A General History & Collection of Voyages and Travels ... - Nauticus

and gentlemen, having with us the carpenter and some of his crew, to cut down such trees as were wanting.While this was doing I took the bearings of several lands round. The hill on the Isle of Pines bore S. 59 30'E; the low point of Queen Charlotte's Foreland N. 14° 30' W.; the high land over it, seen over two lowisles, N. 20° W.; and the most advanced point of land to the west, bore west, half a point south, distant sixor seven leagues. We had, from several bearings, ascertained the true direction of the coast from theforeland to this point, which I shall distinguish by the name of Prince of Wales's Foreland. It is situated inthe latitude of 22° 29' S., longitude 166° 57' E., is of considerable height, and, when it first appears abovethe horizon, looks like an island. From this cape, the coast trended nearly N.W. This was rather toonortherly a direction to join that part which we saw from the hills of Balade. But as it was very high landwhich opened off the cape in that direction, it is very probable that lower land, which we could not see,opened sooner; or else the coast more to the N.W. takes a more westerly direction, in the same manner asthe N.E. coast. Be this as it may, we pretty well know the extent of the land, by having it confined withincertain limits. However, I still entertained hopes of seeing more of it, but was disappointed.The little isle upon which we landed, is a mere sandbank, not exceeding three-fourths of a mile in circuit,and on it, besides these pines, grew the Etoa-tree of Otaheite, and a variety of other trees, shrubs, andplants. These gave sufficient employment to our botanists, all the time we stayed upon it, and occasionedmy calling it Botany Isle. On it were several water-snakes, some pigeons, and doves, seemingly differentfrom any we had seen. One of the officers shot a hawk, which proved to be of the very same sort as ourEnglish fishing-hawks. Several fire-places, branches, and leaves very little decayed, remains of turtle, &c.shewed that people had lately been on the isle. The hull of a canoe, precisely of the same shape as those wehad seen at Balade, lay wrecked in the sand. We were now no longer at a loss to know of what trees theymake their canoes, as they can be no other than these pines. On this little isle were some which measuredtwenty inches diameter, and between sixty and seventy feet in length, and would have done very well for aforemast to the Resolution, had one been wanting. Since trees of this size are to be found on so small aspot, it is reasonable to expect to find some much larger on the main, and larger isles; and, if appearancesdid not deceive us, we can assert it.If I except New Zealand, I, at this time, knew of no island in the South Pacific Ocean, where a ship couldsupply herself with a mast or yard, were she ever so much distressed for want of one. Thus far thediscovery is or may be valuable. My carpenter, who was a mast-maker as well as a ship- wright, two tradeshe learnt in Deptford-yard, was of opinion that these trees would make exceedingly good masts. The woodis white, close-grained, tough, and light. Turpentine had exuded out of most of the trees, and the sun hadinspissated it into a rosin, which was found sticking to the trunks, and lying about the roots. These treesshoot out their branches like all other pines; with this difference, that the branches of these are muchsmaller and shorter; so that the knots become nothing when the tree is wrought for use. I took notice, thatthe largest of them had the smallest and shortest branches, and were crowned, as it were, at the top, by aspreading branch like a bush. This was what led some on board into the extravagant notion of their beingbasaltes: Indeed no one could think of finding such trees here. The seeds are produced in cones; but wecould find none that had any in them, or that were in a proper state for vegetation or botanical examination.Besides these, there was another tree or shrub of the spruce-fir kind, but it was very small. We also foundon the isle a sort of scurvy-grass, and a plant, called by us Lamb's Quarters, which, when boiled, eat likespinnage.Having got ten or twelve small spars to make studding-sail booms, boat- masts, &c., and nightapproaching, we returned with them on board.The purpose for which I anchored under this isle being answered, I was now to consider what was next to