Account of a Voyage of Discovery Part 11

Sharp peaked rock, south 25 40' west.

Island from south 63 west, to south 65 west.

Distant island, from south 63-1/2 west, to south 66 west, nine or ten leagues.

Distant small island, west 1 10' north, seven or eight leagues.

[Sidenote: Bearings.]

Distant island, from west 6 39' north, to west 9 north, formed of one large flat s.p.a.ce and five hummocks, eight or nine leagues.

Island, west 28 50' north.

Large island, from west 31 north, to west 38 19' north.

Round bluff island, off which we observed at noon to-day, west 39 52'

north.

Distant small island, west 44 28' north, four or five leagues.

Large island, from west 71 north, to west 81 30' north.

An island, afterwards called Thistle Island, south 79 east, to east 14 52' north, besides numberless islands, in thick cl.u.s.ters, extending as far as the eye could reach, in the north-east and east quarters. In the afternoon a boat went inside Thistle Island, and reported that there was a clear anchorage.

[Sidenote: Sail into Murray's Sound.]

[Sidenote: Lat.i.tude observed on sh.o.r.e.]

[Sidenote: Longitude.]

[Sidenote: Tides.]

[Sidenote: Variation of the compa.s.s.]

8th of September.--At noon we weighed and sailed round the north end of Thistle Island, carrying seventeen fathoms, till the north end bore south; we then shoaled to ten and eleven, and one cast nine fathoms. On rounding the island we steered south, and anch.o.r.ed in eleven fathoms, soft bottom, about four hundred yards from the middle part of the island. The islands at this place are so situated as to form a capacious and secure anchorage, with pa.s.sages among the islands in all directions.

The lat.i.tude observed with an artificial horizon on sh.o.r.e, was 34 22'

39" north; longitude by mean of two chronometers, agreeing nearly, 126 2' 52" east. The tides run at the springs at the rate of three and four knots, the flood to the north north-east; the rise and fall is fifteen feet. Strong eddies are felt among the islands. The variation of the compa.s.s is 2 30' westerly.

[Sidenote: Appearance of the Amherst Isles, from the top of a peaked island.]

On the 9th of September Captain Maxwell and a party went to the summit of a high peak, on an island to the south-east of the ships, in lat.i.tude 34 20' north, and longitude 126 6' east. From this spot, elevated about seven or eight hundred feet above the sea, the view of the islands was very striking: we endeavoured to number them, but our accounts varied, owing to the difficulty of estimating the number in the distant groups; it will serve, however, to give some idea of this splendid scene, to say that the lowest enumeration gave one hundred and twenty islands.

Many of these islands are large and high, almost all are cultivated, and their forms present an endless diversity.

High land was seen to rise above the distant islands in the east and north-east; this probably was the main land of Corea, for it seemed more extensive and connected than any group of islands we had seen.

[Sidenote: Difficulty of estimating the number of islands on this coast.]

We had now ran along upwards of two hundred miles of this coast, and at every part which we approached, the islands were no less thickly sown than here; so that our attempts to enumerate them all, or even to a.s.sign places on the chart to those which we pa.s.sed the nearest to, became after a time quite hopeless.

[Sidenote: Winds and weather.]

During our stay upon the coast of Corea, between the 1st and 10th of September, the winds were princ.i.p.ally from the northward; the weather was moderate and clear; and occasionally calm during the heat of the day.

[Sidenote: Barometer and thermometer.]

The barometer rose and fell gradually between 29. 78. and 29. 98. The thermometer was never above 82, and never, even at night, under 72 For further details respecting the winds and weather, see the Meteorological Journal.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Chart of GREAT LOO CHOO Island

_Surveyed in H.M. Sloop LYRA by Captain Basil Hall_

1816]

NOTICE TO ACCOMPANY THE GENERAL CHART OF THE GREAT LOO-CHOO ISLAND, AND THE CHARTS OF NAPAKIANG, AND PORT MELVILLE.

[Sidenote: Different names of this island.]

This island is called Loo-choo, and sometimes Doo-choo, by the natives.

In our maps it is variously written, but mostly Lekayo: the Chinese know it by the name of Low-kow. The spelling used by Mr. Horsburgh in his directions, Lieou-kieou, or Lieu-chew.

[Sidenote: Geographical limits and general aspect.]

The island lies between 26 4-3/4' and 26 52-1/2', north, and between 127 34' and 128 18' east, being very nearly sixty miles long in a north-east direction, and preserving a tolerably uniform breadth of about ten or twelve miles. The north end is high and bold, with wood on the top of the hills. The north-east coast is also abrupt, but quite barren. The south-east side is low, with very little appearance of cultivation. The south, south-west, and western faces, particularly the two former, are of moderate height, and present a scene of great fertility and high cultivation: it is to this quarter that the ma.s.s of population have resorted. The north-west side is generally rugged and bare.

[Sidenote: Deep bay.]

[Sidenote: Barrow's Bay.]

There are two deep indentures, one on each side of the island; that on the west has at least one hundred fathoms depth, and appears to have no coral in it: while the eastern bight is extremely shallow, and is not only skirted by a broad fringe of coral, but has reefs in the centre; and these last are very dangerous, for they give no warning either by breakers or discoloration of the water, or by soundings: and this remark will apply generally to all the reefs round this island, rendering the navigation, particularly at night, very dangerous.

[Sidenote: General caution respecting coral reefs.]

[Sidenote: Sugar Loaf or Eegooshc.o.o.nd.]

The most remarkable headland is the island called by Captain Broughton the Sugar Loaf, and by the natives Eegooshc.o.o.nd (tower or castle); it can be seen distinctly at the distance of twenty-five miles when the eye is elevated only fifteen feet. It is a high conical mountain, varying very little in its aspect when viewed from different quarters: as there is no other peak like it on or near this island, it cannot be mistaken.

The lat.i.tude of the peak is 26 43' north; and I have reason to believe that this is within one mile of the truth. Its longitude is 127 44', or 6' east of the observatory at Napakiang, by two chronometers. The base of the cone and one-third of the way up is covered with houses; and the whole island has the appearance of a garden. When nearly on the meridian of the Sugar Loaf its top seems rounded off.

[Sidenote: Two safe anchoring places.]

[Sidenote: Geographical position of Napakiang.]

There are two places where ships can ride in safety, Napakiang Roads on the south-west, and Port Melville on the north-west side of the island. The first of these is the one in which his majesty's ships Alceste and Lyra lay for upwards of a month. By means of a base of 1319 feet on a coral reef, which dried at half ebb, we were enabled to make the survey which accompanies this notice. The lat.i.tude of the observatory was determined to be 26 13' 34" north, the mean of three meridian alt.i.tudes of the sun by a s.e.xtant of Cary's, and five by a circle of Troughton's, the extreme difference being 20". The longitude is 127 38' east; this was ascertained by measuring the difference of longitude between the observatory and Lintin Island off Canton river in a run of six days; on which occasion two chronometers on board the Lyra gave within one mile the same difference of longitude, viz. 13 50', with that shewn by two others on board his majesty's ship Alceste; the longitude of Lintin being 113 48' east of Greenwich. The longitude, by lunar observations, is 127 37' 28". The plan of Napakiang roads will be found sufficient without many directions for ships wishing to enter it.

The princ.i.p.al danger lies in the outer reefs, which do not show when the weather is very fine and there is little swell; on such occasions a boat ought to go a-head at least a quarter of a mile, and the ship should put about instantly upon approaching the reefs, which are every where bold.

A ship coming from the westward ought to steer between the north-eastern of the group of high islands to the south-westward, and a low green island with extensive reefs to the northward, in lat.i.tude 26 15' north.