squalls[205] and calms, and on 19th and 20th October we were lying listlessly about 15 miles E., by chart, from Sesarga,[206] called also Ile de Contrariété (9° 49′ S., 162° 13′ E.), condemned to inactivity to the northward of San Christoval. We could now satisfy ourselves that it is quite erroneous to identify this island with that seen by Pedro de Ortega in 1567, round in shape, and with a lofty volcano in its midst continually throwing up smoke and steam. Ile de Contrariété, as seen from the deck of our frigate, presented the appearance of a long wooded ridge, averaging about 800 feet in height, whereas some of the peaks of San Christoval, 3000 or 4000 feet in height, presented all the configuration peculiar to a volcanic island; this was especially the case with one remarkably regular cone of about 2000 feet in height, which rises quite close to Cape Surville. So that Burney's theory seems the most probable, that Ortega's Sesarga is no other than Mount Lammot, 8000 feet high, on Guadalcanar (9° 50′ S., 160° 20′ E.).
At last, on 21st October, we succeeded in weathering Cape Surville. Thus the Solomon's group too were what seamen call "hull-down," and we might look forward to a speedy termination to this most tedious and unpropitious voyage. For a long month we had, while to the northward of the Solomon's Islands, vainly sighed for a fresh breeze, and now all at once
the S.E. trade was blowing so strong that the ship could only lay her course to the southward under reduced sail, close-hauled, and had now to plunge laboriously through the heavy seas, which the stiff breeze was knocking up. On the 25th and 26th October it blew a regular storm from the S.E., we forging along under double-reefed square-sails, till it almost seemed that the end of our voyage was destined to be as stormy as its commencement "away in the China seas." The ship's timbers creaked and groaned, as though they would break into a thousand pieces, while the whistling and moaning of the wind, the raging and roaring of the sea, the tremendous crash of the waves against our bulwarks, left no peace night or day for the "non-effectives," as all passengers not regularly borne upon the ship's books are called on board a man-of-war. As though to increase the discomfort of their position, it happened that the frigate began to make water to such an extent, that in what was fortunately but a very small portion of the hold, the water rose to fifty inches within four hours! It was supposed that during the typhoon on the China sea, some of the copper plates had been wrenched off, and that the water was finding entrance through some leak in her outer timbers, but the most rigid examination failed to discover its whereabouts. At all events it must have been at or above the water line, as when the sea rose higher than usual, or the ship lurched much, the water was sure to gain. We were compelled consequently to vary from our original course by the open sea-way along the west coast of New Caledonia,
and steer for the coral sea, thickly studded with reefs, which lies between New Caledonia and "Sandy Cape" on the shores of Australia, as by adopting this dangerous route we should at least have smoother water and more favourable winds. Meanwhile, every possible precaution was taken in handling the ship, so as not to increase the leak, and a sail was kept ready to be fothered from without over the leaky part in case of necessity.
On 28th October we had expected to be in sight of the great horse-shoe-shaped Bampton Reef. But there was no surf discernible from the mast-head, only the change to smooth water, which we at once felt, proving that the reef really existed, and that we were to leeward of it. Its position is so variously laid down on the charts, that while by one chart we must have been upon the very reef itself, we were, according to a second, four miles, and, according to a third, fourteen miles to the eastward of it! The last-mentioned seemed to be the most correct, since at four miles the surf must have been visible, whereas it would be impossible to see it at fourteen miles.
By 30th October we had passed the latitude of Sandy Cape, and could now steer direct for Sydney, the capital of the colony of New South Wales. The same day we also crossed the tropic of Capricorn. The temperature, which had been falling regularly ever since we left the Solomon Islands, in 28° S., was as low as 64°.4 Fahr., so that we found it advisable to resume our woollen clothing.
Ten months we had now spent in the tropics, in the hottest seas of the globe, and we now felt, on a beautiful November morning in the southern tropics, as on a clear spring morning at home. On 4th November we had our first peep of the coast of Australia at Smoky Cape, a fresh easterly breeze filling our sails, as we bowled along at 10 knots an hour, constantly nearing the next station of our voyage. On the 5th, at 2 P.M., the not very high land round Port Jackson came in sight, and we had not to alter her course by one spoke, so that our chronometer had given unmistakeable proof of its accuracy. The coast is for the most part rather flat and monotonous, but we soon recognized the entrance by North Cape, which rises sheer out of the water at the harbour mouth, where we also took a pilot on board. The light-house here, 420 feet above sea-level, had been visible from the deck of the frigate 15 miles away! During the whole voyage we had only seen one vessel, an American clipper off the Marianne Archipelago, and were greatly amazed to find not a single sail in the vicinity of the port. At last, just as we got abreast of the entrance, we saw a steamer and some small boats making for the land. At 6 P.M., after a voyage of 82 days, during which we had sailed 5930 miles, the anchor was let go in the magnificent harbour of Port Jackson, off Garden Island, to the N.E. of the city of Sydney. We had reached in safety the fifth quarter of the globe!
FOOTNOTES:
[200] As it is not uninteresting to know the course of exchange at Sikayana existing between the products of European industry and its native products, we subjoin a few of the most important equivalents: