After leaving Bolabola, I steered to the northward, close hawled, with the wind between N. E. and E., hardly ever having it to the southward of E., till after we had crossed the line, and had got into north latitudes. So that our course, made good, was always to the W. of N., and sometimes no better than N. W.
Though seventeen months had now elapsed since our departure from England, during which we had not, upon the whole, been unprofitably employed, I was sensible that, with regard to the principal object of my instructions, our voyage was at this time only beginning; and, therefore, my attention to every circumstance that might contribute toward our safety and our ultimate success, was now to be called forth anew. With this view I had examined into the state of our provisions at the last islands; and as soon as I had left them and got beyond the extent of my former discoveries, I ordered a survey to be taken of all the boatswain’s and carpenter’s stores that were in the ships, that I might be fully informed of the quantity, state, and condition of every article; and, by that means, know how to use them to the greatest advantage.
Before I sailed from the Society Islands, I lost no opportunity of inquiring of the inhabitants, if there were any islands in a N. or a N. W. direction from them; but I did not find that they knew of any. Nor did we meet with any thing that indicated the vicinity of land, till we came to about the latitude of 8° S., where we began to see birds, such as boobies, tropic, and men-of-war birds, tern, and some other sorts. At this time, our longitude was 205° E. Mendana, in his first voyage in 1568[[22]], discovered an island which he named Isla de Jesus, in latitude 6° 45ʹ S., and 1450 leagues from Callao, which is 200° E. longitude from Greenwich. We crossed this latitude nearly a hundred leagues to the eastward of this longitude, and saw there many of the above-mentioned birds; which are seldom known to go very far from land.
In the night, between the 22d and 23d, we crossed the line in the longitude of 203° 15ʹ E. Here the variation of the compass was 6° 30ʹ E. nearly.
On the 24th, about half an hour after day-break, land was discovered bearing N. E. by E. 1⁄2 E. Upon a nearer approach, it was found to be one of those low islands so common in this ocean; that is, a narrow bank of land inclosing the sea within. A few cocoa-nut trees were seen in two or three places; but in general the land had a very barren appearance. At noon, it extended from N. E. by E. to S. by E. 1⁄2 E., about four miles distant. The wind was at E. S. E.; so that we were under a necessity of making a few boards to get up to the lee or west side, where we found from forty to twenty and fourteen fathoms water, over a bottom of fine sand; the least depth about half a mile from the breakers, and the greatest about one mile. The meeting with soundings determined me to anchor, with a view to try to get some turtle; for the island seemed to be a likely place to meet with them, and to be without inhabitants. Accordingly, we dropped anchor in thirty fathoms; and then a boat was dispatched to examine whether it was practicable to land, of which I had some doubt, as the sea broke in a dreadful surf all along the shore. When the boat returned, the officer whom I had intrusted with this examination, reported to me that he could see no place where a boat could land; but that there was great abundance of fish in the shoal water, without the breakers.
At day-break the next morning I sent two boats, one from each ship, to search more accurately for a landing-place; and, at the same time, two others to fish at a grappling near the shore. These last returned about eight o’clock with upward of two hundred weight of fish. Encouraged by this success, they were dispatched again after breakfast, and I then went in another boat, to take a view of the coast and attempt landing; but this I found to be wholly impracticable. Toward noon, the two boats sent on the same search returned. The master, who was in that belonging to the Resolution, reported to me, that about a league and a half to the north, was a break in the land, and a channel into the lagoon, consequently, that there was a fit place for landing; and that he had found the same soundings off this entrance as we had where we now lay. In consequence of this report the ships weighed anchor, and after two or three trips came to again in twenty fathoms water, over a bottom of fine dark sand, before a small island that lies at the entrance of the lagoon; and on each side of which there is a channel leading into it; but only fit for boats. The water in the lagoon itself is all very shallow.
On the 26th, in the morning, I ordered Captain Clerke to send a boat with an officer to the S. E. part of the lagoon, to look for turtle; and Mr. King and I went each in a boat to the N. E. part. I intended to have gone to the most easterly extremity; but the wind blew too fresh to allow it, and obliged us to land more to leeward, on a sandy flat, where we caught one turtle, the only one that we saw in the lagoon. We walked, or rather waded, through the water, to an island; where finding nothing but a few birds, I left it, and proceeded to the land that bounds the sea to the N. W., leaving Mr. King to observe the sun’s meridian altitude. I found this land to be even more barren than the island I had been upon; but walking over to the sea-coast, I saw five turtles close to the shore. One of these we caught, and the rest made their escape. Not seeing any more, I returned on board, as did Mr. King soon after, without having seen one turtle. We, however, did not despair of getting a supply, for some of Captain Clerke’s officers who had been ashore on the land to the southward of the channel leading into the lagoon, had been more fortunate, and caught several there.
In the morning of the 27th, the pinnace and cutter under the command of Mr. King, were sent to the S. E. part of the island, within the lagoon, and the small cutter to the northward where I had been the day before; both parties being ordered upon the same service, to catch turtle. Captain Clerke having had some of his people on shore all night, they had been so fortunate as to turn between forty and fifty on the sand, which were brought on board with all expedition this day. And in the afternoon, the party I had sent northward returned with six. They were sent back again and remained there till we left the island, having in general pretty good success.
On the 28th, I landed in company with Mr. Bayly, on the island which lies between the two channels into the lagoon, to prepare the telescopes for observing the approaching eclipse of the sun; which was one great inducement to my anchoring here. About noon, Mr. King returned with one boat and eight turtles, leaving seven behind to be brought by the other boat, whose people were employed in catching more; and, in the evening, the same boat was sent with water and provisions for them. Mr. Williamson now went to superintend this duty in the room of Mr. King, who remained on board, to attend the observation of the eclipse.
The next day, Mr. Williamson dispatched the two boats back to the ship, laden with turtle. At the same time, he sent me a message, desiring that the boats might be ordered round by sea, as he had found a landing-place on the S. E. side of the island, where most of the turtle were caught; so that, by sending the boats thither, the trouble would be saved of carrying them over the land to the inside of the lagoon, as had been hitherto done. The boats were accordingly dispatched to the place which he pointed out.