At eight o'clock in the evening of the 26th, we took our departure from Cape Palliser, and steered to the south, inclining to the east, having a favourable gale from the N.W. and S.W. We daily saw some rock-weeds, seals, Port Egmont hens, albatrosses, pintadoes, and other peterels; and on the 2d of December, being in the latitude of 48° 23' south, longitude 179° 16' west, we saw a number of red-billed penguins, which remained about us for several days. On the 5th, being in the latitude 50° 17' south, longitude 179° 40' east, the variation was 18° 25' east. At half an hour past eight o'clock the next evening, we reckoned ourselves antipodes to our friends in London, consequently as far removed from them as possible.[1]
[1] "The remembrance of domestic felicity, and of the sweets of society, called forth a sigh from every heart which felt the tender ties of filial or parental affection. We are the first Europeans, and, I believe, I may add, the first human beings who have reached this point, where it is probable none will come after us. A common report prevails, indeed, in England, concerning Sir Francis Drake, who is said to have visited the antipodes, which the legend expresses by "his having passed under the middle arch of London bridge:" but this is a mistake, as his track lay along the coast of America, and probably originates from his having passed the periæci, or the point in 180° longitude on the same circle of north latitude, on the coast of California."--G.F.
To the vanity of Englishmen, not always accompanied, it is to be feared, by political honesty, the expedition of Drake afforded the highest gratification. Swarms of wits, accordingly, who are never wanting in any reign, either to eulogize what the government has sanctioned, or to infuse something of literary immortality into popular enthusiasm, were in requisition on this extraordinary occasion, and, as usual, vied with each other in bombast and the fervour of exaggeration. If one might credit the legends, Sir Francis accomplished much more than a visit to the antipodes, much more indeed, than ever man did before or since. Witness an epigram on him preserved in the Censura Literaria. vol. iii, p. 217:--
Sir Drake, whom well the world's end knew,
Which thou didst compasse round,
And whom both poles of heaven once saw
Which north and south do bound:
The stars above would make thee known,
If men were silent here;
The Sun himselfe cannot forget
His fellow-traveller.This is evidently a quaint version of the quaint lines said, by Camden, to have been made by the scholars of Winchester College:--
Drace, pererrati quem novit terminus orbis,
Quemque simul mundi vidit uterque Polus;
Si taceant homines, facient te sidera notum.
Sol nescit comitis non memor esse sui.Abraham Cowley seems to have availed himself of the chief thought here embodied, in his pointed epigram on the chair formed from the planks of Drake's vessel, and presented to the university of Oxford. His metaphysical genius, however, has refined the point with no small dexterity--the four last lines, more especially, displaying no small elegance. The reader will not despise them:--
To this great ship, which round the world has run,
And matcht in race the chariot of the sun;
This Pythagorean ship (for it may claim
Without presumption, so deserved a name),
By knowledge once, and transformation now,
In her new shape, this sacred port allow.
Drake and his ship could not have wish'd from fate
An happier station, or more blest estate;
For lo! a seat of endless rest is given
To her in Oxford, and to him in Heaven.It would be unpardonable to omit, now we are on the subject of Drake's praises, the verses given in the Biog. Brit. and said to have been unpublished before:--
Thy glory, Drake, extensive as thy mind,
No time shall tarnish, and no limits bind:
What greater praise! than thus to match the Sun,
Running that race which cannot be outrun.
Wide as the world then compass'd spreads thy fame,
And, with that world, an equal date shall claim.The reader, it may be presumed, has enough of this subject.--E.
On the 8th, being in the latitude 55° 39', longitude 178° 53' west, we ceased to see penguins and seals, and concluded that those we had seen, retired to the southern parts of New Zealand, whenever it was necessary for them to be at land. We had now a strong gale at N.W., and a great swell from S.W. This swell we got as soon as the south point of New Zealand came in that direction; and as we had had no wind from that quarter the six preceding days, but, on the contrary, it had been at east, north, and N.W., I conclude there can be no land to the southward, under the meridian of New Zealand, but what must lie very far to the south. The two following days we had very stormy weather, sleet and snow, winds between the north and south- west.
The 11th the storm abated, and the weather clearing up, we found the latitude to be 61° 15' south, longitude 173° 4' W. This fine weather was of short duration; in the evening, the wind increased to a strong gale at S. W., blew in squalls, attended with thick snow showers, hail, and sleet. The mercury in the thermometer fell to thirty-two; consequently the weather was very cold, and seemed to indicate that ice was not far off.[2]
[2] "At noon, on the 10th December, we had reached the latitude of 59° S., without having met with any ice, though we fell in with it the preceding year on the 10th December, between the 50th and 51st degree of south latitude. It is difficult to account for this difference; perhaps a severe winter preceding our first course from the Cape of Good Hope, might accumulate more ice that year than the next, which is the more probable, as we learnt at the Cape that the winter had been sharper there than usual; perhaps a violent storm might break the polar ice, and drive it so far to the northward as we found it; and, perhaps, both these causes might concur with others, to produce this effect."--G.F.
"It is remarkable, that in different years, seasons, and places of the sea, we found the ice differently situated. In the year 1772, December 10th, we saw the ice between 50° and 51° of southern latitude. In 1773, on December 12th, we found the first ice in 62° S. In 1775, on January 27th, we saw the ice in about 60° S. On February 24th, we came to the same place, where, about twenty-six months before, we had met with such an impenetrable body of ice, as had obliged us to run to the east, but where, at this last time, no vestige of it appeared, no more than at the place where Bouvet had placed his Cape Circumcision, we having sailed over the whole tract which he suspected to be land; nor could we be mistaken in its situation, as we had been on the same parallel for a considerable time; so that it is impossible to have missed the land, if any had existed, as we had frequent opportunities to ascertain our latitude."--F.
It is well known, that considerable masses of ice have been met with as low down as 46° of south latitude; but hitherto no very satisfactory solution has been given of the phenomenon.--E.
At four o'clock the next morning, being in the latitude of 62° 10' south, longitude 172° west, we saw the first ice island, 11° 1/2 farther south than the first ice we saw the preceding year after leaving the Cape of Good Hope. At the time we saw this ice, we also saw an antarctic peterel, some grey albatrosses, and our old companions pintadoes and blue peterels. The wind kept veering from S.W. by the N.W. to N.N.E. for the most part a fresh gale, attended with a thick haze and snow; on which account we steered to the S.E. and E., keeping the wind always on the beam, that it might be in our power to return back nearly on the same track, should our course have been interrupted by any danger whatever. For some days we had a great sea from the N.W. and S.W., so that it is not probable there can be any land near, between these two points.
We fell in with several large islands on the 14th, and about noon, with a quantity of loose ice, through which we sailed. Latitude 64° 55' south, longitude 163° 20' west. Grey albatrosses, blue peterels, pintadoes, and fulmers, were seen. As we advanced to the S.E. by E. with a fresh gale at west, we found the number of ice islands increase fast upon us. Between noon and eight in the evening we saw but two; but before four o'clock in the morning of the 15th, we had passed seventeen, besides a quantity of loose ice which we ran through. At six o'clock, we were obliged to haul to the N.E., in order to clear an immense field that lay to the south and S. E. The ice, in most part of it, lay close packed together; in other places, there appeared partitions in the field, and a clear sea beyond it. However, I did not think it safe to venture through, as the wind would not permit us to return the same way that we must go in. Besides, as it blew strong, and the weather at times was exceedingly foggy, it was the more necessary for us to get clear of this loose ice, which is rather more dangerous than the great islands. It was not such ice as is usually found in bays or rivers and near shore; but such as breaks off from the islands, and may not improperly be called parings of the large pieces, or the rubbish or fragments which fall off when the great islands break loose from the place where they are formed.[3]
[3] "Our friend Mahine had already expressed his surprise at several little snow and hail showers on the preceding days, this phenomenon being utterly unknown in his country. The appearances of "white stones," which melted in his hand, was altogether miraculous in his eyes, and though we endeavoured to explain to him that cold was the cause of their formation, yet I believe his ideas on that subject were never very clear. A heavy fall of snow surprised him more than what he had seen before, and after a long consideration of its singular qualities, he told us he would call it the white rain when be came back to his country. He did not see the first ice, on account of the early hour in the morning; but two days after, in about 65° S., he was struck with astonishment upon seeing one of the largest pieces, and the day following presented him with an extensive field of ice, which blocked up our farther progress to the south, and gave him great pleasure, supposing it to be land, We told him that so far from being land, it was nothing but fresh water, which we found some difficulty to convince him of at first, till we shewed him the ice which was formed in the scuttled cask on the deck. He assured us, however, that he would, at all events, call this the white land, by way of distinguishing it from all the rest."--G.F.
We had not stood long to the N.E. before we found ourselves embayed by the ice, and were obliged to tack and stretch to the S.W., having the field, or loose ice, to the south, and many huge islands to the north. After standing two hours on this tack, the wind very luckily veering to the westward, we tacked, stretched to the north, and soon got clear of the loose ice; but not before we had received several hard knocks from the larger pieces, which, with all our care, we could not avoid. After clearing one danger we still had another to encounter; the weather remained foggy, and many large islands lay in our way; so that we had to luff for one, and bear up for another. One we were very near falling aboard of, and, if it had happened, this circumstance would never have been related.[4] These difficulties, together with the improbability of finding land farther south, and the impossibility of exploring it, on account of the ice, if we should find any, determined me to get more to the north. At the time we last tacked, we were in the longitude of 159° 20' W., and in the latitude of 66° 0' S. Several penguins were seen on some of these islands, and a few antarctic peterels on the wing.
[4] "About one o'clock, whilst the people were at dinner, we were alarmed by the sudden appearance of a large island of ice just a-head of us. It was absolutely impossible either to wear or tack the ship, on account of its proximity, and our only resource was to keep as near the wind as possible, and to try to weather the danger. We were in the most dreadful suspension for a few minutes, and though we fortunately succeeded, yet the ship passed within her own length to windward of it,"--G.F.