Chapter XX: Book VI (11)

In the morning of the 28th of March, being in latitude 31° 42ʹ S., and longitude 35° 26ʹ E., the trade-wind left us in a violent thunder-storm. From this time to the 3d of April, when our latitude was 35° 1ʹ S., and longitude 26° 3ʹ E. the winds were moderate, and generally from the south quarter. A fresh breeze then sprung up from the eastward, which continued till the afternoon of the 4th; after which, we had a calm that lasted the two following days.

It had hitherto been Captain Gore’s intention to proceed directly to St. Helena, without stopping at the Cape; but the rudder of the Resolution having been for some time complaining, and, on being examined, reported to be in a dangerous state, he resolved to steer immediately for the Cape, as the most eligible place, both for the recovery of his sick, and for procuring a new main-piece to the rudder.

From the 21st of March, when we were in latitude 27° 22ʹ S., longitude 52° 25ʹ E., to the 5th of April, when we had got into latitude 36° 12ʹ S., longitude 22° 7ʹ E., we were strongly affected by the currents, which set to the south south-west, and south-west by west, sometimes at the rate of eighty knots a day. On the 6th, having got under the lee of the African coast, we lost them entirely.

In the morning of the 6th, a sail was seen to the south-west standing toward us; and, as the wind soon after rose from the same quarter, we cleared our ships for action. We now discovered, from the mast-head, five sail more on our lee-bow, standing to the eastward; but the weather coming on hazy, we lost sight of them all in an hour’s time. Our latitude at noon was 35° 49ʹ S., longitude 21° 32ʹ E. At seven o’clock the next morning (the seventh), we made the land to the northward at a considerable distance.

On the 8th, the weather was squally, and blew fresh from the north-west; the following day it settled to the west, and we passed pretty close to the sail seen on the 6th, but did not hail her. She was clumsy in figure, and, to appearance, unskilfully managed; yet she out-sailed us exceedingly. The colours which she hoisted were different from any we had seen; some supposed them to be Portugueze, others Imperial.

At day-light the next morning, the land again appeared to the north north-west, and, in the forenoon, a snow was seen bearing down to us, which proved to be an English East-India packet, that had left Table Bay three days before, and was cruizing with orders for the China fleet, and other India ships. She told us, that about three weeks before, Mons. Trongoller’s squadron, consisting of six ships, had sailed from the Cape, and was gone to cruize off St. Helena, for our East-India fleet. This intelligence made us conjecture, that the five sail we had seen standing to the eastward must have been the French squadron, who, in that case, had given over their cruize, and were probably proceeding to the Mauritius. Having informed the packet of our conjectures, and also of the time we understood the China ships were to sail from Canton, we left them, and proceeded toward the Cape.

In the evening of the 10th, the Gunner’s Quoin bore north by east, and False Cape east north-east; but the wind being at south-west, and variable, prevented our getting into False Bay, till the evening of the 12th, when we dropt anchor abreast of Simon’s Bay. We found a strong current setting to the westward, round the Cape, which, for some time, we could but just stem, with a breeze that would have carried us four knots an hour. The next morning, we stood into Simon’s Bay; and at eight came to anchor, and moored a cable each way; the best bower to the east south-east, and small bower west north-west; the south-east point of the bay bearing south by east, Table Mountain north-east half north; distant from the nearest shore one-third of a mile. We found lying here, the Nassau and Southampton East-Indiamen, waiting for convoy for Europe. The Resolution saluted the fort with eleven guns, and the same number was returned.

Mr. Brandt, the governor of this place, came to visit us, as soon as we had anchored. This gentleman had conceived a great affection for Captain Cook, who had been his constant guest, the many times he had visited the Cape; and though he had received the news of his melancholy fate some time before, he was exceedingly affected at the sight of our ships returning without their old commander. He appeared much surprized to see our crew in so stout and healthy a condition, as the Dutch ship that had left Macao on our arrival there, and had touched at the Cape some time before, reported, that we were in a most wretched state, having only fourteen hands left on board the Resolution, and seven on board the Discovery. It is not easy to conceive the motive these people could have had for propagating so wanton and malicious a falsehood.

On the 15th, I accompanied Captain Gore to Cape Town; and the next morning, we waited on Baron Plettenberg, the governor, by whom we were received with every possible attention and civility. He had also conceived a great personal affection for Captain Cook, as well as the highest admiration of his character, and heard the recital of his misfortune, with many expressions of unaffected sorrow. In one of the principal apartments of the governor’s house, he shewed us two pictures, of Van Tromp and De Ruyter, with a vacant space left between them, which he said he meant to fill up with the portrait of Captain Cook; and for that purpose, he requested our assistance when we should arrive in England, in purchasing one for him, at any price.

We were afterward informed by the governor, that all the powers at this time at war with England had given orders to their cruizers to let us pass unmolested. This, as far as related to the French, we had sufficient reason to think true; as Mr. Brandt had already delivered to Captain Gore, a letter from Mr. Stephens, inclosing a copy of Mons. de Sartine’s orders, taken on board the Licorne. With respect to the Americans, the matter still rested on report; but Baron Plettenberg assured us, that he had been expressly told, by the commander of a Spanish ship, which had touched at the Cape, that he, and all the officers of his nation, had received orders to the same effect. These assurances confirmed Captain Gore in the resolution he had taken, of maintaining on his part, a neutral conduct; and accordingly, when, on the arrival of the Sybil, to convoy the India ships home, it was proposed to him to accompany them on their passage, he thought proper to decline an offer, the acceptance of which might, in case we had fallen in with any of the enemies’ ships, have brought him into a very difficult and embarrassing situation.

During our stay at the Cape, we met with every proof of the most friendly disposition toward us, both in the governor and principal persons of the place, as well Africans as Europeans. At our first arrival, Colonel Gordon, the commander of the Dutch forces, with whom, on our former visit here, I had the happiness of being on a footing of intimacy and friendship, was absent on a journey into the interior parts of Africa, but returned before our departure. He had, on this occasion, penetrated farther up the country than any other traveller had done before him, and made great additions to the valuable collection of natural curiosities with which he has enriched the Museum of the Prince of Orange. Indeed, a long residence at the Cape, and the powerful assistance he has derived from his rank and situation there, joined to an active and indefatigable spirit, and an eager thirst after knowledge, have enabled him to acquire a more intimate and perfect knowledge of this part of Africa than could have fallen to the lot of any other person; and it is with great pleasure I can congratulate the public on the information I have received of his intentions to give the world, from his own hand, a history of his travels.

False Bay, situated to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, is frequented by shipping during the prevalence of the north-west winds, which begin to blow in May, and make it dangerous to lie in Table Bay. It is terminated on the west by the Cape of Good Hope, and on the eastward by False Cape.

The entrance of the bay is six leagues wide, the two capes bearing from each other due east and west. About eleven miles from the Cape of Good Hope, on the west side, is situated Simon’s Bay, the only convenient station for ships to lie in; for although the road without it affords good anchorage, it is too open, and but ill circumstanced for procuring necessaries, the town being small, and supplied with provisions from Cape Town, which is about twenty-four miles distant. To the north north-east of Simon’s Bay there are several others, from which it may be easily distinguished, by a remarkable sandy way to the northward of the town, which makes a striking object. In steering for the harbour, along the west shore, there is a small flat rock, called Noah’s Ark; and, about a mile to the north-east of it, several others, called the Roman Rocks. These lie one mile and a half from the anchoring place; and either between them, or to the northward of the Roman Rocks, there is a safe passage into the bay. When the north-west gales are set in, the following bearings will direct the mariner to a safe and commodious birth; Noah’s Ark, S. 51° E., and the centre of the hospital S. 53° W. in seven fathoms. But if the south-east winds have not done blowing, it is better to stay further out in eight or nine fathoms. The bottom is sandy, and the anchors settle considerably before they get hold. All the north part of the bay is low sandy land, but the east side is very high. About six miles east of Noah’s Ark lies Seal Island, the south part of which is said to be dangerous, and not to be approached, with safety, nearer than in twenty-two fathoms. Off the Cape of Good Hope, are many sunk rocks, some of which appear at low water; and others have breakers constantly on them.

The latitude of the anchoring-place in Simon’s
Bay, by observation, 34° 20ʹ S.

The longitude, 18 29 E.

Dip of the south end of the magnetic needle, 46 47

Variation of the compass, 22 16 W.

On the full and change days, it was high-water at 5^h 55^m apparent time; the tide rose and fell five feet five inches; at the neap tides, it rose four feet one inch.

From the observations taken by Mr. Bayly and myself, on the 11th of this month, when the Cape of Good Hope bore due west, we found its latitude to be 34° 23ʹ S., which is 4ʹ to the northward of its position, as determined by the Abbé de la Caille.

Having completed our victualling, and furnished ourselves with the necessary supply of naval stores, we sailed out of the bay on the 9th of May, and on the 14th we got into the south-east trade-wind, and steered to the westward of the islands of St. Helena and Ascension. On the 31st, being in latitude 12° 48ʹ S., longitude 15° 40ʹ W., the magnetic needle was found to have no dip.

On the 12th of June, we passed the equator for the fourth time during this voyage, in longitude 26° 16ʹ W. We now began to perceive the effects of a current setting north by east, half a knot an hour. It continued in this direction till the middle of July, when it began to set a little to the southward of the west.

On the 12th of August, we made the western coast of Ireland, and, after a fruitless attempt to get into Port Galway, from whence it was Captain Gore’s intention to have sent the journals and maps of our voyage to London, we were obliged, by strong southerly winds, to steer to the northward. Our next object was to put into Lough Swilly; but the wind continuing in the same quarter, we stood on to the northward of Lewis Island; and on the 22d of August, at eleven in the morning, both ships came to an anchor at Stromness. From hence, I was dispatched by Captain Gore, to acquaint the Board of Admiralty with our arrival; and on the 4th day of October the ships arrived safe at the Nore, after an absence of four years, two months, and twenty-two days.

On quitting the Discovery at Stromness, I had the satisfaction of leaving the whole crew in perfect health; and at the same time, the number of convalescents on board the Resolution, did not exceed two or three, of whom only one was incapable of service. In the course of our voyage, the Resolution lost but five men by sickness, three of whom were in a precarious state of health at our departure from England; the Discovery did not lose a man. An unremitting attention to the regulations established by Captain Cook, with which the world is already acquainted, may be justly considered as the principal cause, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of this singular success. But the baneful effects of salt provisions might perhaps, in the end, have been felt, notwithstanding these salutary precautions, if we had not assisted them, by availing ourselves of every substitute, our situation at various times afforded. These frequently consisting of articles which our people had not been used to consider as food for men, and being sometimes exceedingly nauseous, it required the joint aid of persuasion, authority, and example to conquer their prejudices and disgusts.

The preventives we principally relied on were sour krout and portable soup. As to the anti-scorbutic remedies, with which we were amply supplied, we had no opportunity of trying their effects, as there did not appear the slightest symptoms of the scurvy, in either ship, during the whole voyage. Our malt and hops had also been kept as a resource, in case of actual sickness, and on examination at the Cape of Good Hope, were found entirely spoiled. About the same time, were opened some casks of biscuit, flour, malt, peas, oatmeal, and grots, which, by way of experiment, had been put up in small casks, lined with tinfrail, and found all, except the peas, in a much better state than could have been expected, in the usual manner of package.

I cannot neglect this opportunity of recommending to the consideration of government, the necessity of allowing a sufficient quantity of Peruvian bark, to such of his majesty’s ships as may be exposed to the influence of unwholesome climates. It happened very fortunately in the Discovery, that only one of the men that had fevers in the Straits of Sunda, stood in need of this medicine, as he alone consumed the whole quantity usually carried out by surgeons, in such vessels as ours. Had more been affected in the same manner, they would probably all have perished, from the want of the only remedy capable of affording them effectual relief.

Another circumstance attending this voyage, which, if we consider its duration, and the nature of the service in which we were engaged, will appear scarcely less singular than the extraordinary healthiness of the crews, was, that the two ships never lost sight of each other for a day together, except twice; which was owing, the first time, to an accident that happened to the Discovery off the coast of Owhyhee; and the second, to the fogs we met with at the entrance of Awatska Bay. A stronger proof cannot be given of the skill and vigilance of our subaltern officers, to whom this share of merit almost entirely belongs.