The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 213 pages of information about The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765.

The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 213 pages of information about The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765.

In the morning of the 7th we set sail again, the wind being N.E., course held W., in order to get a little farther off the land; when we had run a mile, we dropped anchor in 51/2 fathom, and I went ashore myself with two well-manned and armed pinnaces, because on the 6th aforesaid we had seen 4 or 5 canoes making from the land for the yachts; when we got near the land we saw a small canoe with three blacks; when we rowed towards them, they went back to the land and put one of the three ashore, as we supposed, in order to give warning for the natives there to come in great numbers and seize and capture our pinnaces; for as soon as we made towards them, they tried to draw us on, slowly paddling on towards the land; at last the “jurebass"(?) swam to them, with some strings of beads, but they refused to admit him; so we made signs and called out to them, but they paid little or no attention, upon which we began to pull back to the yacht without having effected anything; the blacks or savages seeing this, slowly followed us, and when we showed them beads and iron objects, they cautiously came near one of our pinnaces; one of the sailors in the pinnace inadvertently touching the canoe with one of his oars, the blacks forthwith began to attack our men, and threw several callaways into the pinnace, without, however, doing any damage owing to the caution used by the men in her; in order to frighten them the corporal fired a musket, which hit them both, so that they died on the spot; we then rowed back to the yachts.  To the place on the coast where the aforesaid incident took place, we have given the name of Keerweer (= Turn again) in the new chart, seeing that the land here trends to S.W. and West; its latitude being 7 deg..

On the 8th we had a strong gale from the S.S.W. the whole day, with rain and unsteady weather, so that we thought it best to remain at anchor.

In the morning of the 9th the weather was fair, and the wind west, so that we set sail on a N.N.W. course; when we had run one mile we saw two groups of canoes putting off from shore and making for us, one consisting of 7, and the other of 8 small canoes; as we were lying close to the wind and could not weather the land with it, we came to anchor in 3 fathom; one of the canoes aforesaid came so near us, that we could call out to her, but the second group aforesaid kept quiet, upon which the canoe which had been near us, paddled towards this second group; from their various gestures we saw and understood sufficiently that their intentions had from the first been anything but peaceable, but God’s Providence prevented them from carrying their wicked plans into effect; in the evening we set sail again with the current, the wind being west and our course held N.N.W. in the first watch we turned our course S.W. and S.W. by W., on which we sailed the whole night, until about daybreak we found the water shallowing and dropped anchor in 21/2 fathom, having sailed 5 miles.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.