Furneaux.
1773.
called Frederick Henry Bay; but afterwards found that his is laid down five leagues to the northward."
Captain Furneaux here mistook the Storm and Frederik Hendrik's Bays of Tasman; and he has been followed in this error by all the succeeding navigators of the same nation, which has created not a little confusion in the geography of this part of the world.
The bay supposed to have been Storm Bay, has no name in Tasman's chart; though the particular plan shews that he noticed it, as did Marion more distinctly. The rocks marked at the east point of this bay, and called the Friars, are the Boreel's Eylanden of Tasman; and the true Storm Bay is the deep inlet, of which Adventure Bay is a cove. Frederik Hendrik's Bay is not within this inlet, but lies to the north-eastward, on the outer side of the land which captain Furneaux, in consequence of his first mistake, took to be Maria's Island, but which, in fact, is a part of the main land. All this is evident from a close comparison of the forms of the land in the two charts, and is corroborated by the differences of longitude from the Mewstone.
Adventure Bay proved to be a valuable discovery, being a good and well-sheltered anchorage, where wood and water were abundant, and procurable without much difficulty. The country was found to be pleasant; the soil black and rich, though not deep; the sides of the hills covered with large trees of the evergreen kind, growing to a great height before they spread out into branches. There were several species of land birds; and the aquatic fowl were ducks, teal, and the sheldrake. An opossum was seen, and the excrement of another quadruped, judged to be of the deer kind. Sea fish were caught, but not in plenty. The lagoons abounded with trout and several other sorts of fish. No natives came down to the ships; but their fires were seen at a distance, and several of their miserable huts were examined. Not the least mark of canoe or boat was seen, and it was generally thought they had none; "being altogether, from what we could judge, a very ignorant and wretched set of people;