After A Few Hours Calm, We Got A
Breeze At S.E., And Spent The Night Standing Off And On.[1]
On the 5th, at sun-rise, the horizon being clear, we could see the coast
extend to the S.
E. of Cape Colnett, and round by the S.W. to N.W. by W.
Some gaps or openings were yet to be seen to the west; and a reef, or
breakers, seemed to lie all along the coast, connected with those we
discovered the preceding night. It was a matter of indifference to me,
whether we plied up the coast to the S.E., or bore down to N.W. I chose the
latter; and after running two leagues down the outside of the reef (for
such it proved) we came before an opening that had the appearance of a good
channel, through which we might go in for the land. I wanted to get at it,
not only to visit it, but also to have an opportunity to observe an eclipse
of the sun which was soon to happen. With this view we brought-to, hoisted
out two armed boats, and sent them to sound the channel; ten or twelve
large sailing canoes being then near us. We had observed them coming off
from the shore, all the morning, from different parts; and some were lying
on the reef, fishing, as we supposed. As soon as they all got together,
they came down to us in a body, and were pretty near when we were hoisting
out our boats, which probably gave them some alarm; for, without stopping,
they hauled in for the reef, and our boats followed them.
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