1773.
May.
Tuesday 18.About five o'clock the next morning we opened Queen Charlotte's Sound, and about seven we saw three flashes rising from the south end of the Motu-Aro, where a hippah, or strong hold of the natives, was situated, which is described in Lieutenant Cook's voyage in the Endeavour[1]. We immediately conceived that they were signals made by Europeans, and probably by our friends in the Adventure; and upon firing some four-pounders, had the pleasure of being answered out of the Ship Cove, opposite the island. Towards noon we could discern our old consort at anchor; and soon after were met by several of her officers, who brought us a present of fresh fish, and gave us an account of what had happened to them after our separation. In the afternoon it fell calm, so that we were obliged to be towed into the cove, where we anchored at seven in the evening. In the mean time Captain Furneaux came on board, and testified his satisfaction at rejoining us, by a salute of thirteen guns, which our people cheerfully returned. Those who have been in situations similar to ours, may form an adequate idea of the reciprocal pleasure which this meeting produced. It was heightened on both sides, by the recent impressions of accumulated dangers to which our separate courses had exposed us, and which under Providence we had happily escaped.
- ↑ See Hawkesworth's Compilation, vol. II. p. 395, 400.
The
