At half-past one p.m. hauled round the Island above
mentioned, which lies East 1 Mile from the North-East point of the land.
The lands from hence Trends North-West by West, and West-North-West, as
far as we could see. This point of Land I have called East Cape, because
I have great reason to think that it is the Eastermost land on this whole
Coast; and for the same reason I have called the Island which lays off
it, East Island. It is but of a small circuit, high and round, and
appears white and barren. The Cape is of a moderate height with white
cliffs, and lies in the Latitude of 37 degrees 42 minutes 30 seconds
South, and Longitude 181 degrees 00 minutes West from the Meridian of
Greenwich. After we had rounded the East Cape we saw, as we run along
shore, a great number of Villages and a great deal of Cultivated land;
and in general the country appear'd with more fertility than what we had
seen before; it was low near the Sea, but hilly inland.
At 8, being 8
leagues to the Westward of Cape East, and 3 or 4 miles from the shore,
shortned sail and brought too for the night, having at this Time a fresh
Gale at South-South-East and squally weather; but it soon fell moderate,
and at 2 a.m. made Sail again to the South-West as the land now Trended.
At 8 saw land which made like an Island bearing West. At the same time
the South-Westermost part of the Main bore South-West.
At 9, five Canoes
came off to us, in one of which were upwards of 40 Men all Arm'd with
Pikes, etc.; from this and other Circumstances it fully appear'd that
they came with no friendly intentions; and I at this Time being very
buisey, and had no inclination to stay upon deck to watch their Motions,
I order'd a Grape shot to be fir'd a little wide of them. This made them
pull off a little, and then they got together either to consult what to
do or to look about them. Upon this I order'd a round shott to be fir'd
over their heads, which frightend them to that degree that I believe they
did not think themselves safe until they got ashore. This occasion'd our
calling the Point of land off which this hapned, Cape Runaway. Latitude
37 degrees 32 minutes South, longitude 181 degrees 50 minutes West, and
17 or 18 Leagues to the Westward of East Cape. 4 Leagues to the Westward
of East Cape is a bay which I have named Hicks's bay, because Lieutenant
Hicks was the first who discover'd it.
Joseph Banks Journal
Breeze continued fair: Countrey very pleasant to appearance. Several canoes came off and threatned us at a distance which gave us much uneasiness, as we hop'd that an account of us and what we could and had done had spread farther than this; we had now our work to begin over again and heartily joind in wishing that it might be attended with less bloodshed than our late unfortunate encounters. After a little time one of the canoes came almost close to the ship and soon after we saw an immense large canoe coming from the shore crowded full of People, all armd with long lances. They came near and receivd signals from the boat that was near us: we Judgd there could not be less than 60 people in her, 16 padlers of a side, besides some who did not paddle and a long row of people in the middle from stem to stern crowded as close as possible. On a signal from the small canoe the[y] pulld briskily up towards the ship as if to attack. It was judgd right to let them see what we could do, least should they come to extremities we might be obligd to fire at them in which case numbers must be killd out of such a croud: a gun loaded with grape was therefore fird ahead of them: they stop'd padling but did not retreat: a round shot was then fird over them: they saw it fall and immediately took to their paddles rowing ashore with more haste than I ever saw men, without so much as stopping to breathe till they got out of sight. The countrey from whence they came and indeed all round about appeard to be well wooded and pleasant; several small clusters of houses were seen interspersd with trees appearing very pleasant, some had a fence of pails round them others were to appearance quite open. Towards evening 3 or 4 Canoes came off unarmd but would scarce venture within musquet shot of us.
Sydney Parkinson’s Journal
We sailed along the coast, and had light breezes, and pleasant weather. In the forenoon seven canoes came off to us in a hostile manner, brandishing their lances, and waving their paddles. One of these canoes was very large, and had between fifty and sixty people in her; some of them gave us an heivo; and one of them, a priest, as we supposed, talked very much. They kept paddling about us, calling out to us Kaka kee, no Tootwais, barre yoota patta pattoo; that is to say, if we would go on shore they would beat us with their patta pattoos; and, being apprehensive that if we suffered them to approach nearer to us, we might be obliged to offer violence to them, the captain ordered a gun, loaded with grape-shot, to be fired over their heads, the report of which terrified them so much, that they paddled away till they had got, as they supposed, out of our reach, and then they stopped, and held a consultation; after which they seemed as if they intended to return, and we fired another gun loaded with ball, and then they made as fast as possible to the shore. These were the same sort of people, and their canoes of the same kind with those we had seen before. Being at this time off a cape, we named it, from the hasty retreat of the natives, Cape Run-away. This day we discovered land to the N.E. of us.
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