This part of Masafuero is a very good place for refreshment, especially in the summer season: The goats have been mentioned already, and there is all round the island such plenty of fish, that a boat may, with three hooks and lines, catch as much as will serve an hundred people: Among others we caught excellent coal-fish, cavallies, cod, hallibut, and cray-fish. We took a king-fisher that weighed eighty-seven pounds, and was five feet and a half long, and the sharks were so ravenous, that when we were sounding one of them swallowed the lead, by which we hauled him above water, but as he then disgorged it, we lost him. The seals were so numerous, that I verily think if many thousands of them were killed in a night, they would not be missed in the morning: We were obliged to kill great numbers of them, as, when we walked the shore, they were continually running against us, making at the same time a most horrible noise. These animals yield excellent train oil, and their hearts and plucks are very good eating, being in taste something like those of a hog, and their skins are covered with the finest fur I ever saw of the kind. There are many birds here, and among others some very large hawks. Of the pintado birds, our people, as I have before observed, caught no less than seven hundred in one night. We had not much opportunity to examine the place for vegetable productions, but we saw several leaves of the mountain cabbage, which is a proof that the tree grows here.
SECTION III
The Passage from Masafuero to Queen Charlotte's Islands; several Mistakes corrected concerning Davis's Land, and an Account of some small Islands, supposed to be the same that were seen by Quiros. When we took our departure from Masafuero, we had a great sea from the N.W. with a swell of long billows from the southward, and the wind, which was from the S.W. to the W.N.W., obliged me to stand to the northward, in hope of getting the south-east trade-wind, for the ship was so dull a sailer, that there was no making her go without a strong wind in her favour. Having thus run farther to the northward than at first I intended, and finding myself not far from the parallel of latitude which has been assigned to two islands called Saint Ambrose, and Saint Felix or Saint Paul, I thought I should perform an acceptable service by examining if they were fit for shipping to refresh at, especially as the Spaniards having fortified Juan Fernandes, they might be found convenient for Great Britain, if she should hereafter be engaged in a Spanish war. These islands are laid down in Green's charts, which were published in the year 1753, from latitude 26° 20' to 27° S., and from 1°1/4 to 2°1/2 W. of Masafuero; I therefore hauled up with a design to keep in that latitude, but soon afterwards, consulting Robertson's Elements of Navigation, I found the island of Saint Ambrose there laid down in latitude 25° 50' S., and 82° 20' longitude west of London, and supposing that islands of so small an extent might be laid down with more exactness in this work than in the chart, I bore away more northward for that latitude; the event, however, proved that I should not have trusted him so far: I missed the islands, and as I saw great numbers of birds and fish, which are certain indications of land not far off, there is the greatest reason to conclude that I went to the northward of them. I am sorry to say that upon a farther examination of Robertson's tables of latitudes and longitudes, I found them erroneous in many particulars: This censure, however, if I had not thought it necessary to prevent future mischief, should have been suppressed.
Upon examining the account that is given by Wafer, who was surgeon on board Captain Davis's ship, I think it is probable that these two islands are the land that Davis fell in with in his way to the southward from the Gallapago islands, and that the land laid down in all the sea charts under the name of Davis's Land, has no existence, notwithstanding what is said in the account of Roggewein's voyage, which was made in 1722, of land that they called Eastern Island, which some have imagined to be a confirmation of Davis's discovery, and the same land to which his name has been given.
It is manifest from Wafer's narrative, that little credit is due to the account kept on board Davis's ship, except with respect to the latitude, for he acknowledges that they had like to have perished by their making an allowance for the variation of the needle westward, instead of eastward: He tells us also that they steered S. by E. 1/2 E. from the Gallapagos, till they made land in latitude 27° 20' S., but it is evident that such a course would carry them not to the westward but to the eastward of the Gallapagos, and set them at about the distance of two hundred leagues from Capiapo, and not five hundred leagues, as he has alleged; for the variation here is not more than half a point to the eastward now, and it must have been still less then, it having been increasing to the eastward on all this coast. The course that Davis steered therefore, if the distance between the islands of St Ambrose and St Felix, and the Gallapagos, as laid down in all our sea charts, is right, must have brought him within sight of St Ambrose and St Felix, when he had run the distance he mentions. The truth is, that if there had been any such place as Davis's Land in the situation which has been allotted to it in our sea charts, I must have sailed over it, or at least have seen it, as will appear in the course of this narrative.
I kept between the latitude 25° 50' and 25° 30', in search of the islands I intended to examine, till I got five degrees to the westward of our departure, and then seeing no land, and the birds having left us, I hauled more to the southward, and got into latitude 27° 20' S. where I continued till we got between seventeen and eighteen degrees to the westward of our departure. In this parallel we had light airs and foul winds, with a strong northerly current, which made me conjecture that we were near this Davis's Land, for which we looked out with great diligence, but a fair wind springing up again, we steered west by south, which gradually brought us into the latitude of 28° 1/2 S., so that it is evident I must have sailed over this land, or at least have seen it if there had been any such place. I afterwards kept in the latitude of 28° for forty degrees to the westward of my departure, or, according to my account, 121 degrees west of London, this being the highest south latitude the winds and weather would permit me to keep, so that I must have gone to the southward of the situation assigned to the supposed continent called Davis's Land in all our charts.[55]
[Footnote 55: This was really the case, as will be seen in the account of one of Cook's Voyages: For there seems reason to believe, that the island called Easter Island, and sometimes Teapy, is the land which Captain Davis saw in 1686, and Roggewein visited in 1722. See what is said on this subject in vol. xi, p. 90, of this collection.--E.]
We continued our search till Wednesday the 17th of June, when, in latitude 28° S., longitude 112° W., we saw many sea-birds, which flew in flocks, and some rock-weed, which made me conjecture that we were approaching, or had passed by, some land. At this time the wind blew hard from the northward, which made a great sea, but we had notwithstanding long rolling billows from the southward so that whatever land was in that quarter, could be only small rocky islands; and I am inclined to believe that if there was land at all it was to the northward, possibly it might be Roggewein's eastern island, which he has placed in latitude 27° S., and which some geographers have supposed to be about seven hundred leagues distant from the continent of South America, if indeed any credit is to be given to his account.
It was now the depth of winter in these parts, and we had hard gales and high seas that frequently brought us under our courses and low sails: The winds were also variable, and though we were near the tropic, the weather was dark, hazy, and cold, with frequent thunder and lightning, sleet and rain. The sun was above the horizon about ten hours in the four-and-twenty, but we frequently passed many days together without seeing him; and the weather was so thick, that when he was below the horizon the darkness was dreadful: The gloominess of the weather was indeed not only a disagreeable, but a most dangerous circumstance, as we were often long without being able to make an observation, and were, notwithstanding, obliged to carry all the sail we could spread, day and night, our ship being so bad a sailer, and our voyage so long, to prevent our perishing by hunger, which, with all its concomitant horrors, would otherwise be inevitable.
We continued our course westward till the evening of Thursday the 2d of July, when we discovered land, to the northward of us. Upon approaching it the next day, it appeared like a great rock rising out of the sea: It was not more than five miles in circumference, and seemed to be uninhabited; it was, however, covered with trees, and we saw a small stream of fresh water running down one side of it. I would have landed upon it, but the surf, which, at this season broke upon it with great violence, rendered it impossible. I got soundings on the west side of it at somewhat less than a mile from the shore, in twenty-five fathom, with a bottom of coral and sand; and it is probable that in fine summer weather landing here may not only be practicable but easy. We saw a great number of sea-birds hovering about it, at somewhat less than a mile from the shore, and the sea here seemed to have fish. It lies in, latitude 25° 2' S., longitude 133° 21' W., and about a thousand leagues to the westward of the continent of America. It is so high that we saw it at the distance of more than fifteen leagues, and it having been discovered by a young gentleman, son to Major Pitcairn of the marines, who was unfortunately lost in the Aurora, we called it PITCAIRNS ISLAND. While we were in the neighbourhood of this island, the weather was extremely tempestuous, with long rolling billows from the southward, larger and higher than any I had seen before. The winds were variable, but blew chiefly from the S.S.W.W. and W.N.W. We had very seldom a gale to the eastward, so that we were prevented from keeping in a high south latitude, and were continually driving to the northward.