第44章

We did not make the land till noon, and then saw it first from our topmast head; it bore south-east by east about nine leagues distance, and it appeared like a cape or head of land. The sea breeze this day was not so strong as the day before, and it veered out more, so that we had a fair wind to run in with to the shore, and at sunset anchored in twenty fathom, clean sand, about five leagues from the Bluff point, which was not a cape (as it appeared at a great distance), but the easternmost end of an island about five or six leagues in length, and one in breadth. There were three or four rocky islands about a league from us, between us and the Bluff point, and we saw many other islands both to the east and west of it, as far as we could see either way from our topmast-head, and all within them to the south there was nothing but islands of a pretty height, that may be seen eight or nine leagues off; by what we saw of them they must have been a range of islands of about twenty leagues in length, stretching from east-north-east to west-south-west, and, for aught I know, as far as to those of Shark's Bay, and to a considerable breadth also, for we could see nine or ten leagues in among them, towards the continent or mainland of New Holland, if there be any such thing hereabouts; and by the great tides I met with awhile afterwards, more to the north-east, I had a strong suspicion that here might be a kind of archipelago of islands, and a passage possibly to the south of New Holland and New Guinea into the great South Sea eastward, which I had thoughts also of attempting in my return from New Guinea, had circumstances permitted, and told my officers so; but I would not attempt it at this time, because we wanted water, and could not depend upon finding it there. This place is in the latitude of 20 degrees 21 minutes, but in the draught that I had of this coast, which was Tasman's, it was laid down in 19 degrees 50 minutes, and the shore is laid down as all along joining in one body or continent, with some openings appearing like rivers, and not like islands as really they are. This place lies more northerly by 40 minutes than is laid down in Mr. Tasman's draught, and besides its being made a firm continued land, only with some openings like the mouths of rivers, I found the soundings also different from what the pricked line of his course shows them, and generally shallower than he makes them, which inclines me to think that he came not so near the shore as his line shows, and so had deeper soundings, and could not so well distinguish the islands. His meridian or difference of longitude from Shark's Bay agrees well enough with my account, which is two hundred and thirty-two leagues, though we differ in latitude; and to confirm my conjecture that the line of his course is made too near the shore, at least not far to the east of this place, the water is there so shallow that he could not come there so nigh.

But to proceed. In the night we had a small land breeze, and in the morning I weighed anchor, designing to run in among the islands, for they had large channels between them of a league wide at least, and some two or three leagues wide. I sent in my boat before to sound, and if they found shoal water to return again, but if they found water enough to go ashore on one of the islands and stay till the ship came in, where they might in the meantime search for water. So we followed after with the ship, sounding as we went in, and had twenty fathom till within two leagues of the Bluff head, and then we had shoal water and very uncertain soundings; yet we ran in still with an easy sail, sounding and looking out well, for this was dangerous work. When we came abreast of the Bluff head, and about two miles from it, we had but seven fathom, then we edged away from it, but had no more water, and running in a little farther we had but four fathoms, so we anchored immediately; and yet when we had veered out a third of a cable, we had seven fathom water again, so uncertain was the water. My boat came immediately on board, and told me that the island was very rocky and dry, and they had little hopes of finding water there. I sent them to sound, and bade them, if they found a channel of eight or ten fathom water, to keep on, and we would follow with the ship. We were now about four leagues within the outer small rocky islands, but still could see nothing but islands within us, some five or six leagues long, others not above a mile round. The large islands were pretty high, but all appeared dry, and mostly rocky and barren. The rocks looked of a rusty yellow colour, and therefore I despaired of getting water on any of them, but was in some hopes of finding a channel to run in beyond all these islands, could I have spent time here, and either got to the main of New Holland or find out some other islands that might afford us water and other refreshments; besides that among so many islands we might have found some sort of rich mineral, or ambergris, it being a good latitude for both these. But we had not sailed above a league farther before our water grew shoaler again, and then we anchored in six fathom, hard sand.