At two in the afternoon, the wind veered to the S.W., and S.W. by S., which reduced us to the necessity of plying. I first stretched over to within two miles of the eastern, shore, and tacked in fifty-three fathoms water. In standing back to Montagu Island, we discovered a ledge of rocks, some above, and others under water, lying three miles to the north of the northern point of Green Islands. Afterward, some others were seen in the middle of the channel farther out than the islands. These rocks made unsafe plying in the night (though not very dark); and, for that reason, we spent it standing off and on, under Montagu Island; for the depth of water was too great to come to an anchor.
At day-break, the next morning, the wind came more favourable, and we steered for the channel between Montagu Island and the Green Islands, which is between two and three leagues broad, and from thirty-four to seventeen fathoms deep. We had but little wind all the day, and, at eight o'clock in the evening, it was a dead calm, when we anchored in twenty-one fathoms water, over a muddy bottom, about two miles from the shore of Montagu's Island. The calm continued till ten o'clock the next morning, when, it was succeeded by a small breeze from the north, with which we weighed; and, by six o'clock in the evening, we were again in the open sea, and found the coast trending west by south, as far as the eye could reach.
Footnote 1:[ (return) ]
As in the remaining part of this chapter, the latitude and longitude are very frequently set down, the former being invariably North, and the latter East, the constant repetition of the two words, North and East, has been omitted, to avoid unnecessary precision.
Footnote 2:[ (return) ]
See de Lisle's Générale des Découvertes de l'Amiral de Fonte, &c. Paris, 1752; and many other maps.
Footnote 3:[ (return) ]
This must be very near that part of the American coast where Tscherikow anchored in 1741, for Muller places its latitude in 56°. Had this Russian navigator been so fortunate as to proceed a little farther northward along the coast, he would have found, as we now learn from Captain Cook, bays, and harbours, and islands, where his ship might have been sheltered, and his people protected in landing. For the particulars of the misfortunes he met with here, two boats' crews, which he sent ashore, having never returned, probably cut off by the natives, see Muller's Découvertes de Russes, p. 248, 254. The Spaniards, in 1775, found two good harbours on this part of the coast; that called Guadalupe, in latitude 57° 11', and the other, De los Remedios, in latitude 57° 18'.—D.
Footnote 4:[ (return) ]
It should seem, that, in this very bay, the Spaniards, in 1775, found their port which they call De los Remedios. The latitude is exactly the same; and their journal mentions its being protected by a long ridge of high islands. See Miscellanies, by the Honourable Daines Barrington, p. 503, 504.—D.
Footnote 5:[ (return) ]
According to Muller, Beering fell in with the coast of North America in latitude 58° 28', and he describes its aspect thus: "L'aspect du pays étoit affrayaut par ses hautes montagnes couvertes de niege." The chain or ridge of mountains covered with snow, mentioned here by Captain Cook, in the same latitude, exactly agrees with what Beering met with. See Muller's Voyages et Découvertes de Russes, p. 248-254.—D.
Footnote 6:[ (return) ]
Probably Captain Cook means Muller's map, prefixed to his History of the Russian Discoveries.—D.
Footnote 7:[ (return) ]
Then sub-almoner and chaplain to his majesty, afterwards Dean of Lincoln.—D.
Footnote 8:[ (return) ]
This species is in the Leverian Museum, and described by Mr Latham, in his Synopsis of Birds, vol. i. p. 33, No. 72, under the name of the White-bellied Eagle.