The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
This island, which I named after Mr. Banks, lies about five leagues from
the coast of Tovy Poenammoo; the south point bears S. 21 W. from the
highest peak on the snowy mountain, and lies in latitude 43° 32ʹ S. and
in longitude 186° 30ʹ W. by an observation of the sun and moon which was
made this morning: it is of a circular figure, and about twenty-four
leagues in compass: it is sufficiently high to be seen at the distance
of twelve or fifteen leagues, and the land has a broken irregular
surface, with the appearance rather of barrenness than fertility; yet it
was inhabited, for we saw smoke in one place, and a few straggling
natives in another.
When this island was first discovered in the direction of S. by W. some
persons on board were of opinion that they also saw land bearing S. S.
E. and S. E. by E. I was myself upon the deck at the time, and told
them, that in my opinion it was no more than a cloud, and that as the
sun rose it would dissipate and vanish. However, as I was determined to
leave no subject for disputation which experiment could remove, I
ordered the ship to be wore, and steered E. S. E. by compass, in the
direction which the land was said to bear from us at that time. At noon
we were in latitude 44° 7ʹ S.; the south point of Banks’s Island bearing
north, distant five leagues. By seven o’clock at night we had run
eight-and-twenty miles, when seeing no land, nor any signs of any, but
that which we had left, we bore away S. by W. and continued upon that
course till the next day at noon, when we were in latitude 45° 16ʹ, the
south point of Banks’s Island bearing N. 6° 30ʹ W. distant twenty-eight
leagues. The variation by the azimuth this morning was 15° 30ʹ E. As no
signs of land had yet appeared to the southward, and as I thought that
we had stood far enough in that direction to weather all the land we had
left, judging from the report of the natives in Queen Charlotte’s Sound,
I hauled to the westward.
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