The night before we came out of Port Sandwich, two reddish fish, about the size of large bream, and not unlike them, were caught with hook and line. On these fish most of the officers, and some of the petty officers, dined the next day. The night following, every one who had eaten of them was seized with violent pains in the head and bones, attended with a scorching heat all over the skin, and numbness in the joints. There remained no doubt that this was occasioned by the fish being of a poisonous nature, and having communicated its bad effects to all who partook of them, even to the hogs and dogs. One of the former died about sixteen hours after; it was not long before one of the latter shared the same fate; and it was a week or ten days before all the gentlemen recovered. These must have been the same sort of fish mentioned by Quiros,* under the name of pargos, which poisoned the crews of his ships, so that it was some time before they recovered; and we should, doubtless, have been in the same situation, had more of them been eaten.
[* Dalrymple's Collection of Voyages, vol. I. p. 140, 141.]
At day break on the 25th, we made a short stretch to the east of Shepherd's Isles till after sun-rise, when seeing no more land in that direction, we tacked and stood for the island we had seen in the south, having a gentle breeze at S.E. We passed to the east of Threehills, and likewise of a low isle, which lies on the S.E. side of it, between a remarkable peaked rock which obtained the name of Monument, and a small island named Twohills, on account of two peaked hills upon it, disjoined by a low and narrow isthmus. The channel between this island and the Monument is near a mile broad, and twenty-four fathoms deep. Except this rock, which is only accessible to birds, we did not find an island on which people were not seen. At noon, we observed, in latitude 17° 18' 30"; longitude, made from Port Sandwich, 45' E. In this situation, the Monument bore N. 16° E. distant two miles; Twohills bore N. 25° W. distant two miles, and in a line with the S.W. part of Threehills; and the islands to the south extended from S. 16° 30' E. to S. 42° W.
Continuing our course to the south, at five p.m. we drew near the southern lands, which we found to consist of one large island, whose southern and western extremities extended beyond our sight, and three or four smaller ones lying off its north side. The two northernmost are much the largest, have a good height, and lie in the direction of E. by S. and W. by N. from each other, distant two leagues; I named the one Montagu and the other Hinchinbrook, and the large island Sandwich, in honour of my noble patron the Earl of Sandwich. Seeing broken water ahead, between Montagu and Hinchinbrook isles, we tacked; and soon after it fell calm. The calm continued till seven o'-clock the next morning, when it was succeeded by a breeze from the westward. During the calm, having been carried by the currents and a S.E. swell, four leagues to the W.N.W., we passed Hinchinbrook Isle, saw the western extremity of Sandwich Island, bearing S.S.W., about five leagues distant, and at the same time discovered a small island to the west of this direction. After getting the westerly breeze, I steered S.E. in order to pass between Montagu Isle and the north end of Sandwich Island. At noon we were in the middle of the channel, and observed in latitude 17° 31' S. The distance from one island to the other is about four or five miles; but the channel is not much above half that breadth, being contracted by breakers. We had no soundings in it with a line of forty fathoms.