Volume II Part 18 (1/2)
ENDEAVOUR REEF is nine miles long; it lies in a North-West direction; the north end, in 15 degrees 39 minutes South, bears due from the North-east Hope.
c is covered, and not quite half a mile in length; its lat.i.tude is 15 degrees 32 minutes: it lies four miles from the sh.o.r.e.
d is rather larger, and has some dry rocks on its north end, in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 29 minutes 30 seconds. Between c and d and the sh.o.r.e the pa.s.sage is from three to four miles wide, and in mid-channel the depth is seven and eight fathoms.
On the south side of Point Monkhouse there is a bay having a small opening at the bottom, but not deep enough for s.h.i.+ps: it was this bay that Captain Cook first examined in search of a place to repair his s.h.i.+p.
On steering along the sh.o.r.e between Point Monkhouse and the entrance of Endeavour River, the bottom is of sand and of irregular depth. A spit of sand was pa.s.sed over with only two and a half fathoms on it when the summit of Mount Cook bore South 66 degrees West (magnetic) and the outer extreme of Point Monkhouse South 18 degrees West (magnetic). One mile off sh.o.r.e the shoal soundings continued with two and a half fathoms until it bore South 59 degrees West (magnetic) when the depth was three, and three and a half fathoms.
ENDEAVOUR RIVER. The entrance of this river, in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 27 minutes 4 seconds, and longitude 145 degrees 10 minutes 49 seconds,*
forms a very good port for small vessels; and, in a case of distress, might be useful for large s.h.i.+ps, as it proved to our celebrated navigator Captain Cook, who, it is well known, repaired his s.h.i.+p there after having laid twenty-three hours upon a coral reef.
(*Footnote. The situation of the observatory at Endeavour River was found by lunar distances, taken during my visits to that place in 1819 and 1820, as follows:
Lat.i.tude by meridional alt.i.tudes of the sun, taken in the artificial horizon, being the mean of twenty-seven observations: 15 degrees 27 minutes 4 seconds.
Longitude by twenty-five set of distances (sun West of first quarter of the moon) containing one hundred and seventeen sights, with the s.e.xtant: 144 degrees 52 minutes 16 seconds.
Longitude by thirty set of distances (sun East of first quarter of the moon) containing one hundred and fifty sights, with the s.e.xtant: 145 degrees 29 minutes 23 seconds.
Mean, of fifty-five sets: 145 degrees 10 minutes 49 seconds.)
The entrance is formed on the south side by a steep hill, covered with trees growing to the edge of its rocky sh.o.r.e. The north side of the entrance is a low sandy beach of two miles and a quarter in length: at its north end a range of hills rises abruptly, and extends for six or seven miles, when it again suddenly terminates, and is separated from the rocky projection of Cape Bedford by a low plain of sand.
The entrance of Endeavour River is defended by a bar, on which, at high water, there is about fourteen feet; but, at low water, not more than ten feet: the channel over the bar is close to the south side, for the sandbank extends from the low sandy north sh.o.r.e to within one hundred and forty yards of the south sh.o.r.e, and at three quarters ebb (spring tides) is dry.
In steering in for the mouth, upon bringing Point Monkhouse in a line with Point a (the north point of the bay under Mount Cook) you will be in three fathoms; steer in until the south extremity of the low north sandy point is opened of the trend round Point c, when you may haul a little more in, and when point d (which is a point where the mangroves commence) bears South 33 degrees West (magnetic) steer directly for it; this will carry you over the deepest part or the bar, which stretches off from point c in a North 75 degrees West (magnetic) direction; another mark is to keep the trend beyond d just in sight, but not open, or you will be too near the spit: the best way is, having opened it, haul in a little to the southward, and shut it in again: you may pa.s.s within ten yards of point d; and the best anchorage is just within it; the vessel may be secured head and stern to trees on the beach, with bow and stern anchors to steady her. No vessel of a greater draught than twelve feet should enter the harbour; and this vessel may even moor in four fathoms within her own length of the sh.o.r.e, with the outer trend just shut in by the mangrove point a. The watering-place is a stream that empties itself into the port through the mangroves, about two hundred yards to the south: and if this should fail, there is a good stream at the north end of the long north sandy beach. The latter, although very high coloured, is of wholesome quality; but in bad weather is inconvenient to be procured on account of the surf. Water for common purposes of cooking may be had on a sandy beach a little without the entrance, but it is of a mineral quality, and of brackish taste. It is high water at full and change at eight o'clock, and the tide rises from five to ten feet. The variation of the observatory was 5 degrees 14 minutes East.
CAPE BEDFORD (lat.i.tude 15 degrees 16 minutes 19 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 17 minutes 19 seconds) is high, and forms a steep slope to the sea: it appeared to be bold to.* Between it and Cape Flattery is a bay backed by low land, about five miles deep; but it is exposed to the wind, unless there is anchorage under the north-west end of Cape Bedford.
(*Footnote. Shoal water extends for nearly a mile round Cape Bedford. Roe ma.n.u.script.)
CAPE FLATTERY is eighteen miles north of Cape Bedford: its extremity is high and rocky, and forms two distinct hills. The summit of the cape is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 52 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 145 degrees 16 minutes 10 seconds.*
(*Footnote. There are some dangerous shoals to the eastward of Point Lookout, and to the northward of Cape Flattery, about two miles apart from each other, situated in what was considered to be the fair channel.
Roe ma.n.u.script.)
Eleven miles beyond the cape, in a North 45 degrees West direction, is POINT LOOKOUT, forming a peaked hill at the extremity of a low sandy projection, whence the land trends West by North 1/2 North for twelve leagues to Cape Bowen.
e, a reef nearly three miles long and one broad: its north end is twelve miles nearly due East from the entrance of Endeavour River, in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 26 minutes 50 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 23 minutes 30 seconds.
TURTLE REEF was visited by Mr. Bedwell, it is covered at high water, excepting a small spot of sand, about the size of the boat, at its north end in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 23 minutes, longitude 145 degrees 22 minutes 50 seconds: its interior is occupied, like most others, by a shoal lagoon; it is entirely of coral, and has abundance of sh.e.l.lfish; it was here that Captain Cook procured turtle during his stay at Endeavour River, from the entrance of which it bears North 75 degrees East, and is distant eleven miles; its south end is separated from e by a channel of a mile wide.
THREE ISLES, in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 7 minutes 30 seconds, is a group of low coral islets covered with shrubs, and encircled by a reef, that is not quite two miles in diameter.
Two miles and three quarters to the North-West is a low wooded island, about a mile long, also surrounded by a reef; and four miles to the southward of it is a rocky islet.
REEF f is about four or five miles East-South-East from Three Isles; it appeared to be about three miles long: its western extreme is in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 10 minutes, and in longitude 145 degrees 26 minutes.