Details

Latitude

-43.28495342

Longitude

147.3342133

Start Date

1792

End Date

1792

"Landing a little after 5 o'clock in a small cove with fine sand at the north of the island, they spent the night, which they felt very cold, notwithstanding the huge fires which they kept up. There,they found some canoes 7 to 9 feet long and 3 to 4 feet wide in the middle, tapering to a point at each end. They were made of very thick bark, arranged lengthwise, and tied togeher with rushes of ligneous grass-really only rafts shaped like canoes. There they also saw some native huts, like those which they found at the mouth of the Huon, baskets, kangaroo-skins, &c. The return to the ship was delayed by a head wind, and the next night was passed in great discomfort owing to storms of rain and hail. The following day in the bay discovered previously by De Cretin, he allowed the boat to, ground on a sand-bank at the head of the inlet, and in his own words: 'I did not hesitate to strip and leap overboard, and to, wade ashore, holding a gun in one hand and a compass in the other. On landing I heard the sea thundering on the other shore, and, crossing a tongue of land a cable's length across, I found myself on the shore of Adventure Bay. The cold did not prevent me from taking several observati,ons nor from making further sketches. Recrossing the same tongue of land through the scrub, some of which was very prickly, I returned to the boat as I had 1eft it'. After two miserable nights of squalls, rain, and hail, their provisions exhausted, they finally regained their ships. During their cruise Saint Aignan and Beautemps had made numerous observations and sketches." [p59 Hogg]

Sources