C H A P . V i l .
The Paffagefrom F a n Diemen s L a n d to New Zealand.—
Employments in ^ueen Charlotte s Sound.— Tranfa&ions
with the N atives there.— Intelligence about the Maffacre
o f the Adventure s Boat’s Crew.— Account o f the C h ie f
who headed the Party on that Occafion.— O f the two'
young Men who embark to attend Omai.— Farious Remarks
on the Inhabitants.— Agronomical and N au tica l
Obfervations.
wind veered to the Southward, and increafed to a perfect
ftorm. Its fury abated in the evening, when it veered to
the Eaft and North Eaft.
This gale was indicated by the barometer, for the wind
no fooner began to blow, than the mercury in the tube began
to fall. Another remarkable thing attended the coming,
on of this wind, which was very faint at firft. It brought
with it a degree of heat that was almoft intolerable. The
mercury in the thermometer rofe, as it were inftantane-
oufly, from about 70° to near 90°. This heat was of fo
fhort a continuance, that it feemed to be wafted away before
the breeze that brought it; fo that fome on board did
not perceive it.
We
We purfued our courfe to the Eaftwafd, without meeting '777-
• 1 i • r - »i i v . 1 February. with any thing worthy or note, till the night between the c— v——*
6th and 7th of February, when a marine belonging to the Friday/.
Difcovery fell over-board, and was never feen afterward.
This was the fecond misfortune of the kind that had happened
to Captain Clerke iince he left England.
On the 10th, at four in the afternoon, we difcovered the Monday 10,
land of New Zealand. The part we faw proved to be Rock’s
Point, and bore South Eaft by South, about eight or nine
leagues diftant. During this run from Van Diemen’s Land,
the wind, for the firft four or five days, was at North Eaft,
North, and North North Weft, and blew, for the moft part,
a gentle breeze. It afterward veered to South Eaft, where
it remained twenty-four hours. It then came to Weft and
South Weft!; in which points it continued, with very little
deviation, till we reached New Zealand.
After making the land, I fleered for Cape Farewell, which
at day-break, the next morning, bore South by Weft, diftant Tqefday n .
about four leagues. At eight o’clock, it bore South Weft by
South, about five leagues diftant; and, in this fituation, we
had forty-five fathoms water over a fandy bottom. In
rounding the Cape we had fifty fathoms, and the fame fore
of bottom.
I now fleered for Stephens’s Ifland, which, we came up
with at nine o’clock at night; and at ten, next morning, an- WejneC rr
ehored in our old ftation, in Queen Charlotte’s Sound *.
Unwilling to lofe any time, our operations commenced that
very afternoon, when we landed a number of empty water-
cafks, and began to clear a place where we might fet up
* See the Chart of Queen Charlotte’s Sound, irt Hawkefworth’s Golle&ion*, Vol. ii-
P- 3?S- S
the