The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.Cook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. I. Being the First of the First Voyage.
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
any of their people, that a man was sent with them, who called out to
every one they met, telling him what they were, and what he was to do.
In the mean time, I kept plying off and on, waiting for the boat’s
return; at half an hour after five, not seeing any thing of her, I fired
a gun, and after it was dark hoisted a light; at half an hour after
eight, we heard the report of a musquet, which we answered with a gun,
and soon after the boat came on board. The master reported, that the
harbour was safe and commodious, with good anchorage from twenty-five to
sixteen fathom water, clear ground.
As soon as the boat was hoisted in, I made sail to the northward, and at
eight o’clock in the morning of the 29th, we were close under the Peak
of Bolabola, which was high, rude, and craggy. As the island was
altogether inaccessible in this part, and we found it impossible to
weather it, we tacked and stood off, then tacked again, and after many
trips did not weather the south end of it till twelve o’clock at night.
At eight o’clock the next morning, we discovered an island, which bore
from us N. 63° W. distant about eight leagues; at the same time the Peak
of Bolabola bore N. ¼ E. distant three or four leagues. This island
Tupia called MAURUA, and said that it was small, wholly surrounded by a
reef, and without any harbour for shipping; but inhabited, and bearing
the same produce as the neighbouring islands: the middle of it rises in
a high round hill, that may be seen at the distance of ten leagues.
When we were off Bolabola, we saw but few people on the shore, and were
told by Tupia that many of the inhabitants were gone to Ulietea. In the
afternoon we found ourselves nearly the length of the south end of
Ulietea, and to windward of some harbours that lay on the west side of
this island. Into one of these harbours, though we had before been
ashore on the other side of the island, I intended to put, in order to
stop a leak which we had sprung in the powder room, and to take in more
ballast, as I found the ship too light to carry sail upon a wind. As the
wind was right against us, we plied off one of the harbours, and about
three o’clock in the afternoon on the 1st of August, we came to an
anchor in the entrance of the channel leading into it, in fourteen
fathom water, being prevented from working in, by a tide which set very
strong out. We then carried out the kedge-anchor, in order to warp into
the harbour; but when this was done, we could not trip the bower-anchor
with all the purchase we could make; we were therefore obliged to lie
still all night, and in the morning, when the tide turned, the ship
going over the anchor, it tripped of itself, and we warped the ship into
a proper birth with ease, and moored in twenty-eight fathom, with a
sandy bottom. While this was doing, many of the natives came off to us
with hogs, fowls, and plantains, which they parted with at an easy rate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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