SECOND VOYAGE 129 



giving over all hopes of joining company again, they bore 

 away for winter quarters, distant fourteen hundred leagues, 

 through a sea entirely unknown ; and reduced the allowance 

 of water to one quart per day. They were daily attended 

 by great numbers of sea birds, and frequently saw porpoises. 



"On the 1st of March, they directed their course for 

 the land laid down in their charts by the name of Van 

 Diemen's Land, supposed at the time to be joined to New 

 Holland. 



" On the 9th of March, they saw the land bearing N.N.E* 

 about eight or nine leagues distant. It appeared moderately 

 high, and uneven near the sea. Here the country was hilly 

 and well clothed with trees ; they saw no inhabitants. 



" The morning on the 10th of March being calm, the 

 ship then about four miles from the land, they sent the 

 great cutter on shore, with the second lieutenant, to find 

 if there was any harbour or good bay. Soon after, it be- 

 ginning to blow very hard, they made the signal for the 

 boat to return several times, but they did not see or hear 

 anything of it, which gave them much uneasiness, as there 

 was a very great sea. To their great satisfaction, in the 

 afternoon, the boat returned safe. They landed, but with 

 much difficulty ; and saw several places where the Indians 

 had been, and one they lately had left, where they had 

 made a fire. The weather obliged them to return without 

 investigating the place properly, or finding any anchorage. 



" On the 16th they passed Maria's Islands, so named by 

 Tasman ; they appeared to be the same as the mainland. 

 The land hereabouts was much pleasanter, low, and even ; 

 but no signs of a harbour or bay, where a ship might anchor 

 with safety. 



" They stood to the eastward for Charlotte's Sound, with 

 a light breeze at N.W. in the morning of the 5th of April, 

 and on the 6th they had the sound open. As they sailed 

 up it they saw the tops of high mountains covered with 

 snow, which remains all the year. On the 7th they 

 anchored in Ship Cove, in ten fathoms water. 



' The two following days were employed in clearing a 

 place on Motuara Island, for erecting tents for the sick, 

 the sail-makers, and coopers. 



" On the 9th, they were visited by three canoes with about 

 sixteen of the natives ; and to induce them to bring fish 

 and other provisions, they gave them several things, with 

 which they seemed highly pleased. One of the crew seeing 

 something carefully wrapt up, had the curiosity to examine 

 what it was ; and, to his great surprise, found it to be the 

 head of a man lately killed. The natives were very appre- 

 hensive of its being forced from them ; and, as if sensible of 

 681 



