17' 39" S.
Longitude Per Distance Of The Sun And Moon,
And Moon And Stars, 48 Sets, 164 Deg.
41' 21" East.
Ditto per watch 163 58 0
Mr Wales measured the quantity eclipsed by a Hadley's quadrant, a method
never before thought of. I am of opinion it answers the purpose of a
micrometer to a great degree of certainty, and is a great addition to the
use of this most valuable instrument. After all was over, we returned on
board, where I found Teabooma the chief, who soon after slipped out of the
ship without my knowledge, and by that means lost the present I had made up
for him.
In the evening I went ashore to the watering-place, which was at the head
of a little creek, at a fine stream that came from the hills. It was
necessary to have a small boat in the creek to convey the casks from and to
the beach over which they were rolled, and then put into the launch; as
only a small boat could enter the creek, and that only at high water.
Excellent wood for fuel was here far more convenient than water, but this
was an article we did not want. About seven o'clock this evening, died
Simon Monk, our butcher, a man much esteemed in the ship; his death being
occasioned by a fall down the fore-hatch-way the preceding night.
Early in the morning of the 7th, the watering-party, and a guard, under the
command of an officer, were sent ashore; and soon after a party of us went
to take a view of the country. As soon as we landed we made known our
design to the natives, and two of them undertaking to be our guides,
conducted us up the hills by a tolerably good path. In our route, we met
several people, most or whom turned back with us; so that at last our train
was numerous. Some we met who wanted us to return; but we paid no regard to
their signs, nor did they seem uneasy when we proceeded. At length we
reached the summit of one of the hills, from which we saw the sea in two
places, between some advanced hills, on the opposite or S.W. side of the
land. This was an useful discovery, as it enabled us to judge of the
breadth of the land, which, in this part, did not exceed ten leagues.
Between those advanced hills, and the ridge we were upon, was a large
valley, through which ran a serpentine river. On the banks of this were
several plantations, and some villages, whose inhabitants we had met on the
road, and found more on the top of the hill gazing at the ship, as might be
supposed. The plain, or flat of land, which lies along the shore we were
upon, appeared from the hills to great advantage; the winding streams which
ran through out, the plantations, the little straggling villages, the
variety in the woods, and the shoals on the coast, so variegating the
scene, that the whole might afford a picture for romance.
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