A Sight Of It Would, However, Have Been Of Use In
Verifying, Or Correcting, Not Only The Longitude Of This
Isle, but of the
others that Captain Carteret discovered in this neighbourhood; his
longitude not being confirmed, I think, by
Astronomical observations, and
therefore liable to errors, which he could have no method to correct.
As we had now got to the northward of Captain Carteret's tracks, all hopes
of discovering a continent vanished. Islands were all we were to expect to
find, until we returned again to the south. I had now, that is on this and
my former voyage, crossed this ocean in the latitude of 40 deg. and upwards,
without meeting any thing that in the least induced me to think I should
find what I was in search after. On the contrary, every thing conspired to
make me believe there is no southern continent, between the meridian of
America and New Zealand; at least, this passage did not produce any
indubitable signs of any, as will appear by the following remarks. After
leaving the coasts of New Zealand, we daily saw floating on the sea rock-
weed, for the space of 18 deg. of longitude. In my passage to New Zealand in
1769, we also saw this weed, for the space of 12 or 14 deg. of longitude before
we made the land. The weed is undoubtedly the produce of New Zealand;
because the nearer the coast, the greater quantity you see. At the greatest
distance from the coast, we saw it only in small pieces, generally more
rotten, and covered with barnacles, an indubitable sign that it had been
long at sea. Were it not for this, one might be led to conjecture that some
other large land lay in the neighbourhood; for it cannot be a small extent
of coast to produce such a quantity of weed, as to cover so large a space
of sea. It hath been already mentioned, that we were no sooner clear of the
straits, than we met with a large hollow swell from the S.E., which
continued till we arrived in the longitude of 177 deg. W., and latitude 46 deg..
There we had large billows from the N. and N.E., for five days
successively, and until we got 5 deg. of longitude more to the east, although
the wind, great part of the time, blew from different directions. This was
a strong indication that there was no land between us and my track to the
west in 1769. After this, we had, as is usual in all great oceans, large
billows from every direction in which the wind blew a fresh gale, but more
especially from the S.W. These billows never ceased with the cause that
first put them in motion; a sure indication that we were not near any large
land, and that there is no continent to the south, unless in a very high
latitude. But this was too important a point to be left to opinions and
conjectures.
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