avenue along the item, leading tó a retreat formed at thè root
o f fome tree, but not the fame with that which holds their
pendulous nefts. This is made o f earth, and is about fix'feet
high.
C a p e B e d f o r d A l i t t l e to the north o f Endeavour river are cape Bedford
F l a t t e r y . and cape Flattery', oif them is a clufterof fmall ifles, and moil
numerous reefs; Let me here acquaint the reader of the very-
perilous lituation o f our illuftrious feaman, during his three
months navigation. He failed all that time in à channel bounded
by the land on one fide, and to the feaward by a reef of rocks,
or coral banks, not lefs tremendous, extending the length o f
three hundred and fixty leagues. Within this reef he was
obliged to anchor at night, with the thunder o f the furge foaming
over it ; expefting inevitable deftrudtion from the breaking
of the cables, or from the driving o f the ihip, which ihe often
did to a certain degree. The man at the chains was perpetually
heaving out the lead, without omitting it a moment ; and
under fucb circumfiances did our navigator efcape. It was natural
for him to wiih to enjoy the open fea; foon after he -left
Endeavour river, by afcending a lofty iile, he faw the opening
in the reef in Lat. 14“ S', which with confummate abilities and
courage he attempted, and with fuccefs. The infiant he got
beyond the breakers, he met with a rolling fea, and no ground
with a hundred and fifty fathoms o f line; a certainty he had
obtained his wilh. The ifland from which he had made his
obfervation, was one o f the three called the iflands o f Direction,
that ftrangers in future might find the paffage.
# N ew
N ew dangers now awaited him ; a vaft fea came rolling from
the eaft, and brought him nearer and nearer the perils he fought
to ihun. The fame billow which had walhed the fide o f the
ihip, broke to a tremendous heightupon the adjacent rocks,
leaving beneath an unfathomable watery valley, no broadef
than the bafe o f that fingle wave. Two light breezes faved
them from the jaws o f death. After the moft arduous efforts,
they got through another favorable opening in the reef,
through which the ihip was carried by a current o f amazing
rapidity. They now exulted in recovering that very fituation
they had fo long labored to extricate themfelves from. The
opening was not more than a quarter o f a mile wide* yet the
force o f the torrent carried the’ ihip exaitly in the mid-way.
Here it was impoifible not to be grateful to Heaven. Captain
Cook called this falutary gap Providential Inlet, and this proof o f p r o v i d e n t i a l
piety remains both in the book, and in the chart. The impiety lNLET’
o f expunging it would have been too glaring.
T h e s e coral reefs are moft furprifing operations of nature; C o r a l R e e f s .
they rife like a wall almoft perpendicularly out o f the unfathomable
deep, and at low water are dry in many places; here the
enormous waves of the vaft fouthern ocean, meeting with fo
abrupt a refiftance, break with inconceivable violence, in a furf
which no rocks or ftorms in the northern hemifphere can produce.
•
To form thefe ftupehdous works, nature makes ufe of no
other inftruments than a little worm, contemptible to vulgar
eyes. Well may we join in the fine apoftrophe o f Pliny, in his
V o l . IV. U tam
Mil