The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. IV. Being the Second of the Second Voyage.Cook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. IV. Being the Second of the Second Voyage.
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
In the afternoon a party of us went ashore into one of the coves, where
were two families of the natives variously employed; some sleeping, some
making mats, others roasting fish and fir roots, and one girl, I
observed, was heating of stones. Curious to know what they were for, I
remained near her. As soon as the stones were made hot, she took them
out of the fire, and gave them to an old woman, who was sitting in the
hut. _She_ placed them in a heap, laid over them a handful of green
celery, and over that a coarse mat, and then squatted herself down, on
her heels, on the top of all; thus making a kind of Dutch warming-pan,
on which she sat as close as a hare on her seat. I should hardly have
mentioned this operation, if I had thought it had no other view than to
warm the old woman’s backside. I rather suppose it was intended to cure
some disorder she might have on her, which the steams arising from the
green celery might be a specific for. I was led to think so by there
being hardly any celery in the place, we having gathered it long before;
and grass, of which there was great plenty, would have kept the stones
from burning the mat full as well, if that had been all that was meant.
Besides, the woman looked to me sickly, and not in a good state of
health.
Mr. Wales from time to time communicated to me the observations he had
made in this Sound for determining the longitude, the mean results of
which give 174° 25ʹ 7ʺ 1/2 E. for the bottom of Ship Cove, where the
observations were made; and the latitude of it is 41° 5ʹ 56ʺ 1/2 S. In
my chart, constituted in my former voyage, this place is laid down in
184° 54ʹ 30ʺ West, equal to 175° 5ʹ 30ʺ E. The error of the chart is
therefore, 0° 40ʹ 0ʺ, and nearly equal to what was found at Dusky Bay;
by which it appears that the whole of Tavai-poenammoo is laid down 40ʹ
too far east in the said chart, as well as in the journal of the voyage.
But the error in Eaheino-mauwe is not more than half a degree, or thirty
minutes; because the distance between Queen Charlotte’s Sound and Cape
Palliser has been found to be greater by 10ʹ of longitude than it is
laid down in the chart. I mention these errors, not from a fear that
they will affect either navigation or geography, but because I have no
doubt of their existence; for, from the multitude of observations which
Mr. Wales took, the situation of few parts of the world is better
ascertained than Queen Charlotte’s Sound. Indeed, I might, with equal
truth, say the same of all the other places where we made any stay; for
Mr. Wales, whose abilities are equal to his assiduity, lost no one
observation that could possibly be obtained. Even the situation of those
islands which we passed without touching at them, is, by means of
Kendal’s watch, determined with almost equal accuracy. The error of the
watch from Otaheite to this place was only 43ʹ 39ʺ 1/4 in longitude,
reckoning at the rate it was found to go at, at that island and at
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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