FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   >>   >|  
usketry. At the Prince of Wales' Islands, good water was found; and much alleviated the distress of captain Edwards and his people. They heard here the howling of wolves, (probably of wild dogs,) and "discovered a _morai_, or rather heap of bones. There were amongst them two human skulls, the bones of some large animals, and some turtle bones. They were heaped together in the form of a grave; and a long paddle, supported at each end by a bifurcated branch of a tree, was laid horizontally along it. Near to this, there were marks of a fire having been recently made; and the ground about was much footed and worn." * [* See "_A Voyage round the World in H. M. frigate Pandora_," by George Hamilton, Surgeon; page 123, _et seq._] A few small oysters, a harsh austere fruit, resembling a plum, and a small berry of a similar taste to the plum, were all that could be found for food. "There is a large sound formed here, to which," says Mr. Hamilton, "we gave the name of _Sandwich's Sound_; and commodious anchorage for shipping in the bay, to which we gave the name of _Woy's Bay_, in which there is from five to seven fathoms all round. Near the centre of the sound is a small, dark-coloured, rocky island." Sept. 2. In the afternoon, captain Edwards passed out to the northward, with his little squadron, from amongst the Prince of Wales' Islands; and the same evening, by steering westward, cleared all the islands and reefs of Torres' Strait: on the 14th he reached Timor. The track and discoveries of the Pandora, in Plate XIII. are taken from a chart published in 1798, by Mr. Dalrymple, upon the authority of one constructed by lieutenant Hayward; but it does not contain the track of the boats after the loss of the Pandora. This chart, and the account given by Mr. Hamilton, which, though more than sufficiently explicit upon some points, is very defective in what concerns navigation and geography; are all that appears to have been published of this voyage. BLIGH and PORTLOCK. 1792. Neither the great extent of the reefs, to the eastward of Cape York, nor the loss of the Pandora, were known in 1792; when captain WILLIAm BLIGH came a second time to Torres' Strait, with His Majesty's ship _Providence_, and the brig _Assistant_ commanded by lieutenant (now captain) NATHANIEL PORTLOCK. The objects of his mission were, to transport the bread-fruit plant from Taheity to the West Indies; and, in his way, to explore a new passage t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53  
54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

captain

 
Pandora
 

Hamilton

 
published
 

lieutenant

 

PORTLOCK

 
Torres
 

Strait

 

Islands

 

Prince


Edwards

 
constructed
 

Indies

 

Hayward

 

authority

 

Dalrymple

 

account

 
people
 

passage

 

islands


steering

 

westward

 

cleared

 

reached

 

explore

 
discoveries
 
distress
 

alleviated

 
sufficiently
 

WILLIAm


Majesty
 

NATHANIEL

 

objects

 

mission

 
commanded
 

Assistant

 

Providence

 

eastward

 
defective
 

concerns


navigation

 
evening
 

explicit

 

points

 

Taheity

 
geography
 

appears

 
Neither
 

extent

 

usketry