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A Table of the Variation of the Compass, &c. concluded.

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N.B. The ill sailing of the Swallow prevented me from getting a sufficient number of soundings to make a separate Table.

CHAPTER IV.

AN ACCOUNT OF A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, IN THE YEARS 1768, 1769, 1770, AND 1771, BY LIEUTENANT JAMES COOK, COMMANDer of his MAJESTY'S BARK THE ENDEAVOUR.

[In addition to Cook's papers, Dr Hawkesworth had the use of a journal kept by Sir Joseph Banks, in drawing up the account of this voyage; a favour which he has not neglected to specify in his introduction. That introduction, however, and several references to plates, with some other matters deemed of little or no import, or elsewhere given, are now omitted.]

SECTION I.

The Passage from Plymouth to Madeira, with some Account of that Island.

HAV

TAVING received my commission, which was dated the 25th of May 1768, I went on board on the 27th, hoisted the pennant, and took charge of the ship, which then lay in the bason in Deptford yard. She was fitted for sea with all expedition; and stores and provisions being taken on board, sailed down the river on the 30th of July, and on the 13th of August anchored in Plymouth Sound.

While we lay here waiting for a wind, the articles of war and the act of parliament were read to the ship's company, who were paid two months' wages in advance, and told that they were to expect no additional pay for the performance of the voyage.

On Friday the 26th of August, the wind becoming fair, we got under sail, and put to sea. On the 31st, we saw se

veral of the birds which the sailors call Mother Carey's Chickens, and which they suppose to be the forerunners of a storm; and on the next day we had a very hard gale, which brought us under our courses, washed, overboard a small boat belonging to the boatswain, and drowned three or four dozen of our poultry, which we regretted still more. On Friday the 2d of September we saw land between Cape Finisterre and Cape Ortegal, on the coast of Gallicia, in Spain; and on the 5th, by an observation of the sun and moon, we found the latitude of Cape Finisterre to be 42°53′ north, and its longitude 8° 46′ west, our first meridian being always supposed to pass through Greenwich; variation of the needle 21° 4′ west.

During this course, Mr Banks and Dr Solander had an opportunity of observing many marine animals, of which no naturalist has hitherto taken notice; particularly a new species of the oniscus, which was found adhering to the medusa pelagica; and an animal of an angular figure, about three inches long, and one thick, with a hollow passing quite through it, and a brown spot on one end, which they conjectured might be its stomach; four of these adhered together by their sides when they were taken, so that at first they were thought to be one animal; but upon being put into a glass of water they soon separated, and swam about very briskly. These animals are of a new genus, to which Mr Banks and Dr Solander gave the name of Dagysa, from the likeness of one species of them to a gem. Several specimens of them were taken adhering together sometimes to the length of a yard or more, and shining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal of a new genus they also discovered, which shone in the water with colours still more beautiful and vivid, and which indeed exceeded in variety and brightness any thing that we had ever seen: The colouring and splendour of these animals were equal to those of an opal, and from their resemblance to that gem, the genus was called Carcinium Opalinum. One of them lived several hours in a glass of salt water, swimming about with great agility, and at every motion display ing a change of colours almost infinitely various. We caught also among the rigging of the ship, when we were at the distance of about ten leagues from Cape Finisterre, several birds which have not been described by Linnæus ; they were supposed to have come from Spain, and our gen

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tlemen called the species Motacilla velificans, as they said none but sailors would venture themselves on board a ship that was going round the world One of them was so exhausted that it died in Mr Banks's hand, almost as soon as it was brought to him.

It was thought extraordinary that no naturalist had hitherto taken notice of the Dagysa, as the sea abounds with them not twenty leagues from the coast of Spain; but, unfortunately for the cause of science, there are but very few of those who traverse the sea, that are either disposed or qualified to remark the curiosities of which nature has made it the repository.

On the 12th we discovered the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, and on the next day anchored in Funchiale road, and moored with the stream-anchor: But, in the night, the bend of the hawser of the stream-anchor slipped, owing to the negligence of the person who had been employed to make it fast. In the morning the anchor was heaved up into the boat, and carried out to the southward; but in heaving it again, Mr Weir, the master's mate, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and went to the bottom with the anchor; the people in the ship saw the accident, and got the anchor up with all possible expedition; it was however too late, the body came up entangled in the buoy-rope, but it was dead.

When the island of Madeira is first approached from the sea, it has a very beautiful appearance; the sides of the hills being entirely covered with vines almost as high as the eye can distinguish; and the vines are green when every kind of herbage, except where they shade the ground, and here and there by the sides of a rill, is entirely burnt up, which was the case at this time.

On the 13th, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a boat, which our sailors call the product boat, came on board from the officers of health, without whose permission no person is suffered to land from on board a ship. As soon as this permission was obtained, we went on shore at Funchiale, the capital of the island, and proceeded directly to the house of Mr Cheap, the English consul there, and one of the most considerable merchants of the place. This gentleman received us with the kindness of à brother, and the liberality of a prince; he insisted upon

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our taking possession of his house, in which he furnished us with every possible accommodation during our stay upon the island: He procured leave for Mr Banks and Dr Solander to search the island for such natural curiosities as they should think worth their notice; employed persons to take fish and gather shells, which time would not have permitted them to collect for themselves; and he provided horses and guides to take them to any part of the country which they should chuse to visit. With all these advantages, however, their excursions were seldom pushed farther than three miles from the town, as they were only five days on shore; one of which they spent at home, in receiving the honour of a visit from the governor. The season was the worst in the year for their purpose, as it was neither that of plants nor insects; a few of the plants, however, were procured in flower, by the kind attention of Dr Heberden, the chief physician of the island, and brother to Dr Heberden of London, who also gave them such specimens as he had in his possession, and a copy of his Botanical Observations; containing, among other things, a particular description of the trees of the island. Mr Banks enquired after the wood which has been imported into England for cabinet-work, and is here called Madeira mahogany: He learnt that no wood was exported from the island under that name, but he found a tree called by the natives Vigniatico, the Laurus indicus of Linnæus, the wood of which cannot easily be distinguished from mahogany. Dr Heberden had a book-case in which the vigniatico and mahogany were mixed, and they were no otherwise to be known from each other than by the colour, which, upon a nice examination, appears to be somewhat less brown in the vigniatico than the mahogany; it is therefore in the highest degree probable, that the wood known in England by the name of Madeira mahogany, is the vigniatico.

There is great reason to suppose that this whole island was, at some remote period, thrown up by the explosion of subterraneous fire, as every stone, whether whole or in fragments, that we saw upon it, appeared to have been burnt, and even the sand itself to be nothing more than ashes: We did not, indeed, see much of the country, but

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