[3] Captain Cook relates that his people caught two reddish fish with hook and line in Port Sandwich, Malicolo Island (one of the New Hebrides), on July 24th, 1774. The fish were about the size of a large bream. Most of the officers, and some of the petty officers, dined on them the next day. The following night, every one who had eaten of them was seized with violent pains in the head and bones, attended with a scorching heat all over the skin, and numbness in the joints. The pigs and dogs who had partaken of the fish were also taken ill, and two died. It was a week or ten days before all the officers recovered. In mentioning this, Cook refers to the similar experience of Quiros and his crew, as described by Dalrymple, vol. i, p. 140.—Cook’s Second Voyage, vol. ii, p. 39.
Chapter XXX.
Gives some account of this bay, and of all that is contained in it, and in its port.
This bay, to which the Captain gave the name of St. Philip and St. James, because it was discovered on their day, is 1,700 leagues from Lima, from Acapulco 1,300, from Manilla in the Philippines 1,100 leagues. Its entrance is to the N.W. in 15° S., and the port is in 15° 10′ S. The bay has a circuit of 20 leagues, at the entrance 4 leagues across. The variation of the compass is 7° N.E.
The land which forms the bay runs directly N. on the E. side, with sloping heights and peopled valleys well covered with trees. This side ends at the mouth of the bay with a height rising to a peak, and the coast runs E. and then S.E., but we could not see how it ends.
The other land to the W. runs nearly N.W., and to the point is 11 leagues in length, consisting of a range of hills of moderate height, which the sun bathes when it rises, and where there are patches without trees, covered with dried-up grass. Here are ravines and streams, some falling from the heights to the skirts of the hills, where many palm groves and villages were seen. From the point on this side the coast turns to the W.
The front of the bay, which is to the S., is 3 leagues long, and forms a beach. In the middle there is a river which was judged to be the size of the Guadalquivir at Seville. At its mouth the depth is 2 and more fathoms; so that boats and even frigates could enter. It received the name of the “Jordan.” On its right is seen the Southern Cross in the heavens, which makes the spot noteworthy.
To the eastward, at the corner of this bay, there is another moderate-sized river called “Salvador,” into which the boats entered at their pleasure to get water. The waters of both rivers are sweet, pleasant, and fresh. The one is distant from the other a league and a half, consisting of a beach of black gravel, with small heavy stones, excellent for ballast for a ship.
Between the said two rivers is the port. The bottom is clean, consisting of black sand, and here a great number of ships would have room up to 40½ brazas. It is not known whether there are worms. As the beach is not bare nor driven up, and the herbs are green near the water, it was assumed that it was not beaten by the seas; and as the trees are straight and their branches unbroken, it was judged that there are no great storms. The port was named “Vera Cruz,” because we anchored there on that day.