In the afternoon of the 21st, I went with a party out to the isles on seal- hunting. The surf ran so high that we could only land in one place, where we killed ten. These animals served us for three purposes; the skins we made use of for our rigging; the fat gave oil for our lamps; and the flesh we eat. Their haslets are equal to that of a hog, and the flesh of some of them eats little inferior to beef-steaks. The following day nothing worthy of notice was done.
In the morning of the 23d, Mr. Pickersgill, Mr. Gilbert, and two others, went to the Cascade Cove, in order to ascend one of the mountains, the summit of which they reached by two o'clock in the afternoon, as we could see by the fire they made. In the evening they returned on board, and reported that inland, nothing was to be seen but barren mountains, with huge craggy precipices, disjoined by valleys, or rather chasms, frightful to behold. On the southeast side of Cape West, four miles out at sea, they discovered a ridge of rocks, on which the waves broke very high. I believe these rocks to be the same we saw the evening we first fell in with the land.
Having five geese left out of those we brought from the Cape of Good Hope, I went with them next morning to Goose Cove (named so on this account,) where I left them. I chose this place for two reasons; first, here are no inhabitants to disturb them; and, secondly, here being the most food, I make no doubt but that they will breed, and may in time spread over the whole country, and fully answer my intention in leaving them. We spent the day shooting in and about the cove, and returned aboard about ten o'clock in the evening. One of the party shot a white hern, which agreed exactly with Mr. Pennant's description, in his British Zoology, of the white herns that either now are, or were formerly, in England.
The 20th was the eighth fair day we had had successively; a circumstance, I believe, very uncommon in this place, especially at this season of the year. This fair weather gave us an opportunity to complete our wood and water, to overhaul the rigging, caulk the ship, and put her in a condition for sea. Fair weather was, however, now at an end; for it began to rain this evening, and continued without intermission till noon the next day, when we cast off the shore fasts, hove the ship out of the creek to her anchor, and steadied her with an hawser to the shore.
On the 27th, hazy weather, with showers of rain. In the morning I set out, accompanied by Mr. Pickersgill and the two Mr. Forsters, to explore the arm or inlet I discovered the day I returned from the head of the bay. After rowing about two leagues up it, or rather down, I found it to communicate with the sea, and to afford a better outlet for ships bound to the north than the one I came in by. After making this discovery, and refreshing ourselves on broiled fish and wild fowl, we set out for the ship, and got on board at eleven o'clock at night, leaving two arms we had discovered, and which ran into the east, unexplored. In this expedition we shot forty- four birds, sea-pies, ducks, &c., without going one foot out of our way, or causing any other delay than picking them up.
Having got the tents, and every other article on board on the 28th, we only now waited for a wind to carry us out of the harbour, and through New Passage, the way I proposed to go to sea. Every thing being removed from the shore, I set fire to the top-wood, &c., in order to dry a piece of the ground we had occupied, which, next morning, I dug up, and sowed with several sorts of garden seeds. The soil was such as did not promise success to the planter; it was, however, the best we could find. At two o clock in the afternoon, we weighed with a light breeze at S.W., and stood up the bay for the New Passage. Soon after we had got through, between the east end of Indian Island and the west end of Long Island, it fell calm, which obliged us to anchor in forty-three fathom water, under the north side of the latter island.
In the morning of the 30th we weighed again with a light breeze at west, which, together with all our boats a-head towing, was hardly sufficient to stem the current. For, after struggling till six o'clock in the evening, and not getting more than five miles from our last anchoring-place, we anchored under the north side of Long Island, not more than one hundred yards from the shore, to which we fastened a hawser.
1773 May
At day-light next morning, May 1st, we got again under sail, and attempted to work to windward, having a light breeze down the bay. At first we gained ground, but at last the breeze died away; when we soon lost more than we had got, and were obliged to bear up for a cove on the north side of Long Island, where we anchored in nineteen fathom water, a muddy bottom: In this cove we found two huts not long since inhabited; and near them two very large fire-places or ovens, such as they have in the Society Isles. In this cove we were detained by calms, attended with continual rain, till the 4th in the afternoon, when, with the assistance of a small breeze at south- west, we got the length of the reach or passage leading to sea. The breeze then left us, and we anchored under the east point, before a sandy beach, in thirty fathoms water; but this anchoring-place hath nothing to recommend it like the one we came from, which hath every thing in its favour.
In the night we had some very heavy squalls of wind, attended with rain, hail, and snow, and some thunder. Daylight exhibited to our view all the hills and mountains covered with snow. At two o'clock in the afternoon, a light breeze sprung up at S.S.W., which, with the help of our boats, carried us down the passage to our intended anchor-place, where, at eight o'clock, we anchored in sixteen fathoms water, and moored with a hawser to the shore, under the first point on the starboard side as you come in from sea, from which we were covered by the point.
In the morning of the 6th, I sent Lieutenant Pickersgill, accompanied by the two Mr. Forsters, to explore the second arm which turns in to the east, myself being confined on board by a cold. At the same time I had every thing got up from between decks, the decks well cleaned and well aired with fires; a thing that ought never to be long neglected in wet moist weather. The fair weather, which had continued all this day, was succeeded in the night by a storm from north-west, which blew in hard squalls, attended with rain, and obliged us to strike top-gallant and lower yards, and to carry out another hawser to the shore. The bad weather continued the whole day and the succeeding night, after which it fell calm with fair weather.
At seven in the morning, on the 8th, Mr. Pickersgill returned, together with his companions, in no very good plight, having been at the head of the arm he was sent to explore, which he judged to extend in to the eastward about eight miles. In it is a good anchoring-place, wood, fresh water, wild fowl, and fish. At nine o'clock I set out to explore the other inlet, or the one next the sea; and ordered Mr. Gilbert, the master, to go and examine the passage out to sea, while those on board were getting every thing in readiness to depart. I proceeded up the inlet till five o'clock in the afternoon, when bad weather obliged me to return before I had seen the end of it. As this inlet lay nearly parallel with the sea-coast, I was of opinion that it might communicate with Doubtful Harbour, or some other inlet to the northward. Appearances were, however, against this opinion, and the bad weather hindered me from determining the point, although a few hours would have done it. I was about ten miles up, and thought I saw the end of it: I found on the north side three coves, in which, as also on the south side, between the main and the isles that lie four miles up the inlet, is good anchorage, wood, water, and what else can be expected, such as fish and wild fowl: Of the latter, we killed in this excursion, three dozen. After a very hard row, against both wind and rain, we got on board about nine o'clock at night, without a dry thread on our backs.
This bad weather continued no longer than till the next morning, when it became fair, and the sky cleared up. But, as we had not wind to carry us to sea, we made up two shooting parties; myself, accompanied by the two Mr. Forsters and some others, went to the area I was in the day before; and the other party to the coves and isles Mr. Gilbert had discovered when he was out, and where he found many wild fowl. We had a pleasant day, and the evening brought us all on board; myself and party met with good sport; but the other party found little.
All the forenoon of the 10th, we had strong gales from the west, attended with heavy showers of rain, and blowing in such flurries over high land, as made it unsafe for us to get under sail. The afternoon was more moderate, and became fair; when myself, Mr. Cooper, and some others, went out in the boats to the rocks, which lie at this