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Exerpt from: The Project Gutenberg EBook of A General History and Collection of Voyages
and Travels, Vol. 12, by Robert Kerr
An Account of Captain Wallis's Voyage in 1766, 7, and 8, in his Majesty's ship the Dolphin.
Some Account of the present State of the Island of Tinian, and
our Employment there; with what happened in the Run from thence to
Batavia.
As soon as the ship was secured, I sent the boats on
shore to erect tents, and bring off some refreshments; and about noon
they returned, with some cocoa-nuts, limes, and oranges.
In the evening, the tents being erected, I sent the surgeon and
all the invalids on shore, with two months provisions, of every kind,
for forty men, the smith's forge, and a chest of carpenter's tools. I
then landed myself, with the first lieutenant, both of us being in a
very sickly condition, taking with us also a mate, and twelve men, to
go up the country and hunt for cattle.
When we first came to an anchor, the north part of the bay bore N.
39° W. Cocoa point N. 7° W. the landing-place N.E. by N. and
the south end of the island S. 28° E.; but next morning, the
master having sounded all the bay, and being of opinion that there
was a better situation to the southward, we warped the ship a little
way up, and moored with a cable each way.
At six in the evening, the hunters brought in a fine young bull,
of near four hundred weight: Part of it we kept on shore, and sent
the rest on board with bread-fruit, limes, and oranges.
Early the next morning, the carpenters were set at work to caulk
the ship all over, and put every thing in repair as far as possible.
All the sails were also got on shore, and the sail-makers employed to
mend them: The armourers at the same time were busy in repairing the
iron-work, and making new chains for the rudder. The number of the
people now on shore, sick and well, was fifty-three.
In this place we got beef, pork, poultry, papaw apples,
bread-fruit, limes, oranges, and every refreshment that is mentioned
in the account of Lord Anson's voyage. The sick began to recover from
the day they first went on shore: The air, however, was so different
here from what we found it in King George's Island, that flesh meat,
which there kept sweet two days, could here be scarcely kept sweet
one. There had been many cocoa-nut trees near the landing-place, but
they had been all wastefully cut down for the fruit, and none being
grown up in their stead, we were forced to go three miles into the
country before a single nut could be procured. The hunters also
suffered incredible fatigue, for they were frequently obliged to go
ten or twelve miles through one continued thicket, and the cattle
were so wild that it was very difficult to come near them, so that I
was obliged to relieve one party by another; and it being reported
that cattle were more plenty at the north end of the island, but that
the hunters being quite exhausted with fatigue when they got thither,
were not able to kill them, much less to bring them down, I sent Mr
Gore, with fourteen men, to establish themselves in that part of the
island, and ordered that a boat should go every morning, at
day-break, to bring in what they should kill. In the mean time the
ship was laid by the stern to get at some of the copper sheathing
which had been much torn; and in repairing the copper, the carpenter
discovered and stopped a large leak under the lining of the knee of
the head, by which we had reason to hope most of the water that the
vessel had lately admitted in bad weather, came in. During our stay
here, I ordered all the people on shore by turns, and by the 15th of
October, all the sick being recovered, our wood and water completed,
and the ship made fit for the sea, we got every thing off the shore,
and embarked all our men from the watering-place, each having, at
least, five hundred limes, and there being several tubs full on the
quarter-deck, for every one to squeeze into his water as he should
think fit.
At break of day, on Friday the 16th, we weighed, and, sailed out
of the bay, sending the boats at the same time to the north end of
the island, to bring off Mr Gore and his hunters. At noon, we
received them and their tents on board, with a fine large bull, which
they had just killed.
While we lay at anchor in this place, we had many observations for
the latitude and longitude, from which we drew up the following
table:
Latitude of the ship, as she lay at anchor 14° 55'N. long.
214°15'W. Latitude of the watering-place 14 59 N. Longitude of
the body of Tinian 24 W. Longitude of the Tinian Road 214 8 W. Medium
of Longitude, observed at Tinian 214 7
We continued a westerly course, inclining somewhat to the north,
till the 21st, when Tinian bearing S.71°40'E. distant 277
leagues, we saw many birds; and the next day, saw three, resembling
gannets, of the same kind that we had seen when we were within about
thirty leagues of Tinian.
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