which, when we first saw it, we took for the main, to be islands detached from it by several channels: Upon this we sent away the boats, with proper instructions, to lead us through that channel which was next the main; but soon after discovering rocks and shoals in this channel, I made a signal for the boats to go through the next channel to the northward, which lay between these islands, leaving some of them between us and the main: The ship followed, and had never less than five fathom water in the narrowest part of the channel, where the distance from island to island was about one mile and a half.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored, being about a mile and a half, or two miles, within the entrance, in six fathom and a half, with clear ground: The channel here had begun to widen, and the islands on each side of us were distant about a mile: The main-land stretched away to the S.W., the farthest point in view bore S. 48 W., and the southermost point of the islands, on the north-west side of the passage, bore S. 76 W. Between these two points we could see no land, so that we conceived hopes of having, at last, found a passage into the Indian sea; however, that I might be able to determine with more certainty, I resolved to land upon the island which lies at the south-east point of the passage. Upon this island we had seen many of the inhabitants when we first came to an anchor, and when I went into the boat, with a party of men, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander, in order to go ashore, we saw ten of them upon a hill: Nine of them were armed with such lances as we had been used to see, and the tenth had a bow, and a bundle of arrows, which we had never seen in the possession of the natives of this country before: We also observed, that two of them. had large ornaments of mother-of-pearl hanging round their necks. Three of these, one of whom was the bowman, placed themselves upon the beach abreast of us, and we expected that they would have opposed our landing, but when we came within about a musket's shot of the beach, they walked leisurely away. We immediately climbed the highest hill, which was not more than three times as high as the mast-head, and the most barren of any we had seen. From this hill, no land could be seen between the S.W. and W.S.W., so that I had no doubt of finding a channel through. The land to the north-west of it con

1

sisted of a great number of islands of various extent, and different heights, ranged one behind another, as far to the northward and westward as I could see, which could not be less than thirteen leagues. As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had coasted from latitude 38 to this place, and which I am confident no European had ever seen before, I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38° to this place, latitude 10 S. in right of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of New South Wales, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it: We then fired three vollies of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the ship. Having performed this ceremony upon the island, which we called Possession Island, we re-embarked in our boat, but a rapid ebb-tide setting N.E. made our return to the vessel very difficult and tedious. From the time of our last coming among the shoals, we constantly found a moderate tide, the flood setting to the N.W. and the ebb to the S.E. At this place, it is high water at the full and change of the moon, about one or two o'clock, and the water rises and falls perpendicularly about twelve feet. We saw smoke rising in many places from the adjacent lands and islands, as we had done upon every part of the coast, after our last return to it through the reef.

We continued at anchor all night, and between seven and eight o'clock in the morning, we saw three or four of the natives upon the beach gathering shell-fish; we discovered, by the help of our glasses, that they were women, and, like all the other inhabitants of this country, stark naked. At low water, which happened about ten o'clock, we got under sail, and stood to the S.W. with a light breeze at E. which afterwards veered to N. by E.: Our depth of water was from six to ten fathom, except in one place, where we had but five. At noon, Possession Island bore N. 53 E., distant four leagues, the western extremity of the main-land in sight bore S. 43 W., distant between four and five leagues, and appeared to be extremely low, the south-west point of the largest island on the north-west side of the passage bore N. 71 W., distant eight miles, and this point I called Cape Cornwall. It lies

in latitude 10° 43′ S., longitude 219 W.; and some low lands that lie about the middle of the passage, which I called Wallis's Isles, bore W. by S. S., distant about two leagues: Our latitude, by observation, was 10° 46′ S. We continued to advance with the tide of flood W.N.W. having little wind, and from eight to five fathom water. At half an hour after one, the pinnace, which was a-head, made the signal for shoal-water, upon which we tacked, and sent away the yawl to sound also: We then tacked again, and stood after them: In about two hours, they both made the signal for shoal-water, and the tide being nearly at its greatest height, I was afraid to stand on, as running aground at that time might be fatal; I therefore came to an anchor in somewhat less than seven fathom, sandy ground. Wallis's Islands bore S. by W. W., distant five or six miles, the islands to the northward extended from S. 73 E. to N. 10 E., and a small island, which was just in sight, bore N.W. W. Here we found the flood-tide set to the westward, and the ebb to the eastward.

After we had come to an anchor, I sent away the master in the long-boat to sound, who, upon his return in the evening, reported that there was a bank stretching north and south, upon which there were but three fathom, and that beyond it there were seven. About this time it fell calm, and continued so till nine the next morning, when we weighed with a light breeze at S.S.E., and steered N.W. by W. for the small island which was just in sight, having first sent the boats a-head to sound: The depth of water was eight, seven, six, five, and four fathom, and three fathom upon the bank, it being now the last quarter ebb. At this time, the northermost island in sight bore N. 9 E., Cape Cornwall E., distant three leagues, and Wallis's Isles S. 3 E., distant three leagues. This bank, at least so much as we have sounded, extends nearly N. and S., but to what distance I do not know: Its breadth is not more than half a mile at the utmost. When we had got over the bank, we deepened our water to six fathom three quarters, and had the same depth all the way to the small island a-head, which we reached by noon, when it bore S., distant about half a mile. Our depth of water was now five fathom, and the northermost land in sight, which is part of the same chain of islands that we had seen to the northward from the time of our first entering the streight, bore N. 71 E. Our latitude

by

by observation was 10° 33' S., and our longitude 219° 22' W. In this situation no part of the main was in sight. As we were now near the island, and had but little wind, Mr Banks and I landed upon it, and found it, except a few patches of wood, to be a barren rock, the haunt of birds, which had frequented it in such numbers as to make the surface almost uniformly white with their dung: Of these birds the greater part seemed to be boobies, and I therefore called the place Booby Island. After a short stay, we returned to the ship, and in the mean time the wind had got to the S.W.; it was but a gentle breeze, yet it was accompanied by a swell from the same quarter, which, with other circumstances, confirmed my opinion that we were got to the westward of Carpentaria, or the northern extremity of New Holland, and had now an open sea to the westward, which gave me great satisfaction, not only because the dangers and fatigues of the voyage were drawing to an end, but because it would no longer be a doubt whether New Holland and New Guinea were two separate islands, or different parts of the same."

The

2 Here it may be proper to introduce a paragraph from M. Peron's Historical Relation of a Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Islands, as presented to the Imperial Institute in June 1806. It will show his concep tion of the difficulties attendant on navigating these parts: "In fact, it is not in voyages on the high seas, however long they may be, that adverse circumstances or shipwrecks are so much to be dreaded; those, on the - contrary, along unknown shores and barbarous coasts, at every instant present new difficulties to encounter, with perpetual dangers. Those difficulties and dangers, the woeful appendage of all expeditions begun for the purposes of geographic detail, were of more imminent character from the nature of the coasts we had to explore; for no country has hitherto been discovered more difficult to reconnoitre than New Holland, and all the voyages of any extent made for the purpose in this point, have been marked either by reverses or infructuous attempts. For example, Paliser on the western coast was one of the first victims of these shores; Vlaming speaks of wrecks by which Rottnest island was covered when he landed there in 1697; and we ourselves observed others of much more recent date. Captain Dampier, notwithstanding his intrepidity and experience, could not preserve his vessel from grounding when off the northwest coast of this continent, a coast already famous for the shipwreck of Vianin; on the east, Bougainville, menaced with destruction, was constrained to precipitate flight; Cook escaped by a kind of miracle, the rock which pierced his ship remaining in the breach it made, and alone preventing it from sinking; on the south-west, Vancouver and D'Entrecasteaux were not more fortunate in their several plans of completing its geography, and the French admiral nearly lost both his ships. Towards the

south,

The north-east entrance of this passage or streight lies in the latitude of 10° 39′ S., and in the longitude of 218° 36' W. It is formed by the main, or the northern extremity of New Holland, on the S.E., and by a congeries of islands, which I called the Prince of Wales's Islands, to the N.W., and it is probable that these islands extend quite to New Guinea. They differ very much both in height and circuit, and many of them seemed to be well clothed with herbage and wood: Upon most, if not all of them, we saw smoke, and therefore there can be no doubt of their being inhabited; It is also probable, that among them there are at least as good passages as that we came through, perhaps better, though better would not need to be desired, if the access to it from the eastward were less dangerous: That a less dangerous access may be discovered, I think there is little reason to doubt, and to find it, little more seems to be necessary than to determine how far the principal, or outer reef, which bounds the shoals to the eastward, extends towards the north, which I would not have left to future navigators if I had been less harassed by danger and fatigue, and had had a ship in better condition for the purpose.

To this channel, or passage, I have given the name of the ship, and called it Endeavour Streights. Its length from N.E. to S.W, is ten leagues, and it is about five leagues broad, except at the north-east entrance, where it is somewhat less than two miles, being contracted by the islands which lie there. That which I called Possession Island is of a moderate height and circuit, and this we left between us and the

main,

south, but a few years have elapsed since the discovery of Bass's Straits, and already the major part of the islands of this strait is strewed with the wrecks of ships; very recently, and almost before our face, I may say, the French ship Enterprize was dashed to pieces against the dangerous islands which close its eastern opening. The relation of our voyage, and the dangers incurred, will still farther demonstrate the perils of this navigation; and the loss of the two vessels of Captain Flinders, sent by the English government to compete with us, will but too clearly furnish a new and lamentable evidence." The circumstance of Cook's escape, we see, is allowed its due impression on the mind of this gentleman. It is very probable that had Dr Hawkesworth himself ever been in such critical perils, and experienced any thing like such a remarkable deliverance, the placidity of his principles would have given way to more lively emotions. "The deductions of reason, it is certain, are not unusually at variance with the instantaneous, but perhaps more real and genuine productions of our feelings, which it is the cant of modern days to denominate the lower parts of our constitution.-E.