In this trying situation, the ship being leaky, our pumps during such a night were a distressing tax upon us; as they were kept constantly at work.
I do not recollect to have heard of a more wonderful escape. Every thing which depended upon us, I believe, was done; but it would be the highest presumption and ingratitude to Divine Providence, were we to attribute our preservation wholly to our best endeavours: his interference in our favour was so very conspicuously manifested in various instances, in the course of that night, as I believe not to leave a shadow of doubt, even in the minds of the most profligate on board, of his immediate assistance!
After having weathered Maria's Islands, we continued to stand on with a press of sail to the eastward, for I was anxious to gain an offing from the coast, the ship being exceedingly disabled. All the rails of the head, round houses, and figure of the head, were washed entirely away; and the rails to which the bumkins were secured were so much weakened as to require to be frapped down to the knee of the head; the jibboom, the sprit-sail-yard, and the fore-top-gallant mast were necessarily kept down upon deck to ease the bow-sprit, in case any of its securities should be in danger from the shattered condition of the cutwater.
We were no sooner to the eastward of Maria's Islands, than the wind shifted round to south-east and east-south-east, which brought us again upon a lee shore, for we could not weather Maria's Islands upon one tack, nor Shooten's Isles and Bay of Shoals upon the other; however, as it did not now blow so hard, and the land was near 20 leagues distant, I was not under any apprehensions from it.
On the 26th, the wind set in from the northward, and blew fresh, frequently attended with the most violent squalls; it continued northerly until the 2d of May, when it inclined to the southward, and from that to the eastward: I had on this day several distances of the sun and moon, the result of which was 155° 25' east longitude, which was little more than one degree to the eastward of the time-keeper. On the 6th, in the morning, we made the land in latitude 33° 30' south; and at noon Cape Three Points bore west by south, distant off shore four leagues. Here, upon a rough examination of the error of the time-keeper, it appeared to be a degree or little more to the westward of the Truth, but we expected, upon our arrival at Port Jackson, to examine its error more particularly.
On recurring back to the last altitudes taken for the time-keeper before our making Van Diemen's Land, and carrying it on by the log, we found that the error on making that land was but a very few miles of longitude, and that error most probably was in the carrying on the log; so that there was every reason to think, that the violent agitation of the ship during that time, was the cause of that change in the watch, and which I own I was not at all surprised at, but think it highly probable, as the watch lay in a box upon soft cushions, and that box screwed down to a place securely and firmly fixed for that purpose: I cannot help thinking but that so very valuable a piece of watch-work (for I do really think, from the experience I have had of it, that a superior piece of work was never made) would be better fixed upon a small horizontal table, made on purpose, and well secured; and under the box which contains the watch, a kind of spiral spring or worm, which, with every jerk or pitch of the ship, would yield a little with the weight of the watch, and thereby take off much of that shock which must in some degree affect its going.
The winds now (rather unfortunately for us), after 24 hours calm, inclined again to the southward, and we kept plying to windward with all the sail we could carry. Right off Cape Three Points, at six leagues distance from the shore, we sounded in 75 fathoms, over a bottom of fine grey sand.
On the 8th, a light air from the northward in the night, carried us by day-light in sight of the entrance of Port Jackson; and in the evening of the 9th, we entered between the heads of the harbour, and worked up to Sydney Cove, where we anchored before dark, after an absence of 219 days, 51 of which we lay in Table-Bay, Cape of Good Hope: so that, although during this voyage we had fairly gone round the world, we had only been 168 days in describing that circle; and, by taking a mean of the highest and lowest latitudes we sailed in, we shall find our track nearly in latitude 45° south. We found in the cove the Supply armed tender.
Our passage, since we came round Van Diemen's Land, had been attended with much bad weather, very violent squalls, and a thick haze; particularly with the wind from the eastward: I had before observed, that in the winter-time, upon this coast, we were subject to much bad weather; and this passage convinced me of the necessity, when ships are intended to be sent to this settlement, that the season should be considered and attended to. During the summer months we were sometimes subject to thunder, lightning, and strong squalls; but in general the weather is fine. If in the fairest weather you observe it to lighten in the lee part of the horizon, you should prepare for a squall from that quarter, which is in general pretty severe.
In passing (at a distance from the coast) between the islands of Schooten and Furneaux, and Point Hicks; the former being the northermost of Captain Furneaux's observations here, and the latter the southermost part, which Captain Cook saw when he sailed along the coast, there has been no land seen, and from our having felt an easterly set of current, when the wind was from that quarter (north-west) we had an uncommon large sea, there is reason thence to believe, that there is in that space either a very deep gulf, or a straight, which may separate Van Diemen's Land from New Holland: there have no discoveries been made on the western side of this land in the parallel I allude to, between 39° 00' and 42° 00' south, the land there having never been seen.