fair wind to run in
with to the shore, and at sunset anchored in twenty fathom, clean sand,
about five leagues from the bluff point; which was not a cape (as it
appear’d at a great distance, but the easternmost end of an island,
about) five or six leagues in length and one in breadth. There were
three or four rocky islands about a league from us, between us and the
bluff point; and we saw many other islands both to the east and west of
it, as far as we could see either way from our topmast-head: and all
within them to the S. there was nothing but islands of a pretty heighth,
that may be seen eight or nine leagues off. By what we saw of them they
must have been a range of islands of about twenty leagues in length,
stretching from E. N. E. to W. S. W. and for ought I know, as far as to
those of Shark’s Bay; and to a considerable breadth also (for we could
see nine or ten leagues in among them) towards the continent or main
land of New Holland, if there be any such thing hereabouts: and by the

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

from the true trade-wind to the sea-breeze, as the land now lay); we
could not get in with the land again yet a-while, so as to see it, tho’
we trim’d sharp and kept close on a wind. We were this 19th day, in
latitude 21° 42´. The 20th, we were in latitude 19° 37´, and kept close
on a wind to get sight of the land again, but could not get to see it.
We had very fair weather; and tho’ we were so far from the land as to be
out of sight of it, yet we had the sea and land-breezes. In the night we
had the land-breeze at S. S. E. a small gentle gale; which in the
morning about sun-rising would shift about gradually (and withal
increasing in strength), till about noon we should have it at E. S. E.
which is the true sea-breeze here. Then it would blow a brisk gale, so
that we could scarce carry our top-sails double rift; and it would
continue thus to three in the afternoon, when it would decrease again.
The weather was fair all the while, not a cloud to be seen; but very
hazy, especially nigh the horizon. We sounded several times this 20th
day, and at first had no ground; but had afterwards from fifty-two to
forty-five fathom, coarse brown sand, mixt with small brown and white
stones, with dints besides in the tallow.

The 21st day, also, we had small land-breezes in the night, and
sea-breezes in the day: and as we saw some sea-snakes every day, so this
day we saw a great many, of two different sorts or shapes. One sort was
yellow, and about the bigness of a man’s wrist, about four foot long,
having a flat tail about four fingers broad. The other sort was much
smaller and shorter, round and spotted, black and yellow. This day we
sounded several times, and had forty-five fathom, sand. We did not make
the land till noon, and then saw it first from our top-mast head. It
bore S. E. by E. about nine leagues distance, and it appeared like a
cape or head of land. The sea-breeze this day was not so strong as the
day before, and it veered out more; so that we had a fair wind to run in
with to the shore, and at sunset anchored in twenty fathom, clean sand,
about five leagues from the bluff point; which was not a cape (as it
appear’d at a great distance, but the easternmost end of an island,
about) five or six leagues in length and one in breadth. There were
three or four rocky islands about a league from us, between us and the
bluff point; and we saw many other islands both to the east and west of
it, as far as we could see either way from our topmast-head: and all
within them to the S. there was nothing but islands of a pretty heighth,
that may be seen eight or nine leagues off. By what we saw of them they
must have been a range of islands of about twenty leagues in length,
stretching from E. N. E. to W. S. W. and for ought I know, as far as to
those of Shark’s Bay; and to a considerable breadth also (for we could
see nine or ten leagues in among them) towards the continent or main
land of New Holland, if there be any such thing hereabouts: and by the

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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