CHAP. VI.

PASSAGE FROM DUSKY BAY TO QUEEN CHARLOTTE’S SOUND, WITH AN ACCOUNT OF SOME WATER-SPOUTS, AND OF OUR JOINING THE ADVENTURE.

After leaving Dusky Bay, as hath been already mentioned, I directed my course along shore for Queen Charlotte’s Sound, where I expected to find the Adventure. In this passage we met with nothing remarkable or worthy of notice till the 17th, at four o’clock in the afternoon. Being then about three leagues to the westward of Cape Stephens, having a gentle gale at west by south, and clear weather, the wind at once flattened to a calm, the sky became suddenly obscured by dark, dense clouds, and seemed to forebode much wind. This occasioned us to clew up all our sails, and presently after six water-spouts were seen. Four rose and spent themselves between us and the land; that is to the S. W. of us; the fifth was without us; the sixth first appeared in the S. W. at the distance of two or three miles at least from us. Its progressive motion was to the N. E. not in a strait, but in a crooked line, and passed within fifty yards of our stern, without our feeling any of its effects. The diameter of the base of this spout I judged to be about fifty or sixty feet; that is, the sea within this space was much agitated, and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube or round body was formed, by which the water or air, or both, was carried in a spiral stream up to the clouds. Some of our people said they saw a bird in the one near us; which was whirled round like the fly of a jack as it was carried upwards. During the time these spouts lasted, we had, now and then, light puffs of wind from all points of the compass; with some few slight showers of rain, which generally fell in large drops; and the weather continued thick and hazy, for some hours after, with variable light breezes of wind. At length the wind fixed in its old point, and the sky resumed its former serenity. Some of these spouts appeared, at times, to be stationary; and, at other times, to have a quick, but very unequal, progressive motion, and always in a crooked line, sometimes one way, and sometimes another; so that, once or twice, we observed them to cross one another. From the ascending motion of the bird, and several other circumstances, it was very plain to us that these spouts were caused by whirlwinds, and that the water in them was violently hurried upwards, and did not descend from the clouds, as I have heard some assert. The first appearance of them is by the violent agitation and rising up of the water; and, presently after, you see a round column or tube forming from the clouds above, which apparently descends till it joins the agitated water below. I say apparently, because I believe it not to be so in reality, but that the tube is already formed from the agitated water below, and ascends, though at first it is either too small or too thin to be seen. When the tube is formed, or becomes visible, its apparent diameter increaseth, until it is pretty large; after that, it decreaseth, and, at last, it breaks or becomes invisible towards the lower part. Soon after the sea below resumes its natural state, and the tube is drawn, by little and little, up to the clouds, where it is dissipated. The same tube would sometimes have a vertical, and sometimes a crooked or inclined direction. The most rational account I have read of water-spouts is in Mr. Falconer’s Marine Dictionary, which is chiefly collected from the philosophical writings of the ingenious Dr. Franklin. I have been told that the firing of a gun will dissipate them, and I am very sorry I did not try the experiment, as we were near enough, and had a gun ready for the purpose; but, as soon as the danger was past, I thought no more about it, being too attentive in viewing these extraordinary meteors. At the time this happened the barometer stood at 29, 75, and the thermometer at 56.

In coming from Cape Farewell to Cape Stephens, I had a better view of the coast than I had when I passed in my former voyage, and observed that, about six leagues to the east of the first-mentioned cape, is a spacious bay, which is covered from the sea by a low point of land. This is, I believe, the same that Captain Tasman anchored in on the 18th of December 1642, and by him called Murderer’s Bay, by reason of some of his men being killed by the natives. Blind Bay, so named by me in my former voyage, lies to the S. E. of this, and seems to run a long way in-land to the south; the sight in this direction, not being bounded by any land. The wind having returned to the west, as already mentioned, we resumed our course to the east; and at day-light the next morning, (being the 18th) we appeared off Queen Charlotte’s Sound, where we discovered our consort the Adventure, by the signals which she made to us; an event which every one felt with an agreeable satisfaction. The fresh westerly wind now died away, and was succeeded by light airs from the south and S. W. so that we had to work in, with our boats a-head towing. In the doing of this, we discovered a rock, which we did not see in my former voyage. It lies in the direction of S. by E. 1⁄2 E. distant four miles from the outermost of the Two Brothers, and in a line with the White Rocks, on with the middle of Long Island. It is just even with the surface of the sea, and hath deep water all round it. At noon, Lieutenant Kempe of the Adventure came on board; from whom I learnt that their ship had been here about six weeks. With the assistance of a light breeze, our boats, and the tides, we, at six o’clock in the evening, got to an anchor in Ship Cove near the Adventure; when Captain Furneaux came on board, and gave me the following account of his proceedings, from the time we parted, to my arrival here.