Indeed, I Might, With Equal Truth, Say The Same Of All The Other
Places Where We Made Any Stay; For
Mr Wales, whose abilities are equal to
his assiduity, lost no one observation that could possibly be obtained.
Even the
Situation of those islands, which we passed without touching at
them, is, by means of Kendal's watch, determined with almost equal
accuracy. The error of the watch from Otaheite to this place was only 43'
39" 1/2 in longitude, reckoning at the rate it was found to go at, at that
island and at Tanna; but by reckoning at the rate it was going when last at
Queen Charlotte's Sound, and from the time of our leaving it, to our return
to it again, which was near a year, the error was 19' 31", 25 in time, or
4 deg. 52' 48" 1/4 in longitude. This error cannot be thought great, if we
consider the length of time, and that we had gone over a space equal to
upwards of three-fourths of the equatorial circumference of the earth, and
through all the climates and latitudes from 9 deg. to 71 deg.. Mr Wales found its
rate of going here to be that of gaining 12",576, on mean time, per day.
The mean result of all the observations he made for ascertaining the
variation of the compass and the dip of the south end of the needle, the
three several times we had been here, gave 14 deg. 9' 1/5 east for the former;
and 64 deg. 36" 2/3 for the latter. He also found, from very accurate
observations, that the time of high-water preceded the moon's southing, on
the full and change days, by three hours; and that the greatest rise and
fall of the water was five feet ten inches, and a half; but there were
evident tokens on the beach, of its having risen two feet higher than ever
it did in the course of his experiments.
[1] According to Mr G.F. the sufferings of the crew, for want of
proper nourishment, were exceedingly distressing, and some of the
officers who had made several voyages round the world acknowledged,
that they had never before so thoroughly loathed a salt diet. It was
owing, he says, to their having such an excellent preservative as
sour-krout on board, that the scurvy did not at this time make any
considerable progress among them; but their situation was indeed
wretched enough, without the horrors of that disease. - E.
[2] "Several large broken rocks project into the sea from the island,
on all sides. A heap of large stones formed a kind of beach, beyond
which the shore rose very steep, and in some parts perpendicular. The
rocks of this island consisted of the common yellowish clayey stone,
which we found at New Zealand; and in some places we met with small
bits of porous reddish lava, which seemed to be decaying, but made us
suspect this island to have had a volcano.
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