It Was Now About Four
O'clock In The Afternoon, And In Less Than An Hour After, This Tide Ceased,
And Was Succeeded By The Flood, Which Came In With Equal Strength.
The outlet lies S.E. by E. and N.W. by W. and nearly in the direction of
E.S.E. and W.N.W. from Cape Terrawhitte.
We found thirteen fathoms water a
little within the entrance, clear ground. It seemed to me that a leading
wind was necessary to go in and out of this passage, on account of the
rapidity of the tides. I, however, had but little time to make observations
of this nature, as night was at hand, and I had resolved to return on
board. On that account I omitted visiting a large hippa, or strong-
hold, built on an elevation on the north side, and about a mile or two
within the entrance, The inhabitants of it, by signs, invited us to go to
them; but, without paying any regard to them, we proceeded directly for the
ship, which we reached by ten o'clock, bringing with us some fish we had
got from the natives, and a few birds we had shot. Amongst the latter were
some of the same kinds of ducks we found in Dusky Bay, and we have reason
to believe that they are all to be met with here. For the natives knew them
all by the drawings, and had a particular name for each.
On the 6th, wind at N.E., gloomy weather with rain. Our old friends having
taken up their abode near us, one of them, whose name was Pedero, (a man of
some note,) made me a present of a staff of honour, such as the chiefs
generally carry. In return, I dressed him in a suit of old clothes, of
which he was not a little proud. He had a fine person, and a good presence,
and nothing but his colour distinguished him from an European. Having got
him, and another, into a communicative mood, we began to enquire of them if
the Adventure had been there during my absence; and they gave us to
understand, in a manner which admitted of no doubt, that, soon after we
were gone, she arrived; that she staid between ten and twenty days, and had
been gone ten months. They likewise asserted that neither she, nor any
other ship, had been stranded on the coast, as had been reported. This
assertion, and the manner in which they related the coming and going of the
Adventure, made me easy about her; but did not wholly set aside our
suspicions of a disaster having happened to some other strangers. Besides
what has been already related, we had been told that a ship had lately been
here, and was gone to a place called Terato, which is on the north side of
the strait. Whether this story related to the former or no, I cannot say.
Whenever I questioned the natives about it, they always denied all
knowledge of it, and for some time past, had avoided mentioning it.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 439 of 461
Words from 227831 to 228350
of 239428
