Читать книгу The English Colony in New South Wales (Vol. 1&2). Narrative of the British First Settlement in Australia 1788-1801 онлайн

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At noon on the 4th preparations were made on board the Sirius for falling in with the land; her cables were bent, signal-guns prepared, and every possible precautions taken to ensure the safety of the fleet.

About ten at night on the 5th, a very beautiful aurora australis was observed bearing about south-west of the fleet; and for some nights a luminous phenomenon had been seen resembling lights floating on the surface of the water.

By a lunar observation taken at ten o'clock of the forenoon of Monday the 7th, the fleet was then distant seventeen leagues from the South Cape of New Holland; and at five minutes past two in the afternoon the signal was made for seeing the land. The rocks named the Mewstone and Swilly were soon visible, and the fleet stood along shore with fair moderate weather and smooth water, the land of New Holland distant from three to five miles.

Nothing could more strongly prove the excellence and utility of lunar observations, than the accuracy with which we made the land in this long voyage from the Cape of Good Hope, there not being a league difference between our expectation of seeing it, and the real appearance of it.