A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18)

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Virtutis uberrimum alimentum est honos.
VAL. MAXIMUS, lib. ii. cap. 6.

COOK'S VOYAGE
TO
THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

CHAPTER I.

TRANSACTIONS FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE VOYAGE TILL OUR DEPARTURE FROM
NEW ZEALAND.

SECTION I.

_Various Preparations for the Voyage.--Omais Behaviour on
embarking.--Observations for determining the Longitude of Sheerness, and
the North Foreland.--Passage of the Resolution from Deptford to
Plymouth.--Employments there.--Complements of the Crews of both Ships,
and Names of the Officers.--Observations to fix the Longitude of
Plymouth.--Departure of the Resolution._

Having, on the 9th day of February, 1776, received a commission to
command his majesty's sloop the Resolution, I went on board the next
day, hoisted the pendant, and began to enter men. At the same time, the
Discovery, of three hundred tons burthen, was purchased into the
service, and the command of her given to Captain Clerke, who had been my
second lieutenant on board the Resolution, in my second voyage round the
world, from which we had lately returned.

These two ships were, at this time, in the dock at Deptford, under the
hands of the shipwrights; being ordered to be equipped to make farther
discoveries in the Pacific Ocean, under my direction.

On the 9th of March, the Resolution was hauled out of dock into the
river; where we completed her rigging, and took on board the stores and
provisions requisite for a voyage of such duration. Both ships, indeed,
were supplied with as much of every necessary article as we could
conveniently stow, and with the best of every kind that could be
procured. And, besides this, every thing that had been found, by the
experience acquired during our former extensive voyages, to be of any
utility in preserving the health of seamen, was supplied in abundance.

It was our intention to have sailed to Long Reach on the 6th of May,
when a pilot came on board to carry us thither; but it was the 29th
before the wind would permit us to move, and the 30th before we arrived
at that station, where our artillery, powder, shot, and other ordnance
stores were received.

While we lay in Long Reach, thus employed, the Earl of Sandwich, Sir
Hugh Palliser, and others of the Board of Admiralty, as the last mark of
the very great attention they had all along shewn to this equipment,
paid us a visit on the 8th of June, to examine whether every thing had
been completed conformably to their intentions and orders, and to the
satisfaction of all who were to embark in the voyage. They, and several
other noblemen and gentlemen their friends, honoured me with their
company at dinner on that day; and, on their coming on board, and also
on their going ashore, we saluted them with seventeen guns, and three
cheers.

With the benevolent view of conveying some permanent benefit to the
inhabitants of Otaheite, and of the other islands in the Pacific Ocean,
whom we might happen to visit, his majesty having commanded some useful
animals to be carried out, we took on board, on the 10th, a bull, two
cows with their calves, and some sheep, with hay and corn for their
subsistence; intending to add to these other useful animals, when I
should arrive at the Cape of Good Hope.

I was also, from the same laudable motives, furnished with a sufficient
quantity of such of our European garden-seeds, as could not fail to be a
valuable present to our newly discovered islands, by adding fresh
supplies of food to their own vegetable productions.

Many other articles, calculated to improve the condition of our friends
in the other hemisphere in various ways, were, at the same time,
delivered to us by order of the Board of Admiralty. And both ships were
provided with a proper assortment of iron tools and trinkets, as the
means of enabling us to traffic, and to cultivate a friendly intercourse
with the inhabitants of such new countries as we might be fortunate
enough to meet with.

The same humane attention was extended to our own wants. Some additional
clothing, adapted to a cold climate, was ordered for our crews; and
nothing was denied to us that could be supposed in the least conducive
to health, or even to convenience.

Nor did the extraordinary care of those at the head of the naval
department stop here. They were equally solicitous to afford us every
assistance towards rendering our voyage of public utility. Accordingly,
we received on board, next day, several astronomical and nautical
instruments, which the Board of Longitude entrusted to me, and to Mr
King, my second lieutenant; we having engaged to that board to make all
the necessary observations, during the voyage, for the improvement of
astronomy and navigation; and, by our joint labours, to supply the place
of a professed observator. Such a person had been originally intended to
be sent out in my ship.

The board, likewise, put into our possession the same watch, or
time-keeper, which I had carried out in my last voyage, and had
performed its part so well. It was a copy of Mr Harrison's, constructed
by Mr Kendall. This day, at noon, it was found to be too slow for mean
time at Greenwich, by 3' 31" 89; and by its rate of going, it lost, on
mean time, 1", 209 per day.

Another time-keeper, and the same number and sort of instruments for
making observations, were put on board the Discovery, under the care of
Mr William Bayly; who, having already given satisfactory proofs of his
skill and diligence as an observator, while employed in Captain
Furneaux's ship, during the late voyage, was engaged a second time, in
that capacity, to embark with Captain Clerke.

Mr Anderson, my surgeon, who, to skill in his immediate profession,
added great proficiency in natural history, was as willing as he was
well qualified, to describe every thing in that branch of science which
should occur worthy of notice. As he had already visited the South Sea
islands in the same ship, and been of singular service, by enabling me
to enrich my relation of that voyage with various useful remarks on men
and things,[67] I reasonably expected to derive considerable assistance
from him, in recording our new proceedings.

[Footnote 67: The very copious vocabulary of the language of Otaheite,
and the comparative specimen of the languages of the several other
islands visited during the former voyage, and published in Captain
Cook's account of it, were furnished by Mr Anderson.--D.]

I had several young men amongst my sea-officers, who, under my
direction, could be usefully employed in constructing charts, in taking
views of the coasts and headlands near which we should pass, and in
drawing plans of the bays and harbours in which we should anchor. A
constant attention to this I knew to be highly requisite, if we would
render our discoveries profitable to future navigators.

And that we might go out with every help that could serve to make the
result of our voyage entertaining to the generality of readers, as well
as instructive to the sailor and scholar, Mr Webber was pitched upon,
and engaged to embark with me, for the express purpose of supplying the
unavoidable imperfections of written accounts, by enabling us to
preserve, and to bring home, such drawings of the most memorable scenes
of our transactions, as could only be executed by a professed and
skilful artist.

Every preparation being now completed, I received an order to proceed to
Plymouth, and to take the Discovery under my command. I accordingly gave
Captain Clerke two orders, one to put himself under my command, and the
other, to carry his ship round to Plymouth.

On the 15th the Resolution sailed from Long Reach, with the Discovery in
company, and the same evening they anchored at the Nore. Next day the
Discovery proceeded, in obedience to my order; but the Resolution was
ordered to remain at the Nore till I should join her, being at this time
in London.

As we were to touch at Otaheite and the Society Islands in our way to
the intended scene of our fresh operations, it had been determined not
to omit this opportunity (the only one ever likely to happen) of
carrying Omai back to his native country. Accordingly, every thing being
ready for our departure, he and I set out together from London on the
24th, at six o'clock in the morning. We reached Chatham, between ten and
eleven o'clock; and, after dining with Commissioner Proby, he very
obligingly ordered his yacht to carry us to Sheerness, where my boat was
waiting to take us on board.

Omai left London with a mixture of regret and satisfaction. When we
talked about England, and about those who, during his stay, had honoured
him with their protection or friendship, I could observe that his
spirits were sensibly affected, and that it was with difficulty he could
refrain from tears. But the instant the conversation turned to his own
islands, his eyes began to sparkle with joy. He was deeply impressed
with a sense of the good treatment he had met with in England, and
entertained the highest ideas of the country and of the people; but the
pleasing prospect he now had before him of returning home, loaded with
what he well knew would be esteemed invaluable treasures there, and the
flattering hope which the possession of these gave him, of attaining to
a distinguished superiority amongst his countrymen, were considerations
which operated, by degrees, to suppress every uneasy sensation; and he
seemed to be quite happy when he got on board the ship.

He was furnished by his majesty with an ample provision of every article
which, during our intercourse with his country, we had observed to be in
any estimation there, either as useful or as ornamental. He had,
besides, received many presents of the same nature from Lord Sandwich,
Sir Joseph Banks, and several other gentlemen and ladies of his
acquaintance. In short, every method had been employed, both during his
abode in England, and at his departure, to make him the instrument of
conveying to the inhabitants of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, the
most exalted opinion of the greatness and generosity of the British
nation.

While the Resolution lay at the Nore, Mr King made several observations
for finding the longitude by the watch. The mean of them all gave 0 deg. 44'
0" for the longitude of the ship. This, reduced to Sheerness, by the
bearing and estimated distance, will make that place to be 0 deg. 37' 0" E.
of Greenwich, which is more by seven miles than Mr Lyons made it by the
watch which Lord Mulgrave had with him, on his voyage toward the North
Pole. Whoever knows any thing of the distance between Sheerness and
Greenwich, will be a judge which of these two observations is nearest
the truth.

The variation of the needle here, by a mean of different sets, taken
with different compasses, was 20 deg. 37' W.

On the 25th, about noon, we weighed anchor, and made sail for the Downs
through the Queen's Channel, with a gentle breeze at N.W. by W. At nine
in the evening we anchored, with the North Foreland bearing S. by E. and
Margate Point S.W. by S.

Next morning, at two o'clock, we weighed and stood round the Foreland;
and when it bore north by the compass, the watch gave 1 deg. 24' E.
longitude, which, reduced to the Foreland, will be 1 deg. 21' E. Lunar
observations made the preceding evening, fixed it at 1 deg. 20' E. At eight
o'clock the same morning we anchored in the Downs. Two boats had been
built for us at Deal, and I immediately sent on shore for them. I was
told that many people had assembled there to see Omai, but, to their
great disappointment, he did not land.

Having received the boats on board, and a light breeze at S.S.E.
springing up, we got under sail the next day at two o'clock in the
afternoon; but the breeze soon died away, and we were obliged to anchor
again till ten o'clock at night. We then weighed with the wind at E. and
proceeded down the Channel.

On the 30th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored in Plymouth
Sound, where the Discovery had arrived only three days before. I saluted
Admiral Amherst, whose flag was flying on board the Ocean, with thirteen
guns, and he returned the compliment with eleven.

It was the first object of our care on arriving at Plymouth, to replace
the water and provisions that we had expended, and to receive on board a
supply of port wine. This was the employment which occupied us on the
1st and 2d of July.

During our stay here, the crews were served with fresh beef every day.
And I should not do justice to Mr Ommanney, the agent victualler, if I
did not take this opportunity to mention, that he shewed a very obliging
readiness to furnish me with the best of every thing that lay within his
department. I had been under the like obligations to him on my setting
out upon my last voyage. Commissioner Ourry, with equal zeal for the
service, gave us every assistance that we wanted from the naval yard.

It could not but occur to us as a singular and affecting circumstance,
that at the very instant of our departure upon a voyage, the object of
which was to benefit Europe by making fresh discoveries in North
America, there should be the unhappy necessity of employing others of
his majesty's ships, and of conveying numerous bodies of land forces to
secure the obedience of those parts of that continent which had been
discovered and settled by our countrymen in the last century. On the 6th
his majesty's ships Diamond, Ambuscade, and Unicorn, with a fleet of
transports, consisting of sixty-two sail, bound to America, with the
last division of the Hessian troops, and some horse, were forced into
the Sound by a strong N.W. wind.

On the 8th I received, by express, my instructions for the voyage, and
an order to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope with the Resolution. I was
also directed to leave an order for Captain Clerke to follow us as soon
as he should join his ship, he being at this time detained in London.

Our first discoverers of the New World, and navigators of the Indian and
Pacific Oceans, were justly thought to have exerted such uncommon
abilities, and to have accomplished such perilous enterprises, that
their names have been handed down to posterity as so many Argonauts.
Nay, even the hulks of the ships that carried them, though not converted
into constellations in the heavens, used to be honoured and visited as
sacred relics upon earth. We, in the present age of improved navigation,
who have been instructed by their labours, and have followed them as our
guides, have no such claim to fame. Some merit, however, being still, in
the public opinion, considered as due to those who sail to unexplored
quarters of the globe; in conformity to this favourable judgment, I
prefixed to the account of my last voyage the names of the officers of
both my ships, and a table of the number of their respective crews. The
like information will be expected from me at present.

The Resolution was fitted out with the same complement of officers and
men as she had before; and the Discovery's establishment varied from
that of the Adventure, in the single instance of her having no marine
officer on board. This arrangement was to be finally completed at
Plymouth; and on the 9th we received the party of marines allotted for
our voyage. Colonel Bell, who commanded the division at this port, gave
me such men for the detachment as I had reason to be satisfied with. And
the supernumerary seamen, occasioned by this reinforcement, being turned
over into the Ocean man-of-war, our several complements remained fixed,
as represented in the following table:--

RESOLUTION. DISCOVERY.

_Officers and Men. No. Officers No. Officers
Names Names_.
Captains, 1 James Cook. 1 Charles Clerke.
Lieutenants, 3 John Gore. 2 James Burney.
James King. John Rickman.
John Williamson.
Master, 1 William Bligh. 1 Thomas Edgar.
Boatswain, 1 William Ewin. 1 Aneas Atkins.
Carpenter, 1 James Clevely. 1 Peter Reynolds.
Gunner, 1 Robert Anderson. 1 William Peckover.
Surgeon, 1 William Anderson. 1 John Law.
Master's Mates, 3 2
Midshipmen, 6 4
Surgeon's Mates, 2 2
Captain's Clerk, 1 1
Master at Arms, 1
Corporal, 1
Armourer, 1 1
Ditto Mate, 1 1
Sail Maker, 1 1
Ditto Mate, 1 1
Boatswain's Mates, 3 2
Carpenter's Ditto, 3 2
Gunner's Ditto, 2 1
Carpenter's Crew, 4 4
Cook, 1 1
Ditto Mate, 1
Quarter Masters, 6 4
Able Seamen, 45 33
Marines.
Lieutenants, 1 Molesworth Philips.
Serjeant, 1 1
Corporals, 2 1
Drummer, 1 1
Privates, 15 8

Total, 112 80

On the 10th, the commissioner and pay clerks came on board, and paid the
officers and crew up to the 30th of last month. The petty officers and
seamen had, besides, two months wages in advance. Such indulgence to the
latter is no more than what is customary in the navy. But the payment of
what was due to the superior officers was humanely ordered by the
Admiralty, in consideration of our peculiar situation, that we might be
better able to defray the very great expence of furnishing ourselves
with a stock of necessaries for a voyage which, probably, would be of
unusual duration, and to regions where no supply could be expected.

Nothing now obstructing my departure but a contrary wind, which blew
strong at S.W., in the morning of the 11th, I delivered into the hands
of Mr Burney, first lieutenant of the Discovery, Captain Clerke's
sailing orders; a copy of which I also left with the officer commanding
his majesty's ships at Plymouth, to be delivered to the captain
immediately on his arrival. In the afternoon, the wind moderating, we
weighed with the ebb, and got farther out, beyond all the shipping in
the sound; where, after making an unsuccessful attempt to get to sea, we
were detained most of the following day, which was employed in receiving
on board a supply of water; and, by the same vessel that brought it, all
the empty casks were returned.

As I did not imagine my stay at Plymouth would have been so long as it
proved, we did not get our instruments on shore to make the necessary
observations for ascertaining the longitude by the watch. For the same
reason, Mr Bayly did not set about this, till he found that the
Discovery would probably be detained some days after us. He then placed
his quadrant upon Drake's Island; and had time, before the Resolution
sailed, to make observations sufficient for the purpose we had in view.
Our watch made the island to lie 4 deg. 14', and his, 4 deg. 13 1/2', west of
Greenwich. Its latitude, as found by Messrs Wales and Bayly, on the last
voyage, is 50 deg. 21' 30" N.

We weighed again at eight in the evening, and stood out of the sound,
with a gentle breeze at N.W. by W.

SECTION II.

_Passage of the Resolution to Teneriffe.--Reception there.--Description
of Santa Cruz Road.--Refreshment to be met with.--Observations for
fixing the Longitude of Teneriffe.--Some Account of the
Island.--Botanical Observations.--Cities of Santa Cruz and
Loguna.--Agriculture.--Air and Climate.--Commerce.--Inhabitants_.

We had not been long out of Plymouth Sound, before the wind came more
westerly, and blew fresh, so that we were obliged to ply down the
Channel; and it was not till the 14th, at eight in the evening, that we
were off the Lizard.

On the 16th, at noon, St Agnes's light-house on the isles of Scilly bore
N.W. by W., distant seven or eight miles. Our latitude was now 49 deg. 53'
30" N., and our longitude, by the watch, 6 deg. 11' W. Hence, I reckon that
St Agnes's light-house is in 49 deg. 57' 30" N. latitude, and in 6 deg. 20' of
W. longitude.

On the 17th[68] and 18th we were off Ushant, and found the longitude of
the island to be, by the watch, 5 deg. 18' 37" W. The variation was 23 deg. 0'
50", in the same direction.

[Footnote 68: It appears from Captain Cook's log-book, that he began his
judicious operations for preserving the health of his crew, very early
in the voyage. On the 17th, the ship was smoked between decks with
gunpowder. The spare sails also were then well aired.--D.]

With a strong gale at S., on the 19th, we stood to the westward, till
eight o'clock in the morning; when the wind shifting to the W. and N.W.,
we tacked and stretched to the southward. At this time, we saw nine sail
of large ships, which we judged to be French men-of-war. They took no
particular notice of us, nor we of them.

At ten o'clock in the morning of the 22d, we saw Cape Ortegal; which at
noon bore S.E. 1/2 S., about four leagues distant. At this time we were
in the latitude of 44 deg. 6' N.; and our longitude, by the watch, was 8 deg.
23" W.

After two days of calm weather, we passed Cape Finisterre on the
afternoon of the 24th, with a fine gale at N.N.E. The longitude of this
cape, by the watch, is 9 deg. 29' W.; and, by the mean of forty-one lunar
observations, made before and after we passed it, and reduced to it by
the watch, the result was 9 deg. 19' 12".

On the 30th, at six minutes and thirty-eight seconds past ten o'clock at
night, apparent time, I observed, with a night telescope, the moon
totally eclipsed. By the _ephemeris_, the same happened at Greenwich at
nine minutes past eleven o'clock; the difference being one hour, two
minutes, and twenty-two seconds, or 15 deg. 35' 30" of longitude. The watch,
for the same time, gave 15 deg. 26' 45' longitude W.; and the latitude was
31 deg. 10' N. No other observation could be made on this eclipse, as the
moon was hid behind the clouds the greater part of the time; and, in
particular, when the beginning and end of total darkness, and the end of
the eclipse, happened.

Finding that we had not hay and corn sufficient for the subsistence of
the stock of animals on board, till our arrival at the Cape of Good
Hope, I determined to touch at Teneriffe, to get a supply of these, and
of the usual refreshments for ourselves; thinking that island, for such
purposes, better adapted than Madeira. At four in the afternoon of the
31st, we saw Teneriffe, and steered for the eastern part. At nine, being
near it, we hauled up, and stood off and on during the night.

At day-light, on the morning of the 1st of August, we sailed round the
east point of the island; and, about eight o'clock, anchored on the S.E.
side of it, in the road of Santa Cruz, in twenty-three fathoms water;
the bottom, sand and ooze. Punta de Nago, the east point of the road,
bore N. 64 deg. E.; St Francis's church, remarkable for its high steeple,
W.S.W.; the Pic, S. 65 deg. W.; and the S.W. point of the road, on which
stands a fort or castle, S. 39 deg. W. In this situation, we moored N.E. and
S.W. with a cable each way, being near half a mile from the shore.

We found, riding in this road, La Boussole, a French frigate, commanded
by the Chevalier de Borda; two brigantines of the same nation; an
English brigantine from London, bound to Senegal; and fourteen sail of
Spanish vessels.

No sooner had we anchored, than we were visited by the master of the
port, who satisfied himself with asking the ship's name. Upon his
leaving us, I sent an officer ashore, to present my respects to the
governor; and to ask his leave to take in water, and to purchase such
articles as we were in want of. All this he granted with the greatest
politeness; and, soon after, sent an officer on board, to compliment me
on my arrival. In the afternoon, I waited upon him in person,
accompanied by some of my officers; and, before I returned to my ship,
bespoke some corn and straw for the live stock; ordered a quantity of
wine from Mr McCarrick, the contractor, and made an agreement with the
master of a Spanish boat to supply us with water, as I found that we
could not do it ourselves.

The road of Santa Cruz is situated before the town of the same name, on
the S.E. side of the island. It is, as I am told, the principal road of
Teneriffe, for shelter, capacity, and the goodness of its bottom. It
lies entirely open to the S.E. and S. winds. But these winds are never
of long continuance; and, they say, there is not an instance of a ship
driving from her anchors on shore.[69] This may, in part, be owing to
the great care they take in mooring them; for I observed, that all the
ships we met with, there, had four anchors out; two to the N.E., and two
to the S.W.; and their cables buoyed up with casks. Ours suffered a
little by not observing this last precaution.