240 



COOK S FIRST VOYAGE 



SEPT. 



CHAP. VIII. 



THE PASSAGE FROM NEW GUINEA TO THE ISLAND OF SAVU, 

 AND THE TRANSACTIONS THERE. 



We made sail, from noon on Monday the 3d to 

 noon on Tuesday the 4th, standing to the westward, 

 and all the time kept in soundings, having from four- 

 teen to thirty fathom ; not regular, but sometimes 

 more, sometimes less. At noon on the 4th, we were 

 in fourteen fathom, and latitude 6 44" S., longitude 

 223 51' W. ; our course and distance since the 3d 

 at noon, were S. 76 W. one hundred and twenty 

 miles to the westward. At noon on the 5th of 

 September, we were in latitude 7 25" S., longitude 

 225 41/ W. ; having been in soundings the whole 

 time from ten to twenty fathom. 



At half an hour after one in the morning of the 

 next day, we passed a small island which bore from 

 us N. N. W., distant between three and four miles ; 

 and at day-light we discovered another low island, 

 extending from N. N. W. to N. N. E., distant about 

 two or three leagues. Upon this island, which did 

 not appear to be very small, I believe I should have 

 landed to examine its produce, if the wind had not 

 blown too fresh to admit of it. When we passed 

 this island we had onlv ten fathom water, with a 

 rocky bottom ; and therefore I was afraid of run- 

 ning down to leeward, lest I should meet with shoal 

 water and foul ground. These islands have no place 

 in the charts except they are the Arrou islands \ and 

 if these, they are laid down much too far from New 

 Guinea. I found the south part of them to lie in la- 

 titude 7 6' S., longitude 225 W. 



We continued to steer W. S. W. at the rate of four 

 miles and a half an hour, till ten o'clock at night, 



