VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD,
IN 1768, 1769, 1770, AND 1771.
BOOK I.
CHAP. I.
THE PASSAGE FROM PLYMOUTH TO MADEIRA, WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THAT ISLAND.
Having received my commission, which was dated the 25th of May, 1768, I went on board on the 27th, hoisted the pennant, and took charge of the ship, which then lay in the basin in Deptford Yard. She was fitted for sea with all expedition; and stores and provisions being taken on board, sailed down the river on the 30th of July, and on the 13th of August anchored in Plymouth Sound.
While we lay here waiting for a wind, the articles of war and the act of parliament were read to the ship’s company, who were paid two months’ wages in advance, and told that they were to expect no additional pay for the performance of the voyage.
On Friday, the 26th of August, the wind becoming fair, we got under sail, and put to sea. On the 31st, we saw several of the birds which the sailors call Mother Carey’s Chickens, and which they suppose to be the forerunners of a storm; and on the next day we had a very hard gale, which brought us under our courses, washed over-board a small boat belonging to the boatswain, and drowned three or four dozen of our poultry, which we regretted still more.
On Friday, the 2d of September, we saw land between Cape Finister and Cape Ortegal, on the coast of Gallicia, in Spain; and on the 5th, by an observation of the sun and moon, we found the latitude of Cape Finister to be 42° 53ʹ North, and its longitude 8° 46ʹ West, our first meridian being always supposed to pass through Greenwich; variation of the needle 21° 4ʹ W.
During this course, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had an opportunity of observing many marine animals, of which no naturalist has hitherto taken notice; particularly a new species of the Oniscus, which was found adhering to the Medusa Pelagica; and an animal of an angular figure, about three inches long, and one thick, with a hollow passing quite through it, and a brown spot on one end, which they conjectured might be its stomach; four of these adhered together by their sides when they were taken, so that at first they were thought to be one animal, but upon being put into a glass of water they soon separated, and swam about very briskly. These animals are of a new genus, to which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gave the name of Dagysa, from the likeness of one species of them to a gem: several specimens of them were taken, adhering together sometimes to the length of a yard or more, and shining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal, of a new genus, they also discovered, which shone in the water with colours still more beautiful and vivid, and which indeed exceeded in variety and brightness any thing that we had ever seen: the colouring and splendour of these animals were equal to those of an Opal, and from their resemblance to that gem, the genus was called Carcinium Opalinum. One of them lived several hours in a glass of salt water, swimming about with great agility, and at every motion displaying a change of colours almost infinitely various. We caught also among the rigging of the ship, when we were at the distance of about ten leagues from Cape Finister, several birds which have not been described by Linnæus; they were supposed to have come from Spain, and our gentlemen called the species Motacilla velificans, as they said none but sailors would venture themselves on board a ship that was going round the world: one of them was so exhausted, that it died in Mr. Banks’s hand, almost as soon as it was brought to him.
It was thought extraordinary that no naturalist had hitherto taken notice of the Dagysa, as the sea abounds with them not twenty leagues from the coast of Spain; but, unfortunately for the cause of science, there are but very few of those who traverse the sea, that are either disposed or qualified to remark the curiosities of which Nature has made it the repository.
On the 12th we discovered the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira, and on the next day anchored in Funchiale road, and moored with the stream-anchor: but, in the night, the bend of the hawser of the stream-anchor slipped, owing to the negligence of the person who had been employed to make it fast. In the morning the anchor was heaved up into the boat, and carried out to the southward; but in heaving it again, Mr. Weir, the master’s mate, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and went to the bottom with the anchor; the people in the ship saw the accident, and got the anchor up with all possible expedition; it was, however, too late; the body came up intangled in the buoy-rope, but it was dead.