versed by vessels from New South Wales
returning home by way of Cape Horn.
In 1827 His Majesty’s ship Warspite passed
through this strait in company with the
Volage, twenty-eight guns, being the first
English line of battle ship which had ever
made the attempt. A few years since, Captain
Stewart commanding a colonial vessel
out of Port Jackson, discovered another strait,
which cut off the extreme southern point,
making it a separate island that bears his
name, and now almost every year our sealers
and whalers are making additional and useful
discoveries along its coasts.
These islands lie between lat. 34° and 48°
S. and long. 166° and 180° E. The opening
of the land to which we were now opposite,
and which was our destined port, the
accurate eye of Cook had observed, but did
not attempt the entrance; and it is only about
ten years since, when the two store ships, the
Dromedary and Coromandel, loaded with
spars on the coast, that a small vessel attending
on those ships first crossed the bar; but
although they took soundings and laid down
buoys, the commanders of the large vessels
were afraid of attempting the entrance, which
proved their good sense, for their great
draught of water would have rendered the
undertaking more hazardous than the risk
was worth. Yet during my residence in this
country two large vessels crossed the bar,
and recrossed it heavily laden, without the
slightest accident; one the Harmony, of London,
four hundred tons burden, the other
the Elizabeth, of Sydney, of nearly equal
tonnage; but in proof that it is not always
safe, a few months after this, two schooners
of extremely light draught were lost, though
they were both commanded by men who perfectly
well knew the channels through the
bar. It was a singular circumstance that
both vessels had been built in New Zealand;
one the Herald, a small and beautiful craft,
built by and belonging to the Church missionaries,
the crew of which escaped, but the
disastrous circumstances attending the wreck
of the other, called the Enterprize, I shall
relate in their proper place.
The morning of the 30th was foggy and unis
3