Cook's First Voyage

I Have in the General Introduction to this work mentioned the reasons why the Narratives of the several Voyages are written in the person of the Commanders, upon what ground liberty has been taken to introduce such sentiments as the events suggested to me, and what the materials were from which my work has been drawn up. It has also been said, that with respect to the Voyage of the Endeavour, I had still farther assistance, and of this I am now to give an account. --page 4

On board this vessel embarked Joseph Banks Esquire, a Gentleman possessed of considerable landed property in Lincolnshire. He received the education of a scholar rather to qualify him for the enjoyments than the labours of life; yet an ardent desire to know more of Nature than could be learnt from books, determined him, at a very early age, to forego what are generally thought to be the principal advantages of a liberal fortune, and to apply his revenue not in procuring the pleasures of leisure and ease, but in the pursuit of his favourite study, through a series of fatigue and danger, which, in such circumstances, have very seldom been voluntarily incurred, Page xii except to gratify the restless and insatiable desires of avarice or ambition. --page 5

Upon his leaving the university of Oxford, in the year 1763, he crossed the Atlantic, and visited the coasts of Newfoundland and Labradore. The danger, difficulty, and inconvenience that attend long voyages are very different in idea and experience; Mr. Banks however returned, undiscouraged, from his first expedition; and when he found that the Endeavour was equipping for a voyage to the South Seas, in order to observe the Transit of Venus, and afterwards attempt farther discoveries, he determined to embark in the expedition, that he might enrich his native country with a tribute of knowlege from those which have been hitherto unknown, and not without hope of leaving among the rude and uncultivated nations that he might discover, something that would render life of more value, and enrich them perhaps in a certain degree with the knowlege, or at least with the productions, of Europe. --page 6

As he was determined to spare no expence in the execution of his plan, he engaged Dr. Solander to accompany him in the voyage. This Gentleman, by birth a Swede, was educated under the celebrated Linnaeus, from whom he brought letters of recommendation into England, and his merit, being soon known, he obtained an appointment in the British Musaeum, a public institution which was then just established; such a companion Mr. Banks considered as an acquisition of no small importance, and to his great satisfaction the event abundantly proved that Page xiii he was not mistaken. He also took with him two draftsmen, one to delineate views and figures, the other to paint such subjects of natural history as might offer; together with a secretary and four servants, two of whom were negroes. --page 7

Mr. Banks kept an accurate and circumstantial journal of the voyage, and, soon after I had received that of Captain Cook from the Admiralty, was so obliging as to put it into my hands, with permission to take out of it whatever I thought would improve or embellish the narrative. This was an offer of which I gladly and thankfully accepted: I knew the advantage would be great, for few philosophers have furnished materials for accounts of voyages undertaken to discover new countries. The adventurers in such expeditions have generally looked only upon the great outline of Nature, without attending to the variety of shades within, which give life and beauty to the piece. --page 8

The papers of Captain Cook contained a very particular account of all the nautical incidents of the voyage, and a very minute description of the figure and extent of the countries he had visited, with the bearings of the headlands and bays that diversify the coasts, the situation of the harbours in which shipping may obtain refreshments, with the depth of water wherever there were soundings; the latitudes, longitudes, variation of the needle, and such other particulars as lay in his department; and abundantly shewed him to be an excellent officer, and skilful navigator. Page xiv But in the papers, which were communicated to me by Mr. Banks, I found a great variety of incidents which had not come under the notice of Captain Cook, with descriptions of countries and people, their productions, manners, customs, religion, policy, and language, much more full and particular than were expected from a Gentleman whose station and office naturally turned his principal attention to other objects; for these particulars, therefore, besides many practical observations, the Public is indebted to Mr. Banks. To Mr. Banks also the Public is indebted for the designs of the engravings which illusstrate and adorn the account of this voyage, all of them, except the maps, charts, and views of the coasts as they appear at sea, being copied from his valuable drawings, and some of them from such as were made for the use of the artists at his expence. --page 9

As the materials furnished by Mr. Banks were so interesting and copious, there arose an objection against writing an account of this voyage in the person of the Commander, which could have no place with respect to the others; the descriptions and observations of Mr. Banks would be absorbed without any distinction, in a general narrative given under another name: but this objection he generously over-ruled, and it therefore became necessary to give some account of the obligations which he has laid upon the Public and myself in this place. It is indeed fortunate for mankind, when wealth and science, and a Page xv strong inclination to exert the powers of both for purposes of public benefit, unite in the same person; and I cannot but congratulate my country upon the prospect of further pleasure and advantage from the same Gentleman, to whom we are indebted for so considerable a part of this narrative. --page 10

ERRATA. --page 11

VOL. II. P. 13. l. 8. from the bottom, for Charearias, read Carcharias. P. 18. parag. 2. l. 3,4. for Trio, read Frio. P. 29. l. 6. from the bottom, for within, read without. P. 124. l. 7. from the bottom, for him, read Mr. Banks. P. 125. l. 1. for brought them, read brought six of them. P. 256. l. 13. for has, read had. l. 14. for have, read had. l. 15. for remain, read remained; and for will, read would. VOL. III. P. 429. l. 3. from the bottom, for is, read are. P. 457. l. 16. for whole, read hole. P. 501. l. 3. from the bottom, for were, read had; and dele that each had. P. 510. l. 19. for consterable, read considerable. P. 626. l. 10. from the bottom, for tracts, read tracks. P. 753. l. 8. from the bottom, for grove, read groove. P. 762. l. 9. for or deposited, read or materials that are deposited. --page 12

HAVING received my commission,* which was dated the 25th of May 1768, I went on board on the 27th, hoisted the pennant, and took charge of the ship, which then lay in the bason in Deptford Yard. She was fitted for sea with all expedition; and stores and provisions being taken on board,* sailed down the river on the 30th of July,* and on the 13th of August anchored in Plymouth Sound. --page 13

While we lay here waiting for a wind, the articles of war and the act of parliament were read to the ship's company, who were paid two months wages in advance, and told that they were to expect no additional pay for the performance of the voyage. --page 14

On Friday the 26th of August, the wind becoming fair,* we got under sail, and put to sea. On the 31st,* we saw several of the birds which the sailors call Mother Carey's Chickens,* and which they suppose to be the forerunners of a storm; and on the next day we had a very hard gale, which brought us under our courses, washed over-board a small boat belonging to the Boatswain, and drowned three or four dozen of our poultry, which we regretted still more. --page 15

*On Friday the 2d of September we saw land, between Cape Finister and Cape Ortegal, on the coast of Gallicia , in Spain;* and on the 5th, by an observation of the sun and moon, we found the latitude of Cape Finister to be 42° 53′ North, and its longitude 8° 46′ West, our first meridian being always supposed to pass through Greenwich; variation of the needle 21° 4′ West. --page 16

During this course, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had an opportunity of observing many marine animals, of which no naturalist has hitherto taken notice; particularly, a new species of the Oniscus, which was found adhering to the Medusa Pelagica; and an animal of an angular figure, about three inches long and one thick, with a hollow passing quite through it, and a brown spot on one end, which they conjectured might be its stomach; four of these adhered together by their sides when they were taken, so that at first they were thought to be one animal, but upon being put into a glass of water they soon separated, and swam about very briskly. These animals are of a new genus, to which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gave the name of Dagysa, from the likeness of one species of them to a gem: several specimens of them were taken adhering together sometimes to the length of a yard or more, and shining in the water with very beautiful colours. Another animal of a new genus they also discovered, which shone in the water with colours still more beautiful and vivid, and which indeed exceeded in variety and brightness any thing that we had ever seen: the colouring and splendour of these animals were equal to those of an Opal, and from their resemblance to that gem,* the genus was called Carcinium Opalinum. One of them lived several hours in a glass of salt water, swimming about with great agility, and at every motion displaying a change of colours almost infinitely various. We caught also among the rigging of the ship, when we were at the distance of about ten leagues from Cape Finister, several birds which have not been described by Linnaeus; they were supposed to have come from Spain, and our gentlemen called the species Motacilla velificans, as they said none but sailors would venture themselves on board a ship that was going round the world: one of them was so exhausted that it died in Mr. Banks's hand, almost as soon as it was brought to him. --page 17

It was thought extraordinary that no naturalist had hitherto taken notice of the Dagysa, as the sea abounds with them not twenty leagues from the coast of Spain; but, unfortunately for the cause of science, there are but very few of those who traverse the sea, that are either disposed or qualified to remark the curiosities of which Nature has made it the repository. --page 18

On the 12th we discovered the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira , and on the next day anchored in Funchiale road,* and moored with the stream-anchor: but, in the night, the bend of the hawser of the stream-anchor slipped, owing to the negligence of the person who had been employed to make it fast. In the morning the anchor was heaved up into the boat, and carried out to the southward; but in heaving it again, Mr. Weir, the master's mate, was carried overboard by the buoy-rope, and went to the bottom with the anchor: the people in the ship saw the accident, and got the anchor up with all possible expedition; it was however too late, the body came up intangled in the buoy-rope, but it was dead. --page 19

*When the island of Madeira is first approached from the sea, it has a very beautiful appearance; the sides of the hills being intirely covered with vines almost as high as the eye can distinguish, and the vines are green when every kind of herbage, except where they shade the ground, and here and there by the sides of a rill, is intirely burnt up, which was the case at this time. --page 20

*On the 13th, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, a boat, which our sailors call the product boat, came on board from the officers of health, without whose permission no person is suffered to land from on board a ship. As soon as this permission was obtained, we went on shore at Funchiale, the capital of the island, and proceeded directly to the house of Mr. Cheap, who is the English consul there, and one of the most considerable merchants of the place. This gentleman received us with the kindness of a brother, and the liberality of a prince; he insisted upon our taking possession of his house, in which he furnished us with every possible accommodation during our stay upon the island: he procured leave for Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to search the island for such natural curiosities as they should think worth their notice; employed persons to take fish and gather shells, which time would not have permitted them to collect for themselves; and he provided horses and guides to take them to any part of the country which they should chuse to visit. With all these advantages, however, their excursions were seldom pushed farther than three miles from the town, as they were only five days on shore; one of which they spent at home, in receiving the honour of a visit from the governor. The season was the worst in the year for their purpose, as it was neither that of plants nor insects; a few of the plants, however, were procured in flower, by the kind attention of Dr. Heberden, the chief physician of the island,* and brother to Dr. Heberden of London, who also gave them such specimens as he had in his possession, and a copy of his Botanical Observations; containing, among other things, a particular description of the trees of the island. Mr. Banks enquired after the wood which has been imported into England for cabinet work, and is here called Madeira mahogany: he learnt that no wood was exported from the island under that name, but he found a tree called by the natives Vigniatico, the Laurus indicus of Linnaeus, the wood of which cannot easily be distinguished from mahogany. Dr. Heberden has a book-case in which the vigniatico and mahogany are mixed, and they are no otherwise to be known from each other than by the colour, which, upon a nice examination, appears to be somewhat less brown in the vigniatico than the mahogany; it is therefore in the highest degree probable, that the wood known in England by the name of Madeira mahogany, is the vigniatico. --page 21

There is great reason to suppose that this whole island was, at some remote period, thrown up by the explosion of subterraneous fire, as every stone, whether whole or in fragments, that we saw upon it appeared to have been burnt, and even the sand itself to be nothing more than ashes: we did not, indeed, see much of the country, but the people informed us that what we did see was a very exact specimen of the rest. --page 22

The only article of trade in this island is wine, and the manner in which it is made is so simple, that it might have been used by Noah, who is said to have planted the first vineyard after the stood: the grapes are put into a square wooden vessel, the dimensions of which are proportioned to the size of the vineyard to which it belongs; the servants then,* having taken off their stockings and jackets, get into it, and with their feet and elbows, press out as much of the juice as they can: the stalks are afterwards collected, and being tied together with a rope, are put under a square piece of wood, which is pressed down upon them by a lever with a stone tied to the end of it. The inhabitants have made so little improvement in knowlege or art, that they have but very lately brought all the fruit of a vineyard to be of one sort, by engrafting their vines: there seems to be in mind as there is in matter, a kind of vis inertioe, which resists the first impulse to change. He who proposes to assist the artificer or the husbandman by a new application of the principles of philosophy, or the powers of mechanism, will find, that his having hitherto done without them, will be a stronger motive for continuing to do without them still, than any advantage, however manifest and considerable, for adopting the improvement. Wherever there is ignorance there is prejudice; and the common people of all nations are, with respect to improvements, like the parish poor of England with respect to a maintenance, for whom the law must not only make a provision, but compel them to accept it, or else they will be still found begging in the streets. It was therefore with great difficulty that the people of Madeira were persuaded to engraft their vines, and some of them still obstinately refuse to adopt the practice, though a whole vintage is very often spoiled by the number of bad grapes which are mixed in the vat, and which they will not throw out, because they increase the quantity of the wine: an instance of the force of habit, which is the more extraordinary, as they have adopted the practice of engrafting with respect to their chesnut-trees, an object of much less importance, which, however, are thus brought to bear sooner than they would otherwise have done. --page 23

We saw no wheel-carriages of any sort in the place,* which perhaps is not more owing to the want of ingenuity to invent them, than to the want of industry to mend the roads, which, at present, it is impossible that any wheel-carriage should pass: the inhabitants have horses and mules indeed, excellently adapted to such ways; but their wine is, notwithstanding, brought to town from the vineyards where it is made, in vessels of goat-skins, which are carried by men upon their heads. The only imitation of a carriage among these people is a board, made somewhat hollow in the middle, to one end of which a pole is tied, by a strap of whitleather: this wretched sledge approaches about as near to an English cart, as an Indian canoe to a ship's long-boat; and even this would probably never have been thought of, if the English had not introduced wine vessels which are too big to be carried by hand, and which, therefore, are dragged about the town upon these machines. --page 24

One reason, perhaps, why art and industry have done so little for Madeira is, Nature's having done so much. The soil is very rich, and there is such a difference of climate between the plains and the hills, that there is scarcely a single object of luxury that grows either in Europe or the Indies, that might not be produced here. When we went to visit Dr. Heberden, who lives upon a considerable ascent, about two miles from town, we left the thermometer at 74, and when we arrived at his house, we found it at 66. The hills produce, almost spontaneously, walnuts, chesnuts, and apples in great abundance; and in the town there are many plants which are the natives both of the East and West Indies, particularly the banana, the guava, the pine-apple or anana, and the mango, which flourish almost without culture. The corn of this country is of a most excellent quality, large grained and very fine, and the island would produce it in great plenty;* yet most of what is consumed by the inhabitants is imported. The mutton, pork, and beef are also very good; the beef in particular, which we took on board here, was universally allowed to be scarcely inferior to our own; the lean part was very like it, both in colour and grain, though the beasts are much smaller, but the fat is as white as the fat of mutton. --page 25

The town of Funchiale derives its name from Funcho, the Portuguese name for fennel, which grows in great plenty upon the neighbouring rocks, and, by the observation of Dr. Heberden, lies in the latitude of 32° 33′ 33″ N. and longitude 16° 49′ W. It is situated in the bottom of a bay, and though larger than the extent of the island seems to deserve, is very ill built; the houses of the principal inhabitants are large, those of the common people are small, the streets are narrow, and worse paved than any I ever saw. The churches are loaded with ornaments, among which are many pictures, and images of favourite saints, but the pictures are in general wretchedly painted, and the saints are dressed in laced clothes. Some of the convents are in a better taste, especially that of the Franciscans, which is plain, simple, and neat in the highest degree. The infirmary in particular drew our attention as a model which might be adopted in other countries with great advantage. It consists of a long room, on one side of which are the windows, and an altar for the convenience of administering the sacrament to the sick: the other side is divided into wards, each of which is just big enough to contain a bed, and neatly lined with gally-tiles; behind these wards, and parallel to the room in which they stand, there runs a long gallery, with which each ward communicates by a door, so that the sick may be separately supplied with whatever they want without disturbing their neighbours. In this convent there is also a singular curiosity of another kind; a small chapel,* the whole lining of which, both sides and ceiling, is composed of human sculls and thigh bones; the thigh bones are laid across each other, and a scull is placed in each of the four angles. Among the sculls one is very remarkable; the upper and the lower jaw, on one side, perfectly and firmly cohere; how the ossification which unites them was formed, it is not perhaps very easy to conceive, but it is certain that the patient must have lived some time without opening his mouth: what nourishment he received was conveyed through a hole which we discovered to have been made on the other side, by forcing out some of the teeth, in doing which the jaw also seems to have been injured. --page 26

We visited the good Fathers of this convent on a Thursday evening, just before supper-time, and they received us with great politeness; --page 27

We will not ask you, said they, to sup with us, because we are not prepared, but if you will come to-morrow, though it is a fast with us, we will have a turkey roasted for you. This invitation, which shewed a liberality of sentiment not to have been expected in a convent of Portuguese Friars at this place, gratified us much, though it was not in our power to accept it. We visited also a convent of nuns, dedicated to Santa Clara, and the Ladies did us the honour to express a particular pleasure in seeing us there: they had heard that there were great philosophers among us, and not at all knowing what were the objects of philosophical knowlege, they asked us several questions that were absurd and extravagant in the highest degree; one was, when it would thunder; and another, whether a spring of fresh water was to be found any where within the walls of their convent, of which it seems they were in great want. It will naturally be supposed that our answers to such questions were neither satisfactory to the Ladies,* nor, in their estimation, honourable to us; yet their disappointment did not in the least lessen their civility, and they talked, without ceasing, during the whole of our visit, which lasted about half an hour. --page 28

The hills of this country are very high; the highest, Pico Ruivo, rises 5,068 feet, near an English mile, perpendicularly from its base, which is much higher than any land that has been measured in Great Britain. The sides of these hills are covered with vines to a certain height, above which there are woods of chesnut and pine of immense extent, and above them forests of wild timber of various kinds not known in Europe; particularly two, called by the Portuguese Mirmulano and Paobranco, the leaves of both which, particularly the Paobranco, are so beautiful, that these trees would be a great ornament to the gardens of Europe. --page 29

The number of inhabitants in this island is supposed to be about 80,000, and the custom-house duties produce a revenue to the king of Portugal of 20,000 pounds a-year, clear of all expences, which might easily be doubled by the product of the island, exclusive of the vines, if advantage was taken of the excellence of the climate, and the amazing fertility of the soil; but this object is utterly neglected by the Portuguese. In the trade of the inhabitants of Madeira with Lisbon the balance is against them, so that all the Portuguese money naturally going thither, the currency of the island is Spanish; there are indeed a few Portuguese pieces of copper, but they are so scarce that we did not see one of them: the Spanish coin is of three denominations; Pistereens, worth about a shilling; Bitts, worth about six pence; and Half-bitts, three pence. --page 30

The tides at this place flow at the full and change of the moon, north and south; the spring tides rise seven feet perpendicular, and the neap tides four.* By Dr. Heberden's observation, the variation of the compass here is now 15° 30′ West, and decreasing; but I have some doubt whether he is not mistaken with respect to its decrease: we found that the North point of the dipping needle belonging to the Royal Society dipped 77° 18″. --page 31

The refreshments to be had here, are water, wine, fruit of several sorts, onions in plenty, and some sweetmeats; fresh meat and poultry are not to be had without leave from the governor, and the payment of a very high price. --page 32

We took in 270 lb. of fresh beef, and a live bullock, charged at 613 lb. 3,032 gallons of water, and ten tuns of wine; and in the night,* between Sunday the 18th and Monday the 19th of September,* we set sail in prosecution of our voyage. --page 33

When Funchiale bore North, 13 East, at the distance of 76 miles, the variation appeared by several azimuths to be 16° 30′ West. --page 34

*ON the 21st of September we saw the islands called the Salvages, to the north of the Canaries; when the principal of these bore S. ½ W. at the distance of about 5 leagues we found the variation of the compass by an azimuth to be 17° 50′. I make these islands to lie in latitude 30° 11′ North, and distant 58 leagues from Funchiale in Madeira, in the direction of S. 16 E. --page 35

*On Friday the 23d we saw the Peak of Teneriffe bearing W. by S. ½ S. and found the variation of the compass to be from 17° 22′ to 16° 30′. The height of this mountain, from which I took a new departure, has been determined by Dr. Heberden, who has been upon it, to be 15,396 feet, which is but 148 yards less than three miles, reckoning the mile at 1760 yards. Its appearance at sunset was very striking; when the sun was below the horizon, and the rest of the island appeared of a deep black, the mountain still reflected his rays, and glowed with a warmth of colour which no painting can express. There is no eruption of visible fire from it, but a heat issues from the chinks near the top, too strong to be borne by the hand when it is held near them. We had received from Dr. Heberden, among other favours, some salt which he collected on the top of the mountain, where it is found in large quantities, and which he supposes to be the true natrum or nitrum of the ancients: he gave us also some native sulphur exceedingly pure,* which he had likewise found upon the surface in great plenty. --page 36

On the next day, Saturday the 24th,* we came into the north-east trade wind, and on Friday the 30th saw Bona Vista,* one of the Cape de Verd Islands; we ranged the east side of it, at the distance of three or four miles from the shore, till we were obliged to haul off to avoid a ledge of rocks which stretch out S. W. by W. from the body, or S.E. point of the island, to the extent of a league and an half. Bona Vista by our observation lies in latitude 16 N. and longitude 21° 51′ West. --page 37

On the first of October,* in latitude 14° 6′ N. and longitude 22° 10′ W. we found the variation by a very good azimuth to be 10° 37′ W. and the next morning it appeared to be 10°.* This day we found the ship five miles a-head of the log, and the next day seven. On the third,* hoisted out the boat to discover whether there was a current, and found one to the eastward, at the rate of three quarters of a mile an hour. --page 38

During our course from Teneriffe to Bona Vista we saw great numbers of flying fish, which from the cabbin windows appear beautiful beyond imagination, their sides having the colour and brightness of burnished silver; when they are seen from the deck they do not appear to so much advantage, because their backs are of a dark colour. We also took a Shark, which proved to be the Squalus Charearias of Linnaeus. --page 39

Having lost the trade wind on the third, in latitude 12° 14′ and longitude 22° 10′, the wind became somewhat variable, and we had light airs and calms by turns. --page 40

On the seventh,* Mr. Banks went out in the boat and took what the seamen call a Portuguese man of war; it is the Holothuria Physalis of Linnaeus, and a species of the Mollusca. It consisted of a small bladder about seven inches long,* very much resembling the air-bladder of fishes, from the bottom of which descended a number of strings, of a bright blue and red, some of them three or four feet in length, which upon being touched sting like a nettle, but with much more force. On the top of the bladder is a membrane which is used as a sail, and turned so as to receive the wind which way soever it blows: this membrane is marked in fine pink coloured veins, and the animal is in every respect an object exquisitely curious and beautiful. --page 41

We also took several of the shell-fishes, or testaceous animals, which are always found floating upon the water, particularly the Helix Janthina and Violacea; they are about the size of a snail, and are supported upon the surface of the water by a small cluster of bubbles, which are filled with air and consist of a tenaceous flimy substance that will not easily part with its contents; the animal is oviparous, and these bubbles serve also as a nidus for its eggs. It is probable that it never goes down to the bottom, nor willingly approaches any shore; for the shell is exceedingly brittle, and that of few fresh water snails is so thin: every shell contains about a tea-spoonful of liquor, which it easily discharges upon being touched, and which is of the most beautiful red purple that can be conceived. It dies linen cloth, and it may perhaps be worth enquiry, as the shell is certainly found in the Mediterranean, whether it be not the Purpura of the ancients. --page 42

*On the 8th, in latitude 8° 25′ North, longitude 22° 4′ West, we found a current setting to the southward, which the next day in latitude 7° 58′ longitude 22° 13′ shifted to the N.N.W. ¾ W. at the rate of one mile and a furlong an hour. The variation here, by the mean of several azimuths, appeared to be 8° 39′ West. --page 43

On the tenth, Mr. Banks shot the black-toed gull,* not yet described according to Linnaeus's system; he gave it the name of Larus crepidatus: it is remarkable that the dung of this bird is of a lively red, somewhat like that of the liquor procured from the shells, only not so full; its principal food therefore is probably the Helix just mentioned. A current to the N.W. prevailed more or less till Monday the 24th,* when we were in latitude 1° 7′ N. and longitude 28° 50′. --page 44

On the 25th,* we crossed the line with the usual ceremonies in longitude 29° 30′, when, by the result of several very good azimuths, the variation was 2° 34′. --page 45

On the 28th, at noon,* being in the latitude of Ferdinand Noronha, and, by the mean of several observations by Mr. Green and myself, in longitude 32° 5′ 16″ W. which is to the westward of it by some charts, and to the eastward by others, we expected to see the island, or some of the shoals that are laid down in the charts between it and the main, but we saw neither one nor the other. --page 46

In the evening of the 29th,* we observed that luminous appearance of the sea which has been so often mentioned by navigators, and of which such various causes have been assigned; some supposing it to be occasioned by fish, which agitated the water by darting at their prey, some by the putrefaction of fish and other marine animals, some by electricity, and others referring it into a great variety of different causes. It appeared to emit flashes of light exactly resembling those of lightning, only not so considerable, but they were so frequent that sometimes eight or ten were visible almost at the same moment. We were of opinion that they proceeded from some luminous animal, and upon throwing out the casting net our opinion was confirmed: it brought up a species of the Medusa, which when it came on board had the appearance of metal violently heated,* and emitted a white light: with these animals were taken some very small crabs, of three different species, each of which gave as much light as a glow-worm, though the creature was not so large by nine tenths: upon examination of these animals Mr. Banks had the satisfaction to find that they were all entirely new. --page 47

*On Wednesday the 2d of November, about noon, being in the latitude of 10° 38′ S. and longitude 32° 13′ 43″ W. we passed the line in which the needle at this time would have pointed due north and south, without any variation: for in the morning, having decreased gradually in its deviation for some days, it was no more than 18′ W. and in the afternoon it was 34′ East. --page 48

*On the 6th, being in latitude 19° 3′ South, longitude 35° 50′ West, the colour of the water was observed to change, upon which we sounded, and found ground at the depth of 32 fathoms; the lead was cast three times within about four hours, without a foot difference in the depth or quality of the bottom, which was coral rock, fine sand, and shells; we therefore supposed that we had passed over the tail of the great shoal which is laid down in all our charts by the name of Abrothos, on which Lord Anson struck soundings in his passage outwards:*at four the next morning we had no ground with 100 fathom. --page 49

As several articles of our stock and provisions now began to fall short, I determined to put into Rio de Janeiro, rather than at any port in Brazil or Falkland's Islands, knowing that it could better supply us with what we wanted, and making no doubt but that we should be well received. --page 50

*On the 8th, at day-break, we saw the coast of Brazil, and about ten o'clock we brought to, and spoke with a fishing-boat; the people on board told us that the land which we saw, lay to the southward of Sancto Espirito,* but belonged to the captainship of that place. --page 51

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went on board this vessel, in which they found eleven men, nine of whom were Blacks; they all fished with lines, and their fresh cargo, the chief part of which Mr. Banks bought, consisted of dolphins, large pelagic scombers of two kinds, sea bream, and some of the fish which in the West Indies are called Welshmen. Mr. Banks had taken Spanish silver with him, which he imagined to be the currency of the continent, but to his great surprize the people asked him for English shillings; he gave them two which he happened to have about him, and it was not without some dispute that they took the rest of the money in pistereens. Their business seemed to be to catch large fish at a good distance from the shore, which they salted in bulk, in a place made for that purpose in the middle of their boat: of this merchandize they had about two quintals on board, which they offered for about 16 shillings, and would probably have sold for half the money. The fresh fish, which was bought for about nineteen shillings and six pence, served the whole ship's company; the salt was not wanted. --page 52

The sea provision of these fishermen consisted of nothing more than a cask of water, and a bag of Cassada flour, which they called Farinha de Pao, or wooden flour, which indeed is a name which very well suits its taste and appearance. Their water cask was large, as wide as their boat, and exactly fitted a place that was made for it in the ballast; it was impossible therefore to draw out any of its contents by a tap, the sides being, from the bottom to the top, wholly inaccessible; neither could any be taken out by dipping a vessel in at the head,* for an opening sufficiently wide for that purpose would have endangered the loss of great part of it by the rolling of the vessel: their expedient to get at their water, so situated, was curious; when one of them wanted to drink, he applied to his neighbour, who accompanied him to the water cask with a hollow cane about three feet long, which was open at both ends; this he thrust into the cask through a small hole in the top, and then, stopping the upper end with the palm of his hand, drew it out; the pressure of the air against the other end keeping in the water which it contained; to this end the person who wanted to drink applied his mouth, and the assistant then taking his hand from the other, and admitting the air above, the cane immediately parted with its contents, which the drinker drew off till he was satisfied. --page 53

*We stood off and on along the shore till the 12th, and successively saw a remarkable hill near Santo Espirito, then Cape St. Thomas , and then an island just without Cape Trio, which in some maps is called the island of Trio, and which being high, with a hollow in the middle, has the appearance of two islands when seen at a distance. On this day we stood along the shor for Rio de Janeiro, and at nine the next morning made sail for the harbour.* I then sent Mr. Hicks, my first Lieutenant, before us in the pinnace, up to the city, to acquaint the Governor, that we put in there to procure water and refreshments; and to desire the assistance. of a pilot to bring us into proper anchoring ground. I continued to stand up the river, trusting to Mr. Bellisle's draught, published in the Petit Atlas maritime, Vol. II, N° 54, which we found very good, till five o'clock in the evening, expecting the return of my Lieutenant; and just as I was about to anchor, above the island of Cobras, which lies before the city, the pinnace came back without him,* having on board a Portuguese officer, but no pilot. The people in the boat told me, that my Lieutenant was detained by the Viceroy till I should go on shore. We came immediately to an anchor; and, almost at the same time, a ten oared boat, full of soldiers, came up and kept rowing round the ship, without exchanging a word: in less than a quarter of an hour, another boat came on board with several of the Viceroy's officers, who asked, Whence we came; what was our cargo; the number of men and guns on board; the object of our voyage, and several other questions, which we directly and truly answered: they then told me, as a kind of apology for detaining my Lieutenant, and putting an officer on board my pinnace, that it was the invariable custom of the place, to detain the first officer who came on shore from any ship on her arrival, till a boat from the Viceroy had visited her, and to suffer no boat to go either from or to a ship, while she lay there, without having a soldier on board. They said that I might go on shore when I pleased; but wished that every other person might remain on board till the paper which they should draw up had been delivered to the Viceroy, promising that, immediately upon their return, the Lieutenant should be sent on board. --page 54

This promise was performed; and, on the next morning,* the 14th, I went on shore, and obtained leave of the Viceroy to purchase provisions and refreshments for the ship, provided I would employ one of their own people as a factor, but not otherwise. I made some objections to this, but he insisted upon it as the custom of the place. I objected also against the putting a soldier into the boat every time she went between the ship and the shore; but he told me, that this was done by the express orders of his court, with which he could in no case dispense. I then requested, that the Gentlemen whom I had on board might reside on shore during our stay,* and that Mr. Banks might go up the country to gather plants; but this he absolutely refused. I judged from his extreme caution, and the severity of these restrictions, that he suspected we were come to trade; I therefore took some pains to convince him of the contrary. I told him, that we were bound to the southward, by the order of his Britannic Majesty, to observe a transit of the planet Venus over the Sun, an astronomical phaenomenon of great importance to navigation. Of the transit of Venus, however, he could form no other conception, than that it was the passing of the North Star through the South Pole; for these are the very words of his interpreter, who was a Swede, and spoke English very well. I did not think it necessary to ask permission for the Gentlemen to come on shore during the day, or that, when I was on shore myself, I might be at liberty, taking for granted that nothing was intended to the contrary; but in this I was unfortunately mistaken. As soon as I took leave of his Excellency, I found an officer who had orders to attend me wherever I went: of this I desired an explanation, and was told that it was meant as a compliment; I earnestly desired to be excused from accepting such an honour, but the good Viceroy would by no means suffer it to be dispensed with. --page 55

With this officer, therefore, I returned on board, about twelve o'clock, where I was impatiently expected by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who made no doubt but that a fair account of us having been given by the officers who had been on board the evening before, in their paper called a Practica, and every scruple of the Viceroy removed in my conference with his Excellency, they should immediately be at liberty to go on shore, and dispose of themselves as they pleased. Their disappointment at receiving my report may easily be conceived; and it was still increased by an account,* that it had been resolved, not only to prevent their residing on shore, and going up the country, but even their leaving the ship; orders having been given, that no person except the Captain, and such common sailors as were required to be upon duty, should be permitted to land; and that there was probably a particular view to the passengers in this prohibition, as they were reported to be Gentlemen sent abroad to make observations and discoveries, and were uncommonly qualified for that purpose. In the evening, however, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander dressed themselves, and attempted to go on shore, in order to make a visit to the Viceroy; but they were stopped by the guard-boat which had come off with our pinnace, and which kept hovering round the ship all the while she lay here, for that purpose; the officer on board saying, that he had particular orders, which he could not disobey, to suffer no passenger, nor any officer, except the Captain, to pass the boat. After much expostulation to no purpose, they were obliged, with whatever reluctance and mortification, to return on board. I then went on shore myself, but found the Viceroy inflexible; he had one answer ready for every thing I could say, That the restrictions under which he had laid us, were in obedience to the King of Portugal's commands, and therefore indispensible. --page 56

In this situation I determined, rather than be made a prisoner in my own boat, to go on shore no more; for the officer who, under pretence of a compliment, attended me when I was ashore, insisted also upon going with me to and from the ship: but still imagining, that the scrupulous vigilance of the Viceroy must proceed from some mistaken notion about us, which might more easily be removed by writing than in conversation, I drew up a memorial, and Mr. Banks drew up another, which we sent on shore. These memorials were both answered,* but by no means to our satisfaction; we therefore replied: in consequence of which, several other papers were interchanged between us and the Viceroy, but still without effect. However, as I thought some degree of force, on the part of the Viceroy, to enforce these restrictions, necessary to justify my acquiescence in them to the admiralty; I gave orders to my Lieutenant, Mr. Hicks, when I sent him with our last reply on Sunday the 20th,* in the evening, not to suffer a guard to be put into his boat. When the officer on board the guard-boat found that Mr. Hicks was determined to obey my orders, he did not proceed to force, but attended him to the landing-place, and reported the matter to the Viceroy. Upon this his Excellency refused to receive the memorial, and ordered Mr. Hicks to return to the ship; when he came back to the boat, he found that a guard had been put on board in his absence, but he absolutely refused to return till the soldier was removed: the officer then proceeded to enforce the Viceroy's orders; he seized all the boat's crew, and sent them under an armed force to prison, putting Mr. Hicks at the same time into one of their own boats, and sending him under a guard back to the ship. As soon as he had reported these particulars, I wrote again to the Viceroy, demanding my boat and crew, and in my letter inclosed the memorial which he had refused to receive from Mr. Hicks: these papers I sent by a petty officer, that I might wave the dispute about a guard, against which I had never objected except when there was a commissioned officer on board the boat. The petty officer was permitted to go on shore with his guard, and, having delivered his letter, was told that an answer would be sent the next day. --page 57

About eight o'clock this evening it began to blow very hard in sudden gusts from the South, and our long-boat coming on board just at this time with four pipes of rum,* the rope which was thrown to her from the ship, and which was taken hold of by the people on board, unfortunately broke, and the boat, which had come to the ship before the wind, went adrift to windward of her, with a small skiff of Mr. Banks's that was fastened to her stern. This was a great misfortune, as the pinnace being detained on shore, we had no boat on board but a four oar'd yawl: the yawl, however, was immediately manned and sent to her assistance; but, notwithstanding the utmost effort of the people in both boats, they were very soon out of sight: far indeed we could not see at that time in the evening, but the distance was enough to convince us that they were not under command, which gave us great uneasiness, as we knew they must drive directly upon a reef of rocks which ran out just to leeward of where we lay: after waiting some hours in the utmost anxiety, we gave them over for lost, but about three o'clock the next morning had the satisfaction to see all the people come on board in the yawl. From them we learnt,* that the long-boat having filled with water, they had brought her to a grappling and left her; and that, having fallen in with the reef of rocks in their return to the ship, they had been obliged to cut Mr. Banks's little boat adrift. As the loss of our long-boat, which we had now too much reason to apprehend, would have been an unspeakable disadvantage to us, considering the nature of our expedition, I sent another letter to the Viceroy, as soon as I thought he could be seen, acquainting him with our misfortune, and requesting the assistance of a boat from the shore for the recovery of our own; I also renewed my demand that the pinnace and her crew should be no longer detained: after some delay, his Excellency thought sit to comply both with my request and demand; and the same day we happily recovered both the long-boat and skiff,* with the rum, but every thing else that was on board was lost. On the 23d, the Viceroy, in his answer to my remonstrance against seizing my men and detaining the boat, acknowledged that I had been treated with some incivility, but said that the resistance of my officers, to what he had declared to be the King's orders, made it absolutely necessary; he also expressed some doubts whether the Endeavour, considering her structure and other circumstances, was in the service of his Majesty, though I had before shewed him my commission: to this I answered in writing, That to remove all scruples, I was ready to produce my commission again. His Excellency's scruples however still remained, and in his reply to my letter he not only expressed them in still plainer terms, but accused my people of smuggling. This charge, I am confident, was without the least foundation in truth. Mr. Banks's servants had indeed found means to go on shore on the 22d at day-break, and stay till it was dark in the evening, but they brought on board only plants and insects, having been sent for no other purpose. And I had the greatest reason to believe that not a single article was smuggled by any of our people who were admitted on shore, though many artful means were used to tempt them even by the very officers that were under his Excellency's roof, which made the charge still more injurious and provoking. I have indeed some reason to suspect that one poor fellow bought a single bottle of rum with some of the clothes upon his back; and in my answer I requested of his Excellency, that, if such an attempt at illicit trade should be repeated, he would without scruple order the offender to be taken into custody. And thus ended our altercation, both by conference and writing, with the Viceroy of Rio de Janeiro. --page 58

A friar in the town having requested the assistance of our surgeon,* Dr. Solander easily got admittance in that character on the 25th,* and received many marks of civility from the people. On the 26th, before day-break,* Mr. Banks also found means to elude the vigilance of the people in the guard-boat, and got on shore; he did not however go into the town, for the principal objects of his curiosity were to be found in the fields: to him also the people behaved with great civility, many of them invited him to their houses, and he bought a porker and some other things of them for the ship's company; the porker, which was by no means lean, cost him eleven shillings, and he paid something less than two for a Muscovy duck. --page 59

On the 27th, when the boats returned from watering,* the people told us there was a report in town, that search was making after some persons who had been on shore from the ship without the Viceroy's permission; these persons we conjectured to be Dr. Solander and Mr. Banks, and therefore they determined to go on shore no more. --page 60

On the 1st of December,* having got our water and other necessaries on board, I sent to the Viceroy for a pilot to carry us to sea, who came off to us; but the wind preventing us from getting out, we took on board a plentiful supply of fresh beef, yams and greens for the ship's company. On the 2d, a Spanish packet arrived,* with letters from Buenos Ayres for Spain, commanded by Don Antonio de Monte Negro y Velasco, who with great politeness offered to take our letters to Europe: I accepted the favour, and gave him a packet for the Secretary of the Admiralty, containing copies of all the papers that had passed between me and the Viceroy; leaving also duplicates with the Viceroy, to be by him forwarded to Lisbon. --page 61

*On Monday the 5th, it being a dead calm, we weighed anchor and towed down the bay; but, to our great astonishment, when we got abreast of Santa Cruz, the principal fortification, two shot were fired at us. We immediately cast anchor, and sent to the fort to enquire the reason of what had happened: our people brought us word, That the Commandant had received no order from the Viceroy to let us pass; and that, without such an order, no vessel was ever suffered to go below the fort. It was now, therefore, become necessary that we should send to the Viceroy, to enquire why the necessary order had not been given, as he had notice of our departure, and had thought fit to write me a polite letter, wishing me a good voyage. Our messenger soon returned with an account, that the order had been written some days, but by an unaccountable negligence not sent. --page 62

*We did not get under sail till the 7th; and, when we had passed the fort, the pilot desired to be discharged. As soon as he was dismissed, we were left by our guard-boat, which had hovered about us from the first hour of our being in this place to the last: and Mr. Banks, having been prevented from going ashore at Rio de Janeiro, availed himself of her departure to examine the neighbouring islands, where, particularly on one in the mouth of the harbour called Raza, he gathered many species of plants, and caught a variety of insects. --page 63

It is remarkable, that, during the last three or four days of our staying in this harbour, the air was loaded with butterflies: they were chiefly of one sort, but in such numbers that thousands were in view in every direction, and the greatest part of them above our mast-head. --page 64

We lay here from the 14th of November to the 7th of December, something more than three weeks, during which time Mr. Monkhouse, our Surgeon,* was on shore every day to buy our provisions; Dr. Solander was on shore once; I was several times on shore myself, and Mr. Banks also found means to get into the country, notwithstanding the watch that was set over us. I shall, therefore, with the intelligence obtained from these Gentlemen, and my own observations, give some account of the town, and the country adjacent. --page 65

Rio de Janeiro, or the river of Januarius, was probably so called from its having been discovered on the feast-day of that saint; and the town, which is the capital of the Portuguese dominions in America, derives its name from the river, which indeed is rather an arm of the sea, for it did not appear to receive any considerable stream of fresh water: it stands on a plain, close to the shore, on the west side of the bay, at the foot of several high mountains which rise behind it. It is neither ill designed nor ill built; the houses, in general, are of stone, and two stories high; every house having, after the manner of the Portuguese, a little balcony before its windows, and a lattice of wood before the balcony. I computed its circuit to be about three miles; for it appears to be equal in size to the largest country towns in England, Bristol and Liverpool not excepted; the streets are straight, and of a convenient breadth, intersecting each other at right angles; the greater part, however, lie in a line with the citadel, called St. Sebastian, which stands on the top of a hill that commands the town. --page 66

It is supplied with water from the neighbouring hills, by an aqueduct, which is raised upon two stories of arches, and is said in some places to be at a great height from the ground, from which the water is conveyed by pipes into a fountain in the great square that exactly fronts the Viceroy's palace. At this fountain great numbers of people are continually waiting for their turn to draw water;* and the soldiers, who are posted at the Governor's door, find it very difficult to maintain any regularity among them. The water at this fountain however is so bad, that we, who had been two months at sea, confined to that in our casks, which was almost always foul, could not drink it with pleasure. Water of a better quality is laid into some other part of the town, but I could not learn by what means. --page 67

The churches are very fine, and there is more religious parade in this place than in any of the Popish countries in Europe: there is a procession of some parish every day, with various insignia, all splendid and costly in the highest degree: they beg money, and say prayers in great form, at the corner of every street. --page 68

While we lay here, one of the churches was rebuilding; and to defray the expence, the parish to which it belonged had leave to beg in procession through the whole city once a week, by which very considerable sums were collected. At this ceremony, which was performed by night, all the boys of a certain age were obliged to assist, the sons of Gentlemen not being excused. Each of these boys was dressed in a black cassock, with a short red cloak, hanging about as low as the waist, and carried in his hand a pole about six or seven feet long, at the end of which was tied a lantern: the number of lanterns was generally above two hundred, and the light they gave was so great, that the people who saw it from the cabbin windows thought the town had been on fire. --page 69

The inhabitants, however, may pay their devotions at the shrine of any saint in the calendar, without waiting till there is a procession; for before almost every house there is a little cupboard, furnished with a glass window, in which one of these tutelary powers is waiting to be gracious; and to prevent his being out of mind, by being out of sight,* a lamp is kept constantly burning before the window of his tabernacle in the night. The people indeed are by no means remiss in their devotions, for before these saints they pray and sing hymns with such vehemence, that in the night they were very distinctly heard on board the ship, though she lay at the distance of at least half a mile from the town. --page 70

The government here, as to its form, is mixed; it is notwithstanding very despotic in fact. It consists of the Viceroy, the Governor of the town, and a council, the number of which I could not learn: without the consent of this council, in which the Viceroy has a casting vote, no judicial act should be performed; yet both the Viceroy and Governor frequently commit persons to prison at their own pleasure, and sometimes send them to Lisbon, without acquainting their friends or family with what is laid to their charge, or where they may be found. --page 71

To restrain the people from travelling into the country, and getting into any district where gold or diamonds may be found, of both which there is much more than the government can otherwise secure, certain bounds are prescribed them, at the discretion of the Viceroy, sometimes at a few, and sometimes at many miles distance from the city. On the verge of these limits a guard constantly patroles, and whoever is found beyond it, is immediately seized and thrown into prison: and if a man is, upon any pretence, taken up by the guard within the limits, he will be sent to prison, tho' it should appear that he did not know their extent. --page 72

The inhabitants, which are very numerous, consist of Portuguese, Negroes, and Indians, the original natives of the country. The township of Rio, which, as I was told, is but a small part of the Capitanea, or province, is said to contain 37,000 White persons,* and 629,000 Blacks, many of whom are free; making together 666,000, in the proportion of seventeen to one. The Indians, who are employed to do the King's work in this neighbourhood, can scarcely be considered as inhabitants; their residence is at a distance, from whence they come by turns to their task, which they are obliged to perform for a small pay. The guard-boat was constantly rowed by these people, who are of a light copper colour, and have long black hair. --page 73

The military establishment here consists of twelve regiments of regular troops, six of which are Portuguese and six Creoles; and twelve other regiments of provincial militia. To the regulars the inhabitants behave with the utmost humility and submission; and I was told, that if any of them should neglect to take off his hat upon meeting an officer, he would immediately be knocked down. These haughty severities render the people extremely civil to any stranger who has the appearance of a Gentleman. But the subordination of the officers themselves to the Viceroy is enforced with circumstances equally mortifying, for they are obliged to attend in his hall three times every day to ask his commands: the answer constantly is, "There is nothing new." I have been told, that this servile attendance is exacted to prevent their going into the country; and if so, it effectually answers the purpose. --page 74

It is, I believe, universally allowed, that the women, both of the Spanish and Portuguese settlements in South America, make less difficulty of granting personal favours, than those of any other civilized country in the world. Of the Ladies of this town some have formed so unfavourable an opinion as to declare, that they did not believe there was a modest one among them. This censure is certainly too general; but what Dr. Solander saw of them when he was on shore, gave him no very exalted idea of their chastity:* he told me, that as soon as it was dark, one or more of them appeared in every window, and distinguished those whom they liked, among the Gentlemen that walked past them, by giving them nosegays; that he, and two Gentlemen who were with him, received so many of these favours, that, at the end of their walk, which was not a long one, they threw whole hatfuls of them away. Great allowance must certainly be made for local customs; that which in one country would be an indecent familiarity, is a mere act of general courtesy in another; of the fact, therefore, which I have related, I shall say nothing, but that I am confident it is true. --page 75

Neither will I take upon me to affirm, that murders are frequently committed here; but the churches afford an asylum to the criminal: and as our cockswain was one day looking at two men, who appeared to be talking together in a friendly manner, one of them suddenly drew a knife and stabbed the other; who not instantly falling, the murderer withdrew the weapon, and stabbed him a second time. He then ran away, and was pursued by some Negroes who were also witnesses of the fact; but whether he escaped or was taken I never heard. --page 76

The country, at a small distance round the town, which is all that any of us saw, is beautiful in the highest degree; the wildest spots being varied with a greater luxuriance of flowers, both as to number and beauty, than the best gardens in England. --page 77

Upon the trees and bushes sat an almost endless variety of birds, especially small ones, many of them covered with the most elegant plumage; among which were the hummingbird. Of insects too there was a great variety,* and some of them very beautiful; but they were much more nimble than those of Europe, especially the butterflies, most of which flew near the tops of the trees, and were therefore very difficult to be caught, except when the sea breeze blew fresh, which kept them nearer to the ground. --page 78

The banks of the sea, and of the small brooks which water this part of the country, are almost covered with the small crabs called Cancer vocans; some of these had one of the claws, called by naturalists the hand, very large; others had them both remarkably small, and of equal size, a difference which is said to distinguish the sexes, that with the large claw being the male. --page 79

There is the appearance of but little cultivation; the greater part of the land is wholly uncultivated, and very little care and labour seem to have been bestowed upon the rest; there are indeed little patches or gardens, in which many kinds of European garden stuff are produced, particularly cabbages, peas, beans, kidney-beans, turnips, and white radishes, but all much inferior to our own: water melons and pine apples are also produced in these spots, and they are the only fruits that we saw cultivated, though the country produces musk melons, oranges, limes, lemons, sweet lemons, citrons, plantains, bananas, mangos, mamane apples, acajou or cashou apples and nuts; jamboira of two kinds, one of which bears a small black fruit; cocoa nuts, mangos, palm nuts of two kinds, one long, the other round; and palm berries, all which were in season while we were there. --page 80

Of these fruits the water melons and oranges are the best in their kind; the pine apples are much inferior to those that I have eaten in England; they are indeed more juicy and sweet, but have no flavour;* I believe them to be natives of this country, though we heard of none that at this time grow wild; they have, however, very little care bestowed upon them, the plants being set between beds of any kind of garden-stuff, and suffered to take the chance of the season. The melons are still worse, at least those that we tasted, which were mealy and insipid; but the water melons are excellent; they have a flavour, at least a degree of acidity, which ours have not. We saw also several species of the prickle pear, and some European fruits, particularly the apple and peach, both which were very mealy and insipid. In these gardens also grow yams, and mandihoca, which in the West Indies is called Cassada or Cassava, and to the flour of which the people here, as I have before observed, give the name of Farinha de Pao, which may not improperly be translated, Powder of post. The soil, though it produces tobacco and sugar, will not produce bread-corn; so that the people here have no wheat-flour, but what is brought from Portugal, and sold at the rate of a shilling a pound, though it is generally spoiled by being heated in its passage. Mr. Banks is of opinion, that all the products of our West Indian islands would grow here; notwithstanding which, the inhabitants import their coffee and chocolate from Lisbon. --page 81

Most of the land, as far as we saw of the country, is laid down in grass, upon which cattle are pastured in great plenty; but they are so lean, that an Englishman will scarcely eat of their flesh: the herbage of these pastures consists principally of cresses, and consequently is so short, that though it may afford a bite for horses and sheep, it can scarcely be grazed by horned cattle in a sufficient quantity to keep them alive. --page 82

This country may possibly produce many valuable drugs; but we could not find any in the apothecaries shops, except pareira brava,* and balsam capivi; both of which were excellent in their kind, and sold at a very low price. The drug trade is probably carried on to the northward, as well as that of the dying woods, for we could get no intelligence of either of them here. --page 83

As to manufactures, we neither saw nor heard of any, except that of cotton hammocks, in which people are carried about here, as they are with us in sedan chairs; and these are principally, if not wholly, fabricated by the Indians. --page 84

The riches of the place consists chiefly in the mines, which we supposed to lie far up the country, though we could never learn where, or at what distance; for the situation is concealed as much as possible, and troops are continually employed in guarding the roads that lead to them: it is almost impossible for any man to get a sight of them, except those who are employed there; and indeed the strongest curiosity would scarcely induce any man to attempt it, for whoever is found upon the road to them, if he cannot give undeniable evidence of his having business there, is immediately hanged up upon the next tree. --page 85

Much gold is certainly brought from these mines, but at an expence of life, that must strike every man, to whom custom has not made it familiar, with horror. No less than forty thousand negroes are annually imported, on the king's account, to dig the mines; and we were credibly informed, that, the last year but one before we arrived here, this number fell so short, probably from some epidemic disease, that twenty thousand more were draughted from the town of Rio. --page 86

Precious stones are also found here in such plenty, that a certain quantity only is allowed to be collected in a year; to collect this quantity, a number of people are sent into the country where they are found, and when it is got together,* which sometimes happens in a month, sometimes in less and sometimes in more, they return; and after that, whoever is found in these precious districts, on any pretence, before the next year, is immediately put to death. --page 87

The jewels found here, are diamonds, topazes of several kinds, and amethysts. We did not see any of the diamonds, but were informed that the Viceroy had a large quantity by him, which he would sell on the King of Portugal's account, but not at a less price than they are sold for in Europe. Mr. Banks bought a few topazes and amethysts as specimens: of the topazes there are three sorts, of very different value, which are distinguished here by the names of Pinga d'agua qualidade primeiro, Pinga d'agua qualidade secundo, and Chrystallos armerillos: they are sold, large and small, good and bad together, by octavos, or the eighth part of an ounce; the best at 4s. 9d. All dealing, however, in these stones is prohibited to the subject, under the severest penalties: there were jewellers here formerly, who purchased and worked them on their own account; but about fourteen months before our arrival, orders came from the court of Portugal, that no more stones should be wrought here, except on the King's account: the jewellers were ordered to bring all their tools to the Viceroy, and left without any means of subsistence. The persons employed here to work stones for the King are slaves. --page 88

The coin that is current here, is either that of Portugal, consisting chiefly of thirty-six shillings pieces; or pieces, both of gold and silver, which are struck at this place: the pieces of silver, which are very much debased, are called Petacks, and are of different value, and easily distinguished by the number of rees that is marked on the outside. Here is also a copper coin,* like that in Portugal, of five and ten ree pieces. A ree is a nominal coin of Portugal, ten of which are equal in value to about three farthings sterling. --page 89

The harbour of Rio de Janeiro is situated W. by N. 18 leagues from Cape Trio, and may be known by a remarkable hill, in the form of a sugar-loaf, at the west point of the bay; but as all the coast is very high, and rises in many peaks, the entrance of this harbour may be more certainly distinguished by the islands that lie before it; one of which, called Rodonda, is high and round like a hay-stack, and lies at the distance of two leagues and an half from the entrance of the bay, in the direction of S. by W.; but the first islands which are met with, coming from the east, or Cape Trio, are two that have a rocky appearance, lying near to each other, and at the distance of about four miles from the shore: there are also at the distance of three leagues to the westward of these, two other islands which lie near to each other, a little without the bay on the east side, and very near the shore. This harbour is certainly a good one; the entrance indeed is not wide, but the sea breeze, which blows every day from ten or twelve o'clock till sunset, makes it easy for any ship to go in before the wind; and it grows wider as the town is approached, so that abreast of it there is room for the largest fleet, in five or six fathom water, with an oozy bottom. At the narrow part, the entrance is defended by two forts. The principal is Santa Cruz, which stands on the east point of the bay, and has been mentioned before; that on the west side is called fort Lozia, and is built upon a rock that lies close to the main; the distance between them is about ¾ of a mile, but the channel is not quite so broad, because there are sunken rocks which lie off each fort, and in this part alone there is danger: the narrowness of the channel causes the tides, both flood and ebb, to run with considerable strength,* so that they cannot be stemmed without a fresh breeze. The rockyness of the bottom makes it also unsafe to anchor here; but all danger may be avoided by keeping in the middle of the channel. Within the entrance, the course up the bay is first N. by W. ½ W. and. N.N.W. something more than a league; this will bring the vessel the length of the great road; and N.W. and W.N.W. one league more will carry her to the Isle dos Cobras, which lies before the city: she should then keep the north side of this island close on board, and anchor above it, before a monastery of Benedictines which stands upon a hill at the N.W. end of the city. --page 90

The river, and indeed the whole coast, abounds with a greater variety of fish than we had ever seen; a day seldom passed in which one or more of a new species were not brought to Mr. Banks: the bay also is as well adapted for catching these fish as can be conceived; for it is full of small islands, between which there is shallow water, and proper beaches for drawing the seine. The sea, without the bay, abounds with dolphins, and large mackrel of different kinds, which readily bite at a hook, and the inhabitants always tow one after their boats for that purpose. --page 91

Though the climate is hot, the situation of this place is certainly wholesome; while we stayed here the thermometer never rose higher than 83, though we had frequent rains, and once a very hard gale of wind. --page 92

Ships water here at the fountain in the great square, though, as I have observed, the water is not good; they land their casks upon a smooth sandy beach, which is not more than a hundred yards distant from the fountain, and upon application to the Viceroy, a centinel will be appointed to look after them,* and clear the way to the fountain where they are to be filled. --page 93

Upon the whole, Rio de Janeiro is a very good place for ships to put in at that want refreshment: the harbour is safe and commodious; and provisions, except wheaten bread and flour, may be easily procured: as a succedaneum for bread, there are yams and cassada in plenty; beef, both fresh and jerked, may be bought at about two pence farthing a pound; though, as I have before remarked, it is very lean. The people here jerk their beef by taking out the bones, cutting it into large but thin slices, then curing it with salt, and drying it in the shade: it eats very well, and, if kept dry, will remain good a long time at sea. Mutton is scarcely to be procured, and hogs and poultry are dear; of garden-stuff and fruit there is abundance, of which, however, none can be preserved at sea but the pumpkin; rum, sugar, and molasses, all excellent in their kind, may be had at a reasonable price; tobacco also is cheap, but it is not good. Here is a yard for building shipping, and a small hulk to heave down by; for, as the tide never rises above six or seven foot, there is no other way of coming at a ship's bottom. --page 94

When the boat which had been sent on shore returned, we hoisted her on board, and stood out to sea. --page 95

--page 96

• [illustration] A View of Part of the N.E. side of Terra del Fuego taken from the Point A. in the Chart.
• [illustration] A View of Strait Le Maire with Part of Terra del Fuego and Staten Land taken from the Point B. in the Chart.
• [illustration] A View of Part of the S.W. side of Terra del Fuego taken from the Point C. in the Chart.
• [illustration] A View of Part of the Coast of Terra del Fuego from Cape Horn to Isle Evouts, taken from the Point D. in the Chart.
• [illustration] A PLAN OF SUCCESS BAY in STRAIT LE MAIRE
• [illustration] A CHART of the S.E. part of TERRA DEL FUEGO including STRAIT LE MAIRE and part of STATEN-LAND By Lieutenant J. Cook 1769.

• References to the Views.
• a. Cape St. Diego.
• b. Cape St. Vincent.
• c. Sugar Loaf.
• d. Middle Cape Staten Land.
• e. Cape St. Bartholomew.
• f. Entrance of Success Bay.
• g. New Island.
• h. Cape Good Success.
• i. Cape Horn.
• k. Sth Pt. Hermits Islands.
• l. Hermits Islands.
• m. Barnevelts Isles.
• n. Evoute Isle.
• 1.2.3. Three Brothers.

ON the 9th of December,* we observed the sea to be covered with broad streaks of a yellowish colour, several, of them a mile long, and three or four hundred yards wide: some of the water thus coloured was taken up, and found to be full of innumerable atoms pointed at the end, of a yellowish colour, and none more than a quarter of a line, or the fortieth part of an inch long: in the microscope they appeared to be Fasciculi of small fibres interwoven with each other, not unlike the nidus of some of the Phyganeas, called Caddices; but whether they were animal or vegetable substances, whence they came, or for what they were designed, neither Mr. Banks nor Dr. Solander could guess. The same appearance had been observed before, when we first discovered the continent of South America. --page 97

On the 11th we hooked a shark,* and while we were playing it under the cabbin window, it threw out, and drew in again several times what appeared to be its stomach: it proved to be a female, and upon being opened six young ones were taken out of it; five of them were alive and swam briskly in a tub of water, but the sixth appeared to have been dead some time. --page 98

Nothing remarkable happened till the 30th,* except that we prepared for the bad weather, which we were shortly to expect, by bending a new suit of sails; but on this day we ran a course of one hundred and sixty miles by the log,* through innumerable land insects of various kinds, some upon the wing, and more upon the water, many of which were alive; they appeared to be exactly the same with the Carabi, the Grylli, the Phalanae, Aranea, and other flies that are seen in England, though at this time we could not be less than thirty leagues from land; and some of these insects, particularly the Grylli and Aranea, never voluntarily leave it at a greater distance than twenty yards. We judged ourselves to be now nearly opposite to Baye sans fond, where Mr. Dalrymple supposes there is a passage quite through the continent of America; and we thought from the insects that there might be at least a very large river, and that it had overflowed its banks. --page 99

*On the 3d of January, 1769, being in latitude 47° 17′ S. and longitude 61° 29′ 45″ W. we were all looking out for Pepys' island, and for some time an appearance was seen in the east which so much resembled land, that we bore away for it; and it was more than two hours and an half before we were convinced that it was nothing but what sailors call a Fogbank. --page 100

The people now beginning to complain of cold, each of them received what is called a Magellanic jacket, and a pair of trowsers. The jacket is made of a thick woollen-stuff, called Fearnought, which is provided by the government. We saw, from time to time, a great number of penguins, albatrosses, and sheer waters, seals, whales, and porpoises: and on the 11th,* having passed Falkland's islands, we discovered the coast of Terra del Fuego, at the distance of about four leagues, extending from the W. to S. E. by S. We had here five and thirty fathom, the ground soft, small slate stones. As we ranged along the shore to the S. E. at the distance of two or three leagues, we perceived smoke in several places,* which was made by the natives, probably as a signal, for they did not continue it after we had passed by. This day we discovered that the ship had got near a degree of longitude to the westward of the log, which, in this latitude, is 35 minutes of a degree on the equator: probably there is a small current setting to the westward, which may be caused by the westerly current coming round Cape Horn, and through the Streight of Le Maire, and the indraught of the Streight of Magellan*. --page 101

Having continued to range the coast,* on the 14th we entered the Streight of Le Maire; but the tide turning against us, drove us out with great violence, and raised such a sea off Cape St. Diego, that the waves had exactly the same appearance as they would have had if they had broke over a ledge of rocks; and when the ship was in this torrent, she frequently pitched, so that the bowsprit was under water. About noon, we got under the land between Cape St. Diego and Cape St. Vincent, where I intended to have anchored; but finding the ground every where hard and rocky, and shallowing from thirty to twelve fathoms, I sent the Master to examine a little cove which lay at a small distance to the eastward of Cape St. Vincent. When he returned, he reported, that there was anchorage in four fathom, and a good bottom, close to the eastward of the first bluff point, on the east of Cape St. Vincent, at the very entrance of the cove, to which I gave the name of VINCENT's Bay: before this anchoring ground,* however, lay several rocky ledges, that were covered with sea-weed; but I was told that there was not less than eight and nine fathom over all of them. It will probably be thought strange, that where weeds, which grow at the bottom, appear above the surface, there should be this depth of water; but the weeds which grow upon rocky ground in these countries, and which always distinguish it from sand and ooze, are of an enormous size. The leaves are four foot long, and some of the stalks, though not thicker than a man's thumb, above one hundred and twenty: Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined some of them, over which we founded and had fourteen fathom, which is eighty-four feet; and, as they made a very acute angle with the bottom, they were thought to be at least one half longer: the foot stalks were swelled into an air vessel, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander called this plant Fucus giganteus. Upon the report of the Master, I stood in with the ship; but not trusting implicitly to his intelligence, I continued to sound, and found but four fathom upon the first ledge that I went over; concluding, therefore, that I could not anchor here without risk, I determined to seek some port in the Streight, where I might get on board such wood and water as we wanted. --page 102

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, however, being very desirous to go on shore, I sent a boat with them and their people, while I kept plying as near as possible with the ship. --page 103

Having been on shore four hours, they returned about nine in the evening, with above an hundred different plants and flowers, all of them wholly unknown to the botanists of Europe. They found the country about the bay to be in general slat, the bottom of it in particular was a plain, covered with grass, which might easily have been made into a large quantity of hay; they found also abundance of good wood and water, and fowl in great plenty.* Among other things, of which Nature has been liberal in this place, is Winter's bark, Winteranea aromatica; which may easily be known by its broad leaf, shaped like the laurel, of a light green colour without, and inclining to blue within: the bark is easily stripped with a bone or a stick, and its virtues are well known: it may be used for culinary purposes as a spice, and is not less pleasant than wholesome: here is also plenty of wild celery and scurvy grass. The trees are chiefly of one kind, a species of the birch, called Betula antartica; the stem is from thirty to forty feet long, and from two to three feet in diameter, so that in a case of necessity they might possibly supply a ship with top-masts: they are a light white wood, bear a small leaf, and cleave very straight. Cranberries were also found here in great plenty, both white and red. --page 104

The persons who landed saw none of the inhabitants, but fell in with two of their deserted huts, one in a thick wood, and the other close by the beach. --page 105

Having taken the boat on board, I made sail into the Streight, and at three in the morning of the 15th,* I anchored in twelve fathom and an half, upon coral rocks, before a small cove, which we took for Port Maurice, at the distance of about half a mile from the shore. Two of the natives came down to the beach, expecting us to land; but this spot afforded so little shelter, that I at length determined not to examine it: I therefore got under sail again about ten o'clock, and the savages retired into the woods. --page 106

At two o'clock, we anchored in the bay of Good Success; and after dinner I went on shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, to look for a watering-place, and speak to the Indians, several of whom had come in sight. We landed on the starboard side of the bay near some rocks, which made smooth water and good landing;* thirty or forty of the Indians soon made their appearance at the end of a sandy beach on the other side of the bay, but seeing our number, which was ten or twelve, they retreated. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander then advanced about one hundred yards before us, upon which two of the Indians returned, and, having advanced some paces towards them, sat down; as soon as they came up, the Indians rose, and each of them having a small stick in his hand threw it away, in a direction both from themselves and the strangers, which was considered as the renunciation of weapons in token of peace: they then walked briskly towards their companions, who had halted at about fifty yards behind them, and beckoned the Gentle men to follow, which they did. They were received with many uncouth signs of friendship; and, in return, they distributed among them some beads and ribbons, which had been brought on shore for that purpose, and with which they were greatly delighted. A mutual confidence and good-will being thus produced, our parties joined; the conversation, such as it was, became general; and three of them accompanied us back to the ship. When they came on board, one of them, whom we took to be a priest, performed much the same ceremonies which M. Bougainville describes, and supposes to be an exorcism. When he was introduced into a new part of the ship, or when any thing that he had not seen before caught his attention, he shouted with all his force for some minutes, without directing his voice either to us or his companions. --page 107

They eat some bread and some beef, but not apparently with much pleasure, though such part of what was given them as they did not eat they took away with them; but they would not swallow a drop either of wine or spirits: they put the glass to their lips, but, having tasted the liquor, they returned it, with strong expressions of disgust.* Curiosity seems to be one of the few passions which distinguish men from brutes; and of this our guests appeared to have very little. They went from one part of the ship to another, and looked at the vast variety of new objects that every moment presented themselves, without any expression either of wonder or pleasure, for the vociferation of our exorcist seemed to be neither. --page 108

After having been on board about two hours, they expressed a desire to go ashore. A boat was immediately ordered, and Mr. Banks thought fit to accompany them: he landed them in safety, and conducted them to their companions, among whom he remarked the same vacant indifference, as in those who had been on board; for as on one side there appeared no eagerness to relate, so on the other there seemed to be no curiosity to hear, how they had been received, or what they had seen. In about half an hour, Mr. Banks returned to the ship, and the Indians retired from the shore. --page 109

*ON the 16th, early in the morning, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with their attendants and servants, and two seamen to assist in carrying the baggage, accompanied by Mr. Monkhouse the Surgeon, and Mr. Green the Astronomer, set out from the ship, with a view to penetrate as far as they could into the country, and return at night. The hills, when viewed at a distance, seemed to be partly a wood, partly a plain, and above them a bare rock. Mr. Banks hoped to get through the wood, and made no doubt, but that, beyond it, he should, in a country which no botanist had ever yet visited, find alpine plants which would abundantly compensate his labour. They entered the wood at a small sandy beach, a little to the westward of the watering-place, and continued to ascend the hill, through the pathless wilderness, till three o'clock, before they got a near view of the places which they intended to visit. Soon after they reached what they had taken for a plain; but, to their great disappointment, found it a swamp, covered with low bushes of birch, about three feet high, interwoven with each other, and so stubborn that they could not be bent out of the way; it was therefore necessary to lift the leg over them, which at every step was buried, ancle deep, in the soil. To aggravate the pain and difficulty of such travelling, the weather, which hitherto had been very fine, much like one of our bright days in May, became gloomy and cold; with sudden blasts of a most piercing wind, accompanied with snow.* They pushed forward, however, in good spirits, notwithstanding their fatigue, hoping the worst of the way was past, and that the bare rock which they had seen from the tops of the lower hills was not more than a mile before them; but when they had got about two thirds over this woody swamp, Mr. Buchan, one of Mr. Banks's draughtmen, was unhappily seized with a fit. This made it necessary for the whole company to halt, and as it was impossible that he should go any farther, a fire was kindled, and those who were most fatigued were left behind to take care of him. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Mr. Green, and Mr. Monkhouse went on, and in a short time reached the summit. As botanists, their expectations were here abundantly gratified; for they found a great variety of plants, which, with respect to the alpine plants in Europe, are exactly what those plants are with respect to such as grow in the plain. --page 110

The cold was now become more severe, and the snow-blasts more frequent; the day also was so far spent, that it was found impossible to get back to the ship before the next morning: to pass the night upon such a mountain, in such a climate, was not only comfortless, but dreadful; it was impossible however to be avoided, and they were to provide for it as well as they could. --page 111

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, while they were improving an opportunity which they had, with so much danger and difficulty, procured, by gathering the plants which they found upon the mountain, sent Mr. Green and Mr. Monkhouse back to Mr. Buchan and the people that were with him, with directions to bring them to a hill, which they thought lay in a better rout for returning to the wood, and which was therefore appointed as a general rendezvous. It was proposed,* that from this hill they should push through the swamp, which seemed by the new rout not to be more than half a mile over, into the shelter of the wood, and there build their wigwam, and make a fire: this, as their way was all down hill, it seemed easy to accomplish. Their whole company assembled at the rendezvous, and, though pinched with the cold, were in health and spirks, Mr. Buchan himself having recovered his strength in a much greater degree than could have been expected. It was now near eight o'clock in the evening, but still good day-light, and they set forward for the nearest valley, Mr. Banks himself undertaking to bring up the rear, and see that no straggler was left behind: this may perhaps be thought a superfluous caution, but it will soon appear to be otherwise. Dr. Solander, who had more than once crossed the mountains which divide Sweden from Norway, well knew that extreme cold, especially when joined with fatigue, produces a torpor and sleepiness that are almost irresistible: he therefore conjured the company to keep moving, whatever pain it might cost them, and whatever relief they might be promised by an inclination to rest: Whoever sits down, says he, will sleep; and whoever sleeps, will wake no more. Thus, at once admonished and alarmed, they set forward; but while they were still upon the naked rock, and before they had got among the bushes, the cold became suddenly so intense, as to produce the effects that had been most dreaded. Dr. Solander himself was the first who found the inclination, against which he had warned others, irresistible; and insisted upon being suffered to lie down. Mr. Banks intreated and remonstrated in vain, down he lay upon the ground, though it was covered with snow; and it was with great difficulty that his friend kept him from sleeping. Richmond also, one of the black servants, began to linger,* having suffered from the cold in the same manner as the Doctor. Mr. Banks, therefore, sent five of the company, among whom was Mr. Buchan, forward to get a fire ready at the first convenient place they could find; and himself, with four others, remained with the Doctor and Richmond, whom partly by persuasion and entreaty, and partly by force, they brought on; but when they had got through the greatest part of the birch and swamp, they both declared they could go no farther. Mr. Banks had recourse again to entreaty and expostulation, but they produced no effect: when Richmond was told, that if he did not go on he would in a short time be frozen to death; he answered, That he desired nothing but to lie down and die: the Doctor did not so explicitly renounce his life; he said he was willing to go on, but that he must first take some sleep, though he had before told the company that to sleep was to perish. Mr. Banks and the rest found it impossible to carry them, and there being no remedy they were both suffered to sit down, being partly supported by the bushes, and in a few minutes they fell into a profound sleep: soon after, some of the people who had been sent forward returned, with the welcome news that a fire was kindled about a quarter of a mile farther on the way. Mr. Banks then endeavoured to wake Dr. Solander and happily succeeded: but, though he had not slept five minutes, he had almost lost the use of his limbs, and the muscles were so shrunk that his shoes fell from his feet; he consented to go forward with such assistance as could be given him, but no attempts to relieve poor Richmond were successful. It being found impossible to make him stir, after some time had been lost in the attempt, Mr. Banks left his other black servant and a seaman, who seemed to have suffered least by the cold, to look after him; promising, that as soon as two others should be sufficiently warmed, they should be relieved.* Mr. Banks, with much difficulty, at length got the Doctor to the fire; and soon after sent two of the people who had been refreshed, in hopes that, with the assistance of those who had been left behind, they would be able to bring Richmond, even though it should still be found impossible to wake him. In about half an hour, however, they had the mortification to see these two men return alone; they said, that they had been all round the place to which they had been directed, but could neither find Richmond nor those who had been left with him; and that though they had shouted many times, no voice had replied. This was matter of equal surprise and concern, particularly to Mr. Banks, who, while he was wondering how it could happen, missed a bottle of rum, the company's whole stock, which they now concluded to be in the knapsack of one of the absentees. It was conjectured, that with this Richmond had been rouzed by the two persons who had been left with him, and that, having perhaps drank too freely of it themselves, they had all rambled from the place where they had been left, in search of the fire, instead of waiting for those who should have been their assistants and guides. Another fall of snow now came on, and continued incessantly for two hours, so that all hope of seeing them again, at least alive, were given up; but about twelve o'clock, to the great joy of those at the fire, a shouting was heard at some distance. Mr. Banks, with four more, immediately went out, and found the seaman with just strength enough left to stagger along, and call out for assistance: Mr. Banks sent him immediately to the fire, and, by his direction, proceeded in search of the other two, whom he soon after found. Richmond was upon his legs, but not able to put one before the other; his companion was lying upon the ground, as insensible as a stone. All hands were now called from the fire,* and an attempt was made to carry them to it; but this, notwithstanding the united efforts of the whole company, was found to be impossible. The night was extremely dark, the snow was now very deep, and, under these additional disadvantages, they found it very difficult to make way through the bushes and the bog for themselves, all of them getting many falls in the attempt. The only alternative was to make a fire upon the spot; but the snow which had fallen, and was still falling, besides what was every moment shaken in flakes from the trees, rendered it equally impracticable, to kindle one there, and to bring any part of that which had been kindled in the wood thither: they were, therefore, reduced to the sad necessity of leaving the unhappy wretches to their fate; having first made them a bed of boughs from the trees, and spread a covering of the same kind over them to a considerable height. --page 112

Having now been exposed to the cold and the snow near an hour and an half, some of the rest began to lose their sensibility; and one Briscoe, another of Mr. Banks's servants, was so ill, that it was thought he must die before he could be got to the fire. --page 113

At the fire, however, at length they arrived; and passed the night in a situation, which, however dreadful in itself, was rendered more afflicting by the remembrance of what was past, and the uncertainty of what was to come. Of twelve, the number that set out together in health and spirits, two were supposed to be already dead; a third was so ill, that it was very doubtful whether he would be able to go forward in the morning; and a fourth, Mr. Bunchan, was in danger of a return of his fits, by fresh fatigue after so uncomfortable a night: they were distant from the ship a long day's journey,* through pathless woods, in which it was too probable they might be bewildered till they were overtaken by the next night; and, not having prepared for a journey of more than eight or ten hours, they were wholly destitute of provisions, except a vulture, which they happened to shoot while they were out, and which, if equally divided, would not afford each of them half a meal; and they knew not how much more they might suffer from the cold, as the snow still continued to fall. A dreadful testimony of the severity of the climate, as it was now the midst of summer in this part of the world, the twenty-first of December being here the longest day; and every thing might justly be dreaded from a phaenomenon which, in the corresponding season, is unknown even in Norway and Lapland. --page 114

*When the morning dawned, they saw nothing round them, as far as the eye could reach, but snow, which seemed to lie as thick upon the trees as upon the ground; and the blasts returned so frequently, and with such violence, that they found it impossible for them to set out: how long this might last they knew not, and they had but too much reason to apprehend that it would confine them in that desolate forest till they perished with hunger and cold. --page 115

After having suffered the misery and terror of this situation till six o'clock in the morning, they conceived some hope of deliverance by discovering the place of the sun through the clouds, which were become thinner, and began to break away. Their first care was to see whether the poor wretches whom they had been obliged to leave among the bushes were yet alive; three of the company were dispatched for that purpose, and very soon afterwards returned with the melancholy news, that they were dead. --page 116

Notwithstanding the flattering appearance of the sky,* the snow still continued to fall so thick that they could not venture out upon their journey to the ship; but about 8 o'clock a small regular breeze sprung up, which, with the prevailing influence of the sun, at length cleared the air; and they soon after, with great joy, saw the snow fall in large flakes from the trees, a certain sign of an approaching thaw: they now examined more critically the state of their invalids; Briscoe was still very ill, but said, that he thought himself able to walk; and Mr. Buchan was much better than either he or his friends had any reason to expect. They were now, however, pressed by the calls of hunger, to which, after long fasting, every consideration of future good or evil immediately gives way. Before they set forward, therefore, it was unanimously agreed, that they should eat their vulture; the bird was accordingly skinned, and, it being thought best to divide it before it was fit to be eaten, it was cut into ten portions, and every man cooked his own as he thought fit. After this repast, which furnished each of them with about three mouthfuls, they prepared to set out; but it was ten o'clock before the snow was sufficiently gone off to render a march practicable. After a walk of about three hours, they were very agreeably surprised to find themselves upon the beach, and much nearer to the ship than they had any reason to expect. Upon reviewing their track from the vessel, they perceived, that, instead of ascending the hill in a line, so as to penetrate into the country, they had made almost a circle round it. When they came on board, they congratulated each other upon their safety, with a joy that no man can feel who has not been exposed to equal danger; and as I had suffered great anxiety at their not returning in the evening of the day on which they set out, I was not wholly without my share. --page 117

*ON the 18th and 19th, we were delayed in getting on board our wood and water by a swell: but on the 20th, the weather being more moderate, we again sent the boat on shore, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went in it. They landed in the bottom of the bay, and while my people were employed in the cutting brooms, they pursued their great object, the improvement of natural knowlege, with success, collecting many shells and plants which hitherto have been altogether unknown: they came on board to dinner, and afterwards went again on shore to visit an Indian town, which some of the people had reported to lie about two miles up the country. They found the distance not more than by the account, and they approached it by what appeared to be the common road, yet they were above an hour in getting thither, for they were frequently up to their knees in mud; when they got within a small distance, two of the people came out to meet them, with such state as they could assume; when they joined them, they began to hallow as they had done on board the ship, without addressing themselves either to the strangers or their companions; and having continued this strange vociferation some time, they conducted them to the town. It was situated on a dry knoll, or small hill, covered with wood, none of which seemed to have been cleared away, and consisted of about twelve or fourteen hovels, of the most --page 118

[illustration] rude and inartificial structure that can be imagined.* They were nothing more than a few poles set up so as to incline towards each other, and meet at the top, forming a kind of a cone, like some of our bee-hives: on the weather side they were covered with a few boughs, and a little grass; and on the lee fide about one eighth of the circle was left open, both for a door and a fire place; and of this kind were the huts that had been seen in St. Vincent's bay, in one of which the embers of a fire were still remaining. Furniture they had none; a little grass, which lay round the inside of the hovel, served both for chairs and beds; and of all the utensils which necessity and ingenuity have concurred to produce among other savage nations, they saw only a basket to carry in the hand, a satchel to hang at the back, and the bladder of some beast to hold water, which the natives drink through a hole that is made near the top for that purpose. The inhabitants of this town were a small tribe, not more than fifty in number, of both sexes and of every age. Their colour resembles that of the rust of iron mixed with oil, and they have long black hair: the men are large, but clumsily built; their stature is from five feet eight to five feet ten; the women are much less, few of them being more than five feet high. Their whole apparel consists of the skin of a guanicoe, or seal, which is thrown over their shoulders, exactly in the state in which it came from the animal's back; a piece of the same skin, which is drawn over their feet, and gathered about the ancles like a purse, and a small flap, which is worn by the women as a succedaneum for a fig-leaf. The men wear their cloak open, the women tie it about their waist with a thong. But although they are content to be naked, they are very ambitious to be fine. Their faces were painted in various forms: the region of the eye was in general white,* and the rest of the face adorned with horizontal streaks of red and black; yet scarcely any two were exactly alike. This decoration seems to be more profuse and elaborate upon particular occasions, for the two Gentlemen who introduced Mr. Banks and the Doctor into the town, were almost covered with streaks of black in all directions, so as to make a very striking appearance. Both men and women wore bracelets of such beads as they could make themselves of small shells or bones; the women both upon their wrists and ancles, the men upon their wrists only; but to compensate for the want of bracelets on their legs, they wore a kind of fillet of brown worsted round their heads. They seemed to set a particular value upon any thing that was red, and preferred beads even to a knife or a hatchet. --page 119

Their language in general is guttural, and they express some of their words by a sound exactly like that which we make to clear the throat when any thing happens to obstruct it; yet they have words which would be deemed soft in the better languages of Europe. Mr. Banks learnt what he supposes to be their name for beads and water. When they wanted beads, instead of ribbons or other trifles, they said hallēcā; and when they were taken on shore from the ship, and by signs asked where water might be found, they made the sign of drinking, and pointing as well to the casks as the watering place, cried Oodâ. --page 120

We saw no appearance of their having any food but shell-fish; for though seals were frequently seen near the shore, they seemed to have no implements for taking them. The shell-fish is collected by the women, whose business it seems to be to attend at low water, with a basket in one hand, a stick, pointed and barbed, in the other, and a satchel at their backs: they loosen the limpets, and other fish that adhere to the rocks, with the stick, and put them into the basket;* which, when full, they empty into the satchel. --page 121

The only things that we found among them in which there was the least appearance of neatness or ingenuity, were their weapons, which consisted of a bow and arrows. The bow was not inelegantly made, and the arrows were the neatest that we had ever seen: they were of wood, polished to the highest degree; and the point, which was of glass or flint, and barbed, was formed and fitted with wonderful dexterity. We saw also some pieces of glass and flint among them unwrought, besides rings, buttons, cloth, and canvass, with other European commodities; they must therefore sometimes travel to the northward, for it is many years since any ship has been so far south as this part of Terra del Fuego. We observed also, that they shewed no surprise at our firearms, with the use of which they appeared to be well acquainted; for they made signs to Mr. Banks to shoot a seal which followed the boat as they were going on shore from the ship. --page 122

M. de Bougainville, who, in January 1768, just one year before us, had been on shore upon this coast in latitude 53° 40′ 41″, had, among other things, given glass to the people whom he found here; for he says, that a boy about twelve years old took it into his head to eat some of it: by this unhappy accident he died in great misery; but the endeavours of the good father, the French Aumonier, were more successful than those of the Surgeon; for though the Surgeon could not save his life, the charitable Priest found means to steal a Christian baptism upon him so secretly, that none of his Pagan relations knew any thing of the matter. These people might probably have some of the very glass which Bougainville left behind him, either from other natives, or perhaps from himself;* for they appeared rather to be a travelling hord, than to have any fixed habitation. Their houses are built to stand but for a short time; they have no utensil or furniture but the basket and satchel, which have been mentioned before, and which have handles adapted to the carrying them about, in the hand and upon the back; the only cloathing they had here was scarcely sufficient to prevent their perishing with cold in the summer of this country, much less in the extreme severity of winter; the shell-fish which seems to be their only food must soon be exhausted at any one place; and we had seen houses upon what appeared to be a deserted station in St. Vincent's bay. --page 123

It is also probable that the place where we found them was only a temporary residence, from their having here nothing like a boat or canoe, of which it can scarcely be supposed that they were wholly destitute, especially as they were not sea-sick, or particularly affected, either in our boat or on board the ship. We conjectured that there might be a streight or inlet, running from the sea through great part of this island, from the Streight of Magellan, whence these people might come, leaving their canoes where such inlet terminated. --page 124

They did not appear to have among them any government or subordination: none was more respected than another; yet they seemed to live together in the utmost harmony and good fellowship. Neither did we discover any appearance of religion among them, except the noises which have been mentioned, and which we supposed to be a superstitious ceremony, merely because we could refer them to nothing else: they were used only by one of those who came on board the ship, and the two who conducted Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to the town, whom we therefore conjectured to be priests. Upon the whole,* these people appeared to be the most destitute and forlorn, as well as the most stupid of all human beings; the outcasts of Nature, who spent their lives in wandering about the dreary wastes, where two of our people perished with cold in the midst of summer; with no dwelling but a wretched hovel of sticks and grass, which would not only admit the wind, but the snow and the rain; almost naked; and destitute of every convenience that is furnished by the rudest art, having no implement even to dress their food: yet they were content. They seemed to have no wish for any thing more than they possessed, nor did anything that we offered them appear acceptable but beads, as an ornamental superfluity of life. What bodily pain they might suffer from the severities of their winter we could not know; but it is certain, that they suffered nothing from the want of the innumerable articles which we consider, not as the luxuries and conveniencies only, but the necessaries of life: as their desires are few, they probably enjoy them all; and how much they may be gainers by an exemption from the care, labour and solicitude, which arise from a perpetual and unsuccessful effort to gratify that infinite variety of desires which the refinements of artificial life have produced among us, is not very easy to determine: possibly this may counterbalance all the real disadvantages of their situation in comparison with ours, and make the scales by which good and evil are distributed to man, hang even between us. --page 125

In this place we saw no quadruped except seals, sea-lions, and dogs; of the dogs it is remarkable that they bark, which those that are originally bred in Americado not. And this is a further proof, that the people we saw here had, either immediately or remotely, communicated with the inhabitants of Europe. There are, however, other quadrupeds in this part of the country; for when Mr. Banks was at the top of the highest hill that he ascended in his expedition through the woods,* he saw the footsteps of a large beast imprinted upon the surface of a bog, though he could not with any probability guess of what kind it might be. --page 126

Of land-birds there are but few; Mr. Banks saw none larger than an English blackbird, except some hawks and a vulture; but of water-fowl there is great plenty, particularly ducks. Of fish we saw scarce any, and with our hooks could catch none that was fit to eat; but shell-fish, limpets, clams, and muscles were to be found in abundance. --page 127

Among the insects, which were not numerous, there was neither gnat nor musquito, nor any other species that was either hurtful or troublesome, which perhaps is more than can be said of any other uncleared country. During the snow-blasts, which happened every day while we were here, they hide themselves; and the moment it is fair they appear again, as nimble and vigorous as the warmest weather could make them. --page 128

Of plants, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found a vast variety; the far greater part wholly different from any that have been hitherto described. Besides the birch, and winter's bark, which have been mentioned already, there is the beach, Fagus antarcticus, which, as well as the birch, may be used for timber. The plants cannot be enumerated here; but as the scurvy-grass, Cardamine antiscorbutica, and the wild celery, Apium antarcticum, probably contain antiscorbutic qualities, which may be of great benefit to the crews of such ships as shall hereafter touch at this place, the following short description is inserted: --page 129

The scurvy-grass will be found in plenty in damp places, near springs of water, and in general in all places that lie near the beach, especially at the watering-place in the Bay of Good Success: when it is young,* the state of its greatest perfection, it lies flat upon the ground, having many leaves of a bright green, standing in pairs opposite to each other, with a single one at the end, which generally makes the fifth upon a foot stalk: the plant, passing from this state, shoots up in stalks that are sometimes two feet high, at the top of which are small white blossoms, and these are succeeded by long pods: the whole plant greatly resembles that which in England is called Lady's smock, or Cuckow-flower. The wild celery is very like the celery in our gardens, the flowers are white, and stand in the same manner, in small tufts at the top of the branches, but the leaves are of a deeper green. It grows in great abundance near the beach, and generally upon the soil that lies next above the spring tides. It may indeed easily be known by the taste, which is between that of celery and parsley. We used the celery in large quantities, particularly in our soup, which, thus medicated, produced the same good effects which seamen generally derive from a vegetable diet, after having been long confined to salt provisions. --page 130

On Sunday, the 22d of January,* about two o'clock in the morning, having got our wood and water on board, we sailed out of the Bay, and continued our course through the Streight. --page 131

*ALMOST an writers who have mentioned the island of Terra del Fuego, describe it as destitute of wood, and covered with snow. In the winter it may possibly be covered with snow, and those who saw it at that season might perhaps be easily deceived, by its appearance, into an opinion that it was destitute of wood. Lord Anson was there in the beginning of March, which answers to our September; and we were there the beginning of January, which answers to our July, which may account for the difference of his description of it from ours. We fell in with it about twenty-one leagues to the westward of the Streight of Le Maire, and from the time that we first saw it, trees were plainly to be distinguished with our glasses; and as we came nearer, though here and there we discovered patches of snow, the sides of the hills and the sea-coast appeared to be covered with a beautiful verdure. The hills are lofty, but not mountainous, though the summits of them are quite naked. The soil in the valleys is rich, and of a considerable depth; and at the foot of almost every hill there is a brook, the water of which has a reddish hue, like that which runs through our turf bogs in England, but it is by no means ill tasted, and upon the whole proved to be the best that we took in during our voyage. We ranged the coast to the Streight,* and had foundings all the way from 40 to 20 fathom, upon a gravelly and sandy bottom. The most remarkable land on Terra del Fuego is a hill, in the form of a sugar-loaf, which stands on the west side not far from the sea; and the three hills, called the three brothers, about nine miles to the westward of Cape St. Diego, the low point that forms the north entrance of the Streight of Le Maire. --page 132

It is said in the account of Lord Anson's voyage, that it is difficult to determine exactly where the Streight lies, though the appearance of Terra del Fuego be well known, without knowing also the appearance of Staten Land; and that some navigators have been deceived by three hills on Staten Land, which have been mistaken for the three brothers on Terra del Fuego, and so over-shot the Streight. But no ship can possibly miss the Streight that coasts Terra del Fuego within sight of land, for it will then, of itself, be sufficiently conspicuous; and Staten Land, which forms the east side, will be still more manifestly distinguished, for there is no land on Terra del Fuego like it. The Streight of Le Maire can be missed only by standing too far to the eastward, without keeping the land of Terra del Fuego in sight: if this is done, it may be missed, however accurately the appearance of the coast of Staten Land may have been exhibited; and if this is not done, it cannot be missed, though the appearance of that coast be not known. The entrance of the Streight should not be attempted but with a fair wind and moderate weather, and upon the very beginning of the tide of flood, which happens here, at the full and change of the moon, about one or two o'clock; it is also best to keep as near to the Terra del Fuego shore as the winds will admit. By attending to these particulars, a ship may be got quite through the Streight in one tide;* or, at least, to the southward of Success Bay, into which it will be more prudent to put, if the wind should be southerly, than to attempt the weathering of Staten Land with a lee wind and a current, which may endanger her being driven on that island. --page 133

The Streight itself, which is bounded on the west by Terra del Fuego, and on the east by the west end of Staten Land, is about five leagues long, and as many broad. The Bay of Good Success lies about the middle of it, on the Terra del Fuego side, and is discovered immediately upon entering the Streight from the northward; and the south head of it may be distinguished by a mark on the land, that has the appearance of a broad road, leading up from the sea into the country: at the entrance it is half a league wide, and runs in westward about two miles and an half. There is good anchorage in every part of it, in from ten to seven fathom, clear ground; and it affords plenty of exceeding good wood and water. The tides flow in the Bay, at the full and change of the moon, about four or five o'clock, and rise about five or six feet perpendicular. But the flood runs two or three hours longer in the Streight than in the Bay; and the ebb, or northerly current, runs with near double the strength of the flood. --page 134

In the appearance of Staten Land, we did not discover the wildness and horror that is ascribed to it in the account of Lord Anson's voyage. On the north side are the appearances of bays or harbours; and the land, when we saw it, was neither destitute of wood nor verdure, nor covered with snow. The island seems to be about twelve leagues in length, and five broad. --page 135

On the west side of the Cape of Good Success, which forms the S. W. entrance of the Streight, lies Valentine's Bay, of which we only saw the entrance;* from this bay the land trends away to the W. S. W. for twenty or thirty leagues; it appears to be high and mountainous, and forms several bays and inlets. --page 136

At the distance of fourteen leagues from the bay of Good Success, in the direction of S. W. ½ W. and between two and three leagues from the shore, lies New Island. It is about two leagues in length from N. E. to S. W. and terminates to the N. E. in a remarkable hillock. At the distance of seven leagues from New Island, in the direction of S. W. lies the isle Evouts; and a little to the west of the south of this island lie Barnevelt's two small flat islands, close to each other; they are partly surrounded with rocks, which rise to different heights above the water, and lie twenty-four leagues from the Streight of Le Maire. At the distance of three leagues from Barnevelt's islands, in the direction of S. W. by S. lies the S. E. point of Hermit's islands: these islands lie S. E. and N. W. and are pretty high: from most points of view they will be taken for one island, or a part of the main. --page 137

From the S. E. point of Hermit's islands to Cape Horn the course is S.W. by S. distance three leagues. --page 138

The appearance of this Cape and Hermit's islands is represented in the chart of this coast, from our first making land to the Cape, which includes the Streight of Le Maire, and part of Staten Land. In this chart I have laid down no land, nor traced out any shore but what I saw myself, and thus far it may be depended upon: the bays and inlets, of which we saw only the openings, are not traced; it can, however, scarcely be doubted, but that most, if not all of them, afford anchorage, wood and water. The Dutch squadron, commanded by Hermit, certainly put into some of them in the year 1624; and was Chapenham, the Vice Admiral of this squadron,* who first discovered that the land of Cape Horn consisted of a number of islands. The account, however, which those who sailed in Hermit's fleet have given of these parts is extremely defective; and those of Schouton and Le Maire are still worse: it is therefore no wonder that the charts hitherto published should be erroneous, not only in laying down the land, but in the latitude and longitude of the places they contain. I will, however, venture to assert, that the longitude of few parts of the world is better ascertained than that of the Streight of Le Maire, and Cape Horn, in the chart now offered to the public, as it was laid down by several observations of the sun and moon, that were made both by myself and Mr. Green. --page 139

The variation of the compass on this coast I found to be from 23° to 25° E. except near Barnevelt's islands and Cape Horn, where we found it less, and unsettled; probably it is disturbed here by the land, as Hermit's squadron, in this very place found all their compasses differ from each other. The declination of the dipping-needle, when set up on shore in Success Bay, was 68° 15′ below the horizon. --page 140

Between Streight Le Maire and Cape Horn, we found a current setting, generally very strong, to the N. E. when we were in with the shore; but lost it when we were at the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues. --page 141

*On the 26th of January, we took our departure from Cape Horn, which lies in latitude 55° 53′ S. longitude 68° 13′ W. The farthest southern latitude that we made was 60° 10′, our longitude was then 74° 30′ W.; and we found the variation of the compass, by the mean of eighteen azimuths, to be 27° 9′ E. As the weather was frequently calm, Mr. Banks went out in a small boat to shoot birds, among which were some albatrosses and sheerwaters. The albatrosses were observed to be larger than those which had been taken northward of the Streight;* one of them measured ten feet two inches from the tip of one wing to that of the other, when they were extended: the sheerwater, on the contrary, is less, and darker coloured on the back. The albatrosses we skinned, and having soaked them in salt water till the morning, we parboiled them, then throwing away the liquor, stewed them in a very little fresh water till they were tender, and had them served up with savoury sauce; thus dressed, the dish was universally commended, and we eat of it very heartily even when there was fresh pork upon the table. --page 142

From a variety of observations which were made with great care, it appeared probable in the highest degree, that, from the time of our leaving the land to the 13th of February, when we were in latitude 49° 32′, and longitude 90° 37′,* we had no current to the west. --page 143

At this time we had advanced about 12° to the westward, and 3 and ½ to the northward of the Streight of Magellan: having been just three and thirty days in coming round the land of Terra del Fuego, or Cape Horn, from the east entrance of the Streight to this situation. And though the doubling of Cape Horn is so much dreaded, that, in the general opinion, it is more eligible to pass through the Streight of Magellan, we were not once brought under our close reef'd topsails after we left the Streight of Le Maire. The Dolphin in her last voyage, which she performed at the same season of the year with ours, was three months in getting through the Streight of Magellan, exclusive of the time that she lay in Port Famine; and I am persuaded, from the winds we had, that if we had come by that passage, we should not at this time have been in these seas; that our people would have been fatigued, and our anchors, cables, sails and rigging much damaged;* neither of which inconveniencies we had now suffered. But supposing it more eligible to go round the Cape, than through the Streight of Magellan; it may still be questioned, whether it is better to go through the Streight of Le Maire, or stand to the eastward, and go round Staten Land. The advice given in the Account of Lord Anson's voyage is, --page 144

That all ships bound to the South Seas, instead of passing through the Streight of Le Maire, should constantly pass to the eastward of Staten Land, and should be invariably bent on running to the southward as far as the latitude of 61 or 62 degrees, before they endeavour to stand to the westward. But, in my opinion, different circumstances may at one time render it eligible to pass through the Streight, and to keep to the eastward of Staten Land at another. If the land is fallen in with to the westward of the Streight, and the wind is favourable for going through, I think it would be very injudicious to lose time by going round Staten Land, as I am confident that, by attending to the directions which I have given, the Streight may be passed with the utmost safety and convenience: but if, on the contrary, the land is fallen in with to the eastward of the Streight, and the wind should prove tempestuous or unfavourable, I think it would be best to go round Staten Land. But I cannot in any case concur in recommending the running into the latitude of 61 or 62, before any endeavour is made to stand to the westward. We found neither the current nor the storms which the running so far to the southward is supposed necessary to avoid; and indeed, as the winds almost constantly blow from that quarter, it is scarcely possible to pursue the advice. The navigator has no choice but to stand to the southward, close upon a wind, and by keeping upon that tack, he will not only make southing, but westing; and, if the wind varies towards the north of the west, his westing will be considerable. It will, indeed,* be highly proper to make sure of a westing sufficient to double all the lands, before an attempt is made to stand to the northward, and to this every man's own prudence will of necessity direct him. We now began to have strong gales and heavy seas, with irregular intervals of calm and fine weather. --page 145

ON the 1st of March,* we were in latitude 38° 44′ S. and longitude 110° 33′ W. both by observation and by the log. This agreement, after a run of 660 leagues, was thought to be very extraordinary; and is a demonstration, that after we left the land of Cape Horn we had no current that affected the ship. It renders it also highly probable, that we had been near no land of any considerable extent; for currents are always found when land is not remote, and sometimes, particularly on the east side of the continent in the North Sea, when land has been distant 100 leagues. --page 146

Many birds, as usual, were constantly about the ship, so that Mr. Banks killed no less than 62 in one day; and what is more remarkable, he caught two forest flies, both of them of the same species, but different from any that have hitherto been described;* these probably belonged to the birds, and came with them from the land, which we judged to be at a great distance. Mr. Banks also, about this time, found a large cuttle-fish, which had just been killed by the birds, floating in a mangled condition upon the water; it was very different from the cuttle-fishes that are found in the European seas; for its arms, instead of suckers, were furnished with a double row of very sharp talons, which resembled those of a cat, and, like them, were retractable into a sheath of skin, from which they might be thrust at pleasure. Of this cuttle-fish we made one of the best soups we had ever tasted. --page 147

*The albatrosses now began to leave us, and after the 8th there was not one to be seen. We continued our course without any memorable event till the 24th,* when some of the people who were upon the watch in the night, reported that they saw a log of wood pass by the ship; and that the sea, which was rather rough, became suddenly as smooth as a mill-pond. It was a general opinion, that there was land to windward; but I did not think myself at liberty to search for what I was not sure to find; though I judged we were not far from the islands that were discovered by Quiros in 1606. Our latitude was 22° 11′S. and longitude 127° 55′W. --page 148

*On the 25th, about noon, one of the marines, a young fellow about twenty, was placed as centry at the cabbin door; while he was upon this duty, one of my servants was at the same place preparing to cut a piece of seal-skin into tobacco-pouches: he had promised one to several of the men, but had refused one to this young fellow, though he had asked him several times; upon which he jocularly threatened to steal one, if it should be in his power. It happened that the servant being called hastily away, gave the skin in charge to the centinel,* without regarding what had passed between them. The centinel immediately secured a piece of the skin, which the other missing at his return, grew angry; but after some altercation, contented himself with taking it away, declaring, that, for so trifling an affair, he would not complain of him to the officers. But it happened that one of his fellow soldiers, over-hearing the dispute, came to the knowlege of what had happened, and told it to the rest; who, taking it into their heads to stand up for the honour of their corps, reproached the offender with great bitterness, and reviled him in the most opprobrious terms; they exaggerated his offence into a crime of the deepest die; they said it was a theft by a centry when he was upon duty, and of a thing that had been committed to his trust; they declared it a disgrace to associate with him; and the Serjeant, in particular, said that, if the person from whom the skin had been stolen would not complain, he would complain himself; for that his honour would suffer if the offender was not punished. From the scoffs and reproaches of these men of honour, the poor young fellow retired to his hammock in an agony of confusion and shame. The Serjeant soon after went to him, and ordered him to follow him to the deck: he obeyed without reply; but it being in the dusk of the evening, he slipped from the Serjeant and went forward: he was seen by some of the people, who thought he was gone to the head; but a search being made for him afterwards, it was found that he had thrown himself overboard; and I was then first made acquainted with the theft and its circumstances. --page 149

The loss of this man was the more regretted as he was remarkably quiet and industrious, and as the very action that put an end to his life was a proof of an ingenuous mind; for to such only disgrace is insupportable. --page 150

*On Tuesday the 4th of April, about ten o'clock in the morning, Mr. Banks's servant, Peter Briscoe, discovered land, bearing south, at the distance of about three or four leagues. I immediately hauled up for it, and found it to be an island of an oval form, with a lagoon in the middle, which occupied much the larger part of it; the border of land which circumscribes the lagoon is in many places very low and narrow, particularly on the south side, where it consists principally of a beach or reef of rocks: it has the same appearance also in three places on the north side; so that, the firm land being disjoined, the whole looks like many islands covered with wood. On the west end of the island is a large tree or clump of trees, that in appearance resembles a tower; and about the middle are two cocoa-nut trees, which rise above all the rest, and, as we came near to the island, appeared like a flag. We approached it on the north side, and though we came within a mile, we found no bottom with 130 fathom of line, nor did there appear to be any anchorage about it. The whole is covered with trees of different verdure, but we could distinguish none, even with our glasses, except cocoa-nuts and palm-nuts. We saw several of the natives upon the shore, and counted four and twenty. They appeared to be tall, and to have heads remarkably large; perhaps they had something wound round them which we could not distinguish; they were of a copper colour, and had long black hair. Eleven of them walked along the beach abreast of the ship, with poles or pikes in their hands which reached twice as high as themselves: while they walked on the beach they seemed to be naked; but soon after they retired, which they did as soon as the ship had passed the island, they covered themselves with something that made them appear of a light colour. Their habitations were under some clumps of palm-nut trees, which at a distance appeared like high ground; and to us,* who for a long time had seen nothing but water and sky, except the dreary hills of Terra del Fuego, these groves seemed a terrestrial paradise. To this spot, which lies in latitude 18° 47′ S. and longitude 139° 28′ W. we gave the name of LAGOON ISLAND. The variation of the needle here is 2° 54′ E. --page 151

About one o'clock we made sail to the westward,* and about half an hour after three we saw land again to the N. W. We got up with it at sunset, and it proved to be a low woody island, of a circular form, and not much above a mile in compass. We discovered no inhabitants, nor could we distinguish any cocoa-nut trees, though we were within half a mile of the shore. The land, however, was covered with verdure of many hues. It lies in latitude 18° 35′ S. and longitude 139° 48′ W. and is distant from Lagoon Island, in the direction of N. 62 W. about seven leagues. We called it THRUMB-CAP. I discovered, by the appearance of the shore, that at this place it was low-water; and I had observed at Lagoon Island, that it was either high-water, or that the sea neither ebbed nor flowed: I infer, therefore, that a S. by E. or S. moon makes high-water. --page 152

We went on with a fine trade-wind and pleasant weather,* and on the 5th, about three in the afternoon, we discovered land to the westward. It proved to be a low island, of much greater extent than either of those that we had seen before, being about ten or twelve leagues in compass. Several of us remained at the mast-head the whole evening, admiring its extraordinary figure: it was shaped exactly like a bow, the arch and cord of which were land, and the space between them water; the cord was a flat beach, without any signs of vegetation, having nothing upon it but heaps of sea weed, which lay in different ridges,* as higher or lower tides had left them. It appeared to be about three or four leagues long, and not more than two hundred yards wide; but as a horizontal plain is always seen in perspective, and greatly fore-shortened, it is certainly much wider than it appeared: the horns, or extremities of the bow, were two large tufts of cocoa-nut trees; and much the greater part of the arch was covered with trees of different height, figure and hue; in some parts, however, it was naked and low like the cord: some of us thought they discovered openings through the cord, into the pool, or lake, that was included between that and the bow; but whether there were or were not such openings is uncertain. We sailed abreast of the low beach, or bow-string, within less than a league of the shore, till sunset, and we then judged ourselves to be about half way between the two horns: here we brought to, and sounded, but found no bottom with one hundred and thirty fathom; and, as it is dark almost instantly after sunset in these latitudes, we suddenly lost sight of the land, and making sail again, before the line was well hauled in, we steered by the sound of the breakers, which were distinctly heard till we got clear of the coast. --page 153

We knew this island to be inhabited, by smoke which we saw in different parts of it, and we gave it the name of Bow ISLAND. Mr. Gore, my Second Lieutenant, said, after we had sailed by the island, that he had seen several of the natives, under the first clump of trees, from the deck; that he had distinguished their houses, and seen several canoes hauled up under the shade; but in this he was more fortunate than any other person on board. The east end of this island, which from its figure we called the Bow, lies in latitude 18° 23′ S. and longitude 141° 12′ W. we observed the variation of the compass to be 5° 38′ E. --page 154

On the next day, Thursday the 6th, about noon,* we saw land again to the westward, and came up with it about three. It appeared to be two islands, or rather groups of islands, extending from N.W. by N. to S.E. by S. about nine leagues. Of these, the two largest were separated from each other by a channel of about half a mile broad, and were severally surrounded by smaller islands, to which they were joined by reefs that lay under water. --page 155

These islands were long narrow strips of land, ranging in all directions, some of them ten miles or upwards in length, but none more than a quarter of a mile broad, and upon all of them there were trees of various kinds, particularly the cocoa-nut. The south-eastermost of them lies in the latitude of 18° 12′ S. and longitude 142° 42′ W. and at the distance of twenty-five leagues, in the direction of W. ½ N. from the west end of Bow Island. We ranged along the S. W. side of this island, and hauled into a bay which lies to the N. W. of the southermost point of the Group, where there was a smooth sea, and the appearance of anchorage, without much surf on the shore. We sounded, but we found no bottom with one hundred fathom, at the distance of no more than three quarters of a mile from the beach, and I did not think it prudent to go nearer. --page 156

While this was doing, several of the inhabitants assembled upon the shore, and some came out in their canoes as far as the reefs, but would not pass them: when we saw this, we ranged, with an easy sail, along the shore; but just as we were passing the end of the island, six men, who had for some time kept abreast of the ship, suddenly launched two canoes with great quickness and dexterity, and three of them getting into each, they put off, as we imagined with a design to come on board us; the ship was therefore brought to,* but they, like their fellows, stopped at the reef; we did not however immediately make sail, as we observed two messengers dispatched to them from the other canoes, which were of a much larger size: we perceived that these messengers made great expedition, wading and swimming along the reef; at length they met, and the men on board the canoes making no dispositions to pass the reef, after having received the message, we judged that they had resolved to come no farther: after waiting, therefore, some little time longer, we stood off; but when we were got about two or three miles from the shore, we perceived some of the natives following us in a canoe with a sail; we did not, however, think it worth while to wait for her, and though she had passed the reef, she soon after gave over the chace. --page 157

According to the best judgment that we could form of the people when we were nearest the shore, they were about our size, and well-made. They were of a brown complexion, and appeared to be naked; their hair, which was black, was confined by a fillet that went round the head, and stuck out behind like a bush. The greater part of them carried in their hands two weapons; one of them was a slender pole, from ten to fourteen feet long, on one end of which was a small knob, not unlike the point of a spear; the other was about four feet long, and shaped like a paddle, and possibly might be so, for some of their canoes were very small: those which we saw them launch seemed not intended to carry more than the three men that got into them: we saw others that had on board six or seven men, and one of them hoisted a sail which did not seem to reach more than six feet above the gunwale of the boat, and which, upon the falling of a slight shower, was taken down and converted into an awning or tilt. The canoe which followed us to sea hoisted a sail not unlike an English lug-sail,* and almost as lofty as an English boat of the same size would have carried. --page 158

The people, who kept abreast of the ship on the beach, made many signals; but whether they were intended to frighten us away, or invite us on shore, it is not easy to determine: we returned them by waving our hats and shouting, and they replied by shouting again. We did not put their disposition to the test, by attempting to land; because, as the island was inconsiderable, and as we wanted nothing that it could afford, we thought it imprudent as well as cruel to risk a contest, in which the natives must have suffered by our superiority, merely to gratify an idle curiosity; especially as we expected soon to fall in with the island where we had been directed to make our astronomical observation, the inhabitants of which would probably admit us without opposition, as they were already acquainted with our strength, and might also procure us a ready and peaceable reception among the neighbouring people, if we should define it. --page 159

To these islands we gave the name of THE GROUPS. --page 160

On the 7th, about half an hour after six in the morning,* being just at day-break, we discovered another island to the northward, which we judged to be about four miles in circumference. The land lay very low, and there was a piece of water in the middle of it; there seemed to be some wood upon it, and it looked green and pleasant; but we saw neither cocoa trees nor inhabitants: it abounded however with birds, and we therefore gave it the name of BIRD-ISLAND. --page 161

It lies in latitude 17° 48′ S. and longitude 143° 35′ W. at the distance of ten leagues, in the direction W. ½ N. from the west end of the Groups. The variation here was 6° 32′ E. --page 162

On the 8th, about two o'clock in the afternoon,* we saw land to the northward, and about sunset came abreast of it, at about the distance of two leagues.* It appeared to be a double range of low woody islands joined together by reefs, so as to form one island, in the form of an ellipsis or oval, with a lake in the middle of it. The small islands and reefs that circumscribe the lake have the appearance of a chain, and we therefore gave it the name of CHAIN ISLAND. Its length seemed to be about five leagues, in the direction of N.W. and S.E. and its breadth about five miles. The trees upon it appeared to be large, and we saw smoke rising in different parts of it from among them, a certain sign that it was inhabited. The middle of it lies in latitude 17° 23′ S. and longitude 145° 54′ W. and is distant from Bird Island forty-five leagues in the direction of W. by N. The variation here was, by several azimuths, found to be 4° 54′ E. --page 163

*On the 10th, having had a tempestuous night with thunder and rain, the weather was hazy till about nine o'clock in the morning, when it cleared up, and we saw the island to which Captain Wallis, who first discovered it, gave the name of Osnaburgh Island, called by the natives Maitea, bearing N.W. by W. distant about five leagues. It is a high round island, not above a league in circuit; in some parts it is covered with trees, and in others a naked rock. In this direction it looked like a high crown'd hat; but when it bears North, the top of it has more the appearance of the roof of a house. We made its latitude to be 17° 48′ S. its longitude 148° 10′ W. and its distance from Chain Island 44 leagues, in the direction of W. by S. --page 164

--page 165

[illustration] CHART OF THE ISLAND OTAHEITE, BY LIEUT. J. COOK 1769.--page 166

ABOUT one o'clock, on Monday the 10th of April,* some of the people who were looking out for the island to which we were bound, said they saw land ahead, in that part of the horizon where it was expected to appear; but it was so faint that, whether there was land in sight or not, remained a matter of dispute till sunset. The next morning,* however, at six o'clock, we were convinced that those who said they had discovered land, were not mistaken; it appeared to be very high and mountainous, extending from W. by S. ½ S. to W. by N. ½ N. and we knew it to be the same that Captain Wallis had called King George the III.'s Island. We were delayed in our approach to it by light airs and calms,* so that in the morning of the 12th we were but little nearer than we had been the night before; but about seven a breeze sprung up, and before eleven several canoes were seen making towards the ship: there were but few of them, however, that would come near; and the people in those that did, could not be persuaded to come on board. In every canoe there were young plantains, and branches of a tree which the Indians call E' Midho; these, as we afterwards learnt, were brought as tokens of peace and amity, and the people in one of the canoes handed them up the sip's side, making signals at the same time with great earnestness,* which we did not immediately understand; at length we guessed that they wished these symbols should be placed in some conspicuous part of the ship; we, therefore, immediately stuck them among the rigging, at which they expressed the greatest satisfaction. We then purchased their cargoes, consisting of cocoa-nuts, and various kinds of fruit, which after our long voyage were very acceptable. --page 167

We stood on with an easy sail all night, with soundings from 22 fathom to 12,* and about seven o'clock in the morning we came to an anchor in 13 fathom, in Port-royal bay, called by the natives Matavai. We were immediately surrounded by the natives in their canoes, who gave us cocoa-nuts, fruit resembling apples, bread-fruit, and some small fishes, in exchange for beads and other trifles. They had with them a pig, which they would not part with for any thing but a hatchet, and therefore we refused to purchase it; because, if we gave them a hatchet for a pig now, we knew they would never afterwards sell one for less, and we could not afford to buy as many as it was probable we should want at that price. The bread-fruit grows on a tree that is about the size of a middling oak: its leaves are frequently a foot and an half long, of an oblong shape, deeply sinuated like those of the fig-tree, which they resemble in consistence and colour, and in the exuding of a white milky juice upon being broken. The fruit is about the size and shape of a child's head, and the surface is reticulated not much unlike a truffle: it is covered with a thin skin, and has a core about as big as the handle of a small knife: the eatable part lies between the skin and the core; it is as white as snow, and somewhat of the consistence of new bread: it must be roasted before it is eaten, being first divided into three or four parts: --page 168

[illustration] [illustration] its taste is insipid,* with a slight sweetness somewhat resembling that of the crumb of wheaten-bread mixed with a Jerusalem artichoke. Among others who came off to the ship was an elderly man, whose name, as we learnt afterwards, was OWHAW, and who was immediately known to Mr. Gore, and several others who had been here with Captain Wallis; as I was informed that he had been very useful to them, I took him on board the ship with some others, and was particularly attentive to gratify him, as I hoped he might also be useful to us. --page 169

As our stay here was not likely to be very short, and as it was necessary that the merchandise which we had brought for traffic with the natives should not diminish in its value, which it would certainly have done, if every person had been left at liberty to give what he pleased for such things as he should purchase; at the same time that confusion and quarrels must necessarily have arisen from there being no standard at market: I drew up the following rules, and ordered that they should be punctually observed. --page 170

Rules to be observed by every person in or belonging to his Majesty's Bark the Endeavour, for the better establishing a regular and uniform trade for provision,&, with the inhabitants of George's Island. --page 171

I. To endeavour, by every fair means, to cultivate a friendship with the natives; and to treat them with all imaginable humanity. --page 172

II. A proper person, or persons, will be appointed to trade with the natives for all manner of provisions, fruit, and other productions of the earth; and no officer or seaman, or other person belonging to the ship, excepting such as are so appointed, shall trade or offer to trade for any sort of provision,* fruit, or other productions of the earth, unless they have leave so to do. --page 173

III. Every person employed on shore, on any duty whatsoever, is strictly to attend to the same; and if by any neglect he loseth any of his arms, or working tools, or suffers them to be stolen, the full value thereof will be charged against his pay, according to the custom of the navy in such cases, and he shall receive such farther punishment as the nature of the offence may deserve. --page 174

IV. The same penalty will be inflicted on every person who is found to embezzle, trade, or offer to trade, with any part of the ship's stores of what nature soever. --page 175

V. No sort of iron, or any thing that is made of iron, or any sort of cloth, or other useful or necessary articles, are to be given in exchange for any thing but provision. --page 176

J. COOK. --page 177

As soon as the ship was properly secured, I went on shore with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, a party of men under arms, and our friend Owhaw. We were received from the boat by some hundreds of the inhabitants, whose looks at least gave us welcome, though they were struck with such awe, that the first who approached us crouched so low that he almost crept upon his hands and knees. It is remarkable that he, like the people in the canoes, presented to us the same symbol of peace that is known to have been in use among the ancient and mighty nations of the northern hemisphere, the green branch of a tree. We received it with looks and gestures of kindness and satisfaction; and observing that each of them held one in his hand, we immediately gathered every one a bough, and carried it in our hands in the same manner. --page 178

They marched with us about half a mile towards the place where the Dolphin had watered, conducted by Owhaw;* they then made a full stop, and having laid the ground bare, by clearing away all the plants that grew upon it, the principal persons among them threw their green branches upon the naked spot, and made signs that we should do the same; we immediately showed our readiness to comply, and to give a greater solemnity to the rite, the marines were drawn up, and marching in order, each dropped his bough upon those of the Indians, and we followed their example. We then proceeded, and when we came to the watering-place it was intimated to us by signs, that we might occupy that ground, but it happened not to be fit for our purpose. During our walk they had shaken off their first timid sense of our superiority, and were become familiar: they went with us from the watering-place and took a circuit through the woods: as we went along, we distributed beads and other small presents among them, and had the satisfaction to see that they were much gratified. Our circuit was not less than four or five miles, through groves of trees, which were loaded with cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit, and afforded the most grateful shade. Under these trees were the habitations of the people, most of them being only a roof without walls, and the whole scene realized the poetical fables of Arcadia. We remarked however, not without some regret, that in all our walk we had seen only two hogs, and not a single fowl. Those of our company who had been here with the Dolphin told us, that none of the people whom we had yet seen were of the first class; they suspected that the chiefs had removed, and upon carrying us to the place where what they called the Queen's palace had stood, we found that no traces of it were left. We determined therefore to return in the morning, and endeavour. to find out the Noblesse in their retreats. --page 179

*In the morning, however, before we could leave the ship, several canoes came about us, most of them from the westward, and two of them were filled with people, who by their dress and deportment appeared to be of a superior rank: two of these came on board, and each singled out his friend; one of them, whose name we found to be MATAHAH, fixed upon Mr. Banks, and the other upon me: this ceremony consisted in taking off great part of their clothes and putting them upon us. In return for this, we presented each of them with a hatcher and some beads. Soon, after they made signs for us to go with them to the places where they lived, pointing to the S.W.; and as I was desirous of finding a more commodious harbour, and making farther trial of the disposition of the people, I consented. --page 180

I ordered out two boats, and with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, the other gentlemen, and our two Indian friends, we embarked for our expedition. After rowing about a league, they made signs that we should go on shore, and gave us to understand that this was the place of their residence. We accordingly landed, among several hundreds of the natives, who conducted us into a house of much greater length than any we had seen. When we entered, we saw a middle-aged man, whose name we afterwards discovered to be TOOTAHAH; mats were immediately spread, and we were desired to sit down over against him. Soon after we were seated, he ordered a cock and hen to be brought out, which he presented to Mr. Banks and me; we accepted the present, and in a short time each of us received a piece of cloth, perfumed after their manner, by no means disagreeably, which they took great pains to make us remark. The piece presented to Mr. Banks was eleven yards long and two wide; in return for which, he gave a laced silk neckcloth, which he happened to have on, and a linen pocket handkerchief: Tootahah immediately dressed himself in this new finery,* with an air of perfect complacency and satisfaction. But it is now time that I should take some notice of the ladies. --page 181

Soon after the interchanging of our presents with Tootahah, they attended us to several large houses, in which we walked about with great freedom: they shewed us all the civility of which, in our situation, we could accept; and, on their part, seemed to have no scruple that would have prevented its being carried farther. The houses, which as I have observed before, are all open, except a roof, afforded no place of retirement; but the ladies, by frequently pointing to the mats upon the ground, and sometimes seating themselves and drawing us down upon them, left us no room to doubt of their being much less jealous of observation than we were. --page 182

We now took leave of our friendly Chief, and directed our course along the shore; when we had walked about a mile, we met, at the head of a great number of people, another Chief, whose name was TUBOURAI TAMAIDE, with whom we were also to ratify a treaty of peace, with the ceremony of which we were now become better acquainted. Having received the branch which he presented to us, and given another in return, We laid our hands upon our left breasts, and pronounced the word Taio, which we supposed to signify friend; the Chief then gave us to understand, that if we chose to eat, he had victuals ready for us. We accepted his offer, and dined very heartily upon fish, bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts and plantains, dressed after their manner; they eat some of their fish raw, and raw fish was offered to us, but we declined that part of the entertainment. --page 183

During this visit a wife of our noble host, whose name was TOMIO, did Mr. Banks the honour to place herself upon the same matt,* close by him. Tomio was not in the first bloom of her youth, nor did she appear to have been ever remarkable for her beauty: he did not therefore, I believe, pay her the most flattering attention: it happened too, as a farther mortification to this lady, that seeing a very pretty girl among the crowd, he, not adverting to the dignity of his companion, beckoned her to come to him: the girl, after some entreaty, complied, and sat down on the other side of him; he loaded her with beads, and every showy trifle that would please her: his Princess, though she was somewhat mortified at the preference that was given to her rival, did not discontinue her civilities, but still assiduously supplied him with the milk of the cocoa-nut, and such other dainties as were in her reach. This scene might possibly have become more curious and interesting, if it had not been suddenly interrupted by an interlude of a more serious kind. Just at this time, Dr. Solander and Mr. Monkhouse complained that their pockets had been picked. Dr. Solander had lost an opera glass in a shagreen case, and Mr. Monkhouse his snuff-box. This incident unfortunately put an end to the good-humour of the company. Complaint of the injury was made to the Chief; and, to give it weight, Mr. Banks started up, and hastily struck the but end of his firelock upon the ground: this action, and the noise that accompanied it, struck the whole assembly with a panic, and every one of the natives rap out of the house with the utmost precipitation, except the Chief, three women, and two or three others, who appeared by their dress to be of a superior rank. --page 184

The Chief, with a mixture of confusion and concern, took Mr. Banks by the hand, and led him to a large quantity of cloth, which lay at the other end of the house: this he offered to him piece by piece, intimating by signs,* that if that would atone for the wrong which had been done, he might take any part of it, or, if he pleased, the whole. Mr. Banks put it by, and gave him to understand, that he wanted nothing but what had been dishonestly taken away. Toubourai Tamaide then went hastily out, leaving Mr. Banks with his wife Tomio, who during the whole scene of terror and confusion had kept constantly at his side, and intimating his desire that he should wait there till his return. Mr. Banks accordingly sat down, and conversed with her, as well as he could by signs, about half an hour. The chief then came back with the snuff-box and the case of the opera glass in his hand, and, with a joy in his countenance that was painted with a strength of expression which distinguishes these people from all others, delivered them to the owners. The case of the opera glass, however, upon being opened, was found to be empty; upon this discovery, his countenance changed in a moment; and catching Mr. Banks again by the hand, he rushed out of the house, without uttering any sound, and led him along the shore, walking with great rapidity: when they had got about a mile from the house, a woman met him and gave him a piece of cloth, which he hastily took from her, and continued to press forward with it in his hand. Dr. Solander and Mr. Monkhouse had followed them, and they came at length to a house where they were received by a woman, to whom he gave the cloth, and intimated to the gentlemen that they should give her some beads. They immediately complied; and the beads and cloth being deposited upon the floor, the woman went out, and in about half an hour returned with the opera glass, expressing the same joy upon the occasion that had before been expressed by the Chief. The beads were now returned, with an inflexible resolution not to accept them;* and the cloth was, with with the same pertinacity, forced upon Dr. Solander, as a recompence for the injury that had been done him. He could not avoid accepting the cloth, but insisted in his turn upon giving a new present of beads to the woman. It will not perhaps be easy to account for all the steps that were taken in the recovery of this glass and snuff-box; but this cannot be thought strange, considering that the scene of action was among a people whose language, policy and connections are even now but imperfectly known; upon the whole, however, they show an intelligence and influence which would do honour to any system of government, however regular and improved. In the evening, about six o'clock, we returned to the ship. --page 185

ON the next morning, Saturday the 15th,* several of the Chiefs whom we had seen the day before came on board, and brought with them, hogs, bread-fruit, and other refreshments, for which we gave them hatchets and linen, and such things as seemed to be most acceptable. --page 186

As in my excursion to the westward, I had not found any more convenient harbour than that in which we lay, I determined to go on shore and six upon some spot, commanded by the ship's guns, where I might throw up a small fort for our defence, and prepare for making our astronomical observation. --page 187

I therefore took a party of men, and landed without delay, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and the astronomer, Mr. Green. We soon fixed upon a part of the sandy beach, on the N. E. point of the bay, which was in every respect convenient for our purpose, and not near any habitation of the natives. Having marked out the ground that we intended to occupy, a small tent belonging to Mr. Banks was set up, which had been brought on shore for that purpose: by this time a great number of the people had gathered about us; but, as it appeared, only to look on, there not being a single weapon of any kind among them.* I intimated, however, that none of them were to come within the line I had drawn, except one who appeared to be a chief, and Owhaw. To these two persons I addressed myself by signs, and endeavoured to make them understand, that we wanted the ground which we had marked out to sleep upon for a certain number of nights, and that then we should go away. Whether I was understood I cannot certainly determine; but the people behaved with a deference and respect that at once pleased and surprised us: they sat down peaceably without the circle, and looked on, without giving us any interruption, till we had done, which was upwards of two hours. As we had seen no poultry, and but two hogs, in our walk when we were last on shore at this place, we suspected that, upon our arrival, they had been driven farther up the country; and the rather, as Owhaw was very importunate with us, by signs, not to go into the woods, which, however, and partly for these reasons, we were determined to do. Having therefore appointed the thirteen marines and a petty officer to guard the tent, we set out, and a great number of the natives joined our party. As we were crossing a little river that lay in our way we saw some ducks, and Mr. Banks, as soon as he had got over, fired at them, and happened to kill three at one shot: this struck them with the utmost terror, so that most of them fell suddenly to the ground, as if they also had been shot at the same discharge: it was not long, however, before they recovered from their fright, and we continued our rout, but we had not gone far before we were alarmed by the report of two pieces, which were fired by the guard at the tent. We had then straggled a little distance from each other, but Owhaw immediately called us together, and by waving his hand, sent away every Indian who followed us except three, each of whom, as a pledge of peace on their part, and an entreaty that there might be peace on ours,* hastily broke a branch from the trees, and came to us with it in their hands. As we had too much reason to fear that some mischief had happened, we hasted back to the tent, which was not distant above half a mile, and when we came up, we found it entirely deserted, except by our own people. --page 188

It appeared, that one of the Indians who remained about the tent after we left it, had watched his opportunity, and, taking the centry unawares, had snatched away his musquet. Upon this, the petty officer, a midshipman, who commanded the party, perhaps from a sudden fear of farther violence, perhaps from the natural petulance of power newly acquired, and perhaps from a brutality in his nature, ordered the marines to fire: the men, with as little consideration or humanity as the officer, immediately discharged their pieces among the thickest of the flying crowd, consisting of more than a hundred; and observing that the thief did not fall, pursued him, and shot him dead. We afterwards learnt, that none of the others were either killed or wounded. --page 189

Owhaw, who had never left us, observing that we were now totally deserted, got together a few of those who had fled, though not without some difficulty, and ranged them about us: we endeavoured to justify our people as well as we could, and to convince the Indians that if they did no wrong to us, we should do no wrong to them: they went away without any appearance of distrust or resentment; and having struck our tent, we returned to the ship, but by no means satisfied with the transactions of the day. --page 190

Upon questioning our people more particularly, whose conduct they soon perceived we could not approve, they alleged that the centinel whose musquet was taken away, was violently assaulted and thrown down, and that a push was afterwards made at him by the man who took the musquet,* before any command was given to fire. It was also suggested, that Owhaw had suspicions, at least, if not certain knowlege, that something would be attempted against our people at the tent, which made him so very earnest in his endeavours to prevent our leaving it; others imputed his importunity to his desire that we should confine ourselves to the beach: and it was remarked that neither Owhaw, nor the Chiefs who remained with us after he had sent the rest of the people away, would have inferred the breach of peace from the firing at the tent, if they had had no reason to suspect that some injury had been offered by their countrymen; especially as Mr. Banks had just fired at the ducks: and yet that they did infer a breach of peace from that incident, as was manifest from their waving their hands for the people to disperse, and instantly pulling green branches from the trees. But what were the real circumstances of this unhappy affair, and whether either and which of these conjectures were true, can never certainly be known. --page 191

*The next morning but few of the natives were seen upon the beach, and not one of them came off to the ship. This convinced us that our endeavours to quiet their apprehensions had not been effectual; and we remarked with particular regret, that we were deserted even by Owhaw, who had hitherto been so constant in his attachment, and so active in renewing the peace that had been broken. --page 192

Appearances being thus unfavourable, I warped the ship nearer to the shore, and moored her in such a manner as to command all the N.E. part of the bay, particularly the place which I had marked out for the building a fort. In the evening, however, I went on shore with only a boat's crew, and some of the Gentlemen: the natives gathered about us, but not in the same number as before;* there were I believe between thirty and forty, and they trafficked with us for cocoa-nuts and other fruit, to all appearance as friendly as ever. --page 193

On the 17th, early in the morning,* we had the misfortune to lose Mr. Buchan, the person whom Mr. Banks had brought out as a painter of landscapes and figures. He was a sober, diligent, and ingenious young man, and greatly regretted by Mr. Banks; who hoped, by his means, to have gratified his friends in England with representations of this country and its inhabitants, which no other person on board could delineate with the same accuracy and elegance. He had always been subject to epileptic fits, one of which seized him on the mountains of Terra del Fuego, and this disorder being aggravated by a bilious complaint which he contracted on board the ship, at length put an end to his life. It was at first proposed to bury him on shore, but Mr. Banks thinking, that it might perhaps give offence to the natives, with whose customs we were then wholly unacquainted, we committed his body to the sea, with as much decency and solemnity as our circumstances and situation would admit. --page 194

In the forenoon of this day we received a visit from Tubourai Tamaide and Tootahah, our Chiefs, from the West: they brought with them, as emblems of peace, not branches of plantain, but two young trees, and would not venture on board till these had been received, having probably been alarmed by the mischief which had been done at the tent. Each of them also brought, as propitiatory gifts, some bread-fruit, and a hog ready dressed: this was a most acceptable present, as we perceived that hogs were not always to be got; and in return we gave to each of our noble benefactors a hatchet and a nail. In the evening we went on shore and set up a tent, in which Mr. Green and myself spent the night, in order to observe an eclipse of the first satellite of Jupiter;* but the weather becoming cloudy, we were disappointed. --page 195

*On the 18th, at day-break, I went on shore, with as many people as could possibly be spared from the ship, and began to erect our fort. While some were employed in throwing up intrenchments, others were busy in cutting pickets and fascines, which the natives, who soon gathered round us as they had been used to do, were so far from hindering, that many of them voluntarily assisted us, bringing the pickets and fascines from the wood where they had been cut, with great alacrity: we had indeed been so scrupulous of invading their property, that we purchased every stake which was used upon this occasion, and cut down no tree till we had first obtained their consent. The soil where we constructed our fort was sandy, and this made it necessary to strengthen the intrenchments with wood; three sides were to be fortified in this manner; the fourth was bounded by a river, upon the banks of which I proposed to place a proper number of water-casks. This day we served pork to the ship's company for the first time, and the Indians brought down so much bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, that we found it necessary to send away part of them unbought, and to acquaint them, by signs, that we should want no more for two days to come. Every thing was purchased this day with beads: a single bead, as big as a pea, being the purchase of five or six cocoa-nuts, and as many of the bread-fruit. Mr. Banks's tent was got up before night within the works, and he slept on shore for the first time. Proper centries were placed round it, but no Indian attempted to approach it the whole night. --page 196

*The next morning, our friend Tubourai Tamaide made Mr. Banks a visit at the tent, and brought with him not only his wife and family, but the roof of a house,* and several materials for setting it up, with furniture and implements of various kinds, intending, as we understood him, to take up his residence in our neighbourhood: this instance of his confidence and good-will gave us great pleasure, and we determined to strengthen his attachment to us by every means in our power. Soon after his arrival, he took Mr. Banks by the hand, and leading him out of the line, signified that he should accompany him into the woods. Mr. Banks readily consented, and having walked with him about a quarter of a mile, they arrived at a kind of awning which he had already set up, and which seemed to be his occasional habitation. Here he unfolded a bundle of his country cloth, and taking out two garments, one of red cloth, and the other of very neat matting, he clothed Mr. Banks in them, and without any other ceremony, immediately conducted him back to the tent. His attendants soon after brought him some pork and bread-fruit, which he eat, dipping his meat into salt water instead of sauce: after his meal he retired to Mr. Banks's bed, and slept about an hour. In the afternoon, his wife Tomio brought to the tent a young man about two and twenty years of age, of a very comely appearance, whom they both seemed to acknowledge as their son, though we afterwards discovered that he was not so. In the evening, this young man and another Chief, who had also paid us a visit, went away to the westward, but Tubourai Tamaide and his wife returned to the awning in the skirts of the wood. --page 197

Our Surgeon, Mr. Monkhouse, having walked out this evening, reported, that he had seen the body of the man who had been shot at the tents, which he said was wrapped in cloth, and placed on a kind of bier, supported by stakes, under a roof that seemed to have been set up for the purpose: that near it were deposited some instrument of war,* and other things, which he would particularly have examined but for the stench of the body, which was intolerable. He said, that he saw also two more sheds of the same kind, in one of which were the bones of a human body that had lain till they were quite dry. We discovered afterwards, that this was the way in which they usually disposed of their dead. --page 198

A kind of market now began to be kept just without the lines, and was plentifully supplied with every thing but pork. Tubourai Tamaide was our constant guest, imitating our manners, even to the using of a knife and fork, which he did very handily. --page 199

As my curiosity was excited by Mr. Monkhouse's account of the situation of the man who had been shot, I took an opportunity to go with some others to see it. I found the shed under which his body lay, close by the house in which he resided when he was alive, some others being not more than ten yards distant; it was about 15 feet long, and 11 broad, and of a proportionable height: one end was wholly open, and the other end, and the two sides, were partly enclosed with a kind of wicker work. The bier on which the corps was deposited, was a frame of wood like that in which the sea beds, called cotts, are placed, with a matted bottom, and supported by four posts, at the height of about five feet from the ground. The body was covered first with a matt, and then with white cloth; by the side of it lay a wooden mace, one of their weapons of war, and near the head of it, which lay next to the close end of the shed, lay two cocoa nut-shells, such as are sometimes used to carry water in; at the other end a bunch of green leaves, with some dried twigs, all tied together, were stuck in the ground, by which lay a stone about as big as a cocoa-nut:* near these lay one of the young plantain trees, which are used for emblems of peace, and close by it a stone ax. At the open end of the shed also hung, in several strings, a great number of palm-nuts, and without the shed, was stuck upright in the ground, the stem of a plantain tree about five feet high, upon the top of which was placed a cocoa nut-shell full of fresh water: against the side of one of the posts hung a small bag, containing a few pieces of bread-fruit ready roasted, which were not all put in at the same time, for some of them were fresh, and others stale. I took notice that several of the natives observed us with a mixture of solicitude and jealousy in their countenances, and by their gestures expressed uneasiness when we went near the body, standing themselves at a little distance while we were making our examination, and appearing to be pleased when we came away. --page 200

Our residence on more would by no means have been disagreeable if we had not been incessantly tormented by the flies, which, among other mischief, made it almost impossible for Mr. Parkinson, Mr. Banks's natural history painter, to work; for they not only covered his subject so as that no part of its surface could be seen, but even eat the colour off the paper as fast as he could lay it on. We had recourse to musquito nets and fly-traps, which, though they made the inconvenience tolerable, were very far from removing it. --page 201

On the 22d,* Tootahah gave us a specimen of the music of this country; four persons performed upon flutes which had only two stops, and therefore could not sound more than four notes, by half tones: they were sounded like our German flutes, except that the performer, instead of applying it to his mouth,* blew into it with one nostril, while he stopped the other with his thumb: to these instruments four other persons sung, and kept very good time; but only one tune was played during the whole concert. --page 202

Several of the natives brought us axes, which they had received from on board the Dolphin, to grind and repair; but among others, there was one which became the subject of much speculation, as it appeared to be French: after much enquiry, we learnt that a ship had been here between our arrival and the departure of the Dolphin, which we then conjectured to have been a Spaniard, but now know to have been the Boudeuse, commanded by M. Bougainville. --page 203

ON the 24th,* Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander examined the country for several miles along the shore to the eastward: for about two miles it was flat and fertile; after that the hills stretched quite to the water's edge, and a little farther ran out into the sea, so that they were obliged to climb over them. These hills, which were barren, continued for about three miles more, and then terminated in a large plain, which was full of good houses, and people who appeared to live in great affluence. In this place there was a river, much more considerable than that at our fort, which issued from a deep and beautiful valley, and, where our travellers crossed it, though at some distance from the sea, was near one hundred yards wide. About a mile beyond this river the country became again barren, the rocks every where projecting into the sea, for which reason they resolved to return. Just as they had formed this resolution, one of the natives offered them refreshment, which they accepted. They found this man to be of a kind that has been described by various authors, as mixed with many nations, but distinct from them all. His skin was of a dead white, without the least appearance of what is called complexion, though some parts of his body were in a small degree less white than others:* his hair, eye-brows, and beard were as white as his skin; his eyes appeared as if they were bloodshot, and he seemed to be very short-sighted. --page 204

At their return they were met by Tubourai Tamaide, and his women, who, at seeing them, felt a joy which not being able to express, they burst into tears, and wept some time before their passion could be restrained. --page 205

This evening Dr. Solander lent his knife to one of these women,* who neglected to return it, and the next morning Mr. Banks's also was missing; upon this occasion I must bear my testimony, that the people of this country, of all ranks, men and women, are the errantest thieves upon the face of the earth: the very day after we arrived here, when they came on board us, the chiefs were employed in stealing what they could in the cabbin, and their dependants were no less industrious in other parts of the ship; they snatched up every thing that it was possible for them to secrete till they got on shore, even to the glass ports, two of which they carried off undetected. Tubourai Tamaide was the only one except Tootahah who had not been found guilty, and the presumption, arising from this circumstance, that he was exempt from a vice, of which the whole nation besides were guilty, cannot be supposed to outweigh strong appearances to the contrary. Mr. Banks therefore, though not without some reluctance, accused him of having stolen his knife: he solemnly and steadily denied that he knew any thing of it; upon which Mr. Banks made him understand, that whoever had taken it, he was determined to have it returned: upon this resolute declaration, one of the natives who was present, produced a rag in which three knives were very carefully tied up. One was that which Dr. Solander had lent to the woman,* another was a table knife belonging to me, and the owner of the third was not known. With these the chief immediately set out, in order to make restitution of them to their owners at the tents. Mr. Banks remained with the women, who expressed great apprehensions that some mischief was designed against their lord. When he came to the tents he restored one of the knives to Dr. Solander and another to me, the third not being owned, and then began to search for Mr. Banks's in all the places where he had ever seen it. After some time, one of Mr. Banks's servants, understanding what he was about, immediately fetched his master's knife, which it seems he had laid by the day before, and till now knew nothing of its having been missed. Tubourai Tamaide, upon this demonstration of his innocence, expressed the strongest emotions of mind, both in his looks and gestures; the tears started from his eyes, and he made signs, with the knife, that, if he was ever guilty of such an action as had been imputed to him, he would submit to have his throat cut. He then rushed out of the lines, and returned hastily to Mr. Banks, with a countenance that severely reproached him with his suspicions. Mr. Banks soon understood that the knife had been received from his servant, and was scarcely less affected at what had happened than the Chief; he felt himself to be the guilty person, and was very desirous to atone for his fault. The poor Indian, however violent his passions, was a stranger to sullen resentment; and upon Mr. Banks's spending a little time familiarly with him, and making him a few trifling presents, he forgot the wrong that had been done him, and was perfectly reconciled. --page 206

Upon this occasion it may be observed, that these people have a knowlege of right and wrong from the mere dictates of natural conscience; and involuntarily condemn themselves when they do that to others,* which they would condemn others for doing to them. That Tubourai Tamaide felt the force of moral obligation, is certain; for the imputation of an action which he considered as indifferent, would not, when it appeared to be groundless, have moved him with such excess of passion. We must indeed estimate the virtue of these people, by the only standard of morality, the conformity of their conduct to what in their opinion as right; but we must not hastily conclude that theft is a testimony of the same depravity in them that it is in us, in the instances in which our people were sufferers by their dishonesty; for their temptation was such, as to surmount would be considered as a proof of uncommon integrity among those who have more knowlege, better principles, and stronger motives to resist the temptations of illicit advantage: an Indian among penny knives, and beads, or even nails and broken glass, is in the same state of trial with the meanest servant in Europe among unlocked coffers of jewels and gold. --page 207

*On the 26th, I mounted six swivel guns upon the fort, which I was sorry to see struck the natives with dread: some fishermen who lived upon the point removed farther off, and Owhaw told us, by signs, that in four days we should fire great guns. --page 208

*On the 27th, Tubourai Tamaide, with a friend, who eat with a voracity that I never saw before, and the three women that usually attended him, whose names were TERAPO, TIRAO, and OMIE, dined at the fort: in the evening they took their leave, and set out for the house which Tubourai Tamaide had set up in the skirts of the wood; but in less than a quarter of an hour he returned in great emotion, and hastily seizing Mr. Banks's arm, made signs that he should follow him. Mr. Banks immediately complied, and they soon came up to a place where they found the ship's butcher, with a reaping-hook in his hand:* here the Chief stopped, and, in a transport of rage which rendered his signs scarcely intelligible, intimated that the butcher had threatened, or attempted, to cut his wife's throat with the reaping-hook. Mr. Banks then signified to him, that if he could fully explain the offence, the man should be punished. Upon this he became more calm, and made Mr. Banks understand that the offender, having taken a fancy to a stone hatchet which lay in his house, had offered to purchase it of his wife for a nail: that she having refused to part with it upon any terms, he had catched it up, and throwing down the nail, threatened to cut her throat if she made any resistance: to prove this charge the hatchet and the nail were produced, and the butcher had so little to say in his defence that there was not the least reason to doubt of its truth. --page 209

Mr. Banks having reported this matter to me, I took an opportunity, when the Chief and his women, with other Indians, were on board the ship, to call up the butcher, and after a recapitulation of the charge and the proof, I gave orders that he should be punished, as well to prevent other offences of the same kind, as to acquit Mr. Banks of his promise; the Indians saw him stripped and tied up to the rigging with a fixed attention, waiting in silent suspence for the event; but as soon as the first stroke was given, they interfered with great agitation, earnestly intreating that the rest of the punishment might be remitted: to this, however, for many reasons, I could not consent, and when they found that they could not prevail by their intercession, they gave vent to their pity by tears.--page 210

Their tears indeed, like those of children, were always ready to express any passion that was strongly excited, and like those of children they also appeared to be forgotten as soon as shed;* of which the following among many others, is a remarkable instance. Very early in the morning of the 28th, even before it was day, a great number of them came down to the fort, and Terapo being observed among the women on the outside of the gate, Mr. Banks went out and brought her in; he saw that the tears then stood in her eyes, and as soon as she entered they began to flow in great abundance: he enquired earnestly the cause, but instead of answering she took from under her garment a shark's tooth, and struck it six or seven times into her head with great force; a profusion of blood followed, and she talked loud, but in a most melancholy tone, for some minutes, without at all regarding his enquiries, which he repeated with still more impatience and concern, while the other Indians, to his great surprize, talked and laughed, without taking the least notice of her distress. But her own behaviour was still more extraordinary. As soon as the bleeding was over, she looked up with a smile, and began to collect some small pieces of cloth, which during her bleeding she had thrown down to catch the blood; as soon as she had picked them all up, she carried them out of the tent, and threw them into the sea, carefully dispersing them abroad, as if she wished to prevent the sight of them from reviving the remembrance of what she had done. She then plunged into the river, and after having washed her whole body, returned to the tents with the same gaiety and cheerfulness as if nothing had happened. --page 211

It is not indeed strange that the sorrows of these artless people should be transient, any more than that their passions should be suddenly and strongly expressed: what they feel they have never been taught either to disguise or suppress, and having no habits of thinking which perpetually recal the past, and anticipate the future,* they are affected by all the changes of the passing hour, and reflect the colour of the time, however frequently it may vary: they have no project which is to be pursued from day to day, the subject of unremitted anxiety and solicitude, that first rushes into the mind when they awake in the morning, and is last dismissed when they sleep at night. Yet if we admit that they are upon the whole happier than we, we must admit that the child is happier than the man, and that we are losers by the perfection of our nature, the increase of our knowlege, and the enlargement of our views. --page 212

Canoes were continually coming in during all this forenoon, and the tents at the fort were crowded with people of both sexes from different parts of the Island. I was myself busy on board the ship, but Mr. Mollineux, our master, who was one of those that made the last voyage in the Dolphin, went on shore. As soon as he entered Mr. Banks's tent he fixed his eyes upon one of the women, who was sitting there with great composure among the rest, and immediately declared her to be the person who at that time was supposed to be Queen of the island; she also, at the same time, acknowledging him to be one of the strangers whom she had seen before. The attention of all present was now diverted from every other object, and wholly engaged in considering a person who had made so distinguished a figure in the accounts that had been given of this island by its first discoverers; and we soon learnt that her name was OBEREA. She seemed to be about forty years of age, and was not only tall, but of a large make; her skin was white, and there was an uncommon intelligence and sensibility in her eyes: she appeared to have been handsome when she was young, but at this time little more than memorials of her beauty were left. --page 213

*As soon as her quality was known, an offer was made to conduct her to the ship. Of this she readily accepted, and came on board with two men and several women, who seemed to be all of her family; I received her with such marks of distinction as I thought would gratify her most, and was not sparing of my presents, among which this august personage seemed particularly delighted with a child's doll. After some time spent on board, I attended her back to the shore; and as soon as we landed, she presented me with a hog, and several bunches of plantains, which she caused to be carried from her canoes up to the fort in a kind of procession, of which she and myself brought up the rear. In our way to the fort we met Tootahah, who, though not King, appeared to be at this time invested with the sovereign authority; he seemed not to be well pleased with the distinction that was shewed to the lady, and became so jealous when she produced her doll, that to propitiate him it was thought proper to compliment him with another. At this time he thought fit to prefer a doll to a hatchet; but this preference arose only from a childish jealousy, which could not be soothed but by a gift of exactly the same kind with that which had been presented to Oberea; for dolls in a very short time were universally considered as trifles of no value. --page 214

The men who had visited us from time to time had, without scruple, eaten of our provisions; but the women had never yet been prevailed upon to taste a morsel. To-day, however, though they refused the most pressing solicitations to dine with the Gentlemen, they afterwards retired to the servants apartment, and eat of plantains very heartily; a mystery of female oeconomy here, which none of us could explain. --page 215

On the 29th, not very early in the forenoon,* Mr. Banks went to pay his court to Oberea, and was told that she was still asleep under the awning of her canoe: thither therefore he went, intending to call her up, a liberty which he thought he might take, without any danger of giving offence: but, upon looking into her chamber, to his great astonishment, he found her in bed with a handsome young fellow about five and twenty, whose name was OBADÉE: he retreated with some haste and confusion, but was soon made to understand, that such amours gave no occasion to scandal, and that Obadée was universally known to have been selected by her as the object of her private favours. The lady being too polite to suffer Mr. Banks to wait long in her antichamber, dressed herself with more than usual expedition, and as a token of of special grace, clothed him in a suit of fine cloth and proceeded with him to the tents. In the evening, Mr. Banks paid a visit to Tubourai Tamaide, as he had often done before, by candle light, and was equally grieved and surprized to find him and his family in a melancholy mood, and most of them in tears: he endeavoured in vain to discover the cause, and therefore his stay among them was but short. When he reported this circumstance to the officers at the fort, they recollected that Owhaw had foretold, that in four days we should fire our great guns; and as this was the eve of the third day, the situation in which Tubourai Tamaide and his family had been found, alarmed them. The sentries therefore were doubled at the fort, and the Gentlemen slept under arms; at two in the morning, Mr. Banks himself went round the point, but found every thing so quiet, that he gave up all suspicions of mischief intended by the natives as groundless. We had however another source of security; our little fortification was now complete. The north and south sides consisted of a bank of earth four feet and an half high on the inside,* and a ditch without ten feet broad and six deep; on the west side, facing the bay, there was a bank of earth four feet high, and pallisadoes upon that, but no ditch, the works here being at high-water mark; on the east side, upon the bank of the river, was placed a double row of water casks, filled with water; and as this was the weakest side, the two four pounders were planted there, and six swivel guns were mounted so as to command the only two avenues from the woods. Our garrison consisted of about five and forty men with small arms, including the officers, and the gentlemen who resided on shore; and our sentries were as well relieved as in the best regulated frontier in Europe. --page 216

*We continued our vigilance the next day, though we had no particular reason to think it necessary; but about ten o'clock in the morning, Tomio came running to the tents, with a mixture of grief and fear in her countenance, and taking Mr. Banks, to whom they applied in every emergency and distress, by the arm, intimated that Tubourai Tamaide was dying, in consequence of something which our people had given him to eat, and that he must instantly go with her to his house. Mr. Banks set out without delay, and found his Indian friend leaning his head against a post, in an attitude of the utmost languor and despondency; the people about him intimated that he had been vomiting, and brought out a leaf folded up with great care, which they said contained some of the poison, by the deleterious effects of which he was now dying. Mr. Banks hastily opened the leaf, and upon examining its contents found them to be no other than a chew of tobacco, which the chief had begged of some of our people, and which they had indiscreetly given him: he had observed that they kept it long in the mouth,* and being desirous of doing the same, he had chewed it to powder, and swallowed the spittle. During the examination of the leaf and its contents, he looked up at Mr. Banks with the most piteous aspect, and intimated that he had but a very short time to live. Mr. Banks, however, being now master of his disease, directed him to drink plentifully of cocoa-nut milk, which in a short time put an end to his sickness and apprehensions, and he spent the day at the fort with that uncommon flow of cheerfulness and good-humour, which is always produced by a sudden and unexpected relief from pain either of body or mind. --page 217

Captain Wallis having brought home one of the adzes which these people, having no metal of any kind, make of stone, Mr. Stevens, the Secretary to the Admiralty, procured one to be made of iron in imitation of it, which I brought out with me, to shew how much we excelled in making tools after their own fashion: this I had not yet produced, as it never happened to come into my mind.* But on the first of May, Tootahah coming on board about ten o'clock in the forenoon, expressed a great curiosity to see the contents of every chest and drawer that was in my cabbin; as I always made a point of gratifying him, I opened them immediately, and having taken a fancy to many things that he saw, and collected them together, he at last happened to cast his eye upon this adze; he instantly snatched it up with the greatest eagerness, and putting away every thing which he had before selected, he asked me whether I would let him have that: I readily consented; and, as if he was afraid I should repent, he carried it off immediately in a transport of joy, without making any other request, which whatever had been our liberality was seldom the case. --page 218

*About noon, a Chief, who had dined with me a few days before, accompanied by some of his women, came on board alone: I had observed that he was fed by his women, but I made no doubt, that upon occasion he would condescend to feed himself: in this, however, I found myself mistaken. When my noble guest was seated, and the dinner upon the table, I helped him to some victuals: as I observed that he did not immediately begin his meal, I pressed him to eat: but he still continued to sit motionless like a statue, without attempting to put a single morsel into his mouth, and would certainly have gone without his dinner, if one of the servants had not fed him. --page 219

IN the afternoon, of Monday the 1st of May,* we set up the observatory, and took the astronomical quadrant, with some other instruments on shore, for the first time. --page 220

The next morning, about nine o'clock,* I went on shore with Mr. Green to fix the quadrant in a situation for use, when to our inexpressible surprize and concern it was not to be found. It had been deposited in the tent which was reserved for my use, where, as I passed the night on board, nobody slept: it had never been taken out of the packing-case, which was eighteen inches square, and the whole was of considerable weight; a sentinel had been posted the whole night within five yards of the tent door, and none of the other instruments were missing. We at first suspected that it might have been stolen by some of our own people, who seeing a deal box, and not knowing the contents, might think it contained nails, or some other subjects of traffic with the natives. A large reward was therefore offered to any one who could find it, as, without this, we could not perform the service for which our voyage was principally undertaken. Our search in the mean time was not confined to the fort and the places adjacent, but as the case might possibly have been carried back to the ship, if any of our own people had been the thieves,* the most diligent search was made for it on board; all the parties however returned without any news of the quadrant. Mr. Banks, therefore, who upon such occasions declined neither labour nor risk, and who had more influence over the Indians than any of us, determined to go in search of it into the woods; he hoped, that if it had been stolen by the natives, he should find it wherever they had opened the box, as they would immediately discover that to them it would be wholly useless: or, if in this expectation he should be disappointed, that he might recover it by the ascendancy he had acquired over the Chiefs. He set out, accompanied by a midshipman and Mr. Green, and as he was crossing the river he was met by Tubourai Tamaide, who immediately made the figure of a triangle with three bits of straw upon his hand. By this Mr. Banks knew that the Indians were the thieves; and that, although they had opened the case, they were not disposed to part with the contents. No time was therefore to be lost, and Mr. Banks made Tubourai Tamaide understand, that he must instantly go with him to the place whither the quadrant had been carried; he consented, and they set out together to the eastward, the Chief inquiring at every house which they passed after the thief by name: the people readily told him which way he was gone, and how long it was since he had been there: the hope which this gave them that they should overtake him, supported them under their fatigue, and they pressed forward, sometimes walking, sometimes running, though the weather was intolerably hot; when they had climbed a hill at the distance of about four miles, their conductor shewed them a point full three miles farther, and gave them to understand that they were not to expect the instrument till they had got thither. Here they paused; they had no arms, except a pair of pistols, which Mr. Banks always carried in his pocket;* they were going to a place that was at least seven miles distant from the fort, where the Indians might be less submissive than at home, and to take from them what they had ventured their lives to get; and what, notwithstanding our conjectures, they appeared desirous to keep: these were discouraging circumstances, and their situation would become more critical at every step. They determined, however, not to relinquish their enterprize, nor to pursue it without taking the best measures for their security that were in their power. It was therefore determined, that Mr. Banks and Mr. Green should go on, and that the Midshipman should return to me, and desire that I would send a party of men after them, acquainting me at the same time, that it was impossible they should return till it was dark. Upon receiving this message I set out, with such a party as I thought sufficient for the occasion; leaving orders, both at the ship and at the fort, that no canoe should be suffered to go out of the bay, but that none of the natives should be seized or detained. --page 221

In the mean time, Mr. Banks and Mr. Green pursued their journey, under the auspices of Tubourai Tamaide, and in the very spot which he had specified, they met one of his own people, with part of the quadrant in his hand. At this most welcome sight they stopped; and a great number of Indians immediately came up, some of whom pressing rather rudely upon them, Mr. Banks thought it necessary to shew one of his pistols, the sight of which reduced them instantly to order: as the crowd that gathered round them was every moment increasing, he marked out a circle in the grass, and they ranged themselves on the outside of it to the number of several hundreds with great quietness and decorum. Into the middle of this circle, the box, which was now arrived, was ordered to be brought, with several reading glasses, and other small matters,* which in their hurry they had put into a pistol-case, that Mr. Banks knew to be his property, it having been some time before stolen from the tents, with a horse pistol in it, which he immediately demanded, and which was also restored. --page 222

Mr. Green was impatient to see whether all that had been taken away was returned, and upon examining the box found the stand, and a few small things of less consequence, wanting; several persons were sent in search of these, and most of the small things were returned: but it was signified that the thief had not brought the stand so far, and that it would be delivered to our friends as they went back; this being confirmed by Tubourai Tamaide, they prepared to return, as nothing would then be wanting but what might easily be supplied; and after they had advanced about two miles, I met them with my party, to our mutual satisfaction, congratulating each other upon the recovery of the quadrant, with a pleasure proportioned to the importance of the event. --page 223

About eight o'clock, Mr. Banks with Tubourai Tamaide got back to the fort; when, to his great surprize, he found Tootahah in custody, and many of the natives in the utmost terror and distress, crowding about the gate. He went hastily in, some of the Indians were suffered to follow him, and the scene was extremely affecting. Tubourai Tamaide pressing forward, ran up to Tootahah, and catching him in his arms, they both burst into tears, and wept over each other, without being able to speak: the other Indians were also in tears for their Chief, both he and they being strongly possessed with the notion that he was to be put to death. In this situation they continued till I entered the fort, which was about a quarter of an hour afterwards. I was equally surprized and concerned at what had happened,* the confining Tootahah being contrary to my orders, and therefore instantly set him at liberty. Upon enquiring into the affair, I was told, that my going into the woods with a party of men under arms, at a time when a robbery had been committed, which it was supposed I should resent, in proportion to our apparent injury by the loss, had so alarmed the natives, that in the evening they began to leave the neighbourhood of the fort with their effects: that a double canoe having been seen to put off from the bottom of the bay by Mr. Gore, the Second Lieutenant, who was left in command on board the ship, and who had received orders not to suffer any canoe to go out, he sent the Boatswain with a boat after her to bring her back: that as soon as the boat came up, the Indians, being alarmed, leaped into the sea; and that Tootahah, being unfortunately one of the number, the Boatswain took him up, and brought him to the ship, suffering the rest of the people to swim on shore: that Mr. Gore, not sufficiently attending to the order that none of the people should be confined, had sent him to the fort, and Mr. Hicks, the First Lieutenant, who commanded there, receiving him in charge from Gore, did not think himself at liberty to dismiss him. --page 224

The notion that we intended to put him to death had possessed him so strongly, that he could not be persuaded to the contrary till by my orders he was led out of the fort. The people received him as they would have done a father in the same circumstances, and every one pressed forward to embrace him. Sudden joy is commonly liberal, without a scrupulous regard to merit; and Tootahah, in the first expansion of his heart, upon being unexpectedly restored to liberty and life, insisted upon our receiving a present of two hogs; though, being conscious that upon this occasion we had no claim to favours, we refused them many times. --page 225

*Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander attended the next morning in their usual capacity of market-men, but very few Indians appeared, and those who came brought no provisions. Tootahah, however, sent some of his people for the canoe that had been detained, which they took away. A canoe having also been detained that belonged to Oberea, TUPIA, the person who managed her affairs when the Dolphin was here, was sent to examine whether any thing on board had been taken away: and he was so well satisfied of the contrary, that he left the canoe where he found it, and joined us at the fort, where he spent the day, and slept on board the canoe at night. About noon, some fishing boats came abreast of the tents, but would part with very little of what they had on board; and we felt the want of cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit very severely. In the course of the day, Mr. Banks walked out into the woods, that by conversing with the people he might recover their confidence and good-will: he found them civil, but they all complained of the ill-treatment of their Chief; who, they said, had been beaten and pulled by the hair. Mr. Banks endeavoured to convince them, that he had suffered no personal violence, which to the best of our knowlege was true; yet, perhaps the Boatswain had behaved with a brutality which he was afraid or ashamed to acknowledge. The Chief himself being, probably, upon recollection, of opinion that we had ill-deserved the hogs, which he had left with us as a present, sent a messenger in the afternoon to demand an ax, and a shirt in return; but as I was told that he did not intend to come down to the fort for ten days, I excused myself from giving them till I should see him, hoping that his impatience might induce him to fetch them, and knowing that absence would probably continue the coolness between us, to which the first interview might put an end. --page 226

The next day we were still more sensible of the inconvenience we had incurred by giving offence to the people in the person of their Chief,* for the market was so ill supplied that we were in want of necessaries. Mr. Banks therefore went into the woods to Tubourai Tamaide, and with some difficulty persuaded him to let us have five baskets of breadfruit; a very seasonable supply, as they contained above one hundred and twenty. In the afternoon another messenger arrived from Tootahah for the ax and shirt; as it was now become absolutely necessary to recover the friendship of this man, without which it would be scarcely possible to procure provisions, I sent word that Mr. Banks and myself would visit him on the morrow, and bring what he wanted with us. --page 227

Early the next morning he sent again to remind me of my promise,* and his people seemed to wait till we should set out with great impatience: I therefore ordered the pinnace, in which I embarked with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander about ten o'clock: we took one of Tootahah's people in the boat with us, and in about an hour we arrived at his place of residence which is called EPARRE, and is about four miles to the westward of the tents. --page 228

We found the people waiting for us in great numbers upon the shore, so that it would have been impossible for us to have proceeded, if way had not been made for us by a tall well-looking man, who had something like a turban about his head, and a long white stick in his hand, with which he laid about him at an unmerciful rate. This man conducted us to the Chief, while the people shouted round us, Taio Tootahah, "Tootahah is your friend."We found him, like an ancient Patriarch, sitting under a tree, with a number of venerable old men standing round him; he made a sign to us to sit down, and immediately asked for his ax: this I presented to him,* with an upper garment of broadcloth, made after the country fashion, and trimmed with tape, to which I also added a shirt: he received them with great satisfaction, and immediately put on the garment; but the shirt he gave to the person who had cleared the way for us upon our landing, who was now seated by us, and of whom he seemed desirous that we should take particular notice. In a short time, Oberea, and several other women whom we knew, came and sat down among us: Tootahah left us several times, but after a short absence returned; we thought it had been to show himself in his new finery to the people, but we wronged him, for it was to give directions for our refreshment and entertainment. While we were waiting for his return the last time he left us, very impatient to be dismissed, as we were almost suffocated in the croud, word was brought us, that he expected us elsewhere: we found him sitting under the awning of our own boat, and making signs that we should come to him: as many of us therefore went on board as the boat would hold, and he then ordered bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts to be brought, of both which we tasted, rather to gratify him than because we had a desire to eat. A message was soon after brought him, upon which he went out of the boat, and we were in a short time desired to follow. We were conducted to a large area or court-yard, which was railed round with bamboos about three feet high, on one side of his house, where an entertainment was provided for us, entirely new: this was a wrestling match. At the upper end of the area sat the Chief, and several of his principal men were ranged on each side of him, so as to form a semicircle; these were the judges, by whom the victor was to be applauded; seats were also left for us at each end of the line, but we chose rather to be at liberty among the rest of the spectators. --page 229

When all was ready, ten or twelve persons,* whom we understood to be the combatants, and who were naked, except a cloth that was fastened about the waist, entered the area, and walked slowly round it, in a stooping posture, with their left hands on their right breasts, and their right hands open, with which they frequently struck the left fore-arm so as to produce a quick smart sound: this was a general challenge to the combatants whom they were to engage, or any other person present: after these followed others in the same manner, and then a particular challenge was given, by which each man singled out his antagonist: this was done by joining the finger ends of both hands, and bringing them to the breast, at the same time moving the elbows up and down with a quick motion: if the person to whom this was addressed accepted the challenge, he repeated the signs, and immediately each put himself into an attitude to engage: the next minute they closed; but, except in first seizing each other, it was a mere contest of strength: each endeavoured to lay hold of the other, first by the thigh, and if that failed by the hand, the hair, the cloth, or elsewhere as he could: when this was done they grappled, without the least dexterity or skill, till one of them, by having a more advantageous hold, or greater muscular force, threw the other on his back. When the contest was over, the old men gave their plaudit to the victor in a few words, which they repeated together in a kind of tune: his conquest was also generally celebrated by three huzzas. The entertainment was then suspended for a few minutes, after which another couple of wrestlers came forward and engaged in the same manner: if it happened that neither was thrown, after the contest had continued about a minute, they parted, either by consent or the intervention of their friends, and in this case each slapped his arm, as a challenge to a new engagement, either with the same antagonist or some other.* While the wrestlers were engaged, another party of men performed a dance which lasted also about a minute; but neither of these parties took the least notice of each other, their attention being wholly fixed on what they were doing. We observed with pleasure, that the conqueror never exulted over the vanquished, and that the vanquished never repined at the success of the conqueror; the whole contest was carried on with perfect good-will and good-humour, though in the presence of at least five hundred spectators, of whom some were women. The number of women indeed was comparatively small, none but those of rank were present, and we had reason to believe that they would not have been spectators of this exercise but in compliment to us. --page 230

This lasted about two hours; during all which time the man who had made way for us when we landed, kept the people at a proper distance, by striking those who pressed forward very severely with his stick: upon enquiry we learnt, that he was an officer belonging to Tootahah, acting as a master of the ceremonies. --page 231

It is scarcely possible for those who are acquainted with the athletic sports of very remote antiquity, not to remark a rude resemblance of them in this wrestling-match among the natives of a little island in the midst of the Pacific Ocean: and even our female readers may recollect the account given of them by Fenelon in his Telemachus, where, though the events are fictitious, the manners of the age are faithfully transcribed from authors by whom they are supposed to have been truly related. --page 232

When the wrestling was over, we were given to understand that two hogs, and a large quantity of bread-fruit were preparing for our dinner, which, as our appetites were now keen, was very agreeable intelligence. Our host, however,* seemed to repent of his liberality; for, instead of setting his two hogs before us, he ordered one of them to be carried into our boat; at first we were not sorry for this new disposition of matters, thinking that we should dine more comfortably in the boat than on shore, as the croud would more easily be kept at a distance: but when we came on board, he ordered us to proceed with his hog to the ship; this was mortifying, as we were now to row four miles while our dinner was growing cold; however, we thought fit to comply, and were at last gratified with the cheer that he had provided, of which he and Tubourai Tamaide had a liberal share. --page 233

Our reconciliation with this man operated upon the people like a charm; for he was no sooner known to be on board, than bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and other provisions were brought to the fort in great plenty. --page 234

Affairs now went on in the usual channel; but pork being still a scarce commodity, our Master, Mr. Mollineux, and Mr. Green went in the pinnace to the eastward, on the 8th,* early in the morning, to see whether they could procure any hogs or poultry in that part of the country: they proceeded in that direction twenty miles; but though they saw many hogs, and one turtle, they could not purchase either at any price: the people everywhere told them, that they all belonged to Tootahah, and that they could fell none of them without his permission. We now began to think that this man was indeed a great Prince; for an influence so extensive and absolute could be acquired by no other. And we afterwards found that he administered the government of this part of the island, as sovereign, for a minor whom we never saw all the time that we were upon it. When Mr. Green returned from this expedition,* he said he had seen a tree of a size which he was afraid to relate, it being no less than sixty yards in circumference; but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander soon explained to him, that it was a species of the fig, the branches of which, bending down, take fresh root in the earth, and thus form a congeries of trunks, which being very close to each other, and all joined by a common vegetation, might easily be mistaken for one. --page 235

Though the market at the fort was now tolerably supplied, provisions were brought more slowly: a sufficient quantity used to be purchased between sun-rise and eight o'clock, but it was now become necessary to attend the greatest part of the day. Mr. Banks, therefore, fixed his little boat up before the door of the fort, which was of great use as a place to trade in: hitherto we had purchased cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit for beads; but the market becoming rather slack in these articles, we were now, for the first time, forced to bring out our nails: one of our smallest size, which was about four inches long, procured us twenty cocoa-nuts, and bread-fruit in proportion, so that in a short time our first plenty was restored. --page 236

*On the 9th, soon after breakfast, we received a visit from Oberea, being the first that she had made us after the loss of our quadrant, and the unfortunate confinement of Tootahah; with her came her present favourite, Obadée, and Tupia: they brought us a hog and some bread-fruit, in return for which we gave her a hatchet. We had now afforded our Indian friends a new and interesting object of curiosity, our forge, which having been set up some time, was almost constantly at work. It was now common for them to bring pieces of iron, which we supposed they must have got from the Dolphin, to be made into tools of various kinds; and as I was very desirous to gratify them, they were indulged,* except when the smith's time was too precious to be spared. Oberea having received her hatchet, produced as much old iron as would have made another, with a request that another might be made of it: in this, however, I could not gratify her, upon which she brought out a broken ax, and desired it might be mended; I was glad of an opportunity to compromise the difference between us: her ax was mended, and she appeared to be content. They went away at night, and took with them the canoe, which had been a considerable time at the point, but promised to return in three days. --page 237

On the 10th,* I put some seeds of melons and other plants into a spot of ground which had been turned up for the purpose; they had all been sealed up by the person of whom they were bought, in small bottles with rosin; but none of them came up except mustard; even the cucumbers and melons failed, and Mr. Banks is of opinion that they were spoiled by the total exclusion of fresh air. --page 238

This day we learnt the Indian name of the island, which is OTAHEITE, and by that name I shall hereafter distinguish it: but after great pains taken we found it utterly impossible to teach the Indians to pronounce our names; we had, therefore, new names, consisting of such sounds as they produced in the attempt. They called me Toote; Mr. Hicks, Hete; Molineux they renounced in absolute despair, and called the Master Boba, from his Christian name Robert; Mr. Gore was Toarro; Dr. Solander, Torano; and Mr. Banks, Tapane; Mr. Green, Eteree; Mr. Parkinson, ; , ; Petersgill, Petrodero; and in this manner they had now formed names for almost every man in the ship: in some, however, it was not easy to find any traces of the original, and they were perhaps not mere arbitrary sounds formed upon the occasion,* but significant words in their own language. Monkhouse, the Midshipman, who commanded the party that killed the man for stealing the musket, they called Matte; not merely by an attempt to imitate in sound the first syllable of Monkhouse, but because Matte signifies dead; and this probably might be the case with others. --page 239

*FRIDAY, the 12th of May, was distinguished by a visit from some ladies whom we had never seen before, and who introduced themselves with some very singular ceremonies. Mr. Banks was trading in his boat at the gate of the fort as usual, in company with Tootahah, who had that morning paid him a visit, and some other of the natives; between nine and ten o'clock, a double canoe came to the landing-place, under the awning of which sat a man and two women: the Indians that were about him made signs that he should go out to meet them, which he hasted to do; but by the time he could get out of the boat, they had advanced within ten yards of him: they then stopped, and made signs that he should do so too, laying down about a dozen young plantain trees, and some other small plants: he complied, and the people having made a lane between them, the man, who appeared to be a servant,* brought them to Mr. Banks by one of each at a time, passing and repassing six times, and always pronouncing a short sentence when he delivered them. Tupia, who stood by Mr. Banks, acted as his master of the ceremonies, and receiving the branches as they were brought, laid them down in the boat. When this was done, another man brought a large bundle of cloth, which having opened, he spread piece by piece upon the ground, in the space between Mr. Banks and has visitors; there were nine pieces, and having laid three pieces one upon another, the foremost of the women, who seemed to be the principal, and who was called OORATTOOA, stepped upon them, and taking up her garments all round her to the waist, turned about, with great composure and deliberation, and with an air of perfect innocence and simplicity, three times; when this was done, she dropped the veil, and stepping off the cloth, three more pieces were laid on, and she repeated the ceremony, then stepping off as before; the last three were laid on, and the ceremony was repeated in the same manner the third time. Immediately after this the cloth was rolled up, and given to Mr. Banks, as a present from the lady, who, with her friend, came up and saluted him. He made such presents to them both as he thought would be most acceptable, and after having staid about an hour they went away. In the evening, the Gentlemen at the fort had a visit from Oberea, and her favourite female attendant, whose name was OTHEOTHEA, an agreeable girl, whom they were the more pleased to see, because, having been some days absent, it had been reported that she was either sick or dead. --page 240

On the 13th, the market being over about ten o'clock,* Mr. Banks walked into the woods with his gun, as he generally did, for the benefit of the shade in the heat of the day: as he was returning back,* he met Tubourai Tamaide, near his occasional dwelling, and stopping to spend a little time with him, he suddenly took the gun out of Mr. Banks's hand, cocked it, and, holding it up in the air, drew the trigger: fortunately for him, it flashed in the pan: Mr. Banks immediately took it from him, not a little surprised how he had acquired sufficient knowlege of a gun to discharge it, and reproved him with great severity for what he had done. As it was of infinite importance to keep the Indians totally ignorant of the management of fire-arms, he had taken every opportunity of intimating that they could never offend him so highly as by even touching his piece; it was now proper to enforce this prohibition, and he therefore added threats to his reproof: the Indian bore all patiently; but the moment Mr. Banks crossed the river, he set off with all his family and furniture for his house at Eparre. This being quickly known from the Indians at the fort, and great inconvenience being apprehended from the displeasure of this man, who upon all occasions had been particularly useful, Mr. Banks determined to follow him without delay, and solicit his return: he set out the same evening, accompanied by Mr. Mollineux, and found him sitting in the middle of a large circle of people, to whom he had probably related what had happened, and his fears of the consequences; he was himself the very picture of grief and dejection, and the same passions were strongly marked in the countenances of all the people that surrounded him. When Mr. Banks and Mr. Mollineux went into the circle, one of the women expressed her trouble, as Terapo had done upon another occasion, and struck a shark's tooth into her head several times, till it was covered with blood. Mr. Banks lost no time in putting an end to this universal distress; he assured the Chief, that every thing which had passed should be forgotten, that there was not the least animosity remaining on one side,* nor any thing to be feared on the other. The Chief was soon soothed into confidence and complacency, a double canoe was ordered to be got ready, they all returned together to the fort before supper, and as a pledge of perfect reconciliation, both he and his wife slept all night in Mr. Banks's tent: their presence, however, was no palladium; for, between eleven and twelve o'clock, one of the natives attempted to get into the fort by scaling the walls, with a design, no doubt, to steal whatever he should happen to find; he was discovered by the centinel, who happily did not fire, and he ran away much faster than any of our people could follow him. The iron, and iron-tools, which were in continual use at the armourer's forge, that was set up within the works, were temptations to theft which none of these people could withstand. --page 241

On the 14th, which was Sunday,* I directed that Divine Service should be performed at the fort: we were desirous that some of the principal Indians should be present, but when the hour came, most of them were returned home. Mr. Banks, however, crossed the river, and brought back Tubourai Tamaide and his wife Tomio, hoping that it would give occasion to some enquiries on their part, and some instruction on ours: having seated them, he placed himself between them, and during the whole service, they very attentively observed his behaviour, and very exactly imitated it; standing, sitting, or kneeling, as they saw him do: they were conscious that we were employed about somewhat serious and important, as appeared by their calling to the Indians without the fort to be silent; yet when the service was over, neither of them asked any questions, nor would they attend to any attempt that was made to explain what had been done. --page 242

*Such were our Matins; our Indians thought fit to perform Vespers of a very different kind. A young man, near six feet high, performed the rites of Venus with a little girl about eleven or twelve years of age, before several of our people, and a great number of the natives, without the least sense of its being indecent or improper, but, as appeared, in perfect conformity to the custom of the place. Among the spectators were several women of superior rank, particularly Oberea, who may properly be said to have assisted at the ceremony; for they gave instructions to the girl how to perform her part, which, young as she was, she did not seem much to stand in need of. --page 243

This incident is not mentioned as an object of idle curiosity, but as it deserves consideration in determining a question which has been long debated in philosophy; Whether the shame attending certain actions, which are allowed on all sides to be in themselves innocent, is implanted in Nature, or superinduced by custom? If it has its origin in custom, it will, perhaps, be found difficult to trace that custom, however general, to its source; if in instinct, it will be equally difficult to discover from what cause it is subdued or at least over-ruled among these people, in whose manners not the least trace of it is to be found. --page 244

*On the 14th and 15th, we had another opportunity of observing the general knowlege which these people had of any design that was formed among them. In the night between the 13th and 14th, one of the water-casks was stolen from the outside of the fort: in the morning, there was not an Indian to be seen who did not know that it was gone; yet they appeared not to have been trusted, or not to have been worthy of trust; for they seemed all of them disposed to give intelligence where it might be found. Mr. Banks traced it to a part of the bay where he was told it had been put into a canoe,* but as it was not of great consequence he did not complete the discovery. When he returned, he was told by Tubourai Tamaide, that another cask would be stolen before the morning: how he came by this knowlege it is not easy to imagine; that he was not a party in the design is certain, for he came with his wife and his family to the place where the water casks stood, and placing their beds near them, he said he would himself be a pledge for their safety, in despight of the thief: of this, however, we would not admit; and making him understand that a sentry would be placed to watch the casks till the morning, he removed the beds into Mr. Banks's tent, where he and his family spent the night, making signs to the sentry when he retired, that he should keep his eyes open. In the night this intelligence appeared to be true; about twelve o'clock the thief came, but discovering that a watch had been set, he went away without his booty. --page 245

Mr. Banks's confidence in Tubourai Tamaide had greatly increased since the affair of the knife, in consequence of which he was at length exposed to temptations which neither his integrity nor his honour was able to resist. They had withstood many allurements, but were at length ensnared by the fascinating charms of a basket of nails; these nails were much larger than any that had yet been brought into trade, and had, with perhaps some degree of criminal negligence, been left in a corner of Mr. Banks's tent, to which the Chief had always free access. One of these nails Mr. Banks's servant happened to see in his possession, upon his having inadvertently thrown back that part of his garment under which it was concealed. Mr. Banks being told of this, and knowing that no such thing had been given him,* either as a present or in barter, immediately examined the basket, and discovered, that out of seven nails five were missing. He then, though not without great reluctance, charged him with the fact, which he immediately confessed, and however he might suffer, was probably not more hurt than his accuser. A demand was immediately made of restitution; but this he declined, saying, that the nails were at Eparre: however, Mr. Banks appearing to be much in earnest, and using some threatening signs, he thought fit to produce one of them. He was then taken to the fort, to receive such judgment as should be given against him by the general voice. --page 246

After some deliberation, that we might not appear to think too lightly of his offence, he was told, that if he would bring the other four nails to the fort, it should be forgotten. To this condition he agreed; but I am sorry to say he did not fulfil it. Instead of fetching the nails, he removed with his family before night, and took all his furniture with him. --page 247

As our long-boat had appeared to be leaky, I thought it necessary to examine her bottom, and, to my great surprize, found it so much eaten by the worms, that it was necessary to give her a new one; no such accident had happened to the Dolphin's boats, as I was informed by the officers on board, and therefore it was a misfortune that I did not expect: I feared that the pinnace also might be nearly in the same condition; but, upon examining her, I had the satisfaction to find that not a worm had touched her, though she was built of the same wood, and had been as much in the water; the reason of this difference I imagine to be, that the long-boat was paid with varnish of pine, and the pinnace painted with white lead and oil; the bottoms of all boats therefore which are sent into this country should be painted like that of the pinnace,* and the ships should be supplied with a good stock, in order to give them a new coating when it shall be found necessary. --page 248

Having received repeated messages from Tootahah,* that if we would pay him a visit he would acknowledge the favour by a present of four hogs, I sent Mr. Hicks, my First Lieutenant, to try if he could not procure the hogs upon easier terms, with orders to show him every civility in his power. Mr. Hicks found that he was removed from Eparre to a place called TETTAHAH, five miles farther to the westward. He was received with great cordiality; one hog was immediately produced, and he was told that the other three, which were at some distance, should be brought in the morning. Mr. Hicks readily consented to stay; but the morning came without the hogs, and it not being convenient to stay longer, he returned in the evening, with the one that he had got. --page 249

On the 25th,* Tubourai Tamaide and his wife Tomio made their appearance at the tent, for the first time since he had been detected in stealing the nails; he seemed to be under some discontent and apprehension, yet he did not think fit to purchase our countenance and good-will by restoring the four which he had sent away. As Mr. Banks and the other Gentlemen treated him with a coolness and reserve which did not at all tend to restore his peace or good-humour, his stay was short, and his departure abrupt. Mr. Monkhouse, the Surgeon, went the next morning in order to effect a reconciliation, by persuading him to bring down the nails, but he could not succeed. --page 250

*ON the 27th, was determined that we should pay our visit to Tootahah, though we were not very confident that we should receive the hogs for our pains. I therefore set out early in the morning, with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and three others, in the pinnace. He was now removed from Tettahah, where Mr. Hicks had seen him, to a place called ATAHOUROU, about six miles farther, and as we could not go above half way thither in the boat, it was almost evening before we arrived: we found him in his usual state, sitting under a tree, with a great crowd about him. We made our presents in due form, consisting of a yellow stuff petticoat, and some other trifling articles, which were graciously received; a hog was immediately ordered to be killed and dressed for supper, with a promise of more in the morning: however, as we were less desirous of feasting upon our journey than of carrying back with us provisions, which would be more welcome at the fort, we procured a reprieve for the hog, and supped upon the fruits of the country. As night now came on, and the place was crowded with many more than the houses and canoes would contain; there being Oberea with her attendants, and many other travellers whom we knew, we began to look out for lodgings. Our party consisted of six:* Mr. Banks thought himself fortunate in being offered a place by Oberea in her canoe, and wishing his friends a good night, took his leave. He went to rest early, according to the custom of the country, and taking off his clothes, as was his constant practice, the nights being hot, Oberea kindly insisted upon taking them into her own custody, for otherwise she said they would certainly be stolen. Mr. Banks having such a safeguard, resigned himself to sleep with all imaginable tranquillity: but awaking about eleven o'clock, and wanting to get up, he searched for his clothes where he had seen them deposited by Oberea when he lay down to sleep, and soon perceived that they were missing. He immediately awakened Oberea, who starting up, and hearing his complaint, ordered lights, and prepared in great haste to recover what he had lost: Tootahah himself slept in the next canoe, and being soon alarmed, he came to them and set out with Oberea in search of the thief: Mr. Banks was not in a condition to go with them, for of his apparel scarce any thing was left him but his breeches; his coat, and his waistcoat, with his pistols, powder-horn, and many other things that were in the pockets, were gone. In about half an hour his two noble friends returned, but without having obtained any intelligence of his clothes or of the thief. At first he began to be alarmed, his musquet had not indeed been taken away, but he had neglected to load it; where I and Dr. Solander had disposed of ourselves he did not know; and therefore, whatever might happen, he could not have recourse to us for assistance. He thought it best, however, to express neither fear nor suspicion of those about him, and giving his musquet to Tupia, who had been waked in the confusion and stood by him, with a charge not to suffer it to be stolen, he betook himself again to rest, declaring himself perfectly satisfied with the pains that Tootahah and Oberea had taken to recover his things,* though they had not been successful. As it cannot be supposed that in such a situation his sleep was very sound, he soon after heard music, and saw lights at a little distance on shore: this was a concert or assembly, which they call a HEIVA, a common name for every public exhibition; and as it would necessarily bring many people together, and there was a chance of my being among them with his other friends, he rose, and made the best of his way towards it: he was soon led by the lights and the sound to the hut where I lay, with three other Gentlemen of our party; and easily distinguishing us from the rest, he made up to us more than half naked, and told us his melancholy story. We gave him such comfort as the unfortunate generally give to each other, by telling him that we were fellow-sufferers; I showed him that I was myself without stockings, they having been stolen from under my head, though I was sure I had never been asleep, and each of my associates convinced him, by his appearance, that he had lost a jacket. We determined, however, to hear out the concert, however deficient we might appear in our dress; it consisted of three drums, four flutes, and several voices: when this entertainment, which lasted about an hour, was over, we retired again to our sleeping-places; having agreed, that nothing could be done toward the recovery of our things till the morning. --page 251

*We rose at day-break, according to the custom of the country; the first man that Mr. Banks saw was Tupia, faithfully attending with his musquet; and soon after, Oberea brought him some of her country clothes, as a succedaneum for his own, so that when he came to us he made a most motley appearance, half Indian and half English. Our party soon got together, except Dr. Solander, whose quarters we did not know, and who had not assisted at the concert: in a short time Tootahah made his appearance,* and we pressed him to recover our clothes; but neither he nor Oberea could be persuaded to take any measure for that purpose, so that we began to suspect that they had been parties in the theft. About eight o'clock, we were joined by Dr. Solander, who had fallen into honester hands, at a house about a mile distant, and had lost nothing. --page 252

Having given up all hope of recovering our clothes, which indeed were never afterwards heard of, we spent all the morning in soliciting the hogs which we had been promised; but in this we had no better success: we therefore, in no very good humour, set out for the boat about twelve o'clock, with only that which we had redeemed from the butcher and the cook the night before. --page 253

As we were returning to the boat, however, we were entertained with a sight that in some measure compensated for our fatigue and disappointment. In our way we came to one of the few places where access to the island is not guarded by a reef, and, consequently, a high surf breaks upon the shore; a more dreadful one indeed I had seldom seen; it was impossible for any European boat to have lived in it; and if the best swimmer in Europe had, by any accident, been exposed to its fury, I am confident that he would not have been able to preserve himself from drowning, especially as the shore was covered with pebbles and large stones; yet, in the midst of these breakers, were ten or twelve Indians swimming for their amusement: whenever a surf broke near them, they dived under it, and, to all appearance with infinite facility, rose again on the other side. This diversion was greatly improved by the stern of an old canoe, which they happened to find upon the spot; they took this before them, and swam out with it as far as the outermost breach, then two or three of them getting into it,* and turning the square end to the breaking wave, were driven in towards the shore with incredible rapidity, sometimes almost to the beach; but generally the wave broke over them before they got half way, in which case they dived, and rose on the other side with the canoe in their hands: they then swam out with it again, and were again driven back, just as our holiday youth climb the hill in Greenwich park for the pleasure of rolling down it. At this wonderful scene we stood gazing for more than half an hour, during which time none of the swimmers attempted to come on shore, but seemed to enjoy their sport in the highest degree; we then proceeded in our journey, and late in the evening got back to the fort. --page 254

Upon this occasion it may be observed, that human nature is endued with powers which are only accidentally exerted to the utmost; and that all men are capable of what no man attains, except he is stimulated to the effort by some uncommon circumstances or situation. These Indians effected what to us appeared to be supernatural, merely by the application of such powers as they possessed in common with us, and all other men who have no particular infirmity or defect. The truth of the observation is also manifest from more familiar instances. The rope-dancer and balance-master owe their art, not to any peculiar liberality of Nature, but to an accidental improvement of her common gifts; and though equal diligence and application would not always produce equal excellence in these, any more than in other arts; yet there is no doubt but that a certain degree of proficiency in them might be universally attained. Another proof of the existence of abilities in mankind, that are almost universally dormant, is furnished by the attainments of blind men. It cannot be supposed that the loss of one sense, like the amputation of a branch from a tree,* gives new vigour to those that remain. Every man's hearing and touch, therefore, are capable of the nice distinctions which astonish us in those that have lost their sight, and if they do not give the same intelligence to the mind, it is merely because the same intelligence is not required of them: he that can see may do from choice what the blind do by necessity, and by the same diligent attention to the other senses, may receive the same notices from them; let it therefore be remembered as an encouragement to persevering diligence, and a principle of general use to mankind, that he who does all he can, will ever effect much more than is generally thought to be possible. --page 255

Among other Indians that had visited us, there were some from a neighbouring island which they called EIMEO or IMAO, the same to which Captain Wallis had given the name of the Duke of York's island, and they gave us an account of no less than two and twenty islands that lay in the neighbourhood of Otaheite. --page 256

As the day of observation now approached, I determined, in consequence of some hints which had been given me by Lord Morton, to send out two parties to observe the transit from other situations; hoping, that if we should fail at Otaheite, they might have better success. We were, therefore, now busily employed in preparing our instruments, and instructing such Gentlemen in the use of them as I intended to send out. --page 257

On Thursday the 1st of June,* the Saturday following being the day of the Transit, I dispatched Mr. Gore in the long-boat to Imao, with Mr. Monkhouse and , a Gentleman belonging to Mr. Banks, Mr. Green having furnished them with proper instruments. Mr. Banks himself thought fit to go upon this expedition,* and several natives, particularly Tubourai Tamaide and Tomio, were also of the party. Very early on the Friday morning, I sent Mr. Hicks, with Mr. Clerk and Mr. Petersgill, the Master's Mates, and Mr. Saunders, one of the Midshipmen, in the pinnace to the eastward, with orders to six on some convenient spot, at a distance from our principal observatory, where they also might employ the instruments with which they had been furnished for the same purpose. --page 258

The long-boat not having been got ready till Thursday in the afternoon, though all possible expedition was used to fit her out; the people on board, after having rowed most part of the night, brought her to a grappling just under the land of Imao.* Soon after day-break, they saw an Indian canoe, which they hailed, and the people on board shewed them an inlet through the reef into which they pulled, and soon fixed upon a coral rock, which rose out of the water about one hundred and fifty yards from the shore, as a proper situation for their observatory: it was about eighty yards long and twenty broad, and in the middle of it was a bed of white sand, large enough for the tents to stand upon. Mr. Gore and his assistants immediately began to set them up, and make other necessary preparations for the important business of the next day. While this was doing, Mr. Banks, with the Indians of Otaheite, and the people whom they had met in the canoe, went ashore upon the main island, to buy provisions; of which he procured a sufficient supply before night. When he returned to the rock he found the observatory in order, and the telescopes all fixed and tried. The evening was very fine, yet their solicitude did not permit them to take much rest in the night: one or other of them was up every half hour, who satisfied the impatience of the rest by reporting the changes of the sky;* now encouraging their hope by telling them that it was clear, and now alarming their fears by an account that it was hazey. --page 259

At day-break they got up,* and had the satisfaction to see the sun rise, without a cloud. Mr. Banks then, wishing the observers, Mr. Gore and Mr. Monkhouse, success, repaired again to the island, that he might examine its produce, and get a fresh supply of provisions: he began by trading with the natives, for which purpose he took his station under a tree; and to keep them from pressing upon him in a crowd, he drew a circle round him, which he suffered none of them to enter. --page 260

About eight o'clock, he saw two canoes coming towards the place, and was given to understand by the people about him, that they belonged to TARRAO, the King of the island, who was coming to make him a visit. As soon as the canoes came near the shore, the people made a lane from the beach to the trading-place, and his Majesty landed, with his sister, whose name was NUNA; as they advanced towards the tree where Mr. Banks stood, he went out to meet them, and, with great formality, introduced them into the circle from which the other natives had been excluded. As it is the custom of these people to sit during all their conferences, Mr. Banks unwrapped a kind of Turban of Indian cloth, which he wore upon his head instead of a hat, and spreading it upon the ground, they all sat down upon it together. The royal present was then brought, which consisted of a hog and a dog, some bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, and other articles of the like kind. Mr. Banks then dispatched a canoe to the observatory for his present, and the messengers soon returned with an adze, a shirt, and some beads, which were presented to his Majesty, and received with great satisfaction. --page 261

*By this time, Tubourai Tamaide and Tomio joined them, from the observatory. Tomio said, that she was related to Tarrao, and brought him a present of a long nail, at the same time complimenting Nuna with a shirt. --page 262

The first internal contact of the planet with the sun being over, Mr. Banks returned to the observatory, taking Tarrao, Nuna, and some of their principal attendants, among whom were three very handsome young women, with him: he showed them the planet upon the sun, and endeavoured to make them understand that he and his companions had come from their own country on purpose to see it. Soon after, Mr. Banks returned with them to the island, where he spent the rest of the day in examining its produce, which he found to be much the same with that of Otaheite. The people whom he saw there also exactly resembled the inhabitants of that island, and many of them were persons whom he had seen upon it; so that all those whom he had dealt with, knew of what his trading articles consisted, and the value they bore. --page 263

*The next morning, having struck the tents, they set out on their return, and arrived at the fort before night. --page 264

The observation was made with equal success by the persons whom I had sent to the eastward, and at the fort, there not being a cloud in the sky from the rising to the setting of the sun, the whole passage of the planet Venus over the sun's disk was observed with great advantage by Mr. Green, Dr. Solander, and myself: Mr. Green's telescope and mine were of the same magnifying power, but that of Dr. Solander was greater. We all saw an atmotsphere or dusky cloud round the body of the planet, which very much disturbed the times of contact, especially of the internal ones; and we differed from each other in our accounts of the times of the contacts much more than might have been expected.* According to Mr. Green, --page 265

Hours. Min. Sec. The first external contact, or first appearance of Venus on the Sun, was 9 25 42 Morning. The first internal contact, or total immersion, was 9 44 4 The second internal contact, or beginning of the emersion, 3 14 8 Afternoon. The second external contact, or total emersion 3 32 10 The latitude of the observatory was found to be 17° 29′ 15″; and the longitude 149° 32′ 30″ W. of Greenwich. A more particular account will appear by the tables, for which the reader is referred to the Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. lxi. part 2. page 397 & seq. where they are illustrated by a cut. But if we had reason to congratulate ourselves upon the success of our observation, we had scarce less cause to regret the diligence with which that time had been improved by some of our people to another purpose. While the attention of the officers was engrossed by the Transit of Venus, some of the ship's company broke into one of the store-rooms, and stole a quantity of spike nails, amounting to no less than one hundred weight: this was a matter of public and serious concern; for these nails, if circulated by the people among the Indians, would do us irreparable injury, by reducing the value of iron, our staple commodity. One of the thieves was detected, but only seven nails were found in his custody. He was punished with two dozen lashes, but would impeach none of his accomplices. --page 266

*ON the 5th, we kept his Majesty's birth-day; for though it is the 4th, we were unwilling to celebrate it during the absence of the two parties who had been sent out to observe the Transit. We had several of the Indian Chiefs at our entertainment, who drank his Majesty's health by the name of Kihiargo, which was the nearest imitation they could produce of King George. --page 267

About this time died an old woman of some rank, who was related to Tomio, which gave us an opportunity to see how they disposed of the body, and confirmed us in our opinion that these people, contrary to the present custom of all other nations now known, never bury their dead. In the middle of a small square, neatly railed in with bamboo, the awning of a canoe was raised upon two posts, and under this the body was deposited upon such a frame as has before been described: it was covered with fine cloth, and near it was placed bread-fruit, fish, and other provisions: we supposed that the food was placed there for the spirit of the deceased, and consequently, that these Indians had some confused notion of a separate state; but upon our applying for further information to Tubourai Tamaide, he told us,* that the food was placed there as an offering to their gods. They do not, however, suppose, that the gods eat, any more than the Jews supposed that Jehovah could dwell in a house: the offering is made here upon the same principle as the Temple was built at Jerusalem, as an expression of reverence and gratitude, and a solicitation of the more immediate presence of the Deity. In the front of the area was a kind of stile, where the relations of the deceased stood to pay the tribute of their sorrow; and under the awning were innumerable small pieces of cloth, on which the tears and blood of the mourners had been shed; for in their paroxysms of grief it is a universal custom to wound themselves with the shark's tooth. Within a few yards two occasional houses were set up, in one of which some relations of the deceased constantly resided, and in the other the chief mourner, who is always a man, and who keeps there a very singular dress in which a ceremony is performed that will be described in its turn. Near the place where the dead are thus set up to rot, the bones are afterwards buried. --page 268

What can have introduced among these people the custom of exposing their dead above ground, till the flesh is consumed by putrefaction, and then burying the bones, it is perhaps impossible to guess; but it is remarkable, that Aelian and Apollonius Rhodius impute a similar practice to the ancient inhabitants of Colchis, a country near Pontus in Asia, now called Mingrelia; except that among them this manner of disposing of the dead did not extend to both sexes: the women they buried; but the men they wrapped in a hide, and hung up in the air by a chain. This practice among the Colchians is referred to a religious cause. The principal objects of their worship were the Earth and the Air; and it is supposed that, in consequence of some superstitious notion, they devoted their dead to both.* Whether the natives of Otaheite had any notion of the same kind we were never able certainly to determine; but we soon discovered, that the repositories of their dead were also places of worship. Upon this occasion it may be observed, that nothing can be more absurd than the notion that the happiness or misery of a future life depends, in any degree, upon the disposition of the body when the state of probation is past; yet that nothing is more general than a solicitude about it. However cheap we may hold any funereal rites which custom has not familiarized, or superstition rendered sacred, most men gravely deliberate how to prevent their body from being broken by the mattock and devoured by the worm, when it is no longer capable of sensation; and purchase a place for it in holy ground, when they believe the lot of its future existence to be irrevocably determined. So strong is the association of pleasing or painful ideas with certain opinions and actions which affect us while we live, that we involuntarily act as if it was equally certain that they would affect us in the same manner when we are dead, though this is an opinion that nobody will maintain. Thus it happens, that the desire of preserving from reproach even the name that we leave behind us, or of procuring it honour, is one of the most powerful principles of action, among the inhabitants of the most speculative and enlightened nations. Posthumous reputation, upon every principle, must be acknowledged to have no influence upon the dead; yet the desire of obtaining and securing it, no force of reason, no habits of thinking can subdue, except in those whom habitual baseness and guilt have rendered indifferent to honour and shame while they lived. This indeed seems to be among the happy imperfections of our nature, upon which the general good of society in a certain measure depends; for as some crimes are supposed to be prevented by hanging the body of the criminal in chains after he is dead,* so in consequence of the same association of ideas, much good is procured to society, and much evil prevented, by a desire of preventing disgrace or procuring honour to a name, when nothing but a name remains. --page 269

Perhaps no better use can be made of reading an account of manners altogether new, by which the follies and absurdities of mankind are taken out of that particular connection in which habit has reconciled them to us, than to consider in how many instances they are essentially the same. When an honest devotee of the Church of Rome reads, that there are Indians on the banks of the Ganges, who believe that they shall secure the happiness of a future state by dying with a cow's tail in their hands, he laughs at their folly and superstition; and if these Indians were to be told, that there are people upon the continent of Europe, who imagine that they shall derive the same advantage from dying with the slipper of a St. Francis upon their foot, they would laugh in their turn. But if, when the Indian heard the account of the Catholic, and the Catholic that of the Indian, each was to reflect, that there was no difference between the absurdity of the slipper and of the tail; but that the veil of prejudice and custom, which covered it in their own case, was withdrawn in the other, they would turn their knowlege to a profitable purpose. --page 270

Having observed that bread-fruit had for some days been brought in less quantities than usual, we enquired the reason; and were told, that there being a great show of fruit upon the trees, they had been thinned all at once, in order to make a kind of sour paste, which the natives call Mahie, and which, in consequence of having undergone a fermentation, will keep a considerable time, and supply them with food when no ripe fruit is to be had. --page 271

*On the 10th, the ceremony was to be performed, in honour of the old woman whose sepulchral tabernacle has just been described, by the chief mourner; and Mr. Banks had so great a curiosity to see all the mysteries of the solemnity, that he determined to take a part in it, being told, that he could be present upon no other condition. In the evening, therefore, he repaired to the place where the body lay, and was received by the daughter of the deceased, and several other persons, among whom was a boy about fourteen years old, who were to assist in the ceremony. Tubourai Tamaide was to be the principal mourner; and his dress, which was extremely fantastical, though not unbecoming, is represented by a figure in one of the plates. Mr. Banks was stripped of his European clothes, and a small piece of cloth being tied round his middle, his body was smeared with charcoal and water, as low as the shoulders, till it was as black as that of a negroe: the same operation was performed upon several others, among whom were some women, who were reduced to a state as near to nakedness as himself; the boy was blacked all over, and then the procession set forward. Tubourai Tamaide uttered something, which was supposed to be a prayer, near the body; and did the same when he came up to his own house: when this was done, the procession was continued towards the fort, permission having been obtained to approach it upon this occasion. It is the custom of the Indians to fly from these processions with the utmost precipitation, so that as soon as those who were about the fort, saw it at a distance, they hid themselves in the woods. It proceeded from the fort along the shore, and put to flight another body of Indians, consisting of more than an hundred, every one hiding himself under the first shelter that he could find: it then crossed the river, and entered the woods, passing several houses, all which were deserted, and not a single Indian could be seen during the rest of the procession,* which continued more than half an hour. The office that Mr. Banks performed, was called that of the Nineveh, of which there were two besides himself; and the natives having all disappeared, they came to the chief mourner, and said imatata, there are no people, after which the company was dismissed to wash themselves in the river, and put on their customary apparel. --page 272

On the 12th, complaint being made to me,* by some of the natives, that two of the seamen had taken from them several bows and arrows, and some strings of plaited hair, I examined the matter, and finding the charge well supported, I punished each of the criminals with two dozen lashes. --page 273

Their bows and arrows have not been mentioned before, nor were they often brought down to the fort: This day, however, Tubourai Tamaide brought down his, in consequence of a challenge which he had received from Mr. Gore. The Chief supposed it was to try who could send the arrow farthest; Mr. Gore, who best could hit a mark: and as Mr. Gore did not value himself upon shooting to a great distance, nor the Chief upon hitting a mark, there was no trial of skill between them. Tubourai Tamaide, however, to shew us what he could do, drew his bow, and sent an arrow, none of which are feathered, two hundred and seventy-four yards, which is something more than a seventh, and something less than a sixth part of a mile. Their manner of shooting is somewhat singular; they kneel down, and the moment the arrow is discharged, drop the bow. --page 274

Mr. Banks, in his morning walk this day, met a number of the natives whom, upon enquiry, he found to be travelling musicians; and having learnt where they were to be at night, we all repaired to the place. The band consisted of two flutes and three drums,* and we found a great number of people assembled upon the occasion. The drummers accompanied the musick with their voices, and, to our great surprize, we discovered that we were generally the subject of the song. We did not expect to have found among the uncivilized inhabitants of this sequestered spot, a character, which has been the subject of such praise and veneration where genius and knowlege have been most conspicuous; yet these were the bards or minstrels of Otaheite. Their song was unpremeditated, and accompanied with musick; they were continually going about from place to place, and they were rewarded by the master of the house, and the audience, with such things as one wanted and the other could spare. --page 275

*On the 14th, we were brought into new difficulties and inconvenience by another robbery at the fort. In the middle of the night, one of the natives contrived to steal an iron coal-rake, that was made use of for the oven. It happened to be set up against the inside of the wall, so that the top of the handle was visible from without; and we were informed that the thief, who had been seen lurking there in the evening, came secretly about three o'clock in the morning, and, watching his opportunity when the centinel's back was turned, very dexterously laid hold of it with a long crooked stick, and drew it over the wall. I thought it of some consequence, if possible, to put an end to these practices at once, by doing something that should make it the common interest of the natives themselves, to prevent them. I had given strict orders that they should not be fired upon, even when detected in these attempts, for which I had many reasons: the common centinels were by no means fit to be entrusted with a power of life and death, to be exerted whenever they should think fit, and I had already experienced that they were ready to take away the lives that were in their power,* upon the slightest occasion; neither indeed did I think that the thefts which these people committed against us, were, in them, crimes worthy of death: that thieves are hanged in England, I thought no reason why they should be shot in Otaheite; because, with respect to the natives, it would have been an execution by a law ex post facto: they had no such law among themselves, and it did not appear to me that we had any right to make such a law for them. That they should abstain from theft, or be punished with death, was not one of the conditions under which they claimed the advantages of civil society, as it is among us; and as I was not willing to expose them to fire-arms, loaded with shot, neither could I perfectly approve of firing only with powder: at first, indeed, the noise and the smoke would alarm them, but when they found that no mischief followed, they would be led to despise the weapons themselves, and proceed to insults, which would make it necessary to put them to the test, and from which they would be deterred by the very sight of a gun, if it was never used but with effect. At this time, an accident furnished me with what I thought a happy expedient. It happened that above twenty of their sailing canoes were just come in with a supply of fish: upon these I immediately seized, and bringing them into the river behind the fort, gave publick notice, that except the rake, and all the rest of the things which from time to time had been stolen, were returned, the canoes should be burnt. This menace I ventured to publish, though I had no design to put it into execution, making no doubt but that it was well known in whose possession the stolen goods were, and that as restitution was thus made a common cause, they would all of them in a short time be brought back. A list of the things was made out, consisting principally of the rake, the musquet which had been taken from the marine when the Indian was shot;* the pistols which Mr. Banks lost with his clothes at Atahourou; a sword belonging to one of the petty officers, and the water cask. About noon, the rake was restored, and great solicitation was made for the release of the canoes; but I still insisted upon my original condition.* The next day came, and nothing farther was restored, at which I was much surprised, for the people were in the utmost distress for the fish, which in a short time would be spoilt; I was, therefore, reduced to a disagreeable situation, either of releasing the canoes, contrary to what I had solemnly and publickly declared, or to detain them, to the great injury of those who were innocent, without answering any good purpose to ourselves: as a temporary expedient, I permitted them to take the fish; but still detained the canoes. This very licence, however, was productive of new confusion and injury; for, it not being easy at once to distinguish to what particular persons the several lots of fish belonged, the canoes were plundered, under favour of this circumstance, by those who had no right to any part of their cargo. Most pressing instances were still made that the canoes might be restored, and I having now the greatest reason to believe, either that the things for which I detained them were not in the island, or that those who suffered by their detention had not sufficient influence over the thieves to prevail upon them to relinquish their booty, determined at length to give them up, not a little mortified at the bad success of my project. --page 276

Another accident also about this time was, notwithstanding all our caution, very near embroiling us with the Indians. I sent the boat on shore with an officer to get ballast for the ship, and not immediately finding stones convenient for the purpose, he began to pull down some part of an inclosure where they deposited the bones of their dead: this the Indians violently opposed,* and a messenger came down to the tents to acquaint the officers that they would not suffer it. Mr. Banks immediately repaired to the place, and an amicable end was soon put to the dispute, by sending the boat's crew to the river, where stones enough were to be gathered without a possibility of giving offence. It is very remarkable, that these Indians appeared to be much more jealous of what was done to the dead than the living. This was the only measure in which they ventured to oppose us, and the only insult that was offered to any individual among us was upon a similar occasion. Mr. Monkhouse happening one day to pull a flower from a tree which grew in one of their sepulchral inclosures, an Indian, whose jealousy had probably been upon the watch, came suddenly behind him, and struck him: Mr. Monkhouse laid hold of him, but he was instantly rescued by two more, who took hold of Mr. Monkhouse's hair, and forced him to quit his hold of their companion, and then ran away without offering him any farther violence. --page 277

In the evening of the 19th,* while the canoes were still detained, we received a visit from Oberea, which surprised us not a little, as she brought with her none of the things that had been stolen, and knew that she was suspected of having some of them in her custody. She said indeed, that her favourite Obadee, whom she had beaten and dismissed, had taken them away; but she seemed conscious, that she had no right to be believed: she discovered the strongest signs of fear, yet she surmounted it with astonishing resolution; and was very pressing to sleep with her attendants in Mr. Banks's tent. In this, however, she was not gratified; the affair of the jackets was too recent, and the tent was besides filled with other people. No body else seemed willing to entertain her,* and she therefore, with great appearance of mortification and disappointment, spent the night in her canoe. --page 278

*The next morning early, she returned to the fort, with her canoe and every thing that it contained, putting herself wholly into our power, with something like greatness of mind, which excited our wonder and admiration. As the most effectual means to bring about a reconciliation, she presented us with a hog, and several other things, among which was a dog. We had lately learnt, that these animals were esteemed by the Indians as more delicate food than their pork; and upon this occasion we determined to try the experiment: the dog, which was very fat, we consigned over to Tupia, who undertook to perform the double office of butcher and cook. He killed him by holding his hands close over his mouth and nose, an operation which continued above a quarter of an hour. While this was doing, a hole was made in the ground about a foot deep, in which a fire was kindled, and some small stones placed in layers alternately with the wood to heat; the dog was then singed, by holding him over the fire, and, by scraping him with a shell, the hair taken off as clean as if he had been scalded in hot water: he was then cut up with the same instrument, and his entrails being taken out, were sent to the sea, where being carefully washed, they were put into cocoa-nut shells, with what blood had come from the body: when the hole was sufficiently heated, the fire was taken out, and some of the stones, which were not so hot as to discolour any thing that they touched, being placed at the bottom, were covered with green leaves: the dog, with the entrails, was then placed upon the leaves, and other leaves being laid upon them, the whole was covered with the rest of the hot stones, and the mouth of the hole close stopped with mould: in somewhat less than four hours it was again opened, and the dog taken out excellently baked,* and we all agreed that he made a very good dish. The dogs which are here bred to be eaten, taste no animal food, but are kept wholly upon bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, yams, and other vegetables of the like kind: all the flesh and fish eaten by the inhabitants is dressed in the same way. --page 279

On the 21st, we were visited at the fort by a Chief,* called OAMO, whom we had never seen before, and who was treated by the natives with uncommon respect; he brought with him a boy about seven years old, and a young woman about sixteen: the boy was carried upon a man's back, which we considered as a piece of state, for he was as well able to walk as any present. As soon as they were in sight, Oberea, and several other natives who were in the fort, went out to meet them, having first uncovered their heads and bodies as low as the waist: as they came on, the same ceremony was performed by all the natives who were without the fort. Uncovering the body, therefore, is in this country probably a mark of respect; and as all parts are here exposed with equal indifference, the ceremony of uncovering it from the waist downwards, which was performed by Oorattooa, might be nothing more than a different mode of compliment, adapted to persons of a different rank. The Chief came into the tent, but no entreaty could prevail upon the young woman to follow him, though she seemed to refuse contrary to her inclination: the natives without were indeed all very solicitous to prevent her; sometimes, when her resolution seemed to fail, almost using force: the boy also they restrained in the same manner; but Dr. Solander happening to meet him at the gate, took him by the hand, and led him in before the people were aware of it: as soon, however, as those that were within saw him, they took care to have him sent out. --page 280

*These circumstances having strongly excited our curiosity, we enquired who they were, and were informed, that Oamo was the husband of Oberea, though they had been a long time separated by mutual consent; and that the young woman and the boy were their children. We learnt also, that the boy, whose name was TERRIDIRI, was heir apparent to the sovereignty of the island, and that his sister was intended for his wife, the marriage being deferred only till he should arrive at a proper age. The sovereign at this time was a son of WHAPPAI, whose name was OUTOU, and who, as before has been observed, was a minor. Whappai, Oamo, and Tootahah, were brothers: Whappai was the eldest, and Oamo the second; so that, Whappai having no child but Outou, Terridiri, the son of his next brother Oamo, was heir to the sovereignty. It will, perhaps, seem strange that a boy should be sovereign during the life of his father; but, according to the custom of the country, a child succeeds to a father's title and authority as soon as it is born: a regent is then elected, and the father of the new sovereign is generally continued in his authority, under that title, till his child is of age; but, at this time, the choice had fallen upon Tootahah, the uncle, in consequence of his having distinguished himself in a war. Oamo asked many questions concerning England and its inhabitants, by which he appeared to have great shrewdness and understanding. --page 281

ON Monday the 26th,* about three o'clock in the morning, I set out in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. Banks, to make the circuit of the island, with a view to sketch out the coast and harbours. We took our route to the eastward, and about eight in the forenoon we went on shore, in a district called OAHOUNUE, which is governed by AHIO, a young Chief, whom we had often seen at the tents, and who favoured us with his company to breakfast. Here also we found two other natives of our old acquaintance, TITUBOALO and HOONA, who carried us to their houses, near which we saw the body of the old woman, at whose funeral rites Mr. Banks had assisted, and which had been removed hither from the spot where it was first deposited, this place having descended from her by inheritance to Hoona, and it being necessary on that account that it should lie here. We then proceeded on foot, the boat attending within call, to the harbour in which Mr. Bougainville lay, called OHIDEA, where the natives shewed us the ground upon which his people pitched their tent, and the brook at which they watered, though no trace of them remained, except the holes where the poles of the tent had been fixed, and a small piece of potsheard, which Mr. Banks found in looking narrowly about the spot. We met, however, with ORETTE, a Chief who was their principal friend,* and whose brother OUTORROU went away with them. --page 282

This harbour lies on the west side of a great bay, under shelter of a small island called BOOUROU, near which is another called TAAWIRRII; the breach in the reefs is here very large, but the shelter for the ships is not the best. --page 283

Soon after we had examined this place, we took boat, and asked Tituboalo to go with us to the other side of the bay; but he refused, and advised us not to go, for he said the country there was inhabited by people who were not subject to Tootahah, and who would kill both him and us. Upon receiving this intelligence, we did not, as may be imagined, relinquish our enterprize; but we immediately loaded our pieces with ball: this was so well understood by Tituboalo as a precaution which rendered us formidable, that he now consented to be of our party. --page 284

Having rowed till it was dark, we reached a low neck of land, or isthmus, at the bottom of the bay, that divides the island into two peninsulas, each of which is a district or government wholly independent of the other. From Port-Royal, where the ship was at anchor, the coast trends E. by S. and E. S. E. ten miles, then S. by E. and S. eleven miles to the isthmus. In the first direction, the shore is in general open to the sea; but in the last it is covered by reefs of rocks, which form several good harbours, with safe anchorage, in 16, 18, 20, and 24 fathom of water, with other conveniences. As we had not yet got into our enemy's country, we determined to sleep on shore: we landed, and though we found but few houses, we saw several double canoes whose owners were well known to us, and who provided us with supper and lodging; of which Mr. Banks was indebted for his share to Ooratooa,* the lady who had paid him her compliments in so singular a manner at the fort. --page 285

In the morning, we looked about the country,* and found it to be a marshy flat, about two miles over, across which the natives haul their canoes to the corresponding bay on the other side. We then prepared to continue our rout for what Tituboalo called the other kingdom; he said that the name of it was TIARRABOU, or OTAHEITE ETE; and that of the Chief who governed it, WAHEATUA: upon this occasion also, we learnt that the name of the peninsula where we had taken our station was OPOUREONU, or OTAHEITE NUE. Our new associate seemed to be now in better spirits than he had been the day before; the people in Tiarrabou would not kill us, he said, but he assured us that we should be able to procure no victuals among them; and indeed we had seen no bread-fruit since we set out. --page 286

After rowing a few miles, we landed in a district, which was the dominion of a Chief called MARAITATA, the burying-place of men; whose father's name was PAHAIREDO, the stealer of boats. Though these names seemed to favour the account that had been given by Tituboalo, we soon found that it was not true. Both the father and the son received us with the greatest civility, gave us provisions, and, after some delay, sold us a very large hog for a hatchet. A crowd soon gathered round us, but we saw only two people that we knew; neither did we observe a single bead or ornament among them that had come from our ship, though we saw several things which had been brought from Europe. In one of the houses lay two twelve-pound shot, one of which was marked with the broad arrow of England, though the people said they had them from the ships that lay in Bougainville's harbour. --page 287

*We proceeded on foot till we came to the district which was immediately under the government of the principal Chief, or King of the peninsula, Waheatua. Waheatua had a son, but whether, according to the custom of Opoureonu, he administered the government as regent, or in his own right, is uncertain. This district consists of a large and fertile plain, watered by a river so wide, that we were obliged to ferry over it in a canoe; our Indian train, however, chose to swim, and took to the water with the same facility as a pack of hounds. In this place we saw no house that appeared to be inhabited, but the ruins of many, that had been very large. We proceeded along the shore, which forms a bay, called OAITIPEHA, and at last we found the Chief sitting near some pretty canoe awnings, under which, we supposed, he and his attendants slept. He was a thin old man, with a very white head and beard, and had with him a comely woman, about five and twenty years old, whose name was TOUDIDDE. We had often heard the name of this woman, and, from report and observation, we had reason to think that she was the OBEREA of this peninsula. From this place, between which and the isthmus there are other harbours, formed by the reefs that lie along the shore, where shipping may lie in perfect security, and from whence the land trends S. S. E. and S. to the S. E. part of the island, we were accompanied by TEAREE, the son of Waheatua, of whom we had purchased a hog, and the country we passed through appeared to be more cultivated than any we had seen in other parts of the island: the brooks were every where banked into narrow channels with stone, and the shore had also a facing of stone, where it was washed by the sea. The houses were neither large nor numerous, but the canoes that were hauled up along the shore were almost innumerable, and superior to any that we had seen before, both in size and make; they were longer, the sterns were higher,* and the awnings were supported by pillars. At almost every point there was a sepulchral building, and there were many of them also in land. They were of the same figure as those in Opoureonu, but they were cleaner and better kept, and decorated with many carved boards, which were set upright, and on the top of which were various figures of birds and men: on one in particular, there was the representation of a cock, which was painted red and yellow, to imitate the feathers of that animal, and rude images of men were, in some of them, placed one upon the head of another. But in this part of the country, however fertile and cultivated, we did not see a single bread-fruit; the trees were entirely bare, and the inhabitants seemed to subsist principally upon nuts which are not unlike a chesnut, and which they call Ahee. --page 288

When we had walked till we were weary, we called up the boat, but both our Indians, Tituboalo and Tuahow, were missing: they had, it seems, stayed behind at Waheatua's, expecting us to return thither, in consequence of a promise which had been extorted from us, and which we had it not in our power to fulfil. --page 289

Tearee, however, and another, embarked with us, and we proceeded till we came a-breast of a small island called OTOOAREITE; it being then dark, we determined to land, and our Indians conducted us to a place where they said we might sleep: it was a deserted house, and near it was a little cove, in which the boat might lie with great safety and convenience. We were, however, in want of provisions, having been very sparingly supplied since we set out; and Mr. Banks immediately went into the woods to see whether any could be procured. As it was dark; he met with no people, and could find but one house that was inhabited: a bread-fruit and a half,* a few Ahees, and some fire, were all that it afforded; upon which, with a duck or two, and a few curlieus, we made our supper, which, if not scanty, was disagreeable, by the want of bread, with which we had neglected to furnish ourselves, as we depended upon meeting with bread-fruit, and took up our lodging under the awning of a canoe belonging to Tearee, which followed us. --page 290

*The next morning, after having spent some time in another fruitless attempt to procure a supply of provisions, we proceeded round the south east point, part of which is not covered by any reef, but lies open to the sea; and here the hill rises directly from the shore. At the southermost part of the island, the shore is again covered by a reef, which forms a good harbour; and the land about it is very fertile. We made this rout partly on foot and partly in the boat: when we had walked about three miles, we arrived at a place where we saw several large canoes, and a number of people with them, whom we were agreeably surprised to find were of our intimate acquaintance. Here, with much difficulty, we procured some cocoa-nuts, and then embarked, taking with us Tuahow, one of the Indians who had waited for us at Waheatua's, and had returned the night before, long after it was dark. --page 291

When we came a-breast of the south-east end of the island, we went ashore, by the advice of our Indian guide, who told us that the country was rich and good. The Chief, whose name was OTOOAREITE, soon came down to us, but seemed to be a total stranger both to us and to our trade: his subjects, however, brought us plenty of cocoa-nuts, and about twenty bread-fruit. The bread-fruit we bought at a very dear rate, but his excellency sold us a pig for a glass bottle, which he preferred to every thing else that we could give him. We found in his possession a goose and a turkey-cock,* which, we were informed, had been left upon the island by the Dolphin: they were both enormously fat, and so tame that they followed the Indians, who were fond of them to excess, wherever they went. --page 292

In a long house in this neighbourhood, we saw what was altogether new to us. At one end of it, fastened to a semicircular board, hung fifteen human jaw-bones; they appeared to be fresh, and there was not one of them that wanted a single tooth. A sight so extraordinary, strongly excited our curiosity, and we made many enquiries about it; but at this time could get no information, for the people either could not, or would not understand us. --page 293

When we left this place, the Chief, Mathiabo, desired leave to accompany us, which was readily granted. He continued with us the remainder of the day, and proved very useful, by piloting us over the shoals. In the evening, we opened the bay on the north west side of the island, which answered to that on the south east, so as at the isthmus, or carrying-place, almost to intersect the island, as I have observed before; and when we had coasted about two-thirds of it, we determined to go on shore for the night. We saw a large house at some distance, which, Mathiabo informed us, belonged to one of his friends; and soon after several canoes came off to meet us, having on board some very handsome women, who, by their behaviour, seemed to have been sent to entice us on shore. As we had before resolved to take up our residence here for the night, little invitation was necessary. We found that the house belonged to the Chief of the district, whose name was WIVEROU; he received us in a very friendly manner, and ordered his people to assist us in dressing our provision, of which we had now got a tolerable stock.* When our supper was ready, we were conducted into that part of the house where Wiverou was sitting, in order to eat it; Mathiabo supped with us, and Wiverou calling for his supper at the same time, we eat our meal very sociably, and with great good-humour. When it was over, we began to enquire where we were to sleep, and a part of the house was shewn us, of which we were told we might take possession for that purpose. We then sent for our cloaks, and Mr. Banks began to undress, as his custom was, and, with a precaution which he had been taught by the loss of the jackets at Atahourou, sent his clothes aboard the boat, proposing to cover himself with a piece of Indian cloth. When Mathiabo perceived what was doing, he also pretended to want a cloak; and, as he had behaved very well, and done us some service, a cloak was ordered for him. We lay down, and observed that Mathiabo was not with us; but we supposed that he was gone to bathe, as the Indians always do before they sleep. We had not waited long, however, when an Indian, who was a stranger to us, came and told Mr. Banks, that the cloak and Mathiabo had disappeared together. This man had so far gained our confidence, that we did not at first believe the report; but it being soon after confirmed by Tuahow, our own Indian, we knew no time was to be lost. As it was impossible for us to pursue the thief with any hope of success, without the assistance of the people about us, Mr. Banks started up, and telling our case, required them to recover the cloak; and to enforce his requisition, shewed one of his pocket pistols, which he always kept about him. Upon the sight of the pistol, the whole company took the alarm, and, instead of assisting to catch the thief, or recover what had been stolen, began with great precipitation to leave the place; one of them, however, was seized, upon which he immediately offered to direct the chace: I set out therefore with Mr. Banks, and though we ran all the way,* the alarm had got before us, for in about ten minutes we met a man bringing back the cloak, which the thief had relinquished in great terror; and as we did not then think fit to continue the pursuit, he made his escape. When we returned, we found the house, in which there had been between two and three hundred people, entirely deserted. It being, however, soon known that we had no resentment against any body but Mathiabo, the Chief Wiverou, our host, with his wife and many others, returned, and took up their lodging with us for the night. In this place, however, we were destined to more confusion and trouble, for about five o'clock in the morning our sentry alarmed us, with an account that the boat was missing: he had seen her, he said, about half an hour before, at her grappling, which was not above fifty yards from the shore; but upon hearing the sound of oars, he had looked out again, and could see nothing of her. At this account we started up greatly alarmed, and ran to the water side: the morning was clear and star light, so that we could see to a considerable distance, but there was no appearance of the boat. Our situation was now such as might justify the most terrifying apprehensions; as it was a dead calm, and we could not therefore suppose her to have broken from her grappling, we had great reason to fear that the Indians had attacked her, and finding the people asleep, had succeeded in their enterprize: we were but four, with only one musquet and two pocket pistols, without a spare ball or charge of powder for either. In this state of anxiety and distress we remained a considerable time, expecting the Indians every moment to improve their advantage, when, to our unspeakable satisfaction, we saw the boat return, which had been driven from her grappling by the tide; a circumstance to which,* in our confusion and surprise, we did not advert. --page 294

*As soon as the boat returned, we got our breakfast, and were impatient to leave the place, lest some other vexatious accident should befal us. It is situated on the north side of Tiarrabou, the south east peninsula, or division, of the island, and at the distance of about five miles south east from the isthmus, having a large and commodious harbour, inferior to none in the island, about which the land is very rich in produce. Notwithstanding we had had little communication with this division, the inhabitants every where received us in a friendly manner; we found the whole of it fertile and populous, and, to all appearance, in a more flourishing state than Opoureonu, though it is not above one fourth part as large. --page 295

The next district in which we landed, was the last in Tiarrabou, and governed by a Chief, whose name we understood to be OMOE. Omoe was building a house, and being therefore very desirous of procuring a hatchet, he would have been glad to have purchased one with any thing that he had in his possession; it happened, however, rather unfortunately for him and us, that we had not one hatchet left in the boat. We offered to trade with nails, but he would not part with any thing in exchange for them; we therefore reimbarked, and put off our boat, but the Chief being unwilling to relinquish all hope of obtaining something from us that would be of use to him, embarked in a canoe, with his wife WHANNO-OUDA, and followed us. After some time, we took them into the boat, and when we had rowed about a league, they desired we would put ashore: we immediately complied with his request, and found some of his people who had brought down a very large hog.* We were as unwilling to lose the hog, as the Chief was to part with us, and it was indeed worth the best axe we had in the ship; we therefore hit upon an expedient, and told him, that if he would bring his hog to the fort at MATAVAI, the Indian name for Port Royal bay, he should have a large axe, and a nail into the bargain, for his trouble. To this proposal, after having consulted with his wife, he agreed, and gave us a large piece of his country cloth as a pledge that he would perform, his agreement, which, however, he never did. --page 296

At this place we saw a very singular curiosity: it was the figure of a man, constructed of basket work, rudely made, but not ill designed; it was something more than seven feet high, and rather too bulky in proportion to its height. The wicker skeleton was completely covered with feathers, which were white where the skin was to appear, and black in the parts which it is their custom to paint or stain, and upon the head, where there was to be a representation of hair: upon the head also were four protuberances, three in front and one behind, which we should have called horns, but which the Indians dignified with the name of TATE ETE, little men. The image was called MANIOE, and was said to be the only one of the kind in Otaheite. They attempted to give us an explanation of its use and design, but we had not then acquired enough of their language to understand them. We learnt, however, afterwards, that it was a representation of Mauwe, one of their Eatuas, or gods of the second class. --page 297

After having settled our affairs with Omoe, we proceeded on our return, and soon reached Opoureonu, the north-west peninsula. After rowing a few miles, we went on shore again, but the only thing we saw worth notice, was a repository for the dead, uncommonly decorated: the pavement was extremely neat,* and upon it was raised a pyramid, about five feet high, which was intirely covered with the fruits of two plants, peculiar to the country. Near the pyramid was a small image of stone, of very rude workmanship, and the first instance of carving in stone that we had seen among these people. They appeared to set a high value upon it, for it was covered from the weather by a shed, that had been erected on purpose. --page 298

We proceeded in the boat, and passed through the only harbour, on the south side of Opoureonu, that is fit for shipping. It is situated about five miles to the westward of the isthmus, between two small islands that lie near the shore, and about a mile distant from each other, and affords good anchorage in eleven and twelve fathom water. We were now not far from the district called PAPARRA, which belonged to our friends Oamo and Oberea, where we proposed to sleep. We went on shore about an hour before night, and found that they were both absent, having left their habitations to pay us a visit at Matavai: this, however, did not alter our purpose, we took up our quarters at the house of Oberea, which, though small, was very neat, and at this time had no inhabitant but her father, who received us with looks that bid us welcome. Having taken possession, we were willing to improve the little day-light that was left us, and therefore walked out to a point, upon which we had seen, at a distance, trees that are here called Etoa, which generally distinguish the places where these people bury the bones of their dead: their name for such burying-grounds, which are also places of worship, is MORAI. We were soon struck with the sight of an enormous pile, which, we were told, was the Morai of Oamo and Oberea, and the principal piece of Indian architecture in the island. It was a pile of stone work, raised pyramidically, upon an oblong base, or square, two hundred and sixty-seven feet long,* and eighty-seven wide. It was built like the small pyramidal mounts upon which we sometimes fix the pillar of a sun-dial, where each side is a flight of steps; the steps, however, at the sides, were broader than those at the ends, so that it terminated not in a square of the same figure with the base, but in a ridge, like the roof of a house: there were eleven of these steps, each of which was four feet high, so that the height of the pile was forty-four feet; each step was formed of one course of white coral stone, which was neatly squared and polished, the rest of the mass, for there was no hollow within, consisted of round pebbles, which, from the regularity of their figure, seemed to have been wrought. Some of the coral stones were very large; we measured one of them, and found it three feet and an half by two feet and an half. The foundation was of rock stones, which were also squared; and one of them measured four feet seven inches by two feet four. Such a structure, raised without the assistance of iron tools to shape the stones, or mortar to join them, struck us with astonishment: it seemed to be as compact and firm as it could have been made by any workman in Europe, except that the steps, which range along its greatest length, are not perfectly strait, but sink in a kind of hollow in the middle, so that the whole surface, from end to end, is not a right line, but a curve. The quarry stones, as we saw no quarry in the neighbourhood, must have been brought from a considerable distance; and there is no method of conveyance here but by hand: the coral must also have been fished from under the water, where, though it may be found in plenty, it lies at a considerable depth, never less than three feet. Both the rock stone and the coral could be squared only by tools made of the same substance, which must have been a work of incredible labour; but the polishing was more easily effected by means of the sharp coral sand,* which is found every where upon the sea-shore in great abundance. In the middle of the top stood the image of a bird, carved in wood; and near it lay the broken one of a fish, carved in stone. The whole of this pyramid made part of one side of a spacious area or square, nearly of equal sides, being three hundred and sixty feet by three hundred and fifty-four, which was walled in with stone, and paved with flat stones in its whole extent; though there were growing in it, notwithstanding the pavement, several of the trees which they call Etoa, and plantains. About an hundred yards to the west of this building, was another paved area or court, in which were several small stages raised on wooden pillars, about seven feet high, which are called by the Indians Ewattas, and seem to be a kind of altars, as upon these are placed provisions of all kinds as offerings to their gods; we have since seen whole hogs placed upon them, and we found here the sculls of above fifty, besides the sculls of a great number of dogs. --page 299

The principal object of ambition among these people is to have a magnificent Morai, and this was a striking memorial of the rank and power of Oberea. It has been remarked, that we did not find her invested with the same authority that she exercised when the Dolphin was at this place, and we now learnt the reason of it. Our way from her house to the Morai lay along the sea side, and we observed every where under our feet a great number of human bones, chiefly ribs and vertebrae. Upon enquiring into the cause of so singular an appearance, we were told, that in the then last month of Owarahew, which answered to our December, 1768, about four or five months before our arrival, the people of Tiarrabou, the S. E. peninsula which we had just visited, made a descent at this place, and killed a great number of people, whose bones were those that we saw upon the shore: that, upon this occasion, Oberea, and Oamo,* who then administered the government for his son, had fled to the mountains; and that the conquerors burnt all the houses, which were very large, and carried away the hogs and what other animals they found. We learnt also, that the turkey and goose, which we had seen when we were with Mathiabo, the stealer of cloaks, were among the spoils; this accounted for their being found among people with whom the Dolphin had little or no communication; and upon mentioning the jaw-bones, which we had seen hanging from a board in a long house, we were told, that they also had been carried away as trophies, the people here carrying away the jaw-bones of their enemies, as the Indians of North America do the scalps. --page 300

After having thus gratified our curiosity, we returned to our quarters, where we passed the night in perfect security and quiet. By the next evening we arrived at Atahourou,* the residence of our friend Tootahah, where, the last time we passed the night under his protection, we had been obliged to leave the best part of our clothes behind us. This adventure, however, seemed now to be forgotten on both sides. Our friends received us with great pleasure, and gave us a good supper and a good lodging, where we suffered neither loss or disturbance. --page 301

The next day, Saturday, July the 1st,* we got back to our fort at Matavai, having found the circuit of the island, including both peninsulas, to be about thirty leagues. Upon our complaining of the want of bread-fruit, we were told, that the produce of the last season was nearly exhausted; and that what was seen sprouting upon the trees, would not be fit to use in less than three months; this accounted for our having been able to procure so little of it in our route. --page 302

*While the bread-fruit is ripening upon the flats, the inhabitants are supplied in some measure from the trees which they have planted upon the hills to preserve a succession; but the quantity is not sufficient to prevent scarcity: they live therefore upon the four paste which they call Mahie, upon wild plantains, and ahee-nuts, which at this time are in perfection. How it happened that the Dolphin, which was here at this season, found such plenty of bread-fruit upon the trees, I cannot tell, except the season in which they ripen varies. --page 303

At our return, our Indian friends crouded about us, and none of them came empty-handed. Though I had determined to restore the canoes which had been detained to their owners, it had not yet been done; but I now released them as they were applied for. Upon this occasion I could not but remark with concern, that these people were capable of practising petty frauds against each other, with a deliberate dishonesty, which gave me a much worse opinion of them than I had ever entertained from the robberies they committed under the strong temptation to which a sudden opportunity of enriching themselves with the inestimable metal and manufactures of Europe exposed them. --page 304

Among others who applied to me for the release of a canoe, was one POTATTOW, a man of some consequence, well known to us all. I consented, supposing the vessel to be his own, or that he applied on the behalf of a friend: he went immediately to the beach, and took possession of one of the boats, which, with the assistance of his people, he began to carry off. Upon this, however, it was eagerly claimed by the right owners, who, supported by the other Indians, clamourously reproached him for invading their property, and prepared to take the canoe from him by force. Upon this, he desired to be heard, and told them, that the canoe did,* indeed, once belong to those who claimed it; but that I, having seized it as a forfeit, had sold it to him for a pig. This silenced the clamour, the owners, knowing that from my power there was no appeal, acquiesced; and Potattow would have carried off his prize, if the dispute had not fortunately been overheard by some of our people who reported it to me. I gave orders immediately that the Indians should be undeceived; upon which the right owners took possession of their canoe, and Potattow was so conscious of his guilt, that neither he nor his wife, who was privy to his knavery, could look us in the face for some time afterwards. --page 305

*ON the 3d, Mr. Banks fet out early in the morning, with some Indian guides, to trace our river up the valley from which it issues, and examine how far it's banks were inhabited. For about six miles they met with houses, not far distant from each other, on each side of the river, and the valley was every where about four hundred yards wide from the foot of the hill on one side, to the foot of that on the other; but they were now shewn a house which they were told was the last that they would see. When they came up to it, the master of it offered them refreshments of cocoa-nuts and other fruit, of which they accepted; after a short stay, they walked forward for a considerable time; in bad way it is not easy to compute distances, but they imagined that they had walked about six miles farther, following the course of the river, when they frequently passed under vaults, formed by fragments of the rock, in which they were told people who were benighted frequently passed the night. Soon after they found the river banked by steep rocks, from which a cascade, falling with great violence, formed a pool, so steep, that the Indians said they could not pass it. They seemed, indeed, not much to be acquainted with the valley beyond this place, their business lying chiefly upon the declivity of the rocks on each side,* and the plains which extended on their summits, where they found plenty of a wild plantain, which they called Vae. The way up these rocks from the banks of the river was in every respect dreadful; the sides were nearly perpendicular, and in some places one hundred feet high; they were also rendered exceeding slippery by the water of innumerable springs which issued from the fissures on the surface: yet up these precipices a way was to be traced by a succession of long pieces of the bark of the Hibiscus tiliaceus, which served as a rope for the climber to take hold of, and assisted him in scrambling from one ledge to another, though upon these ledges there was footing only for an Indian or a goat. One of these ropes was nearly thirty feet in length, and their guides offered to assist them in mounting this pass, but recommended another at a little distance lower down, as less difficult and dangerous. They took a view of this "better way," but found it so bad that they did not to chuse to attempt it, as there was nothing at the top to reward their toil and hazard but a grove of the wild plantain or Vae tree, which they had often seen before. --page 306

During this excursion, Mr. Banks had an excellent opportunity to examine the rocks, which were almost every where naked, for minerals; but he found not the least appearance of any. The stones every where, like those of Madeira, shewed manifest tokens of having been burnt; nor is there a single specimen of any stone, among all those that were collected in the island, upon which there are not manifest and indubitable marks of fire; except perhaps some small pieces of the hatchet-stone, and even of that, other fragments were collected which are burnt almost to a pumice. Traces of fire are also manifest in the very clay upon the hills; and it may, therefore, not unreasonably be supposed, that this, and the neighbouring islands, are either shattered remains of a continent,* which some have supposed to be necessary in this part of the globe, to preserve an equilibrium of its parts, which were left behind when the rest sunk by the mining of a subterraneous fire, so as to give a passage to the sea over it; or were torn from rocks, which, from the creation of the world, had been the bed of the sea, and thrown up in heaps, to a height which the waters never reach. One or other of these suppositions will perhaps be thought the more probable, as the water does not gradually grow shallow as the shore is approached, and the islands are almost every where surrounded by reefs, which appear to be rude and broken, as some violent concussion would naturally leave the solid substance of the earth. It may also be remarked upon this occasion, that the most probable cause of earthquakes seems to be the sudden rushing in of water upon some vast mass of subterraneous fire, by the instantaneous rarefaction of which into vapour, the mine is sprung, and various substances, in all stages of vitrification, with shells, and other marine productions, that are now found fossil, and the strata that covered the furnace, are thrown up; while those parts of the land which were supported upon the broken shell give way, and sink into the gulph. With this theory the phaenomena of all earthquakes seem to agree; pools of water are frequently left where land has subsided, and various substances, which manifestly appear to have suffered by the action of fire, are thrown up. It is indeed true, that fire cannot subsist without air; but this cannot be urged against there being fire below that part of the earth which forms the bed of the sea; because there may be innumerable fissures by which a communication between those parts and the external air may be kept up, even upon the highest mountains, and at the greatest distance from the sea-shore. --page 307

On the 4th,* Mr. Banks employed himself in planting a great quantity of the seeds of water-melons, oranges, lemons, limes, and other plants and trees which be had collected at Rio de Janeiro. For these he prepared ground on each side of the fort, with as many varieties of soil as he could chuse; and there is little doubt but that they will succeed. He also gave liberally of these seeds to the Indians, and planted many of them in the woods: some of the melon seeds having been planted soon after our arrival, the natives shewed him several of the plants which appeared to be in the most flourishing condition, and were continually asking him for more. --page 308

We now began to prepare for our departure, by bending the sails and performing other necessary operations on board the ship, our water being already on board, and the provisions examined. In the mean time we had another visit from Oamo, Oberea, and their son and daughter; the Indians expressing their respect by uncovering the upper parts of their body as they had done before. The daughter, whose name we understood to be TOIMATA, was very desirous to see the fort, but her father would by no means suffer her to come in. Tearee, the son of Waheatua, the sovereign of Tiarrabou, the south east peninsula, was also with us at this time; and we received intelligence of the landing of another guest, whose company was neither expected nor desired: this was no other than the ingenious gentleman who contrived to steal our quadrant. We were told, that he intended to try his fortune again in the night; but the Indians all offered very zealously to assist us against him, desiring that, for this purpose, they might be permitted to lie in the fort. This had so good an effect, that the thief relinquished his enterprize in despair. --page 309

*On the 7th, the carpenters were employed in taking down the gates and pallisadoes of our little fortification, for firewood on board the ship; and one of the Indians had dexterity enough to steal the staple and hook upon which the gate turned: he was immediately pursued, and after a chace of six miles, he appeared to have been passed, having concealed himself among some rushes in the brook; the rushes were searched, and though the thief had escaped, a scraper was found which had been stolen from the ship sometime before; and soon after our old friend Tubourai Tamaide brought us the staple. --page 310

*On the 8th and 9th, we continued to dismantle our fort, and our friends still flocked about us; some, I believe, sorry at the approach of our departure, and others desirous to make as much as they could of us while we staid. --page 311

We were in hopes that we should now leave the island, without giving or receiving any other offence; but it unfortunately happened otherwise. Two foreign seamen having been out with my permission, one of them was robbed of his knife, and endeavouring to recover it, probably with circumstances of great provocation, the Indians attacked him and dangerously wounded him with a stone; they wounded his companion also slightly in the head, and then fled into the mountains. As I should have been sorry to take any farther notice of the affair, I was not displeased that the offenders had escaped; but I was immediately involved in a quarrel which I very much regretted, and which yet it was not possible to avoid. --page 312

In the middle of the night between the 8th and 9th, Clement Webb and Samuel Gibson, two of the marines, both young men, went privately from the fort, and in the morning were not to be found. As publick notice had been given, that all hands were to go on board on the next day,* and that the ship would sail on the morrow of that day or the day following, I began to fear that the absentees intended to stay behind. I knew that I could take no effectual steps to recover them, without endangering the harmony and good-will which at present subsisted among us; and, therefore, determined to wait a day for the chance of their return. --page 313

On Monday morning the 10th, the marines,* to my great concern, not being returned, an enquiry was made after them of the Indians, who frankly told us, that they did not intend to return, and had taken refuge in the mountains, where it was impossible for our people to find them. They were then requested to assist in the search, and after some deliberation, two of them undertook to conduct such persons as I should think proper to send after them to the place of their retreat. As they were known to be without arms, I thought two would be sufficient, and accordingly dispatched a petty officer, and the corporal of the marines, with the Indian guides, to fetch them back. As the recovery of these men was a matter of great importance, as I had no time to lose, and as the Indians spoke doubtfully of their return, telling us, that they had each of them taken a wife, and were become inhabitants of the country, it was intimated to several of the Chiefs who were in the fort with their women, among whom were Tubourai Tamaide, Tomio, and Oberea, that they would not be permitted to leave it till our deserters were brought back. This precaution I thought the more necessary, as, by concealing them a few days, they might compel me to go without them; and I had the pleasure to observe, that they received the intimation with very little signs either of fear or discontent; assuring me that my people should be secured and sent back as soon as possible. While this was doing at the fort, I sent Mr. Hicks in the pinnace to fetch Tootahah on board the ship,* which he did, without alarming either him or his people. If the Indian guides proved faithful and in earnest, I had reason to expect the return of my people with the deserters before evening. Being disappointed, my suspicions increased; and night coming on, I thought it was not safe to let the people whom I had detained as hostages continue at the fort, and I therefore ordered Tubourai Tamaide, Oberea, and some others, to be taken on board the ship. This spread a general alarm, and several of them, especially the women, expressed their apprehensions with great emotion and many tears when they were put into the boat. I went on board with them, and Mr. Banks remained on shore, with some others whom I thought it of less consequence to secure. --page 314

About nine o'clock, Webb was brought back by some of the natives, who declared, that Gibson, and the petty officer and corporal, would be detained till Tootahah should be set at liberty. The tables were now turned upon me; but I had proceeded too far to retreat. I immediately dispatched Mr. Hicks in the long-boat, with a strong party of men, to rescue the prisoners, and told tootahah that it behoved him to send some of his people with them, with orders to afford them effectual assistance, and to demand the release of my men in his name, for that I should expect him to answer for the contrary. He readily complied; this party recovered my men without the least opposition; and about seven o'clock in the morning,* returned with them to the ship, though they had not been able to recover the arms which had been taken from them when they were seized: these, however, were brought on board in less than half an hour, and the Chiefs were immediately set at liberty. --page 315

When I questioned the petty officer concerning what had happened on shore, he told me, that neither the natives who went with him, nor those whom they met in their way,* would give them any intelligence of the deserters; but, on the contrary, became very troublesome: that, as he was returning for further orders to the ship, he and his comrade were suddenly seized by a number of armed men, who having learnt that Tootahah was confined, had concealed themselves in a wood for that purpose, and, who having taken them at a disadvantage, forced their weapons out of their hands, and declared, that they would detain them till their Chief should be set at liberty. He said, however, that the Indians were not unanimous in this measure; that some were for setting them at liberty, and others for detaining them: that an eager dispute ensued, and that from words they came to blows, but that the party for detaining them at length prevailed: that soon after, Webb and Gibson were brought in by a party of the natives, as prisoners, that they also might be secured as hostages for the Chief; but that it was after some debate resolved to send Webb to inform me of their resolution, to assure me that his companions were safe, and direct me where I might send my answer. Thus it appears that whatever were the disadvantages of seizing the Chiefs, I should never have recovered my men by any other method. When the Chiefs were set on shore from the ship, those at the fort were also set at liberty, and, after staying with Mr. Banks about an hour, they all went away. Upon this occasion, as they had done upon another of the same kind, they expressed their joy by an undeserved liberality, strongly urging us to accept of four hogs. These we absolutely refused as a present, and they as absolutely refusing to be paid for them, the hogs did not change masters. Upon examining the deserters, we found that the account which the Indians had given of them was true: they had strongly attached themselves to two girls, and it was their intention to conceal themselves till the ship had sailed,* and take up their residence upon the island. This night every thing was got off from the shore, and every body slept on board. --page 316

Among the natives who were almost constantly with us, was Tupia, whose name has been often mentioned in this narrative. He had been, as I have before observed, the first minister of Oberea, when she was in the height of her power: he was also the chief Tahowa or priest of the island, consequently well acquainted with the religion of the country; as well with respect to its ceremonies as principles. He had also great experience and knowlege in navigation, and was particularly acquainted with the number and situation of the neighbouring islands. This man had often expressed a desire to go with us,* and on the 12th in the morning, having with the other natives left us the day before, he came on board, with a boy about thirteen years of age, his servant, and urged us to let him proceed with us on our voyage. To have such a person on board, was certainly desirable for many reasons; by learning his language, and teaching him ours, we should be able to acquire a much better knowlege of the customs, policy, and religion of the people, than our short stay among them could give us, I therefore gladly agreed to receive them on board. As we were prevented from sailing to-day, by having found it necessary to make new stocks to our small and best bower anchors, the old ones having been totally destroyed by the worms, Tupia said, he would go once more on shore, and make a signal for the boat to fetch him off in the evening. He went accordingly, and took with him a miniature picture of Mr. Banks's, to shew his friends, and several little things to give them as parting presents. --page 317

After dinner,* Mr. Banks being desirous to procure a drawing of the Morai belonging to Tootahah at Eparré, I attended him thither, accompanied by Dr. Solander, in the pinnace. As soon as we landed, many of our friends came to meet us, though some absented themselves in resentment of what had happened the day before. We immediately proceeded to Tootahah's house, were we were joined by Oberea, with several others who had not come out to meet us, and a perfect reconciliation was soon brought about; in consequence of which they promised to visit us early the next day, to take a last farewel of us, as we told them we should certainly set sail in the afternoon. At this place also we found Tupia, who returned with us, and slept this night on board the ship for the first time. --page 318

On the next morning, Thursday the 13th of July,* the ship was very early crouded with our friends, and surrounded by a multitude of canoes, which were filled with the natives of an inferior class. Between eleven and twelve we weighed anchor, and as soon as the ship was under sail, the Indians on board took their leaves, and wept, with a decent and silent sorrow, in which there was something very striking and tender: the people in the canoes, on the contrary, seemed to vie with each other in the loudness of their lamentations, which we considered rather as affectation than grief. Tupia sustained himself in this scene with a firmness and resolution truly admirable: he wept indeed, but the effort that he made to conceal his tears, concurred, with them, to do him honour. He sent his last present, a shirt, by Otheothea, to Potomai, Tootahah's favourite mistress, and then went with Mr. Banks to the mast-head, waving to the canoes as long as they continued in sight. --page 319

*Thus we took leave of Otaheite, and its inhabitants, after a stay of just three months; for much the greater part of the time we lived together in the most cordial friendship, and a perpetual reciprocation of good offices. The accidental differences which now and then happened, could not be more sincerely regretted on their part than they were on ours: the principal causes were such as necessarily resulted from our situation and circumstances, in conjunction with the infirmities of human nature, from our not being able perfectly to understand each other, and from the disposition of the inhabitants to theft, which we could not at all times bear with or prevent. They had not, however, except in one instance, been attended with any fatal consequence; and to that accident were owing the measures that I took to prevent others of the same kind. I hoped, indeed, to have availed myself of the impression which had been made upon them by the lives that had been sacrificed in their contest with the Dolphin, so as that the intercourse between us should have been carried on wholly without bloodshed; and by this hope all my measures were directed during the whole of my continuance at the island, and I sincerely wish, that whoever shall next visit it, may be still more fortunate. Our traffick here was carried on with as much order as in the best regulated market in Europe. It was managed principally by Mr. Banks, who was indefatigable in procuring provision and refreshments while they were to be had; but during the latter part of our time they became scarce, partly by the increased consumption at the fort and ship, and partly by the coming on of the season in which cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit fail. All kind of fruit we purchased for beads and nails, but no nails less than fortypenny were current: after a very short time we could never get a pig of more than ten or twelve pounds, for less than a hatchet; because,* though these people set a high value upon spike nails, yet these being an article with which many people in the ship were provided, the women found a much more easy way of procuring them than by bringing down provisions. --page 320

The best articles for traffick here are axes, hatchets, spikes, large nails, looking-glasses, knives, and beads, for some of which, every thing that the natives have may be procured. They are indeed fond of fine linen cloth, both white and printed; but an ax worth half a crown, will fetch more than a piece of cloth worth twenty shillings. --page 321

*WE found the longitude of Port-Royal bay, in this island, as settled by Captain Wallis, who discovered it on the 9th of June 1767, to be within half a degree of the truth. We found Point Venus, the northern extremity of the island, and the eastern point of the bay, to lie in the longitude of 149° 30′ this being the mean result of a great number of observations made upon the spot. The island is surrounded by a reef of coral rock, which forms several excellent bays and harbours, some of which have been particularly described, where there is room and depth of water for any number of the largest ships. Port-Royal bay, called by the natives Matavai, which is not inferior to any in Otaheite, may easily be known by a very high mountain in the middle of the island, which bears due south from Point Venus. To sail into it, either keep the west point of the reef that lies before Point Venus, close on board, or give it a birth of near half a mile, in order to avoid a small shoal of coral rocks, on which there is but two fathom and an half of water. The best anchoring is on the eastern side of the bay, where there is sixteen and fourteen fathom upon an ousey bottom. The shore of the bay is a fine sandy beach, behind which runs a river of fresh water, so that any number of ships may water here without incommoding each other; but the only wood for firing, upon the whole island, is that of --page 322

[illustration] [illustration] [illustration] fruit trees, which must be purchased of the natives,* or all hope of living upon good terms with them given up. There are some harbours to the westward of this bay which have not been mentioned, but, as they are contiguous to it, and laid down in the plan, a description of them is unnecessary. The face of the country, except that part of it which borders upon the sea, is very uneven; it rises in ridges that run up into the middle of the island, and there form mountains, which may be seen at the distance of sixty miles: between the foot of these ridges and the sea, is a border of low land, surrounding the whole island, except in a few places where the ridges rise directly from the sea: the border of low land is in different parts of different breadths, but no where more than a mile and a half. The soil, except upon the very tops of the ridges, is extremely rich and fertile, watered by a great number of rivulets of excellent water, and covered with fruit trees of various kinds, some of which are of a stately growth and thick foliage, so as to form one continued wood; and even the tops of the ridges, through in general they are bare, and burnt up by the sun, are, in some parts, not without their produce. --page 323

The low land that lies between the foot of the ridges and the sea, and some of the vallies, are the only parts of the island that are inhabited, and here it is populous; the houses do not form villages or towns, but are ranged along the whole border at the distance of about fifty yards from each other, with little plantations of plantains, the tree which furnishes them with cloth. The whole island, according to Tupia's account, who certainly knew, could furnish six thousand seven hundred and eighty fighting men, from which the number of inhabitants may easily be computed. --page 324

*The produce of this island is bread-fruit, cocoa-nuts, bananas, of thirteen forts, the best we had ever eaten; plantains; a fruit not unlike an apple, which, when ripe, is very pleasant; sweet potatoes, yams, cocoas, a kind of Arum; a fruit known here by the name of Jambu, and reckoned most delicious; sugar cane, which the inhabitants eat raw; a root of the salop kind, called by the inhabitants Pea; a plant called Ethee, of which the root only is eaten; a fruit that grows in a pod, like that of a large kidney-bean, which, when it is roasted, eats very much like a chesnut, by the natives called Ahee; a tree called Wharra, called in the East Indies Pandanes, which produces fruit, something like the pine-apple; a shrub called Nono; the Morinda, which also produces fruit; a species of fern, of which the root is eaten, and sometimes the leaves; and a plant called Theve, of which the root also is eaten: but the fruits of the Nono, the fern, and the Theve, are eaten only by the inferior people, and in times of scarcity. All these, which serve the inhabitants for food, the earth produces spontaneously, or with so little culture, that they seem to be exempted from the first general curse, that "man should eat his bread in the sweat of his brow." They have also the Chinese paper mulberry, morus papyrifera, which they call Aouta; a tree resembling the wild fig-tree of the West Indies; another species of fig, which they call Matte; the cordia sebestina orientalis, which they call Etou; a kind of Cyperus grass, which they call Moo; a species of tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo; another of the convolvulus poluce, which they call Eurhe; the solanum centifolium, which they call Ebaoa; the calophyllum mophylum, which they call Tamannu; the hibiscus tiliaceus, called Poerou, a frutescent nettle; the urtica argentea, called Erowa; with many other plants which cannot here be particularly mentioned: those that have been named already, will be referred to in the subsequent part of this work. --page 325

They have no European fruit, garden stuff, pulse,* or legumes, nor grain of any kind. --page 326

Of tame animals they have only hogs, dogs, and poultry; neither is there a wild animal in the island, except ducks, pigeons, paroquets, with a few other birds, and rats, there being no other quadruped, nor any serpent. But the sea supplies them with great variety of most excellent fish, to eat which is their chief luxury, and to catch it their principal labour. --page 327

As to the people they are of the largest size of Europeans.* The men are tall, strong, well-limbed, and finely shaped. The tallest that we saw was a man upon a neighbouring island, called HUAHEINE, who measured six feet three inches and an half. The women of the superior rank are also in general above our middle stature, but those of the inferior class are rather below it, and some of them are very small. This defect in size probably proceeds from their early commerce with men, the only thing in which they differ from their superiors, that could possibly affect their growth. --page 328

Their natural complexion is that kind of clear olive, or Brunette, which many people in Europe prefer to the finest white and red. In those that are exposed to the wind and sun, it is considerably deepened, but in others that live under shelter, especially the superior class of women, it continues of its native hue, and the skin is most delicately smooth and soft; they have no tint in their cheeks, which we distinguish by the name of colour. The shape of the face is comely, the cheek bones are not high, neither are the eyes hollow, nor the brow prominent: the only feature that does not correspond with our ideas of beauty is the nose, which, in general, is somewhat flat; but their eyes, especially those of the women, are full of expression, sometimes sparkling with fire,* and sometimes melting with softness; their teeth also are, almost without exception, most beautifully even and white, and their breath perfectly without taint. --page 329

The hair is almost universally black, and rather coarse; the men have beards, which they wear in many fashions, always, however, plucking out great part of them, and keeping the rest perfectly clean and neat. Both sexes also eradicate every hair from under their arms, and accused us of great uncleanliness for not doing the same. In their motions there is at once vigour and ease; their walk is graceful, their deportment liberal, and their behaviour to strangers and to each other affable and courteous. In their dispositions also, they seemed to be brave, open, and candid, without either suspicion or treachery, cruelty or revenge; so that we placed the same confidence in them as in our best friends, many of us, particularly Mr. Banks, sleeping frequently in their houses in the woods, without a companion, and consequently wholly in their power. They were, however, all thieves; and when that is allowed, they need not much fear a competition with the people of any other nation upon earth. During our stay in this island we saw about five or six persons, like one that was met by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander on the 24th of April, in their walk to the eastward, whose skins were of a dead white, like the nose of a white horse; with white hair, beard, brows, and eye-lashes; red, tender eyes; a short sight, and scurfy skins, covered with a kind of white down; but we found that no two of these belonged to the same family, and therefore concluded, that they were not a species, but unhappy individuals, rendered anomalous by disease. --page 330

*It is a custom in most countries where the inhabitants have long hair, for the men to cut it short and the women to pride themselves in its length. Here, however,* the contrary custom prevails; the women always cut it short round their ears, and the men, except the fishers, who are almost continually in the water, suffer it to flow in large waves over their shoulders, or tie it up in a bunch on the top of their heads. --page 331

They have a custom also of anointing their heads, with what they call Monoe, an oil expressed from the cocoa-nut, in which some sweet herbs or flowers have been infused: as the oil is generally rancid, the smell is at first very disagreeable to a European; and as they live in a hot country, and have no such thing as a comb, they are not able to keep their heads free from lice, which the children and common people sometimes pick out and eat: a hateful custom, wholly different from their manners in every other particular; for they are delicate and cleanly almost without example, and those to whom we distributed combs, soon delivered themselves from vermin, with a diligence which showed that they were not more odious to us than to them. --page 332

They have a custom of staining their bodies, nearly in the same manner as is practised in many other parts of the world, which they call Tattowing. They prick the skin, so as just not to fetch blood, with a small instrument, something in the form of a hoe; that part which answers to the blade is made of a bone or shell, scraped very thin, and is from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half wide; the edge is cut into sharp teeth or points, from the number of three to twenty, according to its size: when this is to be used, they dip the teeth into a mixture of a kind of lamp-black, formed of the smoke that rises from an oily nut which they burn instead of candles, and water; the teeth, thus prepared, are placed upon the skin, and the handle to which they are fastened being struck,* by quick smart blows, with a stick fitted to the purpose, they pierce it, and at the same time carry into the puncture the black composition, which leaves an indelible stain. The operation is painful, and it is some days before the wounds are healed. It is performed upon the youth of both sexes when they are about twelve or fourteen years of age, on several parts of the body, and in various figures, according to the fancy of the parent, or perhaps the rank of the party. The women are generally marked with this stain, in the form of a Z, on every joint of their fingers and toes, and frequently round the outside of their feet: the men are also marked with the same figure, and both men and women have squares, circles, crescents, and ill-designed representations of men, birds, or dogs, and various other devices impressed upon their legs and arms, some of which we were told had significations, though we could never learn what they were. But the part on which these ornaments are lavished with the greatest profusion, is the breech: this, in both sexes, is covered with a deep black; above which, arches are drawn one over another as high as the short ribs. They are often a quarter of an inch broad, and the edges are not strait lines, but indented. These arches are their pride, and are shewn both by men and women with a mixture of ostentation and pleasure; whether as an ornament, or a proof of their fortitude and resolution in bearing pain, we could not determine. The face in general is left unmarked; for we saw but one instance to the contrary. Some old men had the greatest part of their bodies covered with large patches of black, deeply indented at the edges, like a rude imitation of flame; but we were told, that they came from a low island called NOOUOORA, and were not natives of Otaheite. --page 333

Mr. Banks saw the operation of tattowing performed upon the backside of a girl about thirteen years old. The instrument --page 334

[illustration] used upon this occasion had thirty teeth,* and every stroke, of which at least a hundred were made in a minute, drew an ichor or serum a little tinged with blood. The girl bore it with most stoical resolution for about a quarter of an hour; but the pain of so many hundred punctures as she had received in that time then became intolerable: she first complained in murmurs, then wept, and at last burst into loud lamentations, earnestly imploring the operator to desist. He was, however, inexorable; and when she began to struggle, she was held down by two women, who sometimes soothed and sometimes chid her, and now and then, when she was most unruly, gave her a smart blow. Mr. Banks staid in a neighbouring house an hour, and the operation was not over when he went away; yet it was performed but upon one side, the other having been done sometime before; and the arches upon the loins, in which they most pride themselves, and which give more pain than all the rest, were still to be done. It is strange that these people should value themselves upon what is no distinction; for I never saw a native of this island, either man or woman, in a state of maturity, in whom these marks were wanting: possibly they may have their rise in superstition, especially as they produce no visible advantage, and are not made without great pain; but though we enquired of many hundreds, we could never get any account of the matter. --page 335

Their clothing consists of cloth or matting of different kinds, which will be described among their other manufactures. The cloth, which will not bear wetting, they wear in dry weather, and the matting when it rains; they are put on in many different ways, just as their fancy leads them; for in their garments nothing is cut into shape, nor are any two pieces sewed together.* The dress of the better sort of women consists of three or four pieces: one piece, about two yards wide and eleven yards long, they wrap several times round their waist, so as to hang down like a petticoat as low as the middle of the leg, and this they call Parou: two or three other pieces, about two yards and an half long and one wide, each having a hole cut in the middle, they place one upon another, and then putting the head through the holes, they bring the long ends down before and behind; the others remain open at the sides, and give liberty to the arms: this, which they call the Tebuta, is gathered round the waist, and confined with a girdle or sash of thinner cloth, which is long enough to go many times round them, and exactly resembles the garment worn by the inhabitants of Peru and Chili, which the Spaniards call Poncho. The dress of the men is the same, except that instead of suffering the cloth that is wound about the hips to hang down like a petticoat, they bring it between their legs so as to have some resemblance to breeches, and it is then called Maro. This is the dress of all ranks of people, and being universally the same as to form, the gentlemen and ladies distinguish themselves from the lower people by the quantity; some of them will wrap round them several pieces of cloth, eight or ten yards long, and two or three broad; and some throw a large piece loosely over their shoulders in the manner of a cloak, or perhaps two pieces, if they are very great personages, and are desirous to appear in state. The inferior sort, who have only a small allowance of cloth from the tribes or families to which they belong, are obliged to be more thinly clad. In the heat of the day they appear almost naked, the women having only a scanty petticoat, and the men nothing but the sash that is passed between their legs and fastened round the waist. As finery is always troublesome, and particularly in a hot country,* where it consists in putting one covering upon another, the women of rank always uncover themselves as low as the waist in the evening, throwing off all that they wear on the upper part of the body, with the same negligence and ease as our ladies would lay by a cardinal or double handkerchief. And the Chiefs, even when they visited us, though they had as much cloth round their middle as would clothe a dozen people, had frequently the rest of the body quite naked. --page 336

Upon their legs and feet they wear no covering; but they shade their faces from the sun with little bonnets, either of matting or of cocoa-nut leaves, which they make occasionally in a few minutes. This, however, is not all their headdress; the women sometimes wear little turbans, and sometimes a dress which they value much more, and which, indeed, is much more becoming, called Tomou; the Tomou consists of human hair, plaited in threads, scarcely thicker than sewing silk. Mr. Banks has pieces of it above a mile in length, without a knot. These they wind round the head in such a manner as produces a very pretty effect, and in a very great quantity; for I have seen five or six such pieces wound about the head of one woman: among these threads they stick flowers of various kinds, particularly the cape-jessamine, of which they have great plenty, as it is always planted near their houses. The men sometimes stick the tail feather of the Tropic-bird upright in their hair, which, as I have observed before, is often tied in a bunch upon the top of their heads: sometimes they wear a kind of whimsical garland, made of flowers of various kinds, stuck into a piece of the rind of a plantain; or of scarlet peas, stuck with gum upon a piece of wood: and sometimes they wear a kind of wig, made of the hair of men or dogs, or perhaps of cocoa-nut strings, woven upon one thread, which is tied under their hair,* so that these artificial honours of their head may hang down behind. Their personal ornaments, besides flowers, are few; both sexes wear ear-rings, but they are placed only on one side: when we came they consisted of small pieces of shell, stone, berries, red peas, or some small pearls, three in a string; but our beads very soon supplanted them all. --page 337

The children go quite naked; the girls till they are three or four years old, and the boys till they are six or seven. --page 338

The houses,* or rather dwellings of these people have been occasionally mentioned before: they are all built in the wood, between the sea and the mountains, and no more ground is cleared for each house, than just sufficient to prevent the dropping of the branches from rotting the thatch with which they are covered; from the house, therefore, the inhabitant steps immediately under the shade, which is the most delightful that can be imagined. It consists of groves of bread-fruit and cocoa-nuts, without underwood, which are intersected, in all directions, by the paths that lead from one house to the other. Nothing can be more grateful than this shade in so warm a climate, nor any thing more beautiful than these walks. As there is no underwood, the shade cools without impeding the air; and the houses, having no walls, receive the gale from whatever point it blows. I shall now give a particular description of a house of a middling size, from which, as the structure is universally the same, a perfect idea may be formed both of those that are bigger, and those that are less. --page 339

The ground which it covers is an oblong square, four and twenty feet long, and eleven wide; over this a roof is raised, upon three rows of pillars or posts, parallel to each other, one on each side, and the other in the middle. This roof consists of two flat sides inclining to each other, and terminating in a ridge,* exactly like the roofs of our thatched houses in England. The utmost height within is about nine feet, and the eaves on each side reach to within about three feet and an half of the ground: below this, and through the whole height at each end, it is open, no part of it being inclosed with a wall. The roof is thatched with palm-leaves, and the floor is covered, some inches deep, with soft hay; over this are laid mats, so that the whole is one cushion, upon which they sit in the day, and sleep in the night. In some houses, however, there is one stool, which is wholly appropriated to the master of the family; besides this, they have no furniture, except a few little blocks of wood, the upper side of which is hollowed into a curve, and which serve them for pillows. --page 340

The house is indeed principally used as a dormitory; for, except it rains, they eat in the open air, under the shade of the next tree. The clothes that they wear in the day, serve them for covering in the night; the floor is the common bed of the whole household, and is not divided by any partition. The master of the house and his wife sleep in the middle, next to them the married people, next to them the unmarried women, and next to them, at a little distance, the unmarried men; the servants, or Toutous, as they are called, sleep in the open air, except it rains, and in that case they come just within the shed. --page 341

There are, however, houses of another kind, belonging to the Chiefs, in which there is some degree of privacy. These are much smaller, and so constructed as to be carried about in their canoes from place to place, and set up occasionally, like a tent; they are inclosed on the sides with cocoa-nut leaves, but not so close as to exclude the air, and the Chief and his wife sleep in them alone. --page 342

*There are houses also of a much larger size, not built either for the accommodation of a single Chief, or a single family; but as common receptacles for all the people of a district. Some of them are two hundred feet long, thirty broad, and, under the ridge, twenty feet high; these are built and maintained at the common expence of the district, for the accommodation of which they are intended; and have on one side of them a large area, inclosed with low pallisadoes. --page 343

These houses, like those of separate families, have no walls. Privacy, indeed, is little wanted among people who have not even the idea of indecency, and who gratify every appetite and passion before witnesses, with no more sense of impropriety than we feel when we satisfy our hunger at a social board with our family or friends. Those who have no idea of indecency with respect to actions, can have none with respect to words; it is, therefore, scarcely necessary to observe, that, in the conversation of these people, that which is the principal source of their pleasure, is always the principal topic; and that every thing is mentioned without any restraint or emotion, and in the most direct terms, by both sexes. --page 344

*Of the food eaten here the greater part is vegetable. Here are no tame animals except hogs, dogs, and poultry, as I have observed before, and these are by no means plenty. When a Chief kills a hog, it is almost equally divided among his dependants; and as they are very numerous, the share of each individual at these feasts, which are not frequent, must necessarily be small. Dogs and fowls fall somewhat more frequently to the share of the common people. I cannot much commend the flavour of their fowls; but we all agreed, that a South Sea dog was little inferior to an English lamb; their excellence is probably owing to their being kept up,* and fed wholly upon vegetables. The sea affords them a great variety of fish. The smaller fish, when they catch any, are generally eaten raw, as we eat oysters; and nothing that the sea produces comes amiss to them: they are fond of lobsters, crabs, and other shell-fish, which are found upon the coast; and they will eat not only sea-insects, but what the seamen call Blubbers, though some of them are so tough, that they are obliged to suffer them to become putrid before they can be chewed. Of the many vegetables that have been mentioned already as serving them for food, the principal is the bread-fruit, to procure which costs them no trouble or labour but climbing a tree: the tree which produces it, does not indeed shoot up spontaneously; but if a man plants ten of them in his lifetime, which he may do in about an hour, he will as completely fulfil his duty to his own and future generations, as the native of our less temperate climate can do by ploughing in the cold of winter, and reaping in the summer's heat, as often as these seasons return; even if, after he has procured bread for his present household, he should convert a surplus into money, and lay it up for his children. --page 345

It is true, indeed, that the bread-fruit is not always in season; but cocoa-nuts, bananas, plantains, and a great variety of other fruits, supply the deficiency. --page 346

It may well be supposed, that cookery is but little studied by these people as an art; and, indeed, they have but two ways of applying fire to dress their food, broiling and baking; the operation of broiling is so simple that it requires no description, and their baking has been described already, (page 152.) in the account of an entertainment prepared for us by Tupia. Hogs, and large fish, are extremely well dressed in the same manner; and, in our opinion, were more juicy and more equally done than by any art of cookery now practised in Europe.* Bread-fruit is also cooked in an oven of the same kind, which renders it soft, and something like a boiled potatoe; not quite so farinaceous as a good one, but more so than those of the middling sort. --page 347

Of the bread-fruit they also make three dishes, by putting either water or the milk of the cocoa-nut to it, then beating it to a paste with a stone pestle, and afterwards mixing it with ripe plantains, bananas, or the sour paste which they call Mahie. --page 348

The mahie, which has been mentioned as a succedaneum for ripe bread-fruit, before the season for gathering a fresh crop comes on, is thus made: --page 349

The fruit is gathered just before it is perfectly ripe, and being laid in heaps, is closely covered with leaves; in this state it undergoes a fermentation, and becomes disagreeably sweet: the core is then taken out entire, which is done by gently pulling the stalk, and the rest of the fruit is thrown into a hole which is dug for that purpose, generally in the houses, and neatly lined in the bottom and sides with grass; the whole is then covered with leaves, and heavy stones laid upon them: in this state it undergoes a second fermentation, and becomes sour, after which it will suffer no change for many months: it is taken out of the hole as it is wanted for use, and being made into balls, it is wrapped up in leaves and baked; after it is dressed, it will keep five or six weeks. It is eaten both cold and hot, and the natives seldom make a meal without it, though to us the taste was as disagreeable as that of a pickled olive generally is the first time it is eaten. --page 350

As the making of this mahie depends, like brewing, upon fermentation, so, like brewing, it sometimes fails, without their being able to ascertain the cause; it is very natural,* therefore, that the making it should be connected with superstitious notions and ceremonies. It generally falls to the lot of the old women, who will suffer no creature to touch any thing belonging to it, but those whom they employ as assistants, nor even to go into that part of the house where the operation is carrying on. Mr. Banks happened to spoil a large quantity of it only by inadvertently touching a leaf which lay upon it. The old woman, who then presided over these mysteries, told him, that the process would fail; and immediately uncovered the hole in a fit of vexation and despair. Mr. Banks regretted the mischief he had done, but was somewhat consoled by the opportunity which it gave him of examining the preparation, which perhaps, but for such an accident, would never have offered. --page 351

Such is their food, to which salt-water is the universal sauce, no meal being eaten without it: those who live near the sea have it fetched as it is wanted; those who live at some distance keep it in large bamboos, which are set up in their houses, for use. Salt-water, however, is not their only sauce; they make another of the kernels of cocoa-nuts, which being fermented till they dissolve into a paste somewhat resembling butter, are beaten up with salt-water. The flavour of this is very strong, and was, when we first tasted it, exceedingly nauseous; a little use, however, reconciled some of us to it so much, that they preferred it to our own sauces, especially with fish. The natives seemed to consider it as a dainty, and do not use it at their common meals; possibly, because they think it ill management to use cocoa-nuts so lavishly, or perhaps, when we were at the island, they were scarcely ripe enough for the purpose. --page 352

For drink, they have in general nothing but water, or the juice of the cocoa-nut; the art of producing liquors that intoxicate, by fermentation,* being happily unknown among them; neither have they any narcotic which they chew, as the natives of some other countries do opium, beetle-root, and tobacco. Some of them drank freely of our liquors, and in a few instances became very drunk; but the persons to whom this happened were so far from desiring to repeat the debauch, that they would never touch any of our liquors afterwards. We were however informed, that they became drunk by drinking a juice that is expressed from the leaves of a plant which they call Ava Ava. This plant was not in season when we were there, so that we saw no instances of its effects; and as they considered drunkenness as a disgrace, they probably would have concealed from us any instances which might have happened during our stay. This vice is almost peculiar to the Chiefs, and considerable persons, who vie with each other in drinking the greatest number of draughts, each draught being about a pint. They keep this intoxicating juice with great care from their women. --page 353

Table they have none; but their apparatus for eating is set out with great neatness, though the articles are too simple and too few to allow any thing for show: and they commonly eat alone; but when a stranger happens to visit them, he sometimes makes a second in their mess. Of the meal of one of their principal people I shall give a particular description. --page 354

He sits down under the shade of the next tree, or on the shady side of his house, and a large quantity of leaves, either of the bread-fruit or banana, are neatly spread before him upon the ground as a table-cloth; a basket is then set by him that contains his provision, which, if fish or flesh, is ready dressed, and wrapped up in leaves, and two cocoa-nut shells, one full of salt water and the other of fresh: his attendants, which are not few, seat themselves round him, and when all is ready, he begins by washing his hands and his mouth thoroughly with the fresh-water,* and this he repeats almost continually throughout the whole meal; he then takes part of his provision out of the basket, which generally consists of a small fish or two, two or three bread-fruits, fourteen or fifteen ripe bananas, or six or seven apples: he first takes half a bread-fruit, peels off the rind, and takes out the core with his nails; of this he puts as much into his mouth as it can hold, and while he chews it, takes the fish out of the leaves, and breaks one of them into the salt water, placing the other, and what remains of the bread-fruit, upon the leaves that have been spread before him. When this is done, he takes up a small piece of the fish that has been broken into the salt-water, with all the fingers of one hand, and sucks it into his mouth, so as to get with it as much of the salt-water as possible: in the same manner he takes the rest by different morsels, and between each, at least very frequently, takes a small sup of the salt-water, either out of the cocoa-nut shell, or the palm of his hand: in the mean time one of his attendants has prepared a young cocoa-nut, by peeling off the outer rind with his teeth, an operation which to an European appears very surprising; but it depends so much upon slight, that many of us were able to do it before we left the island, and some that could scarcely crack a filbert: the master, when he chuses to drink, takes the cocoa-nut thus prepared, and boring a hole through the shell with his finger, or breaking it with a stone, he sucks out the liquor. When he has eaten his bread-fruit and fish, he begins with his plantains, one of which makes but a mouthful, though it be as big as a black-pudding; if instead of plantains he has apples, he never tastes them till they have been pared; to do this a shell is picked up from the ground, where they are always in plenty, and tossed to him by an attendant: he immediately begins to cut or scrape off the rind,* but so awkwardly that great part of the fruit is wasted. If, instead of fish, he has flesh, he must have some succedaneum for a knife to divide it; and for this purpose a piece of bamboo is tossed to him, of which he makes the necessary implement by splitting it transversely with his nail. While all this has been doing, some of his attendants have been employed in bearing bread-fruit with a stone pestle upon a block of wood; by being beaten in this manner, and sprinkled from time to time with water, it is reduced to the consistence of a soft paste, and is then put into a vessel somewhat like a butcher's tray, and either made up alone, or mixed with banana or mahie, according to the taste of the master, by pouring water upon it by degrees and squeezing it often through the hand: under this operation it acquires the consistence of a thick custard, and a large cocoa-nut shell full of it being set before him, he sips it as we should do a jelly if we had no spoon to take it from the glass: the meal is then finished by again washing his hands and his mouth. After which the cocoa-nut shells are cleaned, and every thing that is left is replaced in the basket. --page 355

The quantity of food which these people eat at a meal is prodigious: I have seen one man devour two or three fishes as big as a perch; three bread-fruits, each bigger than two fists; fourteen or fifteen plantains or bananas, each of them six or seven inches long, and four or five round; and near a quart of the pounded bread-fruit, which is as substantial as the thickest unbaked custard. This is so extraordinary that I scarcely expect to be believed; and I would not have related it upon my own single testimony, but Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and most of the other Gentlemen, have had ocular demonstration of its truth, and know that I mention them upon the occasion. --page 356

It is very wonderful, that these people,* who are remarkably fond of society, and particularly that of their women, should exclude its pleasures from the table, where among all other nations, whether civil or savage, they have been principally enjoyed. How a meal, which every where else brings families and friends together, came to separate them here, we often enquired, but could never learn. They eat alone, they said, because it was right; but why it was right to eat alone, they never attempted to tell us: such, however, was the force of habit, that they expressed the strongest dislike, and even disgust, at our eating in society, especially with our women, and of the same victuals. At first, we thought this strange singularity arose from some superstitious opinion; but they constantly affirmed the contrary. We observed also some caprices in the custom, for which we could as little account as for the custom itself. We could never prevail with any of the women to partake of the victuals at our table when we were dining in company; yet they would go, five or six together, into the servants apartments, and there eat very heartily of whatever they could find, of which I have before given a particular instance; nor were they in the least disconcerted if we came in while they were doing it. When any of us have been alone with a woman, she has sometimes eaten in our company; but then she has expressed the greatest unwillingness that it should be known, and always extorted the strongest promises of secrecy. --page 357

Among themselves, even two brothers and two sisters have each their separate baskets, with provision and the apparatus of their meal. When they first visited us at our tents, each brought his basket with him; and when we sat down to table, they would go out, sit down upon the ground, at two or three yards distance from each other, and turning their faces different ways,* take their repast without interchanging a single word. --page 358

The women not only abstain from eating with the men, and of the same victuals, but even have their victuals separately prepared by boys kept for that purpose, who deposit it in a separate shed, and attend them with it at their meals. --page 359

But though they would not eat with us or with each other, they have often asked us to eat with them, when we have visited those with whom we were particularly acquainted at their houses; and we have often upon such occasions eaten out of the same basket, and drunk out of the same cup. The elder women, however, always appeared to be offended at this liberty; and if we happened to touch their victuals, or even the basket that contained it, would throw it away. --page 360

*After meals, and in the heat of the day, the middle-aged people of the better sort generally sleep; they are indeed extremely indolent, and sleeping and eating is almost all that they do. Those that are older are less drowzy, and the boys and girls are kept awake by the natural activity and sprightliness of their age. --page 361

Their amusements have occasionally been mentioned in my account of the incidents that happened during our residence in this island, particularly music, dancing, wrestling, and shooting with the bow; they also sometimes vie with each other in throwing a lance. As shooting is not at a mark, but for distance; throwing the lance is not for distance, but at a mark: the weapon is about nine feet long, the mark is the bole of a plantain, and the distance about twenty yards. --page 362

Their only musical instruments are flutes and drums; the flutes are made of a hollow bamboo about a foot long, and, as has been observed before, have only two stops, and consequently but four notes, out of which they seem hitherto to have formed but one tune;* to these stops they apply the fore finger of the left hand and the middle finger of the right. --page 363

The drum is made of a hollow block of wood, of a cylindrical form, solid at one end, and covered at the other with shark's skin: these they beat not with sticks, but their hands; and they know how to tune two drums of different notes into concord. They have also an expedient to bring the flutes that play together into unison, which is to roll up a leaf so as to slip over the end of the shortest, like our sliding tubes for telescopes, which they move up or down till the purpose is answered, of which they seem to judge by their ear with great nicety. --page 364

To these instruments they sing; and, as I have observed before, their songs are often extempore: they call every two verses or couplet a song, Pehay; they are generally, though not always in rhime; and when pronounced by the natives, we could discover that they were metre. Mr. Banks took great pains to write down some of them which were made upon our arrival, as nearly as he could express their sounds by combinations of our letters; but when we read them, not having their accent, we could scarcely make them either metre or rhime. The Reader will easily perceive that they are of very different structure. --page 365

Tede pahai de parow-a Ha maru no mina. E pahah Tayo malama tai ya No Tabane tonatou whannomi ya. E Turai eattu terara patee whennua toai Ino o maio Pretane to whennuaia no Tute. Of these verses our knowlege of the language is too imperfect to attempt a translation.* They frequently amuse themselves by singing such couplets as these when they are alone, or with their families, especially after it is dark; for though they need no fires, they are not without the comfort of artificial light between sunset and bed-time. Their candles are made of the kernels of a kind of oily nut, which they stick one over another upon a skewer that is thrust through the middle of them; the upper one being lighted, burns down to the second, at the same time consuming that part of the skewer which goes through it; the second taking fire burns in the same manner down to the third, and so of the rest: some of these candles will burn a considerable time, and they give a very tolerable light. They do not often sit up above an hour after it is dark; but when they have strangers who sleep in the house, they generally keep a light burning all night, possibly as a check upon such of the women as they wish not to honour them with their favours. Of their itinerary concerts I need add nothing to what has been said already; especially as I shall have occasion, more particularly, to mention them when I relate our adventures upon another island. --page 366

In other countries, the girls and unmarried women are supposed to be wholly ignorant of what others upon some occasions may appear to know; and their conduct and conversation are consequently restrained within narrower bounds, and kept at a more remote distance from whatever relates to a connection with the other sex: but here, it is just contrary. Among other diversions, there is a dance, called Timorodee, which is performed by young girls, whenever eight or ten of them can be collected together, consisting of motions and gestures beyond imagination wanton, in the practice of which they are brought up from their earliest childhood,* accompanied by words, which, if it were possible, would more explicitly convey the same ideas. In these dances they keep time with an exactness which is scarcely excelled by the best performers upon the stages of Europe. But the practice which is allowed to the virgin, is prohibited to the woman from the moment that she has put these hopeful lessons in practice, and realized the symbols of the dance. --page 367

It cannot be supposed that, among these people, chastity is held in much estimation. It might be expected that sisters and daughters would be offered to strangers, either as a courtesy, or for reward; and that breaches of conjugal fidelity, even in the wife; should not be otherwise punished than by a few hard words, or perhaps a slight beating, as indeed is the case: but there is a scale in dissolute sensuality, which these people have ascended, wholly unknown to every other nation whose manners have been recorded from the beginning of the world to the present hour, and which no imagination could possibly conceive. --page 368

A very considerable number of the principal people of Otaheite, of both sexes, have formed themselves into a society, in which every woman is common to every man; thus securing a perpetual variety as often as their inclination prompts them to seek it, which is so frequent, that the same man and woman seldom cohabit together more than two or three days. --page 369

These societies are distinguished by the name of Arreoy; and the members have meetings, at which no other is present, where the men amuse themselves by wrestling, and the women, notwithstanding their occasional connection with different men, dance the Timorodee in all its latitude, as an incitement to desires which it is said are frequently gratified upon the spot.* This however is comparatively nothing. If any of the women happen to be with child, which in this manner of life happens less frequently than if they were to cohabit only with one man, the poor infant is smothered the moment it is born, that it may be no incumbrance to the father, nor interrupt the mother in the pleasures of her diabolical prostitution. It sometimes indeed happens, that the passion which prompts a woman to enter into this society, is surmounted when she becomes a mother, by that instinctive affection which Nature has given to all creatures for the preservation of their offspring; but even in this case, she is not permitted to spare the life of her infant, except she can find a man who will patronise it as his child: if this can be done, the murder is prevented; but both the man and woman, being deemed by this act to have appropriated each other, are ejected from the community, and forfeit all claim to the privileges and pleasures of Arreoy for the future; the woman from that time being distinguished by the term Whannownow, "bearer of children," which is here a term of reproach; though none can be more honourable in the estimation of wisdom and humanity, of right reason, and every passion that distinguishes the man from the brute. --page 370

It is not fit that a practice so horrid and so strange should be imputed to human beings upon slight evidence, but I have such as abundantly justifies me in the account I have given. The people themselves are so far from concealing their connection with such a society as a disgrace, that they boast of it as a privilege; and both myself and Mr. Banks, when particular persons have been pointed out to us as members of the Arreoy, have questioned them about it, and received the account that has been here given from their own lips. They have acknowledged, that they had long been of this accursed society, that they belonged to it at that time,* and that several of their children had been put to death. --page 371

But I must not conclude my account of the domestic life of these people without mentioning their personal cleanliness. If that which lessens the good of life and increases the evil is vice, surely cleanliness is a virtue: the want of it tends to destroy both beauty and health, and mingles disgust with our best pleasures. The natives of Otaheite, both men and women, constantly wash their whole bodies in running water three times every day; once as soon as they rise in the morning, once at noon, and again before they sleep at night, whether the sea or river is near them or at a distance. I have already observed, that they wash not only the mouth, but the hands at their meals, almost between every morsel; and their clothes, as well as their persons, are kept without spot or stain; so that in a large company of these people, nothing is suffered but heat, which, perhaps, is more than can be said of the politest assembly in Europe. --page 372

*IF necessity is the mother of invention, it cannot be supposed to have been much exerted where the liberality of Nature has rendered the diligence of Art almost superfluous; yet there are many instances both of ingenuity and labour among these people, which, considering the want of metal for tools, do honour to both. --page 373

*Their principal manufacture is their cloth, in the making and dying of which I think there are some particulars which may instruct even the artificers of Great Britain, and for that reason my description will be more minute. --page 374

Their cloth is of three kinds; and it is made of the bark of three different trees, the Chinese paper mulberry, the bread-fruit tree, and the tree which resembles the wild fig-tree of the West Indies. --page 375

The finest and whitest is made of the paper mulberry, Aouta; this is worn chiefly by the principal people, and when it is dyed red takes a better colour. A second sort, inferior in whiteness and softness, is made of the bread-fruit tree, Ooroo, and worn chiefly by the inferior people; and a third of the tree that resembles the fig, which is coarse and harsh, and of the colour of the darkest brown paper: this, though it is less pleasing both to the eye and the touch, is the most valuable, because it resists water, which the other two sorts will not. Of this, which is the most rare as well as the most useful, the greater part is perfumed,* and worn by the Chiefs as a morning dress. --page 376

All these trees are propagated with great care, particularly the mulberry, which covers the largest part of the cultivated land, and is not fit for use after two or three year's growth, when it is about six or eight feet high, and somewhat thicker than a man's thumb; its excellence is to be thin, strait, tall, and without branches: the lower leaves, therefore, are carefully plucked off, with their germs, as often as there is any appearance of their producing a branch. --page 377

But though the cloth made of these three trees is different, it is all manufactured in the same manner; I shall, therefore, describe the process only in the fine sort, that is made of the mulberry. When the trees are of a proper size, they are drawn up, and stripped of their branches, after which the roots and tops are cut off; the bark of these rods being then slit up longitudinally is easily drawn off, and, when a proper quantity has been procured, it is carried down to some running water, in which it is deposited to soak, and secured from floating away by heavy stones: when it is supposed to be sufficiently softened, the women servants go down to the brook, and stripping themselves, sit down in the water, to separate the inner bark from the green part on the outside; to do this they place the under side upon a flat smooth board, and with the shell which our dealers call Tyger's tongue, Tellina gargadia, scrape it very carefully, dipping it continually in the water till nothing remains but the fine fibres of the inner coat. Being thus prepared in the afternoon, they are spread out upon plantain leaves in the evening; and in this part of the work there appears to be some difficulty, as the mistress of the family always superintends the doing of it:* they are placed in lengths of about eleven or twelve yards, one by the side of another, till they are about a foot broad, and two or three layers are also laid one upon the other: care is taken that the cloth shall be in all parts of an equal thickness, so that if the bark happens to be thinner in any particular part of one layer than the rest, a piece that is somewhat thicker is picked out to be laid over it in the next. In this state it remains till the morning, when great part of the water which it contained when it was laid out, is either drained off or evaporated, and the several fibres adhere together, so as that the whole may be raised from the ground in one piece. --page 378

It is then taken away, and laid upon the smooth side of a long piece of wood, prepared for the purpose, and beaten by the women servants, with instruments about a foot long and three inches thick, made of a hard wood which they call Etoa. The shape of this instrument is not unlike a square razor strop, only that the handle is longer, and each of its four sides or faces is marked, lengthways, with small grooves, or furrows, of different degrees of fineness; those on one side being of a width and depth sufficient to receive a small packthread, and the others finer in a regular gradation, so that the last are not more than equal to sewing silk. --page 379

They beat it first with the coarsest side of this mallet, keeping time like our smiths; it spreads very fast under the strokes, chiefly however in the breadth, and the grooves in the mallet mark it with the appearance of threads; it is successively beaten with the other sides, last with the finest, and is then fit for use. Sometimes, however, it is made still thinner, by beating it with the finest side of the mallet, after it has been several times doubled: it is then called Hoboo, and is almost as thin as a muslin; it becomes very white by being --page 380

[illustration] bleached in the air,* but is made still whiter and softer by being washed and beaten again after it has been worn. Of this cloth there are several sorts, of different degrees of fineness, in proportion as it is more or less beaten without being doubled: the other cloth also differs in proportion as it is beaten; but they differ from each other in consequence of the different materials of which they are made. The bark of the bread-fruit is not taken till the trees are considerably longer and thicker than those of the fig; the process afterwards is the same. --page 381

When cloth is to be washed after it has been worn, it is taken down to the brook, and left to soak, being kept fast to the bottom, as at first, by a stone; it is then gently wrung or squeezed; and sometimes several pieces of it are laid one upon another, and beaten together with the coarsest side of the mallet, and they are then equal in thickness to broad-cloth, and much more soft and agreeable to the touch, after they have been a little while in use, though, when they come immediately from the mallet, they feel as if they had been starched. This cloth sometimes breaks in the beating, but is easily repaired by pasting on a patch with a gluten that is prepared from the root of the Pea, which is done so nicely that it cannot be discovered. The women also employ themselves in removing blemishes of every kind, as our ladies do in needle-work or knotting; sometimes when their work is intended to be very fine, they will paste an entire covering of hoboo over the whole. The principal excellencies of this cloth are its coolness and softness; and its imperfections, its being pervious to water like paper, and almost as easily torn. --page 382

The colours with which they die this cloth are principally red and yellow. The red is exceedingly beautiful, and I may venture to say, a brighter and more delicate colour than any we have in Europe;* that which approaches nearest is our full scarlet, and the best imitation which Mr. Banks's natural history painter could produce, was by a mixture of vermilion and carmine. The yellow is also a bright colour, but we have many as good. --page 383

The red colour is produced by the mixture of the juices of two vegetables, neither of which separately has the least tendency to that hue. One is a species of fig, called here Matte, and the other the Cordia Sebestina, or Etou; of the fig the fruit is used, and of the Cordia the leaves. --page 384

The fruit of the fig is about as big as a rounceval pea, or very small gooseberry; and each of them, upon breaking off the stalk very close, produces one drop of a milky liquor, resembling the juice of our figs, of which the tree is indeed a species. This liquor the women collect into a small quantity of cocoa-nut water: to prepare a gill of cocoa-nut water will require between three and four quarts of these little figs. When a sufficient quantity is prepared, the leaves of the Etou are well wetted in it, and then laid upon a plantain leaf, where they are turned about till they become more and more flaccid, and then they are gently squeezed, gradually increasing the pressure, but so as not to break them; as the flaccidity increases, and they become spungy, they are supplied with more of the liquor; in about five minutes the colour begins to appear upon the veins of the leaves, and in about ten or a little more, they are perfectly saturated with it: they are then squeezed, with as much force as can be applied, and the liquor strained at the same time that it is expressed. --page 385

For this purpose, the boys prepare a large quantity of the Moo, by drawing it between their teeth, or two little sticks, till it is freed from the green bark and the branny substance that lies under it, and a thin web of the fibres only remains;* in this the leaves of the Etou are inveloped, and through these the juice which they contain is strained as it is forced out. As the leaves are not succulent, little more juice is pressed out of them than they have imbibed: when they have been once emptied, they are filled again, and again pressed till the quality which tinctures the liquor as it passes through them is exhausted, they are then thrown away; but the Moo, being deeply stained with the colour, is preserved, as a brush to lay the dye upon the cloth. --page 386

The expressed liquor is always received into small cups made of the plantain leaf, whether from a notion that it has any quality favourable to the colour, or from the facility with which it is procured, and the convenience of small vessels to distribute it among the artificers, I do not know. --page 387

Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface; the liquor is indeed used rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side only, with the fibres of the Moo; and though I have seen of the thin cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour has not had the same richness and lustre, as when it has been applied in the other manner. --page 388

Though the leaf of the Etou is generally used in this process, and probably produces the finest colour; yet the juice of the figs will produce a red by a mixture with the species of Tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo, the Pohuc, the Eurhe or Convolvulus Brasiliensis, and a species of Solanum called Ebooa; from the use of these different plants, or from different proportions of the materials, many varieties are obobservable in the colours of their cloth, some of which are conspicuously superior to others. --page 389

*The beauty, however, of the best is not permanent; but it is probable that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable employment: our present most valuable dyes afford sufficient encouragement to the attempt; for by the mere inspection of indico, woad, dyer's weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered. Of this Indian red I shall only add, that the women who have been employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a great ornament. --page 390

The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the Morinda citrifolia, called Nono, by scraping and infusing it in water; after standing some time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being dipped into it. The Morinda, of which this is a species, seems to be a good subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his history of Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye brown; and Rumphius says of the Bancuda Augustifolia, which is nearly allied to our Nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East-Indian islands, as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it particularly agrees. --page 391

The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the Tamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we had no opportunity to discover. They have also a preparation with which they die brown and black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of preparing them did not excite our curiosity. --page 392

Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds; some of which is finer, and better in every respect,* than any we have in Europe: the coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather. With the fine, of which there are also two sorts, much pains is taken, especially with that made of the bark of the Poerou, the Hibiscus tiliaceus of Linnaeus, some of which is as fine as a coarse cloth: the other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call Vanne; it is white, glossy, and shining, and is made of the leaves of their Wharrou, a species of the Pandanus, of which we had no opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit: they have other matts, or as they call them Moeas, to sit or to sleep upon, which are formed of a great variety of rushes and grass, and which they make, as they do every thing else that is plaited, with amazing facility and dispatch. --page 393

They are also very dexterous in making basket and wickerwork; their baskets are of a thousand different patterns, many of them exceedingly neat; and the making them is an art that every one practises, both men and women: they make occasional baskets and panniers of the cocoa-nut leaf in a few minutes, and the women who visited us early in a morning used to send, as soon as the sun was high, for a few of the leaves, of which they made little bonnets to shade their faces, at so small an expence of time and trouble, that, when the sun was again low in the evening, they used to throw them away. These bonnets, however, did not cover the head, but consisted only of a band that went round it, and a shade that projected from the forehead. --page 394

Of the bark of the Poerou they make ropes and lines, from the thickness of an inch to the size of a small packthread: with these they make nets for fishing:* of the fibres of the cocoa-nut they make thread, for fastening together the several parts of their canoes, and belts, either round or flat, twisted or plaited; and of the bark of the Erowa, a kind of nettle which grows in the mountains, and is therefore rather scarce, they make the best fishing lines in the world: with these they hold the strongest and most active fish, such as Bonetas and Albicores, which would snap our strongest silk lines in a minute, though they are twice as thick. --page 395

They make also a kind of seine, of a coarse broad grass, the blades of which are like flags: these they twist and tie together in a loose manner, till the net, which is about as wide as a large sack, is from sixty to eighty fathom long: this they haul in shoal smooth water, and its own weight keeps it so close to the ground that scarcely a single fish can escape. --page 396

In every expedient, indeed, for taking fish, they are exceedingly ingenious; they make harpoons of cane, and point them with hard wood, which in their hands strike fish more effectually, than those which are headed with iron can do in ours, setting aside the advantage of ours being fastened to a line, so that the fish is secured if the hook takes place, though it does not mortally wound him. --page 397

Of fish-hooks they have two sorts, admirably adapted in their construction as well to the purpose they are to answer, as to the materials of which they are made. One of these, which they call Wittee Wittee, is used for towing. The shank is made of mother of pearl, the most glossy that can be got: the inside, which is naturally the brightest, is put behind. To these hooks a tuft of white dog's or hog's hair is fixed, so as somewhat to resemble the tail of a fish; these implements, therefore, are both hook and bait,* and are used with a rod of bamboo, and line of Erowa. The fisher, to secure his success, watches the flight of the birds which constantly attend the Bonetas when they swim in shoals, by which he directs his canoe, and when he has the advantage of these guides, he seldom returns without a prize. --page 398

The other kind of hook is also made of mother of pearl, or some other hard shell: they cannot make them bearded like our hooks; but to effect the same purpose, they make the point turn inwards. These are made of all sizes, and used to catch various kinds of fish, with great success. The manner of making them is very simple, and every fisherman is his own artificer: the shell is first cut into square pieces, by the edge of another shell, and wrought into a form corresponding with the outline of the hook by pieces of coral, which are sufficiently rough to perform the office of a file; a hole is then bored in the middle, the drill being no other than the first stone they pick up that has a sharp corner: this they fix into the end of a piece of bamboo, and turn it between the hands like a chocolate mill; when the shell is perforated, and the hole sufficiently wide, a small file of coral is introduced, by the application of which the hook is in a short time completed, few costing the artificer more time than a quarter of an hour. --page 399

Of their masonry, carving, and architecture, the Reader has already formed some idea from the account that has been given of the Morais, or repositories of the dead: the other most important article of building and carving is their boats;* and perhaps, to fabricate one of their principal vessels with their tools, is as great a work, as to build a British man of war with ours. --page 400

*They have an adze of stone; a chissel, or gouge, of bone, generally that of a man's arm between the wrist and elbow; a rasp of coral; and the skin of a sting-ray, with coral sand, as a file or polisher. --page 401

This is a complete catalogue of their tools, and with these they build houses, construct canoes, hew stone, and fell, cleave, carve, and polish timber. --page 402

The stone which makes the blade of their adzes is a kind of Basaltes, of a blackish or grey colour, not very hard, but of considerable toughness: they are formed of different sizes; some, that are intended for felling, weigh from six to eight pounds; others, that are used for carving, not more than so many ounces; but it is necessary to sharpen both almost every minute; for which purpose, a stone and a cocoa-nut shell full of water are always at hand. --page 403

Their greatest exploit, to which these tools are less equal than to any other, is felling a tree: this requires many hands, and the constant labour of several days. When it is down, they split it, with the grain, into planks from three to four inches thick, the whole length and breadth of the tree, many of which are eight feet in the girt, and forty to the branches, and nearly of the same thickness throughout. The tree generally used is in their language called Avie, the stem of which is tall and strait; though some of the smaller boats are made of the bread-fruit tree, which is a light spongy wood, and easily wrought. They smooth the plank very expeditiously and dexterously with their adzes, and can take off a thin coat from a whole plank without missing a stroke. As they have not the art of warping a plank, every part of the canoe, whether hollow or flat, is shaped by hand. --page 404

The canoes, or boats,* which are used by the inhabitants of this and the neighbouring islands, may be divided into two general classes; one of which they call Ivahahs, the other Pahies. --page 405

The Ivahah is used for short excursions to sea, and is wall-sided and flat-bottomed; the Pahie for longer voyages, and is bow-sided and sharp-bottomed. The Ivahahs are all of the same figure, but of different sizes, and used for different purposes: their length is from seventy-two feet to ten, but the breadth is by no means in proportion; for those of ten feet are about a foot wide, and those of more than seventy are scarcely two. There is the fighting Ivahah, the fishing Ivahah, and the travelling Ivahah; for some of these go from one island to another. The fighting Ivahah is by far the longest, and the head and stern are considerably raised above the body, in a semicircular form; particularly the stern, which is sometimes seventeen or eighteen feet high, though the boat itself is scarcely three. These never go to sea single; but are fastened together, side by side, at the distance of about three feet, by strong poles of wood, which are laid across them and lashed to the gunwales. Upon these, in the forepart, a stage or platform is raised, about ten or twelve feet long, and somewhat wider than the boats, which is supported by pillars about six feet high: upon this stage stand the fighting men, whose missile weapons are slings and spears; for, among other singularities in the manners of these people, their bows and arrows are used only for diversion, as we throw quoits: below these stages sit the rowers, who receive from them those that are wounded, and furnish fresh men to ascend in their room. Some of these have a platform of bamboos or other light wood, through their whole length, and considerably broader, by means of which they will carry a great number of men;* but we saw only one fitted in this manner. --page 406

The fishing Ivahahs vary in length from about forty feet to the smallest size, which is about ten; all that are of the length of twenty-five feet and upwards, of whatever sort, occasionally carry sail. The travelling Ivahah is always double, and furnished with a small neat house about five or six feet broad, and six or seven feet long, which is fastened upon the fore-part for the convenience of the principal people, who sit in them by day, and sleep in them at night. The fishing Ivahahs are sometimes joined together, and have a house on board; but this is not common. --page 407

Those which are shorter than five and twenty feet, seldom or never carry sail; and, though the stern rises about four or five feet, have a flat head, and a board that projects forward about four feet. --page 408

The Pahie is also of different sizes, from sixty to thirty feet long; but, like the Ivahah, is very narrow. One that I measured was fifty-one feet long, and only one foot and a half wide at the top. In the widest part, it was about three feet; and this is the general proportion. It does not, however, widen by a gradual swell; but the sides being strait, and parallel, for a little way below the gunwale, it swells abruptly, and draws to a ridge at the bottom; so that a transverse section of it has somewhat the appearance of the mark upon cards called a Spade, the whole being much wider in proportion to its length. These, like the largest Ivahahs, are used for fighting; but principally for long voyages. The fighting Pahie, which is the largest, is fitted with the stage or platform, which is proportionably larger than those of the Ivahah, as their form enables them to sustain a much greater weight. Those that are used for sailing are generally double; and the middle size are said to be the best sea-boats.* They are sometimes out a month together, going from island to island; and sometimes, as we were credibly informed, they are a fortnight or twenty days at sea, and could keep it longer if they had more stowage for provisions, and conveniencies to hold fresh water. --page 409

When any of these boats carry sail single, they make use of a log of wood which is fastened to the end of two poles that lie cross the vessel, and project from six to ten feet, according to the size of the vessel, beyond its side, somewhat like what is used by the flying Proa of the Ladrone Islands, and called in the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage, an Outrigger. To this outrigger the shrouds are fastened, and it is essentially necessary in trimming the boat when it blows fresh. --page 410

Some of them have one mast, and some two; they are made of a single stick, and when the length of the canoe is thirty feet, that of the mast is somewhat less than five and twenty; it is fixed to a frame that is above the canoe, and receives a sail of matting about one third longer than itself: the sail is pointed at the top, square at the bottom, and curved at the side; somewhat resembling what we call a shoulder of mutton sail, and use for boats belonging to men of war: it is placed in a frame of wood, which surrounds it on every side, and has no contrivance either for reefing or furling; so that, if either should become necessary, it must be cut away, which, however, in these equal climates can seldom happen. At the top of the mast are fastened ornaments of feathers, which are placed inclining obliquely forwards; the shape and position of which will be conceived at once from the figure, in one of the cuts. --page 411

*The oars or paddles that are used with these boats, have a long handle and a flat blade, not unlike a baker's peel. Of these every person in the boat has one, except those that sit under the awning; and they push her forward with them at a good rate. These boats, however, admit so much water at the seams, that one person at least is continually employed in throwing it out. The only thing in which they excel is landing, and putting off from the shore in a surf: by their great length and high sterns they land dry, when our boats could scarcely land at all; and have the same advantages in putting off by the height of the head. --page 412

The Ivahahs are the only boats that are used by the inhabitants of Otaheite; but we saw several Pahies that came from other islands. Of one of these I shall give the exact dimensions from a careful admeasurement, and then particularly describe the manner in which they are built. --page 413

Feet. Inches. Extreme length from stem to stern, not reckoning the bending up of either 51 0 Breadth in the clear of the top forward 1 2 Breadth in the midships 1 6 Breadth aft 1 3 In the bilge forward 2 8 In the midships 2 11 Aft 2 9 Depth in the midships 3 4 Height from the ground on which she stood 3 6 Height of her head from the ground, without the figure 4 4 Height of the figure 0 11 Height of the stern from the ground 8 9 Height of the figure 2 0 To illustrate my description of the manner in which these vessels are built,* it will be necessary [illustration] to refer to the figure; in which a a is the first seam, b b the second, and c c the third. The first stage or keel, under a a, is made of a tree hollowed out like a trough; for which the longest trees are chosen that can be got, so that there are never more than three in the whole length: the next stage, under b b, is formed of strait plank, about four feet long, fifteen inches broad, and two inches thick: the third stage, under c c, is, like the bottom made of trunks, hollowed into its bilging form; the last is also cut out of trunks, so that the moulding is of one piece with the upright. To form these parts separately, without saw, plane, chissel, or any other iron tool, may well be thought no easy task; but the great difficulty is to join them together. --page 414

When all the parts are prepared, the keel is laid upon blocks, and the planks being supported by stanchions, are sewed or clamped together with strong thongs of plaiting, which are passed several times through holes that are bored with a gouge or auger of bone, that has been described already; and the nicety with which this is done, may be inferred from their being sufficiently water-tight for use without caulking. As the plaiting soon rots in the water, it is renewed at least once a-year; in order to which, the vessel is taken entirely to pieces. The head and stern are rude with respect to the design; but very neatly finished, and polished to the highest degree. --page 415

These Pahies are kept with great care, in a kind of house built on purpose for their reception; the houses are formed of poles set upright in the ground, the tops of which are drawn towards each other,* and fastened together with their strongest cord, so as to form a kind of Gothic arch, which is completely thatched quite to the ground, being open only at the ends; they are sometimes fifty or sixty paces long. --page 416

As connected with the navigation of these people, I shall mention their wonderful sagacity in foretelling the weather, at least the quarter from which the wind shall blow at a future time; they have several ways of doing this, of which however I know but one. They say, that the Milky-way is always curved laterally; but sometimes in one direction, and sometimes in another: and that this curvature is the effect of its being already acted upon by the wind, and its hollow part therefore towards it; so that, if the same curvature continues a night, a corresponding wind certainly blows the next day. Of their rules, I shall not pretend to judge; but I know that, by whatever means, they can predict the weather, at least the wind, with much greater certainty than we can. --page 417

In their longer voyages, they steer by the sun in the day, and in the night by the stars; all of which they distinguish separately by names, and know in what part of the heavens they will appear in any of the months during which they are visible in their horizon; they also know the time of their annual appearing and disappearing with more precision than will easily be believed by an European astronomer. --page 418

WE were not able to acquire a perfect idea of their method of dividing time; but observed,* that in speaking of it, either past or to come, they never used any term but Malama, which signifies Moon. Of these moons they count thirteen, and then begin again; which is a demonstration that they have a notion of the solar year: but how they compute their months so that thirteen of them shall be commensurate with the year, we could not discover; for they say that each month has twenty-nine days, including one in which the moon is not visible. They have names for them separately, and have frequently told us the fruits that would be in season, and the weather that would prevail, in each of them; and they have indeed a name for them collectively, though they use it only when they speak of the mysteries of their religion. --page 419

Every day is subdivided into twelve parts, each of two hours, of which six belong to the day, and six to the night. At these divisions they guess pretty nearly by the height of the sun while he is above the horizon; but there are few of them that can guess at them, when he is below it, by the stars. --page 420

*In numeration they proceed from one to ten, the number of fingers on both hands; and though they have for each number a different name, they generally take hold of their fingers one by one, shifting from one hand to the other till they come to the number they want to express. And in other instances, we observed that, when they were conversing with each other, they joined signs to their words, which were so expressive that a stranger might easily apprehend their meaning. --page 421

In counting from ten they repeat the name of that number, and add the word more; ten, and one more, is eleven; ten, and two more, twelve; and so of the rest, as we say one and twenty, two and twenty. When they come to ten and ten more, they have a new denomination, as we say a score; and by these scores they count till they get ten of them, when they have a denomination for two hundred; and we never could discover that they had any denomination to express a greater number: neither, indeed, do they seem to want any; for ten of these amount to two thousand, a greater number than they can ever apply. --page 422

In measuring distance they are much more deficient than in computing numbers, having but one term which answers to fathom; when they speak of distances from place to place, they express it, like the Asiatics, by the time that is required to pass it. --page 423

*Their language is soft and melodious; it abounds with vowels, and we easily learnt to pronounce it: but found it exceedingly difficult to teach them to pronounce a single word of ours; probably not only from its abounding in consonants, but from some peculiarity in its structure; for Spanish and Italian words, if ending in a vowel, they pronounced with great facility. --page 424

Whether it is copious,* we were not sufficiently acquainted with it to know; but it is certainly very imperfect, for it is almost totally without inflexion, both of nouns and verbs. Few of the nouns have more than one case, and few of the verbs more than one tense; yet we found no great difficulty in making ourselves mutually understood, however strange it may appear in speculation. --page 425

They have, however, certain affixa, which, though but few in number, are very useful to them, and puzzled us extremely. One asks another, Harre hea? --page 426

Where are you going? the other answers Ivahinera, To my wives; upon which the first repeating the answer interrogatively, To your wives? is answered, Ivahinereira; Yes, I am going to my wives. Here the suffixa era and eira save several words to both parties. I have inserted a few of their words, from which perhaps some idea may be formed of the language. --page 427

Pupo, the head. Ahewh, the nose. Roourou, the hair. Outou, the mouth. Niheo, the teeth. Arrero, the tongue. Meu-eumi, the beard. Tiarraboa, the throat. Tuamo, the shoulders. Tuah, the back. Oama, the breast. Eu, the nipples. Oboo, the belly. Rema, the arm. Oporema, the hand. Manneow, the fingers. Mieu, the nails. Touhe, the buttocks. Hoouhah, the thighs. Avia, the legs. Tapoa, the feet. Booa, a hog. Moa, a fowl. Euree, a dog. Eure-eure, iron. Ooroo, bread-fruit. Hearee, cocoa-nuts. Mia, bananas. *Vaee, wild plantains. Poe, beads. Poe matawewwe, pearl. Ahou, a garment. Avee, a fruit like apples. Ahee, another like chesnuts. Ewharre, a house. Whennua, a high island. Motu, a low island. Toto, blood. Aeve, bone. Aeo, flesh. Mae, fat. Tuea, lean. Huru-huru, hair. Eraow, a tree. Ama, a branch. Tiale, a flower. Huero, fruit. Etummoo, the stem. Aaa, the root. Eiherre, herbaceous plants. Ooopa, a pigeon. Avigne, a paroquet. A-a, another species. Mannu, a bird. Mora, a duck. Mattow, a fish-hook. Toura, a rope. Mow, a shark. Mahi-mahi, a dolphin. Mattera, a fishing-rod. Eupea, a net. Mahanna, the sun. Malama, the moon. Whettu, a star. Whettu-euphe, a comet. Erai, the sky. Eatta, a cloud. Miti, good. Eno, bad. A, yes. Ima, no. Paree, ugly. Paroree, hungry. Pia, full. Timahah, heavy. Mama, light. Poto, short. Roa, tall. Nehenne, sweet. Mala-mala, bitter. Whanno, to go far. Harre, to go. Arrea, to stay. Enoho, to remain. Rohe rohe, to be tired. Maa, to eat. Inoo, to drink. Ete, to understand. Warrido, to steal. Worridde, to be angry. Teparahi, to beat. Among people whose food is so simple,* and who in general are seldom drunk, it is scarcely necessary to say, that there are but few diseases; we saw no critical disease during our stay upon the island, and but few instances of sickness, which were accidental fits of the colic. The natives, however, are afflicted with the erysipelas, and cutaneous eruptions of the scaly kind, very nearly approaching to a leprosy. Those in whom this distemper was far advanced, lived in a state of seclusion from all society, each in a small house built upon some unfrequented spot, where they were supplied with provisions: but whether they had any hope of relief, or languished out the remainder of their lives in solitude and despair, we could not learn. We observed also a few who had ulcers upon different parts of their bodies, some of which had a very virulent appearance; yet they seemed not much to be regarded by those who were afflicted with them, for they were left intirely without application even to keep off the flies. --page 428

Where intemperance produces no diseases, there will be no physicians by profession; yet where there is sufferance, there will always be attempts to relieve; and where the cause of the mischief and the remedy are alike unknown, these will naturally be directed by superstition: thus it happens, that in this country, and in all others which are not further injured by luxury, or improved by knowlege, the management of the sick falls to the lot of the priest. The method of cure that is practised by the priests of Otaheite, consists chiefly of prayers and ceremonies. When he visits his patient he repeats certain sentences, which appear to be set forms contrived for the occasion, and at the same time plaits the leaves of the cocoa-nut into different figures very neatly; some of these he fastens to the fingers and toes of the sick, and often leaves behind him a few branches of the thespecia populnea,* which they call E'midho: these ceremonies are repeated till the patient recovers or dies. If he recovers, they say the remedies cured him, if he dies, they say the disease was incurable, in which perhaps they do not much differ from the custom of other countries. --page 429

If we had judged of their skill in surgery from the dreadful scars which we sometimes saw, we should have supposed it to be much superior to the art not only of their physicians, but of ours. We saw one man whose face was almost intirely destroyed, his nose, including the bone, was perfectly flat, and one cheek and one eye were so beaten in, that the hollow would almost receive a man's fist, yet no ulcer remained; and our companion, Tupia, had been pierced quite through his body by a spear headed with the bone of the sting-ray, the weapon having entered his back, and come out just under his breast; but except in reducing dislocations and fractures, the best surgeon can contribute very little to the cure of a wound; the blood itself is the best vulnerary balsam, and when the juices of the body are pure, and the patient is temperate, nothing more is necessary as an aid to Nature in the cure of the worst wound, than the keeping it clean. --page 430

Their commerce with the inhabitants of Europe has, however, already entailed upon them that dreadful curse which avenged the inhumanities committed by the Spaniards in America, the venereal disease. As it is certain that no European vessel besides our own, except the Dolphin, and the two that were under the command of Mons. Bougainville, ever visited this island, it must have been brought either by one of them or by us. That it was not brought by the Dolphin, Captain Wallis has demonstrated in the account of her voyage,* [vol. I. p. 489, 490.] and nothing is more certain than that when we arrived it had made most dreadful ravages in the island. One of our people contracted it within five days after we went on shore, and by the enquiries among the natives, which this occasioned, we learnt, when we came to understand a little of their language, that it had been brought by the vessels which had been there about fifteen months before us, and had lain on the east side of the island. They distinguished it by a name of the same import with rottenness, but of a more extensive signification, and described, in the most pathetic terms, the sufferings of the first victims to its rage, and told us that it caused the hair and the nails to fall off, and the flesh to rot from the bones: that it spread a universal terror and consternation among them, so that the sick were abandoned by their nearest relations, lest the calamity should spread by contagion, and left to perish alone in such misery as till then had never been known among them. We had some reason, however, to hope that they had found out a specific to cure it: during our stay upon the island we saw none in whom it had made a great progress, and one who went from us infected, returned after a short time in perfect health; and by this it appeared either that the disease had cured itself, or that they were not unacquainted with the virtues of simples, nor implicit dupes to the superstitious follies of their priests. We endeavoured to learn the medical qualities which they imputed to their plants, but our knowlege of their language was too imperfect for us to succeed. If we could have learnt their specific for the venereal disease, if such they have, it would have been of great advantage to us, for when we left the island it had been contracted by more than half the people on board the ship. --page 431

It is impossible but that, in relating incidents, many particulars with respect to the customs, opinions, and works of these people should be anticipated;* to avoid repetition, therefore, I shall only supply deficiencies. Of the manner of disposing of their dead, much has been said already. I must more explicitly observe that there are two places in which the dead are deposited; one a kind of shed, where the flesh is suffered to putrefy; the other an enclosure, with erections of stone, where the bones are afterwards buried. The sheds are called TUPAPOW, and the enclosures Morai. The Morais are also places of worship. --page 432

As soon as a native of Otaheite is known to be dead, the house is filled with relations, who deplore their loss, some by loud lamentations, and some by less clamorous, but more genuine expressions of grief. Those who are in the nearest degree of kindred, and are really affected by the event, are silent; the rest are one moment uttering passionate exclamations in a chorus, and the next laughing and talking without the least appearance of concern. In this manner the remainder of the day on which they assemble is spent, and all the succeeding night. On the next morning the body is shrouded in their cloth, and conveyed to the sea side upon a bier, which the bearers support upon their shoulders, attended by the priest, who having prayed over the body, repeats his sentences during the procession: when it arrives at the water's edge, it is set down upon the beach; the priest renews his prayers, and taking up some of the water in his hands, sprinkles it towards the body, but not upon it. It is then carried back forty or fifty yards, and soon after brought again to the beach, where the prayers and sprinkling are repeated: it is thus removed backwards and forwards several times, and while these ceremonies have been performing a house has been built, and a small space of ground railed in. In the center of this house, or Tupapow, posts are set up to support the bier, which is at length conveyed thither, and --page 433

[illustration] placed upon it,* and here the body remains to putrify till the flesh is wholly wasted from the bones. These houses of corruption are of a size proportioned to the rank of the person whose body they are to contain; those allotted to the lower class are just sufficient to cover the bier, and have no railing round them. The largest we ever saw was eleven yards long, and such as these are ornamented according to the abilities and inclination of the surviving kindred, who never fail to lay a profusion of good cloth about the body, and sometimes almost cover the outside of the house. Garlands of the fruit of the palm-nut or pandanus, and cocoa leaves, twisted by the priests in mysterious knots, with a plant called by them Ethee no Morai, which is particularly consecrated to funereal solemnities, are deposited about the place; provision and water are also left at a little distance, of which, and of other decorations, a more particular description has been given already. --page 434

As soon as the body is deposited in the Tupapow, the mourning is renewed. The women assemble, and are led to the door by the nearest relation, who strikes a shark's tooth several times into the crown of her head: the blood copiously follows, and is carefully received upon pieces of linen, which are thrown under the bier. The rest of the women follow this example, and the ceremony is repeated at the interval of two or three days, as long as the zeal and sorrow of the parties hold out. The tears also which are shed upon these occasions, are received upon pieces of cloth, and offered as oblations to the dead: some of the younger people cut off their hair, and that is thrown under the bier with the other offerings. This custom is founded upon a notion that the soul of the deceased, which they believe to exist in a separate state, is hovering about the place where the body is deposited:* that it observes the actions of the survivors, and is gratified by such testimonies of their affection and grief. --page 435

Two or three days after these ceremonies have been commenced by the women, during which the men seem to be wholly insensible of their loss, they also begin to perform their part. The nearest relations take it in turn to assume the dress, and perform the office which have already been particularly described in the account of Tubourai Tamaide's having acted as chief mourner to an old woman, his relation, who died while we were in the island. One part of the ceremony, however, which accounts for the running away of the people as soon as this procession is in sight, has not been mentioned. The chief mourner carries in his hand a long flat stick, the edge of which is set with shark's teeth, and in a phrenzy, which his grief is supposed to have inspired, he runs at all he sees, and if any of them happen to be overtaken, he strikes them most unmercifully with this indented cudgel, which cannot fail to wound them in a dangerous manner. --page 436

These processions continue at certain intervals for five moons, but are less and less frequent, by a gradual diminution, as the end of that time approaches. When it is expired, what remains of the body is taken down from the bier, and the bones having been scraped and washed very clean, are buried, according to the rank of the person, either within or without a Morai: if the deceased was an Earee, or Chief, his skull is not buried with the rest of the bones, but is wrapped up in fine cloth, and put in a kind of box made for that purpose, which is also placed in the Morai. This coffer is called Ewharre no te Orometua, the house of a teacher or master. After this the mourning ceases, except some of the women continue to be really afflicted for the loss,* and in that case they will sometimes suddenly wound themselves with the shark's tooth wherever they happen to be: this perhaps will account for the passion of grief in which Terapo wounded herself at the fort; some accidental circumstance might forcibly revive the remembrance of a friend or relation whom she had lost, with a pungency of regret and tenderness which forced a vent by tears, and prompted her to a repetition of the funereal rite. --page 437

The ceremonies, however, do not cease with the mourning: prayers are still said by the priest, who is well paid by the surviving relations, and offerings made at the Morai. Some of the things, which from time to time are deposited there, are emblematical: a young plantain represents the deceased, and the bunch of feathers the deity who is invoked. The priest places himself over-against the symbol of the God, accompanied by some of the relations, who are furnished with a small offering, and repeats his oraison in a set form, consisting of separate sentences; at the same time weaving the leaves of the cocoa-nut into different forms, which he afterwards deposits upon the ground where the bones have been interred; the deity is then addressed by a shrill screech, which is used only upon that occasion. When the priest retires, the tuft of feathers is removed, and the provisions left to putrify, or be devoured by the rats. --page 438

Of the religion of these people,* we were not able to acquire any clear and consistent knowlege: we found it like the religion of most other countries, involved in mystery, and perplexed with apparent inconsistences. The religious language is also here, as it is in China, different from that which is used in common; so that Tupia, who took great pains to instruct us, having no words to express his meaning which we understood,* gave us lectures to very little purpose: what we learnt, however, I will relate with as much perspicuity as I can. --page 439

Nothing is more obvious to a rational being, however ignorant or stupid, than that the universe and its various parts, as far as they fall under his notice, were produced by some agent inconceivably more powerful than himself; and nothing is more difficult to be conceived, even by the most sagacious and knowing, than the production of them from nothing, which among us is expressed by the word Creation. It is natural therefore, as no Being apparently capable of producing the universe is to be seen, that he should be supposed to reside in some distant part of it, or to be in his nature invisible, and that he should have originally produced all that now exists in a manner similar to that in which nature is renovated by the succession of one generation to another; but the idea of procreation includes in it that of two persons, and from the conjunction of two persons these people imagine every thing in the universe either originally or derivatively to proceed. --page 440

The Supreme Deity, one of these two first beings, they call TAROATAIHETOOMOO, and the other, whom they suppose to have been a rock, TEPAPA. A daughter of these was TETTOWMATATAYO, the year, or thirteen months collectively, which they never name but upon this occasion, and she, by the common father, produced the months, and the months, by conjunction with each other, the days: the stars they suppose partly to be the immediate offspring of the first pair, and partly to have increased among themselves; and they have the same notion with respect to the different species of plants. Among other progeny of Taroataihetoomoo and Tepapa, they suppose an inferior race of deities whom they call EATUAS. Two of these Eatuas, they say,* at some remote period of time, inhabited the earth, and were the parents of the first man. When this man, their common ancestor, was born, they say that he was round like a ball, but that his mother, with great care, drew out his limbs, and having at length moulded him into his present form, she called him EOTHE, which signifies finished. That being prompted by the universal instinct to propagate his kind, and being able to find no female but his mother, he begot upon her a daughter, and upon the daughter other daughters for several generations, before there was a son; a son, however, being at length born, he, by the assistance of his sisters, peopled the world. --page 441

Besides their daughter Tettowmatatayo, the first progenitors of nature had a son whom they called TANE. Taroataihetoomoo, the Supreme Deity, they emphatically stile the causer of earthquakes; but their prayers are more generally addressed to Tane, whom they suppose to take a greater part in the affairs of mankind. --page 442

Their subordinate deities or Eatuas, which are numerous, are of both sexes: the male are worshipped by the men, and the female by the women; and each have Morais to which the other sex is not admitted, though they have also Morais common to both. Men perform the office of priest to both sexes, but each sex has its priests, for those who officiate for one sex, do not officiate for the other. --page 443

They believe the immortality of the soul, at least its existence in a separate state, and that there are two situations of different degrees of happiness, somewhat analogous to our heaven and hell: the superior situation they call Tavirua Perai, the other Tiahoboo. They do not, however, consider them as places of reward and punishment, but as receptacles for different classes;* the first, for their Chiefs and principal people, the other for those of inferior rank, for they do not suppose that their actions here in the least influence their future state, or indeed that they come under the cognizance of their deities at all. Their religion, therefore, if it has no influence upon their morals, is at least disinterested; and their expressions of adoration and reverence, whether by words or actions, arise only from a humble sense of their own inferiority, and the ineffable excellence of divine perfection. --page 444

The character of the priest or Tahowa, is hereditary: the class is numerous, and consists of all ranks of people; the chief, however, is generally the younger brother of a good family, and is respected in a degree next to their kings. Of the little knowlege that is possessed in this country, the priests have the greatest share; but it consists principally in an acquaintance with the names and ranks of the different Eatuas or subordinate divinities, and the opinions concerning the origin of things, which have been traditionally preserved among the order in detached sentences, of which some will repeat an incredible number, though but very few of the words that are used in their common dialect occur in them. --page 445

The priests, however, are superior to the rest of the people in the knowlege of navigation and astronomy, and indeed the name Tahowa signifies nothing more than a man of knowlege. As there are priests of every class, they officiate only among that class to which they belong: the priest of the inferior class is never called upon by those of superior rank, nor will the priest of the superior rank officiate for any of the inferior class. --page 446

Marriage in this island, as appeared to us, is nothing more than an agreement between the man and woman, with which the priest has no concern.* Where it is contracted it appears to be pretty well kept, though sometimes the parties separate by mutual consent, and in that case a divorce takes place with as little trouble as the marriage. --page 447

But though the priesthood has laid the people under no tax for a nuptial benediction, there are two operations which it has appropriated, and from which it derives considerable advantages. One is tattowing, and the other circumcision, though neither of them have any connexion with religion. The tattowing has been described already. Circumcision has been adopted merely from motives of cleanliness; it cannot indeed properly be called circumcision, because the prepuce is not mutilated by a circular wound, but only slit through the upper part to prevent its contracting over the glans. As neither of these can be performed by any but a priest, and as to be without either is the greatest disgrace, they may be considered as a claim to surplice fees like our marriages and christenings, which are cheerfully and liberally paid, not according to any settled stipend, but the rank and abilities of the parties or their friends. --page 448

The Morai, as has already been observed, is at once a burying ground and a place of worship, and in this particular our churches too much resemble it. The Indian, however, approaches his Morai with a reverence and humility that disgraces the christian, not because he holds any thing sacred that is there, but because he there worships an invisible divinity, for whom, though he neither hopes for reward, nor fears punishment, at his hand, he always expresses the profoundest homage and most humble adoration. I have already given a very particular description both of the Morais and the altars that are placed near them. When an Indian is about to worship at the Morai,* or brings his offering to the altar, he always uncovers his body to the waste, and his looks and attitude are such as sufficiently express a corresponding disposition of mind. --page 449

It did not appear to us that these people are, in any instance, guilty of idolatry; at least they do not worship any thing that is the work of their hands, nor any visible part of the creation. This island indeed, and the rest that lie near it, have a particular bird, some a heron, and others a king's fisher, to which they pay a peculiar regard, and concerning which they have some superstitious notions with respect to good and bad fortune, as we have of the swallow and robin-red-breast, giving them the name of EATUA, and by no means killing or molesting them; yet they never address a petition to them, or approach them with any act of adoration. --page 450

*Though I dare not assert that these people, to whom the art of writing, and consequently the recording of laws, are utterly unknown, live under a regular form of government; yet a subordination is established among them, that greatly resembles the early state of every nation in Europe under the feudal system, which secured liberty in the most licentious excess to a few, and entailed the most abject slavery upon the rest. --page 451

Their orders are, Earee rahie, which answers to king; Earee, baron; Manahouni, vassal; and Toutou, villain. The Earee rahie, of which there are two in this island, one being the sovereign of each of the peninsulas of which it consists, is treated with great respect by all ranks, but did not appear to us to be invested with so much power as was exercised by the Earees in their own districts; nor indeed did we, as I have before observed, once see the sovereign of Obereonoo,* while we were in the island. The Earees are lords of one or more of the districts into which each of the peninsulas is divided, of which there may be about one hundred in the whole island; and they parcel out their territories to the Manahounies, who cultivate each his part which he holds under the baron. The lowest class, called Toutous, seem to be nearly under the same circumstances as the villains in feudal governments: these do all the laborious work, they cultivate the land under the Manahounies, who are only nominal cultivators for the lord, they fetch wood and water, and, under the direction of the mistress of the family, dress the victuals; they also catch the fish. --page 452

Each of the Earees keeps a kind of court, and has a great number of attendants, chiefly the younger brothers of their own tribe; and among these some hold particular offices, but of what nature exactly we could not tell. One was called the Eowa no l' Earee, and another the Whanno no l' Earee, and these were frequently dispatched to us with messages. Of all the courts of these Earees, that of Tootahah was the most splendid, as indeed might reasonably be expected, because he administered the government for Outou, his nephew, who was Earee rahie of Obereonoo, and lived upon his estate. The child of the baron or Earee, as well as of the sovereign or Earee rahie, succeeds to the title and honours of the father as soon as it is born: so that a baron, who was yesterday called Earee, and was approached with the ceremony of lowering the garments, so as to uncover the upper part of the body, is to-day, if his wife was last night delivered of a child, reduced to the rank of a private man, all marks of respect being transferred to the child, if it is suffered to live, though the father still continues possessor and administrator of his estate:* probably this custom has its share, among other inducements, in forming the societies called Arreoy. --page 453

*If a general attack happens to be made upon the island, every district under the command of an Earee, is obliged to furnish its proportion of soldiers for ther common defence. The number furnished by the principal districts, which Tupia recollected, when added together, amounted, as I have observed before, to six thousand six hundred and eighty. --page 454

Upon such occasions, the united force of the whole island is commanded in chief by the Earee rahie. Private differences between two Earees, are decided by their own people, without at all disturbing the general tranquillity. --page 455

*Their weapons are slings, which they use with great dexterity, pikes headed with the stings of sting-rays, and clubs, of about six or seven feet long, made of a very hard heavy wood. Thus armed, they are said to fight with great obstinacy, which is the more likely to be true, as it is certain that they give no quarter to either man, woman, or child, who is so unfortunate as to fall into their hands during the battle, or for some hours afterwards, till their passion, which is always violent, though not lasting, has subsided. --page 456

The Earee rahie of Obereonoo, while we were here, was in perfect amity with the Earee rahie of Tiarreboo, the other peninsula, though he took himself the title of king of the whole island: this, however, produced no more jealousy in the other sovereign, than the title of king of France, assumed by our sovereign, does in his most Christian Majesty. --page 457

In a government so rude, it cannot be expected that distributive justice should be regularly administered, and indeed where there is so little opposition of interest,* in consequence of the facility with which every appetite and passion is gratified, there can be but few crimes. There is nothing like money, the common medium by which every want and every wish is supposed to be gratified by those who do not possess it; there is no apparently permanent good which either fraud or force can unlawfully obtain; and when all the crimes that are committed by the inhabitants of civilized countries, to get money, are set out of the account, not many will remain: add to this, that where the commerce with woman is restrained by no law, men will seldom be under any temptation to commit adultery, especially as one woman is always less preferred to another, where they are less distinguished by personal decorations, and the adventitious circumstances which are produced by the varieties of art, and the refinements of sentiment. That they are thieves is true; but as among these people no man can be much injured or benefited by theft, it is not necessary to restrain it by such punishments, as in other countries are absolutely necessary to the very existence of civil society. Tupia, however, tells us, that adultery is sometimes committed as well as theft. In all cases where an injury has been committed, the punishment of the offender lies with the sufferer: adultery, if the parties are caught in the fact, is sometimes punished with death in the first ardour of resentment; but without circumstances of immediate provocation, the female sinner seldom suffers more than a beating. As punishment, however, is enforced by no law, nor taken into the hand of any magistrate, it is not often inflicted, except the injured party is the strongest; though the Chiefs do sometimes punish their immediate dependents, for faults committed against each other, and even the dependents of others,* if they are accused of any offence committed in their district. --page 458

Having now given the best description that I can of the island in its present state, and of the people, with their customs and manners, language and arts, I shall only add a few general observations, which may be of use to future navigators, if any of the ships of Great Britain should receive orders to visit it. As it produces nothing that appears to be convertible into an article of trade, and can be useful only by affording refreshments to shipping in their passage through these seas, it might be made to answer this purpose in a much greater degree, by transporting thither sheep, goats, and horned cattle, with European garden-stuff, and other useful vegetables, which there is the greatest reason to suppose will flourish in so fine a climate, and so rich a soil. --page 459

Though this, and the neighbouring islands lie within the tropick of Capricorn, yet the heat is not troublesome, nor did the winds blow constantly from the east. We had frequently a fresh gale from the S. W. for two or three days, and sometimes, though very seldom, from the N. W. Tupia reported, that south westerly winds prevail in October, November, and December, and we have no doubt of the fact. When the winds are variable, they are always accompanied by a swell from the S. W. or W. S. W.; there is also a swell from the same points when it is calm, and the atmosphere loaded with clouds, which is a sure indication that the winds are variable, or westerly out at sea, for with the settled trade-wind the weather is clear. --page 460

The meeting with westerly winds, within the general limits of the eastern trade, has induced some navigators to suppose that they were near some large track of land, of which, however, I think they are no indication. --page 461

It has been found, both by us and the Dolphin,* that the trade-wind, in these parts, does not extend farther to the south than twenty degrees, beyond which, we generally found a gale from the westward; and it is reasonable to suppose, that when these winds blow strong, they will drive back the easterly wind, and consequently incroach upon the limits within which they constantly blow, and thus necessarily produce variable winds, as either happens to prevail, and a south westerly swell. This supposition is the more probable, as it is well known that the trade-winds blow but faintly for some distance within their limits, and therefore may be more easily stopped or repelled by a wind in the contrary direction: it is also well known, that the limits of the trade-winds vary not only at different seasons of the year, but sometimes at the same season, in different years. --page 462

There is therefore no reason to suppose that south westerly winds, within these limits, are caused by the vicinity of large tracts of land, especially as they are always accompanied with a large swell, in the same direction in which they blow; and we find a much greater surf beating upon the shores of the south west side of the islands that are situated just within the limits of the trade-wind, than upon any other part of them. --page 463

The tides about these islands, are perhaps as inconsiderable as in any part of the world. A south or S. by W. moon, makes high water in the bay of Matavai at Otaheite; but the water very seldom rises perpendicularly above ten or twelve inches. --page 464

The variation of the compass, I found to be 40° 46′ Easterly, this being the result of a great number of trials made with four of Dr. Knight's needles, adapted to azimuth compasses. These compasses I thought the best that could be procured,* yet, when applied to the meridian line, I found them to differ not only one from another, sometimes a degree and an half, but the same needle, half a degree from itself in different trials made on the same day; and I do not remember that I have ever found two needles which exactly agreed at the same time and place, though I have often found the same needle agree with itself, in several trials made one after the other. This imperfection of the needle, however, is of no consequence to navigation, as the variation can always be found to a degree of accuracy, more than sufficient for all nautical purposes. --page 465

--page 466

[illustration] CHART OF THE SOCIETY ISLES, discovered BY LIEUT. J. COOK. 1769. --page 467

[illustration] MATAVIA BAY IN OTAHEITE. [illustration] OWHARRE HARBOUR IN HUAHEINE. [illustration] OHAMANENO HARBOUR IN ULIETEA. [illustration] OOPOA HARBOUR IN ULIETEA. --page 468

[illustration] A CHART of the ISLANDS (discovered in the Neighbourhood of OTAHEITE, in the Course of several Voyages round the World.) MADE BY the Capns. Byron Wallis, Carteret • Cooke, in the Years, 1765, 1767, 1769. Whitchurch sculp. Pleasant Row. Islington.--page 469

AFTER parting with our friends, we made an easy sail,* with gentle breezes and clear weather, and were informed by Tupia, that four of the neighbouring islands, which he distinguished by the names of HUAHEINE, ULIETEA, OTAHA, and BOLABOLA, lay at the distance of between one and two days sail from Otaheite; and that hogs, fowls, and other refreshments, with which we had of late been but sparingly supplied, were there to be procured in great plenty; but having discovered from the hills of Otaheite, an island lying to the northward, which he called TETHUROA, I determined first to stand that way, to take a nearer view of it. It lies N. ½ W. distant eight leagues from the northern extremity of Otaheite, upon which we had observed the transit, and to which we had, for that reason, given the name of POINT VENUS. We found it to be a small low island, and were told by Tupia, that it had no settled inhabitants, but was occasionally visited by the inhabitants of Otaheite, who sometimes went thither for a few days to fish; we therefore determined to spend no more time in a farther examination of it, but to go in search of Huaheine and Ulietea, which he described to be well peopled, and as large as Otaheite. --page 470

*At six o'clock in the morning of the 14th, the westermost part of EIMEO, or York Island, bore S. E. ½ S. and the body of Otaheite E. ½ S. At noon, the body of York Island bore E. by S. ½ S. and Port-Royal bay, at Otaheite, S. 70° 45′ E. distant 61 miles, and an island which we took to be Saunders's Island, called by the natives TAPOAMANAO, bore S. S. W. We also saw land bearing N. W. ½ W. which Tupia said was Huaheine. --page 471

*On the 15th, it was hazy, with light breezes and calms succeeding each other, so that we could see no land, and made but little way. Our Indian, Tupia, often prayed for a wind to his god Tane, and as often boasted of his success, which indeed he took a very effectual method to secure, for he never began his address to Tane, till he saw a breeze so near that he knew it must reach the ship before his oraison was well over. --page 472

*On the 16th, we had a gentle breeze; and in the morning about eight o'clock, being close in with the north west part of the island Huaheine,* we sounded, but had no bottom with 80 fathom. Some canoes very soon came off, but the people seemed afraid, and kept at a distance till they discovered Tupia, and then they ventured nearer. In one of the canoes that came up to the ship's side, was the king of the island and his wife. Upon assurances of friendship, frequently and earnestly repeated, their Majesties and some others came on board. At first they were struck with astonishment, and wondered at every thing that was shewn them; yet they made no enquiries, and seeming to be satisfied with what was offered to their notice, they made no search after other objects of curiosity, with which it was natural to suppose a building of such novelty and magnitude as the ship must abound. After some time, they became more familiar. I was given to understand,* that the name of the king was OREE, and he proposed, as a mark of amity, that we should exchange names. To this I readily consented; and he was Cookee, for so he pronounced my name, and I was Oree, for the rest of the time we were together. We found these people to be very nearly the same with those of Otaheite, in person, dress, language, and every other circumstance, except, if Tupia might be believed, that they would not steal. --page 473

Soon after dinner, we came to an anchor, in a small but excellent harbour on the west side of the island, which the Natives call OWHARRE, in eighteen fathom water, clear ground, and secure from all winds. I went immediately ashore, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Mr. Monkhouse, Tupia, King Cookee, and some other of the natives who had been on board ever since the morning. The moment we landed Tupia stripped himself as low as the waist, and desired Mr. Monkhouse to do the same: he then sat down before a great number of the natives, who were collected together in a large house or shed; for here, as well as at Otaheite, a house consists only of a roof supported upon poles; the rest of us, by his desire, standing behind. He then began a speech or prayer which lasted about a quarter of an hour, the King who stood over against him every now and then answering in what appeared to be set responses. In the course of this harangue he delivered at different times two handkerchiefs, a black silk neckcloth, some beads, two small bunches of feathers, and some plantains, as presents to their Eatua, or God. In return for these, he received for our Eatua, a hog, some young plantains, and two small bunches of feathers, which he ordered to be carried on board the ship. After these ceremonies, which we supposed to be the ratification of a treaty between us, every one was dismissed to go whither he pleased;* and Tupia immediately repaired to offer his oblations at one of the Morais. --page 474

*The next morning, we went on shore again, and walked up the hills, where the productions were exactly the same as those of Otaheite, except that the rocks and clay appeared to be more burnt. The houses were neat, and the boathouses remarkably large; one that we measured was fifty paces long, ten broad, and twenty-four feet high; the whole formed a pointed arch, like those of our old cathedrals, which was supported on one side by twenty-six, and on the other by thirty pillars, or rather posts, about two feet high, and one thick, upon most of which were rudely carved the heads of men, and several fanciful devices, not altogether unlike those which we sometimes see printed from wooden blocks, at the beginning and end of old books. The plains, or flat part of the country, abounded in bread-fruit, and cocoa-nut trees; in some places, however, there were salt swamps and lagoons, which would produce neither. --page 475

*We went again a-shore on the 18th, and would have taken the advantage of Tupia's company, in our perambulation; but he was too much engaged with his friends: we took however his boy, whose name was TAYETO, and Mr. Banks went to take a farther view of what had much engaged his attention before; it was a kind of chest or ark, the lid of which was nicely sewed on, and thatched very neatly with palm-nut leaves: it was fixed upon two poles, and supported on little arches of wood, very neatly carved; the use of the poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of our sedan chairs: in one end of it was a square hole, in the middle of which was a ring touching the sides, and leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole within a square one. The first time Mr. Banks saw this coffer, --page 476

[illustration] the aperture at the end was stopped with a piece of cloth,* which, least he should give offence, he left untouched; probably there was then something within, but now the cloth was taken away, and, upon looking into it, it was found empty. The general resemblance between this repository and the Ark of the Lord among the Jews is remarkable; but it is still more remarkable, that upon enquiring of the boy what it was called, he said, Ewharre no Eatua, the house of the God: he could however give no account of its signification or use. We had commenced a kind of trade with the natives, but it went on slowly; for when any thing was offered, not one of them would take it upon his own judgment, but collected the opinions of twenty or thirty people, which could not be done without great loss of time. We got, however, eleven pigs, and determined to try for more the next day. The next day, therefore, we brought out some hatchets,* for which we hoped we should have had no occasion, upon an island which no European had ever visited before. These procured us three very large hogs; and as we proposed to fail in the afternoon, King Oree and several others came on board to take their leave. To the King I gave a small plate of pewter, on which was stamped this inscription, --page 477

His Britannic Majesty's ship, Endeavour, Lieutenant Cook Commander, 16th July 1769, Huaheine. I gave him also some medals or counters, resembling the coin of England, struck in the year 1761, with some other presents; and he promised that with none of these, particularly the plate, he would ever part. I thought it as lasting a testimony of our having first discovered this island, as any we could leave behind; and having dismissed our visitors well satisfied, and in great good-humour, we set sail, about half an hour after two in the afternoon. *The island of Huaheine, or Huahene, is situated in the latitude of 16° 43′ S. and longitude 150° 52′ W. from Greenwich: it is distant from Otaheite about thirty-one leagues, in the direction of N. 58 W. and is about seven leagues in compass. Its surface is hilly and uneven, and it has a safe and commodious harbour. The harbour, which is called by the natives OWALLE, or OWHARRE, lies on the west side, under the northermost high land, and within the north end of the reef, which lies along that side of the island; there are two inlets or openings, by which it may be entered, through the reef, about a mile and a half distant from each other; the southermost is the widest, and on the south side of it lies a very small sandy island. --page 478

Huaheine seems to be a month forwarder in its productions than Otaheite, as we found the cocoa-nuts full of kernel, and some of the new bread-fruit fit to eat. Of the cocoa-nuts the inhabitants make a food which they call Poe, by mixing them with yams; they scrape both fine, and having incorporated the powder, they put it into a wooden trough, with a number of hot stones, by which an oily kind of hasty pudding is made, that our people relished very well, especially when it was fryed. Mr. Banks found not more than eleven or twelve new plants; but he observed some insects, and a species of scorpion which he had not seen before. --page 479

The inhabitants seem to be larger made, and more stout, than those of Otaheite. Mr. Banks measured one of the men, and found him to be six feet three inches and an half high; yet they are so lazy, that he could not persuade any of them to go up the hills with him: they said, if they were to attempt it, the fatigue would kill them. The women were very fair, more so than those of Otaheite; and in general, we thought them more handsome, though none that were equal to some individuals. Both sexes seemed to be less timid,* and less curious: it has been observed, that they made no enquiries on board the ship; and when we fired a gun, they were frighted indeed, but they did not fall down, as our friends at Otaheite constantly did when we first came among them. For this difference, however, we can easily account upon other principles; the people at Huaheine had not seen the Dolphin, those at Otaheite had. In one, the report of a gun was connected with the idea of instant destruction; to the other, there was nothing dreadful in it but the appearance and the sound, as they had never experienced its power of dispensing death. --page 480

While we were on shore, we found that Tupia had commended them beyond their merit, when he said that they would not steal; for one of them, was detected in the fact. But when he was seized by the hair, the rest, instead of running away, as the people at Otaheite would have done, gathered round, and enquired what provocation had been given: but this also may be accounted for without giving them credit for superior courage; they had no experience of the consequence of European resentment, which the people at Otaheite had in many instances purchased with life. It must however be acknowledged, to their honour, that when they understood what had happened, they showed strong signs of disapprobation, and prescribed a good beating for the thief, which was immediately administered. --page 481

We now made sail for the island of ULIETEA,* which lies S. W. by W. distant seven or eight leagues from Huaheine, and at half an hour after six in the evening we were within three leagues of the shore, on the eastern side. We stood off and on all night, and when the day broke the next morning,* we stood in for the shore: we soon after discovered an opening in the reef which lies before the island,* within which Tupia told us there was a good harbour. I did not, however, implicitly take his word; but sent the master out in the pinnace to examine it: he soon made the signal for the ship to follow; we accordingly stood in, and anchored in two and twenty fathom, with soft ground. --page 482

The natives soon came off to us in two canoes, each of which brought a woman and a pig. The woman we supposed was a mark of confidence, and the pig was a present; we received both with proper acknowledgments, and complimented each of the ladies with a spike nail and some beads, much to their satisfaction. We were told by Tupia, who has always expressed much fear of the men of Bolabola, that they have made a conquest of this island; and that, if we remain here, they will certainly come down tomorrow, and fight us. We determined, therefore, to go on shore without delay, while the day was our own. --page 483

I landed in company with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and the other Gentlemen, Tupia being also of the party. He introduced us by repeating the ceremonies which he had performed at Huaheine, after which I hoisted an English jack, and took possession of this and the three neighbouring islands, Huaheine, Otaha, and Bolabola, which were all in sight, in the name of his Britannic Majesty. After this, we took a walk to a great Morai, called TAPODEBOATEA. We found it very different from those of Otaheite; for it consisted only of four walls, about eight feet high, of coral stones, some of which were of an immense size, inclosing an area of about five and twenty yards square, which was filled up with smaller stones: upon the top of it many planks were set up an end, which were carved in their whole length: at a little distance we found an altar, or Ewhatta, upon which lay the last oblation or sacrifice,* a hog of about eighty pounds weight, which had been offered whole, and very nicely roasted. Here were also four or five Ewharre-no-Eatua, or houses of God, to which carriage poles were fitted, like that which we had seen at Huaheine. One of these Mr. Banks examined by putting his hand into it, and found a parcel about five feet long and one thick, wrapped up in matts: he broke a way through several of these matts with his fingers, but at length came to one which was made of the fibres of the cocoa-nut, so firmly plaited together that he found it impossible to tear it, and therefore was forced to desist; especially as he perceived, that what he had done already gave great offence to our new friends. From hence we went to a long house, not far distant, where among rolls of cloth, and several other things, we saw the model of a canoe, about three feet long, to which were tied eight human jaw-bones: we had already learnt that these, like scalps among the Indians of North America, were trophies of war. Tupia affirmed that they were the jaw-bones of the natives of this island; if so, they might have been hung up, with the model of a canoe, as a symbol of invasion, by the warriors of Bolabola, as a memorial of their conquest. --page 484

Night now came on apace, but Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander continued their walk along the shore, and at a little distance saw another Ewharre-no-Eatua, and a tree of the fig kind, the same as that which Mr. Green had seen at Otaheite, in great perfection, the trunk, or rather congeries of the roots of which was forty-two paces in circumference. --page 485

On the 21st,* having dispatched the Master in the long-boat to examine the coast of the south part of the island, and one of the Mates in the yawl, to sound the harbour where the ship lay, I went myself in the pinnace, to survey that part of the island which lies to the north.* Mr. Banks and the Gentlemen were again on shore, trading with the natives, and examining the products and curiosities of the country; they saw nothing, however, worthy notice, but some more jaw-bones, of which they made no doubt but that the account they had heard was true. --page 486

*On the 22d and 23d, having strong gales and hazey weather, I did not think it safe to put to sea; but on the 24th, though the wind was still variable, I got under sail, and plyed to the northward within the reef, with a view to go out at a wider opening than that by which I had entered; in doing this, however, I was unexpectedly in the most imminent danger of striking on the rock: the Master, whom I had ordered to keep continually sounding in the chains, suddenly called out, "two fathom." This alarmed me, for though I knew the ship drew at least fourteen feet, and that therefore it was impossible such a shoal should be under her keel; yet the Master was either mistaken, or she went along the edge of a coral rock, many of which, in the neighbourhood of these islands, are as steep as a wall. --page 487

This harbour or bay is called by the natives OOPOA, and taken in its greatest extent, it is capable of holding any number of shipping. It extends almost the whale length of the east side of the island, and is defended from the sea by a reef of coral rocks: the southermost opening in this reef, or channel into the harbour, by which we entered, is little more than a cable's length wide; it lies off the eastermost point of the island, and may be known by another small woody island, which lies a little to the south east of it, called by the people here OATARA.* Between three and four miles north west from this island lie two other islets, in the same direction as the reef,* of which they are a part, called OPURURU --page 488

[illustration] and TAMOU;* between these lies the other channel into the harbour, through which I went out, and which is a full quarter of a mile wide. Still farther to the north west are some other small islands, near which I am told there is another small channel into the harbour; but this I know only by report. The principal refreshments that are to be procured at this part of the island are, plantains, cocoa-nuts, yams, hogs, and fowls; the hogs and fowls, however, are scarce; and the country, where we saw it, is neither so populous, nor so rich in produce as Otaheite, or even Huaheine. Wood and water may also be procured here; but the water cannot conveniently be got at. --page 489

We were now again at sea, without having received any interruption from the hostile inhabitants of Bolabola, whom, notwithstanding the fears of Tupia, we intended to visit. At four o'clock in the afternoon of the 25th,* we were within a league of Otaha, which bore N. 77 W. To the northward of the south end of that island, on the east side of it, and something more than a mile from the shore, lie two small islands, called TOAHOUTU and WHENNUAIA; between which,* Tupia says, there is a channel into a very good harbour, which lies within the reef, and appearances confirmed his report. --page 490

As I discovered a broad channel between Otaha and Bolabola, I determined rather to go through it, than run to the northward of all; but the wind being right a-head, I got no ground. --page 491

Between five and six in the evening of the 26th,* as I was standing to the northward, I discovered a small low island, lying N. by W. or N. N. W. distant four or five leagues from Bolabola. We were told by Tupia that the name of this island is TUBAI;* that it produces nothing but cocoa-nuts, and is inhabited only by three families; though it is visited by the inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, who resort thither to catch fish, with which the coast abounds. --page 492

*On the 27th, about noon, the peak of Bolabola bore N. 25 W. and the north end of Otaha, N. 80 W. distant three leagues. The wind continued contrary all this day and the night following.* On the 28th, at six in the morning, we were near the entrance of the harbour on the east side of OTAHA,* which has been just mentioned; and finding that it might be examined without losing time, I sent away the Master in the long-boat, with orders to sound it; and, if the wind did not shift in our favour, to land upon the island, and traffic with the natives for such refreshments as were to be had. In this boat went Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who landed upon the island, and before night purchased three hogs, twenty-one fowls, and as many yams and plantains as the boat would hold. Plantains we thought a more useful refreshment even than pork; for they were boiled and served to the ship's company as bread, and were now the more acceptable as our bread was so full of vermin, that notwithstanding all possible care, we had sometimes twenty of them in our mouths at a time, every one of which tasted as hot as mustard. The island seemed to be more barren than Ulietea, but the produce was of the same kind. The people also exactly resembled those that we had seen at the other islands; they were not numerous, but they flocked about the boat whereever she went from all quarters, bringing with them whatever they had to sell. They paid the strangers, of whom they had received an account from Tupia, the same compliment which they used towards their own Kings, uncovering their shoulders, and wrapping their garments round their breasts; and were so solicitous to prevent its being neglected by any of their people, that a man was sent with them,* who called out to every one they met, telling him what they were, and what he was to do. --page 493

In the mean time, I kept plying off and on, waiting for the boat's return; at half an hour after five, not seeing any thing of her, I fired a gun, and after it was dark hoisted a light; at half an hour after eight, we heard the report of a musquet, which we answered with a gun, and soon after the boat came on board. The Master reported, that the harbour was safe and commodious, with good anchorage from twenty-five to sixteen fathom water, clear ground. --page 494

As soon as the boat was hoisted in, I made sail to the northward, and at eight o'clock in the morning of the 29th,* we were close under the Peak of Bolabola, which was high, rude, and craggy. As the island was altogether inaccessible in this part, and we found it impossible to weather it, we tacked and stood off, then tacked again, and after many trips did not weather the south end of it till twelve o'clock at night. At eight o'clock the next morning,* we discovered an island, which bore from us N. 63° W. distant about eight leagues; at the same time the Peak of Bolabola bore N. ½ E. distant three or four leagues. This island Tupia called MAURUA,* and said that it was small, wholly surrounded by a reef, and without any harbour for shipping; but inhabited, and bearing the same produce as the neighbouring islands: the middle of it rises in a high round hill, that may be seen at the distance of ten leagues. --page 495

When we were off Bolabola, we saw but few people on the shore, and were told by Tupia that many of the inhabitants were gone to Ulietea. In the afternoon we found ourselves nearly the length of the south end of Ulietea, and to windward of some harbours that lay on the west side of this island.* Into one of these harbours, though we had before been ashore on the other side of the island, I intended to put, in order to stop a leak which we had sprung in the powder room, and to take in more ballast, as I found the ship too light to carry sail upon a wind. As the wind was right against us,* we plied off one of the harbours, and about three o'clock in the afternoon on the 1st of August, we came to an anchor in the entrance of the channel leading into it in fourteen fathom water, being prevented from working in, by a tide which set very strong out. We then carried out the kedge-anchor, in order to warp into the harbour; but when this was done, we could not trip the bower-anchor with all the purchase we could make; we were therefore obliged to lie still all night,* and in the morning, when the tide turned, the ship going over the anchor, it tripped of itself, and we warped the ship into a proper birth with ease, and moored in twenty-eight fathom, with a sandy bottom. While this was doing many of the natives came off to us with hogs, fowls, and plantains, which they parted with at an easy rate. --page 496

When the ship was secured, I went on shore to look for a proper place to get ballast and water, both which I found in a very convenient situation. --page 497

This day Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander spent on shore very much to their satisfaction; every body seemed to fear and respect them, placing in them at the same time the utmost confidence, behaving as if conscious that they possessed the power of doing them mischief, without any propensity to make use of it. Men, women and children crowded round them, and followed them wherever they went; but none of them were guilty of the least incivility: on the contrary, whenever there happened to be dirt or water in the way, the men vied with each other to carry them over on their backs.* They were conducted to the houses of the principal people, and were received in a manner altogether new: the people, who followed them while they were in their way, rushed forward as soon as they came to a house, and went hastily in before them, leaving however a lane sufficiently wide for them to pass. When they entered, they found those who had preceded them ranged on each side of a long matt, which was spread upon the ground, and at the farther end of which sat the family: in the first house they entered they found some very young women or children, dressed with the utmost neatness, who kept their station, expecting the strangers to come up to them and make them presents, which they did with the greatest pleasure; for prettier children or better dressed they had never seen. One of them was a girl about six years old; her gown, or upper garment, was red; a large quantity of plaited hair was wound round her head, the ornament to which they give the name of Tamou, and which they value more than any thing they possess. She sat at the upper end of a matt thirty feet long, upon which none of the spectators presumed to set a foot, notwithstanding the crowd; and she leaned upon the arm of a well-looking woman about thirty, who was probably her nurse. Our Gentlemen walked up to her, and as soon as they approached, she stretched out her hand to receive the beads which they offered her, and no Princess in Europe could have done it with a better grace. --page 498

The people were so much gratified by the presents which were made to these girls, that when Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander returned they seemed attentive to nothing but how to oblige them; and in one of the houses they were, by order of the master, entertained with a dance, different from any that they had seen. It was performed by one man, who put upon his head a large cylindrical piece of wicker-work,* or basket, about four feet long and eight inches in diameter, which was faced with feathers, placed perpendicularly, with the tops bending forwards, and edged round with shark's teeth, and the tail feathers of Tropic birds: when he had put on this head-dress, which is called a Whow, he began to dance, moving slowly, and often turning his head so as that the top of his high wicker-cap described a circle, and sometimes throwing it so near the faces of the spectators as to make them start back: this was held among them as a very good joke, and never failed to produce a peal of laughter, especially when it was played off upon one of the strangers. --page 499

*On the 3d, we went along the shore to the northward, which was in a direction opposite to that of the route Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander had taken the day before, with a design to purchase stock, which we always found the people more ready to part with, and at a more easy price, at their houses than at the market. In the course of our walk we met with a company of dancers, who detained us two hours, and during all that time afforded us great entertainment. The company consisted of two women dancers, and six men, with three drums; we were informed by Tupia, that they were some of the most considerable people of the island, and that though they were continually going from place to place, they did not, like the little strolling companies of Otaheite, take any gratuity from the spectators. The women had upon their heads a considerable quantity of Tamou, or plaited hair, which was brought several times round the head, and adorned in many parts with the flowers of the cape-jessamine, which were stuck in with much taste, and made a head-dress truly elegant. Their necks, shoulders, and arms were naked; so were the breasts also as low as the parting of --page 500

[illustration] the arm; below that, they were covered with black cloth,* which set close to the body; at the side of each breast, next the arm, was placed a small plume of black feathers, much in the same manner as our ladies now wear their nosegays or Bouquets; upon their hips rested a quantity of cloth plaited very full, which reached up to the breast, and fell down below into long petticoats, which quite concealed their feet, and which they managed with as much dexterity as our opera dancers could have done: the plaits above the waist were brown and white alternately, the petticoats below were all white. In this dress they advanced sideways in a measured step, keeping excellent time to the drums, which beat briskly and loud; soon after they began to shake their hips, giving the folds of cloth that lay upon them a very quick motion, which was in some degree continued through the whole dance, though the body was thrown into various postures, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, and sometimes resting on their knees and elbows, the fingers also being moved at the same time with a quickness scarcely to be imagined. Much of the dexterity of the dancers, however, and the entertainment of the spectators, consisted in the wantonness of their attitudes and gestures, which was, indeed, such as exceeds all description. --page 501

One of these girls had in her ear three pearls; one of them was very large, but so foul that it was of little value; the other two were as big as a middling pea; these were clear, and of a good colour and shape, though spoiled by the drilling. Mr. Banks would fain have purchased them, and offered the owner any thing she would ask for them, but she could not be persuaded to part with them at any price: he tempted her with the value of four hogs, and whatever else she should chuse,* but without success; and indeed they set a value upon their pearls very nearly equal to what they would fetch among us, except they could be procured before they are drilled. --page 502

Between the dances of the women, the men performed a kind of dramatic interlude, in which there was dialogue as well as dancing; but we were not sufficiently acquainted with their language to understand the subject. --page 503

*On the 4th, some of our gentlemen saw a much more regular entertainment of the dramatic kind, which was divided into four acts. --page 504

Tupia had often told us that he had large possessions in this island, which had been taken away from him by the inhabitants of Bolabola, and he now pointed them out in the very bay where the ship was at anchor. Upon our going on shore, this was confirmed by the inhabitants, who shewed us several districts or Whennuas, which they acknowledged to be his right. --page 505

*On the 5th, I received a present of three hogs, some fowls, several pieces of cloth, the largest we had seen, being fifty yards long, which they unfolded and displayed so as to make the greatest show possible; and a considerable quantity of plantains, cocoa-nuts, and other refreshments, from Opoony, the formidable king, or, in the language of the country, Earee rahie, of Bolabola, with a message that he was at this time upon the island, and that the next day he intended to pay me a visit. --page 506

In the mean time Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went upon the hills, accompanied by several of the Indians, who conducted them by excellent paths, to such a height, that they plainly saw the other side of the island, and the passage through which the ship had passed the reef between the little islands of Opururu and Tamou, when we landed upon it the first time. As they were returning,* they saw the Indians exercising themselves at what they call Erowhaw, which is nothing more than pitching a kind of light lance, headed with hard wood, at a mark: in this amusement, though they seem very fond of it, they do not excel, for not above one in twelve struck the mark, which was the bole of a plantain tree, at about twenty yards distance. --page 507

On the 6th, we all staid at home,* expecting the visit of the great king, but we were disappointed; we had, however, much more agreeable company, for he sent three very pretty girls to demand something in return for his present: perhaps he was unwilling to trust himself on board the ship, or perhaps he thought his messengers would procure a more valuable return for his hogs and poultry than he could himself; be that as it may, we did not regret his absence, nor his messengers their visit. --page 508

In the afternoon, as the great king would not come to us, we determined to go to the great king. As he was lord of the Bolabola men, the conquerors of this, and the terror of all the other islands, we expected to see a Chief young and vigorous, with an intelligent countenance, and an enterprising spirit: we found, however, a poor feeble wretch, withered and decrepit, half blind with age, and so sluggish and stupid that he appeared scarcely to have understanding enough left to know that it was probable we should be gratified either by hogs or women. He did not receive us sitting, or with any state or formality as the other Chiefs had done: we made him our present, which he accepted, and gave a hog in return. We had learnt that his principal residence was at Otaha; and upon our telling him that we intended to go thither in our boats the next morning, and that we should be glad to have him along with us,* he promised to be of the party. --page 509

*Early in the morning, therefore, I set out both with the pinnace and long-boat for Otaha, having some of the gentlemen with me; and in our way we called upon Opoony, who was in his canoe, ready to join us. As soon as we landed at Otaha, I made him a present of an ax, which I thought might induce him to encourage his subjects to bring us such provision as we wanted; but in this we found ourselves sadly disappointed, for after staying with him till noon, we left him without being able to procure a single article. I then proceeded to the north point of the island, in the pinnace, having sent the long-boat another way. As I went along I picked up half a dozen hogs, as many fowls, and some plantains and yams. Having viewed and sketched the harbour on this side of the island, I made the best of my way back, with the long-boat, which joined me soon after it was dark; and about ten o'clock at night we got on board the ship. --page 510

In this excursion Mr. Banks was not with us; he spent the morning on board the ship, trading with the natives, who came off in their canoes, for provisions and curiosities; and in the afternoon he went on shore with his draughtsman, to sketch the dresses of the dancers which he had seen a day or two before. He found the company exactly the same, except that another woman had been added to it: the dancing also of the women was the same, but the interludes of the men were somewhat varied; he saw five or six performed, which were different from each other, and very much resembled the drama of our stage dances.* The next day, he went ashore again, with Dr. Solander, and they directed their course towards the dancing company, which, from the time of our second landing,* had gradually moved about two leagues in their course round the island. They saw more dancing and more interludes, the interludes still varying from each other: in one of them the performers, who were all men, were divided into two parties, which were distinguished from each other by the colour of their cloaths, one being brown, and the other white. The brown party represented a master and servants, and the white party a company of thieves: the master gave a basket of meat to the rest of his party, with a charge to take care of it: the dance of the white party consisted of several expedients to steal it, and that of the brown party in preventing their success. After some time, those who had charge of the basket placed themselves round it, upon the ground, and leaning upon it, appeared to go to sleep; the others, improving this opportunity, came gently upon them, and lifting them up from the basket, carried off their prize: the sleepers soon after awaking, missed their basket, but presently fell a dancing, without any farther regarding their loss; so that the dramatic action of this dance was, according to the severest laws of criticism, one, and our lovers of simplicity would here have been gratified with an entertainment perfectly suited to the chastity of their taste. --page 511

On the 9th,* having spent the morning in trading with the canoes, we took the opportunity of a breeze, which sprung up at East, and having stopped our leak, and got the fresh stock which we had purchased on board, we sailed out of the harbour. When we were sailing away, Tupia strongly urged me to fire a shot towards Bolabola, possibly as a mark of his resentment, and to shew the power of his new allies: in this I thought proper to gratify him, though we were seven leagues distant. --page 512

*While we were about these islands, we expended very little of the ship's provisions, and were very plentifully supplied with hogs, fowls, plantains and yams, which we hoped would have been of great use to us in our course to the southward; but the hogs would not eat European grain of any kind, pulse, or bread-dust, so that we could not preserve them alive; and the fowls were all very soon seized with a disease that affected the head so, that they continued to hold it down between their legs till they died: much dependence therefore must not be placed in live stock taken on board at these places, at least not till a discovery is made of some food that the hogs will eat, and some remedy for the disease of the poultry. --page 513

Having been necessarily detained at Ulietea so long, by the carpenters in stopping our leak, we determined to give up our design of going on shore at Bolabola, especially as it appeared to be difficult of access. --page 514

To these six islands, Ulietea, Otaha, Bolabola, Huaheine, Tubai, and Maurua, as they lie contiguous to each other, I gave the names of SOCIETY ISLANDS,* but did not think it proper to distinguish them separately by any other names than those by which they were known to the natives. --page 515

They are situated between the latitude of 16° 10′ and 16° 55′ S. and between the longitude of 150° 57′ and 152° W. from the meridian of Greenwich. Ulietea and Otaha lie within about two miles of each other, and are both inclosed within one reef of coral rocks, so that there is no passage for shipping between them. This reef forms several excellent harbours; the entrances into them, indeed, are but narrow, yet when a ship is once in, nothing can hurt her. The harbours on the east side have been described already; and on the west side of Ulietea, which is the largest of the two, there are three. The northermost, in which we lay,* is called OHAMANENO: the channel leading into it is about a quarter of a mile wide, and lies between two low sandy islands, which are the northermost on this side; between, or just within the two islands, there is good anchorage in twenty-eight fathom, soft ground. This harbour, though small, is preferable to the others, because it is situated in the most fertile part of the island, and where fresh water is easily to be got. The other two harbours lie to the southward of this, and not far from the south end of the island: in both of them there is good anchorage, with ten, twelve, and fourteen fathom. They are easily known by three small woody islands at their entrance. The southermost of these two harbours lies within, and to the southward of the southermost of these islands, and the other, lies between the two northermost. I was told that there were more harbours at the south end of this island, but I did not examine whether the report was true. --page 516

Otaha affords two very good harbours, one on the east side, and the other on the west. That on the east side is called Ohamene, and has been mentioned already; the other is called OHERURUA, and lies about the middle of the south west side of the island; it is pretty large, and affords good anchorage in twenty and twenty-five fathom, nor is there any want of fresh water. The breach in the reef, that forms a channel into this harbour, is about a quarter of a mile broad, and like all the rest is very sleep on both sides; in general there is no danger here but what is visible. --page 517

The island of Bolabola lies N. W. and by W. from Otaha, distant about four leagues; it is surrounded by a reef of rocks, and several small islands, in compass together about eight leagues. I was told, that on the south west side of the island there is a channel through the reef into a very good harbour,* but I did not think it worth while to examine it, for the reasons that have been just assigned. This island is rendered very remarkable by a high craggy hill, which appears to be almost perpendicular, and terminates at the top in two peaks, one higher than the other. --page 518

The land of Ulietea and Otaha is hilly, broken, and irregular, except on the sea coast, yet the hills look green and pleasant, and are in many places clothed with wood. The several particulars in which these islands and their inhabitants differ from what we had observed at Otaheite, have been mentioned in the course of the narrative. --page 519

We pursued our course without any event worthy of note till the 13th,* about noon, when we saw land bearing S. E. which Tupia told us was an island called OHETEROA.* About six in the evening, we were within two or three leagues of it, upon which I shortened sail, and stood off and on all night:* the next morning stood in for the land. We ran to leeward of the island, keeping close in more, and saw several of the natives, though in no great numbers, upon the beach. At nine o'clock I sent Mr. Gore, one of my Lieutenants, in the pinnace, to endeavour to land upon the island, and learn from the natives whether there was anchorage in a bay then in sight, and what land lay farther to the southward. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander accompanied Mr. Gore in this expedition, and as they thought Tupia might be useful, they took him with them. --page 520

As the boat approached the shore, those on board perceived the natives to be armed with long lances; as they did not intend to land till they got round a point which run out at a little distance, they stood along the coast, and the natives therefore very probably thought they were afraid of them. They had now got together to the number of about sixty,* and all of them sat down upon the shore, except two, who were dispatched forward to observe the motions of those in the boat. These men, after walking a-breast of her some time, at length leaped into the water, and swam towards her, but were soon left behind; two more then appeared, and attempted to board her in the same manner, but they also were soon left behind; a fifth man then ran forward alone, and having got a good way a-head of the boat before he took to the water, easily reached her. Mr. Banks urged the officer to take him in, thinking it a good opportunity to get the confidence and good-will of a people, who then certainly looked upon them as enemies, but he obstinately refused: this man therefore was left behind like the others, and so was a sixth, who followed him. --page 521

When the boat had got round the point, she perceived that all her followers had desisted from the pursuit: she now opened a large bay, at the bottom of which appeared another body of men, armed with long lances like the first. Here our people prepared to land, and pushed towards the shore, a canoe at the same time putting off to meet them. As soon as it came near them, they lay upon their oars, and calling out to them, told them that they were friends, and that if they would come up they would give them nails, which were held up for them to see: after some hesitation they came up to the boat's stern, and took some nails that were offered them with great seeming satisfaction; but in less than a minute they appeared to have formed a design of boarding the boat, and making her their prize: three of them suddenly leaped into it, and the others brought up the canoe, which the motion in quitting her had thrown off a little, manifestly with a design to follow their associates, and support them in their attempt.* The first that boarded the boat, entered close to Mr. Banks, and instantly snatched his powder-horn out of his pocket: Mr. Banks seized it, and with some difficulty wrenched it out of his hand, at the same time pressing against his breast in order to force him over-board, but he was too strong for him, and kept his place: the officer then snapped his piece, but it missed fire, upon which he ordered some of the people to fire over their heads; two pieces were accordingly discharged, upon which they all instantly leaped into the water: one of the people, either from cowardice or cruelty, or both, levelled a third piece at one of them as he was swimming away, and the ball grazed his forehead; happily, however, the wound was very slight, for he recovered the canoe, and stood up in her as active and vigorous as the rest. The canoe immediately stood in for the shore, where a great number of people, not less than two hundred, were now assembled. The boat also pushed in, but found the land guarded all round with a shoal, upon which the sea broke with a considerable surf; it was therefore thought advisable by the officer to proceed along shore in search of a more convenient landing-place: in the mean time the people on board saw the canoe go on shore, and the natives gather eagerly round her to enquire the particulars of what had happened. Soon after, a single man ran along the shore, armed with his lance, and when he came a-breast of the boat he began to dance, brandish his weapon, and call out in a very shrill tone, which Tupia said was a defiance from the people. The boat continued to row along the shore, and the champion followed it, repeating his defiance by his voice and his gestures; but no better landing-place being found than that where the canoe had put the natives on shore, the officer turned back with a view to attempt it there, hoping, that if it should not be practicable,* the people would come to a conference either on the shoals or in their canoes, and that a treaty of peace might be concluded with them. --page 522

As the boat rowed slowly along the shore back again, another champion came down, shouting defiance, and brandishing his lance: his appearance was more formidable than that of the other, for he wore a large cap made of the tail feathers of the tropic bird, and his body was covered with stripes of different coloured cloth, yellow, red, and brown. This gentleman also danced, but with much more nimbleness and dexterity than the first; our people therefore, considering his agility and his dress, distinguished him by the name of HARLEQUIN. Soon after a more grave and elderly man came down to the beach, and hailing the people in the boat, enquired who they were, and from whence they came; Tupia answered in their own language, from Otaheite: the three natives then walked peaceably along the shore till they came to a shoal, upon which a few people were collected; here they stopped, and after a short conference, they all began to pray very loud: Tupia made his responses, but continued to tell us that they were not our friends. When their prayer, or as they call it, their Poorah, was over, our people entered into a parley with them, telling them, that if they would lay by their lances and clubs, for some had one and some the other, they would come on shore, and trade with them for whatever they would bring: they agreed, but it was only upon condition that we would leave behind us our musquets: this was a condition which, however equitable it might appear, could not be complied with, nor indeed would it have put the two parties upon an equality, except their numbers had been equal. Here then the negociation seemed to be at an end; but in a little time they ventured to come nearer to the boat, and at last came near enough to trade, which they did very fairly,* for a small quantity of their cloth and some of their weapons; but as they gave our people no hope of provisions, nor indeed any thing else except they would venture through a narrow channel to the shore, which, all circumstances considered, they did not think it prudent to do, they put off the boat and left them. --page 523

With the ship and the boat we had now made the circuit of the island, and finding that there was neither harbour nor anchorage about it, and that the hostile disposition of the people would render landing impracticable, without bloodshed, I determined not to attempt it, having no motive that could justify the risk of life. --page 524

The bay which the boat entered lies on the west side of the island, the bottom was foul and rocky, but the water so clear that it could plainly be seen at the depth of five and twenty fathom, which is one hundred and fifty feet. --page 525

This island is situated in the latitude of 22° 27′ S, and in the longitude of 150° 47′ W. from the meridian of Greenwich. It is thirteen miles in circuit, and rather high than low, but neither populous nor fertile in proportion to the other islands that we had seen in these seas. The chief produce seems to be the tree of which they make their weapons, called in their language Etoa; many plantations of it were seen along the shore, which is not surrounded, like the neighbouring islands, by a reef. --page 526

The people seemed to be lusty and well-made, rather browner than those we had left: under their arm-pits they had black marks about as broad as the hand, the edges of which formed not a strait but an indented line; they had also circles of the same colour, but not so broad, round their arms and legs, but were not marked on any other part of the body. --page 527

Their dress was very different from any that we had seen before, as well as the cloth of which it was made.* The cloth was of the same materials as that which is worn in the other islands, and most of that which was seen by our people was dyed of a bright but deep yellow, and covered on the outside with a composition like varnish, which was either red, or of a dark lead-colour; over this ground it was again painted in stripes of many different patterns, with wonderful regularity, in the manner of our striped silks in England; the cloth that was painted red was striped with black, and that which was painted lead-colour with white. Their habit was a short jacket of this cloth, which reached about as low as their knees; it was of one piece, and had no other making than a hole in the middle of it, stitched round with long stitches, in which it differed from all that we had seen before▪ through this hole the head was put, and what hung down was confined to their bodies by a piece of yellow cloth or sash, which passing round the neck behind, was crossed upon the breast, and then collected round the waist like a belt, which passed over another belt of red cloth, so that they made a very gay and warlike appearance; some had caps of the feathers of the tropic bird, which have been before described, and some had a piece of white or lead-coloured cloth wound about the head like a small turban, which our people thought more becoming. --page 528

Their arms were long lances, made of the Etoa, the wood of which is very hard; they were well polished and sharpened at one end: some were near twenty feet long, though not more than three fingers thick: they had also a weapon which was both club and pike, made of the same wood, about seven feet long; this also was well polished, and sharpened at one end into a broad point. As a guard against these weapons,* when they attack each other, they have matts folded up many times, which they place under their clothes from the neck to the waist: the weapons themselves indeed are capable of much less mischief than those of the same kind which we saw at the other islands, for the lances were there pointed with the sharp bone of the sting-ray that is called the sting, and the pikes were of much greater weight. The other things that we saw here were all superior in their kind to any we had seen before; the cloth was of a better colour in the dye, and painted with greater neatness and taste; the clubs were better cut and polished, and the canoe, though a small one, was very rich in ornament, and the carving was executed in a better manner: among other decorations peculiar to this canoe, was a line of small white feathers, which hung from the head and stern on the outside, and which, when we saw them, were thoroughly wetted by the spray. --page 529

Tupia told us, that there were several islands lying at different distances and in different directions from this, between the south and the north west; and that at the distance of three days sail to the north east, there was an island called MANUA, bird-island: he seemed, however, most desirous that we should sail to the westward, and described several islands in that direction which he said he had visited: he told us that he had been ten or twelve days in going thither, and thirty in coming back, and that the Pahie in which he had made the voyage, sailed much faster than the ship: reckoning his Pahie therefore to go at the rate of forty leagues a day, which from my own observation I have great reason to think these boats will do, it would make four hundred leagues in ten days, which I compute to be the distance of Boscawen and Keppel's Islands, discovered by Captain Wallis, westward of Ulietea,* and therefore think it very probable that they were the islands he had visited. The farthest island that he knew any thing of to the southward, he said, lay at the distance of about two days sail from Oteroah, and was called MOUTOU; but he said that his father had told him there were islands to the southward of that: upon the whole, I was determined to stand southward in search of a continent, but to spend no time in searching for islands, if we did not happen to fall in with them during our course. --page 530

--page 531

[illustration] CHART of NEW-ZEALAND, explored in 1769 and 1770. by Lieut: •: COOK, Commander of His MAJESTY'S Bark ENDEAVOUR. Engrav'd by I. Bayly. EXPLANATION. The strick'd lines shews the Ships Trucks, and the figures annex'd, the depth of Water in fathoms. The unfinish'd part of the Coast, has not been explored. Places where the Ship Anchor'd. Rocks above Water. Rocks under Water. Var. &c. Shews the Compass East Variation, in Degrees and Minutes. In Cook's Strait, the Flood •ide comes strong in from the Southward, and on the days of the New and Pull Moon is High-water about 11 o'Clock. --page 532

WE sailed from Oteroah on the 15th of August,* and on Friday the 25th we celebrated the anniversary of our leaving England, by taking a Cheshire cheese from a locker, where it had been carefully treasured up for this occasion, and tapping a cask of porter, which proved to be very good and in excellent order. On the 29th, one of the sailors got so drunk, that the next morning he died: we thought at first that he could not have come honestly by the liquor, but we afterwards learnt that the boatswain, whose mate he was, had in mere good-nature given him part of a bottle of rum. --page 533

On the 30th we saw the comet;* at one o'clock in the morning it was a little above the horizon in the eastern part of the heavens; at about half an hour after four it passed the meridian, and its tail subtended an angle of forty-two degrees. Our latitude was 38° 20′ S. our longitude,* by log, 147° 6′ W. and the variation of the needle, by the azimuth, 7° 9′ E. Among others that observed the comet, was Tupia, who instantly cried out, that as soon as it should be seen by the people of Bolabola, they would kill the inhabitants of Ulietea, who would with the utmost precipitation fly to the mountains. --page 534

*On the 1st of September, being in the latitude of 40° 22′ S. and longitude 174° 29′ W. and there not being any signs of land, with a heavy sea from the westward, and strong gales, I wore, and stood back to the northward, fearing that we might receive such damage in our sails and rigging, as would hinder the prosecution of the voyage. --page 535

*On the next day, there being strong gales to the westward, I brought to, with the ship's head to the northward; but in the morning of the 3d,* the wind being more moderate, we loosened the reef of the main-sail, set the top-sails, and plied to the westward. --page 536

*We continued our course till the 19th, when our latitude being 29° and our longitude 159° 29′, we observed the variation to be 8° 32′ E.* On the 24th, being in latitude 33° 18′, longitude 162° 51′, we observed a small piece of sea weed, and a piece of wood covered with barnacles: the variation here was 10° 48′ E. --page 537

*On the 27th, being in latitude 28° 59′, longitude 169° 5′, we saw a seal asleep upon the water, and several bunches of sea weed.* The next day we saw more sea weed in bunches, and on the 29th,* a bird, which we thought a land bird; it somewhat resembled a snipe, but had a short bill. On the 1st of October,* we saw birds innumerable, and another seal asleep upon the water; it is a general opinion that seals never go out of soundings, or far from land, but those that we saw in these seas prove the contrary. Rock-weed is, however,* a certain indication that land is not far distant. The next day, it being calm, we hoisted out the boat, to try whether there was a current, but found none. Our latitude was 37° 10′, longitude 172° 54′ W. On the 3d, being in latitude 36° 56′,* longitude 173° 27′, we took up more sea-weed, and another piece of wood covered with barnacles.* The next day we saw two more seals, and a brown bird, about as big as a raven, with some white feathers under the wing. Mr. Gore told us, that birds of this kind were seen in great numbers about Falkland's Islands, and our people gave them the name of Port-Egmont hens. --page 538

On the 5th, we thought the water changed colour,* but upon casting the lead, had no ground with 180 fathom. In the evening of this day, the variation was 12° 50′ E. and while we were going nine leagues it encreased to 14° 2′. --page 539

On the next day, Friday, October the 6th,* we saw land from the mast-head, bearing W. by N. and stood directly for it; in the evening it could just be discerned from the deck, and appeared large. The variation this day was, by azimuth and amplitude, 15° 4′ ½ E. and by observation made of the sun and moon, the longitude of the ship appeared to be 180° 55′ W. and by the medium of this and subsequent observations, there appeared to be an error in the ship's account of longitude during her run from Otaheite of 3° 16′, she being so much to the westward of the longitude resulting from the log. At midnight, I brought to and sounded, but had no ground with one hundred and seventy fathom. --page 540

On the 7th, it fell calm, we therefore approached the land slowly, and in the afternoon, when a breeze sprung up,* we were still distant seven or eight leagues. It appeared still larger as it was more distinctly seen, with four or five ranges of hills,* rising one over the other, and a chain of mountains above all, which appeared to be of an enormous height. This land became the subject of much eager conversation; but the general opinion seemed to be that we had found the Terra australis incognita. About five o'clock we saw the opening of a bay, which seemed to run pretty far inland, upon which we hauled our wind and stood in for it; we also saw smoke ascending from different places on shore. When night came on,* however, we kept plying off and on till day-light, when we found ourselves to the leeward of the bay, the wind being at north: we could now perceive that the hills were cloathed with wood, and that some of the trees in the valleys were very large. By noon we fetched in with the south west point; but not being able to weather it, tacked and stood off: at this time we saw several canoes standing cross the bay, which in a little time made to shore, without seeming to take the least notice of the ship; we also saw some houses, which appeared to be small, but neat; and near one of them a considerable number of the people collected together, who were sitting upon the beach, and who, we thought, were the same that we had seen in the canoes. Upon a small peninsula, at the north east head, we could plainly perceive a pretty high and regular paling, which inclosed the whole top of a hill; this was also the subject of much speculation, some supposing it to be a park of deer, others an inclosure for oxen and sheep. About four o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored on the north west side of the bay, before the entrance of a small river, in ten fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, and at about half a league from the shore. The sides of the bay are white cliffs of a great height; the middle is low land, with hills gradually rising behind, one towering above another, and terminating in the chain of mountains which appeared to be far inland. --page 541

In the evening I went on shore,* accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with the pinnace and yawl, and a party of men. We landed abreast of the ship, on the east side of the river, which was here about forty yards broad; but seeing some natives on the west side whom I wished to speak with, and finding the river not fordable, I ordered the yawl in to carry us over, and left the pinnace at the entrance. When we came near the place where the people were assembled, they all ran away; however, we landed, and leaving four boys to take care of the yawl, we walked up to some huts which were about two or three hundred yards from the water-side. When we had got some distance from the boat, four men, armed with long lances, rushed out of the woods, and running up to attack the boat, would certainly have cut her off, if the people in the pinnace had not discovered them, and called to the boys to drop down the stream: the boys instantly obeyed; but being closely pursued by the Indians, the Cockswain of the pinnace, who had the charge of the boats, fired a musquet over their heads; at this they stopped and looked round them, but in a few minutes renewed the pursuit, brandishing their lances in a threatening manner: the Cockswain then fired a second musquet over their heads, but of this they took no notice; and one of them lifting up his spear to dart it at the boat, another piece was fired, which shot him dead. When he fell, the other three stood motionless for some minutes, as if petrified with astonishment; as soon as they recovered, they went back, dragging after them the dead body, which however they soon left, that it might not incumber their flight. At the report of the first musquet we drew together, having straggled to a little distance from each other, and made the best of our way back to the boat; and crossing the river, we soon saw the Indian lying dead upon the ground. Upon examining the body, we found that he had been shot through the heart:* he was a man of the middle size and stature; his complexion was brown, but not very dark; and one side of his face was tattowed in spiral lines of a very regular figure: he was covered with a fine cloth, of a manufacture altogether new to us, and it was tied on exactly according to the representation in Valentyn's Account of Abel Tasman's Voyage, vol. iii. part 2. page 50. his hair also was tied in a knot on the top of his head, but had no feather in it. We returned immediately to the ship, where we could hear the people on shore talking with great earnestness, and in a very loud tone, probably about what had happened, and what should be done. --page 542

*In the morning, we saw several of the natives where they had been seen the night before, and some walking with a quick pace towards the place where we had landed, most of them unarmed; but three or four with long pikes in their hands. As I was desirous to establish an intercourse with them, I ordered three boats to be manned with seamen and marines, and proceeded towards the shore, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, the other Gentlemen, and Tupia; about fifty of them seemed to wait for our landing, on the opposite side of the river, which we thought a sign of fear, and seated themselves upon the ground: at first, therefore, myself, with only Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia, landed from the little boat, and advanced towards them; but we had not proceeded many paces before they all started up, and every man produced either a long pike, or a small weapon of green Talc, extremely well polished, about a foot long, and thick enough to weigh four or five pounds: Tupia called to them in the language of Otaheite; but they answered only by flourishing their weapons, and making signs to us to depart; a musquet was then fired wide of them, and the ball struck the water, the river being still between us: they saw the effect, and desisted from their threats;* but we thought it prudent to retreat till the marines could be landed. This was soon done; and they marched, with a jack carried before them, to a little bank, about fifty yards from the water-side; here they were drawn up, and I again advanced, with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander; Tupia, Mr. Green, and Mr. Monkhouse, being with us. Tupia was again directed to speak to them, and it was with great pleasure that we perceived he was perfectly understood, he and the natives speaking only different dialects of the same language. He told them that we wanted provision and water, and would give them iron in exchange, the properties of which he explained as well as he was able. They were willing to trade, and desired that we would come over to them for that purpose: to this we consented, provided they would lay by their arms; which, however, they could by no means be persuaded to do. During this conversation, Tupia warned us to be upon our guard, for that they were not our friends: we then pressed them in our turn to come over to us; and at last one of them stripped himself, and swam over without his arms: he was almost immediately followed by two more, and soon after by most of the rest, to the number of twenty or thirty; but these brought their arms with them. We made them all presents of iron and beads; but they seemed to set little value upon either, particularly the iron, not having the least idea of its use; so that we got nothing in return but a few feathers: they offered indeed to exchange their arms for ours, and, when we refused, made many attempts to snatch them out of our hands. As soon as they came over, Tupia repeated his declaration, that they were not our friends, and again warned us to be upon our guard; their attempts to snatch our weapons, therefore, did not succeed; and we gave them to understand by Tupia, that we should be obliged to kill them if they offered any farther violence.* In a few minutes, however, Mr. Green happening to turn about, one of them snatched away his hanger, and retiring to a little distance, waved it round his head, with a shout of exultation: the rest now began to be extremely insolent, and we saw more coming to join them from the opposite side of the river. It was therefore become necessary to repress them, and Mr. Banks fired at the man who had taken the hanger with small shot, at the distance of about fifteen yards: when the shot struck him, he ceased his cry; but instead of returning the hanger, continued to flourish it over his head, at the same time slowly retreating to a greater distance. Mr. Monkhouse seeing this, fired at him with ball, and he instantly dropped. Upon this the main body, who had retired to a rock in the middle of the river upon the first discharge, began to return; two that were near to the man who had been killed, ran up to the body, one feized his weapon of green Tale, and the other endeavoured to secure the hanger, which Mr. Monkhouse had but just time to prevent. As all that had retired to the rock were now advancing, three of us discharged our pieces, loaded only with small shot, upon which they swam back for the shore; and we perceived, upon their landing, that two or three of them were wounded. They retired slowly up the country, and we reimbarked in our boats. --page 543

As we had unhappily experienced that nothing was to be done with these people at this place, and finding the water in the river to be salt, I proceeded in the boats round the head of the bay in search of fresh water, and with a design, if possible, to surprise some of the natives, and take them on board, where by kind treatment and presents I might obtain their friendship, and by their means establish an amicable correspondence with their countrymen. --page 544

To my great regret, I found no place where I could land,* a dangerous surf every where beating upon the shore; but I saw two canoes coming in from the sea, one under sail, and the other worked with paddles. I thought this a favourable opportunity to get some of the people into my possession without mischief, as those in the canoe were probably fishermen and without arms, and I had three boats full of men. I therefore disposed the boats so as most effectually to intercept them in their way to the shore; the people in the canoe that was paddled perceived us so soon, that by making to the nearest land with their utmost strength, they escaped us; the other sailed on till she was in the midst of us, without discerning what we were; but the moment she discovered us, the people on board struck their sail, and took to their paddles, which they plied so briskly that she out-ran the boat. They were however within hearing, and Tupia called out to them to come along side, and promised for us that they should come to no hurt: they chose, however, rather to trust to their paddles than our promises, and continued to make from us with all their power. I then ordered a musquet to be fired over their heads, as the least exceptionable expedient to accomplish my design, hoping it would either make them surrender or leap into the water. Upon the discharge of the piece, they ceased paddling; and all of them, being seven in number, began to strip, as we imagined to jump overboard; but it happened otherwise. They immediately formed a resolution not to fly, but to fight; and when the boat came up, they began the attack with their paddles, and with stones and other offensive weapons that were in the boat, so vigorously, that we were obliged to fire upon them in our own defence: four were unhappily killed, and the other three who were boys, the eldest about nineteen, and the youngest about eleven, instantly leaped into the water; the eldest swam with great vigour,* and resisted the attempts of our people to take him into the boat by every effort that he could make: he was however at last overpowered, and the other two were taken up with less difficulty. I am conscious that the feeling of every reader of humanity will censure me for having fired upon these unhappy people, and it is impossible that, upon a calm review, I should approve it myself. They certainly did not deserve death for not chusing to confide in my promises; or not consenting to come on board my boat, even if they had apprehended no danger; but the nature of my service required me to obtain a knowlege of their country, which I could no otherwise effect than by forcing my way into it in a hostile manner, or gaining admission through the confidence and good-will of the people. I had already tried the power of presents without effect; and I was now prompted, by my desire to avoid further hostilities, to get some of them on board, as the only method left of convincing them that we intended them no harm, and had it in our power to contribute to their gratification and convenience. Thus far my intentions certainly were not criminal; and though in the contest, which I had not the least reason to expect, our victory might have been complete without so great an expence of life; yet in such situations, when the command to fire has been given, no man can restrain its excess, or prescribe its effect. --page 545

As soon as the poor wretches whom we had taken out of the water were in the boat, they squatted down, expecting no doubt instantly to be put to death: we made haste to convince them of the contrary, by every method in our power; we furnished them with clothes, and gave them every other testimony of kindness that could remove their fears and engage their good-will. Those who are acquainted with human nature will not wonder, that the sudden joy of these young savages at being unexpectedly delivered from the fear of death,* and kindly treated by those whom they supposed would have been their instant executioners, surmounted their concern for the friends they had lost, and was strongly expressed in their countenances and behaviour. Before we reached the ship, their suspicions and fears being wholly removed, they appeared to be not only reconciled to their situation but in high spirits, and upon being offered some bread when they came on board, they devoured it with a voracious appetite. They answered and asked many questions, with great appearance of pleasure and curiosity; and when our dinner came, they expressed an inclination to taste every thing that they saw: they seemed best pleased with the salt pork, though we had other provisions upon the table. At sun-set, they eat another meal with great eagerness, each devouring a large quantity of bread, and drinking above a quart of water. We then made them beds upon the lockers, and they went to sleep with great seeming content. In the night, however, the tumult of their minds having subsided, and given way to reflection, they sighed often and loud. Tupia, who was always upon the watch to comfort them, got up, and by soothing and encouragement made them not only easy but cheerful; their cheerfulness was encouraged so that they sung a song with a degree of taste that surprised us: the tune was solemn and slow, like those of our Psalms, containing many notes and semitones. Their countenances were intelligent and expressive, and the middlemost, who seemed to be about fifteen, had an openness in his aspect, and an ease in his deportment which were very striking: we found that the two eldest were brothers, and that their names were TAAHOURANGE and KOIKERANGE; the name of the youngest was MARAGOVETE. As we were returning to the ship, after having taken these boys into the boat, we picked up a large piece of pummice stone floating upon the water;* a sure sign that there either is, or has been a volcano in this neighbourhood. --page 546

*In the morning, they all seemed to be cheerful, and eat another enormous meal; after this we dressed them, and adorned them with bracelets, anclets, and necklaces, after their own fashion, and the boat being hoisted out, they were told that we were going to set them ashore: this produced a transport of joy; but upon perceiving that we made towards our first landing-place near the river, their countenances changed, and they entreated with great earnestness that they might not be set ashore at that place, because they said, it was inhabited by their enemies, who would kill them and eat them. This was a great disappointment to me; because I hoped the report and appearance of the boys would procure a favourable reception for ourselves. I had already sent an officer on shore with the marines and a party of men to cut wood, and I was determined to land near the place; not however to abandon the boys, if, when we got ashore, they should be unwilling to leave us; but to send a boat with them in the evening to that part of the bay to which they pointed, and which they called their home. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander and Tupia were with me, and upon our landing with the boys, and crossing the river, they seemed at first to be unwilling to leave us; but at length they suddenly changed their mind, and, though not without a manifest struggle, and some tears, they took their leave: when they were gone, we proceeded along a swamp, with a design to shoot some ducks, of which we saw great plenty, and four of the marines attended us, walking abreast of us upon a bank that overlooked the country. After we had advanced about a mile, these men called out to us and told us, that a large body of the Indians was in sight, and advancing at a great rate. Upon receiving this intelligence,* we drew together, and resolved to make the best of our way to the boats; we had scarcely begun to put this into execution, when the three Indian boys started suddenly from some bushes, where they had concealed themselves, and again claimed our protection: we readily received them, and repairing to the beach as the clearest place, we walked briskly towards the boats. The Indians were in two bodies; one ran along the bank which had been quitted by the marines, the other fetched a compass by the swamp so that we could not see them: when they perceived that we had formed into one body, they slackened their pace; but still followed us in a gentle walk: that they slackened their pace, was for us, as well as for them, a fortunate circumstance; for when we came to the side of the river, where we expected to find the boats that were to carry us over to the wooders, we found the pinnace at least a mile from her station, having been sent to pick up a bird which had been shot by the officer on shore, and the little boat was obliged to make three trips before we could all get over to the rest of the party. As soon as we were drawn up on the other side, the Indians came down, not in a body as we expected, but by two or three at a time, all armed, and in a short time their number increased to about two hundred: as we now despaired of making peace with them, seeing that the dread of our small arms did not keep them at a distance, and that the ship was too far off to reach the place with a shot, we resolved to re-imbark, lest our stay should imbroil us in another quarrel, and cost more of the Indians their lives. We therefore advanced towards the pinnace which was now returning, when one of the boys suddenly cried out, that his uncle was among the people who had marched down to us, and desired us to stay and talk with them: we complied, and a parley immediately commenced between them and Tupia;* during which the boys held up every thing we had given them as tokens of our kindness and liberality; but neither would either of the boys swim over to them, or any of them to the boys. The body of the man who had been killed the day before, still lay exposed upon the beach; the boys seeing it lie very near us, went up to it, and covered it with some of the clothes that we had given them; and soon after a single man, unarmed, who proved to be the uncle of Maragovete, the youngest of the boys, swam over to us, bringing in his hand a green branch, which we supposed, as well here as at Otaheite, to be an emblem of peace. We received his branch by the hands of Tupia, to whom he gave it, and made him many presents; we also invited him to go on board the ship, but he declined it; we therefore left him, and expected that his nephew, and the two other young Indians would have staid with him, but to our great surprize, they chose rather to go with us. As soon as we had retired, he went and gathered another green branch, and with this in his hand, he approached the dead body which the youth had covered with part of his clothes▪ walking sideways, with many ceremonies, and then throwing it towards him. When this was done, he returned to his companions, who had sat down upon the sand to observe the issue of his negotiation: they immediately gathered round him, and continued in a body above an hour, without seeming to take any farther notice of us. We were more curious than they, and observing them with our glasses from on board the ship, we saw some of them cross the river upon a kind of raft, or catamarine, and four of them carry off the dead body which had been covered by the boy, and over which his uncle had performed the ceremony of the branch, upon a kind of bier, between four men: the other body was still suffered to remain where it had been first left. --page 547

After dinner, I directed Tupia to ask the boys,* if they had now any objection to going ashore, where we had left their uncle, the body having been carried off, which we understood was a ratification of peace: they said, they had not; and the boat being ordered, they went into it with great alacrity: when the boat, in which I had sent two midshipmen, came to land, they went willingly ashore; but soon after she put off, they returned to the rocks, and wading into the water, earnestly entreated to be taken on board again; but the people in the boat, having positive orders to leave them, could not comply. We were very attentive to what happened on shore, and keeping a constant watch with our glasses, we saw a man pass the river upon another raft, and fetch them to a place where forty or fifty of the natives were assembled, who closed round them, and continued in the same place till sunset: upon looking again, when we saw them in motion, we could plainly distinguish our three prisoners, who separated themselves from the rest, came down to the beach, and having waved their hands three times towards the ship, ran nimbly back and joined their companions, who walked leisurely away towards that part which the boys had pointed to as their dwelling-place; we had therefore the greatest reason to believe that no mischief would happen to them, especially as we perceived that they went off in the clothes we had given them. --page 548

After it was dark, loud voices were heard on shore in the bottom of the bay as usual, of which we could never learn the meaning. --page 549

*THE next morning, at six o'clock, we weighed, and stood away from this unfortunate and inhospitable place, to which I gave the name of POVERTY BAY, and which by the natives is called TAONEROA or Long Sand, as it did not afford us a single article that we wanted except a little wood. It lies in latitude 38° 42′ S. and longitude 181° 36′ W.; it is in the form of an horse-shoe, and is known by an island lying close under the north east point: the two points which form the entrance are high, with steep white cliffs, and lie a league and a half or two leagues from each other, N.E. by E. and S. W. by W.: the depth of water in the bay is from twelve to five fathom, with a sandy bottom and good anchorage; but the situation is open to the wind between the south and east: boats can go in and out of the river at any time of the tide in fine weather; but as there is a bar at the entrance, no boat can go either in or out when the sea runs high: the best place to attempt it, is on the north east side, and it is there practicable when it is not so in any other part. The shore of the bay, a little within its entrance, is a low flat sand; behind which, at a small distance, the face of the country is finely diversified by hills and valleys, all clothed with wood, and covered with verdure.* The country also appears to be well inhabited, especially in the valleys leading up from the bay, where we daily saw smoke rising in clouds one behind another to a great distance, till the view terminated in mountains of a stupendous height. --page 550

The south west point of the bay I named YOUNG NICK's HEAD, after Nicholas Young, the boy who first saw the land; at noon, it bore N. W. by W. distant about three or four leagues, and we were then about three miles from the shore. The main land extended from N. E. by N. to south, and I proposed to follow the direction of the coast to the southward as far as the latitude of 40 or 41; and then, if I met with no encouragement to proceed farther, to return to the northward. --page 551

In the afternoon we lay becalmed, which the people on shore perceiving, several canoes put off, and came within less than a quarter of a mile of the vessel; but could not be persuaded to come nearer, though Tupia exerted all the powers of his lungs and his eloquence upon the occasion, shouting, and promising that they should not be hurt. Another canoe was now seen coming from Poverty Bay, with only four people on board, one of whom we well remembered to have seen in our first interview upon the rock. This canoe, without stopping or taking the least notice of the others, came directly alongside of the ship, and with very little persuasion, we got the Indians on board. Their example was soon followed by the rest, and we had about us seven canoes, and about fifty men. We made them all presents with a liberal hand; notwithstanding which, they were so desirous to have more of our commodities, that they sold us every thing they had, even the clothes from their backs, and the paddles from their boats. There were but two weapons among them,* these were the instruments of green talc, which were shaped somewhat like a pointed battledore, with a short handle and sharp edges; they were called Patoo-Patoo, and were well contrived for close-fighting, as they would certainly split the thickest scull at a single blow. --page 552

When these people had recovered from the first impressions of fear, which notwithstanding their resolution in coming on board, had manifestly thrown them into some confusion, we enquired after our poor boys. The man who first came on board immediately answered, that they were unhurt and at home; adding, that he had been induced to venture on board by the account which they had given him of the kindness with which they had been treated, and the wonders that were contained in the ship. --page 553

While they were on board they shewed every sign of friendship, and invited us very cordially to go back to our old bay, or to a small cove which they pointed out, that was not quite so far off; but I chose rather to prosecute my discoveries than go back, having reason to hope that I should find a better harbour than any I had yet seen. --page 554

About an hour before sun-set, the canoes put off from the ship with the few paddles they had reserved, which were scarcely sufficient to set them on shore; but by some means or other three of their people were left behind: as soon as we discovered it, we hailed them; but not one of them would return to take them on board: this greatly surprised us; but we were surprised still more to observe that the deserted Indians did not seem at all uneasy at their situation, but entertained us with dancing and singing after their manner, eat their suppers, and went quietly to bed. --page 555

A light breeze springing up soon after it was dark,* we steered along the shore under an easy sail till midnight, and then brought to, soon after which it fell calm; we were now some leagues distant from the place where the canoes had left us, and at day-break, when the Indians perceived it, they were seized with consternation and terror, and lamented their situation in loud complaints, with gestures of despair and many tears. Tupia, with great difficulty, pacified them; and about seven o'clock in the morning,* a light breeze springing up, we continued to stand south west along the shore. Fortunately for our poor Indians, two canoes came off about this time, and made towards the ship: they stopped, however, at a little distance, and seemed unwilling to trust themselves nearer. Our Indians were greatly agitated in this state of uncertainty, and urged their fellows to come alongside of the ship, both by their voice and gestures, with the utmost eagerness and impatience. Tupia interpreted what they said, and we were much surprised to find, that, among other arguments, they assured the people in the canoes, we did not eat men. We now began seriously to believe that this horrid custom prevailed among them; for what the boys had said, we considered as a mere hyperbolical expression of their fear. One of the canoes, at length, ventured to come under the ship's side; and an old man came on board, who seemed to be a Chief from the finery of his garment, and the superiority of his weapon, which was a Patoo-Patoo, made of bone, that, as he said, had belonged to a whale. He staid on board but a short time, and when he went away, he took with him our guests, very much to the satisfaction both of them and us. --page 556

At the time when we sailed, we were abreast of a point, from which the land trends S. S. W. and which, on account of its figure,* I called CAPE TABLE. This point lies seven leagues to the southward of Poverty Bay, in latitude 39° 7′ S. and longitude 181° 36′ W.: it is of a considerable height, makes in a sharp angle, and appears to be quite flat at the top. --page 557

In steering along the shore to the southward of the Cape, at the distance of two or three miles, our soundings were from twenty to thirty fathom, having a chain of rocks between us and the shore, which appeared at different heights above the water. --page 558

At noon, Cape Table bore N. 20 E. distant about four leagues, and a small island, which was the southermost land in sight, bore S. 70 W. at the distance of about three miles. This island, which the natives call TEAHOWRAY, I named the ISLAND OF PORTLAND,* from its very great resemblance to Portland in the English Channel: it lies about a mile from a point on the main; but there appears to be a ridge of rocks, extending nearly, if not quite, from one to the other. N. 57 E. two miles from the south point of Portland, lies a sunken rock, upon which the sea breaks with great violence. We passed between this rock and the land, having from seventeen to twenty fathom. --page 559

In sailing along the shore, we saw the natives assembled in great numbers as well upon Portland Island as the main: we could also distinguish several spots of ground that were cultivated; some seemed to be fresh turned up, and lay in furrows like ploughed land, and some had plants upon them in different stages of their growth. We saw also in two places, high rails upon the ridges of hills, like what we had seen upon the peninsula at the north east head of Poverty bay: as they were ranged in lines only, and not so as to enclose an area, we could not guess at their use,* and therefore supposed they might be the work of superstition. --page 560

About noon another canoe appeared, in which were four men; she came within about a quarter of a mile of us, where the people on board seemed to perform divers ceremonies: one of them, who was in the bow, sometimes seemed to ask and to offer peace, and sometimes to threaten war, by brandishing a weapon that he held in his hand: sometimes also he danced, and sometimes he sung. Tupia talked much to him, but could not persuade him to come to the ship. --page 561

Between one and two o'clock we discovered land to the westward of Portland, extending to the southward as far as we could see; and as the ship was hauling round the south end of the island, she suddenly fell into shoal water and broken ground: we had indeed always seven fathom or more, but the soundings were never twice the same, jumping at once from seven fathom to eleven; in a short time, however, we got clear of all danger, and had again deep water under us. --page 562

At this time the island lay within a mile of us, making in white cliffs, and a long spit of low land running from it towards the main. On the sides of these cliffs sat vast numbers of people, looking at us with a fixed attention, and it is probable that they perceived some appearance of hurry and confusion on board, and some irregularity in the working of the ship, while we were getting clear of the shallow water and broken ground, from which they might infer that we were alarmed or in distress; we thought that they wished to take advantage of our situation, for five canoes were put off with the utmost expedition, full of men, and well armed: they came so near, and shewed so hostile a disposition by shouting, brandishing their lances, and using threatening gestures,* that we were in some pain for our small boat, which was still employed in sounding: a musket was therefore fired over them, but finding it did them no harm, they seemed rather to be provoked than intimidated, and I therefore fired a four pounder, charged with grape-shot, wide of them: this had a better effect; upon the report of the piece they all rose up and shouted, but instead of continuing the chace, drew altogether, and after a short consultation, went quietly away. --page 563

Having got round Portland, we hauled in for the land N. W. having a gentle breeze at N. E. which about five o'clock died away, and obliged us to anchor; we had one and twenty fathom, with a fine sandy bottom: the south point of Portland bore S. E. ½ S. distant about two leagues, and a low point on the main bore N. ½ E.: in the same direction with this low point, there runs a deep bay, behind the land of which Cape Table is the extremity, so as to make this land a peninsula, leaving only a low narrow neck between that and the main. Of this peninsula, which the natives call TERAKACO, Cape Table is the north point, and Portland the south. --page 564

While we lay at anchor, two more canoes came off to us, one armed, and the other a small fishing-boat, with only four men in her; they came so near that they entered into conversation with Tupia; they answered all the questions that he asked them with great civility, but could not be persuaded to come on board; they came near enough, however, to receive several presents that were thrown to them from the ship, with which they seemed much pleased, and went away. During the night many fires were kept upon shore, probably to shew us that the inhabitants were too much upon their guard to be surprized. --page 565

About five o'clock in the morning of the 13th,* a breeze springing up northerly, we weighed, and steered in for the land. The shore here forms a large bay, of which Portland is the north east point, and the bay that runs behind Cape Table an arm. This arm I had a great inclination to examine, because there appeared to be safe anchorage in it, but not being sure of that, and the wind being right an end, I was unwilling to spare the time. Four and twenty fathom was the greatest depth within Portland, but the ground was every where clear. The land near the shore is of a moderate height, with white cliffs and sandy beaches; within, it rises into mountains, and upon the whole the surface is hilly, for the most part covered with wood, and to appearance pleasant and fertile. In the morning nine canoes came after the ship, but whether with peaceable or hostile intentions we could not tell, for we soon left them behind us. --page 566

In the evening we stood in for a place that had the appearance of an opening, but found no harbour; we therefore stood out again, and were soon followed by a large canoe, with eighteen or twenty men, all armed, who, though they could not reach us, shouted defiance, and brandished their weapons, with many gestures of menace and insult. --page 567

In the morning we had a view of the mountains inland,* upon which the snow was still lying: the country near the shore was low and unfit for culture, but in one place we perceived a patch of somewhat yellow, which had greatly the appearance of a corn field, yet was probably nothing more than some dead flaggs, which are not uncommon in swampy places: at some distance we saw groves of trees, which appeared high and tapering, and being not above two leagues from the south well cod of the great bay, in which we had been coasting for the two last days, I hoisted out the pinnace and long-boat to search for fresh water;* but just as they were about to put off, we saw several boats full of people coming from the shore, and therefore I did not think it safe for them to leave the ship. About ten o'clock, five of these boats having drawn together, as if to hold a consultation, made towards the ship, having on board between eighty and ninety men, and four more followed at some distance, as if to sustain the attack: when the first five came within about a hundred yards of the ship, they began to sing their war song, and brandishing their pikes, prepared for an engagement. We had now no time to lose, for if we could not prevent the attack, we should come under the unhappy necessity of using our fire-arms against them, which we were very desirous to avoid. Tupia was therefore ordered to acquaint them that we had weapons which, like thunder, would destroy them in a moment; that we would immediately convince them of their power by directing their effect so that they should not be hurt; but that if they persisted in any hostile attempt, we should be obliged to use them for our defence: a four pounder, loaded with grape-shot, was then discharged wide of them, which produced the desired effect; the report, the flash, and above all, the shot, which spread very far in the water, so intimidated them, that they began to paddle away with all their might: Tupia, however, calling after them, and assuring them that if they would come unarmed, they should be kindly received; the people in one of the boats put their arms on board of another, and came under the ship's stern; we made them several presents, and should certainly have prevailed upon them to come on board, if the other canoes had not come up, and again threatened us, by shouting and brandishing their weapons: at this the people who had come to the ship unarmed, expressed great displeasure, and soon after they all went away. --page 568

In the afternoon we stood over to the south point of the bay, but not reaching it before it was dark,* we stood off and on all night. At eight the next morning, being a-breast of the point, several fishing boats came off to us, and sold us some stinking fish: it was the best they had, and we were willing to trade with them upon any terms: these people behaved very well, and we should have parted good friends if it had not been for a large canoe, with two and twenty armed men on board, which came boldly up along side of the ship. We soon saw that this boat had nothing for traffick, yet we gave them two or three pieces of cloth, an article which they seemed very fond of. I observed that one man had a black skin thrown over him, somewhat resembling that of a bear, and being desirous to know what animal was its first owner, I offered him for it a piece of red baize, and he seemed greatly pleased with the bargain, immediately pulling off the skin, and holding it up in the boat; he would not, however, part with it till he had the cloth in his possession, and as there could be no transfer of property, if with equal caution I had insisted upon the same condition, I ordered the cloth to be handed down to him, upon which, with amazing coolness, instead of sending up the skin, he began to pack up both that and the baize, which he had received as the purchase of it, in a basket, without paying the least regard to my demand or remonstrances, and soon after, with the fishing boats, put off from the ship; when they were at some distance, they drew together, and after a short consultation returned; the fishermen offered more fish, which, though good for nothing, was purchased, and trade was again renewed. Among others who were placed over the ship's side to hand up what we bought, was little Tayeto, Tupia's boy; and one of the Indians, watching his opportunity, suddenly seized him, and dragged him down into the canoe;* two of them held him down in the fore part of it, and the others, with great activity, paddled her off, the rest of the canoes following as fast as they could: upon this the marines, who were under arms upon deck, were ordered to fire. The shot was directed to that part of the canoe which was farthest from the boy, and rather wide of her, being willing rather to miss the rowers than to hurt him: it happened, however, that one man dropped, upon which the others quitted their hold of the boy, who instantly leaped into the water, and swam towards the ship; the large canoe immediately pulled round and followed him, but some musquets, and a great gun being fired at her, she desisted from the pursuit. The ship being brought to, a boat was lowered, and the poor boy taken up unhurt, though so terrified that for a time he seemed to be deprived of his senses. Some of the gentlemen who traced the canoes to shore with their glasses, said, that they saw three men carried up the beach, who appeared to be either dead or wholly disabled by their wounds. --page 569

To the cape off which this unhappy transaction happened, I gave the name of CAPE KIDNAPPERS. It lies in latitude 39° 43′, and longitude 182° 24′ W. and is rendered remarkable by two white rocks like hay stacks, and the high white cliffs on each side. It lies S. W. by W. distant thirteen leagues from the isle of Portland; and between them is the bay of which it is the south point, and which, in honour of Sir Edward Hawke, then First Lord of the Admiralty, I called HAWKE's BAY.* We found in it from twenty-four to seven fathom, and good anchorage. From Cape Kidnappers the land trends S. S. W. and in this direction we made our run along the shore, keeping at about a league distance, with a steady breeze and clear weather. --page 570

As soon as Tayeto recovered from his fright,* he brought a fish to Tupia, and told him, that he intended it as an offering to his Eatua, or god, in gratitude for his escape; Tupia commended his piety, and ordered him to throw the fish into the sea, which was accordingly done. --page 571

About two o'clock in the afternoon, we passed a small but high white island, lying close to the shore, upon which we saw many houses, boats, and people. The people we concluded to be fishers, because the island was totally barren; we saw several people also on shore, in a small bay upon the main, within the island. At eleven,* we brought to till day-light, and then made sail to the southward, along the shore. About seven o'clock we past a high point of land, which lies S. S. W. twelve leagues from Cape Kidnappers: from this point the land trends three-fourths of a point more to the westward; at ten, we saw more land open to the southward, and at noon, the southermost land that was in sight, bore S. 39 W. distant eight or ten leagues, and a high bluff head, with yellowish cliffs, bore W. distant about two miles: the depth of water was thirty-two fathom. --page 572

In the afternoon we had a fresh breeze at west, and during the night variable light airs and calms:* in the morning a gentle breeze sprung up between the N. W. and N. E. and having till now stood to the southward, without seeing any probability of meeting with a harbour, and the country manifestly altering for the worse, I thought that standing farther in that direction would be attended with no advantage, but on the contrary would be a loss of time that might be employed with a better prospect of success in examining the coast to the northward; about one, therefore, in the afternoon, I tacked, and stood north, with a fresh breeze at west. The high bluff head, with yellowish cliffs, which we were a-breast of at noon,* I called CAPE TURNAGAIN, because here we turned back. It lies in latitude 40° 34′ S. longitude 182° 55′ W. distant eighteen leagues S. S. W. and S. S. W. ½ W. from Cape Kidnappers. The land between them is of a very unequal height; in some places it is lofty next the sea with white cliffs, in others low, with sandy beaches: the face of the country is not so well clothed with wood as it is about Hawke's bay, but looks more like our high downs in England: it is, however, to all appearance, well inhabited, for as we stood along the shore, we saw several villages, not only in the vallies, but on the tops and sides of the hills, and smoke in many other places. The ridge of mountains which has been mentioned before, extends to the southward farther than we could see, and was then every where chequered with snow. At night we saw two fires inland, so very large, that we concluded they must have been made to clear the land for tillage; but however that be, they are a demonstration that the part of the country where they appeared is inhabited. --page 573

*On the 18th, at four o'clock in the morning, Cape Kidnappers bore N. 32 W. distant two leagues: in this situation we had sixty-two fathom, and when the Cape bore W. by N. distant three or four leagues, we had forty-five fathom: in the mid-way between the isle of Portland and the Cape we had sixty-five fathom. In the evening, being a-breast of the peninsula within Portland island, called TERAKAKO,* a canoe came off from that shore, and with much difficulty overtook the ship; there were on board five people, two of whom appeared to be Chiefs, and the other three servants: the Chiefs, with very little invitation came on board, and ordered the rest to remain in their canoe. We treated them with great kindness, and they were not backward in expressing their satisfaction; they went down into the cabbin,* and after a short time told us that they had determined not to go on shore till the next morning. As the sleeping on board was an honour which we neither expected nor desired, I remonstrated strongly against it, and told them, that on their account it would not be proper, as the ship would probably be at a great distance from where she was then, the next morning: they persisted, however, in their resolution, and as I found it impossible to get rid of them without turning them by force out of the ship, I complied: as a proper precaution, however, I proposed to take their servants also on board, and hoist their canoe into the ship; they made no objection, and this was accordingly done. The countenance of one of these Chiefs was the most open and ingenuous of all I have ever seen, and I very soon gave up every suspicion of his having any sinister design: they both examined every thing they saw with great curiosity and attention, and received very thankfully such little presents as we made them; neither of them, however, could be persuaded either to eat or drink, but their servants devoured every thing they could get with great voracity. We found that these men had heard of our kindness and liberality to the natives who had been on board before, yet we thought the confidence they placed in us, an extraordinary instance of their fortitude. At night I brought to till day-light, and then made sail;* at seven in the morning, I brought to again under Cape Table, and sent away our guests with their canoe, who expressed some surprise at seeing themselves so far from home, but landed a-breast of the ship. At this time I saw other canoes putting off from the shore, but I stood away to the northward without waiting for their coming up. --page 574

About three, I passed a remarkable head land, which I called GABLE-END-FORELAND, from the very great likeness of the white cliff at the point,* to the gable-end of a house: it is not more remarkable for its figure, than for a rock which rises like a spire at a little distance. It lies from Cape Table N. 24 E. distant about twelve leagues. The shore between them forms a bay, within which lies Poverty bay, at the distance of four leagues from the head land, and eight from the Cape. At this place three canoes came off to us, and one man came on board; we gave him some trifles, and he soon returned to his boat, which, with all the rest, dropped a-stern. --page 575

*In the morning I made sail in shore, in order to look into two bays, which appeared about two leagues to the northward of the Foreland; the southermost I could not fetch, but I anchored in the other about eleven o'clock. --page 576

Into this bay we were invited by the people on board many canoes, who pointed to a place where they said there was plenty of fresh water: I did not find so good a shelter from the sea as I expected, but the natives who came about us, appearing to be of a friendly disposition, I was determined to try whether I could not get some knowlege of the country here before I proceeded farther to the northward. --page 577

In one of the canoes that came about us as soon as we anchored, we saw two men, who by their habits appeared to be Chiefs: one of them was dressed in a jacket, which was ornamented, after their manner, with dog's skin; the jacket of the other was almost covered with small tufts of red feathers. These men I invited on board, and they entered the ship with very little hesitation: I gave each of them about four yards of linen, and a spike nail; with the linen they were much pleased, but seemed to set no value upon the nail. We perceived that they knew what had happened in Poverty bay, and we had therefore no reason to doubt but that they would behave peaceably; however, for further security,* Tupia was ordered to tell them for what purpose we came thither, and to assure them that we would offer them no injury, if they offered none to us. In the mean time those who remained in the canoes traded with our people very fairly for what they happened to have with them: the Chiefs, who were old men, staid with us till we had dined, and about two o'clock I put off with the boats, manned and armed, in order to go on shore in search of water, and the two Chiefs went into the boat with me. The afternoon was tempestuous, with much rain, and the surf every where ran so high, that although we rowed almost round the bay, we found no place where we could land: I determined therefore to return to the ship, which being intimated to the Chiefs, they called to the people on shore, and ordered a canoe to be sent off for themselves; this was accordingly done, and they left us, promising to come on board again in the morning, and bring us some fish and sweet potatoes. --page 578

In the evening, the weather having become fair and moderate, the boats were again ordered out, and I landed, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander. We were received with great expressions of friendship by the natives, who behaved with a scrupulous attention not to give offence. In particular, they took care not to appear in great bodies: one family, or the inhabitants of two or three houses only, were generally placed together, to the number of fifteen or twenty, consisting of men, women, and children. These little companies sat upon the ground, not advancing towards us, but inviting us to them, by a kind of beckon, moving one hand towards the breast. We made them several little presents; and in our walk round the bay found two small streams of fresh water. This convenience, and the friendly behaviour of the people, determined me to stay at least a day,* that I might fill some of my empty casks, and give Mr. Banks an opportunity of examining the natural produce of the country. --page 579

*In the morning of the 21st, I sent Lieutenant Gore on shore, to superintend the watering, with a strong party of men; and they were soon followed by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with Tupia, Tayeto, and four others. --page 580

The natives sat by our people, and seemed pleased to observe them; but did not intermix with them: they traded however, chiefly for cloth, and after a short time applied to their ordinary occupations, as if no stranger had been among them. In the forenoon, several of their boats went out a fishing, and at dinner time every one repaired to his respective dwelling; from which, after a certain time, he returned. These fair appearances encouraged Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to range the bay with very little precaution, where they found many plants, and shot some birds of exquisite beauty. In their walk, they visited several houses of the natives, and saw something of their manner of life; for they showed, without any reserve, every thing which the Gentlemen desired to see. They were sometimes found at their meals, which the approach of the strangers never interrupted. Their food at this season consisted of fish, with which, instead of bread, they eat the root of a kind of fern, very like that which grows upon our commons in England. These roots they scorch over the fire, and then beat with a stick, till the bank and dry outside fall off; what remains is a soft substance, somewhat clammy and sweet, not unpleasing to the taste, but mixed with three or four times its quantity of strings and fibres, which are very disagreeable; these were swallowed by some, but spit out by the far greater number, who had baskets under them to receive the rejected part of what had been chewed,* which had an appearance very like that of tobacco in the same state. In other seasons they have certainly plenty of excellent vegetables; but no tame animals were seen among them except dogs, which were very small and ugly. Mr. Banks saw some of their plantations, where the ground was as well broken down and tilled as even in the gardens of the most curious people among us: in these spots were sweet potatoes, coccos or eddas, which are well known and much esteemed both in the East and West Indies, and some gourds: the sweet potatoes were planted in small hills, some ranged in rows, and others in quincunx, all laid by a line with the greatest regularity: the coccos were planted upon flat land, but none of them yet appeared above ground; and the gourds were set in small hollows, or dishes, much as in England. These plantations were of different extent, from one or two acres to ten: taken together, there appeared to be from 150 to 200 acres in cultivation in the whole bay, though we never saw an hundred people. Each district was fenced in, generally with reeds, which were placed so close together that there was scarcely room for a mouse to creep between. --page 581

The women were plain, and made themselves more so by painting their faces with red ocre and oil, which being generally fresh and wet upon their cheeks and foreheads, was easily transferred to the noses of those who thought fit to salute them; and that they were not wholly averse to such familiarity, the noses of several of our people strongly testified: they were, however, as great coquets as any of the most fashionable ladies in Europe, and the young ones as skittish as an unbroken filly: each of them wore a petticoat, under which there was a girdle, made of the blades of grass highly perfumed, and to the girdle was fastened a small bunch of the leaves of some fragrant plant, which served their modesty as its innermost veil.* The faces of the men were not so generally painted, yet we saw one whose whole body, and even his garments, were rubbed over with dry ocre, of which he kept a piece constantly in his hand, and was every minute renewing the decoration in one part or another, where he supposed it was become deficient. In personal delicacy they were not equal to our friends at Otaheite, for the coldness of the climate did not invite them so often to bathe; but we saw among them one instance of cleanliness in which they exceeded them, and of which perhaps there is no example in any other Indian nation. Every house, or every little cluster of three or four houses, was furnished with a privy, so that the ground was every where clean. The offals of their food, and other litter, were also piled up in regular dunghills, which probably they made use of at a proper time for manure. --page 582

In this decent article of civil oeconomy they were beforehand with one of the most considerable nations of Europe, for I am credibly informed, that, till the year 1760, there was no such thing as a privy in Madrid, the metropolis of Spain, though it is plentifully supplied with water. Before that time it was the universal practice to throw the ordure out of the windows, during the night, into the street, where numbers of men were employed to remove it, with shovels, from the upper parts of the city to the lower, where it lay till it was dry, and was then carried away in carts, and deposited without the gates. His present Catholic Majesty, having determined to free his capital from so gross a nuisance, ordered, by proclamation, that the proprietor of every house should build a privy, and that sinks, drains, and common-sewers should be made at the public expence. The Spaniards, though long accustomed to an arbitrary government, resented this proclamation with great spirit, as an infringement of the common rights of mankind,* and made a vigorous struggle against its being carried into execution. Every class devised some objection against it, but the physicians bid the fairest to interest the king in the preservation of the ancient privileges of his people; for they remonstrated that if the filth was not, as usual, thrown into the streets, a fatal sickness would probably ensue, because the putrescent particles of the air, which such filth attracted, would then be imbibed by the human body. But this expedient, with every other that could be thought of, proved unsuccessful, and the popular discontent then ran so high that it was very near producing an insurrection; his majesty, however, at length prevailed, and Madrid is now as clear as most of the considerable cities in Europe. But many of the citizens, probably upon the principles advanced by their physicians, that heaps of filth prevent deleterious particles of air from fixing upon neighbouring substances, have, to keep their food wholesome, constructed their privies by the kitchen fire. --page 583

In the evening, all our boats being employed in carrying the water on board, and Mr. Banks and his company finding it probable that they should be left on shore after it was dark, by which much time would be lost, which they were impatient to employ in putting the plants they had gathered in order, they applied to the Indians for a passage in one of their canoes: they immediately consented, and a canoe was launched for their use. They went all on board, being eight in number, but not being used to a vessel that required so even a balance, they unfortunately overset her in the surf: no life however was lost, but it was thought advisable that half of them should wait for another turn. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and Tayeto embarked again, and without any farther accident arrived safely at the ship, well pleased with the good-nature of their Indian friends, who cheerfully understook to carry them a second time,* after having experienced how unfit a freight they were for such a vessel. --page 584

While these gentlemen were on shore, several of the natives went off to the ship, and trafficked, by exchanging their cloth for that of Otaheite: of this barter they were for some time very fond, preferring the Indian cloth to that of Europe; but before night it decreased in its value five hundred per cent. Many of these Indians I took on board, and shewed them the ship and her apparatus, at which they expressed equal satisfaction and astonishment. --page 585

As I found it exceedingly difficult to get water on board on account of the surf, I determined to stay no longer at this place;* on the next morning therefore, about five o'clock, I weighed anchor and put to sea. --page 586

This bay, which is called by the natives TEGADOO, lies in the latitude of 38° 10′ S., but as it has nothing to recommend it, a description of it is unnecessary. --page 587

From this bay I intended to stand on to the northward, but the wind being right against me, I could make no way. While I was beating about to windward, some of the natives came on board, and told me, that in a bay which lay a little to the southward, being the same that I could not fetch the day I put into Tegadoo, there was excellent water, where the boats might land without a surf. I thought it better therefore to put into this bay, where I might complete my water, and form farther connexions with the Indians, than to keep the sea. With this view I bore up for it, and sent in two boats, manned and armed, to examine the watering-place, who confirming the report of the Indians at their return, I came to an anchor about one o'clock, in eleven fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom, the north point of the bay N. by E. and the south point S. E. The watering-place, which was in a small cove a little within the south point of the bay, bore S. by E. distant about a mile.* Many canoes came immediately off from the shore, and all traded very honestly for Otaheite cloth and glass bottles, of which they were immoderately fond. --page 588

In the afternoon of the 23d, as soon as the ship was moored,* I went on shore to examine the watering-place, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander: the boat landed in the cove, without the least surf; the water was excellent, and conveniently situated; there was plenty of wood close to high-water mark, and the disposition of the people was in every respect such as we could wish. --page 589

Having, with Mr. Green, taken several observations of the sun and moon, the mean result of them gave 180° 47′ W. longitude; but, as all the observations made before exceeded these, I have laid down the coast from the mean of the whole. At noon, I took the sun's meridian altitude with an astronomical quadrant, which was set up at the watering-place, and found the latitude to be 38° 22′ 24″. --page 590

On the 24th, early in the morning,* I sent Lieutenant Gore on shore, to superintend the cutting of wood and filling of water, with a sufficient number of men for both purposes, and all the marines as a guard. After breakfast, I went on shore myself, and continued there the whole day. --page 591

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander also went on shore to gather plants, and in their walks saw several things worthy of notice. They met with many houses in the vallies that seemed to be wholly deserted, the people living on the ridges of the hills in a kind of sheds very slightly built. As they were advancing in one of these vallies, the hills on each side of which were very steep, they were suddenly struck with the fight of a very extraordinary natural curiosity. It was a rock, perforated through its whole substance,* so as to form a rude but stupendous arch or cavern, opening directly to the sea; this aperture was seventy-five feet long, twenty-seven broad, and five and forty high, commanding a view of the bay and the hills on the other side, which were seen through it, and, opening at once upon the view, produced an effect far superior to any of the contrivances of art. --page 592

As they were returning to the watering-place in the evening they met an old man, who detained them some time by showing them the military exercises of the country with the lance and Patoo-Patoo, which are all the weapons in use. The lance is from ten to fourteen feet long, made of a very hard wood, and sharp at both ends: the Patoo-Patoo has been described already, it is about a foot long, made of Talc or bone, with sharp edges, and used as a battle-axe. A post or stake was set up as his enemy, to which he advanced with a most furious aspect, brandishing his lance, which he grasped with great firmness; when it was supposed to have been pierced by his lance, he ran at it with his Patoo-Patoo, and falling upon the upper end of it, which was to represent his adversary's head, he laid on with great vehemence, striking many blows, any one of which would probably have split the scull of an ox. From our champion's falling upon his mock enemy with the Patoo-Patoo, after he was supposed to have been pierced with the lance, our Gentlemen inferred, that in the battles of this country there is no quarter. --page 593

This afternoon, we set up the armourer's forge, to repair the braces of the tiller which had been broken, and went on getting our wood and water, without suffering the least molestation from the natives; who came down with different sorts of fish, which we purchased with cloth, beads, and glass bottles, as usual. --page 594

--page 595

[illustration] On the 25th,* Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went again on shore; and while they were searching for plants, Tupia staid with the waterers: among other Indians who came down to them, was a priest, with whom Tupia entered into a very learned conversation. In their notions of religion they seemed to agree very well, which is not often the case between learned divines on our side of the ocean: Tupia, however, seemed to have the most knowlege, and he was listened to with great deference and attention by the other. In the course of this conversation, after the important points of divinity had been settled, Tupia enquired if it was their practice to eat men, to which they answered in the affirmative; but said that they eat only their enemies who were slain in battle. --page 596

On the 26th, it rained all day,* so that none of us could go ashore; and very few of the Indians came either to the watering-place or the ship. --page 597

On the 27th,* I went with Dr. Solander to examine the bottom of the bay; but though we went ashore at two places, we met with little worth notice. The people behaved very civilly, shewing us every thing that we expressed a desire to see. Among other trifling curiosities which Dr. Solander purchased of them, was a boy's top, shaped exactly like those which children play with in England; and they made signs, that to make it spin it was to be whipped. Mr. Banks in the mean time went ashore at the watering-place, and climbed a hill which stood at a little distance to see a fence of poles, which we had observed from the ship, and which had been much the subject of speculation. The hill was extremely steep, and rendered almost inaccessible by wood; yet he reached the place, near which he found many houses that for some reason had been deserted by their inhabitants. The poles appeared to be about sixteen feet high;* they were placed in two rows, with a space of about six feet between them, and the poles in each row were about ten feet distant from each other. The lane between them was covered by sticks, that were set up sloping towards each other from the top of the poles on each side, like the roof of a house. This rail-work, with a ditch that was parallel to it, was carried about a hundred yards down the hill in a kind of curve; but for what purpose we could not guess. --page 598

The Indians, at the watering-place, at our request, entertained us with their war-song, in which the women joined, with the most horrid distortions of countenance, rolling their eyes, thrusting out their tongues, and often heaving loud and deep sighs; though all was done in very good time. --page 599

*On the 28th, we went ashore upon an island that lies to the left hand of the entrance of the bay, where we saw the largest canoe that we had yet met with: she was sixty-eight feet and a half long, five broad, and three feet six high; she had a sharp bottom, consisting of three trunks of trees hollowed, of which that in the middle was the longest: the side planks were sixty-two feet long in one piece, and were not despicably carved in bas relief; the head also was adorned with carving still more richly. Upon this island there was a larger house than any we had yet seen; but it seemed unfinished and was full of chips. The wood work was squared so even and smooth, that we made no doubt of their having among them very sharp tools. The sides of the posts were carved in a masterly stile, though after their whimsical taste, which seems to prefer spiral lines and distorted faces: as these carved posts appeared to have been brought from some other place, such work is probably of great value among them. --page 600

At four o'clock in the morning of the 29th,* having got on board our wood and water, and a large supply of excellent celery, with which the country abounds, and which proved a powerful antiscorbutic, I unmoored and put to sea. --page 601

This bay is called by the natives TOLAGA; it is moderately large, and has from seven to thirteen fathom, with a clean sandy bottom and good anchorage; and is sheltered from all winds except the north east. It lies in latitude 38° 22′ S. and four leagues and an half to the north of Gable-end Foreland. On the south point lies a small but high island, so near the main as not to be distinguished from it. Close to the north end of the island, at the entrance into the bay, are two high rocks; one is round like a corn-stack, but the other is long, and perforated in several places so that the openings appear like the arches of a bridge. Within these rocks is the cove where we cut wood, and filled our water-casks. Off the north point of the bay is a pretty high rocky island; and about a mile without it, are some rocks and breakers. The variation of the compass here is 14° 31′ E. and the tide flows at the full and change of the moon, about six o'clock, and rises and falls perpendicularly from five to six feet: whether the flood comes from the southward or the northward I have not been able to determine. --page 602

We got nothing here by traffic but a few fish, and some sweet potatoes, except a few trifles, which we considered merely as curiosities. We saw no four-footed animals, nor the appearance of any, either tame or wild, except dogs and rats, and these were very scarce: the people eat the dogs, like our friends at Otaheite; and adorn their garments with the skins, as we do ours with fur and ermine. I climbed many of the hills, hoping to get a view of the country, but I could see nothing from the top except higher hills,* in a boundless succession. The ridges of these hills produce little besides fern; but the sides are most luxuriantly clothed with wood, and verdure of various kinds, with little plantations intermixed. In the woods, we found trees of above twenty different sorts, and carried specimens of each on board; but there was no body among us to whom they were not altogether unknown. The tree which we cut for firing was somewhat like our maple, and yielded a whitish gum. We found another sort of it of a deep yellow, which we thought might be useful in dying. We found also one cabbage tree, which we cut down for the cabbages. The country abounds with plants, and the woods with birds, in an endless variety, exquisitely beautiful, and of which none of us had the least knowlege. The soil both of the hills and valleys is light and sandy, and very fit for the production of all kinds of roots; though we saw none except sweet potatoes and yams. --page 603

--page 604

• [illustration] RIVER THAMES and MERCURY BAY in NEW ZEALAND
• EXPLANATION
• Parts unexplored
• Rocks above Water
• Rocks under Water
• The prick'd line shews the Shps Track, and the figures the depth of Water in fathoms.
• [illustration] BAY OF ISLANDS IN NEW ZEALAND
• [illustration] TOLAGA BAY IN NEW ZEALAND

ON Monday the 30th, about half an hour after one o'clock,* having made sail again to the northward for about ten hours, with a light breeze, I hauled round a small island which lay east one mile from the north east point of the land: from this place I found the land trend away N.W. by W. and W. N. W. as far as I could see, this point being the eastermost land on the whole coast. I gave it the name of EAST CAPE, and I called the island that lies off it EAST ISLAND; it is of a small circuit, high and round, and appears white and barren: the Cape is high, with white cliffs, and lies in latitude 37° 42′ 30″ S. and longitude 181° W. The land from Tolaga Bay to East Cape is of a moderate, but unequal height, forming several small bays, in which are sandy beaches: of the inland country we could not see much, the weather being cloudy and hazey. The soundings were from twenty to thirty fathom at the distance of about a league from the shore. After we had rounded the Cape, we saw in our run along the shore a great number of villages, and much cultivated land; the country in general appeared more fertile than before, and was low near the sea, but hilly within. At six in the evening, being four leagues to the westward of East Cape, we passed a bay which was first discovered by Lieutenant Hicks,* and which therefore I called HICKS's BAY. At eight in the evening, being eight leagues to the westward of the Cape, and three or four miles from the shore, I shortened sail and brought to for the night, having at this time a fresh gale at S.S.E. and squally; but it soon became moderate,* and at two in the morning, we made sail again to the S. W. as the land now trended; and at eight o'clock in the morning, saw land, which made like an island, bearing west, the south westermost part of the main bearing south west; and about nine no less than five canoes came off, in which were more than forty men, all armed with their country pikes and battle-axes, shouting, and threatening an attack: this gave us great uneasiness, and was indeed what we did not expect; for we hoped, that the report both of our power and clemency had spread to a greater extent. When one of these canoes had almost reached the ship, another, of an immense size, the largest we had yet seen, crowded with people who were also armed, put off from the shore, and came up at a great rate; as it approached it received signals from the canoe that was nearest to the ship, and we could see that it had sixteen paddles on a side, beside people that sat, and others that stood in a row from stem to stern, being in all about sixty men: as they made directly to the ship, we were desirous of preventing an attack, by showing what we could do; and therefore fired a gun, loaded with grape-shot, ahead of them: this made them stop, but not retreat; a round shot was then fired over them, and upon seeing it fall, they seized their paddles and made towards the shore with such precipitation that they seemed scarcely to allow themselves time to breathe. In the evening, three or four more canoes came off unarmed; but they would not venture within a musquet shot of the vessel. The cape, off which we had been threatened with hostilities, I called, from the hasty retreat of the enemy, CAPE RUNAWAY.* It lies in latitude 37° 32′; longitude 181° 48′. In this day's run, we found that the land, which made like an island in the morning, bearing west, was so; and we gave it the name of WHITE ISLAND. --page 605

At day-break, on the first of November,* we counted no less than five and forty canoes that were coming from the shore towards the ship: seven of them came up with us, and after some conversation with Tupia, sold us some lobsters and muscles, and two conger eels. These people traded pretty fairly: but when they were gone, some others came off from another place, who began also to trade fairly; but after some time they took what was handed down to them, without making any return; one of them who had done so, upon being threatened, began to laugh, and with many marks of derision set us at defiance, at the same time putting off the canoe from the ship: a musquet was then fired over his head, which brought him back in a more serious mood, and trade went on with great regularity. At length, when the cabbin and gun-room had got as much as they wanted, the men were allowed to come to the gang-way, and trade for themselves. Unhappily the same care was not taken to prevent frauds as had been taken before, so that the Indians, finding that they could cheat with impunity, grew insolent again, and proceeded to take greater liberties. One of the canoes, having sold every thing on board, pulled forward, and the people that were in her seeing some linen hang over the ship's side to dry, one of them, without any ceremony, untied it, and put it up in his bundle: he was immediately called to, and required to return it; instead of which, he let his canoe drop a stern, and laughed at us: a musquet was fired over his head, which did not put a stop to his mirth; another was then fired at him with small shot, which struck him upon the back;* he shrunk a little when the shot hit him, but did not regard it more than one or our men would have done the stroke of a rattan: he continued with great composure to pack up the linen that he had stolen. All the canoes now dropped astern about a hundred yards, and all set up their song of defiance, which they continued till the ship was distant from them about four hundred yards. As they seemed to have no design to attack us, I was not willing to do them any hurt; yet I thought their going off in a bravado might have a bad effect when it should be reported ashore. To show them therefore that they were still in our power, though very much beyond the reach of any missile weapon with which they were acquainted, I gave the ship a yaw, and fired a four pounder so as to pass near them. The shot happened to strike the water, and rise several times at a great distance beyond the canoes: this struck them with terror, and they paddled away without once looking behind them. --page 606

About two in the afternoon, we saw a pretty high island bearing west from us; and at five, saw more islands and rocks to the westward of that. We hauled our wind in order to go without them, but could not weather them before it was dark. I therefore bore up, and ran between them and the main. At seven, I was close under the first, from which a large double canoe, or rather two canoes lashed together at the distance of about a foot, and covered with boards so as make a deck, put off, and made sail for the ship: this was the first vessel of the kind that we had seen since we left the South Sea islands. When she came near, the people on board entered very freely into conversation with Tupia, and we thought showed a friendly disposition; but when it was just dark, they ran their canoe close to the ship's side, and threw in a volley of stones, after which they paddled ashore. --page 607

We learnt from Tupia,* that the people in the canoe called the island which we were under MOWTOHORA; it is but of a small circuit, though high, and lies six miles from the main; on the south side is anchorage in fourteen fathom water. Upon the main land S. W. by W. of this island, and apparently at no great distance from the sea, is a high round mountain, which I called MOUNT EDGECOMBE: it stands in the middle of a large plain, and is therefore the more conspicuous; latitude 37° 59′, longitude 193° 7′. --page 608

In standing westward, we suddenly shoaled our water from seventeen to ten fathom; and knowing that we were not far from the small islands and rocks which we had seen before dark, and which I intended to have passed before I brought to for the night, I thought it more prudent to tack, and spend the night under Mowtohora, where I knew there was no danger. It was indeed happy for us that we did so; for in the morning, after we had made sail to the westward,* we discovered, ahead of us, several rocks, some of which were level with the surface of the water, and some below it: they lay N. N. E. from Mount Edgecombe, one league and a half distant from the island Mowtohora, and about nine miles from the main. We passed between these rocks and the main, having from ten to seven fathom water. --page 609

This morning, many canoes and much people were seen along the shore; several of the canoes followed us, but none of them could reach us, except one with a sail, which proved to be the same that had pelted us the night before. The people on board again entered into conversation with Tupia; but we expected another volley of their ammunition, which was not indeed dangerous to any thing but the cabbin windows. They continued abreast of the ship about an hour, and behaved very peaceably; but at last the salute which we expected was given;* we returned it by firing a musquet over them, and they immediately dropped a-stern and left us, perhaps rather satisfied with having given a test of their courage by twice insulting a vessel so much superior to their own, than intimidated by the shot. --page 610

At half an hour after ten, we passed between a low flat island and the main: the distance from one to the other was about four miles, and the depth of water from ten to twelve fathom. The main land between this flat island and Mowtohora is of a moderate height, but level, pretty clear of wood, and full of plantations and villages. The villages, which were larger than any we had yet seen, were built upon eminences near the sea, and fortified on the land side by a bank and ditch, with a high paling within it, which was carried all round: beside a bank, ditch, and pallisadoes, some of them appeared to have out-works. Tupia had a notion that the small inclosures of pallisadoes, and a ditch that we had seen before, were Morais or places of worship; but we were of opinion that they were forts, and concluded that these people had neighbouring enemies, and were always exposed to hostile attacks. --page 611

At two o'clock we passed a small high island, lying four miles from a high round head upon the main. From this head the land trends N. W. as far as can be seen, and has a rugged and hilly appearance. As the weather was hazy, and the wind blew fresh on the shore, we hauled off for the weathermost island in sight, which bore from us N. N. E. distant about six or seven leagues. --page 612

Under this island, which I have called the MAYOR, we spent the night.* At seven in the morning it bore S. 47 E. distant six leagues, and a cluster of small islands and rocks bore N. ½ E. distant one league, to which I gave the name of the COURT OF ALDERMEN.* They lie in the compass of about half a league every way, and five leagues from the main, between which and them lie other islands, most of them barren rocks, of which there is great variety: some of them are as small in compass as the Monument of London, but rise to a much greater height, and some of them are inhabited. They lie in latitude 36° 57′, and at noon bore S. 60 E. distant three or four leagues; and a rock like a castle, lying not far from the main, bore N. 40 W. at the distance of one league. The country that we passed the night before, appeared to be well inhabited, many towns were in sight, and some hundreds of large canoes lay under them upon the beach; but this day, after having sailed about fifteen leagues, it appeared to be barren and desolate. As far as we had yet coasted this country from Cape Turnagain, the people acknowledged one Chief, whom they called TERATU, and to whose residence they pointed, in a direction that we thought to be very far inland, but afterwards found to be otherwise. --page 613

About one o'clock three canoes came off to us from the main, with one and twenty men on board. The construction of these vessels appeared to be more simple than that of any we had seen, they being nothing more than trunks of a single tree hollowed by fire, without any convenience or ornament. The people on board were almost naked, and appeared to be of a browner complexion; yet naked and despicable as they were, they sung their song of defiance, and seemed to denounce against us inevitable destruction: they remained, however, some time out of stones throw, and then venturing nearer, with less appearance of hostility, one of our men went to the ship side, and was about to hand them a rope; this courtesy, however, they thought fit to return by throwing a lance at him, which having missed him, they immediately threw another into the ship:* upon this a musquet was fired over them, which at once sent them away. --page 614

About two, we saw a large opening, or inlet, for which we bore up; we had new forty one fathom water, which gradually decreased to nine, at which time we were one mile and an half distant from a high towered rock which lay near the south point of the inlet: this rock, and the northermost of the Court of Aldermen being in one, bearing S. 61 E. --page 615

About seven in the evening we anchored in seven fathom, a little within the south entrance of the bay: to this place we were accompanied by several canoes and people like those we had seen last, and for some time they behaved very civilly. While they were hovering about us, a bird was shot from the ship, as it was swimming upon the water: at this they shewed less surprize than we expected, and taking up the bird, they tied it to a fishing line that was towing astern; as an acknowledgment for this favour we gave them a piece of cloth: but notwithstanding this effect of our firearms, and this interchange of civilities, as soon as it grew dark they sung their war song, and attempted to tow away the buoy of the anchor. Two or three muskets were then fired over them, but this seemed rather to make them angry than afraid, and they went away, threatening that to-morrow they would return with more force, and be the death of us all; at the same time sending off a boat, which they told us was going to another part of the bay for assistance. --page 616

There was some appearance of generosity, as well as courage, in acquainting us with the time when they intended to make their attack, but they forfeited all credit which this procured them, by coming secretly upon us in the night, when they certainly hoped to find us asleep:* upon approaching the ship they found themselves mistaken, and therefore retired without speaking a word, supposing that they were too early; after some time they came a second time, and being again disappointed, they retired as silently as before. --page 617

In the morning, at day-break,* they prepared to effect by force what they had in vain attempted by stealth and artifice: no less than twelve canoes came against us, with about a hundred and fifty men, all armed with pikes, lances, and stones. As they could do nothing till they came very near the ship, Tupia was ordered to expostulate with them, and if possible divert them from their purpose: during the conversation they appeared to be sometimes friendly and sometimes otherwise; at length, however, they began to trade, and we offered to purchase their weapons, which some of them consented to sell: they sold two very fairly, but having received what had been agreed upon for the purchase of a third, they refused to send it up, but offered it for a second price; a second was sent down, but the weapon was still detained, and a demand made of a third; this being refused with some expressions of displeasure and resentment, the offender, with many ludicrous tokens of contempt and defiance, paddled his canoe off a few yards from the ship. As I intended to continue in this place five or six days, in order to make an observation of the transit of Mercury, it was absolutely necessary, in order to prevent future mischief, to shew these people that we were not to be treated ill with impunity; some small shot were therefore fired at the thief, and a musket ball through the bottom of his boat: upon this it was paddled to about a hundred yards distance, and to our great surprize the people in the other canoes took not the least notice of their wounded companion, though he bled very much, but returned to the ship, and continued to trade with the most perfect indifference and unconcern.* They fold us many more of their weapons without making any other attempt to defraud us, for a considerable time; at last, however, one of them thought fit to paddle away with two different pieces of cloth which had been given for the same weapon: when he had got about an hundred yards distance, and thought himself secure of his prize, a musket was fired after him, which fortunately struck the boat just at the water's edge, and made two holes in her side; this only incited them to ply their paddles with greater activity, and the rest of the canoes also made off with the utmost expedition. As the last proof of our superiority therefore, we fired a round shot over them, and not a boat stopped till they got on shore. --page 618

About ten o'clock, I went with two boats to sound the bay, and look out for a more convenient anchoring-place, the Master being in one boat and myself in the other. We pulled first over to the north shore, from which some canoes came out to meet us; as we advanced, however, they retired, inviting us to follow them: but, seeing them all armed, I did not think it proper to comply, but went towards the head of the bay, where I observed a village upon a very high point, fortified in the manner that has been already described, and having fixed upon an anchoring-place not far from where the ship lay, I returned on board. --page 619

At three o'clock in the afternoon, I weighed, run in nearer to the shore, and anchored in four fathom and an half water, with a soft sandy bottom, the south point of the bay bearing E. distant one mile, and a river which the boats can enter at low water S. S. E. distant a mile and an half. --page 620

*In the morning, the natives came off again to the ship, and we had the satisfaction to observe that their behaviour was very different from what it had been yesterday: among them was an old man,* whom we had before remarked for his prudence and honesty: his name was TOIAVA, and he seemed to be a person of a superior rank; in the transactions of yesterday morning he had behaved with great propriety and good sense, lying in a small canoe, always near the ship, and treating those on board as if he neither intended a fraud nor suspected an injury: with some persuasion this man and another came on board, and ventured into the cabin, where I presented each of them with a piece of English cloth and some spike nails. They told us that the Indians were now very much afraid of us, and on our part we promised friendship if they would behave peaceably, desiring only to purchase what they had to sell upon their own terms. --page 621

After the natives had left us, I went with the pinnace and long-boat into the river with a design to haul the seine, and sent the Master in the yawl to sound the bay and dredge for fish. The Indians who were on one side of the river, expressed their friendship by all the signs they could devise, beckoning us to land among them; but we chose to go ashore on the other side, as the situation was more convenient for hauling the seine and shooting birds, of which we saw great numbers of various kinds: the Indians with much persuasion, about noon, ventured over to us. With the seine we had very little success, catching only a few mullets, neither did we get any thing by the trawl or the dredge, except a few shells; but we shot several birds, most of them resembling sea-pies, except that they had black plumage, and red bills and feet. While we were absent with our guns, the people who staid by the boats saw two of the Indians quarrel and fight: they began the battle with their lances, but some old men interposed and took them away, leaving them to decide the difference, like Englishmen, with their fists: they boxed with great vigour and obstinacy for some time, but by degrees all retired behind a little hill,* so that our people could not see the event of the combat. --page 622

*In the morning the long-boat was sent again to traul in the bay, and an officer, with the marines, and a party of men, to cut wood and haul the seine. The Indians on shore appeared very peaceable and submissive, and we had reason to believe that their habitations were at a considerable distance, for we saw no houses, and found that they slept under the bushes: the bay is probably a place to which they frequently resort in parties to gather shell-fish, of which it affords incredible plenty, for wherever we went, whether upon the hills or in the vallies, the woods or the plains, we saw vast heaps of shells, often many waggon loads together, some appearing to be very old, and others recent. We saw no cultivation in this place, which had a desolate and barren appearance; the tops of the hills were green, but nothing grew there except a large kind of fern, the roots of which the natives had got together in large quantities, in order to carry away with them. In the evening Mr. Banks walked up the river, which at the mouth looked fine and broad, but at the distance of about two miles was not deep enough to cover the foot; and the country inland was still more barren than at the sea-side. The seine and dredge were not more successful to-day than yesterday, but the Indians in some measure compensated for the disappointment by bringing us several baskets of fish, some dry, and some fresh dressed; it was not indeed of the best, but I ordered it all to be bought for the encouragement of trade. --page 623

*On the 7th, the weather was so bad that none of us left the ship, nor did any of the Indians come on board. --page 624

*On the 8th, I sent a party of men on shore to wood and water; and in the mean time many canoes came off, in one of which was our friend Toiava;* soon after he was alongside of the ship, he saw two canoes coming from the opposite side of the bay, upon which he hasted back again to the shore with all his canoes, telling us that he was afraid of the people who were coming: this was a farther proof that the people of this country were perpetually committing hostilities against each other. In a short time, however, he returned, having discovered that the people who had alarmed him were not the same that he had supposed. The natives that came to the ship this morning sold us, for a few pieces of cloth, as much fish of the mackrel kind as served the whole ship's company, and they were as good as ever were eaten. At noon, this day, I observed the sun's meridional zenith distance by an astronomical quadrant, which gave the latitude 36° 47′ 43″ within the south entrance of the bay. --page 625

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went on shore and collected a great variety of plants, altogether unknown, and not returning till the evening, had an opportunity of observing in what manner the Indians disposed themselves to pass the night. They had no shelter but a few shrubs: the women and the children were ranged innermost, or farthest from the sea; the men lay in a kind of half circle round them, and their arms were set up against the trees close by them, in a manner which showed that they were afraid of an attack by some enemy not far distant. It was also discovered that they acknowledged neither Teratu, nor any other person as their king: as in this particular they differed from all the people that we had seen upon other parts of the coast, we thought it possible that they might be a set of outlaws, in a state of rebellion against Teratu, and in that case they might have no settled habitations, or cultivated land in any part of the country. --page 626

*On the 9th, at day-break, a great number of canoes came on board, loaded with mackrel of two sorts, one exactly the same with those caught in England, and the other somewhat different: we imagined the people had taken a large shoal, and brought us an overplus which they could not consume; for they sold them at a very low rate. They were, however, very welcome to us; at eight o'clock, the ship had more fish on board than all her people could eat in three days; and before night, the quantity was so much increased, that every man who could get salt, cured as many as would last him a month. --page 627

After an early breakfast, I went ashore, with Mr. Green and proper instruments, to observe the transit of Mercury, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander being of the party; the weather had for some time been very thick, with much rain, but this day was so favourable that not a cloud intervened during the whole transit. The observation of the ingress was made by Mr. Green alone, while I was employed in taking the sun's altitude to ascertain the time. It came on at 7h 20′ 58″ apparent time: according to Mr. Green's observation, the internal contact was at 12h 8′ 58″, the external at 12h 9′ 55″ P.M. And according to mine, the internal contact was at 12h 8′ 54″, and the external 12h 9′ 48″; the latitude of the place of observation was 30° 48′ 5½″. The latitude observed at noon was 36° 48′ 28″. The mean of this and yesterday's observation gives 36° 48′ 5½″ S. the latitude of the place of observation; the variation of the compass was 11° 9′ E. --page 628

About noon, we were alarmed by the firing of a great gun from the ship; Mr. Gore, my Second Lieutenant, was at this time commanding officer on board, and the account that he gave was this. While some small canoes were trading with the people, two very large ones came up, full of men, one of them having on board forty-seven, all armed with pikes,* darts, and stones, and apparently with a hostile intention: they appeared to be strangers, and to be rather conscious of superiority over us by their numbers, than afraid of any weapons which could give us the superiority over them: no attack however was made; probably because they learnt from the people in the other canoes, with whom they immediately entered into conference, what kind of an enemy they had to deal with: after a little time, they began to trade, some of them offering their arms, and one of them a square piece of cloth, which makes a part of their dress, called a Haahow; several of the weapons were purchased, and Mr. Gore having agreed for a Haahow, sent down the price, which was a piece of British cloth, and expected his purchase: but the Indian, as soon as he had got Mr. Gore's cloth in his possession, refused to part with his own, and put off the canoe: upon being threatened for this fraud, he and his companions began to sing their war song in defiance, and shook their paddles: still however they began no attack, only defying Mr. Gore to take any remedy in his power, which so provoked him that he levelled a musquet loaded with ball at the offender, while he was holding the cloth in his hand, and shot him dead. It would have been happy, if the effect of a few small shot had been tried upon this occasion, which upon some others had been successful. --page 629

When the Indian dropped, all the canoes put off to some distance; but as they did not go away, it was thought they might still meditate an attack. To secure therefore a safe passage for the boat, which it was necessary to send on shore, a round shot was fired over their heads, which effectually answered the purpose, and put them all to flight. When an account of what had happened was brought ashore, our Indians were alarmed,* and drawing all together, retreated in a body. After a short time, however, they returned, having heard a more particular account of the affair; and intimated that they thought the man who had been killed deserved his fate. --page 630

A little before sunset the Indians retired to eat their supper, and we went with them to be spectators of the repast; it consisted of fish of different kinds, among which were lobsters, and some birds, of a species unknown to us: these were either roasted or baked; to roast them, they fastened them upon a small stick, which was stuck up in the ground, inclining towards their fire; and to bake them, they put them into a hole in the ground with hot stones, in the same manner as the people of Otaheite. --page 631

Among the natives that were assembled upon this occasion, we saw a woman, who, after their manner, was mourning for the death of her relation: she sat upon the ground near the rest, who, one only excepted, seemed not at all to regard her: the tears constantly trickled down her cheeks, and she repeated in a low, but very mournful voice, words, which even Tupia did not at all understand: at the end of every sentence she cut her arms, her face, or her breast with a shell that she held in her hand, so that she was almost covered with blood, and was indeed one of the most affecting spectacles that can be conceived. The cuts, however, did not appear to be so deep as are sometimes made upon similar occasions, if we may judge by the scars which we saw upon the arms, thighs, breasts, and cheeks of many of them, which we were told were the remains of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves as testimonies of their affection and sorrow. --page 632

*The next day, I went with two boats, accompanied by Mr. Banks and the other Gentlemen, to examine a large river that empties itself into the head of the bay.* We rowed about four or five miles up, and could have gone much farther if the weather had been favourable. It was here wider than at the mouth, and divided into many streams by small flat islands, which are covered with mangroves, and overflowed at high water. From these trees exudes a viscous substance which very much resembles resin: we found it first in small lumps upon the sea beach, and now saw it sticking to the trees, by which we knew whence it came. We landed on the east side of the river, where we saw a tree upon which several shags had built their nests, and here therefore we determined to dine; twenty of the shags were soon killed, and being broiled upon the spot, afforded us an excellent meal. We then went upon the hills from whence I thought I saw the head of the river. The shore on each side, as well as the islands in the middle, were covered with mangroves; and the sand-banks abounded in cockles and clams: in many places there were rock oysters, and every where plenty of wild fowl, principally shags, ducks, curlieus, and the sea-pie, that has been described before. We also saw fish in the river, but of what kind we could not discover: the country on the east side of this river is for the most part barren, and destitute of wood; but on the west it has a better aspect, and in some places is adorned with trees, but has in no part the appearance of cultivation. In the entrance of the river, and for two or three miles up, there is good anchoring in four and five fathom water, and places very convenient for laying a vessel on shore, where the tide rises and falls seven feet at the full and change of the moon. We could not determine, whether any considerable stream of fresh water came into this river out of the country; but we saw a number of small rivulets issue from the adjacent hills. Near the mouth of this river, on the east side, we found a little Indian village, consisting of small temporary sheds,* where we landed, and were received by the people with the utmost kindness and hospitality: they treated us with a flat shell-fish of a most delicious taste, somewhat like a cockle, which we eat hot from the coals. Near this place is a high point or peninsula, projecting into the river, and upon it are the remains of a fort, which they call Eppah or Heppah. The best engineer in Europe could not have chosen a situation better adapted to enable a small number to defend themselves against a greater. The steepness of the cliffs renders it wholly inaccessible from the water which incloses it on three sides; and, to the land, it is fortified by a ditch, and a bank raised on the inside: from the top of the bank to the bottom of the ditch, is two and twenty feet; the ditch on the outside is fourteen feet deep, and its breadth is in proportion. The whole seemed to have been executed with great judgment; and there had been a row of pickets or pallisadoes, both on the top of the bank and along the brink of the ditch on the outside; those on the outside had been driven very deep into the ground, and were inclined towards the ditch, so as to project over it; but of these the thickest posts only were left, and upon them there were evident marks of fire, so that the place had probably been taken and destroyed by an enemy. If any occasion should make it necessary for a ship to winter here, or stay any time, tents might be built in this place, which is sufficiently spacious, with great convenience, and might easily be made impregnable to the whole country. --page 633

*On the eleventh, there was so much wind and rain that no canoe came off; but the long-boat was sent to fetch oysters from one of the beds which had been discovered the day before: the boat soon returned, deeply laden, and the oysters, which were as good as ever came from Colchester, and about the same size, were laid down under the booms, and the --page 634

[illustration] ship's company did nothing but eat them from the time they came on board till night, when,* as may reasonably be supposed, great part of them were expended; this, however, gave us no concern, as we knew that not the boat only, but the ship, might have been loaded, almost in one tide, as the beds are dry at half ebb. In the morning of Sunday the 12th,* two canoes came off full of people whom we had never seen before, but who appeared to have heard of us by the caution which they used in approaching us. As we invited them to come alongside with all the tokens of friendship that we could shew, they ventured up, and two of them came on board; the rest traded very fairly for what they had: a small canoe also came from the other side of the bay, and sold us some very large fish, which they gave us to understand they would have brought yesterday, having caught them the day before, but that the wind was so high they could not venture to sea. --page 635

After breakfast, I went with the pinnace and yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, over to the north side of the bay, to take a view of the country, and two fortified villages which we had discovered at a distance. We landed near the smallest of them, the situation of which was the most beautifully romantic that can be imagined; it was built upon a small rock, detached from the main, and surrounded at high water. The whole body of this rock was perforated by an hollow or arch, which possessed much the largest part of it; the top of the arch was above sixty feet perpendicular above the sea, which at high water flowed through the bottom of it: the whole summit of the rock above the arch was fenced round after their manner; but the area was not large enough to contain more than five or six houses: it was accessible only by one very narrow and steep path,* by which the inhabitants, at our approach, came down, and invited us into the place; but we refused, intending to visit a much more considerable fort of the same kind at about a mile's distance. We made some presents however to the women, and in the mean time we saw the inhabitants of the town which we were going to, coming towards us in a body, men, women, and children, to the number of about one hundred: when they came near enough to be heard, they waved their hands and called out Horomai; after which they sat down among the bushes near the beach: these ceremonies we were told were certain signs of their friendly disposition. We advanced to the place where they were sitting, and when we came up, made them a few presents, and asked leave to visit their Heppah; they consented with joy in their countenances, and immediately led the way. It is called WHARRETOUWA, and is situated upon a high promontory or point, which projects into the sea, on the north side, and near the head of the bay: two sides of it are washed by the sea, and these are altogether inaccessible; two other sides are to the land: up one of them, which is very steep, lies the avenue from the beach; the other is flat and open to the country upon the hill, which is a narrow ridge: the whole is inclosed by a pallisade about ten feet high, consisting of strong pales bound together with withes. The weak side next the land is also defended by a double ditch, the innermost of which has a bank and an additional pallisade; the inner pallisades are upon the bank next the town, but at such a distance from the top of the bank as to leave room for men to walk and use their arms, between them and the inner ditch: the outermost pallisades are between the two ditches, and driven obliquely into the ground, so that their upper ends incline over the inner ditch: the depth of this ditch, from the bottom to the top or crown of the bank, is four and twenty feet.* Close within the innermost pallisade is a stage, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad; it is supported by strong posts, and is intended as a station for those who defend the place, from which they may annoy the assailants by darts and stones, heaps of which lay ready for use. Another stage of the same kind commands the steep avenue from the beach, and stands also within the pallisade; on this side of the hill there are some little outworks and huts, not intended as advanced posts, but as the habitations of people who for want of room could not be accommodated within the works, but who were, notwithstanding, desirous of placing themselves under their protection. The pallisades, as has been observed already, run round the whole brow of the hill, as well towards the sea as towards the land; but the ground within having originally been a mount, they have reduced it not to one level, but to several, rising in stages one above the other, like an amphitheatre, each of which is inclosed within its separate pallisade; they communicate with each other by narrow lanes, which might easily be stopped up, so that if an enemy should force the outward pallisade, he would have others to carry before the place could be wholly reduced, supposing these places to be obstinately defended one after the other. The only entrance is by a narrow passage, about twelve feet long, communicating with the steep ascent from the beach: it passes under one of the fighting stages, and though we saw nothing like a door or gateway, it may be easily barricaded in a manner that will make the forcing it a very dangerous and difficult undertaking. Upon the whole, this must be considered as a place of great strength, in which a small number of resolute men may defend themselves against all the force which a people with no other arms than those that are in use here could bring against it.* It seemed to be well furnished for a siege with every thing but water; we saw great quantities of fern root, which they eat as bread, and dried fish piled up in heaps; but we could not perceive that they had any fresh water nearer than a brook, which runs close under the foot of the hill: whether they have any means of getting it from this place during a siege, or whether they have any method of storing it within the works in gourds or other vessels, we could not learn; some resource they certainly have with respect to this article, an indispensable necessary of life, for otherwise the laying up dry provisions could answer no purpose. Upon our expressing a desire to see their method of attack and defence, one of the young men mounted a fighting stage, which they call Porava, and another went into the ditch: both he that was to defend the place, and he that was to assault it, sung the war-song, and danced with the same frightful gesticulations that we had seen used in more serious circumstances, to work themselves up into a degree of that mechanical fury, which, among all uncivilized nations, is the necessary prelude to a battle; for dispassionate courage, a strength of mind that can surmount the sense of danger, without a flow of animal spirits by which it is extinguished, seems to be the prerogative of those who have projects of more lasting importance, and a keener sense of honour and disgrace, than can be formed or felt by men who have few pains or pleasures besides those of mere animal life, and scarcely any purpose but to provide for the day that is passing over them, to obtain plunder, or revenge an insult: they will march against each other indeed in cool blood, though they find it necessary to work themselves into passion before they engage; as among us there have been many instances of people who have deliberately made themselves drunk, that they might execute a project which they formed when they were sober, but which, while they continued so,* they did not dare to undertake. --page 636

On the side of the hill, near this inclosure, we saw about half an acre planted with gourds and sweet potatoes, which was the only cultivation in the bay: under the foot of the point upon which this fortification stands, are two rocks, one just broken off from the main, and the other not perfectly detached from it: they are both small, and seem more proper for the habitations of birds than men; yet there are houses and places of defence upon each of them. And we saw many other works of the same kind upon small islands, rocks, and ridges of hills, on different parts of the coast, besides many fortified towns, which appeared to be much superior to this. --page 637

The perpetual hostility in which these poor savages, who have made every village a fort, must necessarily live, will account for there being so little of their land in a state of cultivation; and, as mischiefs very often reciprocally produce each other, it may perhaps appear, that there being so little land in a state of cultivation, will account for their living in perpetual hostility. But it is very strange, that the same invention and diligence which have been used in the construction of places so admirably adapted to defence, almost without tools, should not, when urged by the same necessity, have furnished them with a single missile weapon except the lance, which is thrown by hand: they have no contrivance like a bow to discharge a dart, nor any thing like a sling to assist them in throwing a stone; which is the more surprising, as the invention of slings, and bows and arrows, is much more obvious than of the works which these people construct, and both these weapons are found among much ruder nations, and in almost every other part of the world. Besides the long lance and Patoo-Patoo,* which have been mentioned already, they have a staff about five feet long, sometimes pointed, like a Serjeant's halberd, sometimes only tapering to a point at one end, and having the other end broad, and shaped somewhat like the blade of an oar. They have also another weapon, about a foot shorter than these, pointed at one end, and at the other shaped like an axe. The points of their long lances are barbed, and they handle them with such strength and agility, that we can match them with no weapon but a loaded musquet. --page 638

After taking a slight view of the country, and loading both the boats with celery, which we found in great plenty near the beach, we returned from our excursion, and about five o'clock in the evening got on board the ship. --page 639

*On the 15th, I sailed out of the bay, and at the same time had several canoes on board, in one of which was our friend Toiava, who said, that as soon as we were gone he must repair to his Heppah or fort, because the friends of the man who had been shot by Mr. Gore on the 9th, had threatened to revenge his death upon him, whom they had reproached as being our friend. Off the north point of the bay, I saw a great number of islands, of various extent, which lay scattered to the north west, in a direction parallel with the main as far as I could see. I steered north east for the north eastermost of these islands; but the wind coming to the north west, I was obliged to stand out to sea. --page 640

To the bay which we had now left I gave the name of MERCURY BAY, on account of the observation which we had made there of the transit of that planet over the sun. It lies in latitude 36° 47′ S.; and in the longitude of 184° 4′ W.: there are several islands lying both to the southward and northward of it, and a small island or rock in the middle of the entrance:* within this island the depth of water no where exceeds nine fathom: the best anchoring is in a sandy bay, which lies just within the south head, in five and four fathom, bringing a high tower or rock, which lies without the head, in one with the head, or just shut in behind it. This place is very convenient both for wooding and watering, and in the river there is an immense quantity of oysters and other shell-fish: I have for this reason given it the name of OYSTER RIVER. But for a ship that wants to stay here any time, the best and safest place is in the river at the head of the bay; which, from the number of mangrove trees about it, I have called MANGROVE RIVER. To sail into this river, the south shore must be kept all the way on board. The country on the east side of the river and bay is very barren, its only produce being fern, and a few other plants that will grow in a poor soil. The land on the north west side is covered with wood, and the soil being much more fertile, would doubtless produce all the necessaries of life with proper cultivation: it is not however so fertile as the lands that we have seen to the southward; nor do the inhabitants, though numerous, make so good an appearance: they have no plantations; their canoes are mean, and without ornament; they sleep in the open air; and say, that Teratu, whose sovereignty they do not acknowledge, if he was to come among them, would kill them. This favoured our opinion of their being outlaws; yet they told us, that they had Heppahs or strong holds, to which they retired in time of imminent danger. --page 641

We found, thrown upon the shore, in several parts of this bay, great quantities of iron-sand, which is brought down by every little rivulet of fresh water that finds its way from the country; which is a demonstration that there is ore of that metal not far inland:* yet neither the inhabitants of this place, or any other part of the coast that we have seen, know the use of iron, or set the least value upon it; all of them preferring the most worthless and useless trifle, not only to a nail, but to any tool of that metal. --page 642

Before we left the bay, we cut upon one of the trees near the watering-place the ship's name, and that of the Commander, with the date of the year and month when we were there; and, after displaying the English colours, I took a formal possession of it in the name of his Britannic Majesty King George the Third. --page 643

I Continued plying to windward two days to get under the land, and on the 18th, about seven in the morning,* we were abreast of a very conspicuous promontory, being then in latitude 36° 26′, and in the direction of N. 48 W. from the north head of Mercury Bay or Point Mercury, which was distant nine leagues: upon this point stood many people, who seemed to take little notice of us, but talked together with great earnestness. In about half an hour, several canoes put off from different places, and came towards the ship; upon which the people on the point also launched a canoe, and about twenty of them came in her up with the others. When two of these canoes, in which there might be about sixty men, came near enough to make themselves heard, they sung their war-song; but seeing that we took little notice of it, they threw a few stones at us, and then rowed off towards the shore. We hoped that we had now done with them, but in a short time they returned, as if with a fixed resolution to provoke us into a battle, animating themselves by their song as they had done before. Tupia, without any directions from us,* went to the poop, and began to expostulate: he told them, that we had weapons which would destroy them in a moment; and that, if they ventured to attack us, we should be obliged to use them. Upon this, they flourished their weapons, and cried out, in their language, "Come on shore, and we will kill you all:" Well, said Tupia, but why should you molest us while we are at sea? as we do not wish to fight, we shall not accept your challenge to come on shore; and here there is no pretence for a quarrel, the sea being no more your property than the ship. This eloquence of Tupia, though it greatly surprised us, having given him no hints for the arguments he used, had no effect upon our enemies, who very soon renewed their battery: a musquet was then fired through one of their boats, and this was an argument of sufficient weight, for they immediately fell astern and left us. --page 644

From the point, of which we were now abreast, the land trends W. ½ S. near a league, and then S. S. E. as far as we could see; and, besides the islands that lay without us, we could see land round by the S. W. as far as the N. W.; but whether this was the main or islands, we could not then determine: the fear of losing the main, however, made me resolve to follow its direction. With this view, I hauled round the point and steered to the southward, but there being light airs all round the compass, we made but little progress. --page 645

About one o'clock, a breeze sprung up at east, which afterwards came to N. E. and we steered along the shore S. by E. and S. S. E. having from twenty-five to eighteen fathom. --page 646

At about half an hour after seven in the evening, having run seven or eight leagues since noon, I anchored in twenty-three fathom, not chusing to run any farther in the dark, as I had now land on both sides, forming the entrance of a streight, bay, or river,* lying S. by E. for on that point we could see no land. --page 647

At day-break, on the 19th, the wind being still favourable,* we weighed and stood with an easy sail up the inlet, keeping nearest to the east side. In a short time, two large canoes came off to us from the shore; the people on board said, that they knew Toiava very well, and called Tupia by his name. I invited some of them on board; and as they knew they had nothing to fear from us, while they behaved honestly and peaceably, they immediately complied: I made each of them some presents, and dismissed them much gratified. Other canoes afterwards came up to us from a different side of the bay; and the people on board of these also mentioned the name of Toiava, and sent a young man into the ship, who told us he was his grandson, and he also was dismissed with a present. --page 648

After having run about five leagues from the place where we had anchored the night before, our depth of water gradually decreased to six fathom; and not chusing to go into less, as it was tide of flood, and the wind blew right up the inlet, I came to an anchor about the middle of the channel, which is near eleven miles over; after which I sent two boats out to sound, one on one side, and the other on the other. --page 649

The boats not having found above three feet more water than we were now in, I determined to go no farther with the ship, but to examine the head of the bay in the boats; for, as it appeared to run a good way inland, I thought this a favourable opportunity to examine the interior part of the country, and its produce. --page 650

At day-break, therefore,* I set out in the pinnace and longboat, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia; and we found the inlet end in a river,* about nine miles above the ship: into this river we entered with the first of the flood, and within three miles found the water perfectly fresh. Before we had proceeded more than one third of that distance, we found an Indian town, which was built upon a a small bank of dry sand, but intirely surrounded by a deep mud, which possibly the inhabitants might consider as a defence. These people, as soon as they saw us, thronged to the banks, and invited us on shore. We accepted the invitation, and made them a visit notwithstanding the mud. They received us with open arms, having heard of us from our good old friend Toiava; but our stay could not be long, as we had other objects of curiosity in view. We proceeded up the river till near noon, when we were fourteen miles within its entrance; and then, finding the face of the country to continue nearly the same, without any alteration in the course of the stream, which we had no hope of tracing to its source, we landed on the west side, to take a view of the lofty trees which every where adorned its banks. They were of a kind that we had seen before, though only at a distance, both in Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay. Before we had walked an hundred yards into the wood, we met with one of them which was nineteen feet eight inches in the girt, at the height of six feet above the ground: having a quadrant with me, I measured its height from the root to the first branch, and found it to be eighty-nine feet: it was as strait as an arrow, and tapered but very little in proportion to its height; so that I judged there were three hundred and fifty-six feet of solid timber in it, exclusive of the branches. As we advanced, we saw many others that were still larger; we cut down a young one, and the wood proved heavy and solid, not fit for masts, but such as would make the finest plank in the world. Our carpenter, who was with us, said that the timber resembled that of the pitch-pine,* which is lightened by tapping; and possibly some such method might be found to lighten these, and they would then be such masts as no country in Europe can produce. As the wood was swampy, we could not range far; but we found many stout trees of other kinds, all of them utterly unknown to us, specimens of which we brought away. --page 651

The river at this height is as broad as the Thames at Greenwich, and the tide of flood as strong; it is not indeed quite so deep, but has water enough for vessels of more than a middle size, and a bottom of mud, so soft that nothing could take damage by running ashore. --page 652

About three o'clock, we reimbarked, in order to return with the first of the ebb, and named the river the THAMES, it having some resemblance to our own river of that name. In our return, the inhabitants of the village where we had been ashore, seeing us take another channel, came off to us in their canoes, and trafficked with us in the most friendly manner, till they had disposed of the few trifles they had. The tide of ebb just carried us out of the narrow part of the river, into the channel that run up from the sea, before it was dark; and we pulled hard to reach the ship, but meeting the flood, and a strong breeze at N. N. W. with showers of rain, we were obliged to desist; and about midnight, we run under the land, and came to a grappling, where we took such rest as our situation would admit.* At break of day, we set forward again, and it was past seven o'clock before we reached the ship. We were all extremely tired, but thought ourselves happy to be on board; for before nine it blew so hard that the boat could not have rowed ahead, and must therefore either have gone ashore, or taken shelter under it. --page 653

*About three o'clock, having the tide of ebb, we took up our anchor, made sail, and plied down the river till eight in the evening, when we came to an anchor again: early in the morning we made sail with the first ebb,* and kept plying till the flood obliged us once more to come to an anchor. As we had now only a light breeze, I went in the pinnace, accompanied by Dr. Solander, to the western shore; but I saw nothing worthy of notice. --page 654

When I left the ship, many canoes were about it; Mr. Banks therefore chose to stay on board, and traffic with the natives: they bartered their clothes and arms, chiefly for paper, and behaved with great friendship and honesty. But while some of them were below with Mr. Banks, a young man who was upon the deck stole a half minute glass which was in the binacle, and was detected just as he was carrying it off. Mr. Hicks, who was commanding officer on board, took it into his head to punish him, by giving him twelve lashes with a cat-o'nine-tails; and accordingly ordered him to be taken to the gang-way, and tied up to the shrouds. When the other Indians who were on board saw him seized, they attempted to rescue him; and being resisted, called for their arms, which were handed up from the canoes, and the people of one of them attempted to come up the ship's side. The tumult was heard by Mr. Banks, who, with Tupia, came hastily upon the deck to see what had happened. The Indians immediately ran to Tupia, who, finding Mr. Hicks inexorable, could only assure them, that nothing was intended against the life of their companion; but that it was necessary he should suffer some punishment for his offence, which being explained to them, they seemed to be satisfied. The punishment was then inflicted, and as soon as the criminal was unbound, an old man among the spectators, who was supposed to be his father, gave him a hearty beating,* and sent him down into his canoe. All the canoes then dropped a-stern, and the people said that they were afraid to come any more near the ship: after much persuasion, however, they ventured back again, but their cheerful confidence was at an end, and their stay was short; they promised indeed, at their departure, to return with some fish, but we saw no more of them. --page 655

On the 23d, the wind being contrary,* we kept plying down the river, and at seven in the evening, got without the N. W. point of the islands lying on the west side of it. The weather being bad, night coming on, and having land on every side of us, I thought it most advisable to tack, and stretch in under the point, where we anchored in nineteen fathom. At five in the morning, of the 24th, we weighed,* and made sail to the N. W. under our courses and double reefed top-sails, the wind being at S. W. by W. and W. S. W. a strong gale and squally. As the gale would not permit us to come near the land, we had but a slight and distant view of it from the time when we got under sail till noon, during a run of twelve leagues, but we never once lost sight of it. At this time, our latitude, by observation, was 36° 15′ 20″, we were not above two miles from a point of land on the main, and three leagues and an half from a very high island, which bore N. E. by E.: in this situation we had twenty-six fathom water: the farthest point on the main that we could see bore N. W. but we could perceive several small islands lying to the north of that direction. The point of land of which we were now a-breast, and which I called POINT RODNEY, is the N. W. extremity of the river Thames; for under that name I comprehend the deep bay which terminates in the fresh water stream, and the N. E. extremity is the promontory which we passed when we entered it, and which I called CAPE COLVILLE,* in honour of the Right Honourable Lord Colville. --page 656

Cape Colville lies in latitude 36° 26′, longitude 194° 27′; it rises directly from the sea to a considerable height, and is remarkable for a lofty rock, which stands to the pitch of the point, and may be distinguished at a very great distance. From the south point of this Cape the river runs in a direct line S. by E. and is no where less than three leagues broad for the distance of fourteen leagues above the Cape, and there it is contracted to a narrow stream, but continues the same course through a low flat country, or broad valley, which lies parallel with the sea coast, and the end of which we could not see. On the east side of the broad part of this river the land is tolerably high and hilly; on the west side it is rather low, but the whole is covered with verdure and wood, and has the appearance of great fertility, though there were but a few small spots which had been cultivated. At the entrance of the narrow part of the river the land is covered with mangroves and other shrubs; but farther, there are immense woods of perhaps the finest timber in the world, of which some account has already been given: in several places the wood extends to the very edge of the water, and where it is at a little distance, the intermediate space is marshy, like some parts of the banks of the Thames in England: it is probable that the river contains plenty of fish, for we saw poles stuck up in many places to set nets for catching them, but of what kinds I do not know. The greatest depth of water that we found in this river was six and twenty fathom, which gradually decreased to one fathom and an half: in the mouth of the fresh water stream it is from four to three fathom, but there are large flats and sand banks lying before it. A ship of moderate draught may, notwithstanding, go a long way up this river with a flowing tide, for it rises perpendicularly near ten feet,* and at the full and change of the moon, it is high water about nine o'clock. --page 657

Six leagues within Cape Colville, under the eastern shore, are several small islands, which, together with the main, seem to form good harbours; and opposite to these islands, under the western shore, lie other islands, by which it is also probable that good harbours may be formed: but if there are no harbours about this river, there is good anchoring in every part of it where the depth of water is sufficient, for it is defended from the sea by a chain of islands of different extent, which lie cross the mouth of it, and which I have, for that reason, called BARRIER ISLANDS: they stretch N. W. and S. E. ten leagues. The south end of the chain lies N. E. between two and three leagues from Cape Colville; and the north end lies N. E. four leagues and an half from Point Rodney. Point Rodney lies W. N. W. nine leagues from Cape Colville, in latitude 36° 15′ S. longitude 184° 53′ W. --page 658

The natives residing about this river do not appear to be numerous, considering the great extent of the country. But they are a strong, well-made, and active people, and all of them paint their bodies with red oker and oil from head to foot, which we had not seen before. Their canoes were large and well built, and adorned with carving, in as good a taste as any that we had seen upon the coast. --page 659

We continued to stand along the shore till night, with the main land on one side, and islands on the other, and then anchored in a bay, with fourteen fathom and a sandy bottom. We had no sooner come to an anchor, than we tried our lines, and in a short time caught near one hundred fish, which the people called Sea-bream; they weighed from six to eight pounds a piece, and consequently would supply the whole ship's company with food for two days. From the success of our lines here, we called the place BREAM BAY:* the two points that form it lie north and south, five leagues from each other; it is every where of a good breadth, and between three and four leagues deep: at the bottom of it there appears to be a river of fresh water. The north head of the bay, called BREAM HEAD, is high land, and remarkable for several pointed rocks, which stand in a range upon the top of it: it may also be known by some small islands which lie before it, called the HEN AND CHICKENS, one of which is high, and terminates in two peaks. It lies in latitude 35° 46′ S., and at the distance of seventeen leagues and an half from Cape Colville, in the direction of N. 41 W. --page 660

The land between Point Rodney and Bream Head, an extent of ten leagues, is low, and wooded in tufts, with white sand banks between the sea and the firm land. We saw no inhabitants, but many fires in the night; and where there are fires, there are always people. --page 661

*At day-break, on the 25th, we left the bay, and steered along shore to the northward: we found the variation of the compass to be 12° 42′ E. At noon, our latitude was 36° 36′ S., Bream Head bore south, distant ten miles; and we saw some small islands, to which I gave the name of the POOR KNIGHTS, at N. E. by N. distant three leagues; the northermost land in sight bore N. N. W.: we were in this place at the distance of two miles from the shore, and had twenty-six fathom water. --page 662

The country appeared low, but well covered with wood: we saw some straggling houses, three or four fortified towns, and near them a large quantity of cultivated land. --page 663

In the evening, seven large canoes came off to us, with about two hundred men: some of them came on board, and said that they had heard of us. To two of them, who appeared to be Chiefs, I gave presents;* but when these were gone out of the ship, the others became exceedingly troublesome. Some of those in the canoes began to trade, and, according to their custom, to cheat, by refusing to deliver what had been bought, after they had received the price: among these was one who had received an old pair of black breeches, which, upon a few small shot being fired at him, he threw into the sea. All the boats soon after paddled off to some distance, and when they thought they were out of reach, they began to defy us, by singing their song and brandishing their weapons. We thought it advisable to intimidate them, as well for their sakes as our own, and therefore fired first some small arms, and then round shot over their heads; the last put them in a terrible fright, though they received no damage, except by over-heating themselves in paddling away, which they did with astonishing expedition. --page 664

In the night we had variable light airs;* but towards the morning a breeze sprung up at S. and afterwards at S. E. with which we proceeded slowly to the northward, along the shore. --page 665

Between six and seven o'clock two canoes came off, and told us that they had heard of yesterday's adventure, notwithstanding which the people came on board, and traded very quietly and honestly for whatever they had: soon after two canoes came off from a more distant part of the shore; these were of a much larger size, and full of people: when they came near, they called off the other canoes which were along side of the ship, and after a short conference they all came up together. The strangers appeared to be persons of a superior rank; their canoes were well carved with many ornaments, and they had with them a great variety of weapons: they had patoo-patoos both of stone and whalebone,* upon which they appeared to set a great value; they had also ribs of whale, of which we had before seen imitations in wood, carved and adorned with tufts of dog's hair. Their complexions were browner than those of the people we had seen to the southward, and their bodies and faces were more marked with the black stains which they call Amoco: they had a broad spiral on each buttock; and the thighs of many of them were almost intirely black, some narrow lines only being left untouched, so that at first sight they appeared to wear striped breeches. With respect to the Amoco, every different tribe seemed to have a different custom, for all the men, in some canoes, seemed to be almost covered with it, and those in others had scarcely a stain, except on the lips, which were black in all of them without a single exception. These gentlemen, for a long time, refused to part with any of their weapons, whatever was offered for them; at last, however, one of them produced a piece of talc, wrought into the shape of an ax, and agreed to sell it for a piece of cloth: the cloth was handed over the ship's side, but his honour immediately put off his canoe with the ax. We had recourse to our usual expedient, and fired a musket ball over the canoe, upon which it put back to the ship, and the piece of cloth was returned; all the boats then went ashore, without offering any further intercourse. --page 666

At noon, the main land extended from S. by E. to N. W. by W. a remarkable point of land bearing W. distant four or five miles; at three we passed it, and I gave it the name of CAPE BRET, in honour of Sir Piercy. The land of this Cape is considerably higher than any part of the adjacent coast: at the point of it, is a high round hillock, and N. E. by N. at the distance of about a mile, is a small high island or rock, which, like several that have already been described, was perforated quite through,* so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. This Cape, or at least some part of it, is by the natives called MOTUGOGOGO, and it lies in latitude 35° 10′ 30″ S. longitude 185° 25′ W. On the west side of it is a large and pretty deep bay, lying in S. W. by W. in which there appeared to be several small islands: the point that forms the N. W. entrance, lies W. ¼ N. at the distance of three or four leagues from Cape Bret, and I distinguished it by the name of POINT POCOCKE. On the west side of the bay we saw several villages, both upon islands and the main, and several very large canoes came off to us, full of people, who made a better appearance than any we had seen yet: they were all stout and well-made; their hair, which was black, was tied up in a bunch on the crown of their heads, and stuck with white feathers. In each of the canoes were two or three Chiefs, whose habits were of the best sort of cloth, and covered with dog's skin, so as to make an agreeable appearance: most of these people were marked with the Amoco, like those who had been alongside of us before: their manner of trading was also equally fraudulent; and the officers neglecting either to punish or fright them, one of the midshipmen who had been defrauded in his bargain, had recourse, for revenge, to an expedient which was equally ludicrous and severe: he got a fishing line, and when the man who had cheated him was close under the ship's side in his canoe, he heaved the lead with so good an aim that the hook caught him by the backside; he then pulled the line, and the man holding back, the hook broke in the shank, and the beard was left sticking in the flesh. --page 667

During the course of this day, though we did not range more than six or eight leagues of the coast, we had alongside and on board the ship between four and five hundred of the natives,* which is a proof that this part of the country is well inhabited. --page 668

*At eight o'clock the next morning, we were within a mile of a group of islands which lie close under the main, at the distance of two and twenty miles from Cape Bret, in the direction of N. W. by W. ½ W. At this place, having but little wind, we lay about two hours, during which time several canoes came off, and sold us some fish, which we called Cavalles, and for that reason I gave the same name to the islands. These people were very insolent, frequently threatening us, even while they were selling their fish; and when some more canoes came up, they began to pelt us with stones. Some small shot were then fired, and hit one of them while he had a stone in his hand, in the very action of throwing it into the ship: they did not, however, desist, till some others had been wounded, and then they went away, and we stood off to sea. --page 669

The wind being directly against us, we kept plying to windward till the 29th,* when we had rather lost than gained ground; I therefore bore up for a bay which lies to the westward of Cape Bret; at this time it was about two leagues to leeward of us; and at about eleven o'clock we anchored under the south west side of one of the many islands which line it on the south east, in four fathom and an half water; we shoaled our water to this depth all at once, and if this had not happened I should not have come to an anchor so soon. The Master was immediately sent out with two boats to sound, and he soon discovered that we had got upon a bank, which runs out from the north west end of the island, and that on the outside of it there was from eight to ten fathom. --page 670

In the mean time the natives,* to the number of near four hundred, crouded upon us in their canoes, and some of them were admitted on board: to one, who seemed to be a Chief, I gave a piece of broad cloth, and distributed some trifling presents among the rest. I perceived that some of these people had been about the ship when she was off at sea, and that they knew the power of our fire-arms, for the very sight of a gun threw them into manifest confusion: under this impression they traded very fairly; but the people in one of the canoes took the opportunity of our being at dinner to tow away our buoy: a musket was fired over them without effect, we then endeavoured to reach them with some small shot, but they were too far off: by this time they had got the buoy into their canoe, and we were obliged to fire a musket at them with ball: this hit one of them, and they immediately threw the buoy over board: a round shot was then fired over them, which struck the water and went ashore. Two or three of the canoes immediately landed their people, who ran about the beach, as we imagined, in search of the ball. Tupia called to them, and assured them that while they were honest they should be safe, and with a little persuasion many of them returned to the ship, and their behaviour was such as left us no reason to suspect that they intended to give us any farther trouble. --page 671

After the ship was removed into deeper water, and properly secured, I went with the pinnace and yawl, manned and armed, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and landed upon the island, which was about three quarters of a mile distant: we observed that the canoes which were about the ship, did not follow us upon our leaving her, which we thought a good sign; but we had no sooner landed than they crouded to different parts of the island and came on shore. We were in a little cove, and in a few minutes were surrounded by two or three hundred people,* some rushing from behind the heads of the cove, and others appearing on the tops of the hills: they were all armed, but they came on in so confused and straggling a manner that we scarcely suspected they meant us any harm, and we were determined that hostilities should not begin on our part. We marched towards them, and then drew a line upon the sand between them and us, which we gave them to understand they were not to pass: at first they continued quiet, but their weapons were held ready to strike, and they seemed to be rather irresolute than peaceable. While we remained in this state of suspense, another party of Indians came up, and now growing more bold as their number increased, they began the dance and song, which are their preludes to a battle: still, however, they delayed the attack, but a party ran to each of our boats, and attempted to draw them on shore; this seemed to be the signal, for the people about us at the same time began to press in upon our line: our situation was now become too critical for us to remain longer inactive, I therefore discharged my musket, which was loaded with small shot, at one of the forwardest, and Mr. Banks and two of the men fired immediately afterwards: this made them fall back in some confusion, but one of the Chiefs, who was at the distance of about twenty yards, rallied them, and running forward waving his patoo-patoo, and calling loudly to his companions, led them to the charge. Dr. Solander, whose piece was not yet discharged, fired at this champion, who stopped short upon feeling the shot, and then ran away with the rest: they did not however disperse, but got together upon a rising ground, and seemed only to want some leader of resolution to renew their attack. As they were now beyond the reach of small shot, we fired with ball, but as none of them took place they still continued in a body, and in this situation we remained about a quarter of an hour:* in the mean time the ship, from whence a much greater number of Indians were seen than could be discovered in our situation, brought her broad-side to bear, and intirely dispersed them, by firing a few shot over their heads. In this skirmish only two of the Indians were hurt with the small shot, and not a single life was lost, which would not have been the case if I had not restrained the men, who, either from fear or the love of mischief, shewed as much impatience to destroy them as a sportsman to kill his game. When we were in quiet possession of our cove, we laid down our arms and began to gather celery, which grew here in great plenty: after a little time we recollected to have seen some of the people hide themselves in a cave of one of the rocks, we therefore went towards the place, when an old Indian, who proved to be the Chief that I had presented with a piece of broad cloth in the morning, came out with his wife and his brother, and in a supplicating posture put themselves under our protection. We spoke kindly to them, and the old man then told us that he had another brother, who was one of those that had been wounded by the small shot, and enquired with much solicitude and concern if he would die. We assured him that he would not, and at the same time put into his hand both a musket ball and some small shot, telling him, that those only who were wounded with the ball would die, and that the others would recover; at the same time assuring him, that if we were attacked again, we should certainly defend ourselves with the ball, which would wound them mortally. Having now taken courage, they came and sat down by us, and as tokens of our perfect amity, we made them presents of such trifles as we happened to have about us. --page 672

*Soon after we re-imbarked in our boats, and having rowed to another cove in the same island, climbed a neighbouring hill, which commanded the country to a considerable distance. The prospect was very uncommon and romantic, consisting of innumerable islands, which formed as many harbours, where the water was as smooth as a mill-pool: we saw also many towns, scattered houses, and plantations, the country being much more populous than any we had seen. One of the towns was very near us, from which many of the Indians advanced, taking great pains to shew us that they were unarmed, and in their gestures and countenances expressing great meekness and humility. In the mean time some of our people, who, when the Indians were to be punished for a fraud, assumed the inexorable justice of a Lycurgus, thought fit to break into one of their plantations, and dig up some potatoes: for this offence I ordered each of them to be punished with twelve lashes, after which two of them were discharged; but the third, insisting that it was no crime in an Englishman to plunder an Indian plantation, though it was a crime in an Indian to defraud an Englishman of a nail, I ordered him back into his confinement, from which I would not release him till he had received six lashes more. --page 673

*On the 30th, there being a dead calm, and no probability of our getting to sea, I sent the Master, with two boats to sound the harbour; and all the forenoon had several canoes about the ship, who traded in a very fair and friendly manner. In the evening we went ashore upon the main, where the people received us very cordially; but we found nothing worthy of notice. --page 674

In this bay we were detained by contrary winds and calms several days, during which time our intercourse with the natives was continued in the most peaceable and friendly manner, they being frequently about the ship,* and we ashore, both upon the islands and the main. In one of our visits to the continent, an old man shewed us the instrument they use in staining their bodies, which exactly resembled those that were employed for the same purpose at Otaheite. We saw also the man who was wounded in attempting to steal our buoy: the ball had passed through the fleshy part of his arm, and grazed his breast; but the wound, under the care of Nature, the best surgeon, and a simple diet, the best nurse, was in a good state, and seemed to give the patient neither pain nor apprehension. We saw also the brother of our old Chief, who had been wounded with small shot in our skirmish: they had struck his thigh obliquely, and though several of them were still in the flesh, the wound seemed to be attended with neither danger nor pain. We found among their plantations the morus papyrifera, of which these people, as well as those of Otaheite, make cloth; but here the plant seems to be rare, and we saw no pieces of the cloth large enough for any use but to wear by way of ornament in their ears. --page 675

Having one day landed in a very distant part of the bay, the people immediately fled, except one old man, who accompanied us wherever we went, and seemed much pleased with the little presents we made him. We came at last to a little fort, built upon a small rock, which at high water was surrounded by the sea, and accessible only by a ladder: we perceived that he eyed us with a kind of restless solicitude as we approached it, and upon our expressing a desire to enter it, he told us that his wife was there: he saw that our curiosity was not diminished by this intelligence, and after some hesitation, he said, if we would promise to offer no indecency he would accompany us: our promise was readily given, and he immediately led the way.* The ladder consisted of steps fastened to a pole, but we found the ascent both difficult dangerous. When we entered we found three women, who, the moment they saw us, burst into tears of terror and surprize: some kind words and a few presents soon removed their apprehensions, and put them into good humour. We examined the house of our old friend, and by his interest two others, which were all that the fortification contained, and having distributed a few more presents, we parted with mutual satisfaction. --page 676

*At four o'clock in the morning of the 5th of December, we weighed, with a light breeze, but it being variable with frequent calms, we made little way. We kept turning out of the bay till the afternoon, and about ten o'clock we were suddenly becalmed, so that the ship would neither wear nor stay, and the tide or current setting strong, she drove towards land so fast, that before any measures could be taken for her security she was within a cable's length of the breakers: we had thirteen fathom water, but the ground was so foul that we did not dare to drop our anchor; the pinnace therefore was immediately hoisted out to take the ship in tow, and the men, sensible of their danger, exerting themselves to the utmost, and a faint breeze springing up off the land, we perceived with unspeakable joy that she made head way, after having been so near the shore that Tupia, who was not sensible of our hair's breadth escape, was at this very time conversing with the people upon the beach, whose voices were distinctly heard, notwithstanding the roar of the breakers. We now thought all danger was over, but about an hour afterwards, just as the man in the chains had cried "seventeen fathom," the ship struck. The shock threw us all into the utmost consternation; Mr. Banks, who had undressed himself and was stepping into bed, ran hastily up to the deck,* and the man in the chains called out "five fathom;" by this time, the rock on which we had struck being to windward, the ship went off without having received the least damage, and the water very soon deepened to twenty fathom. --page 677

This rock lies half a mile W. N. W. of the northermost or outermost island on the south east side of the bay. We had light airs from the land, with calms,* till nine o'clock the next morning, when we got out of the bay, and a breeze springing up at N. N. W. we stood out to sea. --page 678

This bay, as I have before observed, lies on the west side of Cape Bret, and I named it the BAY OF ISLANDS, from the great number of islands which line its shores, and form several harbours equally safe and commodious, where there is room and depth for any number of shipping. That in which we lay is on the south west side of the south westermost island, called MATUARO, on the south east side of the bay. I have made no accurate survey of this bay, being discouraged by the time it would cost me; I thought also that it was sufficient to be able to affirm that it afforded us good anchorage, and refreshment of every kind. It was not the season for roots, but we had plenty of fish, most of which, however, we purchased of the natives, for we could catch very little ourselves either with net or line. When we shewed the natives our seine, which is such as the King's ships are generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in triumph produced their own, which was indeed of an enormous size, and made of a kind of grass, which is very strong: it was five fathom deep, and by the room it took up, it could not be less than three or four hundred fathom long. Fishing seems indeed to be the chief business of life in this part of the country; we saw about all their towns a great number of nets,* laid in heaps like hay-cocks, and covered with a thatch to keep them from the weather, and we scarcely entered a house where some of the people were not employed in making them. The fish we procured here were sharks, sting-rays, sea-bream, mullet, mackrel, and some others. --page 679

The inhabitants in this bay are far more numerous than in any other part of the country that we had before visited; it did not appear to us that they were united under one head, and though their towns were fortified, they seemed to live together in perfect amity. --page 680

It is high water in this bay at the full and change of the moon, about eight o'clock, and the tide then rises from six to eight feet perpendicularly. It appears, from such observations as I was able to make of the tides upon the seacoast, that the flood comes from the southward; and I have reason to think that there is a current which comes from the westward, and sets along the shore to the S. E. or S. S. E. as the land happens to lie. --page 681

ON Thursday the 7th of December, at noon,* Cape Bret bore S. S. E. ½ E. distant ten miles, and our latitude, by observation, was 34° 59′ S.; soon after we made several observations of the sun and moon, the result of which made our longitude 185° 36′ W. The wind being against us, we had made but little way. In the afternoon, we stood in shore, and fetched close tinder the Cavalles, from which islands the main trends W. by N.: several canoes put off and followed us, but a light breeze springing up, I did not chuse to wait for them. I kept standing to the W. N. W. and N. W. till the next morning ten o'clock,* when I tacked and stood in for the shore, from which we were about five leagues distant. At noon, the westermost land in sight bore W. by S. and was about four leagues distant. In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze to the west, which in the evening came to the south, and continuing so all night,* by day-light brought us pretty well in with the land, seven leagues to the westward of the Cavalles, where we found a deep bay running in S. W. by W. and W. S. W. the bottom of which we could but just see, and there the land appeared to be low and level. To this bay, which I called DOUBTLESS BAY, the entrance is formed by two points, which lie W. N. W. and E. S. E. and are five miles distant from each other. The wind not permitting us to look in here,* we steered for the westermost land in sight, which bore from us W. N. W. about three leagues, but before we got the length of it it fell calm. --page 682

While we lay becalmed, several canoes came off to us, but the people having heard of our guns, it was not without great difficulty that they were persuaded to come under our stern: after having bought some of their cloaths, as well as their fish, we began to make enquiries concerning their country, and learnt, by the help of Tupia, that, at the distance of three days rowing in their canoes, at a place called MOORE-WHENNUA, the land would take a short turn to the southward, and from thence extend no more to the west. This place we concluded to be the land discovered by Tasman, which he called CAPE MARIA VAN DIEMEN, and finding these people so intelligent, we inquired farther, if they knew of any country besides their own: they answered, that they never had visited any other, but that their ancestors had told them, that to the N. W. by N. or N. N. W. there was a country of great extent, called ULIMAROA, to which some people had sailed in a very large canoe; that only part of them returned, and reported, that after a passage of a month they had seen a country where the people eat hogs. Tupia then enquired whether these adventurers brought any hogs with them when they returned; they said No: then, replied Tupia, your story is certainly false, for it cannot be believed that men who came back from an expedition without hogs, had ever visited a country where hogs were to be procured. It is however remarkable, notwithstanding the shrewdness of Tupia's objection, that when they mentioned hogs it was not by description but by name, calling them Booah, the name which is given them in the South-sea islands; but if the animal had been wholly unknown to them,* and they had had no communication with people to whom it was known, they could not possibly have been acquainted with the name. --page 683

About ten o'clock at night, a breeze sprung up at W. N. W. with which we stood off north; and at noon the next day,* the Cavalles bore S. E. by E. distant eight leagues; the entrance of Doubtless Bay S. by W. distant three leagues; and the north west extremity of the land in sight, which we judged to be the main, bore N. W. by W.: our latitude by observation was 34° 44′ S. In the evening, we found the variation to be 12° 41′ E. by the azimuth, and 12° 40′ by the amplitude. --page 684

Early in the morning, we stood in with the land,* seven leagues to the westward of Doubtless Bay, the bottom of which is not far distant from the bottom of another large bay, which the shore forms at this place, being separated only by a low neck of land, which juts out into a peninsula that I have called KNUCKLE POINT. About the middle of this bay, which we called SANDY BAY, is a high mountain, standing upon a distant shore, to which I gave the name of MOUNT CAMEL. The latitude here is 34° 51′ S. and longitude 186° 50′. We had twenty-four and twenty-five fathom water, with a good bottom; but there seems to be nothing in this bay that can induce a ship to put into it; for the land about it is utterly barren and desolate, and, except Mount Camel, the situation is low: the soil appears to be nothing but white sand, thrown up in low irregular hills and narrow ridges, lying parallel with the shore. But barren and desolate as this place is, it is not without inhabitants: we saw one village on the west side of Mount Camel, and another on the east side; we saw also five canoes full of people, who pulled after the ship, but could not come up with us. At nine o'clock,* we tacked and stood to the northward; and at noon, the Cavalles bore S. E. by E. distant thirteen leagues; the north extremity of the land in sight, making like an island, bore N. W. ¼ N. distant nine leagues; and Mount Camel bore S. W. by S. distance six leagues. --page 685

The wind being contrary, we kept plying northward till five o'clock in the evening of the 12th,* when, having made very little way, we tacked and stood to the N. E. being two leagues to the northward of Mount Camel, and about a mile and a half from the shore, in which situation we had two and twenty fathom water. --page 686

At ten, it began to blow and rain, which brought us under double reefed topsails; at twelve, we tacked and stood to the westward till seven the next morning,* when we tacked and stood again to the N. E. being about a mile to windward of the place where we tacked last night. Soon after it blew very hard at N. N. W. with heavy squalls and much rain, which brought us under our courses, and split the maintop-sail; so that we were obliged to unbend it and bend another: at ten, it became more moderate, and we set the top-sails, double reefed: at noon, having strong gales and heavy weather, we tacked and stood to the westward, and had no land in sight for the first time since we had been upon this coast. --page 687

We had now strong gales at W. and W. S. W.; and at half an hour past three we tacked and stood to the northward. Soon after, a small island lying off Knuckle Point bore S. ½ W. distant half a league. In the evening, having split the fore and mizen topsails, we brought the ship under her courses; and at midnight, we wore, and stood to the southward till five in the morning;* when we tacked and stood to the N. W. and saw land bearing south, at the distance of eight or nine leagues;* by this we discovered that we had fallen much to the leeward since yesterday morning. At noon, our latitude by observation was 34° 6′ S.; and the same land which we had seen before to the N. W. now bore S. W. and appeared to be the northern extremity of the country. We had a large swell rolling in from the westward, and therefore concluded that we were not covered by any land in that quarter. At eight in the evening, we tacked and stood to the westward, with as much sail as we could bear;* and at noon the next day, we were in latitude 34° 10′, longitude 185° 45′ W. and by estimation about seventeen leagues from the land, notwithstanding our utmost endeavours to keep in with it. --page 688

On the 16th, at six in the morning,* we saw land from the mast-head, bearing S. S. W.; and at noon it bore S. by W. distant fourteen leagues: while we were standing in for the shore we sounded several times, but had no ground with ninety fathom. At eight, we tacked in a hundred and eight fathom, at about three or four miles from the shore, which was the same point of land that we had to the N. W. before we were blown off. At noon it bore S. W. distant about three miles; Mount Camel bore S. by E. distant about eleven leagues, and the westermost land in sight bore S. 75 W.; the latitude by observation was 34° 20′ S. At four o'clock, we tacked and stood in shore, in doing which, we met with a strong rippling, and the ship fell fast to leeward, which we imputed to a current setting east. At eight, we tacked and stood off till eight the next morning;* when we tacked and stood in, being about ten leagues from the land: at noon, the point of land which we were near the day before, bore S.S.W. distant five leagues. The wind still continued at west; and at seven o'clock, we tacked in thirty-five fathom, when the point of land which has been mentioned before, bore N.W. by N. distant four or five miles; so that we had not gained one inch to windward the last twenty-four hours,* which confirmed our opinion that there was a current to the eastward. The point of land I called NORTH CAPE, it being the northern extremity of this country. It lies in latitude 34° 22′ S. longitude 186° 55′ W. and thirty-one leagues distant from Cape Bret, in the direction of N. 63 W. It forms the north point of Sandy Bay, and is a peninsula jutting out N. E. about two miles, and terminating in a bluff head that is flat at the top. The isthmus which joins this head to the main land is very low, and for that reason the land of the Cape, from several situations, has the appearance of an island. It is still more remarkable when it is seen from the southward, by the appearance of a high round island at the S. E. point of the Cape; but this also is a deception; for what appears to be an island is a round hill, joined to the Cape by a low narrow neck of land. Upon the Cape we saw a Hippah or village, and a few inhabitants; and on the south east side of it there appears to be anchorage, and good shelter from the south west and north west winds. --page 689

*We continued to stand off and on, making N. W. till noon on the 21st, when North Cape bore S. 39 E. distant thirty-eight leagues.* Our situation varied only a few leagues till the 23d, when, about seven o'clock in the evening, we saw land from the mast-head,* bearing S. ½ E. At eleven the next morning, we saw it again, bearing S. S. E. at the distance of eight leagues: we now stood to the S. W.; and at four o'clock, the land bore S. E. by S. distant four leagues, and proved to be a small island, with other islands or rocks, still smaller, lying off the south west end of it, and another lying off the north east end, which were discovered by Tasman and called the Three Kings. The principal island lies in latitude 34° 12′ S. longitude 187° 48′ W. and distant fourteen or fifteen leagues from North Cape, in the direction of W. 14 N. At midnight, we tacked and stood to the N. E. till six the next morning,* which was Christmas day, when we tacked and stood to the southward. At noon, the Three Kings bore E. 8 N. distant five or six leagues. The variation this morning by the azimuth was 11° 25′ E. --page 690

On the 26th, we stood to the southward close upon a wind;* and at noon, were in latitude 35° 10′ S. longitude 188° 20′ W. the Three Kings bearing N. 26 W. distant twenty-two leagues. In this situation we had no land in sight; and yet, by observation, we were in the latitude of the Bay of Islands; and by my reckoning but twenty leagues to the westward of North Cape: from whence it appears, that the northern part of this island is very narrow; for otherwise we must have seen some part of the west side of it. We stood to the southward till twelve at night, and then tacked and stood to the northward. --page 691

At four o'clock in the morning, the wind freshened,* and at nine, blew a storm; so that we were obliged to bring the ship to under her mainsail. Our course made good between noon this day and yesterday was S. S. W. ½ W. distance eleven miles. The Three Kings bore N. 27 E. distant seventy-seven miles. The gale continued all this day, and till two the next morning, when it fell,* and began to veer to the southward and S. W. where it fixed about four, when we made sail and steered east in for the land, under the fore-sail and main-sail; but the wind then rising, and by eight o'clock being increased to a hurricane, with a prodigious sea, we were obliged to take in the main-sail; we then wore the ship, and brought her to with her head to the north west. At noon the gale was somewhat abated, but we had still heavy squalls. Our course made good this day, was north, a little easterly, twenty-nine miles; latitude by account 34° 50′ S. longitude 188° 27′ W.;* the Three Kings bore N. 41 E. distant fifty-two miles. At seven o'clock in the evening, the wind being at S. W. and S. W. by W. with hard squalls, we wore and lay on the other tack;* and at six the next morning spread more sail. Our course and distance since yesterday was E. by N. twenty-nine miles. In the afternoon, we had hard squalls at S. W.; and at eight in the evening, wore and stood to the N. W. till five the next morning;* and then wore and stood to the S. E. At six, we saw the land bearing N. E. distant about six leagues, which we judged to be Cape Maria Van Diemen, and which corresponded with the account that had been given of it by the Indians. At midnight we wore and stood to the S. E.* And on the next day at noon, Cape Maria Van Diemen bore N. E. by N. distant about five leagues. At seven in the evening, we tacked and stood to the westward, with a moderate breeze at S. W. by S. and S. W. Mount Camel then bore N. 83 E. and the northermost land, or Cape Maria Van Diemen, N. by W.; we were now distant from the nearest land about three leagues, where we had something more than forty fathom water; and it must be remarked, that Mount Camel, which when seen on the other side did not seem to be more than one mile from the sea, seemed to be but little more when seen from this side; which is a demonstration that the land here cannot be more than two or three miles broad, or from sea to sea. --page 692

*At six o'clock in the morning of January the 1st, 1770, being New-year's Day, we tacked and stood to the eastward, the Three Kings bearing N. W. by N. At noon, we tacked again, and stood to the westward, being in latitude 34° 37′ S.; the Three Kings bearing N. W. by N. at the distance of ten or eleven leagues; and Cape Maria Van Diemen N. 31 E. distant about four leagues and an half: in this situation we had fifty-four fathom water. --page 693

During this part of our navigation two particulars are very remarkable;* in latitude 35° S. and in the midst of summer, I met with a gale of wind, which for its strength and continuance was such as I had scarcely ever been in before, and we were three weeks in getting ten leagues to the westward, and five weeks in getting fifty leagues, for at this time it was so long since we passed Cape Bret. During the gale, we were happily at a considerable distance from the land, otherwise it is highly probable that we should never have returned to relate our adventures. --page 694

At five o'clock in the evening, having a fresh breeze to the westward, we tacked and stood to the southward: at this time North Cape bore E. ¾ N. and just open of a point that lies three leagues W. by N. from it. --page 695

This Cape, as I have observed before, is the northermost extremity of this country, and the eastermost point of a peninsula, which runs out N. W. and N. W. by N. seventeen or eighteen leagues, and of which Cape Maria Van Diemen is the westermost point. Cape Maria lies in latitude 34° 30′ S. longitude 187° 18′ W.; and from this point the land trends away S. E. by S. and S. E. beyond Mount Camel, and is every where a barren shore, consisting of banks of white sand. --page 696

On the 2d, at noon,* we were in latitude 35° 17′ S. and Cape Maria bore north, distant about sixteen leagues, as near as we could guess; for we had no land in sight, and did not dare to go nearer, as a fresh gale blew right on shore, with a rolling sea. The wind continued at W. S. W. and S. W. with frequent squalls; in the evening we shortened sail, and at midnight tacked, and made a trip to the N. W. till two in the morning, when we wore and stood to the southward.* At break of day, we made sail, and edged away, in order to make land;* and at ten o'clock, we saw it, bearing N. W. It appeared to be high, and at noon extended from N. to E. N. E. distant by estimation eight or ten leagues. Cape Maria then bore N. 2° 30′ W. distant thirty-three leagues; our latitude by observation was 36° 2′ S. About seven o'clock in the evening, we were within six leagues of it; but having a fresh gale upon it, with a rolling sea, we hauled our wind to the S. E. and kept on that course close upon the wind all night, sounding several times, but having no ground with one hundred, and one hundred and ten fathom. --page 697

*At eight o'clock the next morning, we were about five leagues from the land, and off a place which lies in latitude 36° 25′ and had the appearance of a bay or inlet. It bore east; and in order to see more of it, we kept on our course till eleven o'clock, when we were not more than three leagues from it, and then discovered that it was neither inlet nor bay, but a tract of low land, bounded by higher lands on each side, which produced the deception. At this time, we tacked and stood to the N. W.; and at noon, the land was not distant more than three or four leagues. We were now in latitude 36° 31′ S. longitude 185° 50′ W. Cape Maria bore N. 25 W. distant forty-four leagues and an half; so that the coast must be almost strait in the direction of S. S. E. ¾ E. and N. N. W. ¾ W. nearly. In about latitude 35° 45′ is some high land adjoining to the sea; to the southward of which the shore is also high, and has the most desolate and inhospitable appearance that can be imagined. Nothing is to be seen but hills of sand, on which there is scarcely a blade of verdure; and a vast sea, impelled by the westerly winds, breaking upon it in a dreadful surf, renders it not only forlorn, but frightful; complicating the idea of danger with desolation, and impressing the mind at once with a sense of misery and death.* From this place I steered to the northward, resolving never more to come within the same distance of the coast, except the wind should be very favourable indeed. I stood under a fresh sail all the day, hoping to get an offing by the next noon, and we made good a course of a hundred and two miles N. 38 W. Our latitude by observation was 35° 10′ S.; and Cape Maria bore N. 10 E. distance forty-one miles. In the night, the wind shifted from S. W. by S. to S. and blew fresh.* Our course to the noon of the 5th was N. 75 W. distance eight miles. --page 698

At day-break on the 6th,* we saw the land which we took to be Cape Maria, bearing N. N. E. distant eight or nine leagues: and on the 7th, in the afternoon,* the land bore east: and some time after, we discovered a turtle upon the water; but being awake, it dived instantly, so that we could not take it. At noon, the high land, which has just been mentioned, extended from N. to E. at the distance of five or six leagues; and in two places, a flat gave it the appearance of a bay or inlet. The course that we made good the last four and twenty hours was S. 33 E. fifty-three miles; Cape Maria bearing N. 25 W. distant thirty leagues. --page 699

We sailed within sight of land all this day, with gentle gales between the N. E. and N. W.;* and by the next noon had sailed sixty-nine miles, in the direction of S. 37 E.; our latitude by observation was 36° 39′ S. The land which on the 4th we had taken for a bay, now bore N. E. by N. distant five leagues and an half; and Cape Maria N. 29 W. forty-seven leagues. --page 700

On the 9th,* we continued a south east course till eight o'clock in the evening, having run seven leagues since noon, with the wind at N. N. E. and N. and being within three or four leagues of the land, which appeared to be low and sandy.* I then steered S. E. by S. in a direction parallel with the coast, having from forty-eight to thirty-four fathom water, with a black sandy bottom. At day-break the next morning, we found ourselves between two and three leagues from the land, which began to have a better appearance, rising in gentle slopes, and being covered with trees and herbage. We saw a smoke and a few houses, but it appeared to be but thinly inhabited. At seven o'clock, we steered S. by E. and afterwards S. by W. the land lying in that direction. At nine, we were abreast of a point which rises with an easy ascent from the sea to a considerable height: this point, which lies in latitude 37° 43′, I named WOODY HEAD. About eleven miles from this Head, in the direction of S. W. ½ W. lies a very small island, upon which we saw a great number of gannets, and which we therefore called GANNET ISLAND. At noon, a high craggy point bore E. N. E. distant about a league and a half, to which I gave the name of ALBETROSS POINT: it lies in latitude 38° 4′ S. longitude 184° 42′ W.; and is distant seven leagues in the direction of S. 17 W. from Woody Head. On the north side of this point the shore forms a bay, in which there appears to be anchorage and shelter for shipping. Our course and distance for the last twenty-four hours was S. 37 E. sixty-nine miles; and at noon this day Cape Maria bore N. 30 W. distant eighty-two leagues. Between twelve and one, the wind shifted at once from N. N. E. to S. S. W. with which we stood to the westward till four o'clock in the afternoon; and then tacked, and stood again in shore till seven; when we tacked again and stood to the westward, having but little wind. At this time, Albetross Point bore N. E. distant near two leagues, and the southermost land in sight bore S. S. W. ½ W. being a very high mountain, and in appearance greatly resembling the Pike of Teneriffe. In this situation we had thirty fathom water, and having but little wind all night,* we tacked about four in the morning, and stood in for the shore. Soon after, it fell calm; and being in forty-two fathom water, the people caught a few sea-bream. At eleven, a light breeze sprung up from the west, and we made sail to the southward. We continued to steer S. by W. and S. S. W. along the shore, at the distance of about four leagues with gentle breezes from between N.W. and N. N. E. At seven in the evening, we saw the top of the Peak to the southward, above the clouds which concealed it below. And at this time, the southermost land in sight bore S. by W. the variation, by several azimuths which were taken both in the morning and the evening, appeared to be 14° 15′ easterly. --page 701

At noon on the 12th,* we were distant about three leagues from the shore which lies under the Peak, but the Peak itself was wholly concealed by clouds: we judged it to bear about S. S. E.; and some very remarkable peaked islands, which lay under the shore, bore E. S. E. distant three or four leagues. At seven in the evening we sounded, and had forty-two fathom, being distant from the shore between two and three leagues: we judged the Peak to bear east; and after it was dark, we saw fires upon the shore. --page 702

At five o'clock in the morning we saw, for a few minutes,* the summit of the Peak, towering above the clouds, and covered with snow. It now bore N. E.; it lies in latitude 39° 16′ S. longitude 185° 15′ W.; and I named it MOUNT EGMONT, in honour of the Earl. It seems to have a large base, and to rise with a gradual ascent; it lies near the sea, and is surrounded by a flat country, of a pleasant appearance, being clothed with verdure and wood, which renders it the more conspicuous, and the shore under it forms a large cape, which I have named CAPE EGMONT. It lies S.S.W. ½ W. twenty-seven leagues distant from Albetross Point,* and on the north side of it are two small islands, which lie near a remarkable point on the main, that rises to a considerable height in the form of a sugar-loaf. To the southward of the Cape, the land trends away S. E. by E. and S. S. E. and seems to be every where a bold shore. At noon, Cape Egmont bore about N. E.; and in this direction, at about four leagues from the shore, we had forty fathom of water. The wind during the rest of the day was from W. to N. W. by W. and we continued to steer along the shore S. S. E. and S. E. by E. keeping at the distance of between two and three leagues. At half an hour after seven, we had another transient view of Mount Edgcombe, which bore N. 17 W. distant about ten leagues. --page 703

*At five the next morning, we steered S. E. by S. the coast inclining more southerly; and in about half an hour, we saw land bearing S. W. by S. for which we hauled up. At noon the north west extremity of the land in sight bore S. 63 W. and some high land, which had the appearance of an island lying under the main, bore S. S. E. distant five leagues. We were now in a bay, the bottom of which bearing south we could not see, though it was clear in that quarter. Our latitude by observation was 40° 97′ S. longitude 184° 39′ W. At eight in the evening, we were within two leagues of the land which we had discovered in the morning, having run ten leagues since noon: the land which then bore S. 63 W. now bore N. 59 W. at the distance of seven or eight leagues, and had the appearance of an island. Between this land and CAPE EGMONT lies the bay, the west side of which was our situation at this time, and the land here is of a considerable height, and diversified by hill and valley. --page 704

--page 705

[illustration] CHART of COOK's STRAIT in NEW ZEALAND--page 706

THE shore at this place seemed to form several bays,* into one of which I proposed to carry the ship, which was become very foul, in order to careen her, and at the same time repair some defects, and recruit our wood and water. --page 707

With this view, I kept plying on and off all night, having from eighty to sixty-three fathom. At day-break the next morning, I stood for an inlet which runs in S. W.;* and at eight I got within the entrance, which may be known by a reef of rocks, stretching from the north west point, and some rocky islands which lie off the south east point. At nine o'clock, there being little wind, and what there was being variable, we were carried by the tide or current within two cables' length of the north west shore, where we had fifty-four fathom water, but by the help of our boats we got clear. Just at this time we saw a sea-lion rise twice near the shore, the head of which exactly resembled that of the male which has been described in the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage. We also saw some of the natives in a canoe cross the bay, and a village situated upon the point of an island which lies seven or eight miles within the entrance. At noon, we were the length of this island, but there being little wind, the boats were ordered ahead to tow.* About one o'clock, we hauled close round the south west end of the island; and the inhabitants of the village which was built upon it, were immediately up in arms. About two, we anchored in a very safe and convenient cove, on the north west side of the bay, and facing the south west end of the island, in eleven fathom water, with soft ground, and moored with the stream anchor. --page 708

We were about four long cannon shot distant from the the village or Heppah, from which four canoes were immediately dispatched, as we imagined to reconnoitre, and if they should find themselves able, to take us. The men were all well armed, and dressed nearly as they are represented in the figure published by Tasman; two corners of the cloth which they wrapped round the body were passed over the shoulders from behind, and being brought down to the upper edge of it before, were made fast to it just under the breast; but few, or none, had feathers in their hair. They rowed round the ship several times, with their usual tokens of menace and defiance, and at last began the assault by throwing some stones: Tupia expostulated with them, but apparently to very little purpose; and we began to fear that they would oblige us to fire at them, when a very old man in one of the boats expressed a desire of coming on board. We gladly encouraged him in his design, a rope was thrown into his canoe, and she was immediately alongside of the ship: the old man rose up, and prepared to come up the ship's side, upon which all the rest expostulated with great vehemence against the attempt, and at last laid hold of him, and held him back: he adhered however to his purpose with a calm but steady perseverance, and having at length disengaged himself, he came on board. We received him with all possible expressions of friendship and kindness, and after some time dismissed him,* with many presents to his companions. As soon as he was returned on board his canoe, the people in all the rest began to dance, but whether as a token of enmity or friendship we could not certainly determine, for we had seen them dance in a disposition both for peace and war. In a short time, however, they retired to their fort, and soon after I went on shore, with most of the gentlemen, at the bottom of the cove, a-breast of the ship. --page 709

We found a fine stream of excellent water, and wood in the greatest plenty, for the land here was one forest, of vast extent. As we brought the seine with us, we hauled it once or twice, and with such success that we caught near three hundred weight of fish of different sorts, which was equally distributed among the ship's company. --page 710

At day-break, while we were busy in careening the ship,* three canoes came off to us, having on board above a hundred men, besides several of their women, which we were pleased to see, as in general it is a sign of peace; but they soon afterwards became very troublesome, and gave us reason to apprehend some mischief from them to the people that were in our boats alongside the ship. While we were in this situation, the long-boat was sent ashore with some water casks, and some of the canoes attempting to follow her, we found it necessary to intimidate them by firing some small shot: we were at such a distance that it was impossible to hurt them, yet our reproof had its effect, and they desisted from the pursuit. They had some fish in their canoes which they now offered to sell, and which, though it stunk, we consented to buy: for this purpose a man in a small boat was sent among them, and they traded for some time very fairly. At length, however, one of them watching his opportunity, snatched at some paper which our market-man held in his hand,* and missing it, immediately put himself in a posture of defence, flourishing his patoo-patoo, and making show as if he was about to strike; some small shot were then fired at him from the ship, a few of which struck him upon the knee: this put an end to our trade, but the Indians still continued near the ship, rowing round her many times, and conversing with Tupia, chiefly concerning the traditions they had among them with respect to the antiquities of their country. To this subject they were led by the enquiries which Tupia had been directed to make, whether they had ever seen such a vessel as ours, or had ever heard that any such had been upon their coast. These enquiries were all answered in the negative, so that tradition has preserved among them no memorial of Tasman; though, by an observation made this day, we find that we are only fifteen miles south of Murderer's bay, our latitude being 41° 5′ 32″, and Murderer's bay, according to his account, being 40° 50′. --page 711

The women in these canoes, and some of the men, had a head-dress which we had not before seen. It consisted of a bunch of black feathers, made up in a round form, and tied upon the top of the head, which it intirely covered, and made it twice as high, to appearance, as it was in reality. --page 712

After dinner, I went in the pinnace with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and some others, into another cove, about two miles distant from that in which the ship lay: in our way we saw something floating upon the water, which we took for a dead seal, but upon rowing up to it, found it to be the body of a woman, which to all appearance had been dead some days. We proceeded to our cove, where we went on shore, and found a small family of Indians, who appeared to be greatly terrified at our approach, and all ran away except one.* A conversation between this person and Tupia soon brought back the rest, except an old man and a child, who still kept aloof, but stood peeping at us from the woods. Of these people, our curiosity naturally led us to enquire after the body of the woman which we had seen floating upon the water: and they acquainted us, by Tupia, that she was a relation, who had died a natural death; and that, according to their custom, they had tied a stone to the body, and thrown it into the sea, which stone, they supposed, had by some accident been disengaged. --page 713

This family, when we came on shore, was employed in dressing some provisions: the body of a dog was at this time buried in their oven, and many provision baskets stood near it. Having cast our eyes carelessly into one of these, as we passed it, we saw two bones pretty cleanly picked, which did not seem to be the bones of a dog, and which, upon a nearer examination, we discovered to be those of a human body. At this sight we were struck with horror, though it was only a confirmation of what we had heard many times since we arrived upon this coast. As we could have no doubt but the bones were human, neither could we have any doubt but that the flesh which covered them had been eaten. They were found in a provision basket; the flesh that remained appeared manifestly to have been dressed by fire, and in the gristles at the end, were the marks of the teeth which had gnawed them: to put an end however to conjecture, founded upon circumstances and appearances, we directed Tupia to ask what bones they were; and the Indians, without the least hesitation, answered, the bones of a man: they were then asked what was become of the flesh, and they replied that they had eaten it; but, said Tupia, why did you not eat the body of the woman which we saw floating upon the water: the woman, said they, died of disease; besides, she was our relation,* and we eat only the bodies of our enemies, who are killed in battle. Upon enquiry who the man was whose bones we had found, they told us, that about five days before, a boat belonging to their enemies came into the bay, with many persons on board, and that this man was one of seven whom they had killed. Though stronger evidence of this horrid practice prevailing among the inhabitants of this coast will scarcely be required, we have still stronger to give. One of us asked if they had any human bones with the flesh remaining upon them, and upon their answering us that all had been eaten, we affected to disbelieve that the bones were human, and said that they were the bones of a dog; upon which one of the Indians with some eagerness took hold of his own fore-arm, and thrusting it towards us, said, that the bone which Mr. Banks held in his hand had belonged to that part of a human body; at the same time, to convince us that the flesh had been eaten, he took hold of his own arm with his teeth, and made shew of eating: he also bit and gnawed the bone which Mr. Banks had taken, drawing it through his mouth, and shewing, by signs, that it had afforded a delicious repast; the bone was then returned to Mr. Banks, and he brought it away with him. Among the persons of this family, there was a woman who had her arms, legs, and thighs frightfully cut in several places; and we were told that she had inflicted the wounds upon herself, in token of her grief for the loss of her husband, who had been lately killed and eaten by their enemies, who had come from some place to the eastward, towards which the Indians pointed. --page 714

The ship lay at the distance of somewhat less than a quarter of a mile from the shore,* and in the morning we were awakened by the singing of the birds: the number was incredible, and they seemed to strain their throats in emulation of each other.* This wild melody was infinitely superior to any that we had ever heard of the same kind; it seemed to be like small bells, most exquisitely tuned, and perhaps the distance, and the water between, might be no small advantage to the sound. Upon enquiry, we were informed that the birds here always began to sing about two hours after midnight, and continuing their musick till sun-rise, were, like our nightingales, silent the rest of the day. In the forenoon, a small canoe came off from the Indian village to the ship, and among those that were in it, was the old man who had first come on board at our arrival in the bay. As soon as it came alongside, Tupia renewed the conversation, that had passed the day before, concerning their practice of eating human flesh, during which they repeated what they had told us already: but, said Tupia, where are the heads? do you eat them too? Of the heads, said the old man, we eat only the brains, and the next time I come I will bring some of them to convince you that what we have told you is truth. After some farther conversation between these people and Tupia, they told him that they expected their enemies to come very shortly, to revenge the death of the seven men whom they had killed and eaten. --page 715

On the 18th, the Indians were more quiet than usual,* no canoe came near the ship, nor did we see one of them moving on the shore, their fishing, and other usual occupations being totally suspended. We thought they expected an attack on this day, and therefore attended more diligently to what passed on shore; but we saw nothing to gratify our curiosity. --page 716

After breakfast, we went out in the pinnace, to take a view of the bay, which was of vast extent, and consisted of numberless small harbours and coves, in every direction: we confined our excursion,* however, to the western side, and the country being an impenetrable forest where we landed, we could see nothing worthy of notice: we killed, however, a good number of shaggs, which we saw sitting upon their nests in the trees, and which, whether roasted or stewed, we considered as very good provision. As we were returning, we saw a single man in a canoe fishing; we rowed up to him, and to our great surprize he took not the least notice of us, but even when we were alongside of him, continued to follow his occupation, without adverting to us any more than if we had been invisible. He did not, however, appear to be either sullen or stupid: we requested him to draw up his net, that we might examine it, and he readily complied: it was of a circular form, extended by two hoops, and about seven or eight feet in diameter: the top was open, and sea-ears were fastened to the bottom as a bait: this he let down so as to lie upon the ground, and when he thought fish enough were assembled over it, he drew it up by a very gentle and even motion, so that the fish rose with it, scarcely sensible that they were lifted, till they came very near the surface of the water, and then were brought out in the net by a sudden jerk. By this simple method he had caught abundance of fish, and indeed they are so plenty in this bay, that the catching them requires neither much labour nor art. --page 717

This day, some of our people found in the skirts of the wood, near a hole or oven, three human hip-bones, which they brought on board; a farther proof that these people eat human flesh: Mr. Monkhouse, our Surgeon, also brought on board, from a place where he saw many deserted houses, the hair of a man's head, which he had found, among many other things, tied up to the branches of trees. --page 718

In the morning of the 19th,* we set up the armourer's forge to repair the braces of the tiller, and other iron-work, all hands on board being still busy in careening, and other necessary operations about the vessel: this day, some Indians came on board from another part of the bay, where they said there was a town which we had not seen: they brought plenty of fish, which they sold for nails, having now acquired some notion of their use; and in this traffick no unfair practice was attempted. --page 719

In the morning of the 20th, our old man kept his promise,* and brought on board four of the heads of the seven people who had been so much the subject of our enquiries: the hair and flesh were entire, but we perceived that the brains had been extracted; the flesh was soft, but had by some method been preserved from putrefaction, for it had no disagreeable smell. Mr. Banks purchased one of them, but they sold it with great reluctance, and could not by any means be prevailed upon to part with a second; probably they may be preserved as trophies, like the scalps in America, and the jaw-bones in the islands of the South Seas. Upon examining the head which had been bought by Mr. Banks, we perceived that it had received a blow upon the temples, which had fractured the skull. This day we made another excursion in the pinnace, to survey the bay, but we found no flat large enough for a potatoe garden, nor could we discover the least appearance of cultivation: we met not a single Indian, but found an excellent harbour; and about eight o'clock in the evening returned on board the ship. --page 720

On the 21st,* Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went a fishing with hook and line, and caught an immense quantity every where upon the rocks, in between four and five fathom water: the seine was hauled every night, and seldom failed to supply the whole ship's company with as much fish as they could eat.* This day all the people had leave to go on shore at the watering-place, and divert themselves as they should think proper. --page 721

*In the morning of the 22d, I set out again in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, with a design to examine the head of the inlet, but after rowing about four or five leagues without so much as coming in sight of it, the wind being contrary, and the day half spent, we went on shore on the south east side, to try what might be discovered from the hills. --page 722

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander immediately employed themselves in botanizing near the beach, and I, taking a seaman with me, ascended one of the hills: when I reached the summit, I found a view of the inlet intercepted by hills, which in that direction rose still higher, and which were rendered inaccessible by impenetrable woods; I was, however, abundantly compensated for my labour, for I saw the sea on the eastern side of the country, and a passage leading from it to that on the west, a little to the eastward of the entrance of the inlet where the ship now lay. The main land which lay on the south east side of this inlet, appeared to be a narrow ridge of very high hills, and to form part of the south west side of the streight; the land on the opposite side appeared to trend away east as far as the eye could reach; and to the south east there appeared to be an opening to the sea, which washed the eastern coast: on the east side of the inlet also I saw some islands which I had before taken to be part of the main land. Having made this discovery, I descended the hill, and as soon as we had taken some refreshment, we set out on our return to the ship. In our way, we examined the harbours and coves which lie behind the islands that I had discovered from the hill;* and in this rout we saw an old village, in which there were many houses that seemed to have been long deserted: we also saw another village which was inhabited, but the day was too far spent for us to visit it, and we therefore made the best of our way to the ship, which we reached between eight and nine o'clock at night. --page 723

The 23d I employed in carrying on a survey of the place;* and upon one of the islands where I landed, I saw many houses which seemed to have been long deserted, and no appearance of any inhabitant. --page 724

On the 24th,* we went to visit our friends at the Hippah or village on the point of the island near the ship's station, who had come off to us on our first arrival in the bay. They received us with the utmost confidence and civility, shewing us every part of their habitations, which were commodious and neat. The island or rock on which this town is situated, is divided from the main by a breach or fissure so narrow, that a man might almost leap from one to the other: the sides of it are every where so steep as to render the artificial fortification of these people almost unnecessary: there was, however, one slight pallisade, and one small fighting-stage, towards that part of the rock where access was least difficult. --page 725

The people here brought us out several human bones, the flesh of which they had eaten, and offered them to sale; for the curiosity of those among us who had purchased them as memorials of the horrid practice which many, notwithstanding the reports of travellers, have professed not to believe, had rendered them a kind of article of trade. In one part of this village we observed, not without some surprize, a cross exactly like that of a crucifix; it was adorned with feathers, and upon our enquiring for what purpose it had been set up,* we were told that it was a monument for a man who was dead: we had before understood that their dead were not buried, but thrown into the sea; but to our enquiry how the body of the man had been disposed of, to whose memory this cross had been erected, they refused to answer. --page 726

When we left these people, we went to the other end of the island, and there taking water, crossed over to the main, where we saw several houses, but no inhabitants, except a few in some straggling canoes, that seemed to be fishing, After viewing this place, we returned on board the ship to dinner. --page 727

During our visit to the Indians this day, Tupia being always of our party, they had been observed to be continually talking of guns, and shooting people: for this subject of their conversation we could not at all account; and it had so much engaged our attention, that we talked of it all the way back, and even after we got on board the ship: we had perplexed ourselves with various conjectures, which were all given up in their turn; but now we learnt, that on the 21st one of our officers, upon pretence of going out to fish, had rowed up to the Hippah, and that two or three canoes coming off towards his boat, his fears suggested that an attack was intended, in consequence of which three muskets were fired, one with small shot, and two with ball, at the Indians, who retired with the utmost precipitation, having probably come out with friendly intentions, for such their behaviour both before and afterwards expressed, and having no reason to expect such treatment from people who had always behaved to them not only with humanity, but kindness, and to whom they were not conscious of having given offence. --page 728

On the 25th, I made another excursion along the coast,* in the pinnace, towards the mouth of the inlet, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and going on shore at a little cove, to shoot shaggs, we fell in with a large family of Indians, whose custom it is to disperse themselves among the different creeks and coves, where fish is to be procured in the greatest plenty, leaving a few only in the Hippah, to which the rest repair in times of danger. Some of these people came out a good way to meet us, and gave us an invitation to go with them to the rest of their party, which we readily accepted. We found a company of about thirty, men, women, and children, who received us with all possible demonstrations of friendship: we distributed among them a few ribands and beads, and in return, received the kisses and embraces of both sexes, both young and old: they gave us also some fish, and after a little time we returned, much pleased with our new acquaintance. --page 729

In the morning of the 26th, I went again out in the boat,* with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, and entered one of the bays, which lie on the east side of the inlet, in order to get another sight of the streight, which passed between the eastern and western seas. For this purpose, having landed at a convenient place, we climbed a hill of very considerable height, from which we had a full view of it, with the land on the opposite shore, which we judged to be about four leagues distant; but as it was hazey in the horizon, we could not see far to the south east: I resolved however to search the passage with the ship, as soon as I should put to sea. Upon the top of this hill we found a parcel of loose stones, with which we erected a pyramid, and left in it some musket balls, small shot, beads, and other things, which we happened to have about us, that were likely to stand the test of time, and not being of Indian workmanship, would convince any European who should come to the place and pull it down,* that other natives of Europe had been there before him. When this was done, we descended the hill, and made a comfortable meal of the shaggs and fish which our guns and lines had procured us, and which were dressed by the boat's crew in a place that we had appointed: in this place we found another Indian family, who received us, as usual, with strong expressions of kindness and pleasure, shewing us where to procure water, and doing us such other good offices as were in their power. From this place we went to the town, of which the Indians had told us, who visited us on the 19th: this, like that which we had seen before, was built upon a small island or rock, so difficult of access, that we gratified our curiosity at the risk of our necks. The Indians here also received us with open arms, carried us to every part of the place, and shewed us all that it contained: this town, like the other, consisted of between eighty and an hundred houses, and had only one fighting-stage. We happened to have with us a few nails and ribands, and some paper, with which our guests were so gratified, that at our coming away they filled our boat with dried fish, of which we perceived they had laid up great quantities. --page 730

*The 27th and 28th were spent in refitting the ship for the sea, fixing a transom for the tiller, getting stones on board to put into the bottom of the bread-room, to bring the ship more by the stern, in repairing the casks, and catching fish. --page 731

*On the 29th, we received a visit from our old man, whose name we found to be TOPAA, and three other natives, with whom Tupia had much conversation. The old man told us, that one of the men who had been fired upon by the officer who had visited their Hippah, under pretence of fishing, was dead; but to my great comfort I afterwards discovered that this report was not true, and that if Topāa's discourses were taken literally, they would frequently lead us into mistakes.* Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were several times on shore during the last two or three days, not without success, but greatly circumscribed in their walks by climbers of a most luxuriant growth, which were so interwoven together, as to fill up the space between the trees about which they grew, and render the woods altogether impassable. This day also I went on shore again myself, upon the western point of the inlet, and from a hill of considerable height, I had a view of the coast to the N. W. The farthest land I could see in that quarter, was an island which has been mentioned before, at the distance of about ten leagues, lying not far from the main: between this island and the place where I stood, I discovered, close under the shore, several other islands, forming many bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage for shipping. After I had set off the different points for my survey, I erected another pile of stones, in which I left a piece of silver coin, with some musket balls and beads, and a piece of an old pendant flying on the top. In my return to the ship, I made a visit to several of the natives, whom I saw along the shore, and purchased a small quantity of fish. --page 732

On the 30th, early in the morning,* I sent a boat to one of the islands for celery, and while the people were gathering it, about twenty of the natives, men, women, and children, landed near some empty huts: as soon as they were on shore, five or six of the women sat down upon the ground together, and began to cut their legs, arms, and faces, with shells, and sharp pieces of talc or jasper, in a terrible manner. Our people understood that their husbands had lately been killed by their enemies; but while they were performing this horrid ceremony, the men set about repairing the huts, with the utmost negligence and unconcern. --page 733

*The carpenter having prepared two posts to be left as memorials of our having visited this place, I ordered them to be inscribed with the ship's name, and the year and month; one of them I set up at the watering-place, hoisting the Union flag upon the top of it; and the other I carried over to the island that lies nearest to the sea, called by the natives MOTUARA. I went first to the village or Hippah, accompanied by Mr. Monkhouse and Tupia, where I met with our old man, and told him and several others, by means of Tupia, that we were come to set up a mark upon the island, in order to show to any other ship which should happen to come thither, that we had been there before. To this they readily consented, and promised that they never would pull it down: I then gave something to every one present; and to the old man I gave a silver threepence, dated 1736, and some spike nails, with the king's broad arrow cut deep upon them; things which I thought most likely to remain long among them: I then took the post to the highest part of the island, and after fixing it firmly in the ground, I hoisted upon it the Union-flag, and honoured this inlet with the name of QUEEN CHARLOTTE's SOUND, at the same time taking formal possession of this and the adjacent country, in the name and for the use of his Majesty King George the Third. We then drank a bottle of wine to her Majesty's health, and gave the bottle to the old man who had attended us up the hill, and who was mightily delighted with his present. --page 734

While the post was setting up, we enquired of the old man concerning the passage into the eastern sea, the existence of which he confirmed; and then asked him about the land to the S. W. of the streight, where we were then situated: this land, he said, consisted of two Whennuas or islands, which might be circumnavigated in a few days, and which he called TOVY POENAMMOO; the literal translation of this word is "the water of green talc:"* and probably if we had understood him better, we should have found that Tovy Poenammoo was the name of some particular place where they got the green talc or stone of which they make their ornaments and tools, and not a general name for the whole southern district: he said, there was also a third Whennua, on the east side of the streight, the circumnavigation of which would take up many moons: this he called EAHEINOMAUWE; and to the land on the borders of the streight he gave the name of TIERA WITTE. Having set up our post, and procured this intelligence, we returned on board the ship, and brought the old man with us, who was attended by his canoe, in which, after dinner, he returned home. --page 735

On the 31st, having completed our wooding,* and filled all our water casks, I sent out two parties, one to cut and make brooms, and another to catch fish. In the evening, we had a strong gate from the N. W. with such a heavy rain that our little wild musicians on shore suspended their song, which till now we had constantly heard during the night, with a pleasure which it was impossible to lose without regret. --page 736

On the 1st, the gale increased to a storm,* with heavy gusts from the high land, one of which broke the hawser, that we had fastened to the shore, and obliged us to let go another anchor. Towards midnight, the gale became more moderate, but the rain continued with such violence, that the brook which had supplied us with water overflowed its banks, and carried away ten small casks which had been left there full of water, and notwithstanding we searched the whole cove, we could never recover one of them. --page 737

On the 3d, as I intended to sail the first opportunity,* I went over to the Hippah on the east side of the Sound, and purchased a considerable quantity of split and half-dried fish, for sea stores.* The people here confirmed all that the old man had told us concerning the streight and the country, and about noon I took leave of them: some of them seemed to be sorry, and others glad, that we were going: the fish which I had bought they sold freely, but there were some who shewed manifest signs of disapprobation. As we returned to the ship, some of us made an excursion along the shore to the northward, to traffick with the natives for a farther supply of fish, in which, however, they had no great success. In the evening, we got every thing off from the shore, as I intended to sail in the morning, but the wind would not permit. --page 738

*On the 4th, while we were waiting for a wind, we amused ourselves by fishing, and gathering shells and seeds of various kinds:* and early in the morning of the 5th, we cast off the hawser, hove short on the bower, and carried the kedge anchor out in order to warp the ship out of the cove, which having done about two o'clock in the afternoon, we hove up the anchor and got under sail; but the wind soon failing, we were obliged to come to an anchor again a little above Motuara. When we were under sail, our old man Topāa came on board to take his leave of us, and as we were still desirous of making farther enquiries whether any memory of Tasman had been preserved among these people, Tupia was directed to ask him whether he had ever heard that such a vessel as ours had before visited the country. To this he replied in the negative, but said, that his ancestors had told him there had once come to this place a small vessel, from a distant country, called ULIMAROA, in which were four men, who, upon their coming on shore, were all killed: upon being asked where this distant land lay, he pointed to the northward. Of Ulimaroa we had heard something before, from the people about the Bay of Islands, who said that their ancestors had visited it;* and Tupia had also talked to us of Ulimaroa, concerning which he had some confused traditionary notions, not very different from those of our old man, so that we could draw no certain conclusion from the accounts of either. --page 739

Soon after the ship came to an anchor the second time, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went on shore, to see if any gleanings of natural knowlege remained, and by accident fell in with the most agreeable Indian family they had seen, which afforded them a better opportunity of remarking the personal subordination among these people, than had before offered. The principal persons were a widow, and a pretty boy about ten years old: the widow was mourning for her husband with tears of blood, according to their custom, and the child, by the death of its father, was become proprietor of the land where we had cut our wood. The mother and the son were sitting upon matts, and the rest of the family, to the number of sixteen or seventeen, of both sexes, sat round them in the open air, for they did not appear to have any house, or other shelter from the weather, the inclemencies of which, custom has probably enabled them to endure without any lasting inconvenience. Their whole behaviour was affable, obliging, and unsuspicious; they presented each person with fish, and a brand of fire to dress it, and pressed them many times to stay till the morning, which they would certainly have done if they had not expected the ship to sail, greatly regretting that they had not become acquainted with them sooner, as they made no doubt but that more knowlege of the manners and disposition of the inhabitants of this country would have been obtained from them in a day, than they had yet been able to acquire during our whole stay upon the coast. --page 740

*On the 6th, about six o'clock in the morning, a light breeze sprung up at north, and we again got under sail, but the wind proving variable, we reached no farther than just without Motuara; in the afternoon, however, a more steady gale at N. by W. set us clear of the Sound, which I shall now describe. --page 741

The entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound is situated in latitude 41° S. longitude 184° 45′ W. and near the middle of the south west side of the streight in which it lies. The land of the south east head of the Sound, called by the natives KOAMAROO, off which lie two small islands and some rocks, makes the narrowest part of the streight. From the north west head a reef of rocks runs out about two miles, in the direction of N. E. by N.; part of which is above the water, and part below. By this account of the heads, the Sound will be sufficiently known: at the entrance, it is three leagues broad, and lies in S.W. by S. S. W. and W.S.W. at least ten leagues, and is a collection of some of the finest harbours in the world, as will appear from the plan, which is laid down with all the accuracy that time and circumstances would admit. The land forming the harbour or cove in which we lay, is called by the natives TOTARRANUE: the harbour itself, which I called SHIP COVE, is not inferior to any in the Sound, either for convenience or safety: it lies on the west side of the Sound, and is the southermost of three coves, that are situated within the island of Motuara, which bears east of it. Ship Cove may be entered, either between Motuara and a long island, called by the natives HAMOTE, or between Motuara and the western shore. In the last of these channels are two ledges of rocks, three fathom under water, which may easily be known by the sea-weed that grows upon them. In sailing either in or out of the Sound, with little wind, attention must be had to the tides,* which flow about nine or ten o'clock at the full and change of the moon, and rise and fall between seven and eight feet perpendicularly. The flood comes in through the streight from the S. E. and sets strongly over upon the north west head, and the reef that lies off it: the ebb sets with still greater rapidity to the S. E. over upon the rocks and islands that lie off the south east head. The variation of the compass we found from good observation, to be 13° 5′ E. --page 742

The land about this sound, which is of such a height that we saw it at the distance of twenty leagues, consists wholly of high hills and deep vallies, well stored with a variety of excellent timber, fit for all purposes except masts, for which it is too hard and heavy. The sea abounds with a variety of fish, so that without going out of the cove where we lay, we caught every day, with the seine and hooks and lines, a quantity sufficient to serve the whole ship's company: and along the shore we found plenty of shags, and a few other species of wild-fowl, which those who have long lived upon salt provisions will not think despicable food. --page 743

The number of inhabitants scarcely exceeds four hundred, and they live dispersed along the shores, where their food, consisting of fish and fern roots, is most easily procured; for we saw no cultivated ground. Upon any appearance of danger, they retire to their Hippahs, or forts; in this situation we found them, and in this situation they continued for some time after our arrival. In comparison of the inhabitants of other parts of this country, they are poor, and their canoes are without ornament: the little traffic we had with them was wholly for fish, and indeed they had scarcely any thing else to dispose of. They seemed, however, to have some knowlege of iron, which the inhabitants of some other parts had not;* for they willingly took nails for their fish, and sometimes seemed to prefer it to every thing else that we could offer, which had not always been the case. They were at first very fond of paper; but when they found that it was spoiled by being wet, they would not take it: neither did they set much value upon the cloth of Otaheite; but English broad cloth, and red kersey, were in high estimation; which shewed that they had sense enough to appretiate the commodities which we offered by their use, which is more than could be said of some of their neighbours, who made a much better appearance. Their dress has been mentioned already, particularly their large round head-dresses of feathers, which were far from being unbecoming. --page 744

As soon as we got out of the Sound, I stood over to the eastward, in order to get the streight well open before the tide of ebb came on. At seven in the evening, the two small islands which lie off Cape Koamaroo, the south east head of Queen Charlotte's Sound, bore east, distant about four miles: at this time it was nearly calm, and the tide of ebb setting out, we were, in a very short time, carried by the rapidity of the stream close upon one of the islands, which was a rock rising almost perpendicularly out of the sea: we perceived our danger increase every moment, and had but one expedient to prevent our being dashed to pieces, the success of which a few minutes would determine. We were now within little more than a cable's length of the rock, and had more than seventy-five fathom water; but upon dropping an anchor, and veering about one hundred and fifty fathom of cable, the ship was happily brought up: this, however, would not have saved us, if the tide which set S. by E. had not, upon meeting with the island, changed its direction to S. E. and carried us beyond the first point. In this situation, we were not above two cables' length from the rocks; and here we remained in the strength of the tide,* which set to the S. E. after the rate of at least five miles an hour, from a little after seven till near midnight, when the tide abated, and we began to heave.* By three in the morning the anchor was at the bows, and having a light breeze at N. W. we made sail for the eastern shore; but the tide being against us, we made but little way: the wind however afterwards freshened, and came to N. and N. E. with which, and the tide of ebb, we were in a short time hurried through the narrowest part of the streight, and then stood away for the southermost land we had in sight, which bore from us S. by W. Over this land appeared a mountain of stupendous height, which was covered with snow. --page 745

The narrowest part of the streight, through which we had been driven with such rapidity, lies between Cape Tierawitte, on the coast of Eaheinomauwe, and Cape Koamaroo: the distance between them I judged to be between four or five leagues, and notwithstanding the tide, now its strength is known, may be passed without much danger. It is however safest to keep on the north east shore, for on that side there appeared to be nothing to fear; but on the other shore there are not only the islands and rocks which lie off Cape Koamaroo, but a reef of rocks stretching from these islands six or seven miles to the southward, at the distance of two or three miles from the shore, which I had discovered from the hill when I took my second view of the streight from the east to the western sea. The length of the streight we had passed I shall not pretend to assign, but some judgment may be formed of it from a view of the chart. --page 746

About nine leagues north from Cape Tierawitte, and under the same shore, is a high and remarkable island which may be distinctly seen from Queen Charlotte's Sound, from which it is distant about six or seven leagues.* This island, which was noticed when we passed it on the 14th of January, I have called ENTRY ISLE. --page 747

On the east side of Cape Tierawitte, the land trends away S. E. by E. about eight leagues, where it ends in a point, and is the southermost land on Eaheinomauwe. To this point I have given the name of CAPE PALLISER, in honour of my worthy friend Captain Palliser. It lies in latitude 41° 34′ S. longitude 183° 58′ W. and bore from us this day at noon S. 79 E. distant about thirteen leagues, the ship being then in the latitude of 41° 27′ S.; Koamaroo at the same time bearing N. ½ E. distant seven or eight leagues. The southermost land in sight bore S. 16 W. and the snowy mountain S. W. At this time we were about three leagues from the shore, and abreast of a deep bay or inlet, to which I gave the name of CLOUDY BAY, and at the bottom of which there appeared low land covered with tall trees. --page 748

At three o'clock in the afternoon we were abreast of the southermost point of land that we had seen at noon, which I called CAPE CAMPBEL; it lies S. by W. distant between twelve and thirteen leagues from Cape Koamaroo, in latitude 41° 44′ S. longitude 183° 45′ W.; and with Cape Palliser forms the southern entrance of the streight, the distance between them being between thirteen and fourteen leagues W. by S. and E. by N. --page 749

From this Cape we steered along the shore S.W. by S. till eight o'clock in the evening, when the wind died away. About half an hour afterwards, however, a fresh breeze sprung up at S.W. and I put the ship right before it. My reason for this, was a notion which some of the officers had just started, that Eahienomauwe was not an island, and that the land might stretch away to the S.E. from between Cape Turnagain and Cape Palliser,* there being a space of between twelve and fifteen leagues that we had not seen. I had indeed the strongest conviction that they were mistaken, not only from what I had seen the first time I discovered the streight, but from many other concurrent testimonies that the land in question was an island; but being resolved to leave no possibility of doubt with respect to an object of such importance, I took the opportunity of the wind's shifting, to stand eastward, and accordingly steered N. E. by E. all the night.* At nine o'clock in the morning we were abreast of Cape Palliser, and found the land trend away N. E. towards Cape Turnagain, which I reckoned to be distant about twenty-six leagues: however, as the weather was hazy, so as to prevent our seeing above four or five leagues, I still kept standing to the N. E. with a light breeze at south; and at noon Cape Palliser bore N. 72 W. distant about three leagues. --page 750

About three o'clock in the afternoon, three canoes came up to the ship with between thirty and forty people on board, who had been pulling after us with great labour and perseverance for some time: they appeared to be more cleanly, and a better class, than any we had met with since we left the Bay of Islands, and their canoes were also distinguished by the same ornaments which we had seen upon the northerly part of the coast. They came on board with very little invitation; and their behaviour was courteous and friendly: upon receiving presents from us, they made us presents in return, which had not been done by any of the natives that we had seen before. We soon perceived that our guests had heard of us, for as soon as they came on board, they asked for Whow, the name by which nails were known among the people with whom we had trafficked: but though they had heard of nails, it was plain, they had seen none;* for when nails were given them, they asked Tupia what they were. The term Whow, indeed, conveyed to them the idea not of their quality, but only of their use; for it is the same by which they distinguish a tool, commonly made of bone, which they use both as an augur and a chissel. However, their knowing that we had Whow to sell, was a proof that their connections extended as far north as Cape Kidnappers, which was distant no less than forty-five leagues; for that was the southermost place on this side the coast where we had had any traffic with the natives. It is also probable, that the little knowlege which the inhabitants of Queen Charlotte's Sound had of iron, they obtained from their neighbours at Tierawitte; for we had no reason to think that the inhabitants of any part of this coast had the least knowlege of iron or its use before we came among them, especially as when it was first offered they seemed to disregard it as of no value. We thought it probable, that we were now once more in the territories of Teratu; but upon enquiring of these people, they said that he was not their King. After a short time, they went away, much gratified with the presents that we had made them; and we pursued our course along the shore to the N. E. till eleven o'clock the next morning.* About this time, the weather happening to clear up, we saw Cape Turnagain, bearing N. by E. ½ E. at the distance of about seven leagues: I then called the officers upon deck, and asked them, whether they were not now satisfied, that Eahienomauwe was an island; they readily answered in the affirmative, and all doubts being now removed, we hauled our wind to the eastward. --page 751

AT four o'clock in the afternoon of Friday the 9th of February, having tacked,* we stood S. W. and continued to make sail to the southward till sunset on the 11th, when a fresh breeze at N. E. had carried us back again the length of Cape Palliser, of which as the weather was clear we had a good view. Between the foot of the high land and the sea there is a low flat border, off which there are some rocks that appear above water. Between this Cape and Cape Turnagain, the land near the shore is, in many places, low and flat, and has a green and pleasant appearance; but farther from the sea it rises into hills. The land between Cape Palliser and Cape Tierawitte is high and makes in table-points;* it also seemed to us to form two bays, but we were at too great a distance from this part of the coast, to judge accurately from appearances. The wind having been variable, with calms, we had advanced no farther by the 12th at noon than latitude 41° 52′,* Cape Palliser then bearing north, distant about five leagues; and the snowy mountain S. 83 W. --page 752

*At noon on the 13th, we found ourselves in the latitude of 42° 2′ S.; Cape Palliser bearing N. 20 E. distant eight leagues. In the afternoon, a fresh gale sprung up at N. E. and we steered S. W. by W. for the southermost land in sight, which at sunset bore from us S. 74 W. At this time the variation was 15° 4′ E. --page 753

*At eight o'clock in the morning of the 14th, having run one and twenty leagues S. 58 W. since the preceding noon, it fell calm. We were then abreast of the snowy mountain which bore from us N. W. and in this direction lay behind a mountainous ridge of nearly the same height, which rises directly from the sea, and runs parallel with the shore, which lies N. E. ½ N. and S. W. ½ S. The north west end of the ridge rises inland, not far from Cape Campbell; and both the mountain and the ridge are distinctly seen as well from Cape Koamaroo as Cape Palliser: from Koamaroo they are distant two and twenty leagues S. W. ½ S.; and from Cape Palliser thirty leagues W. S. W.; and are of a height sufficient to be seen at a much greater distance. At noon this day, we were in latitude 42° 347′S. The southermost land in sight bore S. W. ½ W.; and some low land that appeared like an island, and lay close under the foot of the ridge, bore N. W. by N. about five or six leagues. --page 754

In the afternoon,* when Mr. Banks was out in the boat a shooting, we saw, with our glasses, four double canoes, having on board fifty-seven men, put off from that shore, and make towards him: we immediately made signals for him to come on board; but the ship, with respect to him, being right in the wake of the sun, he did not see them. We were at a considerable distance from the shore, and he was at a considerable distance from the ship, which was between him and the shore; so that, it being a dead calm, I began to be in some pain for him, fearing that he might not see the canoes time enough to reach the ship before they should get up with him: soon after, however, we saw his boat in motion, and had the pleasure to take him on board before the Indians came up, who probably had not seen him, as their attention seemed to be wholly fixed upon the ship. They came within about a stone's cast, and then stopped, gazing at us with a look of vacant astonishment: Tupia exerted all his eloquence to prevail upon them to come nearer, but without any effect. After surveying us for some time, they left us, and made towards the shore; but had not measured more than half the distance between that and the ship before it was dark. We imagined that these people had heard nothing of us, and could not but remark the different behaviour and dispositions of the inhabitants of the different parts of this coast upon their first approaching the vessel. These kept aloof with a mixture of timidity and wonder; others had immediately commenced hostilities, by pelting us with stones: the gentleman whom we had found alone, fishing in his boat, seemed to think us entirely unworthy of his notice; and some, almost without invitation, had come on board with an air of perfect confidence and good-will. From the behaviour of our last visitors, I gave the land from which they had put off,* and which, as I have before observed, had the appearance of an island, the name or LOOKERS-ON. --page 755

At eight o'clock in the evening, a breeze sprung up at S.S.W. with which I stretched off south east, because some on board thought they saw land in that quarter. In this course we continued till six o'clock the next morning,* when we had run eleven leagues, but saw no land, except that which we had left. Having stood to the S.E. with a light breeze, which veered from the west to the north, till noon, our latitude by observation was 42° 56′ S. and the high land that we were abreast of the preceding noon bore N. N. W. ½ W. In the afternoon we had a light breeze at N. E. with which we steered west, edging in for the land, which was distant about eight leagues. At seven in the evening, we were about six leagues from the shore, and the southermost extremity of the land in sight bore W. S. W. --page 756

*At day-break on the 16th, we discovered land bearing S. by W. and seemingly detached from the coast we were upon. About eight, a breeze sprung up, at N. by E. and we steered directly for it. At noon, we were in latitude 43° 19′S. the peak on the snowy mountain bore N. 20 E. distant twenty-seven leagues; the southern extremity of the land we could see bore west, and the land which had been discovered in the morning appeared like an island extending from S. S. W. to S. W. by W. ½ W. distant about eight leagues. In the afternoon, we stood to the southward of it, with a fresh breeze at north: at eight in the evening, we had run eleven leagues, and the land then extended from S. W. by W. to N. by W. We were then distant about three or four leagues from the nearest shore, and in this situation had fifty fathom water, with a fine sandy bottom. The variation of the compass by this morning's amplitude was 14° 39′ E. --page 757

At sun-rise, the next morning,* our opinion that the land we had been standing for was an island, was confirmed, by our seeing part of the land of Tovy Poenammoo open to the westward of it, extending as far as W. by S. At eight in the morning, the extremes of the island bore N. 76 W. and N. N. E. ½ E.; and an opening near the south point, which had the appearance of a bay or harbour, N. 20 W. distant between three and four leagues: in this situation we had thirty-eight fathom water with a brown sandy bottom. --page 758

This island, which I named after Mr. Banks,* lies about five leagues from the coast of Tovy Poenammoo; the south point bears S. 21 W. from the highest peak on the snowy mountain, and lies in latitude 43° 32′ S. and in longitude 186° 30′ W. by an observation of the sun and moon which was made this morning: it is of a circular figure, and about twenty-four leagues in compass: it is sufficiently high to be seen at the distance of twelve or fifteen leagues, and the land has a broken irregular surface, with the appearance rather of barrenness than fertility; yet it was inhabited, for we saw smoke in one place, and a few straggling natives in another. --page 759

When this island was first discovered in the direction of S. by W. some persons on board were of opinion that they also saw land bearing S. S. E. and S. E. by E. I was myself upon the deck at the time, and told them, that in my opinion it was no more than a cloud, and that as the sun rose it would dissipate and vanish. However, as I was determined to leave no subject for disputation which experiment could remove, I ordered the ship to be wore, and steered E. S. E. by compass, in the direction which the land was said to bear from us at that time. At noon we were in latitude 44° 7′ S.; the south point of Banks's Island bearing north, distant five leagues.* By seven o'clock at night we had run eight and twenty miles, when seeing no land, nor any signs of any, but that which we had left, we bore away S. by W. and continued upon that course till the next day at noon,* when we were in latitude 45° 16′, the south point of Banks's Island bearing N. 6° 30′ W. distant twenty-eight leagues. The variation by the azimuth this morning was 15° 30′ E. As no signs of land had yet appeared to the southward, and as I thought that we had stood far enough in that direction to weather all the land we had left, judging from the report of the natives in Queen Charlotte's Sound, I hauled to the westward. --page 760

We had a moderate breeze at N. N. W. and N. till eight in the evening, when it became unsettled; and at ten fixed at south: during the night, it blew with such violence that it brought us under our close reefed topsails. At eight the next morning,* having run twenty-eight leagues upon a W. by N. ½ N. course, and judging ourselves to be to the westward of the land of Tovy Poenammoo, we bore away N. W. with a fresh gale at south. At ten, having run eleven miles upon this course, we saw land extending from the S. W. to the N. W. at the distance of about ten leagues, which we hauled up for. At noon, our latitude by observation was 44° 38′, the south east point of Bank's Island bore N. 58° 30′ E. distant thirty leagues, and the main body of the land in sight W. by N. A head sea prevented us from making much way to the southward; at seven in the evening the extremes of the land stretched from S. W. by S. to N. by W.; and at six leagues from the shore we had thirty-two fathom water.* At four o'clock the next morning, we stood in for the shore W. by S. and during a course of four leagues, our depth of water was from thirty-two to thirteen fathom. When it was thirteen fathom we were but three miles distant from the shore, and therefore stood off;* its direction is here nearly N. and S. The surface, to the distance of about five miles from the sea, is low and flat; but it then rises into hills of a considerable height. It appeared to be totally barren, and we saw no signs of its being inhabited. Our latitude, at noon, was 44° 44′; and the longitude which we made from Banks's Island to this place was 2° 22′ W. During the last twenty-four hours, though we carried as much sail as the ship would bear, we were driven three leagues to the leeward. --page 761

We continued to stand off and on all this day and the next,* keeping at the distance of between four and twelve leagues from the shore, and having water from thirty-five to fifty-three fathom. On the 22d, at noon, we had no observation,* but by the land judged ourselves to be about three leagues farther north than we had been the day before. At sun-set, the weather, which had been hazey, clearing up, we saw a mountain which rose in a high peak, bearing N. W. by N.; and at the same time, we saw the land more distinctly than before, extending from N. to S. W. by S. which, at some distance within the coast, had a lofty and mountainous appearance. We soon found that the accounts which had been given us by the Indians in Queen Charlotte's Sound of the land to the southward were not true; for they had told us that it might be circumnavigated in four days. --page 762

On the 23d,* having a hollow swell from the S. E. and expecting wind from the same quarter, we kept plying between seven and fifteen leagues from the shore, having from seventy to forty-four fathom. At noon, our latitude by observation was 44° 40′ S. and our longitude from Banks's island 1° 31′ W. From this time to six in the evening it was calm;* but a light breeze then springing up at E.N.E. we steered S. S. E. all night, edging off from the land, the hollow swell still continuing; our depth of water was from sixty to seventy-five fathom. While we were becalmed, Mr. Banks, being out in the boat, shot two Port Egmont hens, which were in every respect the same as those that are found in great numbers upon the island of Faro, and were the first of the kind we had seen upon this coast, though we fell in with some a few days before we made land. --page 763

*At day-break, the wind freshened, and before noon we had a strong gale at N.N.E. At eight in the morning we saw the land extending as far as S. W. by S. and steered directly for it. At noon, we were in latitude 45° 22′ S.; and the land, which now stretched from S. W. ½ S. to N.N.W. appeared to be rudely diversified by hill and valley. In the afternoon, we steered S. W. by S. and S. W. edging in for the land with a fresh gale at north; but though we were at no great distance, the weather was so hazey that we could see nothing distinctly upon it, except a ridge of high hills lying not far from the sea, and parallel to the coast, which in this place stretches S. by W. and N. by E. and seemed to end in a high bluff point to the southward. By eight in the evening we were abreast of this point; but it being then dark, and I not knowing which way the land trended, we brought to for the night. At this time, the point bore west, and was distant about five miles: our depth of water was thirty-seven fathom, and the bottom consisted of small pebbles. --page 764

*At day-break, having made sail, the point bore north, distant three leagues, and we now found that the land trended from it S. W. by W. as far as we could see. This point I named CAPE SAUNDERS, in honour of Sir Charles. Our latitude was 45° 35′ S. and longitude 189° 4′ W. By the latitude, and the angles that are made by the coast,* this point will be sufficiently known; there is, however, about three or four leagues to the south west of it, and very near the shore, a remarkable saddle-hill, which is a good direction to it on that quarter. From one league to four leagues north of Cape Saunders, the shore forms two or three bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and effectual shelter from the S. W. westerly, and N. westerly winds; but my desire of getting to the southward, in order to ascertain whether this country was an island or a continent, prevented my putting into any of them. --page 765

We kept at a small distance from the shore all this morning, with the wind at S. W. and had a very distinct view of it: it is of a moderate height, and the surface is broken by many hills, which are green and woody; but we saw no appearance of inhabitants. At noon, Cape Saunders bore N. 30 W. distant about four leagues. We had variable winds and calms till five o'clock in the evening, when it fixed at W. S. W. and soon blew so hard that it put us past our topsails, and split the foresail all to pieces: after getting another to the yard, we continued to stand to the southward under two courses; and at six the next morning, the southermost land in sight bore W. by N. and Cape Saunders N. by W. distant eight leagues:* at noon, it bore N. 20 W. fourteen leagues; and our latitude by observation was 46° 36′. The gale continued, with heavy squalls and a large hollow sea all the afternoon; and at seven in the evening, we lay to under our foresail, with the ship's head to the southward: at noon on the 27th,* our latitude was 46° 54′, and our longitude from Cape Saunders 1° 24′ E. At seven in the evening, we made sail under our courses;* and at eight the next morning set the topsails close reefed. At noon, our latitude was 47° 43′, and our longitude east from Cape Saunders 2° 10′. At this time, we wore and stood to the northward:* in the afternoon, we found the variation to be 16° 34′ E. At eight in the evening, we tacked and stood to the southward, with the wind at west. --page 766

*At noon this day, our latitude by account was 47° 52′, and our longitude from Cape Saunders 1° 8′ E. We stood to the southward till half an hour past three in the afternoon; and then, being in latitude 48° S. and longitude 188° W. and seeing no appearance of land, we tacked and stood to the northward, having a large swell from the S. W. by W. At noon the next day,* our latitude was 46° 42′ S.; and Cape Saunders bore N. 46 W. distant eighty-six miles. The south west swell continuing till the 3d,* confirmed our opinion, that there was no land in that quarter. At four in the afternoon, we stood to the westward with all the sail we could make. In the morning of the 4th,* we found the variation to be 16° 16′ E. This day we saw some whales and seals, as we had done several times after our having passed the streight; but we saw no seal while we were upon the coast of Eahienomauwe. We sounded both in the night and this morning, but had no ground with one hundred and fifty fathom. At noon, we saw Cape Saunders bearing N. ½ W.; and our latitude by observation was 46° 31′ S. At half an hour past one o'clock, we saw land bearing W. by S. which we steered for, and before it was dark were within three or four miles of it: during the whole night we saw fires upon it, and at seven in the morning were within about three leagues of the shore,* which appeared to be high, but level. At three o'clock in the afternoon, we saw the land extending from N. E. by N. to N. W. ½ N.; and soon after we discovered some low land, which appeared like an island, bearing S. ½ W. We continued our course to the W. by S. and in two hours we saw high land over the low land, extending to the southward as far as S. W. by S.; but it did not appear to be joined to the land to the northward, so that there is either water,* a deep bay, or low land between them. --page 767

At noon on the 6th,* we were nearly in the same situation as at noon on the day before: in the afternoon we found the variation, by several azimuths and the amplitude, to be 15° 10′ E. On the 7th at noon,* we were in latitude 47° 6′ S. and had made twelve miles easting during the last twenty-four hours. We stood to the westward the remainder of this day, and all the next till sun-set,* when the extreams of the land bore from N. by E. to W. distant about seven or eight leagues: in this situation our depth of water was fifty-five fathom, and the variation by amplitude 16° 29′E. The wind now veered from the N. to the W. and as we had fine weather, and moonlight, we kept standing close upon the wind to the S. W. all night. At four in the morning,* we had sixty fathom water; and at day-light; we discovered under our bow a ledge of rocks, extending from S. by W. to W. by S. upon which the sea broke very high: they were not more than three quarters of a mile distant, yet we had five and forty fathom water. As the wind was at N. W. we could not now weather them, and as I was unwilling to run to leeward, I tacked and made a trip to the eastward; the wind however soon after coming to the northward, enabled us to get clear of all. Our soundings, while we were passing within the ledge, were from thirty-five to forty-seven fathom with a rocky bottom. --page 768

This ledge lies S. E. six leagues from the southermost part of the land, and S. E. by E. from some remarkable hills which stand near the shore: about three leagues to the northward of it, there is another ledge, which lies full three leagues from the shore, and on which the sea broke in a dreadful surf. As we passed these rocks to the north in the night,* and discovered the others under our bow at break of day, it is manifest that our danger was imminent, and our escape critical in the highest degree: from the situation of these rocks, so well adapted to catch unwary strangers, I called them the TRAPS. Our latitude at noon was 47° 26′ S. The land in sight, which had the appearance of an island, extended from N. E. by N. to N. W. by W. and seemed to be about five leagues distant from the main; the eastermost ledge of rocks bore S. S. E. distant one league and an half, and the northermost N. E. ½ E. distant about three leagues. This land is high and barren, with nothing upon it but a few straggling shrubs, for not a single tree was to be seen; it was however remarkable for a number of white patches, which I took to be marble, as they reflected the sun's rays very strongly: other patches of the same kind we had observed in different parts of this country, particularly in Mercury Bay: we continued to stand close upon a wind to the westward, and at sun-set the southermost point of land bore N. 38 E. distant four leagues, and the westermost land in sight bore N. 2 E. The point which lies in latitude 47° 19′ S. longitude 192° 12′ W. I named SOUTH CAPE; the westermost land was a small island, lying off the point of the main. --page 769

Supposing South Cape to be the southern extremity of this country, as indeed it proved to be, I hoped to get round it by the west, for a large hollow swell from the south west, ever since our last hard gale, had convinced me that there was no land in that direction. --page 770

*In the night we had a hard gale at N. E. by N. and N. which brought us under our courses, but about eight in the morning it became moderate; and at noon, veering to the west, we tacked and stood to the northward, having no land in sight. Our latitude, by observation, was 47° 33′ S. our longitude, west from the South Cape, 59′.* We stood away N. N. E. close upon a wind, without seeing any land, till two the next morning,* when we discovered an island bearing N. W. by N. distant about five leagues: about two hours afterwards we saw land a-head, upon which we tacked and stood off till six, when we stood in to take a nearer view of it: at eleven we were within three leagues of it, but the wind seeming to incline upon the shore, I tacked and stood off to the southward. We had now sailed round the land which we had discovered on the 5th, and which then did not appear to be joined to the main which lay north of it; and being now come to the other side of what we supposed to be water, a bay, or low land, it had the same appearance, but when I came to lay it down upon paper I saw no reason to suppose it to be an island; on the contrary, I was clearly of opinion that it made part of the main. At noon, the western extremity of the main bore N. 59 W. and the island which we had seen in the morning, S. 59 W. distant about five leagues. It lies in latitude 46° 31′ S. longitude 192° 49′ W. and is nothing but a barren rock about a mile in circuit, remarkably high, and lies full five leagues distant from the main. This island I named after Dr. Solander, and called it SOLANDER's ISLAND. The shore of the main lies nearest E. by S. and W. by N. and forms a large open bay, in which there is no appearance of any harbour or shelter for shipping against S. W. and southerly winds: the surface of the country is broken into craggy hills, of a great height, on the summits of which are several patches of snow: it is not, however, wholly barren, for we could see wood not only in the vallies, but upon the highest ground, yet we saw no appearance of its being inhabited. --page 771

We continued to stand to the S. W. by S. till eleven o'clock the next morning,* when the wind shifted to the S. W. by W. upon which we wore,* and stood to the N. N. W. being then in latitude 47° 40′ S. longitude 193° 50′ W. and having a hollow sea from the S. W. --page 772

*During the night, we steered N. N. W. till six in the morning, when, seeing no land, we steered N. by E. till eight, when we steered N. E. by E. ½ E. to make the land, which at ten we saw bearing E. N. E. but it being hazy, we could distinguish nothing upon it. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 46° S. About two it cleared up, and the land appeared to be high, rude, and mountainous: about half an hour after three I hauled in for a bay, in which there appeared to be good anchorage; but in about an hour, finding the distance too great to run before it would be dark, and the wind blowing too hard to make the attempt safe in the night, I bore away along the shore. --page 773

This bay, which I called DUSKY BAY, lies in latitude 45° 47′ S.: it is between three and four miles broad at the entrance, and seems to be full as deep as it is broad: it contains several islands, behind which there must be shelter from all winds, though possibly there may not be sufficient depth of water. The north point of this bay, when it bears S. E. by S. is rendered very remarkable by five high peaked rocks which lie off it, and have the appearance of the four fingers and thumb of a man's hand, for which reason I called it POINT FIVE FINGERS: the land of this Point is farther remarkable, for being the only level land within a considerable distance. It extends near two leagues to the northward, is lofty, and covered with wood: the land behind it is very different, consisting wholly of mountains, totally barren and rocky; and this difference gives the Cape the appearance of an island. --page 774

At sun-set, the southermost land in sight bore due south,* distant about five or six leagues; and as this is the westermost point of land upon the whole coast, I called it WEST CAPE. It lies about three leagues to the southward of Dusky Bay, in the latitude of 45° 54′ S. and in the longitude of 193° 17′ W. The land of this Cape is of a moderate height next the sea, and has nothing remarkable about it, except a very white cliff, two or three leagues to the southward of it: to the southward of it also the land trends away to the S. E. and to the northward it trends N. N. E. --page 775

Having brought to for the night,* we made sail along the shore at four in the morning, in the direction of N. E. ½ N. with a moderate breeze at S. S. E. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 45° 13′ S. At this time, being about a league and an half from the shore, we sounded, but had no ground with seventy fathom: we had just passed a small narrow opening in land, where there seemed to be a very safe and convenient harbour, formed by an island, which lay in the middle of the opening at east. The opening lies in latitude 45° 16′ S. and on the land behind it are mountains, the summits of which were covered with snow, that appeared to have been recently fallen; and indeed for two days past we had found the weather very cold. On each side the entrance of the opening, the land rises almost perpendicularly from the sea to a stupendous height, and this indeed was the reason why I did not carry the ship into it, for no wind could blow there but right in, or right out, in the direction of either east or west, and I thought it by no means advisable to put into a place whence I could not have got out but with a wind which experience had taught me did not blow more than one day in a month. In this, however, I acted contrary to the opinion of some persons on board, who in very strong terms expressed their desire to harbour for present convenience,* without any regard to future disadvantages. --page 776

In the evening, being about two leagues from the shore, we sounded, and had no ground with 108 fathom: the variation of the needle, by azimuth, was 14° E. and by amplitude 15° 2′. We made the best of our way along the shore with what wind we had, keeping at the distance of between two and three leagues. At noon, we were in latitude 44° 47′, having run only twelve leagues upon a N.E. ¼ N. course, during the last four and twenty hours. --page 777

We continued to steer along the shore, in the direction of N.E. ¼ E. till six o'clock in the evening, when we brought to for the night.* At four in the morning, we stood in for the land, and when the day broke we saw what appeared to be an inlet; but upon a nearer approach proved to be only a deep valley between two high lands: we proceeded therefore in the same course, keeping the shore at the distance of between four and five miles.* At noon on the 16th, the northermost point of land in sight bore N. 60 E. at the distance of ten miles; and our latitude, by observation, was 44° 5′, our longitude from Cape West 2° 8′ E. About two, we past the point which at noon had been distant ten miles, and found it to consist of high red cliffs, down which there fell a cascade of water in four small streams, and I therefore gave it the name of CASCADE POINT. From this Point the land trends first N. 76 E. and afterwards more to the northward. At the distance of eight leagues from Cascade Point, in the direction of E.N.E. and at a little distance from the shore, lies a small low island, which bore from us S. by E. at the distance of about a league and a half. --page 778

At seven in the evening, we brought to,* in thirty-three fathom with a fine sandy bottom, at ten we had fifty fathom, and at twelve wore in sixty-five fathom, having driven several miles N.N.W. after our having brought to.* At two in the morning, we had no ground with 140 fathom, by which it appears that the soundings extend but a little way from the shore. About this time it fell calm; at eight, a breeze sprung up at S.W. with which we steered along the shore, in the direction of N.E. by E. ½ E. at the distance of about three leagues. At six in the evening, being about one league from the shore, we had seventeen fathom; and at eight, being about three leagues from the shore, we had forty-four: we now shortened sail and brought to, having run ten leagues N.E. by E. since noon. --page 779

It was calm most part of the night;* but at ten in the morning a light breeze sprung up at S.W. by W. when we made sail again along the shore, N.E. by N. having a large swell from the W.S.W. which had risen in the night; at noon, our latitude, by observation, was 43° 4′ S. and our longitude from Cape West 4° 12′ E. We observed, that the vallies as well as the mountains were this morning covered with snow, part of which we supposed to have fallen during the night, when we had rain. At six in the evening we shortened sail, and at ten brought to, at the distance of about five leagues from the shore, where we had 115 fathom. At midnight, there being little wind, we made sail,* and at eight in the morning we stood to the N.E. close upon a wind till noon, when we tacked, being about three leagues from the land, and, by observation, in latitude 42° 8′, and longitude from Cape West 5° 5′ E. --page 780

We continued to stand westward till two in the morning,* when we made a trip to the eastward, and afterwards stood westward till noon, when, by our reckoning, we were in the latitude of 42° 23′,* and longitude from Cape West 3° 55′ E. We now tacked and stood eastward, with a fresh gale at N. by W. till six in the evening, when the wind shifted to the S. and S.S.W. with which we steered N.E. by N. till six in the morning,* when we hauled in E. by N. to make the land, which we saw soon afterwards; at noon, our latitude, by account, was 41° 37′, and our longitude from Cape West 5° 42′ E. We were now within three or four leagues of the land, but it being foggy, we could see nothing upon it distinctly, and as we had much wind, and a vast swell rolling in upon the shore, from the W.S.W. I did not think it safe to go nearer. --page 781

In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze from the S.S.W. with which we steered north along the shore till eight, when, being within between two and three leagues, we sounded, and had but thirty-four fathom; upon which we hauled off N.W. by N. till eleven at night, and then brought to, having sixty-four fathom.* At four in the morning, we made sail to the N.E. with a light breeze at S.S.W. which at eight veered to the westward, and soon after died away: at this time we were within three or four miles of the land, and had fifty-four fathom, with a large swell from the W.S.W. rolling obliquely upon the shore, which made me fear that I should be obliged to anchor; but by the help of a light air now and then from the S.W. I was able to keep the ship from driving. At noon, the northermost land in sight bore N.E. by E. ½ E. distant about ten leagues; our latitude, by account, was 40° 55′ S. longitude from Cape West 6° 35′ E. From this time we had light airs from the southward, with intervals of calm,* till noon on the 23d, when our latitude, by observation, was 40° 36′ 30″ S. and our longitude from Cape West 6° 52′ E. The eastermost point of land in sight bore E. 10 N. at the distance of seven leagues, and a bluff head or point, of which we had been abreast at noon the day before, and off which lay some rocks above water,* bore S. 18 W. at the distance of six leagues. This point I called ROCK's POINT. Our latitude was now 40° 55′ S. and having nearly run down the whole of the north west coast of Tovy Poenammoo, I shall give some account of the face of the country. --page 782

I have already observed, that on the 11th, when we were off the southern part, the land then seen was craggy and mountainous, and there is great reason to believe that the same ridge of mountains extends nearly the whole length of the island. Between the westermost land which we saw that day, and the eastermost which we saw on the 13th, there is a space of about six or eight leagues, of which we did not see the coast, though we plainly discovered the mountains inland. The sea coast near Cape West is low, rising with an easy and gradual ascent to the foot of the mountains, and being in most parts covered with wood. From Point Five Fingers, down to latitude 44° 20′ there is a narrow ridge of hills that rises directly from the sea, and is covered with wood: close behind these hills are the mountains, extending in another ridge of a stupendous height, and consisting of rocks that are totally barren and naked, except where they are covered with snow, which is to be seen in large patches upon many parts of them, and has probably lain there ever since the creation of the world: a prospect more rude, craggy, and desolate than this country affords from the sea, cannot possibly be conceived, for as far inland as the eye can reach, nothing appears but the summits of rocks, which stand so near together, that instead of vallies there is only fissures between them. From the latitude of 44° 20′, to the latitude of 42° 8′, these mountains lie farther inland, and the sea coast consists of woody hills and vallies,* of various height and extent, and has much appearance of fertility: many of the vallies form plains of considerable extent, wholly covered with wood, but it is very probable that the ground, in many places, is swampy and interspersed with pools of water. From latitude 42° 8′, to 41° 30′, the land is not distinguished by any thing remarkable: it rises into hills directly from the sea, and is covered with wood; but the weather being foggy while we were upon this part of the coast, we could see very little inland, except now and then the summits of the mountains, towering above the cloudy mists that obscured them below, which confirmed my opinion that a chain of mountains extended from one end of the island to the other. --page 783

In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze at S.W. which, before it was quite dark, brought us abreast of the eastern point which we had seen at noon; but not knowing what course the land took on the other side of it, we brought to in thirty-four fathom, at the distance of about one league from the shore. At eight in the evening, there being little wind, we filled and stood on till midnight, and then we brought to till four in the morning,* when we again made sail, and at break of day we saw low land extending from the point to the S.S.E. as far as the eye could reach, the eastern extremity of which appeared in round hillocks: by this time the gale had veered to the eastward, which obliged us to ply to windward.* At noon next day, the eastern point bore S.W. by S. distant sixteen miles, and our latitude was 40° 19′: the wind continuing easterly, we were nearly in the same situation at noon on the day following.* About three o'clock the wind came to the westward, and we steered E.S.E. with all the sail we could set till it was dark, and then shortened sail till the morning:* as we had thick hazey weather all night, we kept sounding continually,* and had from thirty-seven to forty-two fathom. When the day broke we saw land bearing S.E. by E. and an island lying near it, bearing E.S.E. distant about five leagues: this island I knew to be the same that I had seen from the entrance of Queen Charlotte's Sound, from which it bears N.W. by N. distant nine leagues. At noon, it bore south, distant four or five miles, and the north west head of the Sound S.E. by S. distant ten leagues and an half. Our latitude, by observation, was 40° 33′ S. --page 784

As we had now circumnavigated the whole country, it became necessary to think of quitting it, but as I had thirty tons of empty water casks on board, this could not be done till I had filled them: I therefore hauled round the island, and entered a bay, which lies between that and Queen Charlotte's Sound, leaving three more islands, which lay close under the western shore, between three or four miles within the entrance, on our starboard hand: while we were running in, we kept the lead continually going, and had from forty to twelve fathom. At six o'clock in the evening, we anchored in eleven fathom with a muddy bottom, under the west shore, in the second cove, that lies within the three islands; and as soon as it was light the next morning,* I took a boat, and went on shore to look for a watering-place, and a proper birth for the ship, both which I found, much to my satisfaction. As soon as the ship was moored, I sent an officer on shore to superintend the watering, and the carpenter, with his crew, to cut wood, while the long-boat was employed in landing the empty casks. --page 785

In this employment we were busy till the 30th,* when the wind seeming to settle at S.E. and our water being nearly completed, we warped the ship out of the cove, that we might have room to get under sail: and at noon I went away in the pinnace to examine as much of the bay as my time would admit.* --page 786

After rowing about two leagues up it, I went ashore upon a point of land on the western side, and having climbed a hill, I saw the western arm of this bay run in S.W. by W. about five leagues farther, yet I could not discover the end of it: there appeared to be several other inlets, or at least small bays, between this and the north west head of Queen Charlotte's Sound, in each of which, I make no doubt, there is anchorage and shelter, as they are all covered from the sea wind by the islands which lie without them. The land about this bay, as far as I could see of it, is of a hilly surface, chiefly covered with trees, shrubs, and fern, which render travelling difficult and fatiguing. In this excursion I was accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who found several new plants. We met with some hutts, which seemed to have been long deserted, but saw no inhabitants. Mr. Banks examined several of the stones that lay upon the beach, which were full of veins, and had a mineral appearance; but he did not discover any thing in them which he knew to be ore: if he had had an opportunity to examine any of the bare rocks, perhaps he might have been more fortunate. He was also of opinion that what I had taken for marble in another place, was a mineral substance; and that, considering the correspondence of latitude between this place and South America, it was not improbable but that, by a proper examination, something very valuable might be found. --page 787

At my return in the evening, I found all the wood and water on board, and the ship ready for the sea; I resolved therefore to quit the country, and return home by such a route as might be of most advantage to the service; and upon this subject took the opinion of my officers.* I had myself a strong desire to return by Cape Horn, because that would have enabled me finally to determine, whether there is or is not a southern continent; but against this it was a sufficient objection that we must have kept in a high southern latitude in the very depth of winter, with a vessel which was not thought sufficient for the undertaking: and the same reason was urged against our proceeding directly for the Cape of Good Hope, with still more force, because no discovery of moment could be hoped for in that rout; it was therefore resolved that we should return by the East Indies, and that with this view we should, upon leaving the coast, steer westward, till we should fall in with the east coast of New Holland, and then follow the direction of that coast to the northward, till we should arrive at its northern extremity; but if that should be found impracticable, it was further resolved that we should endeavour to fall in with the land, or islands, said to have been discovered by Quiros. --page 788

With this view,* at break of day on Saturday the 31st of March 1770, we got under sail, and put to sea, with the advantage of a fresh gale at S. E. and clear weather, taking our departure from the eastern point, which we had seen at noon on the 23d, and to which, on this occasion, I gave the name of CAPE FAREWELL. --page 789

The bay out of which we had just sailed I called ADMIRALTY BAY, giving the name of CAPE STEPHENS to the north west point, and of CAPE JACKSON to the south east, after the two gentlemen who at this time were Secretaries to the Board. --page 790

Admiralty Bay may easily be known by the island that has been just mentioned, which lies two miles N. E. of Cape Stephens, in latitude 40° 37′ S. longitude 185° 6′ W. and is of a considerable height. Between this island and Cape Farewell, which are between fourteen and fifteen leagues distant from each other,* in the direction of W. by N. and E. by S. the shore forms a large deep bay, the bottom of which we could scarcely see while we were sailing in a strait line from one Cape to the other; it is, however, probably of less depth than it appeared to be, for as we found the water shallower here, than at the same distance from any other part of the coast, there is reason to suppose, that the land at the bottom which lies next the sea is low, and therefore not easily to be distinguished from it. I have for this reason called it BLIND BAY, and am of opinion that it is the same which was called Murderer's Bay by Tasman. --page 791

Such particulars of this country and its inhabitants, with their manners and customs, as could be learnt while we were circumnavigating the coast, shall now be related. --page 792

NEW ZEALAND was first discovered by Abel Jansen Tasman, a Dutch navigator,* whose name has been several times mentioned in this narrative, on the 13th of December, in the year 1642. He traversed the eastern coast from latitude 34° to 43, and entered the streight which divides the two islands, and in the chart is called COOK's STREIGHT; but being attacked by the natives soon after he came to an anchor, in the place to which he gave the name of Murderer's Bay, he never went on shore. He gave the country the name of STAATEN LAND, or the land of the States, in honour of the States-General, and it is now generally distinguished in our maps and charts by the name of NEW ZEALAND. As the whole of this country, except that part of the coast which was seen by Tasman from on board his ship, has from his time, to the voyage of the Endeavour, remained altogether unknown, it has by many been supposed to be part of a southern continent. It is however now known to consist of two large islands, divided from each other by a streight or passage, which is about four or five leagues broad. --page 793

These islands are situated between the latitudes of 34° and 48° S. and between the longitudes of 181° and 194° W. which is now determined with uncommon exactness, from innumerable observations of the sun and moon, and one of the transits of Mercury,* by Mr. Green, a person of known abilities, who, as has been observed before, was sent out by the Royal Society, to observe the transit of Venus in the South Seas. --page 794

The northermost of these islands is called by the natives Eaheinomauwe, and the southermost Tovy, or Tavai Poenammoo; yet, as I have observed before, we are not sure whether the name Tovy Poenammoo comprehends the whole southern island, or only part of it. The figure and extent of these islands, with the situation of the bays and harbours they contain, and the smaller islands that lie about them, will appear from the chart that I have drawn, every part of which, however, I cannot vouch to be equally accurate. The coast of Eaheinomauwe, from Cape Palliser to East Cape, is laid down with great exactness, both in its figure, and the course and distance from point to point; for the opportunities that offered, and the methods that I used, were such as could scarcely admit of an error. From East Cape to St. Maria van Diemen, the chart, though perhaps not equally exact, is without any error of moment, except possibly in some few places which are here, and in other parts of the chart, distinguished by a dotted line, and which I had no opportunity to examine: from Cape Maria van Diemen to latitude 36° 15′, we were seldom nearer the shore than between five and eight leagues; and therefore the line that marks the sea coast may possibly be erroneous. From latitude 36° 15′ to nearly the length of Entry Island, our course was very near the shore, and in this part of the chart therefore there can be no material error, except perhaps at Cape Tierawitte. Between Entry Island and Cape Palliser we were again farther from the shore, and this part of the coast therefore may not be laid down with minute exactness; yet, upon the whole, I am of opinion that this island will be found not much to differ from the figure that I have given it,* and that upon the coast there are few or no harbours which are not noticed in the journal, or delineated in the chart. I cannot however say as much of Tovy Poenammoo, the season of the year, and the circumstances of the voyage, would not permit me to spend so much time about this island as I had employed upon the other; and the storms that we met with made it both difficult and dangerous to keep near the shore. However, from Queen Charlotte's Sound to Cape Campbel, and as far to the S.W. as latitude 43°, the chart will be found pretty accurate. Between latitude 43° and latitude 44° 20′ the line may be doubted, for of some part of the coast which it represents, we had scarcely a view. From latitude 44° 20′, to Cape Saunders, our distance would not permit me to be particular, and the weather was besides extremely unfavourable. From Cape Saunders to Cape South, and even to Cape West, there is also reason to fear that the chart will in many places be found erroneous, as we were seldom able to keep the shore, and were sometimes blown to such a distance that it could not be seen. From Cape West to Cape Farewell, and even to Charlotte's Sound, it is not more to be trusted. --page 795

Tovy Poenammoo is for the most part a mountainous,* and to all appearance a barren country; and the people whom we saw in Queen Charlotte's Sound, those that came off to us under the snowy mountains, and the fires to the west of Cape Saunders, were all the inhabitants, and signs of inhabitants, that we discovered upon the whole island. --page 796

Eaheinomauwe has a much better appearance; it is indeed not only hilly but mountainous, yet even the hills and mountains are covered with wood, and every valley has a rivulet of water:* the soil in these vallies, and in the plains, of which there are many that are not overgrown with wood, is in general light but fertile, and in the opinion of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, as well as of every other gentleman on board, every kind of European grain, plants, and fruit, would flourish here in the utmost luxuriance: from the vegetables that we found here, there is reason to conclude, that the winters are milder than those in England, and we found the summer not hotter, though it was more equally warm; so that if this country should be settled by people from Europe, they would, with a little industry, be very soon supplied not only with the necessaries, but the luxuries of life in great abundance. --page 797

*In this country there are no quadrupeds but dogs and rats, at least we saw no other, and the rats are so scarce that many of us never saw them. The dogs live with the people, who breed them for no other purpose than to eat: there might indeed be quadrupeds that we did not see, but this is not probable, because the chief pride of the natives, with respect to their dress, is in the skins and hair of such animals as they have, and we never saw the skin of any animal about them but those of dogs and birds: there are indeed seals upon the coast, and we once saw a sea lion, but we imagine they are seldom caught, for though we saw some of their teeth which were fashioned into an ornament like a bodkin, and worn by the natives at their breast, and highly valued, we saw none of their skins: there are whales also upon this coast, and though the people did not appear to have any art or instrument by which such an animal could be taken and killed, we saw pattoo-pattoos in the possession of some of them, which were made of the bone of a whale, or of some other animal whose bone had exactly the same appearance. --page 798

Of birds the species are not many; and of these none,* except perhaps the gannet, is the same with those of Europe: here are ducks indeed, and shags of several kinds, sufficiently resembling those of Europe, to be called the same, by those who have not examined them very nicely. Here are also hawks, owls, and quails, which differ but little from those of Europe at first sight; and several small birds, whose song, as has been remarked in the course of the narrative, is much more melodious than any that we had ever heard. --page 799

The sea coast is also visited by many oceanic birds, particularly albatrosses, sheerwaters, pintados, and a few of the birds which Sir John Narborough has called Penguins, and which indeed are what the French call Nuance, and seem to be a middle species between bird and fish; for their feathers, especially those upon their wings, differ very little from scales; and their wings themselves, which they use only in diving, and not to accelerate their motion even upon the surface of the water, may, perhaps with equal propriety, be called fins. --page 800

Neither are insects in greater plenty than birds: a few butterflies and beetles, flesh flies, very like those in Europe, and some musquitos and sand flies, perhaps exactly the same with those of North America, make up the whole catalogue. Of musquitos and sand flies, however, which are justly accounted the curse of every country where they abound, we did not see many; there were indeed a few in almost every place where we went on shore, but they gave us so little trouble, that we did not make use of the shades which we had provided for the security of our faces. --page 801

For this scarcity of animals upon the land, the sea, however, makes an abundant recompense; every creek swarming with fish,* which are not only wholesome, but equally delicious with those of Europe: the ship seldom anchored in any station, or with a light gale passed any place, that did not afford us enough with hook and line to serve the whole ship's company, especially to the southward: when we lay at anchor, the boats, with hook and line, near the rocks, could take fish in any quantity; and the seine seldom failed of producing a still more ample supply; so that both times when we anchored in Cook's Streight, every mess in the ship, that was not careless and improvident, salted as much as lasted many weeks after they went to sea. Of this article, the variety was equal to the plenty; we had mackrel of many kinds, among which, one was exactly the same as we have in England: these came in immense shoals, and were taken by the natives in their seines, who sold them to us at a very easy rate. Besides these, there were fish of many species which we had never seen before, but to all which the seamen very readily gave names; so that we talked here as familiarly of hakes, bream, cole-fish, and many others, as we do in England; and though they are by no means of the same family, at must be confessed that they do honour to the name. But the highest luxury which the sea afforded us, even in this place, was the lobster or sea cray-fish, which are probably the same that in the Account of Lord Anson's Voyage are said to have been found at the island of Juan Fernandes, except that, although large, they are not quite equal in size: they differ from ours in England in several particulars, they have a greater number of prickles on their backs, and they are red when first taken out of the water. These we also bought every where to the northward in great quantities of the natives, who catch them by diving near the shore, and finding out where they lie with their feet. We had also a fish that Frezier, in his Voyage to the Spanish Main in South America, has described by the names of Elefant, Pejegallo,* or Poison coq, which though coarse, we eat very heartily. Several species of the skate, or sting-ray, are also found here, which were still coarser than the Elefant; but as an atonement, we had among many kinds of dog-fish one, spotted with white, which was in flavour exactly similar to our best skate, but much more delicious. We had also flat fish resembling both soles and flounders, besides eels and congers of various kinds, with many others of which those who shall hereafter visit this coast will not fail to find the advantage; and shell-fish in great variety, particularly clams, cockles, and oysters. --page 802

Among the vegetable productions of this country,* the trees claim a principal place; for here are forests of vast extent, full of the straitest, the cleanest, and the largest timber trees that we had ever seen; their size, their grain, and apparent durability, render them fit for any kind of building, and indeed for every other purpose except masts; for which, as I have already observed, they are too hard, and too heavy: there is one in particular which, when we were upon the coast, was rendered conspicuous by a scarlet flower, that seemed to be a compendage of many fibres; it is about as large as an oak, and the wood is exceedingly hard and heavy, and excellently adapted to the use of the mill-wright. There is another which grows in the swamps, remarkably tall and strait, thick enough to make masts for vessels of any size, and, if a judgment may be formed by the direction of its grain, very tough: this, which, as has been before remarked, our carpenter thought to resemble the pitch-pine, may probably be lightened by tapping, and it will then make the finest masts in the world: it has a leaf not unlike a yew, and bears berries in small bunches. --page 803

*Great part of the country is covered with a luxuriant verdure, and our natural historians were gratified by the novelty, if not the variety of the plants. Sow-thistle, garden night-shade, one or two kinds of grass, the same as in England, and two or three kinds of fern, like those of the West Indies, with a few of the plants that are to be found in almost every part of the world, were all, out of about four hundred species, that have hitherto been described by any botanists, or had been seen elsewhere during the course of this voyage, except about five or six which had been gathered at Terra del Fuego. --page 804

Of eatable vegetables there are but few; our people, indeed, who had been long at sea, eat, with equal pleasure and advantage, of wild celery, and a kind of cresses, which grew in great abundance upon all parts of the sea-shore. We also, once or twice, met with a plant like what the country people in England call Lamb's quarters, or Fat-hen, which we boiled instead of greens; and once we had the good fortune to find a cabbage tree, which afforded us a delicious meal; and, except the fern-root, and one other vegetable, totally unknown in Europe, and which, though eaten by the natives, was extremely disagreeable to us, we found no other vegetable production that was fit for food, among those that appeared to be the wild produce of the country; and we could find but three esculent plants among those which are raised by cultivation, yams, sweet potatoes, and coccos. Of the yams and potatoes there are plantations consisting of many acres, and I believe that any ship which should happen to be here in the autumn, when they are dug up, might purchase them in any quantity. --page 805

Gourds are also cultivated by the natives of this place, the fruit of which furnishes them with vessels for various uses. We also found here the Chinese paper mulberry tree,* the same as that of which the inhabitants of the South Sea islands make their cloth; but it is so scarce, that though the New Zealanders also make cloth of it, they have not enough for any other purpose than to wear as an ornament in the holes which they make in their ears, as I have observed before. --page 806

But among all the trees, shrubs, and plants of this country, there is not one that produces fruit, except a berry which has neither sweetness nor flavour, and which none but the boys took pains to gather, should be honoured with that appellation. There is, however, a plant that serves the inhabitants instead of hemp and flax, which excels all that are put to the same purposes in other countries. Of this plant there are two sorts; the leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller, and their clusters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the leaves of these plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common apparel; and of these they make also their strings, lines, and cordage for every purpose, which are so much stronger than any thing we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparison. From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long slender fibres which shine like silk, and are as white as snow: of these, which are also surprisingly strong, the finer clothes are made; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths, and tying the strips together, they make their fishing nets; some of which, as I have before remarked, are of an enormous size. --page 807

A plant, which with such advantage might be applied to so many useful and important purposes, would certainly be a great acquisition to England,* where it would probably thrive with very little trouble, as it seems to be hardy, and to affect no particular soil; being found equally in hill and valley; in the driest mould, and the deepest bogs: the bog, however, it seems rather to prefer, as near such places we observed it to be larger than elsewhere. --page 808

I have already observed, that we found great plenty of iron sand in Mercury Bay, and therefore that iron ore is undoubtedly to be found at no great distance. As to other metals we had scarcely knowlege enough of the country for conjecture. --page 809

If the settling of this country should ever be thought an object worthy the attention of Great Britain, the best place for establishing a colony would be either on the banks of the Thames, or in the country bordering upon the Bay of Islands. In either place there would be the advantage of an excellent harbour; and, by means of the river, settlements might be extended, and a communication established with the inland parts of the country: vessels might be built of the fine timber which abounds in these parts, at very little trouble and expence, fit for such a navigation as would answer the purpose. I cannot indeed exactly assign the depth of water which a vessel intended to navigate this river, even as far up as I went with the boat, should draw, because this depends upon the depth of water that is upon the bar, or flats, which lie before the narrow part of the river, for I had no opportunity to make myself acquainted with them; but I am of opinion, that a vessel which should draw not more than twelve feet would perfectly answer the purpose. --page 810

*When we first arrived upon the coast of this country, we imagined it to be much better peopled than we afterwards found it,* concluding that the inland parts were populous from the smoke that we saw at a considerable distance from the shore; and perhaps that may really be the case with respect to the country behind Poverty Bay, and the Bay of Plenty, where the inhabitants appeared to be more numerous than in other places. But we had reason to believe, that, in general, no part of the country but the sea coast is inhabited; and even there we found the people but thinly scattered, all the western coast from Cape Maria Van Diemen to Mount Egmont being totally desolate; so that upon the whole the number of inhabitants bears no proportion to the extent of country. --page 811

*THE stature of the men in general is equal to the largest of those in Europe: they are stout, well limbed, and fleshy; but not fat, like the lazy and luxurious inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas: they are also exceedingly vigorous and active; and have an adroitness, and manual dexterity in an uncommon degree, which are discovered in whatever they do. I have seen the strokes of fifteen paddles on a side in one of their canoes made with incredible quickness, and yet with such minute exactness of time, that all the rowers seemed to be actuated by one common soul. Their colour in general is brown; but in few deeper than that of a Spaniard, who has been exposed to the sun; in many not so deep. The women have not a feminine delicacy in their appearance, but their voice is remarkably soft; and by that, the dress of both sexes being the same, they are principally distinguished: they have, however, like the women of other countries, more airy cheerfulness, and a greater flow of animal spirits, than the other sex. Their hair, both of the head and beard, is black; and their teeth extremely regular, and as white as ivory: the features of both sexes are good; they seem to enjoy high health, and we saw many who appeared to be of a great age. The dispositions both of the men and women seemed to be mild and gentle; they treat each other with the tenderest affection,* but are implacable towards their enemies, to whom, as I have before observed, they never give quarter. It may perhaps, at first, seem strange, that where there is so little to be got by victory, there should so often be war; and that every little district of a country inhabited by people so mild and placid, should be at enmity with all the rest. But possibly more is to be gained by victory among these people than at first appears, and they may be prompted to mutual hostilities by motives which no degree of friendship or affection is able to resist. It appears, by the account that has already been given of them, that their principal food is fish, which can only be procured upon the sea-coast; and there, in sufficient quantities, only at certain times: the tribes, therefore, who live inland, if any such there are, and even those upon the coast, must be frequently in danger of perishing by famine. Their country produces neither sheep, nor goats, nor hogs, nor cattle; tame fowls they have none, nor any art by which those that are wild can be caught in sufficient plenty to serve as provision. If there are any whose situation cuts them off from a supply of fish, the only succedaneum of all other animal food, except dogs, they have nothing to support life, but the vegetables that have already been mentioned, of which the chief are fern root, yams, clams, and potatoes: when by any accident these fail, the distress must be dreadful; and even among the inhabitants of the coast, many tribes must frequently be reduced to nearly the same situation, either by the failure of their plantations, or the deficiency of their dry stock, during the season when but few fish are to be caught. These considerations will enable us to account, not only for the perpetual danger in which the people who inhabit this country appear to live, by the care which they take to fortify every village, but for the horrid practice of eating those who are killed in battle;* for the hunger of him who is pressed by famine to fight, will absorb every feeling, and every sentiment which would restrain him from allaying it with the body of his adversary. It may however be remarked, that, if this account of the origin of so horrid a practice is true, the mischief does by no means end with the necessity that produced it: after the practice has been once begun on one side by hunger, it will naturally be adopted on the other by revenge. Nor is this all, for though it may be pretended, by some who wish to appear speculative and philosophical, that whether the dead body of an enemy be eaten or buried, is in itself a a matter perfectly indifferent; as it is, whether the breasts and thighs of a woman should be covered or naked; and that prejudice and habit only make us shudder at the violation of custom in one instance, and blush at it in the other: yet, leaving this as a point of doubtful disputation, to be discussed at leisure, it may safely be affirmed, that the practice of eating human flesh, whatever it may be in itself, is relatively, and in its consequences, most pernicious; tending manifestly to eradicate a principle which is the chief security of human life, and more frequently restrains the hand of murder than the sense of duty, or even the fear of punishment. --page 812

Among those who are accustomed to eat the dead, death must have lost much of its horror; and where there is little horror at the sight of death, there will not be much repugnance to kill. A sense of duty, and fear of punishment, may be more easily surmounted than the feelings of Nature, or those which have been engrafted upon Nature by early prejudice and uninterrupted custom. The horror of the murderer arises less from the guilt of the fact, than its natural effect; and he who has familiarised the effect, will consequently lose much of the horror. By our laws, and our religion, murder and theft incur the same punishment,* both in this world and the next; yet, of the multitude who would deliberately steal, there are but very few who would deliberately kill, even to procure much greater advantage. But there is the strongest reason to believe, that those who have been so accustomed to prepare a human body for a meal, that they can with as little feeling cut up a dead man, as our cook-maids divide a dead rabbit for a fricassee, would feel as little horror in committing a murder as in picking a pocket, and consequently would take away life with as little compunction as property; so that men, under these circumstances, would be made murderers by the slight temptations that now make them thieves. If any man doubts whether this reasoning is conclusive, let him ask himself, whether in his own opinion he should not be safer with a man in whom the horror of destroying life is strong, whether in consequence of natural instinct unsubdued, or of early prejudice, which has nearly an equal influence; than in the power of a man who under any temptation to murder him would be restrained only by considerations of interest; for to these all motives of mere duty may be reduced, as they must terminate either in hope of good, or fear of evil. --page 813

The situation and circumstances, however, of these poor people, as well as their temper, are favourable to those who shall settle as a colony among them. Their situation sets them in need of protection, and their temper renders it easy to attach them by kindness; and whatever may be said in favour of a savage life, among people who live in luxurious idleness upon the bounty of Nature, civilization would certainly be a blessing to those whom her parsimony scarcely furnishes with the bread of life, and who are perpetually destroying each other by violence, as the only alternative of perishing by hunger. --page 814

*But these people, from whatever cause, being inured to war, and by habit considering every stranger as an enemy, were always disposed to attack us when they were not intimidated by our manifest superiority. At first, they had no notion of any superiority but numbers; and when this was on their side, they considered all our expressions of kindness as the artifices of fear and cunning, to circumvent them, and preserve ourselves: but when they were once convinced of our power, after having provoked us to the use of our fire-arms, though loaded only with small shot; and of our clemency, by our forbearing to make use of weapons so dreadful except in our defence; they became at once friendly, and even affectionate, placing in us the most unbounded confidence, and doing every thing which could incite us to put equal confidence in them. It is also remarkable, that when an intercourse was once established between us, they were very rarely detected in any act of dishonesty. Before, indeed, and while they considered us as enemies, who came upon their coast only to make an advantage of them, they did not scruple by any means to make an advantage of us; and would, therefore, when they had received the price of any thing they had offered to sell, pack up both the purchase and the purchase-money with all possible composure, as so much lawful plunder from people who had no view but to plunder them. --page 815

I have observed that our friends in the South Seas had not even the idea of indecency, with respect to any object or any action; but this was by no means the case with the inhabitants of New Zealand, in whose carriage and conversation there was as much modest reserve and decorum with respect to actions, which yet in their opinion were not criminal, as are to be found among the politest people in Europe. The women were not impregnable; but the terms and manner of compliance were as decent as those in marriage among us,* and according to their notions, the agreement was as innocent. When any of our people made an overture to one of their young women, he was given to understand that the consent of her friends was necessary, and by the influence of a proper present, it was generally obtained; but when these preliminaries were settled, it was also necessary to treat the wife for a night, with the same delicacy that is here required by the wife for life, and the lover who presumed to take any liberties by which this was violated, was sure to be disappointed. --page 816

One of our gentlemen having made his addresses to a family of the better sort, received an answer, which, translated into our language, according to the mode and spirit of it, as well as the letter, would have been exactly in these terms: "Any of these young ladies will think themselves honoured by your addresses, but you must first make me a suitable present, and you must then come and sleep with us on shore, for daylight must by no means be a witness of what passes between you." --page 817

I have already observed, that in personal cleanliness they are not quite equal to our friends at Otaheite; because, not having the advantage of so warm a climate, they do not so often go into the water; but the most disgustful thing about them is the oil, with which, like the Islanders, they anoint their hair: it is certainly the fat either of fish or of birds, melted down, and though the better sort have it fresh, their inferiors use that which is rancid, and consequently are almost as disagreeable to the smell as a Hottentot; neither are their heads free from vermin, though we observed that they were furnished with combs, both of bone and wood: these combs are sometimes worn stuck upright in the hair as an ornament,* a fashion which at present prevails among the ladies of England. The men generally wear their beards short, and their hair tied upon the crown of the head in a bunch, in which they stick the feathers of various birds, in different manners, according to their fancies; sometimes one is placed on each side of the temples, pointing forwards, which we thought made a very disagreeable appearance. The women wear their hair sometimes cropped short, and sometimes flowing over their shoulders. --page 818

The bodies of both sexes are marked with the black stains called Amoco, by the same method that is used at Otaheite, and called Tattowing; but the men are more marked, and the women less. The women in general stain no part of their bodies but the lips, though sometimes they are marked with small black patches on other parts: the men, on the contrary, seem to add something every year to the ornaments of the last, so that some of them, who appeared to be of an advanced age, were almost covered from head to foot. Besides the Amoco, they have marks impressed by a method unknown to us, of a very extraordinary kind: they are furrows of about a line deep, and a line broad, such as appear upon the bark of a tree which has been cut through, after a year's growth: the edges of these furrows are afterwards indented by the same method, and being perfectly black, they make a most frightful appearance. The faces of the old men are almost covered with these marks; those who are very young, black only their lips like the women; when they are somewhat older, they have generally a black patch upon one cheek, and over one eye, and so proceed gradually, that they may grow old and honourable together: but though we could not but be disgusted with the horrid deformity which these stains and furrows produced in the "human face divine," we could not but admire the dexterity --page 819

[illustration] and art with which they were impressed.* The marks upon the face in general are spirals, which are drawn with great nicety, and even elegance, those on one side exactly corresponding with those on the other: the marks on the body somewhat resemble the foliage in old chased ornaments, and the convolutions of fillagree work; but in these they have such a luxuriance of fancy, that of an hundred, which at first sight appeared to be exactly the same, no two were, upon a close examination, found to be alike. We observed, that the quantity and form of these marks were different in different parts of the coast, and that as the principal seat of them at Otaheite was the breech, in New Zealand it was sometimes the only part which was free, and in general was less distinguished than any other. The skins of these people, however, are not only dyed, but painted, for as I have before observed, they smear their bodies with red oker, some rubbing it on dry, and some applying it in large patches mixed with oil, which is always wet, and which the least touch will rub off, so that the transgressions of such of our people as were guilty of ravishing a kiss from these blooming beauties, were most legibly written upon their faces. --page 820

The dress of a New Zealander is certainly, to a stranger at first sight, the most uncouth that can be imagined. It is made of the leaves of the flag, which has been described among the vegetable productions of this country: these leaves are split into three or four slips, and the slips, when they are dry, interwoven with each other into a kind of stuff between netting and cloth, with all the ends, which are eight or nine inches long, hanging out on the upper side, like the shag or thrumb matts, which we sometimes see lying in a passage. Of this cloth, if cloth it may be called, two pieces serve for a complete dress;* one of them is tied over their shoulders with a string, and reaches as low as the knees; to the end of this string is fastened a bodkin of bone, which is easily passed through any two parts of this upper garment, so as to tack them together; the other piece is wrapped round the waist, and reaches nearly to the ground: the lower garment, however, is worn by the men only upon particular occasions; but they wear a belt, to which a string is fastened, for a very singular use. The inhabitants of the South Sea islands slit up the prepuce so as to prevent it from covering the glans of the penis, but these people, on the contrary, bring the prepuce over the glans, and to prevent it from being drawn back by the contraction of the part, they tie the string which hangs from their girdle, round the end of it. The glans indeed seemed to be the only part of their body which they were solicitous to conceal, for they frequently threw off all their dress but the belt and string, with the most careless indifference, but shewed manifest signs of confusion, when, to gratify our curiosity, they were requested to untie the string, and never consented but with the utmost reluctance and shame. When they have only their upper garment on, and sit upon their hams, they bear some resemblance to a thatched house; but this covering, though it is ugly, is well adapted to the use of those who frequently sleep in the open air, without any other shelter from the rain. --page 821

But besides this course shag or thatch, they have two sorts of cloth, which have an even surface, and are very ingeniously made, in the same manner with that manufactured by the inhabitants of South America, some of which we procured at Rio de Janeiro. One sort is as coarse as our coarsest canvas, and somewhat resembles it in the manner of laying the threads, but it is ten times as strong: the other is formed by many threads lying very close one way,* and a few crossing them the other, so as to bind them together; but these are about half an inch asunder, somewhat like the round pieces of cane matting which are sometimes placed under the dishes upon a table. This is frequently striped, and always had a pretty appearance, for it is composed of the fibres of the same plant, which are prepared so as to shine like silk. It is made in a kind of frame of the size of the cloth, generally about five feet long, and four broad, across which the long threads, which lie close together, or warp, are strained, and the cross threads, or woof, are worked in by hand, which must be a very tedious operation. --page 822

To both these kinds of cloth they work borders of different colours, in stitches, somewhat like carpeting, or rather like those used in the samplars which girls work at school. These borders are of various patterns, and wrought with a neatness, and even an elegance, which, considering they have no needle, is surprizing: but the great pride of their dress consists in the fur of their dogs, which they use with such oeconomy that they cut it into stripes, and sew them upon their cloth at a distance from each other, which is a strong proof that dogs are not plenty among them; these stripes are also of different colours, and disposed so as to produce a pleasing effect. We saw some dresses that were adorned with feathers instead of fur, but these were not common; and we saw one that was intirely covered with the red feathers of the parrot. --page 823

The dress of the man who was killed, when we first went ashore in Poverty Bay, has been described already; but we saw the same dress only once more during our stay upon the coast, and that was in Queen Charlotte's Sound. --page 824

*The women, contrary to the custom of the sex in general, seemed to affect dress rather less than the men: their hair, which, as I have observed before, is generally cropt short, is never tied upon the top of the head when it is suffered to be long, nor is it ever adorned with feathers. Their garments were made of the same materials, and in the same form, as those of the other sex, but the lower one was always bound fast round them, except when they went into the water to catch lobsters, and then they took great care not to be seen by the men. Some of us happening one day to land upon a small island in Tolaga Bay, we surprized several of them at this employment; and the chaste Diana, with her nymphs, could not have discovered more confusion and distress at the sight of Actaeon, than these women expressed upon our approach. Some of them hid themselves among the rocks, and the rest crouched down in the sea till they had made themselves a girdle and apron of such weeds as they could find, and when they came out, even with this veil, we could perceive that their modesty suffered much pain by our presence. The girdle and apron which they wear in common, have been mentioned before. --page 825

Both sexes bore their ears, and by stretching them the holes become large enough to admit a finger at least. In these holes they wear ornaments of various kinds, cloth, feathers, bones of large birds, and even sometimes a stick of wood; and to these receptacles of finery they generally applied the nails which we gave them, and every thing which it was possible they could contain. The women sometimes thrust through them the down of the albatross, which is as white as snow, and which, spreading before and behind the hole in a bunch almost as big as the fist, makes a very singular, and however strange it may be thought, not a disagreeable appearance.* Besides the ornaments that are thrust through the holes of the ears, many others are suspended to them by strings; such as chissels or bodkins made of green talc, upon which they set a high value, the nails and teeth of their deceased relations, the teeth of dogs, and every thing else that they can get, which they think either curious or valuable. The women also wear bracelets and anclets, made of the bones of birds, shells, or any other substances which they can perforate and string upon a thread. The men had sometimes hanging to a string, which went round the neck, a piece of green talc, or whalebone, somewhat in the shape of a tongue, with the rude figure of a man carved upon it; and upon this ornament they set a high value. In one instance, we saw the gristle that divides the nostrils, and called by anatomists, the septum nasi, perforated, and a feather thrust through the whole, which projected on each side over the cheeks: it is probable that this frightful singularity was intended as an ornament, but of the many people we saw, we never observed it in any other, nor even a perforation that might occasionally serve for such a purpose. --page 826

Their houses are the most inartificially made of any thing among them, being scarcely equal, except in size,* to an English dog-kennel: they are seldom more than eighteen or twenty feet long, eight or ten broad, and five or six high, from the pole that runs from one end to the other, and forms the ridge, to the ground: the framing is of wood, generally slender sticks, and both walls and roof consist of dry grass and hay, which, it must be confessed, is very tightly put together; and some are also lined with the bark of trees, so that in cold weather they must afford a very comfortable retreat. The roof is sloping, like those of our barns, and the door is at one end, just high enough to admit a man, creeping upon his hands and knees: near the door is a square hole,* which serves the double office of window and chimney, for the fire-place is at that end, nearly in the middle between the two sides: in some conspicuous part, and generally near the door, a plank is fixed, covered with carving after their manner: this they value as we do a picture, and in their estimation it is not an inferior ornament: the sidewalls and roof project about two feet beyond the walls at each end, so as to form a kind of porch, in which there are benches for the accommodation of the family. That part of the floor which is allotted for the fire-place, is enclosed in a hollow square, by partitions either of wood or stone, and in the middle of it the fire is kindled. The floor, along the inside of the walls, is thickly covered with straw, and upon this the family sleep. --page 827

*Their furniture and implements consist of but few articles, and one chest commonly contains them all, except their provision-baskets, the gourds that hold their fresh water, and the hammers that are used to beat their fern-root, which generally stand without the door: some rude tools, their cloaths, arms, and a few feathers to stick in their hair, make the rest of their treasure. --page 828

Some of the better sort, whose families are large, have three or four houses enclosed within a court-yard, the walls of which are constructed of poles and hay, and are about ten or twelve feet high. --page 829

When we were on shore in the district called Tolaga, we saw the ruins, or rather the frame of a house, for it had never been finished, much superior in size to any that we saw elsewhere: it was thirty feet in length, about fifteen in breadth, and twelve high: the sides of it were adorned with many carved planks, of a workmanship much superior to any other that we had met with in the country; but for what purpose it was built, or why it was deserted,* we could never learn. --page 830

But these people, though in their houses they are so well defended from the inclemency of the weather, seem to be quite indifferent whether they have any shelter at all during their excursions in search of fern roots and fish, sometimes setting up a small shade to windward, and sometimes altogether neglecting even that precaution, sleeping with their women and children under bushes, with their weapons ranged round them, in the manner that has already been described. The party consisting of forty or fifty, whom we saw at Mercury Bay, in a district which the natives call Opoorage, never erected the least shelter while we staid there, though it sometimes rained incessantly for four and twenty hours together. --page 831

The articles of their food have been enumerated already;* the principal, which to them is what bread is to the inhabitants of Europe, is the roots of the fern which grows upon the hills, and is nearly the same with what grows upon our high commons in England, and is called indifferently fern, bracken, or brakes. The birds which sometimes serve them for a feast, are chiefly penguins and albatrosses, with a few other species that have been occasionally mentioned in this narrative. --page 832

Having no vessel in which water can be boiled,* their cookery consists wholly of baking and roasting. They bake nearly in the same manner as the inhabitants of the South Seas, and to the account that has been already given of their roasting, nothing need be added, but that the long skewer or spit to which the flesh is fastened, is placed stoping towards the sire, by setting one stone against the bottom of it, and supporting it near the middle with another, by the moving of which to a greater or less distance from the end,* the degree of obliquity is increased or diminished at pleasure. --page 833

To the northward, as I have observed, there are plantations of yams, sweet potatoes, and coccos, but we saw no such to the southward; the inhabitants therefore of that part of the country must subsist wholly upon fern root and fish, except the scanty and accidental resource which they may find in sea fowl and dogs; and that fern and fish are not to be procured at all seasons of the year, even at the sea side, and upon the neighbouring hills, is manifest from the stores of both that we saw laid up dry, and the reluctance which some of them expressed at selling any part of them to us when we offered to purchase them, at least the fish, for sea stores: and this particular seems to confirm my opinion that this country scarcely sustains the present number of its inhabitants, who are urged to perpetual hostilities by hunger, which naturally prompted them to eat the dead bodies of those who were slain in the contest. --page 834

Water is their universal and only liquor, as far as we could discover, and if they have really no means of intoxication, they are, in this particular, happy beyond any other people that we have yet seen or heard of. --page 835

As there is perhaps no source of disease either critical or chronic, but intemperance and inactivity, it cannot be thought strange that these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health: in all our visits to their towns, where young and old, men and women, crowded about us, prompted by the same curiosity that carried us to look at them, we never saw a single person who appeared to have any bodily complaint, nor among the numbers that we have seen naked, did we once perceive the slightest eruption upon the skin, or any marks that an eruption had left behind: at first, indeed, observing that some of them when they came off to us were marked in patches with a white flowery appearance upon different parts of their bodies,* we thought that they were leperous, or highly scorbutic; but upon examination we found that these marks were owing to their having been wetted by the sprey of the sea in their passage, which, when it was dried away, left the salts behind it in a fine white powder. --page 836

Another proof of health, which we have mentioned upon a former occasion, is the facility with which the wounds healed that had left scars behind them, and that we saw in a recent state; when we saw the man who had been shot with a musket ball through the fleshy part of his arm, his wound seemed to be so well digested, and in so fair a way of being perfectly healed, that if I had not known no application had been made to it, I should certainly have enquired, with a very interested curiosity, after the vulnerary herbs and surgical art of the country. --page 837

A farther proof that human nature is here untainted with disease, is the great number of old men that we saw, many of whom, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit, and though not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity. --page 838

*THE ingenuity of these people appears in nothing more than in their canoes: they are long and narrow, and in shape very much resemble a New England whale boat: the larger sort seem to be built chiefly for war, and will carry from forty to eighty, or an hundred armed men. We measured one which lay ashore at Tolaga: she was sixty-eight feet and an half long, five feet broad, and three feet and an half deep; the bottom was sharp, with strait sides like a wedge, and consisted of three lengths, hollowed out to about two inches, or an inch and an half thick, and well fastened together with strong plaiting: each side consisted of one intire plank, sixty-three feet long, ten or twelve inches broad, and about an inch and quarter thick, and these were fitted and lashed to the bottom part with great dexterity and strength. A considerable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were securely lashed on each side, as a strengthening to the boat. The ornament at the head projected five or six feet beyond the body, and was about four feet and an half high; the ornament at the stern was fixed upon that end, as the sternpost of a ship is upon her keel, and was about fourteen feet high, two feet broad, and an inch and an half thick. They --page 839

[illustration] [illustration] both consisted of boards of carved work,* of which the design was much better than the execution. All their canoes, except a few at Opoorage or Mercury Bay, which were of one piece, and hollowed by fire, are built after this plan, and few are less than twenty feet long: some of the smaller sort have outriggers, and sometimes two of them are joined together, but this is not common. The carving upon the stern and head ornaments of the inferior boats, which seem to be intended wholly for fishing, consists of the figure of a man, with a face as ugly as can be conceived, and a monstrous tongue thrust out of the mouth, with the white shells of sea-ears stuck in for the eyes. But the canoes of the superior kind, which seem to be their men of war, are magnificently adorned with open work, and covered with loose fringes of black feathers, which had a most elegant appearance: the gunwale boards were also frequently carved in a grotesque taste, and adorned with tufts of white feathers placed upon a black ground. Of visible objects that are wholly new, no verbal description can convey a just idea, but in proportion as they resemble some that are already known, to which the mind of the reader must be referred: the carving of these people being of a singular kind, and not in the likeness of any thing that is known on our side of the ocean, either in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters that are under the earth, I must refer wholly to the representations which will be found of it in Plate XV. The paddles are small, light, and neatly made; the blade is of an oval shape, or rather of a shape resembling a large leaf, pointed at the bottom, broadest in the middle, and gradually losing itself in the shaft, the whole length being about six feet, of which the shaft or loom including the handle is four;* and the blade two. By the help of these oars they push on their boats with amazing velocity. --page 840

In sailing they are not expert, having no art of going otherwise than before the wind: the sail is of netting or matt, which is set up between two poles that are fixed upright upon each gunwale, and serve both for masts and yards: two ropes answered the purpose of sheets, and were consequently fastened above to the top of each pole. But clumsy and inconvenient as this apparatus is, they make good way before the wind, and are steered by two men who sit in the stern, with each a paddle in his hand for that purpose. --page 841

*Having said thus much of their workmanship, I shall now give some account of their tools; they have adzes, axes, and chissels, which serve them also as augers for the boring of holes: as they have no metal, their adzes and axes are made of a hard black stone, or of a green talc, which is not only hard but tough; and their chissels of human bone, or small fragments of jaspar, which they chip off from a block in sharp angular pieces like a gun-flint. Their axes they value above all that they possess, and never would part with one of them for any thing that we could give: I once offered one of the best axes I had in the ship, besides a number of other things for one of them, but the owner would not sell it; from which I conclude that good ones are scarce among them. Their small tools of jaspar, which are used in finishing their nicest work, they use till they are blunt, and then, as they have no means of sharpening them, throw them away. We had given the people at Tolaga a piece of glass, and in a short time they found means to drill a hole through it, in order to hang it round the neck as an ornament by a thread; and we imagine the tool must have been a piece of this jaspar. How they bring their large tools first to an edge, and sharpen the weapon which they call Patoo-Patoo,* we could not certainly learn; but probably it is by bruising the same substance to powder, and, with this, grinding two pieces against each other. --page 842

Their nets, particularly their seine,* which is of an enormous size, have been mentioned already: one of these seems to be the joint work of a whole town, and I suppose it to be the joint property also: the other net, which is circular, and extended by two or three hoops, has been particularly described as well as the manner of baiting and using it. Their hooks are of bone or shell, and in general are ill made. To receive the fish when it is caught, and to hold their other provisions, they have baskets of various kinds and dimensions, very neatly made of wicker work. --page 843

They excel in tillage,* as might naturally be expected where the person that sows is to eat the produce, and where there is so little besides that can be eaten: when we first came to TEGADOO, a district between Poverty Bay and East Cape, their crops were just covered, and had not yet begun to sprout; the mould was as smooth as in a garden, and every root had its small hillock, ranged in a regular quincunx by lines, which with the pegs were still remaining in the field. We had not an opportunity to see any of these husbandmen work, but we saw what serves them at once for spade and plough: this instrument is nothing more than a long narrow stake sharpened to an edge at one end, with a short piece fastened transversely at a little distance above it, for the convenience of pressing it down with the foot. With this they turn up pieces of ground six or seven acres in extent, though it is not more than three inches broad; but as the soil is light and sandy it makes little resistance. --page 844

*Tillage, weaving, and the other arts of peace, seem to be best known and most practised in the northern part of this country; for there is little appearance of any of them in the South: but the arts of war flourish equally through the whole coast. --page 845

*Of weapons they have no great variety, but such as they have are well fitted for destruction; they have spears, darts, battle-axes, and the Patoo-Patoo. The spear is fourteen or fifteen feet long, pointed at both ends, and sometimes headed with bone: these are grasped by the middle, so that the part behind balancing that before, makes a push more difficult to be parried, than that of a weapon which is held by the end. The dart and other weapons have been sufficiently described already; and it has also been remarked, that these people have neither sling nor bow. They throw the dart by hand, and so they do stones; but darts and stones are seldom used except in defending their forts. Their battles, whether in boats or on shore, are generally hand to hand, and the slaughter must consequently be great, as a second blow with any of their weapons is unnecessary, if the first takes place: their trust, however, seems to be principally placed in the Patoo-Patoo, which is fastened to their wrists by a strong strap, lest it should be wrenched from them, and which the principal people generally wear sticking in their girdles, considering it as a military ornament, and part of their dress, like the poinard of the Asiatic, and the sword of the European. They have no defensive armour; but, besides their weapons, the Chiefs carried a staff of distinction, in the same manner as our officers do the spontoon: this was generally the rib of a whale, as white as snow, with many ornaments of carved work, dog's hair, and feathers; but sometimes it was a stick, about six feet long, adorned in --page 846

[illustration] the same manner, and inlaid with a shell like mother-of-pearl.* Those who bore this mark of distinction were generally old, at least past the middle age, and were also more marked with the Amoco than the rest. One or more persons, thus distinguished, always appeared in each canoe, when they came to attack us, according to the size of it. When they came within about a cable's length of the ship, they used to stop, and the Chiefs rising from their seat, put on a dress which seemed appropriated to the occasion, generally of dog's skin, and holding out their decorated staff, or a weapon, directed the rest of the people what they should do. When they were at too great a distance to reach us with a lance or a stone, they presumed that we had no weapon with which we could reach them; here then the defiance was given, and the words were almost universally the same, Haromai, haromai, harre uta a Patoo-Patoo oge: --page 847

Come to us, come on shore, and we will kill you all with our Patoo-Patoos. While they were uttering these menaces they came gradually nearer and nearer, till they were close alongside; talking at intervals in a peaceable strain, and answering any questions that we asked them; and at intervals renewing their defiance and threats, till being encouraged by our apparent timidity, they began their war-song and dance, as a prelude to an attack, which always followed, and was sometimes continued till it became absolutely necessary to repress them by firing some small-shot; and sometimes ended after throwing a few stones on board, as if content with having offered us an insult which we did not dare to revenge. The war-dance consists of a great variety of violent motions, and hideous contortions of the limbs, during which the countenance also performs its part: the tongue is frequently thrust out to an incredible length,* and the eye-lids so forcibly drawn up that the white appears both above and below, as well as on each side of the iris, so as to form a circle round it; nor is any thing neglected that can render the human shape frightful and deformed: at the same time they brandish their spears, shake their darts, and cleave the air with their Patoo-Patoos. This horrid dance is always accompanied by a song; it is wild indeed, but not disagreeable, and every strain ends in a loud and deep sigh, which they utter in concert. In the motions of the dance, however horrid, there is a strength, firmness, and agility, which we could not but behold with admiration; and in their song they keep time with such exactness, that I have often heard above an hundred paddles struck against the sides of their boats at once, so as to produce but a single sound, at the divisions of their music. --page 848

A song not altogether unlike this, they sometimes sing without the dance, and as a peaceable amusement: they have also other songs which are sung by the women, whose voices are remarkably mellow and soft, and have a pleasing and tender effect; the time is slow, and the cadence mournful; but it is conducted with more taste than could be expected among the poor ignorant savages of this half desolate country; especially as it appeared to us, who were none of us much acquainted with music as a science, to be sung in parts; it was at least sung by many voices at the same time. --page 849

They have sonorous instruments, but they can scarcely be called instruments of music; one is the shell, called the Triton's trumpet, with which they make a noise not unlike that which our boys sometimes make with a cow's horn: the other is a small wooden pipe, resembling a child's nine-pin, only much smaller, and in this there is no more music than in a pea-whistle.* They seem sensible indeed that these instruments are not musical; for we never heard an attempt to sing to them, or to produce with them any measured tones that bore the least resemblance to a tune. --page 850

To what has been already said of the practice of eating human flesh, I shall only add, that in almost every cove where we landed, we found flesh bones of men near the places where fires had been made; and that among the heads that were brought on board by the old man, some seemed to have false eyes, and ornaments in their ears as if alive. That which Mr. Banks bought was sold with great reluctance by the possessor: the head was manifestly that of a young person about fourteen or fifteen years of age, and by the contusions on one side appeared to have received many violent blows, and indeed a part of the bone near the eye was wanting. These appearances confirmed us in the opinion that the natives of this country give no quarter, nor take any prisoners to be killed and eaten at a future time, as is said to have been a practice among the Indians of Florida: for if prisoners had been taken, this poor young creature, who cannot be supposed capable of making much resistance, would probably have been one, and we knew that he was killed with the rest, for the fray had happened but a few days before. --page 851

The towns or Hippahs of these people, which are all fortified, have been sufficiently described already, and from the Bay of Plenty to Queen Charlotte's Sound they seem to be the constant residence of the people: but about Poverty Bay, Hawk's Bay, Tegadoo, and Tolaga, we saw no Hippahs, but single houses scattered at a distance from each other; yet upon the sides of the hills there were stages of a great length, furnished with stones and darts, probably as retreats for the people at the last extremity,* as upon these stages a fight may be carried on with much advantage against those below, who may be reached with great effect by darts and stones, which it is impossible for them to throw up with equal force. And indeed the forts themselves seem to be no farther serviceable than by enabling the possessors to repress a sudden attack; for as there is no supply of water within the lines, it would be impossible to sustain a siege. A considerable stock of fern-root and dry fish is indeed laid up in them; but they may be reserved against seasons of scarcity, and that such seasons there are, our observations left us no room to doubt; besides, while an enemy should be prowling in the neighbourhood, it would be easy to snatch a supply of water from the side of the hill, though it would be impossible to dig up fern root or catch fish. --page 852

In this district, however, the people seemed to live in a state of conscious security, and to avail themselves of their advantage: their plantations were more numerous, their canoes were more decorated, and they had not only finer carving, but finer clothes. This part of the coast also was much the most populous, and possibly their apparent peace and plenty might arise from their being united under one Chief, or King; for the inhabitants of all this part of the country told us, that they were the subjects of Teratu: when they pointed to the residence of this Prince, it was in a direction which we thought inland; but which, when we knew the country better, we found to be the Bay of Plenty. --page 853

*It is much to be regretted that we were obliged to leave this country without knowing any thing of Teratu but his name. As an Indian monarch, his territory is certainly extensive: he was acknowledged from Cape Kidnappers to the northward, and westward as far as the Bay of Plenty, a length of coast upwards of eighty leagues;* and we do not yet know how much farther westward his dominions may extend. Possibly the fortified towns which we saw in the Bay of Plenty may be his barrier; especially as at Mercury Bay he was not acknowledged, nor indeed any other single Chief: for wherever we landed, or spoke with the people upon that coast, they told us that we were at but a small distance from their enemies. --page 854

In the dominions of Teratu we saw several subordinate Chiefs, to whom great respect was paid, and by whom justice was probably administered; for upon our complaint to one of them, of a theft that had been committed on board the ship by a man that came with him, he gave him several blows and kicks, which the other received as the chastisement of authority, against which no resistance was to be made, and which he had no right to resent. Whether this authority was possessed by appointment or inheritance we could not learn; but we observed that the Chiefs, as well here as in other parts, were elderly men. In other parts, however, we learnt that they possessed their authority by inheritance. --page 855

The little societies which we found in the southern parts seemed to have several things in common, particularly their fine clothes and fishing nets. Their fine clothes, which possibly might be the spoils of war, were kept in a small hut, which was erected for that purpose in the middle of the town: the nets we saw making in almost every house, and the several parts being afterwards collected were joined together. Less account seems to be made of the women here than in the South Sea islands; such at least was the opinion of Tupia, who complained of it as an indignity to the sex. We observed that the two sexes eat together; but how they divide their labour we do not certainly know.* I am inclined to believe that the men till the ground, make nets, catch birds, and go out in their boats to fish; and that the women dig up fern roots, collect lobsters and other shell fish near the beach, dress the victuals, and weave cloth: such at least were their employments when we had an opportunity of observing them, which was but seldom; for in general our appearance made a holiday wherever we went, men, women and children, flocking round us, either to gratify their curiosity, or to purchase some of the valuable merchandize which we carried about with us, consisting principally of nails, paper, and broken glass. --page 856

*Of the religion of these people it cannot be supposed that we could learn much; they acknowledge the influence of superior beings, one of whom is supreme, and the rest subordinate; and gave nearly the same account of the origin of the world, and the production of mankind, as our friends in Otaheite: Tupia, however, seemed to have a much more deep and extensive knowlege of these subjects than any of the people here; and whenever he was disposed to instruct them, which he sometimes did in a long discourse, he was sure of a numerous audience, who listened in profound silence, with such reverence and attention, that we could not but wish them a better teacher. --page 857

What homage they pay to the deities they acknowledge we could not learn; but we saw no place of public worship, like the Morals of the South Sea islands: yet we saw, near a plantation of sweet potatoes, a small area, of a square figure, surrounded with stones, in the middle of which one of the sharpened stakes which they use as a spade was set up, and upon it was hung a basket of fern roots: upon enquiry, the natives told us, that it was an offering to the gods, by which the owner hoped to render them propitious,* and obtain a plentiful crop. --page 858

As to their manner of disposing of their dead,* we could form no certain opinion of it, for the accounts that we received by no means agreed. In the northern parts, they told us that they buried them in the ground; and in the southern, that they threw them into the sea: it is however certain that we saw no grave in the country, and that they affected to conceal every thing relating to their dead with a kind of mysterious secrecy. But whatever may be the sepulchre, the living are themselves the monuments; for we saw scarcely a single person of either sex whose body was not marked by the scars of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves as a testimony of their regret for the loss of a relation or friend: some of these wounds we saw in a state so recent that the blood was scarcely staunched, which shows that death had been among them while we were upon the coast; and makes it more extraordinary that no funeral ceremony should have fallen under our notice: some of the scars were very large and deep, and in many instances had greatly disfigured the face. One monument indeed we observed of another kind, the cross that was set up near Queen Charlotte's Sound. --page 859

Having now given the best account in my power of the customs and opinions of the inhabitants of New Zealand, with their boats, nets, furniture, and dress, I shall only remark, that the similitude between these particulars here and in the South Sea islands is a very strong proof that the inhabitants have the same origin; and that the common ancestors of both, were natives of the same country. They have both a tradition that their ancestors, at a very remote period of time, came from another country; and, according to the tradition of both,* that the name of that country was HEAWIJE; but the similitude of the language seems to put the matter altogether out of doubt. I have already observed, that Tupia, when he accosted the people here in the language of his own country, was perfectly understood; and I shall give a specimen of the similitude by a list of words in both languages, according to the dialect of the northern and southern islands of which New Zealand consists, by which it will appear that the language of Otaheite does not differ more from that of New Zealand, than the language of the two islands from each other. --page 860

ENGLISH. NEW ZEALAND. OTAHEITE. Northern. Southern. A Chief, Eareete, Eareete, Earee. A man, Taata, Taata, Taata. A woman, Whahine, Whahine, Ivahine. The head, Eupo, Heaowpoho, Eupo. The hair, Macauwe, Heoo-oo, Roourou. The ear, Terringa, Hetaheyei, Terrea. The forehead, Erai, Heai, Erai. The eyes, Mata, Hemata, Mata. The cheeks, Paparinga, Hepapaeh, Paparea. The nose, Ahewh, Heeih, Ahew. The mouth, Hangoutou, Hegaowai, Outou. The chin, Ecouwai, Hakaoewai, The arm, Haringaringu, Rema. The finger, Maticara, Hermaigawh, Maneow. The belly, Ateraboo, Oboo. The navel, Apeto, Heeapeto, Peto. Come hither, Haromai, Heromai, Harromai. Fish, Heica, Heica, Eyea. A lobster, Kooura, Kooura, Tooura. Coccos, Taro, Taro, Taro.* Sweet potatoes, Cumala, Cumala, Cumala. Yams, Tuphwhe, Tuphwhe, Tuphwhe. Birds, Mannu, Mannu, Mannu. No, Kaoura, Kaoura, Oure. One, Tahai, Tahai. Two, Rua, Rua. Three, Torou, Torou. Four, Ha, Hea. Five, Rema, Rema. Six, Ono, Ono. Seven, Etu, Hetu. Eight, Warou, Warou. Nine, Iva, Heva. Ten, Angahourou, Ahourou. The teeth, Hennihew, Heneaho, Nihio. The wind, Mehow, Mattai. A thief, Amootoo, Teto. To examine, Mataketake, Mataitai. To sing, Eheara, Heiva. Bad, Keno, Keno, Eno. Trees, Eratou, Eratou, Eraou. Grandfather, Toubouna, Toubouna, Toubouna. What do you call this or that, Owy Terra, Owy Terra. By this specimen, I think it appears to demonstration that the language of New Zealand and Otaheite is radically the same. The language of the northern and southern parts of New Zealand differs chiefly in the pronunciation, as the same English word is pronounced gate in Middlesex, and geäte in Yorkshire: and as the southern and northern words were not written down by the same person, one might possibly use more letters to produce the same sound than the other.* --page 861

I must also observe, that it is the genius of the language, especially in the southern parts, to put some article before a noun, as we do the or a; the articles used here were generally he or ko: it is also common here to add the word öeia after another word, as an iteration, especially if it is an answer to a question; as we say yes indeed, to be sure, really, certainly: this sometimes led our gentlemen into the formation of words of an enormous length, judging by the ear only, without being able to refer each sound into its signification. An example will make this perfectly understood. --page 862

In the Bay of Islands there is a remarkable one, called by the natives MATU ARO. One of our gentlemen having asked a native the name of it, he answered, with the particle, Kematuaro; the gentleman hearing the sound imperfectly, repeated his question, and the Indian repeating his answer, added öeia, which made the word Kematuaroöeia; and thus it happened that in the log book I found Matuaro transformed into Cumettiwarroweia: and the same transformation, by the same means, might happen to an English word. Suppose a native of New Zealand at Hackney church, to enquire "what village is this?" the answer would be, "it is Hackney:" suppose the question to be repeated with an air of doubt and uncertainty, the answer might be "it is Hackney indeed," and the New Zealander, if he had the use of letters, would probably record, for the information of his countrymen, that during his residence among us he had visited a village called "Ityshakneeindede." The article used by the inhabitants of the South Sea islands, instead of he or ko, is to or ta, but the word öeia is common to both; and when we began to learn the language, it led us into many ridiculous mistakes. --page 863

But supposing these islands, and those in the South Seas,* to have been peopled originally from the same country, it will perhaps for ever remain a doubt what country that is: we were, however, unanimously of opinion, that the people did not come from America, which lies to the eastward; and except there should appear to be a continent to the southward, in a moderate latitude, it will follow that they came from the westward. --page 864

Thus far our navigation has certainly been unfavourable to the notion of a southern continent, for it has swept away at least three-fourths of the positions upon which it has been founded. The principal navigators, whose authority has been urged on this occasion, are Tasman, Juan Fernandes, Hermite, the commander of a Dutch squadron, Quiros, and Roggewein; and the track of the Endeavour has demonstrated that the land seen by these persons, and supposed to be part of a continent, is not so; it has also totally subverted the theoretical arguments which have been brought to prove that the existence of a southern continent is necessary to preserve an equilibrium between the two hemispheres; for upon this principle what we have already proved to be water, would render the southern hemisphere → too light. In our rout to the northward, after doubling Cape Horn, when we were in the latitude of 40°, our longitude was 110°; and in our return to the southward, after leaving Ulietea, when we were again in latitude 40°, our longitude was 145°; the difference is 35°. When we were in latitude 30° the difference of longitude between the two tracks was 21°, which continued till we were as low as 20°; but a single view of the chart will convey a better idea of this than the most minute description: yet as upon a view of the chart it will appear that there is a large space extending quite to the Tropics, which neither we,* nor any other navigators to our knowlege have explored, and as there will appear to be room enough for the Cape of a southern continent to extend northward into a low southern latitude, I shall give my reasons for believing there is no Cape, of any southern continent, to the northward of 40° south. --page 865

Notwithstanding what has been laid down by some geographers in their maps, and alleged by Mr. Dalrymple, with respect to Quiros, it is improbable in the highest degree that he saw to the southward of two islands, which he discovered in latitude 25 or 26, and which I suppose may lie between the longitude of 130° and 140° W. any signs of a continent, much less any thing which, in his opinion, was a known or indubitable sign of such land; for if he had, he would certainly have sailed southward in search of it, and if he had sought, supposing the signs to have been indubitable, he must have found: the discovery of a southern continent was the ultimate object of Quiros's voyage, and no man appears to have had it more at heart; so that if he was in latitude 26° S. and in longitude 146° W. where Mr. Dalrymple has placed the islands he discovered, it may fairly be inferred that no part of a southern continent extends to that latitude. --page 866

It will, I think, appear with equal evidence from the accounts of Roggewein's voyage, that between the longitudes of 130° and 150° W. there is no main land to the northward of 35° S. Mr. Pingre, in a treatise concerning the transit of Venus, which he went out to observe, has inserted an extract of Roggewein's voyage, and a map of the South Seas; and for reasons which may be seen at large in his work, supposes him, after leaving Easter Island, which he places in latitude 28 ½ S. longitude 123° W. to have steered S.W. as high as 34° S. and afterwards W.N.W.;* and if this was indeed his rout, the proof that there is no main land to the northward of 35° S. is irrefragable. Mr. Dalrymple indeed supposes his rout to have been different, and that from Easter Isle he steered N.W. taking a course afterwards very little different from that of La Maire; but I think it is highly improbable that a man, who at his own request was sent to discover a southern continent, should take a course in which La Maire had already proved no continent could be found: it must however be confessed, that Roggewein's track cannot certainly be ascertained, because in the accounts that have been published of his voyage, neither longitudes nor latitudes are mentioned. As to myself I saw nothing that I thought a sign of land, in my rout either to the northward, southward, or westward, till a few days before I made the east coast of New Zealand: I did indeed frequently see large flocks of birds, but they were generally such as are found at a very remote distance from any coast; and it is also true that I frequently saw pieces of rock-weed, but I could not infer the vicinity of land from these, because I have been informed, upon indubitable authority, that a considerable quantity of the beans called ox-eyes, which are known to grow no where but in the West Indies, are every year thrown up on the coast of Ireland, which is not less than twelve hundred leagues distant. --page 867

Thus have I given my reasons for thinking that there is no continent to the northward of latitude 40° S.; of what may lie farther to the southward than 40° I can give no opinion; but I am so far from wishing to discourage any future attempt, finally to determine a question which has long been an object of attention to many nations; that now this voyage has reduced the only possible scite of a continent in the southern hemisphere → , north of latitude 40°, to so small a space,* I think it would be pity to leave that any longer unexamined, especially as the voyage may turn to good account, besides determining the principal question, if no continent should be found, by the discovery of new islands in the Tropical regions, of which there is probably a great number, that no European vessel has ever yet visited. Tupia from time to time gave us an account of about one hundred and thirty, and in a chart drawn by his own hand, he actually laid down no less than seventy-four. --page 868

--page 869

[illustration] ENTRANCE of ENDEAVOUR RIVER, IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Lat: 15°.26′ Sth. --page 870

A. The place where we Landed our Stores. B.—Repair'd the Ship. The figures denote the depth in fathoms at low Water. [illustration] BOTANY BAY, in NEW SOUTH WALES. Lat: 34°.00′.Sth. --page 871

[illustration] A Chart of NEW SOUTH WALES, or the East Coast of New-Holland. Discovered and Explored BY Lieutenant J. Cook COMMADER of his MAJESTY's BARK ENDEAVOUR, in the Year MDCCLXX. --page 872

EXPLANATION. Rocks • Sands, some of which are dry at low Water and others always covered▪ Supposed Direction of such parts of the Coast and Shoals▪ as were not seen▪ — Places were the Ship anchored▪ The Pricked Line shews the Ships Track and the Figures annexed the depth of Water in Fathoms --page 873

HAVING sailed from Cape Farewell,* which lies in latitude 40° 33′ S. longitude 186° W. on Saturday the 31st of March 1770, we steered westward, with a fresh gale at N. N. E. and at noon on the 2d of April, our latitude,* by observation, was 40°, our longitude from Cape Farewell 2° 31′W. --page 874

In the morning of the 9th,* being in latitude 38° 2′S. we saw a tropic bird, which in so high a latitude is very uncommon. --page 875

In the morning of the 10th,* being in latitude 38° 51′ S. longitude 202° 43′ W. we found the variation, by the amplitude, to be 11° 25′ E. and by the azimuth 11° 20′. --page 876

*In the morning of the 11th, the variation was 13° 48′, which is two degrees and an half more than the day before, though I expected to have found it less. --page 877

*In the course of the 13th, being in latitude 39° 33′ S. longitude 204° 2′W. I found the variation to be 12° 27′ E. and in the morning of the 14th,* it was 11° 30′; this day we also saw some flying fish.* On the 15th, we saw an egg bird and a gannet, and as these are birds that never go far from the land, we continued to sound all night, but had no ground with 130 fathom.* At noon on the 16th, we were in latitude 39° 45′ S. longitude 208° W. At about two o'clock the wind came about to the W. S. W. upon which we tacked and stood to the N. W.; soon after a small land-bird perched upon the rigging, but we had no ground with 120 fathom. At eight we wore and stood to the southward till twelve at night, and then wore and stood to the N. W. till four in the morning,* when we again stood to the southward, having a fresh gale at W. S. W. with squalls and dark weather till nine, when the weather became clear, and there being little wind, we had an opportunity to take several observations of the sun and moon, the mean result of which gave 207° 56′W. longitude: our latitude at noon was 39° 36′ S. We had now a hard gale from the southward, and a great sea from the same quarter, which obliged us to run under our fore-sail and mizen all night, during which we sounded every two hours, but had no ground with 120 fathom. --page 878

*In the morning of the 18th, we saw two Port Egmont hens, and a pintado bird, which are certain signs of approaching land, and indeed by our reckoning we could not be far from it, for our longitude was now one degree to the westward of the eastside of Van Diemen's land, according to the longitude laid down by Tasman,* whom we could not suppose to have erred much in so short a run as from this land to New Zealand, and by our latitude we could not be above fifty or fifty-five leagues from the place whence he took his departure. All this day we had frequent squalls and a great swell.* Atone in the morning we brought to and sounded, but had no ground with 130 fathom; at six we saw land extending from N. E. to W. at the distance of five or six leagues, having eighty fathom water with a fine sandy bottom. --page 879

We continued standing westward, with the wind at S. S. W. till eight, when we made all the sail we could, and bore away along the shore N. E. for the eastermost land in fight, being at this time in latitude 37° 58′ S. and longitude 210° 39′ W. The southermost point of land in sight, which bore from us W. ¼ S. I judged to lie in latitude 38°, longitude 211° 7′, and gave it the name of POINT HICKS, because Mr. Hicks, the First Lieutenant, was the first who discovered it. To the southward of this Point no land was to be seen, though it was very clear in that quarter, and by our longitude, compared with that of Tasman, not as it is laid down in the printed charts, but in the extracts from Tasman's journal, published by Rembrantse, the body of Van Diemen's land ought to have borne due south; and indeed, from the sudden falling of the sea after the wind abated, I had reason to think it did; yet as I did not see it, and as I found this coast trend N. E. and S. W. or rather more to the eastward, I cannot determine whether it joins to Van Diemen's land or not. --page 880

At noon, we were in latitude 37° 50′, longitude 210° 29′W. The extreams of the land extended from N. W. to E. N. E and a remarkable point bore N. 20 E. at the distance of about four leagues.* This point rises in a round hillock, very much resembling the Ram Head at the entrance of Plymouth Sound, and therefore I called it by the same name. The variation by an azimuth, taken this morning, was 3° 7′ E.; and what we had now seen of the land, appeared low and level: the sea shore was a white sand, but the country within was green and woody. About one o'clock, we saw three water spouts at once; two were between us and the shore, and the third at some distance, upon our larboard quarter: this phaenomenon is so well known, that it is not necessary to give a particular description of it here. --page 881

At six o'clock in the evening, we shortened sail, and brought to for the night, having fifty-six fathom water, and a fine sandy bottom. The northermost land in sight then bore N. by E. ½ E. and a small island lying close to a point on the main bore W. distant two leagues. This point, which I called CAPE HOWE, may be known by the trending of the coast, which is north on the one side, and south west on the other; it may also be known by some round hills upon the main, just within it. --page 882

*We brought to for the night, and at four in the morning made sail along shore to the northward. At six, the northermost land in sight bore N. N. W. and we were at this time about four leagues from the shore. At noon, we were in latitude 36° 51′ S. longitude 209° 53′ W. and about three leagues distant from the shore. The weather being clear, gave us a good view of the country, which has a very pleasing appearance: it is of a moderate height, diversified by hills and vallies, ridges and plains, interspersed with a few lawns of no great extent, but in general covered with wood: the ascent of the hills and ridges is gentle, and the summits are not high. We continued to sail along the shore to the northward, with a southerly wind,* and in the afternoon we saw smoke in several places, by which we knew the country to be inhabited. At six in the evening, we shortened sail, and sounded: we found forty-four fathom water, with a clear sandy bottom, and stood on under an easy sail till twelve, when we brought to for the night, and had ninety fathom water. --page 883

At four in the morning, we made sail again,* at the distance of about five leagues from the land, and at six, we were abreast of a high mountain, lying near the shore, which, on account of its figure, I called MOUNT DROMEDARY: under this mountain the shore forms a point, to which I gave the name of POINT DROMEDARY, and over it there is a peaked hillock. At this time, being in latitude 36° 18′ S. longitude 209° 55′ W. we found the variation to be 10° 42′ E. --page 884

Between ten and eleven, Mr. Green and I took several observations of the sun and moon, the mean result of which gave 209° 17′ longitude W. By an observation made the day before, our longitude was 210° 9′ W. from which, 20′ being subtracted, there remains 209° 49′ the longitude of the ship this day at noon, the mean of which, with this day's observation, gives 209° 33′, by which I fix the longitude of this coast. At noon, our latitude was 35° 49′ S. Cape Dromedary bore S, 30 W. at the distance of twelve leagues, and an open bay, in which were three or four small islands, bore N. W. by W. at the distance of five or six leagues. This bay seemed to afford but little shelter from the sea winds, and yet it is the only place where there appeared a probability of finding anchorage upon the whole coast. We continued to steer along the shore N. by E. and N. N. E. at the distance of about three leagues, and saw smoke in many places near the beach.* At five in the evening, we were abreast of a point of land which rose in a perpendicular cliff, and which, for that reason, I called POINT UPRIGHT. Our latitude was 35° 35′ S. when this Point bore from us due west, distant about two leagues: in this situation, we had about thirty-one fathom water with a sandy bottom. At six in the evening, the wind falling, we hauled off E. N. E. and at this time the northermost land in sight bore N. by E. ½ E. At midnight, being in seventy fathom water, we brought to till four in the morning,* when we made sail in for the land; but at day-break, found our situation nearly the same as it had been at five the evening before, by which it was apparent that we had been driven about three leagues to the southward, by a tide or current, during the night. After this we steered along the shore N. N. E. with a gentle breeze at S. W. and were so near the land as to distinguish several of the natives upon the beach, who appeared to be of a black, or very dark colour. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 35° 27′ S. and longitude 209° 23′W. Cape Dromedary bore S. 28 W. distant nineteen leagues, a remarkable peaked hill, which resembled a square dove-house, with a dome at the top, and which for that reason I called the PIGEON HOUSE, bore N. 32° 30′ W. and a small low island, which lay close under the shore, bore N. W. distant about two or three leagues. When I first discovered this island, in the morning, I was in hopes, from its appearance, that I should have found shelter for the ship behind it, but when we came near it, it did not promise security even for the landing of a boat: I should however have attempted to send a boat on shore, if the wind had not veered to that direction, with a large hollow sea rolling in upon the land from the S. E. which indeed had been the case ever since we had been upon it. The coast still continued to be of a moderate height, forming alternately rocky points and sandy beaches; but within,* between Mount Dromedary and the Pigeon House, we saw high mountains, which, except two, are covered with wood: these two lie inland behind the Pigeon House, and are remarkably flat at the top, with steep rocky cliffs all round them, as far as we could see. The trees which almost every where clothe this country, appear to be large and lofty. This day the variation was found to be 9° 50′ E. and for the two last days, the latitude, by observation, was twelve or fourteen miles to the southward of the ship's account, which could have been the effect of nothing but a current setting in that direction. About four in the afternoon, being near five leagues from the land, we tacked and stood off S. E. and E. and the wind having veered in the night, from E. to N. E. and N. we tacked about four in the morning, and stood in,* being then about nine or ten leagues from the shore. At eight, the wind began to die away, and soon after it was calm. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 35° 38′, and our distance from the land about six leagues. Cape Dromedary bore S. 37 W. distant seventeen leagues, and the Pigeon House N. 40 W.: in this situation we had seventy-four fathom water. In the afternoon, we had variable light airs and calms, till six in the evening, when a breeze sprung up at N. by W.: at this time, being about four or five leagues from the shore, we had seventy fathom water. The Pigeon House bore N. 45 W. Mount Dromedary S. 30 W. and the northermost land in sight N. 19 E. --page 885

We stood to the north east till noon the next day,* with a gentle breeze at N. W. and then we tacked and stood westward. At this time, our latitude, by observation, was 35° 10′S. and longitude 208° 51′ W. A point of land which I had discovered on St. George's day, and which therefore I called CAPE GEORGE, bore W. distant nineteen miles, and the Pigeon House,* (the latitude and longitude of which I found to be 35° 19′ S. and 209° 42′W.) S. 75 W. In the morning, we had found the variation, by amplitude, to be 7° 50′ E. and by several azimuths 7° 54′ E. We had a fresh breeze at N. W. from noon till three; it then came to the west, when we tacked and stood to the northward. At five in the evening, being about five or six leagues from the shore, with the Pigeon House bearing W. S. W. distant about nine leagues, we had eighty-six fathom water; and at eight, having thunder and lightning, with heavy squalls, we brought to in 120 fathom. --page 886

*At three in the morning, we made sail again to the northward, having the advantage of a fresh gale at S. W. At noon, we were about three or four leagues from the shore, and in latitude 34° 22′ S. longitude 208° 36′ W. In the course of this day's run from the preceding noon, which was forty-five miles north east, we saw smoke in several places near the beach. About two leagues to the northward of Cape George, the shore seemed to form a bay, which promised shelter from the north east winds, but as the wind was with us, it was not in my power to look into it without beating up, which would have cost me more time than I was willing to spare. The north point of this bay, on account of its figure, I named LONG NOSE; its latitude is 35° 6′, and about eight leagues north of it there lies a point, which, from the colour of the land about it, I called RED POINT: its latitude is 34° 29′, and longitude 208° 45′W. To the north west of Red Point, and a little way inland, stands a round hill, the top of which looks like the crown of a hat. In the afternoon of this day, we had a light breeze at N. N. W. till five in the evening, when it fell calm: at this time, we were between three and four leagues from the shore, and had forty-eight fathom water: the variation by azimuth was 8° 48′ E. and the extremities of this land were from N. E. by N. to S. W. by S. Before it was dark,* we saw smoke in several places along the shore, and a fire two or three times afterwards. During the night we lay becalmed, driving in before the sea till one in the morning,* when we got a breeze from the land, with which we steered N. E. being then in thirty-eight fathom. At noon, it veered to N. E. by N. and we were then in latitude 34° 10′ S. longitude 208° 27′ W.: the land was distant about five leagues, and extended from S. 37 W. to N. ½ E. In this latitude, there are some white cliffs, which rise perpendicularly from the sea to a considerable height. We stood off the shore till two o'clock, and then tacked and stood in till six, when we were within four or five miles of it, and at that distance had fifty fathom water. The extremities of the land bore from S. 28 W. to N. 25° 30 E. We now tacked and stood off till twelve, then tacked and stood in again till four in the morning,* when we made a trip off till daylight; and during all this time we lost ground, owing to the variableness of the winds. We continued at the distance of between four and five miles from the shore, till the afternoon, when we came within two miles, and I then hoisted out the pinnace and yawl to attempt a landing, but the pinnace proved to be so leaky that I was obliged to hoist her in again. At this time we saw several of the natives walking briskly along the shore, four of whom carried a small canoe upon their shoulders: we flattered ourselves that they were going to put her into the water, and come off to the ship, but finding ourselves disappointed, I determined to go on shore in the yawl, with as many as it would carry: I embarked therefore, with only Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, Tupia, and four rowers: we pulled for that part of the shore where the Indians appeared, near which four small canoes were lying at the water's edge, The Indians sat down upon the rocks,* and seemed to wait for our landing; but to our great regret, when we came within about a quarter of a mile, they ran away into the woods: we determined however to go ashore, and endeavour to procure an interview, but in this we were again disappointed, for we found so great a surf beating upon every part of the beach, that landing with our little boat was altogether impracticable: we were therefore obliged to be content with gazing at such objects as presented themselves from the water: the canoes, upon a near view, seemed very much to resemble those of the smaller sort at New Zealand. We observed, that among the trees on shore, which were not very large, there was no underwood; and could distinguish that many of them were of the palm kind, and some of them cabbage trees: after many a wishful look we were obliged to return, with our curiosity rather excited than satisfied, and about five in the evening got on board the ship. About this time it fell calm, and our situation was by no means agreeable: we were now not more than a mile and a half from the shore, and within some breakers, which lay to the southward, but happily a light breeze came off the land, and carried us out of danger: with this breeze we stood to the northward,* and at day-break we discovered a bay, which seemed to be well sheltered from all winds, and into which therefore I determined to go with the ship. The pinnace being repaired, I sent her, with the Master, to sound the entrance, while I kept turning up, having the wind right out. At noon, the mouth of the bay bore N. N. W. distant about a mile, and seeing a smoke on the shore, we directed our glasses to the spot, and soon discovered ten people, who, upon our nearer approach, left their fire, and retired to a little eminence, whence they could conveniently observe our motions. Soon after two canoes, each having two men on board, came to the shore just under the eminence,* and the men joined the rest on the top of it. The pinnace, which had been sent ahead to sound, now approached the place, upon which all the Indians retired farther up the hill, except one, who hid himself among some rocks near the landing-place. As the pinnace proceeded along the shore, most of the people took the same route, and kept abreast of her at a distance; when she came back, the master told us, that in a cove a little within the harbour, some of them had come down to the beach, and invited him to land by many signs and words of which he knew not the meaning; but that all of them were armed with long pikes, and a wooden weapon shaped somewhat like a cimeter. The Indians who had not followed the boat, seeing the ship approach, used many threatening gestures, and brandished their weapons; particularly two, who made a very singular appearance, for their faces seemed to have been dusted with a white powder, and their bodies painted with broad streaks of the same colour, which passing obliquely over their breasts and backs, looked not unlike the cross-belts worn by our soldiers; the same kind of streaks were also drawn round their legs and thighs like broad garters: each of these men held in his hand the weapon that had been described to us as like a cimeter, which appeared to be about two feet and a half long, and they seemed to talk to each other with great earnestness. --page 887

We continued to stand into the bay, and early in the afternoon anchored under the south shore, about two miles within the entrance, in six fathom water, the south point bearing S. E. and the north point East. As we came in we saw, on both points of the bay, a few huts, and several of the natives, men, women, and children. Under the south head we saw four small canoes,* with each one man on board, who were very busily employed in striking fish with a long pike or spear: they ventured almost into the surf, and were so intent upon what they were doing, that although the ship passed within a quarter of a mile of them, they scarcely turned their eyes towards her; possibly being deafened by the surf, and their attention wholly fixed upon their business or sport, they neither saw nor heard her go past them. --page 888

The place where the ship had anchored was abreast of a small village, consisting of about six or eight houses; and while we were preparing to hoist out the boat, we saw an old woman, followed by three children, come out of the wood; she was loaded with fire-wood, and each of the children had also its little burden: when she came to the houses three more children, younger than the others, came out to meet her: she often looked at the ship, but expressed neither fear nor surprise: in a short time she kindled a fire, and the four canoes came in from fishing. The men landed, and having hauled up their boars, began to dress their dinner, to all appearance wholly unconcerned about us, though we were within half a mile of them. We thought it remarkable that of all the people we had yet seen, not one had the least appearance of clothing, the old woman herself being destitute even of a fig-leaf. --page 889

After dinner the boats were manned, and we set out from the ship, having Tupia of our party. We intended to land where we saw the people, and began to hope that as they had so little regarded the ship's coming into the bay, they would as little regard our coming on shore: in this, however, we were disappointed; for as soon as we approached the rocks, two of the men came down upon them to dispute our landing, and the rest ran away. Each of the two champions was armed with a lance about ten feet long,* and a short stick which he seemed to handle as if it was a machine to assist him in managing or throwing the lance: they called to us in a very loud tone, and in a harsh dissonant language, of which neither we nor Tupia understood a single word: they brandished their weapons, and seemed resolved to defend their coast to the uttermost, though they were but two, and we were forty. I could not but admire their courage, and being very unwilling that hostilities should commence with such inequality of force between us, I ordered the boat to lie upon her oars: we then parlied by signs for about a quarter of an hour, and to bespeak their good-will, I threw them nails, beads, and other trifles, which they took up and seemed to be well pleased with. I then made signs that I wanted water, and, by all the means that I could devise, endeavoured to convince them that we would do them no harm: they now waved to us, and I was willing to interpret it as an invitation; but upon our putting the boat in, they came again to oppose us. One appeared to be a youth about nineteen or twenty, and the other a man of middle age: as I had now no other resource I fired a musquet between them. Upon the report, the youngest dropped a bundle of lances upon the rock, but recollecting himself in an instant he snatched them up again with great haste: a stone was then thrown at us, upon which I ordered a musquet to be fired with small shot, which struck the eldest upon the legs, and he immediately ran to one of the houses, which was distant about an hundred yards: I now hoped that our contest was over, and we immediately landed; but we had scarcely left the boat when he returned, and we then perceived that he had left the rock only to fetch a shield or target for his defence. As soon as he came up, he threw a lance at us, and his comrade another; they fell where we stood thickest,* but happily hurt nobody. A third musquet with small shot was then fired at them, upon which one of them threw another lance, and both immediately ran away: if we had pursued, we might probably have taken one of them; but Mr. Banks suggesting that the lances might be poisoned, I thought it not prudent to venture into the woods. We repaired immediately to the huts, in one of which we found the children, who had hidden themselves behind a shield and some bark; we peeped at them, but left them in their retreat, without their knowing that they had been discovered, and we threw into the house when we went away some beads, ribbons, pieces of cloth, and other presents, which we hoped would procure us the good-will of the inhabitants when they should return; but the lances which we found lying about, we took away with us, to the number of about fifty: they were from six to fifteen feet long, and all of them had four prongs in the manner of a fish-gig, each of which was pointed with fish-bone, and very sharp: we observed that they were smeared with a viscous substance of a green colour, which favoured the opinion of their being poisoned, though we afterwards discovered that it was a mistake: they appeared, by the sea-weed that we found sticking to them, to have been used in striking fish. Upon examining the canoes that lay upon the beach, we found them to be the worst we had ever seen: they were between twelve and fourteen feet long, and made of the bark of a tree in one piece, which was drawn together and tied up at each end, the middle being kept open by sticks which were placed across them from gunwale to gunwale as thwarts. We then searched for fresh water, but found none, except in a small hole which had been dug in the sand. --page 890

Having reimbarked in our boat, we deposited our lances on board the ship, and then went over to the north point of the bay,* where we had seen several of the inhabitants when we were entering it, but which we now found totally deserted. Here however we found fresh water, which trickled down from the top of the rocks, and stood in pools among the hollows at the bottom; but it was situated so as not to be procured for our use without difficulty. --page 891

In the morning, therefore,* I sent a party of men to that part of the shore where we first landed, with orders to dig holes in the sand where the water might gather; but going ashore myself with the Gentlemen soon afterwards, we found, upon a more diligent search, a small stream, more than sufficient for our purpose. --page 892

Upon visiting the hut where we had seen the children, we were greatly mortified to find that the beads and ribbons which we had left there the night before, had not been moved from their places, and that not an Indian was to be seen. --page 893

Having sent some empty water-casks on shore; and left a party of men to cut wood, I went myself in the pinnace to sound, and examine the bay; during my excursion I saw several of the natives, but they all fled at my approach. In one of the places where I landed I found several small fires, and fresh muscles broiling upon them; here also I found some of the largest oyster-shells I had ever seen. --page 894

As soon as the wooders and waterers came on board to dinner, ten or twelve of the natives came down to the place, and looked with great attention and curiosity at the casks, but did not touch them: they took away however the canoes which lay near the landing-place, and again disappeared. In the afternoon, when our people were again ashore, sixteen or eighteen Indians, all armed, came boldly within about an hundred yards of them, and then stopped: two of them advanced somewhat nearer;* and Mr. Hicks, who commanded the party on shore, with another, advanced to meet them, holding out presents to them as he approached, and expressing kindness and amity by every sign he could think of, but all without effect; for before he could get up with them they retired, and it would have answered no purpose to pursue. In the evening, I went with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander to a sandy cove on the north side of the bay, where, in three or four hauls with the seine, we took above three hundred weight of fish, which was equally divided among the ship's company. --page 895

*The next morning, before day-break, the Indians came down to the houses that were abreast of the ship, and were heard frequently to shout very loud. As soon as it was light, they were seen walking along the beach; and soon after they retired to the woods, where, at the distance of about a mile from the shore, they kindled several fires. --page 896

Our people went ashore as usual, and with them Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, who, in search of plants, repaired to the woods. Our men, who were employed in cutting grass, being the farthest removed from the main body of the people, a company of fourteen or fifteen Indians advanced towards them, having sticks in their hands, which, according to the report of the Serjeant of the marines, shone like a musquet. The grass-cutters, upon seeing them approach, drew together, and repaired to the main body. The Indians, being encouraged by this appearance of a flight, pursued them; they stopped however when they were within about a furlong of them, and after shouting several times went back into the woods. In the evening they came again in the same manner, stopped at the same distance, shouted and retired. I followed them myself, alone and unarmed, for a considerable way along the shore,* but I could not prevail upon them to stop. --page 897

This day Mr. Green took the sun's meridian altitude a little within the south entrance of the bay, which gave the latitude 34° S. the variation of the needle was 11° 3′ E. --page 898

Early the next morning, the body of Forby Sutherland,* one of our seamen, who died the evening before, was buried near the watering-place; and from this incident I called the south point of this bay SUTHERLAND POINT. This day we resolved to make an excursion into the country. Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, myself, and seven others, properly accoutred for the expedition, set out, and repaired first to the huts, near the watering-place, whither some of the natives continued every day to resort; and though the little presents which we had left there before had not yet been taken away, we left others of somewhat more value, consisting of cloth, looking-glasses, combs, and beads, and then went up into the country. We found the soil to be either swamp or light sand, and the face of the country finely diversified by wood and lawn. The trees are tall, strait, and without underwood, standing at such a distance from each other that the whole country, at least where the swamps do not render it incapable of cultivation, might be cultivated without cutting down one of them: between the trees the ground is covered with grass, of which there is great abundance, growing in tufts about as big as can well be grasped in the hand, which stand very close to each other. We saw many houses of the inhabitants, and places where they had slept upon the grass without any shelter; but we saw only one of the people, who the moment he discovered us ran away. At all these places we left presents, hoping that at length they might produce confidence and good-will. We had a transient and imperfect view of a quadruped about as big as a rabbit:* Mr. Banks's greyhound, which was with us, got sight of it, and would probably have caught it, but the moment he set off he lamed himself, against a stump which lay concealed in the long grass. We afterwards saw the dung of an animal which fed upon grass, and which we judged could not be less than a deer; and the footsteps of another, which was clawed like a dog, and seemed to be about as big as a wolf: we also tracked a small animal, whose foot resembled that of a polcat or weasel. The trees over our head abounded with birds of various kinds, among which were many of exquisite beauty, particularly loriquets and cockatoos, which flew in flocks of several scores together. We found some wood which had been felled by the natives with a blunt instrument, and some that had been barked. The trees were not of many species; among others there was a large one which yielded a gum not unlike the Sanguis draconis; and in some of them steps had been cut at about three feet distance from each other, for the convenience of climbing them. --page 899

From this excursion we returned between three and four o'clock, and having dined on board, we went ashore again at the waterring-place, where a party of men were filling casks. Mr. Gore, the Second Lieutenant, had been sent out in the morning with a boat to dredge for oysters at the head of the bay; when he had performed this service, he went ashore, and having taken a midshipman with him, and sent the boat away, set out to join the waterers by land. In his way he fell in with a body of two and twenty Indians, who followed him, and were often not more than twenty yards distant; when Mr. Gore perceived them so near, he stopped, and faced about, upon which they stopped also; and when he went on again, continued their pursuit:* they did not however attack him, though they were all armed with lances, and he and the midshipman got in safety to the watering-place. The Indians, who had slackened their pursuit when they came in sight of the main body of our people, halted at about the distance of a quarter of a mile, where they stood still. Mr. Monkhouse and two or three of the waterers took it in their head to march up to them; but seeing the Indians keep their ground till they came pretty near them, they were seized with a sudden fear very common to the rash and fool-hardy, and made a hasty retreat: this step, which insured the danger that it was taken to avoid, encouraged the Indians, and four of them running forward discharged their lances at the fugitives, with such force that, flying no less than forty yards, they went beyond them. As the Indians did not pursue, our people, recovering their spirits, stopped to collect the lances when they came up to the place where they lay; upon which the Indians, in their turn, began to retire. Just at this time I came up, with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, and Tupia; and being desirous to convince the Indians that we were neither afraid of them, nor intended them any mischief, we advanced towards them, making signs of expostulation and entreaty, but they could not be persuaded to wait till we could come up. Mr. Gore told us, that he had seen some of them up the bay, who had invited him by signs to come on shore, which he, certainly with great prudence, declined. --page 900

The morning of the next day was so rainy,* that we were all glad to stay on board. In the afternoon, however, it cleared up, and we made another excursion along the sea-coast to the southward: we went ashore, and Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander gathered many plants; but besides these we saw nothing worthy of notice. At our first entering the woods,* we met with three of the natives, who instantly ran away: more of them were seen by some of the people, but they all disappeared, with great precipitation, as soon as they found that they were discovered. By the boldness of these people at our first landing, and the terror that seized them at the sight of us afterwards, it appears that they were sufficiently intimidated by our fire-arms: not that we had any reason to think the people much hurt by the small-shot which we were obliged to fire at them, when they attacked us at our coming out of the boat; but they had probably seen the effects of them, from their lurking places, upon the birds that we had shot. Tupia, who was now become a good marksman, frequently strayed from us to shoot parrots; and he had told us, that while he was thus employed, he had once met with nine Indians, who, as soon as they perceived he saw them, ran from him, in great confusion and terror. --page 901

*The next day, twelve canoes, in each of which was a single Indian, came towards the watering-place, and were within half a mile of it a considerable time: they were employed in striking fish, upon which, like others that we had seen before, they were so intent that they seemed to regard nothing else. It happened, however, that a party of our people were out a shooting near the place, and one of the men, whose curiosity might at length perhaps be roused by the report of the fowling-pieces, was observed by Mr. Banks to haul up his canoe upon the beach, and go towards the shooting party: in something more than a quarter of an hour he returned, launched his canoe, and went off in her to his companions. This incident makes it probable that the natives acquired a knowlege of the destructive power of our firearms, when we knew nothing of the matter; for this man was not seen by any of the party whose operations he had reconnoitred.* --page 902

While Mr. Banks was gathering plants near the watering-place, I went with Dr. Solander and Mr. Monkhouse to the head of the bay, that I might examine that part of the country, and make farther attempts to form some connection with the natives. In our way we met with eleven or twelve small canoes, with each a man in it, probably the same that were afterwards abreast of the shore, who all made into shoal water upon our approach. We met other Indians on shore the first time we landed, who instantly took to their canoes, and paddled away. We went up the country to some distance, and found the face of it nearly the same with that which has been described already, but the soil was much richer; for instead of sand, I found a deep black mould, which I thought very fit for the production of grain of any kind. In the woods we found a tree which bore fruit that in colour and shape resembled a cherry; the juice had an agreeable tartness, though but little flavour. We found also interspersed some of the finest meadows in the world: some places however were rocky, but these were comparatively few: the stone is sandy, and might be used with advantage for building. When we returned to the boat, we saw some smoke upon another part of the coast, and went thither in hopes of meeting with the people, but at our approach, these also ran away. We found six small canoes, and six fires very near the beach, with some muscles roasting upon them, and a few oysters lying near: by this we judged that there had been one man in each canoe, who having picked up some shell-fish were come ashore to eat it, and that each had made his separate fire for that purpose; we tasted of their cheer, and left them in return some strings of beads, and other things which we thought would please them.* At the foot of a tree in this place we found a small well of fresh water, supplied by a spring; and the day being now far spent, we returned to the ship. In the evening, Mr. Banks made a little excursion with his gun, and found such a number of quails, resembling those in England, that he might have shot as many as he pleased; but his object was variety, and not number. --page 903

*The next morning, as the wind would not permit me to sail, I sent out several parties into the country to try again whether some intercourse could not be established with the natives. A midshipman who belonged to one of these parties, having straggled a long way from his companions, met with a very old man and woman, and some little children; they were sitting under a tree by the water side, and neither party saw the other till they were close together: the Indians showed signs of fear, but did not attempt to run away. The man happened to have nothing to give them but a parrot that he had shot; this he offered, but they refused to accept it, withdrawing themselves from his hand either through fear or aversion. His stay with them was but short, for he saw several canoes near the beach fishing, and being alone, he feared they might come ashore and attack him: he said, that these people were very dark coloured, but not black; that the man and woman appeared to be very old, being both grey-headed; that the hair of the man's head was bushy, and his beard long and rough; that the woman's hair was cropped short, and both of them were stark naked. Mr. Monkhouse the Surgeon, and one of the men, who were with another party near the watering-place, also stayed from their companions, and as they were coming out of a thicket observed six Indians standing together, at the distance of about fifty yards. One of them pronounced a word very loud, which was supposed to be a signal,* for a lance was immediately thrown at him out of the wood, which very narrowly missed him. When the Indians saw that the weapon had not taken effect, they ran away with the greatest precipitation; but on turning about towards the place whence the lance had been thrown, he saw a young Indian, whom he judged to be about nineteen or twenty years old, come down from a tree, and he also ran away with such speed as made it hopeless to follow him. Mr. Monkhouse was of opinion that he had been watched by these Indians in his passage through the thicket, and that the youth had been stationed in the tree, to discharge the lance at him, upon a signal as he should come by; but however this be, there could be no doubt but that he was the person who threw the lance. --page 904

In the afternoon, I went myself with a party over to the north shore, and while some of our people were hauling the seine, we made an excursion a few miles into the country, proceeding afterwards in the direction of the coast. We found this place without wood, and somewhat resembling our moors in England; the surface of the ground, however, was covered with a thin brush of plants, about as high as the knees: the hills near the coast are low, but others rise behind them, increasing by a gradual ascent to a considerable distance, with marshes and morasses between. When we returned to the boat, we found that our people had caught with the seine a great number of small fish, which are well known in the West Indies, and which our sailors call Leather jackets, because their skin is remarkably thick. I had sent the Second Lieutenant out in the yawl a striking, and when we got back to the ship, we found that he also had been very successful. He had observed that the large sting-rays, of which there is great plenty in the bay,* followed the flowing tide into very shallow water; he therefore took the opportunity of flood, and struck several in not more than two or three feet water: one of them weighed no less than two hundred and forty pounds after his entrails were taken out. --page 905

*The next morning, as the wind still continued northerly I sent out the yawl again, and the people struck one still larger, for when his entrails were taken out he weighed three hundred and thirty-six pounds. --page 906

The great quantity of plants which Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander collected in this place induced me to give it the name of BOTANY BAY. It is situated in the latitude of 34° S., longitude 208° 37′ W. It is capacious, safe, and convenient, and may be known by the land on the sea-coast, which is nearly level, and of a moderate height; in general higher than it is farther inland, with steep rocky cliffs next the sea, which have the appearance of a long island lying close under the shore. The harbour lies about the middle of this land, and in approaching it from the southward, is discovered before the ship comes abreast of it; but from the northward it is not discovered so soon: the entrance is a little more than a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in W.N.W. To sail into it the southern shore should be kept on board, till the ship is within a small bare island, which lies close under the north shore; within this island the deepest water on that side is seven fathom, shallowing to five a good way up. At a considerable distance from the south shore there is a shoal, reaching from the inner south point quite to the head of the harbour; but over towards the north and north west shore there is a channel of twelve or fourteen feet at low water, for three or four leagues, up to a place where there is three or four fathom, but here I found very little fresh water. We anchored near the south shore,* about a mile within the entrance, for the convenience of sailing with a southerly wind, and because I thought it the best situation for watering; but I afterwards found a very fine stream on the north shore, in the first sandy cove within the island, before which a ship might lie almost land-locked, and procure wood as well as water in great abundance. Wood indeed is every where plenty, but I saw only two kinds which may be considered as timber. These trees are as large, or larger than the English oak, and one of them has not a very different appearance: this is the same that yields the reddish gum like sanguis draconis, and the wood is heavy, hard, and dark-coloured, like lignum vitae: the other grows tall and strait, something like the pine; and the wood of this, which has some resemblance to the live oak of America, is also hard and heavy. There are a few shrubs, and several kinds of the palm; mangroves also grow in great plenty near the head of the bay. The country in general is level, low, and woody, as far as we could see. The woods, as I have before observed, abound with birds of exquisite beauty, particularly of the parrot kind; we found also crows here, exactly the same with those in England. About the head of the harbour, where there are large flats of sand and mud, there is great plenty of water-fowl, most of which were altogether unknown to us: one of the most remarkable was black and white, much larger than a swan, and in shape somewhat resembling a pelican. On these banks of sand and mud there are great quantities of oysters, muscles, cockles, and other shell-fish, which seem to be the principal subsistence of the inhabitants, who go into shoal water with their little canoes, and pick them out with their hands. We did not observe that they eat any of them raw, nor do they always go on shore to dress them, for they have frequently fires in their canoes for that purpose. They do not however subsist wholly upon this food,* for they catch a variety of other fish, some of which they strike with gigs, and some they take with hook and line. All the inhabitants that we saw were stark naked: they did not appear to be numerous, nor to live in societies, but like other animals were scattered about along the coast, and in the woods. Of their manner of life, however, we could know but little, as we were never able to form the least connection with them: after the first contest at our landing, they would never come near enough to parley; nor did they touch a single article of all that we had left at their huts, and the places they frequented, on purpose for them to take away. --page 907

During my stay in this harbour, I caused the English colours to be displayed on shore every day, and the ship's name, and the date of the year, to be inscribed upon one of the trees near the watering-place. --page 908

It is high-water here at the full and change of the moon about eight o'clock, and the tide rises and falls perpendicularly between four and five feet. --page 909

AT day-break, on Sunday the 6th of May 1770,* we set sail from Botany Bay, with a light breeze at N. W. which soon after coming to the southward, we steered along the shore N. N. E.; and at noon, our latitude, by observation, was 33° 50′ S. At this time we were between two and three miles distant from the land, and a-breast of a bay, or harbour, in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and which I called PORT JACKSON. This harbour lies three leagues to the northward of Botany Bay: the variation, by several azimuths, appeared to be 8° E. At sun-set, the northermost land in sight bore N. 26 E. and some broken land, that seemed to form a bay, bore N. 40 W. distant four leagues. This bay, which lies in latitude 33° 42′, I called BROKEN BAY. We steered along the shore N. N. E. all night, at the distance of about three leagues from the land, having from thirty-two to thirty-six fathom water, with a hard sandy bottom. --page 910

Soon after sun-rise on the 7th, I took several azimuths,* with four needles belonging to the azimuth compass, the mean result of which gave the variation 7° 56′ E. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 33° 22′ S.: we were about three leagues from the shore; the northermost land in sight bore N. 19 E. and some lands which projected in three bluff points, and which, for that reason, I called CAPE THREE POINTS,* bore S. W. distant five leagues. Our longitude from Botany Bay was 19′ E. In the afternoon, we saw smoke in several places upon the shore, and in the evening, found the variation to be 8° 25′ E. At this time we were between two and three miles from the shore, in twenty-eight fathom; and at noon the next day,* we had not advanced one step to the northward. We stood off shore, with the winds northerly, till twelve at night, and at the distance of about five leagues, had seventy fathom; at the distance of six leagues we had eighty fathom, which is the extent of the soundings; for at the distance of ten leagues, we had no ground with 150 fathom. --page 911

*The wind continuing northerly, till the morning of the 10th, we continued to stand in and off the shore, with very little change of situation in other respects; but a gale then springing up at S. W. we made the best of our way along the shore to the northward. At sun-rise, our latitude was 33° 2′ S. and the variation 8° E. At nine in the forenoon, we passed a remarkable hill, which stood a little way inland, and somewhat resembled the crown of a hat: and at noon, our latitude, by observation, was 32° 53′ S. and our longitude 208° W. We were about two leagues distant from the land, which extended from N. 41 E. to S. 41 W., and a small round rock, or island, which lay close under the land, bore S. 82 W. distant between three and four leagues. At four in the afternoon, we passed, at the distance of about a mile, a low rocky point, which I called POINT STEPHENS, on the north side of which is an inlet, which I called PORT STEPHENS: this inlet appeared to me, from the mast head, to be sheltered from all winds. It lies in latitude 32° 40′, longitude 207° 51′, and at the entrance are three small islands, two of which are high; and on the main near the shore are some high round hills, which at a distance appear like islands. In passing this bay,* at the distance of two or three miles from the shore, our soundings were from thirty-three to twenty-seven fathom, from which I conjectured that there must be a sufficient depth of water within it. At a little distance within land, we saw smoke in several places; and at half an hour past five, the northermost land in sight bore N. 36 E. and Point Stephens S. W. distant four leagues. Our soundings in the night, were from forty-eight to sixty-two fathom, at the distance of between three and four leagues from the shore, which made in two hillocks. This Point I called CAPE HAWKE: it lies in the latitude of 32° 14′ S., longitude 207° 30′ W.;* and at four o'clock in the morning bore W. distant about eight miles; at the same time the northermost land in sight bore N. 6 E. and appeared like an island. At noon, this land bore N. 8 E. the northermost land in sight N. 13 E. and Cape Hawke S. 37 W. Our latitude, by observation, was 32° 2′ S. which was twelve miles to the southward of that given by the log; so that probably we had a current setting that way: by the morning amplitude and azimuth, the variation was 9° 10′ E. During our run along the shore, in the afternoon, we saw smoke in several places, at a little distance from the beach, and one upon the top of a hill, which was the first we had seen upon elevated ground since our arrival upon the coast. At sun-set, we had twenty-three fathom, at the distance of a league and an half from the shore: the northermost land then bore N. 13 E. and three hills, remarkably large and high, lying contiguous to each other, and not far from the beach, N. N. W. As these hills bore some resemblance to each other, we called them the THREE BROTHERS. They lie in latitude 31° 40′, and may be seen fourteen or sixteen leagues. We steered N. E. by N. all night, having from twenty-seven to sixty-seven fathom, at the distance of between two and six leagues from the shore. --page 912

*At day-break, we steered north, for the northermost land in sight. At noon, we were four leagues from the shore, and by observation, in latitude 31° 18′ S., which was fifteen miles to the southward of that given by the log; our longitude 206° 58′ W. In the afternoon, we stood in for the land, where we saw smoke in several places, till six in the evening, when, being within three or four miles of it, and in twenty-four fathom of water, we stood off with a fresh breeze at N. and N. N. W. till midnight, when we had 118 fathom, at the distance of eight leagues from the land, and then tacked.* At three in the morning, the wind veered to the westward, when we tacked and stood to the northward. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 30° 43′ S., and our longitude 206° 45′ W. At this time we were between three and four leagues from the shore, the northermost part of which bore from us N. 13 W. and a point, or head land, on which we saw fires that produced a great quantity of smoke, bore W. distant four leagues. To this Point I gave the name of SMOKEY CAPE: it is of a condsierable height, and over the pitch of the Point is a round hillock; within it are two others, much higher and larger, and within them the land is very low. Our latitude was 30° 31′ S., longitude 206° 54′ W.: this day the observed latitude was only five miles south of the log. We saw smoke in several parts along the coast, besides that seen upon Smokey Cape. --page 913

In the afternoon, the wind being at N. E. we stood off and on, and at three or four miles distance from the shore had thirty fathom water: the wind afterwards coming cross off land, we stood to the northward, having from thirty to twenty-one fathom, at the distance of four or five miles from the shore. --page 914

*At five in the morning, the wind veered to the north, and blew fresh, attended with squalls: at eight, it began to thunder and rain, and in about an hour it fell calm,* which gave us an opportunity to sound, and we had eighty-six fathom at between four and five leagues from the shore: soon after this we had a gale from the southward, with which we steered N. by W. for the northermost land in sight. At noon, we were about four leagues from the shore, and by observation, in latitude 30° 22′, which was nine miles to the southward of our reckoning, longitude 206° 39′ W. Some lands near the shore, of a considerable height, bore W. --page 915

As we advanced to the northward, from Botany Bay, the land gradually increased in height, so that in this latitude it may be called a hilly country. Between this latitude and the Bay, it exhibits a pleasing variety of ridges, hills, vallies, and plains, all clothed with wood, of the same appearance with that which has been particularly described: the land near the shore is in general low and sandy, except the points, which are rocky, and over many of them are high hills, which, at their first rising out of the water, have the appearance of islands. In the afternoon, we had some small rocky islands between us and the land, the southermost of which lies in latitude 30° 10′, and the northermost in 29° 58′, and somewhat more than two leagues from the land: about two miles without the northermost island we had thirty-three fathom water, Having the advantage of a moon, we steered along the shore all night, in the direction of N. and N. by E. keeping at the distance of about three leagues from the land, and having from twenty to twenty-five fathom water. As soon as it was light, having a fresh gale, we made all the fail we could, and at nine o'clock in the morning,* being about a league from the shore, we discovered smoke in many places, and having recourse to our glasses, we saw about twenty of the natives, who had each a large bundle upon his back,* which we conjectured to be palm leaves for covering their houses: we continued to observe them above an hour, during which they walked upon the beach, and up a path that led over a hill of a gentle ascent, behind which we lost sight of them: not one of them was observed to stop and look towards us, but they trudged along, to all appearance, without the least emotion either of curiosity or surprize, though it is impossible they should not have seen the ship by a casual glance as they walked along the shore; and though she must, with respect to every other object they had yet seen, have been little less stupendous and unaccountable than a floating mountain with all its woods would have been to us. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 28° 39′ S., and longitude 206° 27′W. A high point of land, which I named CAPE BYRON, bore N. W. by W. at the distance of three miles. It lies in latitude 28° 37′ 30″ S., longitude 206° 30′ W. and may be known by a remarkable sharp peaked mountain, which lies inland, and bears from it N. W. by W. From this point, the land trends N. 13 W.: inland it is high and hilly, but low near the shore; to the southward of the point it is also low and level. We continued to steer along the shore with a fresh gale, till sun-set, when we suddenly discovered breakers a-head, directly in the ship's course, and also on our larboard bow. At this time we were about five miles from the land, and had twenty fathom water: we hauled up east till eight, when we had run eight miles, and increased our depth of water to forty-four fathom: we then brought to, with the ship's head to the eastward, and lay upon this tack till ten, when, having increased our sounding to seventy-eight fathom, we wore, and lay with the ship's head to the land till five in the morning,* when we made sail, and at daylight, were greatly surprized to find ourselves farther to the southward, than we had been the evening before, though the wind had been southerly,* and blown fresh all night: we now saw the breakers again within us, and passed them at the distance of one league. They lie in latitude 28° 8′ S. stretching off east two leagues from a point of land, under which is a small island. Their situation may always be known by the peaked mountain which has been just mentioned, and which bears from them S. W. by W. for this reason I have named it MOUNT WARNING. It lies seven or eight leagues inland, in latitude 28° 22′ S. The land about it is high and hilly, but it is of itself sufficiently conspicuous to be at once distinguished from every other object. The Point off which these shoals lie, I have named POINT DANGER. To the northward of this Point the land is low, and trends N. W. by N.; but it soon turns again more to the northward. --page 916

At noon, we were about two leagues from the land, and by observation, in latitude 27° 46′ S. which was seventeen miles to the southward of the log; our longitude was 206° 20′ W. Mount Warning bore S. 26 W. distant fourteen leagues, and the northermost land in sight bore N. We pursued our course along the shore, at the distance of about two leagues, in the direction of N. ¾ E. till between four and five in the afternoon, when we discovered breakers on our larboard bow. Our depth of water was thirty-seven fathom, and at sun-set, the northermost land bore N. by W. the breakers N. W. by W. distant four miles, and the northermost land set at noon, which formed a point, and to which I gave the name of POINT LOOK-OUT, W. distant five or six miles, in the latitude of 27° 6′. On the north side of this Point, the shore forms a wide open bay, which I called MORETON's BAY, in the bottom of which the land is so low that I could but just see it from the top-mast head. The breakers lie between three and four miles from Point Look-out; and at this time we had a great sea from the southward,* which broke upon them very high. We stood on N. N. E. till eight o'clock, when having passed the breakers, and deepened our water to fifty-two fathom, we brought to till midnight, when made sail again to the N. N. E.* At four in the morning, we had 135 fathom, and when the day broke, I perceived that during the night I had got much farther northward, and from the shore, than I expected from the course we steered, for we were distant at least seven leagues; I therefore hauled in N. W. by W. with a fresh gale at S. S. W. The land that was farthest to the north the night before, now bore S. S. W. distant six leagues, and I gave it the name of CAPE MORETON, it being the north point of Moreton's Bay: its latitude is 26° 56′, and its longitude is 206° 28′. From Cape Moreton the land trends away west, farther than can be seen, for there is a small space, where at this time no land is visible, and some on board having also observed that the sea looked paler than usual, were of opinion that the bottom of Moreton's Bay opened into a river: we had here thirty-four fathom water, and a fine sandy bottom: this alone would have produced the change that had been observed in the colour of the water; and it was by no means necessary to suppose a river to account for the land at the bottom of the Bay not being visible, for supposing the land there to be as low as we knew it to be in a hundred other parts of the coast, it would have been impossible to see it from the station of the ship; however, if any future navigator should be disposed to determine the question, whether there is or is not a river in this place, which the wind would not permit us to do, the situation may always be found by three hills which lie to the northward of it, in the latitude of 26° 53′. These hills lie but a little way inland, and not far from each other: they are remarkable for the singular form of their elevation, which very much resembles a glass-house,* and for which reason I called them the GLASS HOUSES: the northermost of the three is the highest and largest: there are also several other peaked hills inland to the northward of these, but they are not nearly so remarkable. At noon, our latitude was, by observation, 26° 28′ S. which was ten miles to the northward of the log, a circumstance which had never before happened upon this coast; our longitude was 206° 46′. At this time we were between two and three leagues from the land, and had twenty-four fathom water. A low bluff point, which was the south head of a sandy bay, bore N. 62 W. distant three leagues, and the northermost point of land in sight bore N. ¼ E. This day we saw smoke in several places, and some at a considerable distance inland. --page 917

In steering along the shore at the distance of two leagues, our soundings were from twenty-four to thirty-two fathom, with a sandy bottom. At six in the evening, the northermost point of land bore N. ¼ W. distant four leagues; at ten it bore N. W. by W. ½ W. and as we had seen no land to the northward of it, we brought to, not well knowing which way to steer. --page 918

At two in the morning, however,* we made sail with the wind at S. W. and at daylight, we saw the land extending as far as N. ¼ E. the point we had set the night before bore S. W. by W. distant between three and four leagues. It lies in latitude 25° 58′, longitude 206° 48′ W.: the land within it is of a moderate and equal height, but the point itself is so unequal, that it looks like two small islands lying under the land, for which reason I gave it the name of DOUBLE ISLAND POINT; it may also be known by the white cliffs on the north side of it. Here the land trends to the N. W. and forms a large open bay, the bottom of which is so low a flat that from the deck it could scarcely be seen.* In crossing this bay, our depth of water was from thirty to twenty-two fathom, with a white sandy bottom. At noon, we were about three leagues from the shore, in latitude 25° 34′ S. longitude 206° 45′ W.: Double Island Point bore S. ¾ W. and the northermost land in sight N. ¾ E. This part of the coast, which is of a moderate height, is more barren than any we had seen, and the soil more sandy. With our glasses we could discover that the sands, which lay in great patches of many acres, were moveable, and that some of them had not been long in the place they possessed; for we saw in several parts, trees half buried, the tops of which were still green; and in others, the naked trunks of such as the sand had surrounded long enough to destroy. In other places the woods appeared to be low and shrubby, and we saw no signs of inhabitants. Two water snakes swam by the ship: they were beautifully spotted, and in every respect like land snakes, except that their tails were broad and flat, probably to serve them instead of fins in swimming. In the morning of this day, the variation was 8° 20′ E. and in the evening, 8° 36′. During the night, we continued our course to the northward, with a light breeze from the land, being distant from it between two and three leagues, and having from twenty-three to twenty-seven fathom with a fine sandy bottom. --page 919

*At noon on the 19th, we were about four miles from the land, with only thirteen fathom. Our latitude was 25° 4′, and the northermost land in sight bore N. 21 W. distant eight miles. At one o'clock, being still four miles distant from the shore, but having seventeen fathom water, we passed a black bluff head, or point of land, upon which a great number of the natives were assembled, and which therefore I called INDIAN HEAD: it lies in latitude 25° 3′. About four miles N. by W. of this Head, is another very like it from whence the land trends away somewhat more to the westward: next to the sea it is low and sandy,* and behind it nothing was to be seen, even from the mast-head. Near Indian Head we saw more of the natives, and upon the neighbouring shore fires by night, and smoke by day. We kept to the northward all night, at the distance of from four miles to four leagues from the shore, and with a depth of water from seventeen to thirty-four fathom. At day-break,* the northermost land bore from us W. S. W. and seemed to end in a point, from which we discovered a reef running out to the northward as far as we could see. We had hauled our wind to the westward before it was light, and continued the course till we saw the breakers upon our see bow. We now edged away N. W. and N. N. W. along the east side of the shoal, from two to one mile distant, having regular soundings from thirteen to seven fathom, with a fine sandy bottom. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 20° 26′, which was thirteen miles to the northward of the log: we judged the extream point of the shoal to bear from us about N. W. and the point from which it seemed to run out, bore S. ¾ W. distant twenty miles. This point I named SANDY CAPE, from two very large patches of white sand which lay upon it. It is sufficiently high to be seen at the distance of twelve leagues, in clear weather, and lies in latitude 24° 45′, longitude 206° 51′: the land trends from it S. W. as far as can be seen. We kept along the east side of the shoal till two in the afternoon, when, judging that there was a sufficient depth of water upon it to allow passage for the ship, I sent the boat a-head to sound, and upon her making the signal for more than five fathom, we hauled our wind, and stood over the tail of it in six fathom. At this time we were in latitude 24° 22′, and Sandy Cape bore S. ½ E. distant eight leagues; but the direction of the shoal is nearest N. N. W. and S. S. E.* It is remarkable that when on board the ship we had six fathom, the boat, which was scarcely a quarter of a mile to the southward, had little more than five, and that immediately after six fathom we had thirteen, and then twenty, as fast as the man could cast the lead: from these circumstances, I conjectured that the west side of the shoal was steep. This shoal I called the BREAK SEA SPIT, because we had now smooth water, and to the southward of it we had always a high sea from the S. E. At six in the evening, the land of Sandy Cape extended from S. 17 E. to S. 27 E. at the distance of eight leagues; our depth of water was twenty-three fathom: with the same soundings we stood to the westward all night.* At seven in the morning, we saw, from the mast-head, the land of Sandy Cape bearing S. E. ½ E. distant about thirteen leagues: at nine, we discovered land to the westward, and soon after saw smoke in several places. Our depth of water was now decreased to seventeen fathom, and by noon we had no more than thirteen, though we were seven leagues from the land, which extended from S. by W. to W. N. W. Our latitude at this time was 24° 28′S. For a few days past we had seen several of the sea birds called boobies, not having met with any of them before; last night a small flock of them passed the ship, and went away to the N. W. and in the morning, from about half an hour before sun-rise, to half an hour after, flights of them were continually coming from the N. N. W. and flying to the S. S. E. nor was one of them seen to fly in any other direction; we therefore conjectured that there was a lagoon, river, or inlet of shallow water, in the bottom of the deep bay, to the southward of us, whither these birds resorted to feed in the day, and that not far to the northward there were some islands to which they repaired in the night. To this bay I gave the name of HERVEY's BAY, in honour of Captain Hervey. In the afternoon, we stood in for the land,* steering S. W. with a gentle breeze at S. E. till four o'clock, when, being in latitude 24° 36′, about two leagues from the shore, and having nine fathom water, we bore away along the coast N. W. by W. and at the same time could see land extending to the S. S. E. about eight leagues. Near the sea the land is very low, but within there are some lofty hills, all thickly clothed with wood. While we were running along the shore, we shallowed our water from nine to seven fathom, and at one time we had but six, which determined us to anchor for the night. --page 920

At six in the morning we weighed,* with a gentle breeze from the southward, and steered N. W. ¼ W. edging in for the land till we got within two miles of it, with water from seven to eleven fathom: we then steered N. N. W. as the land lay, and at noon, our latitude was 24° 19′. We continued in the same course, at the same distance, with from twelve fathom to seven, till five in the evening, when we were abreast of the south point of a large open bay, in which I intended to anchor. During this course, we discovered with our glasses that the land was covered with palm-nut-trees, which we had not seen from the time of our leaving the islands within the Tropick: we also saw two men walking along the shore, who did not condescend to take the least notice of us. In the evening, having hauled close upon a wind, and made two or three trips, we anchored about eight o'clock in five fathom, with a fine sandy bottom. The south point of the bay bore E. ¾ S. distant two miles, the north point N. W. ¼ N. and about the same distance from the shore. --page 921

Early the next morning I went ashore,* with a party of men, in order to examine the country, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, the other gentlemen, and Tupia: the wind blew fresh,* and we found it so cold, that being at some distance from the shore, we took our cloaks as a necessary equipment for the voyage. We landed a little within the south point of the bay, where we found a channel leading into a large lagoon: this channel I proceeded to examine, and found three fathom water till I got about a mile up it, where I met with a shoal, upon which there was little more than one fathom, but having passed over it, I had three fathom again. The entrance of this channel lies close to the south point of the bay, being formed by the shore on the east, and on the west by a large spit of sand: it is about a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in S. by W. In this place there is room for a few ships to lie in great security, and a small stream of fresh water; I would have rowed into the lagoon, but was prevented by shallows. We found several bogs, and swamps of salt water, upon which, and by the sides of the lagoon, grows the true mangrove, such as is found in the West Indies, and the first of the kind that we had met with. In the branches of these mangroves there were many nests of a remarkable kind of ant, that was as green as grass: when the branches were disturbed they came out in great numbers, and punished the offender by a much sharper bite than ever we had felt from the same kind of animal before. Upon these mangroves also we saw small green caterpillars in great numbers: their bodies were thick set with hairs, and they were ranged upon the leaves side by side like a file of soldiers, to the number of twenty or thirty together: when we touched them, we found that the hair on their bodies had the quality of a nettle, and gave us a much more acute, though less durable pain. The country here is manifestly worse than about Botany Bay: the soil is dry and sandy, but the sides of the hills are covered with trees, which grow separately, without underwood. We found here the tree that yields a gum like the Sanguis draconis;* but it is somewhat different from the trees of the same kind which we had seen before, for the leaves are longer, and hang down like those of the weeping willow. We found also much less gum upon them, which is contrary to the established opinion, that the hotter the climate, the more gums exude. Upon a plant also, which yielded a yellow gum, there was less than upon the same kind of plant in Botany Bay. Among the shoals and sand-banks we saw many large birds, some in particular of the same kind that we had seen in Botany Bay, much bigger than swans, which we judged to be pelicans; but they were so shy that we could not get within gun-shot of them. Upon the shore we saw a species of the bustard, one of which we shot, it was as large as a turkey, and weighed seventeen pounds and an half. We all agreed that this was the best bird we had eaten since we left England; and in honour of it we called this inlet BUSTARD BAY. It lies in latitude 24° 4′, longitude 208° 18′. The sea seemed to abound with fish; but, unhappily, we tore our seine all to pieces at the first haul: upon the mud-banks, under the mangroves, we found innumerable oysters of various kinds; among others the hammer-oyster, and a large proportion of small pearl-oysters: if in deeper water there is equal plenty of such oysters at their full growth, a pearl fishery might certainly be established here to very great advantage. --page 922

The people who were left on board the ship said, that while we were in the woods about twenty of the natives came down to the beach, abreast of her, and having looked at her sometime, went away; but we that were ashore, though we saw smoke in many places, saw no people: the smoke was at places too distant for us to get to them by land, except one, to which we repaired:* we found ten small fires still burning within a few paces of each other; but the people were gone: we saw near them several vessels of bark, which we supposed to have contained water, and some shells and fish-bones, the remains of a recent meal. We saw also, lying upon the ground, several pieces of soft bark, about the length and breadth of a man, which we imagined might be their beds; and, on the windward side of the fires, a small shade, about a foot and a half high, of the same substance. The whole was in a thicket of close trees, which afforded good shelter from the wind. The place seemed to be much trodden, and as we saw no house, nor any remains of a house, we were inclined to believe that as these people had no clothes, they had no dwelling; but spent their nights, among the other commoners of Nature, in the open air: and Tupia himself, with an air of superiority and compassion, shook his head, and said that they were Taata Enos, 'poor wretches.' I measured the perpendicular height of the last tide, and found it to be eight feet above low-water mark, and from the time of low-water this day, I found that it must be high-water at the full and change of the moon at eight o'clock. --page 923

*At four o'clock in the morning we weighed, and with a gentle breeze at south made sail out of the bay. In standing out our soundings were from five to fifteen fathom; and at day-light, when we were in the greatest depth, and abreast of the north head of the bay, we discovered breakers stretching out from it N.N.E. between two and three miles, with a rock at the outermost point of them, just above water. While we were passing these rocks, at the distance of about half a mile, we had from fifteen to twenty fathom, and as soon as we had passed them, we hauled along shore W.N.W. for the farthest land we had in sight. At noon, our latitude by observation was 23° 52′ S.;* the north part of Bustard Bay bore S. 62 E. distant ten miles; and the northermost land in sight N. 60 W.; the longitude was 208° 37′, and our distance from the nearest shore six miles, with fourteen fathom water. --page 924

Till five in the afternoon it was calm, but afterwards we steered before the wind N. W. as the land lay till ten at night, and then brought to, having had all along fourteen and fifteen fathom. At five in the morning we made sail;* and at day-light the northermost point of the main bore N. 70 W. Soon after we saw more land, making like islands, and bearing N. W. by N. At nine, we were abreast of the point, at the distance of one mile, with fourteen fathom water. This point I found to lie directly under the Tropic of Capricorn; and for that reason I called it CAPE CAPRICORN: its longitude is 208° 58′ W.: it is of a considerable height, looks white and barren, and may be known by some islands which lie to the N. W. of it, and some small rocks at the distance of about a league S. E. On the west side of the Cape there appeared to be a lagoon, and on the two spits which formed the entrance we saw an incredible number of the large birds that resemble a pelican. The northermost land now in sight bore from Cape Capricorn N. 24 W. and appeared to be an island; but the main land trended W. by N. ½ N. which course we steered, having from fifteen to six fathom, and from six to nine, with a hard sandy bottom. At noon, our latitude by observation was 23° 24′ S.; Cape Capricorn bore S. 60 E. distant two leagues; and a small island N. by E. two miles: in this situation we had nine fathom, being about four miles from the main, which, next the sea, is low and sandy, except the points which are high and rocky. The country inland is hilly, but by no means of a pleasing aspect. We continued to stand to the N. W. till four o'clock in the afternoon, when it fell calm;* and we soon after anchored in twelve fathom, having the main land and islands in a manner all round us, and Cape Capricorn bearing S. 54 E. distant four leagues. In the night, we found the tide rise and fall near seven feet; and the flood to set to the westward, and the ebb to the eastward, which is just contrary to what we found when we were at anchor to the eastward of Bustard Bay. --page 925

*At six in the morning we weighed, with a gentle breeze at South, and stood away to the N. W. between the outermost range of islands and the main, leaving several small islands between the main and the ship, which we passed at a very little distance: our soundings being irregular, from twelve to four fathom, I sent a boat ahead to sound. At noon we were about three miles from the main, and about the same distance from the islands without us: our latitude by observation was 23° 7′ S.: the main land here is high and mountainous; the islands which lie off it are also most of them high, and of a small circuit, having an appearance rather of barrenness than fertility. At this time we saw smoke in many places at a considerable distance inland, and therefore conjectured that there might be a lagoon, river, or inlet running up the country, the rather as we had passed two places which had the appearance of being such; but our depth of water was too little to encourage me to venture where I should probably have less. We had not stood to the northward above an hour, before we suddenly fell into three fathom; upon which I anchored, and sent away the Master to found the channel which lay to leeward of us, between the northermost island and the main: it appeared to be pretty broad, but I suspected that it was shallow, and so indeed it was found; for the master reported at his return that in many places he had only two fathom and an half, and where we lay at anchor we had only sixteen feet,* which was not two feet more than the ship drew. While the master was sounding the channel, Mr. Banks tried to fish from the cabbin windows with hook and line: the water was too shallow for fish; but the ground was almost covered with crabs, which readily took the bait, and sometimes held it so fast in their claws, that they did not quit their hold till they were considerably above water. These crabs were of two sorts, and both of them such as we had not seen before: one of them was adorned with the finest blue that can be imagined, in every respect equal to the ultramarine, with which all his claws, and every joint was deeply tinged: the under part of him was white, and so exquisitely polished that in colour and brightness it exactly resembled the white of old china: the other was also marked with the ultramarine upon his joints, and his toes, but somewhat more sparingly; and his back was marked with three brown spots which had a singular appearance. The people who had been out with the boat to sound, reported, that upon an island where we had observed two fires, they had seen several of the inhabitants, who called to them, and seemed very desirous that they should land. In the evening, the wind veered to E. N. E. which gave us an opportunity to stretch three or four miles back by the way we came; after which, the wind shifted to the South, and obliged us again to anchor in six fathom. --page 926

At five in the morning,* I sent away the Master to search for a passage between the islands, while we got the ship under sail; and as soon as it was light we followed the boat, which made a signal that a passage had been found. As soon as we got again into deep water, we made sail to the northward, as the land lay, with soundings from nine fathom to fifteen, and some small islands still without us. At noon we were about two leagues distant from the main;* and by observation in latitude 22° 53′ S. The northermost point of land in sight now bore N. N. W. distant ten miles. To this point I gave the name of CAPE MANIFOLD, from the number of high hills which appeared over it: it lies in latitude 22° 43′ S. and distant about seventeen leagues from Cape Capricorn, in the direction of N. 26 W. Between these Capes the shore forms a large bay, which I called KEPPEL BAY; and I also distinguished the islands by the name of KEPPEL's ISLANDS. In this bay there is good anchorage; but what refreshments it may afford, I know not: we caught no fish, though we were at anchor; but probably there is fresh water in several places, as both the islands and the main are inhabited. We saw smoke and fires upon the main; and upon the islands we saw people. At three in the afternoon, we passed Cape Manifold, from which the lands trends N. N. W. The land of the Cape is high, rising in hills directly from the sea; and may be known by three islands which lie off it, one of them near the shore, and the other two eight miles out at sea. One of these islands is low and flat, and the other high and round. At six o'clock in the evening we brought to, when the northermost part of the main in sight bore N. W. and some islands which lie off it N. 31 W. Our soundings after twelve o'clock were from twenty to twenty-five fathom, and in the night from thirty to thirty-four. --page 927

*At day-break we made sail, Cape Manifold bearing S. by E. distant eight leagues, and the islands which I had set the night before were distant four miles in the same direction. The farthest visible point of the main bore N. 67 W. at the distance of twenty-two miles; but we could see several islands to the northward of this direction. At nine o'clock in the forenoon, we were abreast of the point which I called CAPE TOWNSHEND. It lies in latitude 22° 15′;* longitude 209° 43′: the land is high and level, and rather naked than woody. Several islands lie to the northward of it, at the distance of four or five miles out at sea; three or four leagues to the S. E. the shore forms a bay, in the bottom of which there appeared to be an inlet or harbour. To the westward of the Cape the land trends S. W. ½ S. and there forms a very large bay which turns to the eastward, and probably communicates with the inlet, and makes the land of the Cape an island. As soon as we got round this Cape, we hauled our wind to the westward, in order to get within the islands, which lie scattered in the bay in great numbers, and extend out to sea as far as the eye could reach even from the mast-head: these islands vary both in height and circuit from each other; so that, although they are very numerous, no two of them are alike. We had not stood long upon a wind before we came into shoal water, and were obliged to tack at once to avoid it. Having sent a boat ahead, I bore away W. by N. many small islands, rocks, and shoals, lying between us and the main, and many of a larger extent without us: our soundings till near noon were from fourteen to seventeen fathom, when the boat made the signal for meeting with shoal water: upon this we hauled close upon a wind to the eastward, but suddenly fell into three fathom and a quarter; we immediately dropped an anchor, which brought the ship up with all her sails standing. When the ship was brought up we had four fathom, with a coarse sandy bottom, and found a strong tide setting to the N. W. by W. ½ W. at the rate of near three miles an hour, by which we were so suddenly carried upon the shoal. Our latitude by observation was 22° 8′ S.; Cape Townshend bore E. 16 S. distant thirteen miles; and the westermost part of the main in sight W. ¾ N.* At this time a great number of islands lay all round us. --page 928

In the afternoon, having sounded round the ship, and found that there was water sufficient to carry her over the shoal, we weighed, and about three o'clock made sail and stood to the westward, as the land lay, having sent a boat ahead to sound. At six in the evening, we anchored in ten fathom, with a sandy bottom, at about two miles distance from the main; the westermost part of which bore W. N. W. and a great number of islands, lying a long way without us, were still in sight. --page 929

*At five o'clock the next morning, I sent away the Master with two boats to sound the entrance of an inlet which bore from us west, at about the distance of a league, into which I intended to go with the ship, that I might wait a few days till the moon should encrease, and in the mean time examine the country. As soon as the ship could be got under sail, the boats made the signal for anchorage; upon which we stood in, and anchored in five fathom water, about a league within the entrance of the inlet; which, as I observed a tide to flow and ebb considerably, I judged to be a river that ran up the country to a considerable distance. In this place I had thoughts of laying the ship ashore, and cleaning her bottom; I therefore landed with the Master in search of a convenient place for that purpose, and was accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander. We found walking here exceedingly troublesome, for the ground was covered with a kind of grass, the seeds of which were very sharp and bearded backwards; so that whenever they stuck into our clothes, which indeed was at every step, they worked forwards by means of the beard, till they got at the flesh; and at the same time we were surrounded by a cloud of musquitos, which incessantly tormented us with their stings.* We soon met with several places where the ship might conveniently be laid ashore; but to our great disappointment we could find no fresh water. We proceeded however up the country, where we found gum trees like those that we had seen before, and observed that here also the gum was in very small quantities. Upon the branches of these trees, and some others, we found ants nests, made of clay, as big as a bushel, something like those described in Sir Hans Sloan's Natural History of Jamaica, vol. ii. p. 221, tab. 258, but not so smooth: the ants which inhabited these nests were small, and their bodies white. But upon another species of the tree we found a small black ant, which perforated all the twigs, and having worked out the pith, occupied the pipe which had contained it; yet the parts in which these insects had thus formed a lodgment, and in which they swarmed in amazing numbers, bore leaves and flowers, and appeared to be in as flourishing a state as those that were sound. We found also an incredible number of butterflies, so that for the space of three or four acres the air was so crowded with them that millions were to be seen in every direction, at the same time that every branch and twig was covered with others that were not upon the wing. We found here also a small fish of a singular kind; it was about the size of a minnow, and had two very strong breast fins: we found it in places that were quite dry, where we supposed it might have been left by the tide; but it did not seem to have become languid by the want of water; for upon our approach it leaped away, by the help of the breast fins, as nimbly as a frog: neither indeed did it seem to prefer water to land; for when we found it in the water, it frequently leaped out, and pursued its way upon dry ground: we also observed that when it was in places where small stones were standing above the surface of the water at a little distance from each other,* it chose rather to leap from stone to stone, than to pass through the water; and we saw several of them pass entirely over puddles in this manner, till they came to dry ground, and then leap away. --page 930

In the afternoon we renewed our search after fresh water, but without success; and therefore I determined to make my stay here but short: however, having observed from an eminence that the inlet penetrated a considerable way into the country, I determined to trace it in the morning. --page 931

*At sun-rise I went ashore, and climbing a considerable hill, I took a view of the coast and the islands that lie off it, with their bearings, having an azimuth compass with me for that purpose; but I observed that the needle differed very considerably in its position, even to thirty degrees, in some places more, in others less; and once I found it differ from itself no less than two points in the distance of fourteen feet. I took up some of the loose stones that lay upon the ground, and applied them to the needle, but they produced no effect; and I therefore concluded that there was iron ore in the hills, of which I had remarked other indications both here, and in the neighbouring parts. After I had made my observations upon the hill, I proceeded with Dr. Solander up the inlet; I set out with the first of the flood, and long before high-water I had advanced above eight leagues. Its breadth thus far was from two to five miles, upon a S. W. by S. direction; but here it opened every way, and formed a large lake, which to the N. W. communicated with the sea; and I not only saw the sea in this direction, but found the tide of flood coming strongly in from that point: I also observed an arm of this lake extending to the eastward, and it is not improbable that it may communicate with the sea in the bottom of the bay,* which lies to the westward of Cape Townshend. On the south side of the lake is a ridge of high hills which I was very desirous to climb; but it being high-water, and the day far spent, I was afraid of being bewildered among the shoals in the night, especially as the weather was dark and rainy; and therefore I made the best of my way to the ship. In this excursion I saw only two people, and they were at a distance; they followed the boat along the shore a good way, but the tide running strongly in my favour I could not prudently wait for them: I saw however several fires in one direction, and smoke in another, but they also were at a distance. While I was tracing the inlet with Dr. Solander, Mr. Banks was endeavouring to penetrate into the country, where several of the people who had leave to go ashore were also rambling about. Mr. Banks and his party found their course obstructed by a swamp, covered with mangroves, which however they resolved to pass; the mud was almost knee deep, yet they resolutely went on; but before they got half way, they repented of their undertaking: the bottom was covered with branches of trees interwoven with each other, sometimes they kept their footing upon them, sometimes their feet slipt through, and sometimes they were so entangled among them, that they were forced to free themselves by groping in the mud and slime with their hands. In about an hour however they crossed it, and judged it might be about a quarter of a mile over. After a short walk they came up to a place where there had been four small sires, and near them some shells and bones of fish, that had been roasted: they found also heaps of grass laid together, where four or five people appeared to have slept. The Second Lieutenant, Mr. Gore, who was at another place, saw a little water lying in the bottom of a gully, and near it the track of a large animal: some bustards were also seen, but none of them shot,* nor any other bird except a few of the beautiful loriquets which we had seen in Botany Bay. Mr. Gore, and one of the midshipmen, who were in different places, said that they had heard the voices of Indians near them, but had seen none: the country in general appeared sandy and barren, and being destitute of fresh water, it cannot be supposed to have any settled inhabitants. The deep gullies, which were worn by torrents from the hills, prove, that at certains seasons the rains here are very copious and heavy. --page 932

The inlet in which the ship lay I called THIRSTY SOUND, because it afforded us no fresh water. It lies in latitude 22° 10′ S. and longitude 210° 18′ W.; and may be known by a group of small islands lying under the shore, from two to five leagues distant, in the direction of N. W. and by another group of islands that lie right before it, between three and four leagues out at sea. Over each of the points that form the entrance is a high round hill, which on the N. W. is a peninsula that at high-water is surrounded by the sea: they are bold to both the shores, and the distance between them is about two miles. In this inlet is good anchorage in seven, six, five, and four fathom; and places very convenient for laying a ship down, where, at spring-tides, the water does not rise less than sixteen or eighteen feet. The tide flows at the full and change of the moon about eleven o'clock. I have already observed that here is no fresh water, nor could we procure refreshment of any other kind: we saw two turtles, but we were not able to take either of them: neither did we catch either fish or wild-fowl, except a few small land-birds: we saw indeed the same sorts of water-fowl as in Botany Bay, but they were so shy that we could not get a shot at them. --page 933

As I had not therefore a single inducement to stay longer in this place,* I weighed anchor at six o'clock in the morning of Thursday the 31st of May, and put to sea.* We stood to the N. W. with a fresh breeze at S. S. E. and kept without the group of islands that lie in shore, and to the N. W. of Thirsty Sound, as there appeared to be no safe passage between them and the main: at the same time we had a number of islands without us, extending as far as we could see: during our run in this direction our depth of water was ten, eight, and nine fathom. At noon, the west point of Thirsty Sound, which I have called PIER HEAD, bore S. 36 E. distant five leagues; the east point of the other inlet, which communicates with the Sound, bore S. by W. distant two leagues; the group of islands just mentioned lay between us and the point, and the farthest part of the main in sight, on the other side of the inlet, bore N. W. Our latitude by observation was 21° 53′. At half an hour after twelve, the boat, which was sounding ahead, made the signal for shoal water, and we immediately hauled our wind to the N. E. At this time we had seven fathom, at the next cast five, and at the next three, upon which we instantly dropped an anchor, that brought the ship up. Pier Head, the north west point of Thirsty-sound, bore S. E. distant six leagues, being half-way between the islands which lie off the east point of the western inlet, and three small islands which lie directly without them. It was now the first of the flood, which we found to set N. W. by W. ½ W.; and having sounded about the shoal, upon which we had three fathom, and found deep water all round it, we got under sail, and having hauled round the three islands that have been just mentioned, came to an anchor under the Ice of them, in fifteen fathom water; and the weather being dark, hazy, and rainy, we remained there till seven o'clock in the morning.* At this time we got again under fail, and stood to the N. W. with a fresh breeze at S. S. E.; having the main land in sight, and a number of islands all round us,* some of which lay out at sea as far as the eye could reach. The western inlet, which in the chart is distinguished by the name of Broad Sound, we had now all open; at the entrance, it is at least nine or ten leagues wide: in it, and before it, lie several islands, and probably shoals also; for our soundings were very irregular, varying suddenly from ten to four fathom. At noon, our latitude by observation was 21° 29′ S.; a point of land which forms the north west entrance into Broad Sound, and which I have named CAPE PALMERSTON, lying in latitude 21° 30′, longitude 210° 54′ W. bore W. by N. distant three leagues. Our latitude was 21′ 27′, our longitude 210° 57′. Between this Cape and Cape Townshend lies the bay which I have called the BAY OF INLETS. We continued to stand to the N. W. and N. W. by N. as the land lay, under an easy sail, having a boat ahead to sound: at first the soundings were very irregular, from nine to four fathom; but afterwards they were regular, from nine to eleven. At eight in the evening, being about two leagues from the main land, we anchored in eleven fathom, with a sandy bottom; and soon after we found the tide setting with a slow motion to the westward. At one o'clock it was slack, or low-water; and at half an hour after two the ship tended to the eastward, and rode so till six in the morning,* when the tide had risen eleven feet. We now got under sail, and stood away in the direction of the coast, N. N. W. From what we had observed of the tide during the night, it is plain, that the flood came from the N. W.; whereas the preceding day, and several days before, it came from the S. E.; nor was this the first, or even second time that we had remarked the same thing. At sun-rise this morning, we found the variation to be 6° 45′ E.; and in steering along the shore, between the island and the main, at the distance of about two leagues from the main, and three or four from the island,* our soundings were regular from twelve to nine fathom; but about eleven o'clock in the forenoon we were again embarrassed with shoal water, having at one time not more than three fathom; yet we got clear, without casting anchor. At noon we were about two leagues from the main, and four from the islands without us. Our latitude by observation was 20° 56′, and a high promontory, which I named CAPE HILLSBOROUGH, bore W. ½ N. distant seven miles. The land here is diversified by mountains, hills, plains, and valleys, and seems to be well clothed with herbage and wood: the islands which lie parallel to the coast, and from five to eight or nine miles distant, are of various height and extent; scarcely any of them are more than five leagues in circumference, and many are not four miles: besides this chain of islands, which lies at a distance from the coast, there are others much less, which lie under the land, from which we saw smoke rising in different places. We continued to steer along the shore at the distance of about two leagues, with regular soundings from nine to ten fathom. At sun-set, the farthest point of the main bore N. 48 W. and to the northward of this lay some high land, which I took to be an island, and of which the north west point bore 41 W.; but not being sure of a passage, I came to an anchor about eight o'clock in the evening, in ten fathom water, with a muddy bottom. About ten we had a tide setting to the northward, and at two it had fallen nine feet; after this it began to rise, and the flood came from the northward, in the direction of the islands which lay out to sea; a plain indication that there was no passage to the N. W. This however had not appeared at day-break,* when we got under sail and stood to the N. W. At eight o'clock in the morning, we discovered low land quite across what we took for an opening, which proved to be a bay, about five or six leagues deep;* upon this we hauled our wind to the eastward round the north point of the bay, which at this time bore from us N. E. by N. distant four leagues: from this point we found the land trend way N. by W. ½ W. and a streight or passage between it and a large island, or islands, lying parallel to it. Having the tide of ebb in our favour, we stood for this passage; and at noon were just within the entrance: our latitude by observation was 20° 26′ S.; Cape Hillsborough bore S. by E. distant ten leagues; and the north point of the bay S. 19 W. distant four miles. This point, which I named CAPE CONWAY, lies in latitude 26° 36′ S. longitude 211° 28′ W.; and the bay which lies between this Cape and Cape Hillsborough I called REPULSE BAY. The greatest depth of water which we found in it was thirteen fathom, and the least eight. In all parts there was safe anchorage, and I believe that, upon proper examination, some good harbours would be found in it; especially at the north side within Cape Conway; for just within that Cape there lie two or three small islands, which alone would shelter that side of the bay from the southerly and south easterly winds, that seem to prevail here as a Trade. Among the many islands that lie upon this coast, there is one more remarkable than the rest; it is of a small circuit, very high and peaked, and lies E. by S. ten miles from Cape Conway, at the south end of the passage. In the afternoon, we steered through this passage, which we found to be from three to seven miles broad, and eight or nine leagues in length, N. by W. ½ W., S. by E. ½ E. It is formed by the main on the west, and by the islands on the east, one of which is at least five leagues in length: our depth of water in running through was from twenty to five and twenty fathom, with good anchorage every where, and the whole passage may be considered as one safe harbour, exclusive of the small bays and coves which abound on each side, where ships might lie as in a bason.* The land both upon the main and islands is high, and diversified by hill and valley, wood and lawn, with a green and pleasant appearance. On one of the islands we discovered with our glasses two men and a woman, and a canoe with an outrigger, which appeared to be larger, and of a construction very different from those of bark tied together at the ends, which we had seen upon other parts of the coast; we hoped therefore that the people here had made some farther advances beyond mere animal life than those that we had seen before. At six o'clock in the evening, we were nearly the length of the north end of the passage; the north westermost point of the main in sight bore N. 54 W. and the north end of the island N. N. E. with an open sea between the two points. As this passage was discovered on Whitsunday, I called it WHITSUNDAY's PASSAGE, and I called the islands that form it CUMBERLAND ISLANDS, in honour of his Royal Highness the Duke. We kept under an easy sail, with the lead going all night, being at the distance of about three leagues from the shore, and having from twenty-one to twenty-three fathom water. Ar day-break,* we were abreast of the point which had been the farthest in sight to the north west the evening before, which I named CAPE GLOUCESTER. It is a lofty promontory, in latitude 19° 59′ S. longitude 211° 49′ W. and may be known by an island which lies out at sea N. by W. ½ W. at the distance of five or six leagues from it, and which I called HOLBORNE ISLE; there are also islands lying under the land between Holborne Isle, and Whitsunday's Passage. On the west side of Cape Gloucester the land trends away S. W. and S. S. W. and forms a deep bay, the bottom of which I could but just see from the mast-head: it is very low, and a continuation of the low land which we had seen at the bottom of Repulse Bay. This bay I called EDGCUMBE BAY, but without staying to look into it,* we continued our course to the westward, for the farthest land we could see in that direction, which bore W. by N. ½ N. and appeared very high. At noon, we were about three leagues from the shore, by observation in latitude 19° 47′ S. and Cape Gloucester bore S. 63 E. distant seven leagues and an half. At six in the evening, we were abreast of the westermost point just mentioned, at about three miles distance, and because it rises abruptly from the low lands which surround it, I called it CAPE UPSTART. It lies in latitude 19° 39′ S. longitude 212° 32′ W. fourteen leagues W. N. W. from Cape Gloucester, and is of a height sufficient to be seen at the distance of twelve leagues: inland there are some high hills or mountains, which, like the Cape, afford but a barren prospect. Having passed this Cape, we continued standing to the W. N. W. as the land lay, under an easy sail, having from sixteen to ten fathom,* till two o'clock in the morning, when we fell into seven fathom; upon which we hauled our wind to the northward, judging ourselves to be very near land: at day-break, we found our conjecture to be true, being within little more than two leagues of it. In this part of the coast the land, being very low, is nearer than it appears to be, though it is diversified with here and there a hill. At noon, we were about four leagues from the land, in fifteen fathom water, and our latitude, by observation, was 19° 12′ S. Cape Upstart bearing S. 32° 30′ E. distant twelve leagues. About this time some very large columns of smoke were seen rising from the low lands. At sun-set, the preceding night, when we were close under Cape Upstart, the variation was nearly 9° E. and at sun-rise this day, it was no more than 5° 35′; I judged therefore that it had been influenced by iron ore, or other magnetical matter, contained under the surface of the earth. --page 934

We continued to steer W. N. W. as the land lay,* with twelve or fourteen fathom water, till noon on the 6th, when our latitude, by observation, was if 19° 1′ S. and we had the mouth of a bay all open, extending from S. ½ E. to S. W. ½ S. distant two leagues. This bay, which I named CLEAVELAND BAY, appeared to be about five or six miles in extent every way: the east point I named CAPE CLEAVELAND, and the west, which had the appearance of an island, MAGNETICAL ISLE, as we perceived that the compass did not traverse well when we were near it: they are both high, and so is the main land within them, the whole forming a surface the most rugged, rocky, and barren of any we had seen upon the coast; it was not however without inhabitants, for we saw smoke in several parts of the bottom of the bay. The northermost land that was in fight at this time, bore N. W. and it had the appearance of an island, for we could not trace the main land farther than W. by N. We steered W. N. W. keeping the main land on board, the outermost part of which, at sun-set, bore W. by N. but without it lay high land, which we judged not to be part of it.* At daybreak, we were abreast of the eastern part of this land, which we found to be a group of islands, lying about five leagues from the main: at this time, being between the two shores, we advanced slowly to the N. W. till noon, when our latitude, by observation, was 18° 49′ S. and our distance from the main about five leagues: the north west part of it bore from us N. by W. ½ W. the islands extending from N. to E. and the nearest being distant about two miles: Cape Cleaveland bore S. 50 E. distant eighteen leagues. Our soundings, in the course that we had sailed between this time and the preceding noon, were from fourteen to eleven fathom. --page 935

In the afternoon, we saw several large columns of smoke upon the main; we saw also some people and canoes, and upon one of the islands what had the appearance of cocoa nut-trees:* as a few of these nuts would now have been very acceptable, I sent Lieutenant Hicks ashore, and with him went Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, to see what refreshment could be procured, while I kept standing in for the island with the ship. About seven o'clock in the evening they returned, with an account that what we had taken for cocoa nut-trees, were a small kind of cabbage palm, and that, except about fourteen or fifteen plants, they had met with nothing worth bringing away. While they were ashore, they saw none of the people, but just as they had put off, one of them came very near the beach, and shouted with a loud voice; it was so dark that they could not see him, however they turned towards the shore, but when he heard the boat putting back, he ran away or hid himself, for they could not get a glimpse of him, and though they shouted he made no reply. After the return of the boats, we stood away N. by W. for the northermost land in fight, of which we were abreast at three o'clock in the morning,* having passed all the islands three or four hours before. This land, on account of its figure, I named POINT HILLOCK: it is of a considerable height, and may be known by a round hillock, or rock, which joins to the Point, but appears to be detached from it. Between this Cape and Magnetical Isle the shore forms a large bay, which I called HALIFAX BAY: before it lay the group of islands which has been just mentioned, and some others, at a less distance from the shore. By these islands the Bay is sheltered from all winds, and it affords good anchorage. The land near the beach, in the bottom of the Bay, is low and woody, but farther back it is one continued ridge of high land, which appeared to be barren and rocky. Having passed Point Hillock, we continued standing to the N. N. W. as the land trended, having the advantage of a light moon. At six,* we were abreast of a point of land which lies N. by W. ½ W. distant eleven miles from Point Hillock, which I named CAPE SANDWICH. Between these two points the land is very high, and the surface is craggy and barren. Cape Sandwich may be known not only by the high craggy land over it, but by a small island which lies east of it, at the distance of a mile, and some others that lie about two leagues to the northward. From Cape Sandwich the land trends W. and afterwards N. forming a fine large bay, which I called ROCKINGHAM BAY, where there appears to be good shelter, and good anchorage, but I did not stay to examine it: I kept ranging along the shore to the northward, for a cluster of small islands, which lie off the northern point of the Bay. Between the three outermost of these islands, and those near the shore, I found a channel of about a mile broad, through which I passed, and upon one of the nearest islands we saw with our glasses about thirty of the natives, men, women, and children, all standing together, and looking with great attention at the ship; the first instance of curiosity that we had seen among them: they were all stark naked, with short hair, and of the same complexion with those that we had seen before. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 17° 59′, and we were abreast of the north point of Rockingham Bay, which bore from us W. at the distance of about two miles. This boundary of the Bay is formed by an island of considerable height, which in the chart is distinguished by the name of DUNK ISLE, and which lies so near the shore as not to be easily distinguished from it. Our longitude was 213° 57′ W. Cape Sandwich bore S. by E. ½ E. distant nineteen miles, and the northermost land in sight N. ½ W.: our depth of water for the last ten hours had not been more than sixteen, nor less than seven fathom. At sunset, the northern extremity of the land bore N. 25 W. and we kept our course N. by W. along the coast,* at the distance of between three and four leagues, with an easy sail all night, having from twelve to fifteen fathom water. --page 936

*At six o'clock in the morning, we were abreast of some small islands, which we called FRANKLAND's ISLES, and which lie about two leagues distant from the main land. The most distant point in sight to the northward bore N. by W. ½ W. and we thought it was part of the main, but afterwards found it to be an island of considerable height, and about four miles in circuit. Between this island and a point on the main, from which it is distant about two miles, I passed with the ship. At noon, we were in the middle of the channel, and by observation in the latitude of 16° 57′ S. with twenty fathom water. The point on the main, of which we were now abreast, I called CAPE GRAFTON: its latitude is 16° 57′ S. and longitude 214° 6′ W. and the land here, as well as the whole coast for about twenty leagues to the southward, is high, has a rocky surface, and is thinly covered with wood: during the night we had seen several sires, and about noon some people. Having hauled round Cape Grafton, we found the land trend away N. W. by W. and three miles to the westward of the Cape we found a bay, in which we anchored about two miles from the shore, in four fathom water with an ouzey bottom. The east point of the bay bore S. 74 E. the west point S. 83 W. and a low, green, woody island, which lies in the offing, N. 35 E. This island, which lies N. by E. ½ E. distant three or four leagues from Cape Grafton, is called in the chart GREEN ISLAND. --page 937

As soon as the ship was brought to an anchor, I went ashore, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander. As my principal view was to procure some fresh water, and as the bottom of the bay was low land covered with mangroves, where it was not probable fresh water was to be found,* I went out towards the Cape, and found two small streams, which however were rendered very difficult of access by the surf and rocks upon the shore: I saw also, as I came round the Cape, a small stream of water run over the beach, in a sandy cove, but I did not go in with the boat, because I saw that it would not be easy to land. When we got ashore, we found the country every where rising into steep rocky hills, and as no fresh water could conveniently be procured, I was unwilling to lose time by going in search of lower land elsewhere: we therefore made the best of our way back to the ship, and about midnight we weighed and stood to the N. W. having but little wind, with some showers of rain.* At four in the morning, the breeze freshened at S. by E. and the weather became fair: we continued steering N. N. W. ½ W. as the land lay, at about three leagues distance, with ten, twelve, and fourteen fathom water. At ten, we hauled off north, in order to get without a small low island, which lay at about two leagues distance from the main, and great part of which at this time, it being high water, was overflowed: about three leagues to the north west of this island, close under the main land, is another island, the land of which rises to a greater height, and which at noon bore from us N. 55 W. distant seven or eight miles. At this time, our latitude was 16° 20′ S. Cape Grafton bore S. 29 E. distant forty miles, and the northermost point of land in sight N. 20 W.; our depth of water was fifteen fathom. Between this point and Cape Grafton, the shore forms a large, but not a very deep bay, which being discovered on Trinity Sunday, I called TRINITY BAY. --page 938

*HITHERTO we had safely navigated this dangerous coast, where the sea in all parts conceals shoals that suddenly project from the shore, and rocks that rise abruptly like a pyramid from the bottom, for an extent of two and twenty degrees of latitude, more than one thousand three hundred miles; and therefore hitherto none of the names which distinguish the several parts of the country that we saw, are memorials of distress; but here we became acquainted with misfortune, and we therefore called the point which we had just seen farthest to the northward, CAPE TRIBULATION. --page 939

This Cape lies in latitude 16° 6′ S. and longitude 214° 39′ W. We steered along the shore N. by W. at the distance of between three and four leagues, having from fourteen to twelve, and ten fathom water: in the offing we saw two islands, which lie in latitude 16° S. and about six or seven leagues from the main. At six in the evening, the northermost land in sight bore N. by W. ½ W. and two low woody islands, which some of us took to be rocks above water, bore N. ½ W. At this time we shortened sail, and hauled off shore E. N. E. and N. E. by E. close upon a wind, for it was my design to stretch off all night, as well to avoid the danger we saw ahead, as to see whether any islands lay in the offing, especially as we were now near the latitude assigned to the islands which were discovered by Quiros,* and which some geographers, for what reason I know not, have thought fit to join to this land. We had the advantage of a fine breeze, and a clear moonlight night, and in standing off from six till near nine o'clock, we deepened our water from fourteen to twenty-one fathom, but while we were at supper it suddenly shoaled, and we fell into twelve, ten, and eight fathom, within the space of a few minutes; I immediately ordered every body to their station, and all was ready to put about and come to an anchor, but meeting at the next cast of the lead with deep water again, we concluded that we had gone over the tail of the shoals which we had seen at sun-set, and that all danger was past: before ten, we had twenty and one and twenty fathom, and this depth continuing, the gentlemen left the deck in great tranquility, and went to bed; but a few minutes before eleven, the water shallowed at once from twenty to seventeen fathom, and before the lead could be cast again, the ship struck, and remained immoveable, except by the heaving of the surge, that beat her against the craggs of the rock upon which she lay. In a few moments every body was upon the deck, with countenances which sufficiently expressed the horrors of our situation. We had stood off the shore three hours and a half, with a pleasant breeze, and therefore knew that we could not be very near it, and we had too much reason to conclude that we were upon a rock of coral, which is more fatal than any other, because the points of it are sharp, and every part of the surface so rough as to grind away whatever is rubbed against it, even with the gentlest motion. In this situation all the sails were immediately taken in, and the boats hoisted out to examine the depth of water round the ship: we soon discovered that our fears had not aggravated our misfortune, and that the vessel had been lifted over a ledge of the rock,* and lay in a hollow within it: in some places there was from three to four fathom, and in others not so many feet. The ship lay with her head to the N. E.; and at the distance of about thirty yards on the starboard side, the water deepened to eight, ten, and twelve fathom. As soon as the long-boat was out, we struck our yards and top-masts, and carried out the stream anchor on the starboard bow, got the coasting anchor and cable into the boat, and were going to carry it out the same way; but upon sounding a second time round the ship, the water was found to be deepest astern: the anchor therefore was carried out from the starboard quarter instead of the starboard bow, that is, from the stern instead of the head, and having taken ground, our utmost force was applied to the capstern, hoping that if the anchor did not come home, the ship would be got off, but to our great misfortune and disappointment we could not move her: during all this time she continued to beat with great violence against the rock, so that it was with the utmost difficulty that we kept upon our legs; and to complete the scene of distress, we saw by the light of the moon the sheathing boards from the bottom of the vessel floating away all round her, and at last her false keel, so that every moment was making way for the sea to rush in which was to swallow us up. We had now no chance but to lighten her, and we had lost the opportunity of doing that to the greatest advantage, for unhappily we went on shore just at high water, and by this time it had considerably fallen, so that after she should be lightened so as to draw as much less water as the water had sunk, we should be but in the same situation as at first; and the only alleviation of this circumstance was, that as the tide ebbed the ship settled to the rocks, and was not beaten against them with so much violence. We had indeed some hope from the next tide,* but it was doubtful whether she would hold together so long, especially as the rock kept grating her bottom under the starboard bow with such force as to be heard in the fore store-room. This however was no time to indulge conjecture, nor was any effort remitted in despair of success: that no time might be lost, the water was immediately started in the hold, and pumped up; six of our guns, being all we had upon the deck, our iron and stone ballast, casks, hoop staves, oil jars, decayed stores, and many other things that lay in the way of heavier materials, were thrown overboard with the utmost expedition, every one exerting himself with an alacrity almost approaching to cheerfulness, without the least repining or discontent; yet the men were so far imprest with a sense of their situation, that not an oath was heard among them, the habit of profaneness, however strong, being instantly subdued, by the dread of incurring guilt when death seemed to be so near. --page 940

While we were thus employed, day broke upon us,* and we saw the land at about eight leagues distance, without any island in the intermediate space, upon which, if the ship should have gone to pieces, we might have been set ashore by the boats, and from which they might have taken us by different turns to the main: the wind however gradually died away, and early in the forenoon it was a dead calm; if it had blown hard, the ship must inevitably have been destroyed. At eleven in the forenoon we expected high water, and anchors were got out, and every thing made ready for another effort to heave her off if she should float, but to our inexpressible surprize and concern she did not float by a foot and a half, though we had lightened her near fifty ton, so much did the day-tide fall short of that in the night. We now proceeded to lighten her still more, and threw overboard every thing that it was possible for us to spare:* hitherto she had not admitted much water, but as the tide fell, it rushed in so fast, that two pumps, incessantly worked, could scarcely keep her free. At two o'clock, she lay heeling two or three streaks to starboard, and the pinnace, which lay under her bows, touched the ground: we had now no hope but from the tide at midnight, and to prepare for it we carried out our two bower anchors, one on the starboard quarter, and the other right a-stern, got the blocks and tackle which were to give us a purchase upon the cables in order, and brought the falls, or ends of them, in abaft, straining them tight, that the next effort might operate upon the ship, and by shortening the length of the cable between that and the anchors, draw her off the ledge upon which she rested, towards the deep water. About five o'clock in the afternoon, we observed the tide begin to rise, but we observed at the same time that the leak increased to a most alarming degree, so that two more pumps were manned, but unhappily only one of them would work: three of the pumps however were kept going, and at nine o'clock the ship righted, but the leak had gained upon us so considerably, that it was imagined she must go to the bottom as soon as she ceased to be supported by the rock: this was a dreadful circumstance, so that we anticipated the floating of the ship not as an earnest of deliverance, but as an event that would probably precipitate our destruction. We well knew that our boats were not capable of carrying us all on shore, and that when the dreadful crisis should arrive, as all command and subordination would be at an end, a contest for preference would probably ensue, that would increase the horrors even of shipwreck, and terminate in the destruction of us all by the hands of each other; yet we knew that if any should be left on board to perish in the waves, they would probably suffer less upon the whole than those who should get on shore,* without any lasting or effectual defence against the natives, in a country, where even nets and firearms would scarcely furnish them with food; and where, if they should find the means of subsistence, they must be condemned to languish out the remainder of life in a desolate wilderness, without the possession, or even hope, of any domestic comfort, and cut off from all commerce with mankind, except the naked savages who prowled the desert, and who perhaps were some of the most rude and uncivilized upon the earth. --page 941

To those only who have waited in a state of such suspense, death has approached in all his terrors; and as the dreadful moment that was to determine our fate came on, every one saw his own sensations pictured in the countenances of his companions: however, the capstan and windlace were manned with as many hands as could be spared from the pumps, and the ship floating about twenty minutes after ten o'clock, the effort was made, and she was heaved into deep water. It was some comfort to find that she did not now admit more water than she had done upon the rock; and though, by the gaining of the leak upon the pumps, there was no less than three feet nine inches water in the hold, yet the men did not relinquish their labour, and we held the water as it were at bay; but having now endured excessive fatigue of body and agitation of mind for more than four and twenty hours, and having but little hope of succeeding at last, they began to flag: none of them could work at the pump more than five or six minutes together, and then, being totally exhausted, they threw themselves down upon the deck, though a stream of water was running over it from the pumps between three and four inches deep; when those who succeeded them had worked their spell, and were exhausted in their turn, they threw themselves down in the same manner, and the others started up again,* and renewed their labour; thus relieving each other till an accident was very near putting an end to their efforts at once. The planking which lines the inside of the ship's bottom is called the cieling, and between this, and the outside planking, there is a space of about eighteen inches: the man who till this time had attended the well to take the depth of water, had taken it only to the cieling, and gave the measure accordingly; but he being now relieved, the person who came in his stead, reckoned the depth to the outside planking, by which it appeared in a few minutes to have gained upon the pumps eighteen inches, the difference between the planking without and within. Upon this, even the bravest was upon the point of giving up his labour with his hope, and in a few minutes every thing would have been involved in all the confusion of despair. But this accident, however dreadful in its first consequences, was eventually the cause of our preservation: the mistake was soon detected, and the sudden joy which every man felt upon finding his situation better than his fears had suggested, operated like a charm, and seemed to possess him with a strong belief that scarcely any real danger remained. New confidence and new hope, however founded, inspired new vigour; and though our state was the same as when the men first began to slacken in their labour, through weariness and despondency, they now renewed their efforts with such alacrity and spirit, that before eight o'clock in the morning the leak was so far from having gained upon the pumps, that the pumps had gained considerably upon the leak. Every body now talked of getting the ship into some harbour, as a thing not to be doubted, and as hands could be spared from the pumps, they were employed in getting up the anchors: the stream anchor and best bower we had taken on board; but it was found impossible to save the little bower, and therefore it was cut away at a whole cable:* we lost also the cable of the stream anchor among the rocks; but in our situation these were trifles which scarcely attracted our notice. Our next business was to get up the fore-topmast and fore-yard, and warp the ship to the southeast, and at eleven, having now a breeze from the sea, we once more got under sail and stood for the land. --page 942

It was however impossible long to continue the labour by which the pumps had been made to gain upon the leak, and as the exact situation of it could not be discovered, we had no hope of stopping it within. In this situation, Mr. Monkhouse,* one of my midshipmen, came to me and proposed an expedient that he had once seen used on board a merchant ship, which sprung a leak that admitted above four feet water an hour, and which by this expedient was brought safely from Virginia to London; the master having such confidence in it, that he took her out of harbour, knowing her condition, and did not think it worth while to wait till the leak could be otherwise stopped. To this man, therefore, the care of the expedient, which is called fothering the ship, was immediately committed, four or five of the people being appointed to assist him, and he performed it in this manner: He took a lower studding sail, and having mixed together a large quantity of oakham and wool, chopped pretty small, he stitched it down in handfuls upon the sail, as lightly as possible, and over this he spread the dung of our sheep and other filth; but horse dung, if we had had it, would have been better. When the sail was thus prepared, it was hauled under the ship's bottom by ropes, which kept it extended, and when it came under the leak, the suction which carried in the water, carried in with it the oakham and wool from the surface of the sail, which in other parts the water was not sufficiently agitated to wash off.* By the success of this expedient our leak was so far reduced, that instead of gaining upon three pumps, it was easily kept under with one. This was a new source of confidence and comfort; the people could scarcely have expressed more joy if they had been already in port; and their views were so far from being limited to running the ship ashore in some harbour, either of an island or the main, and building a vessel out of her materials, to carry us to the East Indies, which had so lately been the utmost object of our hope, that nothing was now thought of but ranging along the shore in search of a convenient place to repair the damage she had sustained, and then prosecuting the voyage upon the same plan as if nothing had happened. Upon this occasion I must observe, both in justice and gratitude to the ship's company, and the Gentlemen on board, that although in the midst of our distress every one seemed to have a just sense of his danger, yet no passionate exclamations, or frantic gestures, were to be heard or seen; every one appeared to have the perfect possession of his mind, and every one exerted himself to the uttermost, with a quiet and patient perseverance, equally distant from the tumultuous violence of terror, and the gloomy inactivity of despair. --page 943

In the mean time, having light airs at E.S.E. we got up the main-topmast, and main-yard, and kept edging in for the land, till about six o'clock in the evening, when we came to an anchor in seventeen fathom water, at the distance of seven leagues from the shore, and one from the ledge of rocks upon which we had struck. --page 944

This ledge or shoal lies in latitude 15° 45′ S. and between six and seven leagues from the main. It is not however the only shoal on this part of the coast, especially to the northward; and at this time we saw one to the southward,* the tail of which we passed over, when we had uneven soundings about two hours before we struck. A part of this shoal is always above water, and has the appearance of white sand: a part also of that upon which we had lain is dry at low water, and in that place consists of sand stones; but all the rest of it is a coral rock. --page 945

While we lay at anchor for the night, we found that the ship made about fifteen inches water an hour, from which no immediate danger was to be apprehended; and at six o'clock in the morning,* we weighed and stood to the N. W. still edging in for the land with a gentle breeze at S. S. E. At nine we passed close without two small islands that lie in latitude 15° 41′ S. and about four leagues from the main: to reach these islands had, in the height of our distress, been the object of our hope, or perhaps rather of our wishes, and therefore I called them HOPE ISLANDS. At noon we were about three leagues from the land, and in latitude 15° 37′ S.; the northermost part of the main in sight bore N. 30 W.; and Hope Islands extended from S. 30 E. to S. 40 E. In this situation we had twelve fathom water, and several sand-banks without us. At this time the leak had not increased; but that we might be prepared for all events, we got the sail ready for another fothering. In the afternoon, having a gentle breeze at S. E. by E. I sent out the Master with two boats, as well to sound ahead of the ship, as to look out for a harbour where we might repair our defects, and put the ship in a proper trim. At three o'clock, we saw an opening that had the appearance of an harbour, and stood off and on while the boats examined it; but they soon found that there was not depth of water in it sufficient for the ship. When it was near sunset, there being many shoals about us, we anchored in four fathom,* at the distance of about two miles from the shore, the land extending from N. ½ E. to S. by E. ½ E. The pinnace was still out with one of the mates; but at nine o'clock she returned, and reported, that about two leagues to leeward she had discovered just such a harbour as we wanted, in which there was a sufficient rise of water, and every other convenience that could be desired, either for laying the ship ashore, or heaving her down. --page 946

In consequence of this information, I weighed at six o'clock in the morning,* and having sent two boats ahead, to lie upon the shoals that we saw in our way, we ran down to the place; but notwithstanding our precaution, we were once in three fathom water. As soon as these shoals were passed, I sent the boats to lie in the channel that led to the harbour, and by this time it began to blow. It was happy far us that a place of refuge was at hand; for we soon found that the ship would not work, having twice missed stays: our situation, however, though it might have been much worse, was not without danger; we were entangled among shoals, and I had great reason to fear being driven to leeward, before the boats could place themselves so as to prescribe our course. I therefore anchored in four fathom, about a mile from the shore, and then made the signal for the boats to come on board. When this was done I went myself and buoyed the channel, which I found very narrow; the harbour also I found smaller than I expected, but most excellently adapted to our purpose; and it is remarkable, that in the whole course of our voyage we had seen no place which, in our present circumstances, could have afforded us the same relief. At noon, our latitude was 15° 26′ S. During all the rest of this day, and the whole night, it blew too fresh for us to venture from our anchor and run into the harbour; and for our farther security, we got down the top-gallant yards,* unbent the mainsail and some of the small sails; got down the fore-top-gallant mast, and the gibb boom, and sprit-sail, with a view to lighten the ship forwards as much as possible, in order to come at her leak, which we supposed to be somewhere in that part; for in all the joy of our unexpected deliverance, we had not forgot that at this time there was nothing but a lock of wool between us and destruction. The gale continuing, we kept our station all the 15th.* On the 16th, it was somewhat more moderate;* and about six o'clock in the morning, we hove the cable short, with a design to get under sail, but were obliged to desist, and veer it out again. It is remarkable that the sea breeze, which blew fresh when we anchored, continued to do so almost every day while we stayed here; it was calm only while we were upon the rock, except once; and even the gale that afterwards wafted us to the shore, would then certainly have beaten us to pieces. In the evening of the preceding day, we had observed a fire near the beach over against us; and as it would be necessary for us to stay sometime in this place, we were not without hope of making an acquaintance with the people. We saw more fires upon the hills to-day, and with our glasses discovered four Indians going along the shore, who stopped, and made two fires; but for what purpose it was impossible we should guess. --page 947

The scurvy now began to make its appearance among us, with many formidable symptoms. Our poor Indian, Tupia, who had some time before complained that his gums were sore and swelled, and who had taken plentifully of our lemon juice by the Surgeon's direction, had now livid spots upon his legs, and other indubitable testimonies that the disease had made a rapid progress, notwithstanding all our remedies, among which the bark had been liberally administered. Mr. Green,* our astronomer, was also declining; and these, among other circumstances, imbittered the delay which prevented our going ashore. --page 948

*In the morning of the 17th, though the wind was still fresh, we ventured to weigh, and push in for the harbour; but in doing this we twice run the ship aground: the first time she went off without any trouble, but the second time she stuck fast. We now got down the fore yard, fore topmasts, and booms, and taking them overboard, made a raft of them alongside of the ship. The tide was happily rising, and about one o'clock in the afternoon, she floated. We soon warped her into the harbour, and having moored her alongside of a steep beach to the south, we got the anchors, cables, and all the hawsers on shore before night. --page 949

--page 950

[illustration]--page 951

IN the morning of Monday the 18th,* a stage was made from the ship to the shore, which was so bold that she floated at twenty feet distance: two tents were also set up, one for the sick, and the other for stores and provisions, which were landed in the course of the day. We also landed all the empty water casks, and part of the stores. As soon as the tent for the sick was got ready for their reception, they were sent ashore to the number of eight or nine, and the boat was dispatch•d to haul the seine, in hopes of procuring some fish for the•• refreshment; but she returned without success. In the mean time, I climbed one of the highest hills among those that overlooked the harbour, which afforded by no means a comfortable prospect: the low land near the river is wholly over-run with mangroves, among which the salt-water slows every tide; and the high land appeared to be every where stoney and barren. In the mean time Mr. Banks had also taken a walk up the country, and met with the frames of several old Indian houses, and places where they had dressed shell-fish; but they seemed not to have been frequented for some months. Tupia, who had employed himself in angling, and lived intirely upon what he caught, recovered in a surprising degree; but Mr. Green still continued to be extremely ill. --page 952

*The next morning I got the four remaining guns out of the hold, and mounted them upon the quarter-deck; I also got a spare anchor, and anchor-stock ashore, and the remaining part of the stores and ballast that were in the hold: set up the smith's forge, and employed the armourer and his mate to make nails and other necessaries for the repair of the ship. In the afternoon, all the officers' stores and the ground tier of water were got out; so that nothing remained in the fore and main hold, but the coals, and a small quantity of stone ballast. This day Mr. Banks crossed the river to take a view of the country on the other side: he found it consist principally of sand-hills, where he saw some Indian houses, which appeared to have been very lately inhabited. In his walk, he met with vast flocks of pigeons and crows: of the pigeons, which were exceedingly beautiful, he shot several; but the crows, which were exactly like those in England, were so shy that he could not get within reach of them. --page 953

*On the 20th, we landed the powder, and got out the stone ballast and wood, which brought the ship's draught of water to eight feet ten inches forward, and thirteen feet abaft; and this I thought, with the difference that would be made by trimming the coals aft, would be sufficient; for I found that the water rose and fell perpendicularly eight feet at the spring-tides: but as soon as the coals were trimmed from over the leak, we could hear the water rush in a little abaft the foremast, about three feet from the keel: this determined me to clear the hold intirely. This evening, Mr. Banks observed that in many parts of the inlet there were large quantities of pumice stones, which lay at a considerable distance above high-water mark; whither they might have been carried either by the freshes or extraordinary high tides, for there could be no doubt but that they came from the sea. --page 954

The next morning we went early to work,* and by four o'clock in the afternoon had got out all the coals, cast the moorings loose, and warped the ship a little higher up the harbour to a place which I thought most convenient for laying her ashore in order to stop the leak. Her draught of water forward was now seven feet nine inches, and abaft thirteen feet six inches. At eight o'clock, it being high-water, I hauled her bow close ashore; but kept her stern afloat, because I was afraid of neiping her; it was however necessary to lay the whole of her as near the ground as possible. --page 955

At two o'clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her,* and gave us an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her floor heads, a little before the starboard fore-chains. In this place the rocks had made their way through four planks, and even into the timbers; three more planks were much damaged, and the appearance of these breaches was very extraordinary: there was not a splinter to be seen, but all was as smooth, as if the whole had been cut away by an instrument: the timbers in this place were happily very close, and if they had not, it would have been absolutely impossible to have saved the ship. But after all, her preservation depended upon a circumstance still more remarkable: in one of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us, if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it; so that the water which at first bad gained upon our pumps, was what came in at the interstices, between the stone and the edges of the hole that received it. We found also several pieces of the fothering, which had made their way between the timbers,* and in a great measure stopped those parts of the leak which the stone had left open. Upon further examination, we found that, besides the leak, considerable damage had been done to the bottom; great part of the sheathing was gone from under the larboard bow; a considerable part of the false keel was also wanting, and these indeed we had seen swim away in fragments from the vessel, while she lay beating against the rock: the remainder of it was in so shattered a condition that it had better have been gone, and the fore foot and main keel were also damaged, but not so as to produce any immediate danger: what damage she might have received abaft could not yet be exactly known, but we had reason to think it was not much, as but little water made its way into her bottom, while the tide kept below the leak which has already been described. By nine o'clock in the morning the carpenters got to work upon her, while the smiths were busy in making bolts and nails. In the mean time, some of the people were sent on the other side of the water to shoot pigeons for the sick, who at their return reported that they had seen an animal as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, a mouse colour, and extremely swift; they discovered also many Indian houses, and a fine stream of fresh water. --page 956

*The next morning, I sent a boat to haul the seine; but at noon it returned with only three fish, and yet we saw them in plenty leaping about the harbour. This day the carpenter finished the repairs that were necessary on the starboard side; and at nine o'clock in the evening, we heeled the ship the other way, and hauled her off about two feet for fear of neiping. This day almost every body had seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the day before; and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, told us at his return, that he verily believed --page 957

[illustration] he had seen the devil:* we naturally enquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was in so singular a stile that I shall set down his own words; He was, says John, as large as a one gallon keg, and very like it; he had horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass, that if I had not been afeard I might have touched him. This formidable apparition we afterwards discovered to have been a batt; and the batts here must be acknowledged to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, and full as large as a partridge; they have indeed no horns, but the fancy of a man who thought he saw the devil might easily supply that defect. Early on the 24th,* the carpenters began to repair the sheathing under the larboard bow, where we found two planks cut about half through; and in the mean time I sent a party of men, under the direction of Mr. Gore, in search of refreshments for the sick: this party returned about noon with a few palm cabbages, and a bunch or two of wild plantains; the plantains were the smallest I had ever seen, and the pulp, though it was well tasted, was full of small stones. As I was walking this morning at a little distance from the ship, I saw myself one of the animals which had been so often described▪ it was of a light mouse colour, and in size and shape very much resembling a greyhound; it had a long tail also, which it carried like a greyhound; and I should have taken it for a wild dog, if instead of running, it had not leapt like a hare or deer: its legs were said to be very slender, and the print of its foot to be like that of a goat; but where I saw it the grass was so high that the legs were concealed, and the ground was too hard to receive the track. Mr. Banks also had an imperfect view of this animal, and was of opinion that its species was hitherto unknown. --page 958

*After the ship was hauled ashore, all the water that came into her of course went backwards; so that although she was dry forward, she had nine feet water abaft: as in this part therefore her bottom could not be examined on the inside, I took the advantage of the tide being out this evening to get the master and two of the men to go under her, and examine her whole larboard side without. They found the sheathing gone about the floor heads abreast of the mainmast, and part of a plank a little damaged; but all agreed that she had received no other material injury. The loss of her sheathing alone was a great misfortune, as the worm would now be let into her bottom, which might expose us to great inconvenience and danger; but as I knew no remedy for the mischief but heaving her down, which would be a work of immense labour and long time, if practicable at ail in our present situation, I was obliged to be content. The carpenters however continued to work under her bottom in the evening till they were prevented by the tide; the morning tide did not ebb out far enough to permit them to work at all, for we had only one tolerable high and low tide in four and twenty hours, as indeed we had experienced when we lay upon the rock. The position of the ship, which threw the water in her abaft, was very near depriving the world of all the knowlege which Mr. Banks had endured so much labour, and so many risks, to procure; for he had removed the curious collection of plants which he made during the whole voyage, into the bread room, which lies in the after part of the ship, as a place of the greatest security; and nobody having thought of the danger to which laying her head so much higher than the stern would expose them, they were this day found under water. Most of them however were, by indefatigable care and attention, restored to a state of preservation,* but some were entirely spoilt and destroyed. --page 959

The 25th was employed in filling water and over-hauling the rigging,* and at low water the carpenters finished the repairs under the larboard bow, and every other place which the tide would permit them to come at; some casks were then lashed under her bows to facilitate her floating, and at night, when it was high water, we endeavoured to heave her off, but without success, for some of the casks that were lashed to her gave way. --page 960

The morning of the 26th was employed in getting more casks ready for the same purpose,* and in the afternoon we lashed no less than eight and thirty under the ship's bottom, but to our great mortification these also proved ineffectual, and we found ourselves reduced to the necessity of waiting till the next spring-tide. --page 961

This day, some of our gentlemen who had made an excursion into the woods, brought home the leaves of a plant, which was thought to be the same that in the West Indies is called coccos, but upon trial, the roots proved too acrid to be eaten; the leaves however were little inferior to spinnage. In the place where these plants were gathered, grew plenty of the cabbage traces which have occasionally been mentioned before, a kind of wild plantain, the fruit of which was so full of stones as scarcely to be eatable; another fruit was also found about the size of a small golden pippin, but flatter, and of a deep purple colour: when first gathered from the tree it was very hard and disagreeable, but after being kept a few days became soft, and tasted very much like an indifferent damascene. --page 962

The next morning we began to move some of the weight from the after-part of the ship forward, to ease her;* in the mean time the armourer continued to work at the forge, the carpenter was busy in caulking the ship,* and the men employed in filling water and over-hauling the rigging: in the forenoon, I went myself in the pinnace up the harbour, and made several hauls with the seine, but caught only between twenty and thirty fish, which were given to the sick and convalescent. --page 963

*On the 28th, Mr. Banks went with some of the seamen up the country, to shew them the plant which in the West Indies is called Indian kalc, and which served us for greens. Tupia had much meliorated the root of the coccos, by giving them a long dressing in his country oven, but they were so small that we did not think them an object for the ship. In their walk they found one tree which had been notched for the convenience of climbing it, in the same manner with those we had seen in Botany Bay: they saw also many nests of white ants, which resemble those of the East Indies, the most pernicious insects in the world. The nests were of a pyramidical figure, from a few inches to six feet high, and very much resembled the stones in England, which are said to be monuments of the Druids. Mr. Gore, who was also this day four or five miles up the country, reported that he had seen the footsteps of men, and tracked animals of three or four different sorts, but had not been fortunate enough to see either man or beast. --page 964

*At two o'clock in the morning of the 29th, I observed, in conjunction with Mr. Green, an emersion of Jupiter's first satellite; the time here was 2• 18′ 53″, which gave the longitude of this place 214° 42′ 30″ W.: its latitude is 15° 26′ S. At break of day, I sent the boat out again with the seine, and in the afternoon, it returned with as much fish as enabled me to give every man a pound and an half. One of my midshipmen, an American, who was this day abroad with his gun, reported that he had seen a wolf, exactly like those which he had been used to see in his own country,* and that he had shot at it, but did not kill it. --page 965

The next morning,* encouraged by the success of the day before, I sent the boat again to haul the seine, and another party to gather greens: I sent also some of the young gentlemen to take a plan of the harbour, and went myself upon a hill, which lies over the south point, to take a view of the sea. At this time it was low water, and I saw, with great concern, innumerable sand banks and shoals lying all along the coast in every direction. The innermost lay about three or four miles from the shore, the outermost extended as far as I could see with my glass, and many of them did but just rise above water. There was some appearance of a passage to the northward, and I had no hope of getting clear but in that direction, for as the wind blows constantly from the S.E. it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to return back to the southward. --page 966

Mr. Gore reported, that he had this day seen two animals like dogs, of a straw colour, that they ran like a hare, and were about the same size. In the afternoon, the people returned from hauling the seine, with still better success than before, for I was now able to distribute two pounds and an half to each man: the greens that had been gathered I ordered to be boiled among the peas, and they made an excellent mess, which, with two copious supplies of fish, afforded us unspeakable refreshment. --page 967

The next day, July the 1st, being Sunday,* every body had liberty to go ashore, except one from each mess, who were again sent out with the seine. The seine was again equally successful, and the people who went up the country gave an account of having seen several animals, though none of them were to be caught. They saw a fire also about a mile up the river,* and Mr. Gore, the Second Lieutenant, picked up the husk of a cocoa nut, which had been cast upon the beach, and was full of barnacles: this probably might come from some island to windward, perhaps from the Terra del Espirito Santo of Quiros, as we were now in the latitude where it is said to lie. This day the thermometer in the shade rose to 87, which was higher than it had been on any day since we came upon this coast. --page 968

*Early the next morning, I sent the Master in the pinnace, out of the harbour, to sound about the shoals in the offing, and look for a channel to the northward: at this time we had a breeze from the land, which continued till about nine o'clock, and was the first we had had since our coming into the river. At low water we lashed some empty casks under the ship's bows, having some hope that as the tides were rising she would float the next high water. We still continued to fish with great success, and at high water we again attempted to heave the ship off, but our utmost efforts were still ineffectual. --page 969

*The next day at noon, the Master returned, and reported, that he had found a passage out to sea between the shoals, and described its situation. The shoals, he said, consisted of coral rocks, many of which were dry at low water, and upon one of which he had been ashore. He found here some cockles of so enormous a size that one of them was more than two men could eat, and a great variety of other shell-fish, of which he brought us a plentiful supply: in the evening, he had also landed in a bay about three leagues to the northward of our station, where he disturbed some of the natives who were at supper: they all fled with the greatest precipitation at his approach, leaving some fresh sea eggs, and a fire ready kindled behind them, but there was neither house nor hovel near the place. We observed,* that although the shoals that lie just within sight of the coast, abound with shell-fish, which may be easily caught at low water; yet we saw no such shells about the fire places on shore. This day an allegator was seen to swim about the ship for some time, and at high water we made another effort to float her, which happily succeeded: we found however that by lying so long with her head a-ground, and her stern a-float, she had sprung a plank between decks, a-breast of the main chains, so that it was become necessary to lay her ashore again. --page 970

The next morning was employed in trimming her upon an even keel, and in the afternoon, having warped her over,* and waited for high water, we laid her ashore on the sand bank on the south side of the river, for the damage she had received already from the great descent of the ground, made me afraid to lay her broad-side to the shore in the same place from which we had just floated her. I was now very desirous to make another trial to come at her bottom, where the sheathing had been rubbed off, but though she had scarcely four feet water under her, when the tide was out, yet that part was not dry. --page 971

On the 5th, I got one of the carpenter's crew,* a man in whom I could confide, to go down again to the ship's bottom, and examine the place. He reported, that three streaks of the sheathing, about eight feet long, were wanting, and that the main plank had been a little rubbed; this account perfectly agreed with the report of the Master, and others, who had been under her bottom before: I had the comfort however to find the carpenter of opinion that this would be of little consequence, and therefore the other damage being repaired, she was again floated at high water, and moored along-side the beach, where the stores had been deposited;* we then went to work to take the stores on board, and put her in a condition for the sea. This day, Mr. Banks crossed to the other side of the harbour, where, as he walked along a sandy beach, he found innumerable fruits, and many of them such as no plants which he had discovered in this country produced: among others were some cocoa nuts, which Tupia said had been opened by a kind of crab, which from his description we judged to be the same that the Dutch call Beurs Krabbe, and which we had not seen in these seas. All the vegetable substances which he found in this place, were encrusted with marine productions, and covered with barnacles; a sure sign that they must have come far by sea, and, as the trade-wind blows right upon the shore, probably from Terra del Espirito Santo, which has been mentioned already. --page 972

*The next morning, Mr. Banks, with Lieutenant Gore, and three men, set out in a small boat up the river, with a view to spend two or three days in an excursion, to examine the country, and kill some of the animals which had been so often seen at a distance. --page 973

*On the 7th, I sent the Master again out to sound about the shoals, the account which he had brought me of a channel being by no means satisfactory; and we spent the remainder of this day, and the morning of the next, in fishing, and other necessary occupations. --page 974

*About four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Banks and his party returned, and gave us an account of their expedition. Having proceeded about three leagues among swamps and mangroves, they went up into the country, which they found to differ but little from what they had seen before: they pursued their course therefore up the river, which at length was contracted into a narrow channel, and was bounded, not by swamps and mangroves, but by steep banks,* that were covered with trees of a most beautiful verdure, among which was that which in the West Indies is called Mohoe, or the bark tree, the hibiscus tiliaceus; the land within was in general low, and had a thick covering of long grass: the soil seemed to be such as promised great fertility, to any who should plant and improve it. In the course of the day, Tupia saw an animal, which, by his description, Mr. Banks judged to be a wolf: they also saw three other animals, but could neither catch nor kill one of them, and a kind of bat, as large as a partridge, but this also eluded all their diligence and skill. At night, they took up their lodging close to the banks of the river, and made a fire, but the musquitos swarmed about them in such numbers, that their quarters were almost untenable; they followed them into the smoke, and almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, they could better endure than the stings of these insects, which were an intolerable torment. The fire, the flies, and the want of a better bed than the ground, rendered the night extremely uncomfortable, so that they passed it not in sleep, but in restless wishes for the return of day. With the first dawn they set out in search of game, and in a walk of many miles, they saw four animals of the same kind, two of which Mr. Banks's greyhound fairly chaced, but they threw him out at a great distance, by leaping over the long thick grass, which prevented his running: this animal was observed not to run upon four legs, but to bound or hop forward upon two, like the Jerbua, or Mus Jaculus. About noon, they returned to the boat, and again proceeded up the river, which was soon contracted into a fresh water brook, where, however, the tide rose to a considerable height: as evening approached, it became low water, and it was then so shallow that they were obliged to get out of the boat and drag her along, till they could find a place in which they might,* with some hope of rest, pass the night. Such a place at length offered, and while they were getting the things out of the boat, they observed a smoke at the distance of about a furlong: as they did not doubt but that some of the natives, with whom they had so long and earnestly desired to become personally acquainted, were about the fire, three of the party went immediately towards it, hoping that so small a number would not put them to flight: when they came up to the place, however, they found it deserted, and therefore they conjectured that before they had discovered the Indians, the Indians had discovered them. They found the fire still burning, in the hollow of an old tree that was become touch-wood, and several branches of trees newly broken down, with which children appeared to have been playing: they observed also many foot-steps upon the sand, below high water mark, which were certain indications that the Indians had been recently upon the spot. Several houses were found at a little distance, and some ovens dug in the ground, in the same manner as those of Otaheite, in which victuals appeared to have been dressed since the morning, and, scattered about them, lay some shells of a kind of clamm, and some fragments of roots, the refuse of the meal. After regretting their disappointment, they repaired to their quarters, which was a broad sand bank, under the shelter of a bush. Their beds were plantain leaves, which they spread upon the sand, and which were as soft as a mattress; their cloaks served them for bed-clothes, and some bunches of grass for pillows: with these accommodations they hoped to pass a better night than the last, especially as, to their great comfort, not a musquito was to be seen. Here then they lay down, and, such is the force of habit, they resigned themselves to sleep, without once reflecting upon the probability and danger of being found by the Indians in that situation. If this appears strange,* let us for a moment reflect, that every danger, and every calamity, after a time becomes familiar, and loses its effect upon the mind. If it were possible that a man should first be made acquainted with his mortality, or even with the inevitable debility and infirmities of old age, when his understanding had arrived at its full strength, and life was endeared by the enjoyments of youth, and vigour, and health, with what an agony of terror and distress would the intelligence be received! yet, being gradually acquainted with these mournful truths, by insensible degrees, we scarce know when, they lose all their force, and we think no more of the approach of old age and death, than these wanderers of an unknown desart did of a less obvious and certain evil, the approach of the native savages, at a time when they must have fallen an easy prey to their malice or their fears. And it is remarkable, that the greater part of those who have been condemned to suffer a violent death, have slept the night immediately preceding their execution, though there is perhaps no instance of a person accused of a capital crime having slept the first night of his confinement. Thus is the evil of life in some degree a remedy for itself, and though every man at twenty deprecates fourscore, almost every man is as tenacious of life at fourscore as at twenty; and if he does not suffer under any painful disorder, loses as little of the comforts that remain by reflecting that he is upon the brink of the grave, where the earth already crumbles under his feet, as he did of the pleasures of his better days, when his dissolution, though certain, was supposed to be at a distance. --page 975

Our travellers having slept, without once awaking, till the morning, examined the river, and finding the tide savoured their return, and the country promised nothing worthy of a farther search,* they reimbarked in their boat, and made the best of their way to the ship. --page 976

Soon after the arrival of this party, the Master also returned, having been seven leagues out to sea, and he was now of opinion, that there was no getting out where before he thought there had been a passage; his expedition however was by no means without its advantage, for having been a second time upon the rock where he had seen the large cockles, he met with a great number of turtle, three of which he caught, that together weighed seven hundred and ninety-one pounds, though he had no better instrument than a boat hook. --page 977

*The next morning therefore, I sent him out again, with proper instruments for taking them, and Mr. Banks went with him, but the success did not at all answer our expectations, for, by the unaccountable conduct of the officer, not a single turtle was taken, nor could he be persuaded to return: Mr. Banks, however, went ashore upon the reef, where he saw several of the large cockles, and having collected many shells, and marine productions, he returned at eleven o'clock at night, in his own small boat, the Master still continuing with the large one upon the rock. In the afternoon, seven or eight of the natives had appeared on the south side of the river, and two of them came down to the sandy point, opposite to the ship; but upon seeing me put off in a boat to speak with them, they all ran away with the greatest precipitation. --page 978

As the Master continued absent with the boat all night, I was forced to send the Second Lieutenant for him, early the next morning in the yawl;* and soon after four of the natives appeared upon the sandy point, on the north side of the river, having with them a small wooden canoe, with outriggers: they seemed for some time to be busily employed in striking fish:* some of our people were for going over to them in a boat, but this I would by no means permit, repeated experience having convinced me that it was more likely to prevent, than procure an interview. I was determined to try what could be done by a contrary method, and accordingly let them alone, without appearing to take the least notice of them: this succeeded so well, that at length two of them came in the canoe within a musket shot of the ship, and there talked a great deal in a very loud tone: we understood nothing that they said, and therefore could answer their harangue only by shouting, and making all the signs of invitation and kindness that we could devise. During this conference, they came, insensibly, nearer and nearer, holding up their lances, not in a threatening manner, but as if to intimate that if we offered them any injury, they had weapons to revenge it. When they were almost along-side of us, we threw them some cloth, nails, beads, paper, and other trifles, which they received without the least appearance of satisfaction: at last, one of the people happened to throw them a small fish; at this they expressed the greatest joy imaginable, and intimating, by signs, that they would fetch their companions, immediately paddled away towards the shore. In the mean time some of our people, and among them Tupia, landed on the opposite side of the river: the canoe, with all the four Indians, very soon returned to the ship, and came quite along-side, without expressing any fear or distrust. We distributed some more presents among them, and soon after they left us, and landed on the same side of the river where our people had gone ashore: every man carried in his hand two lances, and a stick, which is used in throwing them, and advanced to the place where Tupia and the rest of our people were sitting;* Tupia soon prevailed upon them to lay down their arms, and come forward without them: he then made signs that they should sit down by him, with which they complied, and seemed to be under no apprehension or constraint: several more of us then going ashore, they expressed some jealousy lest we should get between them and their arms; we took care however to shew them that we had no such intention, and having joined them, we made them some more presents, as a farther testimony of our good-will, and our desire to obtain theirs. We continued together, with the utmost cordiality, till dinner time, and then giving them to understand that we were going to eat, we invited them, by signs, to go with us: this however they declined, and as soon as we left them, they went away in their canoe. One of these men was somewhat above the middle age, the other three were young; they were in general of the common stature, but their limbs were remarkably small; their skin was of the colour of wood soot, or what would be called a dark chocolate colour; their hair was black, but not woolly; it was short cropped, in some lank, and in others curled. Dampier says, that the people whom he saw on the western coast of this country, wanted two of their fore-teeth, but these had no such defect: some part of their bodies had been painted red, and the upper lip and breast of one of them was painted with streaks of white, which he called Carbanda; their features were far from disagreeable, their eyes were lively, and their teeth even and white, their voices were soft and tuneable, and they repeated many words after us with great facility. In the night, Mr. Gore and the Master returned with the long-boat, and brought one turtle and a few shell-fish. The yawl had been left upon the shoal with six men, to make a farther trial for turtle. --page 979

The next morning,* we had another visit from four of the natives; three of them had been with us before, but the fourth was a stranger, whose name, as we learnt from his companions who introduced him, was YAPARICO. This gentleman was distinguished by an ornament of a very striking appearance: it was the bone of a bird, nearly as thick as a man's finger, and five or six inches long, which he had thrust into a hole, made in the gristle that divides the nostrils; of this we had seen one instance, and only one, in New Zealand; but upon examination, we found that among all these people this part of the nose was perforated, to receive an ornament of the same kind: they had also holes in their ears, though nothing was then hanging to them, and had bracelets upon the upper part of their arms, made of plaited hair, so that, like the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego, they seem to be fond of ornament, though they are absolutely without apparel; and one of them, to whom I had given part of an old shirt, instead of throwing it over any part of his body, tied it as a fillet round his head. They brought with them a fish, which they gave us, as we supposed, in return for the fish that we had given them the day before. They seemed to be much pleased, and in no haste to leave us, but seeing some of our gentlemen examine their canoe with great curiosity and attention, they were alarmed, and jumping immediately into it, paddled away without speaking a word. --page 980

About two the next morning, the yawl,* which had been left upon the shoal, returned, with three turtles and a large skeat. As it seemed now probable that this fishery might be prosecuted with advantage, I sent her out again, after breakfast, for a further supply. Soon after, three Indians ventured down to Tupia's tent, and were so well pleased with their reception, that one of them went with the canoe to fetch two others whom we had never seen:* when he returned, he introduced the strangers by name, a ceremony which, upon such occasions, was never omitted. As they had received the fish that was thrown into their canoe, when they first approached the ship, with so much pleasure, some fish was offered to them now, and we were greatly surprized to see that it was received with the greatest indifference: they made signs, however, to some of the people, that they should dress it for them, which was immediately done, but after eating a little of it, they threw the rest to Mr. Banks's dog. They staid with us all the forenoon, but would never venture above twenty yards from their canoe. We now perceived that the colour of their skin was not so dark as it appeared, what we had taken for their complexion, being the effects of dirt and smoke, in which, we imagined, they contrived to sleep, notwithstanding the heat of the climate, as the only means in their power to keep off the musquitos. Among other things that we had given them when we first saw them, were some medals, which we had hung round their necks by a riband; and these ribands were so changed by smoke, that we could not easily distinguish of what colour they had been: this incident led us more narrowly to examine the colour of their skin. While these people were with us, we saw two others on the point of land that lay on the opposite side of the river, at the distance of about two hundred yards, and by our glasses discovered them to be a woman and a boy; the woman, like the rest, being stark naked. We observed, that all of them were remarkably clean-limbed, and exceedingly active and nimble. One of these strangers had a necklace of shells, very prettily made, and a bracelet upon his arm, formed of several strings, so as to resemble what in England is called gymp: both of them had a piece of bark tied over the forehead, and were disfigured by the bone in the nose.* We thought their language more harsh than that of the Islanders in the South Sea, and they were continually repeating the word chercau, which we imagined to be a term expressing admiration, by the manner in which it was uttered: they also cried out, when they saw any thing new, cher, tut, tut, tut, tut! which probably had a similar signification. Their canoe was not above ten feet long, and very narrow, but it was fitted with an outrigger, much like those of the islands, though in every respect very much inferior: when it was in shallow water, they set it on with poles, and when in deep, they worked it with paddles about four feet long: it contained just four people, so that the people who visited us to-day went away at two turns. Their lances were like those that we had seen in Botany Bay, except that they had but a single point, which in some of them was the sting of the ray, and barbed with two or three sharp bones of the same fish: it was indeed a most terrible weapon, and the instrument which they used in throwing it, seemed to be formed with more art than any we had seen before. About twelve o'clock next day,* the yawl returned, with another turtle, and a large sting-ray, and in the evening, was sent out again. --page 981

The next morning, two of the Indians came on board,* but after a short stay, went along the shore, and applied themselves with great diligence to the striking of fish. Mr. Gore, who went out this day with his gun, had the good fortune to kill one of the animals which had been so much the subject of our speculation: an idea of it will best be conceived by the cut, plate XX, without which, the most accurate verbal description would answer very little purpose, as it has not similitude enough to any animal already known, to admit of illustration by reference. In form, it is most like the gerbua,* which it also resembles in its motion, as has been observed already, but it greatly differs in size, the gerbua not being larger than a common rat, and this animal, when full grown, being as big as a sheep: this individual was a young one, much under its full growth, weighing only thirty-eight pounds. The head, neck, and shoulders, are very small in proportion to the other parts of the body; the tail is nearly as long as the body, thick near the rump, and tapering towards the end: the fore-legs of this individual were only eight inches long, and the hind-legs two and twenty: its progress is by successive leaps or hops, of a great length, in an erect posture; the fore-legs are kept bent close to the breast, and seemed to be of use only for digging: the skin is covered with a short fur, of a dark mouse or grey colour, excepting the head and ears, which bear a slight resemblance to those of a hare. This animal is called by the natives Kanguroo. --page 982

*The next day, our Kanguroo was dressed for dinner, and proved most excellent meat; we might now indeed be said to fare sumptuously every day, for we had turtle in great plenty, and we all agreed that they were much better than any we had tasted in England, which we imputed to their being eaten fresh from the sea, before their natural fat had been wasted, or their juices changed by a diet and situation so different from what the sea affords them, as garbage and a tub. Most of those that we caught here, were of the kind called green turtle, and weighed from two to three hundred weight, and when these were killed, they were always found to be full of turtle grass, which our naturalists took to be a kind of conserva: two of them were loggerheads, the flesh of which was much less delicious, and in their stomachs nothing was to be found but shells. --page 983

In the morning of the 16th,* while the people were employed as usual in getting the ship ready for the sea, I climbed one of the hills on the north side of the river, from which I had an extensive view of the inland country, and found it agreeably diversified by hills, vallies, and large plains, which in many places were richly covered with wood. This evening, we observed an emersion of Jupiter's first satellite, which gave 214° 53′ 45″ of longitude. The observation which was made on the 29th of June gave 214° 42′ 30″; the mean is 214° 48′ 7½″, the longitude of this place west of Greenwich. --page 984

On the 17th,* I sent the Master and one of the Mates in the pinnace to look for a channel to the northward; and I went myself with Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander into the woods on the other side of the water. Tupia, who had been thither by himself, reported, that he had seen three Indians who had given him some roots about as thick as a man's finger, in shape not much unlike a rhadish, and of a very agreeable taste. This induced us to go over, hoping that we should be able to improve our acquaintance with the natives: in a very little time we discovered four of them in a canoe, who as soon as they saw us came ashore, and, though they were all strangers, walked up to us, without any signs of suspicion or fear. Two of these had necklaces of shells, which we could not persuade them to part with for any thing we could give them: we presented them however with some beads, and after a short stay they departed. We attempted to follow them, hoping that they would conduct us to some place where we should find more of them, and have an opportunity of seeing their women; but they made us understand, by signs, that they did not desire our company. --page 985

*At eight o'clock the next morning, we were visited by several of the natives, who were now become quite familiar. One of them, at our desire, threw his lance, which was about eight feet long: it flew with a swiftness and steadiness that surprised us, and though it was never more than four feet from the ground, it entered deeply into a tree at fifty paces distance. After this they ventured on board, where I left them, to all appearance much entertained, and went again with Mr. Banks to take a view of the country; but chiefly to indulge an anxious curiosity, by looking round us upon the sea, of which our wishes almost persuaded us we had formed an idea more disadvantageous than the truth. After having walked about seven or eight miles along the shore to the northward, we ascended a very high hill, and were soon convinced that the danger of our situation was at least equal to our apprehensions; for in whatever direction we turned our eyes, we saw rocks and shoals without number, and no passage out to sea, but through the winding channels between them, which could not be navigated without the last degree of difficulty and danger. We returned therefore to the ship, not in better spirits than when we left it; we found several natives still on board, and we were told that the turtles, of which we had then no less than twelve upon the deck, had fixed their attention more than any thing else in the ship. --page 986

*On the 19th in the morning, we were visited by ten of the natives, the greater part from the other side of the river, where we saw six or seven more, most of them women, and like all the rest of the people we had seen in this country, they were stark naked. Our guests brought with them a greater number of lances than they had ever done before, and having laid them up in a tree, they set a man and a boy to watch them: the rest then came on board,* and we soon perceived that they had determined to get one of our turtle, which was probably as great a dainty to them as to us. They first asked us, by signs, to give them one; and being refused, they expressed, both by looks and gestures, great disappointment and anger. At this time we happened to have no victuals dressed, but I offered one of them some biscuit, which he snatched and threw overboard with great disdain. One of them renewed his request to Mr. Banks, and upon a refusal stamped with his foot, and pushed him from him in a transport of resentment and indignation: having applied by turns to almost every person who appeared to have any command in the ship, without success, they suddenly seized two of the turtles, and dragged them towards the side of the ship where their canoe lay: our people soon forced them out of their hands, and replaced them with the rest. They would not however relinquish their enterprise, but made several other attempts of the same kind, in all which being equally disappointed, they suddenly leaped into their canoe in a rage, and began to paddle towards the shore. At the same time, I went into the boat with Mr. Banks, and five or six of the ship's crew, and we got ashore before them, where many more of our people were already engaged in various employments; as soon as they landed, they seized their arms, and, before we were aware of their design, they snatched a brand from under a pitch kettle which was boiling, and making a circuit to the windward of the few things we had on shore, they set fire to the grass in their way, with surprising quickness and dexterity: the grass, which was five or six feet high, and as dry as stubble, burnt with amazing fury; and the fire made a rapid progress towards a tent of Mr. Banks's, which had been set up for Tupia when he was sick, taking in its course a sow and pigs, one of which it scorched to death.* Mr. Banks leaped into a boat, and fetched some people from on board, just time enough to save his tent, by hauling it down upon the beach; but the smith's forge, at least such part of it as would burn, was consumed. While this was doing, the Indians went to a place at some distance, where several of our people were washing, and where our nets, among which was the seine, and a great quantity of linen, were laid out to dry; here they again set fire to the grass, entirely disregarding both threats and entreaties. We were therefore obliged to discharge a musquet, loaded with small shot, at one of them, which drew blood at the distance of about forty yards, and this putting them to flight, we extinguished the fire at this place before it had made much progress; but where the grass had been first kindled, it spread into the woods to a great distance. As the Indians were still in sight, I fired a musquet, charged with ball, abreast of them among the mangroves, to convince them that they were not yet out of our reach: upon hearing the ball they quickened their pace, and we soon lost sight of them. We thought they would now give us no more trouble; but soon after we heard their voices in the woods, and perceived that they came nearer and nearer. I set out, therefore, with Mr. Banks and three or four more, to meet them: when our parties came in sight of each other, they halted; except one old man, who came forward to meet us: at length he stopped, and having uttered some words, which we were very sorry we could not understand, he went back to his companions, and the whole body slowly retreated. We found means however to seize some of their darts, and continued to follow them about a mile: we then sat down upon some rocks, from which we could observe their motions, and they also sat down at about an hundred yards distance. After a short time, the old man again advanced towards us,* carrying in his hand a lance without a point: he stopped several times, at different distances, and spoke; we answered by beckoning and making such signs of amity as we could devise; upon which the messenger of peace, as we supposed him to be, turned and spoke aloud to his companions, who then set up their lances against a tree, and advanced towards us in a friendly manner: when they came up, we returned the darts or lances that we had taken from them, and we perceived with great satisfaction that this rendered the reconciliation complete. We found in this party four persons whom we had never seen before, who as usual were introduced to us by name; but the man who had been wounded in the attempt to burn our nets and linen, was not among them; we knew however that he could not be dangerously hurt, by the distance at which the shot reached him. We made all of them presents of such trinkets as we had about us, and they walked back with us towards the ship: as we went along, they told us, by signs, that they would not set fire to the grass any more; and we distributed among them some musquet balls, and endeavoured to make them understand their use and effect. When they came abreast of the ship, they sat down, but could not be prevailed upon to come on board; we therefore left them, and in about two hours they went away, soon after which we perceived the woods on fire at about two miles distance. If this accident had happened a very little while sooner, the consequence might have been dreadful; for our powder had been aboard but a few days, and the store tent, with many valuable things which it contained, had not been removed many hours. We had no idea of the fury with which grass would burn in this hot climate, nor consequently of the difficulty of extinguishing it; but we determined, that if it should ever again be necessary for us to pitch our tents in such a situation,* our first measure should be to clear the ground round us. --page 987

In the afternoon we got every thing on board the ship, new birthed her, and let her swing with the tide; and at night the Master returned, with the discouraging account that there was no passage for the ship to the northward. --page 988

*The next morning, at low water, I went and sounded and buoyed the bar, the ship being now ready for the sea. We saw no Indians this day, but all the hills round us for many miles were on fire, which at night made a most striking and beautiful appearance. --page 989

*The 21st passed without our getting sight of any of the inhabitants, and indeed without a single incident worth notice.* On the 22d, we killed a turtle for the day's provision, upon opening which we found a wooden harpoon or turtle-peg, about as thick as a man's finger, near fifteen inches long, and bearded at the end, such as we had seen among the natives, sticking through both shoulders: it appeared to have been struck a considerable time, for the wound had perfectly healed up over the weapon. --page 990

*Early in the morning of the 23d, I sent some people into the country to gather a supply of the greens which have been before mentioned by the name of Indian Kale; and one of them having straggled from the rest, suddenly fell in with four Indians, three men and a boy, whom he did not see till, by turning short in the wood, he found himself among them. They had kindled a fire, and were broiling a bird of some kind, and part of a Kanguroo, the remainder of which, and a cockatoo, hung at a little distance upon a tree: the man, being unarmed, was at first greatly terrified; but he had the presence of mind not to run away, judging very rightly,* that he was most likely to incur danger by appearing to apprehend it; on the contrary, he went and sat down by them, and, with an air of chearfulness and good humour, offered them his knife, the only thing he had about him which he thought would be acceptable to them; they received it, and having handed it from one to the other, they gave it him again: he then made an offer to leave them; but this they seemed not disposed to permit: still however he dissembled his fears, and sat down again; they considered him with great attention and curiosity, particularly his clothes, and then felt his hands and face, and satisfied themselves that his body was of the same texture with their own. They treated him with the greatest civility, and having kept him about half an hour, they made signs that he might depart: he did not wait for a second dismission, but when he left them, not taking the direct way to the ship, they came from their fire and directed him; so that they well knew whence he came. --page 991

In the mean time, Mr. Banks, having made an excursion on the other side of the river to gather plants, found the greatest part of the cloth that had been given to the Indians lying in a heap together, probably as useless lumber, not worth carrying away; and perhaps, if he had sought further, he might have found the other trinkets; for they seemed to set very little value upon any thing we had, except our turtle, which was a commodity that we were least able to spare. --page 992

The blowing weather, which prevented our attempt to get out to sea, still continuing,* Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went again out on the 24th to see whether any new plant could be picked up: they traversed the woods all day without success; but as they were returning through a deep valley, the sides of which,* though almost as perpendicular as a wall, were covered with trees and bushes; they found lying upon the ground several marking nuts, the Anacardium orientale; these put them upon a new scent, and they made a most diligent search after the tree that bore them, which perhaps no European botanist ever saw; but to their great mortification they could not find it: so that, after spending much time, and cutting down four or five trees, they returned quite exhausted with fatigue to the ship. --page 993

*On the 25th, having made an excursion up the river, I found a canoe belonging to our friends the Indians, whom we had not seen since the affair of the turtle; they had left it tied to some mangroves, about a mile distant from the ship, and I could see by their fires that they were retired at least six miles directly inland. --page 994

*As Mr. Banks was again gleaning the country for his Natural History on the 26th, he had the good fortune to take an animal of the Opossum tribe: it was a female, and with it he took two young ones: it was found much to resemble the remarkable animal of the kind, which Mons. de Busson has described in his Natural History by the name of Phalanger, but it was not the same. Mons. Busson supposes this tribe to be peculiar to America, but in this he is certainly mistaken; and probably, as Pallas has observed in his Zoology, the Phalanger itself is a native of the East Indies, as the animal which was caught by Mr. Banks resembled it in the extraordinary conformation of the feet, in which it differs from animals of every other tribe. --page 995

*On the 27th, Mr. Gore shot a Kanguroo, which, with the skin, entrails, and head, weighed eighty-four pounds. Upon examination, however, we found that this animal was not at its full growth, the innermost grinders not being yet formed. We dressed it for dinner the next day;* but to our great disappointment, we found it had a much worse flavour than that we had eaten before. --page 996

The wind continued in the same quarter, and with the same violence, till five o'clock in the morning of the 29th,* when it fell calm; soon after a light breeze sprung up from the land, and it being about two hours ebb, I sent a boat to see what water was upon the bar; in the mean time we got the anchor up, and made all ready to put to sea. But when the boat came back, the officer reported that there was only thirteen feet water upon the bar, which was six inches less than the ship drew. We were therefore obliged to come to, and the sea breeze setting in again about eight o'clock, we gave up all hope of sailing that day. --page 997

We had fresh gales at S.E. with hazy weather and rain,* till two in the morning of the 31st, when the weather being something more moderate, I had thoughts of trying to warp the ship out of the harbour; but upon going out myself first in the boat, I found it still blow too fresh for the attempt. During all this time the pinnace and yawl continued to ply the net and hook with tolerable success; sometimes taking a turtle, and frequently bringing in from two to three hundred weight of fish. --page 998

On the 1st of August, the carpenter examined the pumps,* and, to our great mortification, found them all in a state of decay, owing, as he said, to the sap's having been left in the wood; one of them was so rotten as, when hoisted up, to drop to pieces, and the rest were little better; so that our chief trust was now in the soundness of our vessel, which happily did not admit more than one inch of water in an hour. --page 999

*At six o'clock in the morning of Friday the 3d, we made another unsuccessful attempt to warp the ship out of the harbour; but at five o'clock in the morning of the 4th, our efforts had a better effect, and about seven, we got once more under sail, with a light air from the land, which soon died away, and was followed by the sea-breezes from S. E. by S. with which we stood off to sea, E. by N. having the pinnace ahead, which was ordered to keep sounding continually. The yawl had been sent to the turtle bank, to take up the net which had been left there; but as the wind freshened, we got out before her. A little before noon we anchored in fifteen fathom water, with a sandy bottom; for I did not think it safe to run in among the shoals, till I had well viewed them, at low-water, from the mast-head, which might determine me which way to steer: for as yet I was in doubt whether I should beat back to the southward, round all the shoals, or seek a passage to the eastward or the northward, all which at present appeared to be equally difficult and dangerous. When we were at anchor the harbour from which we sailed bore S. 70 W. distant about five leagues; the northermost point of the main in sight, which I named CAPE BEDFORD, and which lies in latitude 15° 16′ S., longitude 214° 45′ W. bore N. 20 W. distant three leagues and a half; but to the N. E. of this Cape we could see land which had the appearance of two high islands: the turtle banks bore east, distant one mile: our latitude by observation was 15° 32′ S. and our depth of water in standing off from the land was from three and an half to fifteen fathom. --page 1000

--page 1001

[illustration] CHART of Part of the COAST OF NEW SOUTH WALES, FROM CAPE TRIBULATION to ENDEAVOUR STRAITS. By LIEUT. J. COOK, 1770. --page 1002

EXPLANATION. Rocks, some of which are dry at Low-water and others always covered. Supposed direction of such part of the Coast and Shoals as were not seen. Places where the Ship anchored The Figures denote the depth of Water in Fathoms.--page 1003

TO the harbour which we had now left,* I gave the name of ENDEAVOUR RIVER. It is only a small bar harbour, or creek, which runs in a winding channel three or four leagues inland, and at the head of which there is a small brook of fresh water: there is not depth of water for shipping above a mile within the bar, and at this distance only on the north side, where the bank is so steep for near a quarter of a mile, that a ship may lie afloat at low water, so near the shore as to reach it with a stage, and the situation is extremely convenient for heaving down; but at low water, the depth upon the bar is not more than nine or ten feet, nor more than seventeen or eighteen at the height of the tide; the difference between high and low water, at spring tides, being about nine feet. At the new and full of the moon it is high water between nine and ten o'clock: it must also be remembered, that this part of the coast is so barricaded with shoals, as to make the harbour still more difficult of access; the safest approach is from the southward, keeping the main land close upon the board all the way. Its situation may always be found by the latitude, which has been very accurately laid down.* Over the south point is some high land, but the north point is formed by a low sandy beach, which extends about three miles to the northward, where the land begins again to be high. --page 1004

The chief refreshment that we procured here, was turtle, but as they were not to be had without going five leagues out to sea, and the weather was frequently tempestuous, we did not abound with this dainty: what we caught, as well as the fish, was always equally divided among us all by weight, the meanest person on board having the same share as myself; and I think every commander, in such a voyage as this, will find it his interest to follow the same rule. In several parts of the sandy beaches, and sand hills near the sea, we found purslain, and a kind of bean that grows upon a stalk, which creeps along the ground: the purslain we found very good when it was boiled, and the beans are not to be despised, for we found them of great service to our sick: the best greens, however, that could be procured here, were the tops of the coccos, which have been mentioned already, as known in the West Indies by the name of Indian kale: these were, in our opinion, not much inferior to spinnage, which in taste they somewhat resemble; the roots indeed are not good, but they might probably be meliorated by proper cultivation. They are found here chiefly in boggy ground. The few cabbage palms that we met with, were in general small, and yielded so little cabbage that they were not worth seeking. --page 1005

Besides the kanguroo, and the opossum that have been already mentioned, and a kind of polecat, there are wolves upon this part of the coast, if we were not deceived by the tracks upon the ground, and several species of serpents; some of the serpents are venomous, and some harmiless: there are no tame animals here except dogs,* and of these we saw but two or three, which frequently came about the tents, to pick up the scraps and bones that happened to lie scattered near them. There does not indeed seem to be many of any animal, except the kanguroo; we scarcely saw any other above once, but this we met with almost every time we went into the woods. Of land fowls we saw crows, kites, hawks, cockatoos of two sorts, one white and the other black, a very beautiful kind of loriquets, some parrots, pigeons of two or three sorts, and several small birds not known in Europe. The water fowls are herns, whistling ducks, which perch, and, I believe, roost upon trees, wild geese, curlieus, and a few others, but these do not abound. The face of the country, which has been occasionally mentioned before, is agreeably diversified by hill and valley, lawn and wood. The soil of the hills is hard, dry, and stony, yet it produces coarse grass besides wood: the soil of the plains and vallies is in some places sand, and in some clay; in some also it is rocky and stony, like the hills; in general, however, it is well clothed, and has at least the appearance of fertility. The whole country, both hill and valley, wood and plain, abounds with ant hills, some of which are six or eight feet high, and twice as much in circumference. The trees here are not of many sorts; the gum tree, which we found on the southern part of the coast, is the most common, but here it is not so large: on each side of the river, through its whole course, there are mangroves in great numbers, which in some places extend a mile within the coast. The country is in all parts well watered, there being several fine rivulets at a small distance from each other, but none in the place where we lay, at least not during the time we were there, which was the dry season; we were however well supplied with water by springs, which were not far off. --page 1006

*In the afternoon of the 4th, we had a gentle breeze at S.E. and clear weather, but as I did not intend to sail till the morning, I sent all the boats to the reef, to get what turtle and shell fish they could. At low water, I went up to the mast-head, and took a view of the shoals, which made a very threatening appearance: I could see several at a remote distance, and part of many of them was above water. The sea appeared most open to the north east of the turtle reef, and I came to a resolution to stretch out that way close upon a wind, because if we should find no passage, we could always return the way we went. In the evening, the boats brought in a turtle, a sting-ray, and as many large cockles as came to about a pound and a half a man, for in each of them there was not less than two pounds of meat: in the night also we caught several sharks, which, though not a dainty, were an acceptable increase of our fresh provision. --page 1007

*In the morning, I waited till half ebb before I weighed, because at that time the shoals begin to appear, but the wind then blew so hard that I was obliged to remain at anchor: in the afternoon, however, the gale becoming more moderate, we got under sail, and stood out upon a wind N. E. by E. leaving the turtle reef to windward, and having the pinnace sounding ahead: we had not kept this course long, before we discovered shoals before us, and upon both the bows; and at half an hour after four, having run about eight miles, the pinnace made the signal for shoal water, where we little expected it: upon this we tacked, and stood on and off, while the pinnace stretched farther to the eastward, and night approaching, I came to an anchor in twenty fathom water, with a muddy bottom. Endeavour River then bore S. 52 W. Cape Bedford W. by N. ½ N. distant five leagues, the northermost land in sight, which had the appearance of an island, N.; and a shoal, a small sandy part of which appeared above water,* bore N. E. distant between two and three miles: in standing off from turtle reef to this place, we had from fourteen to twenty fathom water, but when the pinnace was about a mile farther to the E. N. E. there was no more than four or five feet water, with rocky ground; and yet this did not appear to us in the ship. In the morning of the 6th, we had a strong gale,* so that instead of weighing, we were obliged to veer away more cable, and strike our top-gallant yards. At low water, myself, with several of the officers, kept a look-out at the mast-head, to see if any passage could be discovered between the shoals, but nothing was in view except breakers, extending from the S. round by the E. as far as N. W. and out to sea beyond the reach of our sight; these breakers, however, did not appear to be caused by one continued shoal, but by several, which lay detached from each other: on that which lay farthest to the eastward, the sea broke very high, which made me think it was the outermost, for upon many of these within, the breakers were inconsiderable, and from about half ebb to half flood, they were not to be seen at all, which makes sailing among them still more dangerous, especially as the shoals here consist principally of coral rocks, which are as steep as a wall; upon some of them however, and generally at the north end, there are patches of sand, which are covered only at high water, and which are to be discerned at some distance. Being now convinced that there was no passage to sea, but through the labyrinth formed by these shoals, I was altogether at a loss which way to steer, when the weather should permit us to get under sail. It was the Master's opinion, that we should beat back the way we came, but this would have been an endless labour, as the wind blew strongly from that quarter▪ almost without intermission; on the other hand, if no passage could be found to the northward,* we should be compelled to take that measure at last. These anxious deliberations engaged us till eleven o'clock at night, when the ship drove, and obliged us to veer away to a cable and one third, which brought her up; but in the morning,* the gale increasing, she drove again, and we therefore let go the small bower, and veered away to a whole cable upon it, and two cables on the other anchors, yet she still drove, though not so fast; we then got down top-gallant masts, and struck the yards and top-masts close down, and at last had the satisfaction to find that she rode. Cape Bedford now bore W. S. W. distant three leagues and an half, and in this situation we had shoals to the eastward, extending from the S. E. by S. to the N. N. W. the nearest of which was about two miles distant.* As the gale continued, with little remission, we rode till seven o'clock in the morning of the 10th, when, it being more moderate, we weighed, and stood in for the land, having at length determined to seek a passage along the shore to the northward, still keeping the boat ahead: during our run in we had from nineteen to twelve fathom: after standing in about an hour, we edged away for three small islands that lay N. N. E. ½ E. three leagues from Cape Bedford, which the Master had visited while we were in port. At nine o'clock, we were abreast of them, and between them and the main: between us and the main there was another low island, which lies N. N. W. four miles from the three islands; and in this channel we had fourteen fathom water. The northermost point of land in sight now bore N. N. W. ½ W. distant about two leagues. Four or five leagues to the north of this head land, we saw three islands, near which lay some that were still smaller, and we could see the shoals and reefs without us, extending to the northward, as far as these islands: between these reefs and the head land, we directed our course, leaving to the eastward a small island,* which lies N. by E. distant four miles from the three islands. At noon, we were got between the head land and the three islands: from the head land we were distant two leagues, and from the islands four; our latitude, by observation, was 14° 51′. We now thought we saw a clear opening before us, and hoped hat we were once more out of danger; in this hope, however, we soon found ourselves disappointed, and for that reason I called the head land CAPE FLATTERY. It lies in latitude 14° 56′ S. longitude 214′ 43′ W. and is a lofty promontory, making next the sea in two hills, which have a third behind them, with low sandy ground on each side: it may however be still better known by the three islands out at sea: the northermost and largest lies about five leagues from the Cape, in the direction of N. N. E. From Cape Flattery the land trends away N. W. and N. W. by W. We steered along the shore N. W. by W. till one o'clock, for what we thought the open channel, when the petty officer at the mast-head cried out that he saw land ahead, extending quite round to the islands that lay without us, and a large reef between us and them: upon this I ran up to the mast-head myself, from whence I very plainly saw the reef, which was now so far to windward, that we could not weather it, but the land ahead, which he had supposed to be the main, appeared to me to be only a cluster of small islands. As soon as I got down from the mast-head, the Master, and some others went up, who all insisted that the land ahead was not islands, but the main, and to make their report still more alarming, they said that they saw breakers all round us. In this dilemma, we hauled upon a wind in for the land, and made the signal for the boat that was sounding ahead to come on board, but as she was far to leeward, we were obliged to edge away to take her up, and soon after we came to an anchor, under a point of the main,* in somewhat less than five fathom, and at about the distance of a mile from the shore. Cape Flattery now bore S. E. distant three leagues and an half. As soon as the ship was at anchor, I went ashore upon the point, which is high, and afforded me a good view of the sea coast, trending away N. W. by W. eight or ten leagues, which, the weather not being very clear, was as far as I could see. Nine or ten small low islands, and some shoals, appeared off the coast; I saw also some large shoals between the main and the three high islands, without which, I was clearly of opinion there were more islands, and not any part of the main. Except the point I was now upon, which I called POINT LOOKOUT, and Cape Flattery, the main land, to the northward of Cape Bedford, is low, and chequered with white sand and green bushes, for ten or twelve miles inland, beyond which it rises to a considerable height. To the northward of Point Look-out, the coast appeared to be shoal and flat, for a considerable distance, which did not encourage the hope that the channel we had hitherto found in with the land would continue. Upon this point, which was narrow, and consisted of the finest white sand we had ever seen, we discovered the footsteps of people, and we saw also smoke and fire at a distance up the country. --page 1008

In the evening, I returned to the ship, and resolved the next morning to visit one of the high islands in the offing, from the top of which, as they lay five leagues out to sea, I hoped to discover more distinctly the situation of the shoals, and the channel between them. --page 1009

*In the morning therefore, of the 11th, I set out in the pinnace, accompanied by Mr. Banks, whose fortitude and curiosity made him a party in every expedition, for the northermost and largest of the three islands, and at the same time I sent the Master in the yawl to leeward,* to found between the low islands and the main. In my way, I passed over a reef of coral rock and sand, which lies about two leagues from the island, and I left another to leeward, which lies about three miles from it: on the north part of the reef, to the leeward, there is a low sandy island, with trees upon it; and upon the reef which we passed over, we saw several turtle: we chased one or two, but having little time to spare, and the wind blowing fresh, we did not take any. --page 1010

About one o'clock, we reached the island, and immediately ascended the highest hill, with a mixture of hope and fear, proportioned to the importance of our business, and the uncertainty of the event: when I looked round, I discovered a reef of rocks, lying between two and three leagues without the islands, and extending in a line N. W. and S. E. farther than I could see, upon which the sea broke in a dreadful surf; this however made me think that there were no shoals beyond them, and I conceived hopes of getting without these, as I perceived several breaks or openings in the reef, and deep water between that and the islands. I continued upon this hill till sunset, but the weather was so hazy during the whole time that I came down much disappointed. After reflecting upon what I had seen, and comparing the intelligence I had gained with what I expected, I determined to stay upon the island all night, hoping that the morning might be clearer, and afford me a more distinct and comprehensive view. We therefore took up our lodging under the shelter of a bush which grew upon the beach, and at three in the morning,* having sent the pinnace with one of the Mates whom I had brought out with me, to sound between the island and the reefs, and examine what appeared to be a channel through them, I climbed the hill a second time; but to my great disappointment found the weather much more hazy than it had been the day before.* About noon the pinnace returned, having been as far as the reef, and found between fifteen and twenty-eight fathom of water; but it blew so hard that the Mate did not dare to venture into one of the channels, which he said appeared to him to be very narrow: this however did not discourage me, for I judged from his description of the place he had been at, that he had seen it to disadvantage. While I was busy in my survey, Mr. Banks was attentive to his favourite pursuit, and picked up several plants which he had not before seen. We found the island, which is visible at twelve leagues distance, to be about eight leagues in circumference, and in general very rocky and barren. On the north west side, however, there are some sandy bays, and some low land, which is covered with long thin grass, and trees of the same kind with those upon the main: this part also abounded with lizards of a very large size, some of which we took. We found also fresh water in two places; one was a running stream, but that was a little brackish where I tasted it, which was close to the sea; the other was a standing pool, close behind the sandy beach, and this was perfectly sweet and good. Notwithstanding the distance of this island from the main, we saw, to our great surprize, that it was sometimes visited by the natives; for we found seven or eight frames of their huts, and vast heaps of shells, the fish of which we supposed had been their food. We observed that all these huts were built upon eminences, and entirely exposed to the S. E. contrary to those which we had seen upon the main; for they were all built either upon the side of a hill, or under some bushes which afforded them shelter from the wind. From these huts, and their situation, we concluded that at some seasons of the year the weather here is invariably calm and fine; for the inhabitants have no boat which can navigate the sea to so great a distance,* in such weather as we had from the time of our first coming upon the coast. As we saw no animals upon this place but lizards, I called it LIZARD ISLAND; the other two high islands, which lie at the distance of four or five miles from it, are comparatively small; and near them lie three others smaller still, and low, with several shoals or reefs, especially to the S. E.: there is however a clear passage from Cape Flattery to these islands, and even quite to the outward reefs, leaving Lizard Island to the north west, and the others to the south east. --page 1011

At two in the afternoon, there being no hope of clear weather, we set out from Lizard Island to return to the ship, and in our way landed upon the low sandy island with trees upon it, which we had remarked in our going out. Upon this island we saw an incredible number of birds, chiefly sea-fowl: we found also the nest of an eagle with young ones, which we killed; and the nest of some other bird, we knew not what, of a most enormous size; it was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than six and twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high. We found also that this place had been visited by the Indians, probably to eat turtle, many of which we saw upon the island, and a great number of their shells, piled one upon another in different places. --page 1012

To this spot we gave the name of EAGLE ISLAND, and after leaving it, we steered S. W. directly for the ship, founding all the way, and we had never less than eight fathom, nor more than fourteen; the same depth of water that I had found between this and Lizard Island. --page 1013

When I got on board, the Master informed me that he had been down to the low islands, between which and the main I had directed him to found; that he judged them to lie about three leagues from the main;* that without them he found from ten to fourteen fathom, and between them and the main seven: but that a flat which ran two leagues out from the main, made this channel narrow. Upon one of these low islands he slept, and was ashore upon others; and he reported, that he saw every where piles of turtle-shells, and fins hanging upon the trees in many places, with the flesh upon them, so recent, that the boat's crew eat of them: he saw also two spots, clear of grass, which appeared to have been lately dug up, and from the shape and size of them he conjectured they were graves. --page 1014

After considering what I had seen myself, and the report of the Master, I was of opinion that the passage to leeward would be dangerous, and that, by keeping in with the main, we should run the risk of being locked in by the great reef, and at last be compelled to return back in search of another passage, by which, or any other accident that should cause the same delay, we should infallibly lose our passage to the East Indies, and endanger the ruin of the voyage, as we had now but little more than three months provisions on board at short allowance. --page 1015

Having stated this opinion, and the facts and appearances upon which it was founded, to the officers, it was unanimously agreed, that the best thing we could do would be to quit the coast altogether, till we could approach it with less danger. --page 1016

*In tne morning therefore, at break of day, we got under sail, and stood out N. E. for the north west end of Lizard Island, leaving Eagle Island to windward, and some other islands and shoals to the leeward, and having the pinnace ahead to ascertain the depth of water in every part of our course. In this channel we had from nine to fourteen fathom. At noon,* the north west end of Lizard Island bore E. S. E. distant one mile; our latitude by observation was 14° 38′, and our depth of water fourteen fathom. We had a steady gale at S. E. and by two o'clock we just fetched to windward of one of the channels or openings in the outer reef, which I had seen from the island. We now tacked, and made a short trip to the S. W. while the Master in the pinnace examined the channel: he soon made the signal for the ship to follow, and in a short time she got safe out. As soon as we had got without the breakers, we had no ground with one hundred and fifty fathom, and found a large sea rolling in from the S. E. a certain sign that neither land nor shoals were near us in that direction. --page 1017

Our change of situation was now visible in every countenance, for it was most sensibly felt in every breast: we had been little less than three months entangled among shoals and rocks, that every moment threatened us with destruction; frequently passing our nights at anchor within hearing of the surge that broke over them; sometimes driving towards them even while our anchors were out, and knowing that if by any accident, to which an almost continual tempest exposed us, they should not hold, we must in a few minutes inevitably perish. But now, after having sailed no less than three hundred and sixty leagues, without once having a man out of the chains heaving the lead, even for a minute, which perhaps never happened to any other vessel, we found ourselves in an open sea, with deep water; and enjoyed a flow of spirits which was equally owing to our late dangers and our present security: yet the very waves, which by their swell convinced us that we had no rocks or shoals to fear, convinced us also that we could not safely put the same confidence in our vessel as before she had struck; for the blows she received from them so widened her leaks,* that she admitted no less than nine inches water in an hour, which, considering the state of our pumps, and the navigation that was still before us, would have been a subject of more serious consideration, to people whose danger had not so lately been so much more imminent. --page 1018

The passage or channel, through which we passed into the open sea beyond the reef, lies in latitude 14° 32′ S. and may always be known by the three high islands within it, which I have called the ISLANDS OF DIRECTION, because by these a stranger may find a safe passage through the reef quite to the main. The channel lies from Lizard Island N. E. ½ N. distant three leagues, and is about one third of a mile broad, and not more in length. Lizard Island which is, as I have before observed, the largest and the northermost of the three, affords safe anchorage under the north west side, fresh water, and wood for fuel. The low islands and shoals also which lie between it and the main abound with turtle and fish, which may probably be caught in all seasons of the year, except when the weather is very tempestuous; so that, all things considered, there is not perhaps a better place for ships to refresh at upon the whole coast than this island. And before I dismiss it, I must observe, that we found upon it, as well as upon the beach in and about Endeavour River, bamboos, cocoa nuts, pumice stone, and the seeds of plants which are not the produce of this country, and which it is reasonable to suppose are brought from the eastward by the trade winds. The islands which were discovered by Quiros, and called Australia del Espiritu Santa, lie in this parallel; but how far to the eastward cannot now be ascertained: in most charts they are placed in the same longitude with this country, which, as appears by the account of his voyage that has been published,* he never saw; for that places his discoveries no less than two and twenty degrees to the eastward of it. --page 1019

As soon as we were without the reef, we brought to, and having hoisted in the boats, we stood off and on upon a wind all night; for I was not willing to run to leeward till I had a whole day before me.* In the morning, at day-break, Lizard Island bore S. 15 E. distant ten leagues; and we then made sail and stood away N.N.W. ½ W. till nine o'clock, when we stood N.W. ½ N. having the advantage of a fresh gale at S.E. At noon, our latitude by observation was 13° 46′ S. and at this time we had no land in sight. At six in the evening we shortened sail and brought the ship to, with her head to the N.E.; and at six in the morning made sail and steered west,* in order to get within sight of the land, that I might be sure not to overshoot the passage, if a passage there was, between this land and New Guinea. At noon, our latitude by observation was 13° 2′ S., longitude 216° W.; which was 1° 23′ W. of Lizard Island: at this time we had no land in sight; but a little before one o'clock, we saw high land from the mast-head, bearing W.S.W. At two, we saw more land to the N. W. of that we had seen before: it appeared in hills, like islands; but we judged it to be a continuation of the main land. About three, we discovered breakers between the land and the ship, extending to the southward farther than we could see; but to the north we thought we saw them terminate abreast of us. What we took for the end of them in this direction, however, soon appeared to be only an opening in the reef; for we presently saw them again, extending northward beyond the reach of our sight. Upon this we hauled close upon a wind, which was now at E. S. E. and we had scarcely trimmed our sails before it came to E. by N. which was right upon the reef, and consequently made our clearing it doubtful.* At sunset the northermost part of it that was in sight bore from us N. by E. and was two or three leagues distant; this however being the best tack to clear it, we kept standing to the northward with all the sail we could set till midnight; when, being afraid of standing too far in this direction, we tacked and stood to the southward, our run from sunset to this time being six leagues N. and N. by E. When we had stood about two miles S. S. E. it fell calm; we had sounded several times during the night, but had no bottom with one hundred and forty fathom, neither had we any ground now with the same length of line; yet, about four in the morning,* we plainly heard the roaring of the surf, and at break of day saw it foaming to a vast height, at not more than a mile's distance. Our distress now returned upon us with double force; the waves which rolled in upon the reef, carried us towards it very fast; we could reach no ground with an anchor, and had not a breath of wind for the sail. In this dreadful situation, no resource was left us but the boats; and to aggravate our misfortune the pinnace was under repair: the longboat and yawl however were put into the water, and sent ahead to tow, which, by the help of our sweeps abaft, got the ship's head round to the northward; which, if it could not prevent our destruction, might at least delay it. But it was six o'clock before this was effected, and we were not then a hundred yards from the rock upon which the same billow which washed the side of the ship, broke to a tremendous height the very next time it rose; so that between us and destruction there was only a dreary valley, no wider than the base of one wave, and even now the sea under us was unfathomable, at least no bottom was to be found with a hundred and twenty fathom. During this scene of distress the carpenter had found means to patch up the pinnace; so that she was hoisted out, and sent ahead, in aid of the other boats, to tow;* but all our efforts would have been ineffectual, if, just at this crisis of our fate, a light air of wind had not sprung up, so light, that at any other time we should not have observed it, but which was enough to turn the scale in our favour, and, in conjunction with the assistance which was afforded us by the boats, to give the ship a perceptible motion obliquely from the reef. Our hopes now revived; but in less than ten minutes it was again a dead calm, and the ship was again driven towards the breakers, which were not now two hundred yards distant. The same light breeze however returned before we had lost all the ground it had enabled us to gain, and lasted about ten minutes more. During this time we discovered a small opening in the reef, at about the distance of a quarter of a mile: I immediately sent one of the Mates to examine it, who reported that its breadth was not more than the length of the ship, but that within it there was smooth water: this discovery seemed to render our escape possible, and that was all, by pushing the ship through the opening, which was immediately attempted. It was uncertain indeed whether we could reach it; but if we should succeed thus far, we made no doubt of being able to get through: in this however we were disappointed, for having reached it by the joint assistance of our boats and the breeze, we found that in the mean time it had become high water, and to our great surprize we met the tide of ebb rushing out of it like a mill-stream. We gained however some advantage, though in a manner directly contrary to our expectations; we found it impossible to go through the opening, but the stream that prevented us, carried us out about a quarter of a mile: it was too narrow for us to keep in it longer; yet this tide of ebb so much assisted the boats that by noon we had got an offing of near two miles.* We had, however, reason to despair of deliverance, even if the breeze, which had now died away, should revive, for we were still embayed in the reef; and the tide of ebb being spent, the tide of flood, notwithstanding our utmost efforts, again drove the ship into the bight. About this time, however, we saw another opening, near a mile to the westward, which I immediately sent the First Lieutenant, Mr. Hicks, in the small boat to examine: in the mean time we struggled hard with the flood, sometimes gaining a little, and sometimes losing; but every man still did his duty, with as much calmness and regularity as if no danger had been near. About two o'clock, Mr. Hicks returned with an account that the opening was narrow and dangerous, but that it might be passed: the possibility of passing it was sufficient encouragement to make the attempt, for all danger was less imminent than that of our present situation. A light breeze now sprung up at E. N. E. with which, by the help of our boats, and the very tide of flood that without an opening would have been our destruction, we entered it, and were hurried through with amazing rapidity, by a torrent that kept us from driving against either side of the channel, which was not more than a quarter of a mile in breadth. While we were shooting this gulph, our soundings were from thirty to seven fathom, very irregular, and the ground at bottom very foul. --page 1020

As soon as we had got within the reef we anchored in nineteen fathom, over a bottom of coral and shells. And now, such is the vicissitude of life, we thought ourselves happy in having regained a situation, which but two days before it was the utmost object of our hope to quit. Rocks and shoals are always dangerous to the mariner, even where their situation has been ascertained; they are more dangerous in seas which have never before been navigated, and in this part of the globe they are more dangerous than in any other; for here they are reefs of coral rock,* rising like a wall almost perpendicularly out of the unfathomable deep, always overflowed at high-water, and at low-water dry in many places; and here the enormous waves of the vast Southern Ocean, meeting with so abrupt a resistance, break, with inconceivable violence, in a surf which no rocks or storms in the northern hemisphere can produce. The danger of navigating unknown parts of this ocean was now greatly increased by our having a crazy ship, and being short of provisions and every other necessary; yet the distinction of a first discoverer made us chearfully encounter every danger, and submit to every inconvenience; and we chose rather to incur the censure of imprudence and temerity, which the idle and voluptuous so liberally bestow upon unsuccessful fortitude and perseverance, than leave a country which we had discovered unexplored, and give colour to a charge of timidity and irresolution. --page 1021

Having now congratulated ourselves upon getting within the reef, notwithstanding we had so lately congratulated ourselves upon getting without it, I resolved to keep the main land on board in my future route to the northward, whatever the consequence might be; for if we had now gone without the reef again, it might have carried us so far from the coast, as to prevent my being able to determine, whether this country did, or did not, join to New Guinea; a question which I was determined to resolve from my first coming within sight of land. However, as I had experienced the disadvantage of having a boat under repair, at a time when it was possible I might want to use her, I determined to remain fast at anchor, till the pinnace was perfectly refitted. As I had no employment for the other boats, I sent them out in the morning to the reef,* to see what refreshments could be procured,* and Mr. Banks, in his little boat, accompanied by Dr. Solander, went with them. In this situation I found the variation by amplitude and azimuth to be 4° 9′ E.; and at noon, our latitude by observation was 12° 38′ S. and our longitude 216° 45′ W. The main land extended from N. 66 W. to S. W. by S. and the nearest part of it was distant about nine leagues. The opening through which we had passed, I called PROVIDENTIAL CHANNEL; and this bore E. N. E. distant ten or twelve miles: on the main land within us was a lofty promontory which I called CAPE WEYMOUTH; on the north side of which is a bay, which I called WEYMOOTH BAY: they lie in latitude 12° 42′ S., longitude 127° 15′ W. At four o'clock in the afternoon the boats returned with two hundred and forty pound of the meat of shell-fish, chiefly of cockles, some of which were as much as two men could move, and contained twenty pounds of good meat. Mr. Banks also brought back many curious shells, and Mollusca; besides many species of coral, among which was that called the Tubipora musica. --page 1022

*At six o'clock in the morning, we got under sail and stood away to the N.W. having two boats ahead to direct us; our soundings were very irregular, varying five or six fathom every cast, between ten and twenty-seven. A little before noon, we passed a low sandy island, which we left on our starboard side, at the distance of two miles. At noon, our latitude was 12° 28′, and our distance from the main about four leagues: it extended from S. by W. to N. 71 W. and some small islands from N. 40 W. to 54 W. Between us and the main were several shoals, and some without us, besides the main or outermost reef, which we could see from the mast-head, stretching away to the N. E. At two in the afternoon, as we were steering N. W. by N. we saw a large shoal right ahead, extending three or four points upon each bow;* upon this we hauled up N. N. E. and N. E. by N. to get round the north point of it, which we reached by four, and then edged away to the westward, and ran between the north end of this shoal and another, which lies two miles to the northward of it, having a boat all the way ahead sounding; our depth of water was still very irregular, from twenty-two to eight fathom. At half an hour after six, we anchored in thirteen fathom: the northermost of the small islands seen at noon bore W. ½ S. distant three miles: these islands are distinguished in the chart by the name of FORBES's ISLANDS, and lie about five leagues from the main, which here forms a high point that we called BOLT HEAD, from which the land trends more westerly, and is in that direction all low and sandy; to the southward it is high and hilly even near the sea. --page 1023

At six in the morning we got again under sail,* and steered for an island which lay at a small distance from the main, and at this time bore from us N. 40 W. distant about five leagues: our course was soon interrupted by shoals; however, by the help of the boats, and a good look-out from the top of the mast, we got into a fair channel that led us down to the island, between a very large shoal on our starboard side and several small ones towards the main: in this channel we had from twenty to thirty fathom water. Between eleven and twelve o'clock we hauled round the north east side of the island, leaving it between us and the main, from which it is distant about seven or eight miles. This island is about a league in circuit, and we saw upon it five of the natives, two of whom had lances in their hands; they came down upon a point, and having looked a little while at the ship, retired. To the N. W. of it are several low islands and quays, which lie not far from the main; and to the northward and eastward are several other islands and shoals;* so that we were now encompassed on every side: but having lately been exposed to much greater danger, and rocks and shoals being grown familiar, we looked at them comparatively with little concern. The main land appeared to be low and barren, interspersed with large patches of the very fine white sand, which we had found upon Lizard Island and different parts of the main. The boats had seen many turtle upon the shoals which they passed, but it blew too hard for them to take any. At noon, our latitude by observation was 12°, and our longitude 217° 25′: our depth of water was fourteen fathom; and our course and distance, reduced to a strait line, was, between this time and the preceding noon N. 29 W. thirty two miles. --page 1024

The main land within the islands that have been just mentioned forms a point, which I called CAPE GRENVILLE: it lies in latitude 11° 58′, longitude 217° 38′; and between it and Bolt Head is a bay, which I called TEMPLE BAY. At the distance of nine leagues from Cape Grenville, in the direction of E. ½ N. lie some high islands, which I called SIR CHARLES HARDY's ISLES; and those which lie off the Cape I called COCKBURN's ISLES. Having lain by for the boats, which had got out of their station, till about one o'clock, we then took the yawl in tow; and the pinnace having got ahead, we filled, and stood N. by W. for some small islands which lay in that direction; such at least they were in appearance, but upon approaching them we perceived that they were joined together by a large reef: upon this we edged away N. W. and left them on our starboard hand; we steered between them and the islands that lay off the main, having a clear passage, and from fifteen to twenty-three fathom water. At four o'clock, we discovered some low islands and rocks, bearing W. N. W. and stood directly for them:* at half an hour after six, we anchored on the north east side of the northermost of them, at one mile distance, and in sixteen fathom. These islands lie N. W. four leagues from Cape Grenville, and from the number of birds that I saw upon them, I called them BIRD ISLES. A little before sun-set, we were in sight of the main land, which appeared all very low and sandy, extending as far to the northward as N. W. by N. some shoals, quays, and low sandy isles stretching away to the N. E. --page 1025

At six o'clock in the morning, we got again under sail,* with a fresh breeze at E. and stood away N. N. W. for some low islands in that direction, but were soon obliged to haul close upon a wind to weather a shoal which we discovered upon our larboard bow, having at the same time others to the eastward: by the time we had weathered this shoal to leeward, we had brought the islands well upon our lee bow, but seeing some shoals run off from them, and some rocks on our starboard bow, which we did not discover till we were very near them, I was afraid to go to windward of the islands, and therefore brought to, and having made the signal for the pinnace, which was ahead, to come on board, I sent her to leeward of the islands, with orders to keep along the edge of the shoal, which ran off from the south side of the southermost island, sending the yawl at the same time, to run over the shoal in search of turtle. As soon as the pinnace had got to a proper distance, we wore, and stood after her: as we ran to leeward of this island, we took the yawl in tow, she having seen only one small turtle, and therefore made but little stay upon the shoal. The island we found to be a small spot of sand, with some trees upon it, and we could discern many huts, or habitations of the natives, whom we supposed occasionally to visit these islands from the main,* they being only five leagues distant, to catch turtle, when they come ashore to lay their eggs. We continued to stand after the pinnace N. N. E. and N. by E. for two other low islands, having two shoals without us, and one between us and the main. At noon, we were about four leagues from the main, which we saw extending to the northward, as far as N. W. by N. all flat and sandy. Our latitude, by observation, was 11° 23′ S. and our longitude 217° 46′ W. our soundings were from fourteen to twenty-three fathom; but these, as well as the shoals and islands, which are too numerous to be particularly mentioned, will be best seen upon the chart. By one o'clock, we had run nearly the length of the southermost of the two islands in sight, and finding that the going to windward of them would carry us too far from the main, we bore up and ran to leeward, where finding a fair open passage, we steered N. by W. in a direction parallel to the main, leaving a small island which lay between it and the ship, and some low sandy isles and shoals without us, of all which we lost sight by four o'clock, and saw no more before the sun went down: at this time the farthest part of the land in sight bore N. N. W. ½ W. and soon after we anchored in thirteen fathom, upon soft ground, at the distance of about five leagues from the land, where we lay till day-light. --page 1026

*Early in the morning, we made sail again, and steered N. N. W. by compass, for the northermost land in sight; and at this time, we observed the variation of the needle to be 3° 6′ E. At eight o'clock, we discovered shoals ahead, and on our larboard bow, and saw that the northermost land, which we had taken for the main, was detached from it, and that we might pass between them, by running to leeward of the shoals on our larboard bow, which were now near us: we therefore wore and brought to, sending away the pinnace and yawl to direct us,* and then steered N. W. along the S. W. or inside of the shoals, keeping a good look-out from the mast-head, and having another shoal on our larboard side: we found however a good channel of a mile broad between them, in which we had from ten to fourteen fathom. At eleven o'clock, we were nearly the length of the land detached from the main, and there appeared to be no obstruction in the passage between them, yet having the long-boat astern, and rigged, we sent her away to keep in shore upon our larboard bow, and at the same time dispatched the pinnace a-starboard; precautions which I thought necessary, as we had a strong flood that carried us an end very fast, and it was near high water: as soon as the boats were ahead, we stood after them, and by noon, got through the passage. Our latitude, by observation, was then 10° 36′, and the nearest part of the main, which we soon after found to be the northermost, bore W. 2 S. distant between three or four miles: we found the land which was detached from the main, to be a single island, extending from N. to N. 75 E. distant between two and three miles; at the same time we saw other islands at a considerable distance, extending from N. by W. to W. N. W. and behind them another chain of high land, which we judged also to be islands: there were still other islands, extending as far as N. 71 W. which at this time we took for the main. --page 1027

The point of the main which forms the side of the channel through which we had passed, opposite to the island, is the northern promontory of the country, and I called it YORK CAPE. Its longitude is 218° 24′ W. the latitude of the north point is 10° 37′, and of the east point 10° 42′ S. The land over the east point, and to the southward of it, is rather low, and as far as the eye can reach, very flat, and of a barren appearance. To the southward of the Cape the shore forms a large open bay,* which I called NEWCASTLE BAY, and in which are some small low islands and shoals; the land adjacent is also very low, flat, and sandy. The land of the northern part of the Cape is more hilly, the vallies seem to be well clothed with wood, and the shore forms some small bays, in which there appeared to be good anchorage. Close to the eastern point of the Cape are three small islands, from one of which a small ledge of rocks runs out into the sea: there is also an island close to the northern point. The island that forms the streight or channel through which we had passed, lies about four miles without these, which, except two, are very small: the southermost is the largest, and much higher than any part of the main land. On the north west side of this island there appeared to be good anchorage, and on shore, vallies that promised both wood and water. These islands are distinguished in the chart by the name of YORK ISLES. To the southward, and south east, and even to the eastward and northward of them, there are several other low islands, rocks, and shoals: our depth of water in sailing between them and the main, was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen fathom. --page 1028

We stood along the shore to the westward, with a gentle breeze at S. E. by S. and when we had advanced between three and four miles, we discovered the land ahead, which, when we first saw it, we took for the main, to be islands detached from it by several channels: upon this we sent away the boats, with proper instructions, to lead us through that channel which was next the main; but soon after discovering rocks and shoals in this channel, I made a signal for the boats to go through the next channel to the northward, which lay between these islands, leaving some of them between us and the main: the ship followed,* and had never less than five fathom water in the narrowest part of the channel, where the distance from island to island was about one mile and an half. --page 1029

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we anchored, being about a mile and a half, or two miles, within the entrance, in six fathom and a half, with clear ground: the channel here had begun to widen, and the islands on each side of us were distant about a mile: the main land stretched away to the S. W. the farthest point in view bore S. 48 W. and the southermost point of the islands, on the north west side of the passage, bore S. 76 W. Between these two points we could see no land, so that we conceived hopes of having, at last, found a passage into the Indian sea; however, that I might be able to determine with more certainty, I resolved to land upon the island which lies at the south east point of the passage. Upon this island we had seen many of the inhabitants when we first came to an anchor, and when I went into the boat, with a party of men, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, in order to go ashore, we saw ten of them upon a hill: nine of them were armed with such lances as we had been used to see, and the tenth had a bow, and a bundle of arrows, which we had never seen in the possession of the natives of this country before: we also observed, that two of them had large ornaments of mother of pearl hanging round their necks. Three of these, one of whom was the bowman, placed themselves upon the beach abreast of us, and we expected that they would have opposed our landing, but when we came within about a musket's shot of the beach, they walked leisurely away. We immediately climbed the highest hill, which was not more than three times as high as the mast-head, and the most barren of any we had seen.* From this hill, no land could be seen between the S. W. and W. S. W. so that I had no doubt of finding a channel through. The land to the north west of it consisted of a great number of islands of various extent, and different heights, ranged one behind another, as far to the northward and westward as I could see, which could not be less than thirteen leagues. As I was now about to quit the eastern coast of New Holland, which I had coasted from latitude 38 to this place, and which I am confident no European had ever seen before, I once more hoisted English colours, and though I had already taken possession of several particular parts, I now took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38° to this place, latitude 10½ S. in right of his Majesty King George the Third, by the name of NEW SOUTH WALES, with all the bays, harbours, rivers, and islands situated upon it: we then fired three vollies of small arms, which were answered by the same number from the ship. Having performed this ceremony upon the island, which we called POSSESSION ISLAND, we reimbarked in our boat, but a rapid ebb tide setting N. E. made our return to the vessel very difficult and tedious. From the time of our last coming among the shoals, we constantly found a moderate tide, the flood setting to the N. W. and the ebb to the S. E. At this place, it is high water at the full and change of the moon, about one or two o'clock, and the water rises and falls perpendicularly about twelve feet. We saw smoke rising in many places from the adjacent lands and islands, as we had done upon every part of the coast, after our last return to it through the reef. --page 1030

We continued at anchor all night, and between seven and eight o'clock in the morning,* we saw three or four of the natives upon the beach gathering shell-fish; we discovered, by the help of our glasses, that they were women, and,* like all the other inhabitants of this country, stark naked. At low water, which happened about ten o'clock, we got under sail, and stood to the S. W. with a light breeze at E. which afterwards veered to N. by E.: our depth of water was from six to ten fathom, except in one place, where we had but five. At noon, Possession Island bore N. 53 E. distant four leagues, the western extremity of the main land in sight bore S. 43 W. distant between four and five leagues, and appeared to be extremely low, the south west point of the largest island on the north west side of the passage bore N. 71 W. distant eight miles, and this point I called CAPE CORNWALL. It lies in latitude 10° 43′ S., longitude 219° W.; and some low lands that lie about the middle of the passage, which I called WALLIS's ISLES, bore W. by S. ½ S. distant about two leagues: our latitude, by observation, was 10° 46′ S. We continued to advance with the tide of flood W. N. W. having little wind, and from eight to five fathom water. At half an hour after one, the pinnace, which was ahead, made the signal for shoal water, upon which we tacked, and sent away the yawl to sound also: we then tacked again, and stood after them: in about two hours, they both made the signal for shoal water, and the tide being nearly at its greatest height, I was afraid to stand on, as running aground at that time might be fatal; I therefore came to an anchor in somewhat less than seven fathom, sandy ground. Wallis's islands bore S. by W. ½ W. distant five or six miles, the islands to the northward extended from S. 73 E. to N. 10 E. and a small island, which was just in sight, bore N. W. ½ W. Here we found the flood tide set to the westward, and the ebb to the eastward. --page 1031

After we had come to an anchor, I sent away the Master in the long-boat to sound, who, upon his return in the evening,* reported, that there was a bank stretching north and south, upon which there were but three fathom, and that beyond it there were seven. About this time it fell calm, and continued so till nine the next morning, when we weighed, with a light breeze at S. S. E. and steered N. W. by W. for the small island which was just in sight, having first sent the boats ahead to sound: the depth of water was eight, seven, six, five, and four fathom, and three fathom upon the bank, it being now the last quarter ebb. At this time, the northermost island in sight bore N. 9 E. Cape Cornwall E. distant three leagues, and Wallis's Isles S. 3 E. distant three leagues. This bank, at least so much as we have sounded, extends nearly N. and S. but to what distance I do not know: its breadth is not more than half a mile at the utmost. When we had got over the bank, we deepened our water to six fathom three quarters, and had the same depth all the way to the small island ahead, which we reached by noon, when it bore S. distant about half a mile. Our depth of water was now five fathom, and the northermost land in sight, which is part of the same chain of islands that we had seen to the northward from the time of our first entering the streight, bore N. 71 E. Our latitude, by observation, was 10° 33′ S. and our longitude 219° 22′ W.: in this situation, no part of the main was in sight. As we were now near the island, and had but little wind, Mr. Banks and I landed upon it, and found it, except a few patches of wood, to be a barren rock, the haunt of birds, which had frequented it in such numbers, as to make the surface almost uniformly white with their dung: of these birds, the greater part seemed to be boobies, and I therefore called the place BOOBY ISLAND. After a short stay, we returned to the ship, and in the mean time the wind had got to the S. W.; it was but a gentle breeze, yet it was accompanied by a swell from the same quarter, which, with other circumstances,* confirmed my opinion that we were got to the westward of Carpentaria, or the northern extremity of New Holland, and had now an open sea to the westward, which gave me great satisfaction, not only because the dangers and fatigues of the voyage were drawing to an end, but because it would no longer be a doubt whether New Holland and New Guinea were two separate islands, or different parts of the same. --page 1032

The north east entrance of this passage, or streight, lies in the latitude of 10° 39′ S, and in the longitude of 218° 36′ W. It is formed by the main, or the northern extremity of New Holland, on the S. E. and by a congeries of islands, which I called the PRINCE OF WALES's ISLANDS, to the N. W. and it is probable that these islands extend quite to New Guinea. They differ very much both in height and circuit, and many of them seemed to be well clothed with herbage and wood: upon most, if not all of them, we saw smoke, and therefore there can be no doubt of their being inhabited; it is also probable, that among them there are at least as good passages as that we came through, perhaps better, though better would not need to be desired, if the access to it, from the eastward, were less dangerous: that a less dangerous access may be discovered, I think there is little reason to doubt, and to find it little more seems to be necessary, than to determine how far the principal, or outer reef, which bounds the shoals to the eastward, extends towards the north, which I would not have left to future navigators if I had been less harassed by danger and fatigue, and had had a ship in better condition for the purpose. --page 1033

To this channel, or passage, I have given the name of the ship, and called it ENDEAVOUR STREIGHTS. Its length from N. E. to S. W. is ten leagues, and it is about five leagues broad,* except at the north east entrance, where it is somewhat less than two miles, being contracted by the islands which lie there. That which I called Possession Island is of a moderate height and circuit, and this we left between us and the main, passing between it and two small round islands, which lie about two miles to the N. W. of it. The two small islands, which I called Wallis's Islands, lie in the middle of the south west entrance, and these we left to the southward. Our depth of water in the streight, was from four to nine fathom, with every where good anchorage, except upon the bank, which lies two leagues to the northward of Wallis's Islands, where, at low water, there are but three fathom: for a more particular knowlege of this streight, and of the situations of the several islands and shoals on the eastern coast of New Wales, I refer to the chart, where they are delineated with all the accuracy that circumstances would admit; yet, with respect to the shoals, I cannot pretend that one half of them are laid down, nor can it be supposed possible that one half of them should be discovered in the course of a single navigation: many islands also must have escaped my pencil, especially between latitude 20° and 22°, where we saw islands out at sea as far as an island could be distinguished; it must not therefore be supposed, by future navigators, that where no shoal or island is laid down in my chart, no shoal or island will be found in these seas: it is enough that the situation of those that appear in the chart is faithfully ascertained, and, in general, I have the greatest reason to hope that it will be found as free from error as any that has not been corrected by subsequent and successive observations. The latitudes and longitudes of all, or most of the principal head lands and bays, may be confided in, for we seldom failed of getting an observation once at least every day, by which to correct the latitude of our reckoning,* and observations for settling the longitude were equally numerous, no opportunity that was offered by the sun and moon being suffered to escape. It would be injurious to the memory of Mr. Green; not to take this opportunity of attesting that he was indefatigable both in making observations and calculating upon them; and that, by his instructions and assistance, many of the petty officers were enabled both to observe and calculate with great exactness. This method of finding the longitude at sea, may be put into universal practice, and may always be depended upon within half a degree, which is sufficient for all nautical purposes. If, therefore, observing and calculating were considered as necessary qualifications for every sea officer, the labours of the speculative theorist to solve this problem might be remitted, without much injury to mankind: neither will it be so difficult to acquire this qualification, or put it in practice, as may at first appear; for, with the assistance of the nautical almanack, and astronomical ephemeris, the calculations for finding the longitude will take up little more time than the calculation of an azimuth for finding the variation of the compass. --page 1034

*OF this country, its products, and its people, many particulars have already been related in the course of the narrative, being so interwoven with the events, as not to admit of a separation. I shall now give a more full and circumstantial description of each, in which, if some things should happen to be repeated, the greater part will be found new. --page 1035

New Holland, or, as I have now called the eastern coast, New South Wales, is of a larger extent than any other country in the known world that does not bear the name of a continent: the length of coast along which we sailed, reduced to a strait line, is no less than twenty-seven degrees of latitude, amounting to near 2000 miles, so that its square surface must be much more than equal to all Europe. To the southward of 33 or 34, the land in general is low and level; farther northward it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous, and the hills and mountains, taken together, make but a small part of the surface, in comparison with the vallies and plains. It is upon the whole rather barren than fertile, yet the rising ground is chequered by woods and lawns, and the plains and vallies are in many places covered with herbage: the soil however is frequently sandy, and many of the lawns, or savannahs, are rocky and barren,* especially to the northward, where, in the best spots, vegetation was less vigorous than in the southern part of the country; the trees were not so tall, nor was the herbage so rich. The grass in general is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are largest, are seldom less than forty feet asunder; nor is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, better clothed than the sea coast. The banks of the bays are covered with mangroves, to the distance of a mile within the beach, under which the soil is a rank mud, that is always overflowed by a spring tide; farther in the country we sometimes met with a bog, upon which the grass was very thick and luxuriant, and sometimes with a valley, that was clothed with underwood: the soil in some parts seemed to be capable of improvement, but the far greater part is such as can admit of no cultivation. The coast, at least that part of it which lies to the northward of 25° S. abounds with fine bays and harbours, where vessels may lie in perfect security from all winds. --page 1036

If we may judge by the appearance of the country while we were there, which was in the very height of the dry season, it is well watered: we sound innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers; these brooks, however, probably become large in the rainy season. Thirsty Sound was the only place where fresh water was not to be procured for the ship, and even there one or two small pools were found in the woods, though the face of the country was every where intersected by salt-creeks, and mangrove land. --page 1037

Of trees there is no great variety. Of those that could be called timber, there are but two sorts; the largest is the gum tree, which grows all over the country, and has been mentioned already:* it has narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow; and the gum, or rather resin, which it yields, is of a deep red, and resembles the sanguis draconis; possibly it may be the same, for this substance is known to be the produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by Dampier, and is perhaps the same that Tasman found upon Diemen's Land, where he says he saw --page 1038

Gum of the trees, and gum lac of the ground. The other timber tree is that which grows somewhat like our pines, and has been particularly mentioned in the account of Botany Bay. The wood of both these trees, as I have before remarked, is extremely hard and heavy. Besides these, here are trees covered with a soft bark that is easily peeled off, and is the same that in the East Indies is used for the caulking of ships. We found here the palm of three different sorts. The first, which grows in great plenty to the southward, has leaves that are plaited like a fan: the cabbage of these is small, but exquisitely sweet; and the nuts, which it bears in great abundance, are very good food for hogs. The second sort bore a much greater resemblance to the true cabbage tree of the West Indies; its leaves were large and pinnated, like those of the cocoa-nut; and these also produced a cabbage, which though not so sweet as the other, was much larger. The third sort, which, like the second, was found only in the northern parts, was seldom more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves, resembling those of some kind of fern: it bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chesnut, but rounder: as we found the hulls of these scattered round the places where the Indians had made their •ires, we took for granted that they were fit to eat; those however who made the experiment paid dear for their knowlege of the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and cathartic with great violence. Still, however,* we made no doubt but that they were eaten by the Indians; and judging that the constitution of the hogs might be as strong as theirs, though our own had proved to be so much inferior, we carried them to the stye; the hogs eat them, indeed, and for some time we thought without suffering any inconvenience; but in about a week they were so much disordered that two of them died, and the rest were recovered with great difficulty. It is probable, however, that the poisonous quality of these nuts may lie in the juice, like that of the cassada of the West Indies; and that the pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome, but nutricious. Besides these species of the palm, and mangroves, there were several small trees and shrubs altogether unknown in Europe; particularly one which produced a very poor kind of fig; another that bore what we called a plum, which it resembled in colour, but not in shape, being flat on the sides like a little cheese; and a third that bore a kind of purple apple; which, after it had been kept a few days, became eatable, and tasted somewhat like a damascene. --page 1039

Here is a great variety of plants to enrich the collection of a botanist, but very few of them are of the aesculent kind. A small plant, with long, narrow, grassy leaves, resembling that kind of bulrush which in England is called the Cat's-tail, yields a resin of a bright yellow colour, exactly resembling gambouge, except that it does not stain; it has a sweet smell, but its properties we had no opportunity to discover, any more than those of many others with which the natives appear to be acquainted, as they have distinguished them by names. --page 1040

I have already mentioned the root and leaves of a plant resembling the coccos of the West Indies, and a kind of bean;* to which may be added, a sort of parsley and purselain, and two kinds of yams; one shaped like a rhadish, and the other round, and covered with stringy fibres: both sorts are very small, but sweet; and we never could find the plants that produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been newly dug up; it is probable that the drought had destroyed the leaves, and we could not, like the Indians, discover them by the stalks. --page 1041

Most of the fruits of this country, such as they are, have been mentioned already. We found one in the southern part of the country resembling a cherry, except that the stone was soft; and another not unlike a pine-apple in appearance, but of a very disagreeable taste, which is well known in the East Indies, and is called by the Dutch Pyn Appel Boomen. --page 1042

Of the quadrupeds, I have already mentioned the dog, and particularly described the kanguroo, and the animal of the opossum kind, resembling the phalanger of Buffon; to which I can add only one more, resembling a polecat, which the natives call Quoll; the back is brown, spotted with white, and the belly white unmixed. Several of our people said they had seen wolves; but perhaps, if we had not seen tracts that favoured the account, we might have thought them little more worthy of credit than he who reported that he had seen the devil. --page 1043

Of batts, which hold a middle place between the beasts and the birds, we saw many kinds, particularly one which, as I have observed already, was larger than a partridge; we were not fortunate enough to take one either alive or dead, but it was supposed to be the same as Buffon has described by the name of Rouset or Rouget. --page 1044

The sea and other water-fowl of this country, are gulls,* shaggs, soland geese, or gannets, of two sorts; boobies, noddies, curlieus, ducks, pelicans of an enormous size, and many others. The land-birds, are crows, parrots, paroquets, cockatoos, and other birds of the same kind, of exquisite beauty; pigeons, doves, quails, bustards, herons, cranes, hawks, and eagles. The pigeons flew in numerous flocks, so that, notwithstanding their extreme shyness, our people frequently killed ten or twelve of them in a day: these birds are very beautiful, and crested very differently from any we had seen before. --page 1045

Among other reptiles, here are serpents of various kinds, some noxious, and some harmless; scorpions, centipieds, and lizards. The insects are but few. The principal are the musquito, and the ant. Of the ant there are several sorts; some are as green as a leaf, and live upon trees, where they build their nests of various sizes, between that of a man's head and his fist. These nests are of a very curious structure: they are formed by bending down several of the leaves, each of which is as broad as a man's hand, and gluing the points of them together, so as to form a purse; the viscus used for this purpose, is an animal juice, which Nature has enabled them to elaborate. Their method of first bending down the leaves, we had not an opportunity to observe; but we saw thousands uniting all their strength to hold them in this position, while other busy multitudes were employed within, in applying the gluten that was to prevent their returning back. To satisfy ourselves that the leaves were bent, and held down by the effort of these diminutive artificers, we disturbed them in their work, and as soon as they were driven from their station, the leaves on which they were employed sprung up with a force much greater than we could have thought them able to conquer by any combination of their strength.* But though we gratified our curiosity at their expence, the injury did not go unrevenged; for thousands immediately threw themselves upon us, and gave us intolerable pain with their stings, especially those which took possession of our necks and our hair, from whence they were not easily driven: the sting was scarcely less painful than that of a bee; but, except it was repeated, the pain did not last more than a minute. --page 1046

Another sort are quite black, and their operations and manner of life are not less extraordinary. Their habitations are the inside of the branches of a tree, which they contrive to excavate by working out the pith almost to the extremity of the slenderest twig; the tree at the same time flourishing, as if it had no such inmate. When we first found the tree, we gathered some of the branches, and were scarcely less astonished than we should have been to find that we had prophaned a consecrated grove, where every tree, upon being wounded, gave signs of life; for we were instantly covered with legions of these animals, swarming from every broken bough, and inflicting their stings with incessant violence. They are mentioned by Rumphius in his Herbarium Amboinense, vol. ii. p. 257.; but the tree in which he saw their dwelling, is very different from that in which we found them. --page 1047

A third kind we found nested in the root of a plant, which grows on the bark of trees in the manner of misletoe, and which they had perforated for that use. This root is commonly as big as a large turnip, and sometimes much bigger: when we cut it, we found it intersected by innumerable winding passages, all filled with these animals, by which however the vegetation of the plant did not appear to have suffered any injury.* We never cut one of these roots that was not inhabited, though some were not bigger than a hazle-nut. The animals themselves are very small, not more than half as big as the common red ant in England. They had stings, but scarcely force enough to make them felt; they had however a power of tormenting us in an equal, if not a greater degree; for the moment we handled the root, they swarmed from innumerable holes, and running about those parts of the body that were uncovered, produced a titillation more intolerable than pain, except it is increased to great violence. Rumphins has also given an account of this bulb and its inhabitants, vol. vi. p. 120. where he mentions another sort that are black. --page 1048

We found a fourth kind, which are perfectly harmless, and almost exactly resemble the white-ants of the East Indies; the architecture of these is still more curious than that of the others. They have houses of two sorts, one is suspended on the branches of trees, and the other erected upon the ground: those upon the trees are about three or four times as big as a man's head, and are built of a brittle substance, which seems to consist of small parts of vegetables kneaded together with a glutinous matter, which their bodies probably supply; upon breaking this crust, innumerable cells, swarming with inhabitants, appear in a great variety of winding directions, all communicating with each other, and with several apertures that lead to other nests upon the same tree: they have also one large avenue, or covered way, leading to the ground, and carried on under it to the other nest or house that is constructed there. This house is generally at the root of a tree, but not of that upon which their other dwellings are constructed: it is formed like an irregularly sided cone, and sometimes is more than six feet high,* and nearly as much in diameter. Some are smaller, and these are generally flat sided, and very much resemble in figure the stones which are seen in many parts of England, and supposed to be the remains of druidical antiquity. The outside of these is of well tempered clay, about two inches thick; and within are the cells, which have no opening outwards, but communicate only with the subterranean way to the houses on the tree, and to the tree near which they are constructed, where they ascend up the root, and so up the trunk and branches, under covered ways of the same kind as those by which they descended from, their other dwellings. To these structures on the ground they probably retire in the winter, or rainy seasons, as they are proof against any wet that can fall; which those in the tree, though generally constructed under some overhanging branch, from the nature and thinness of their crust or wall, cannot be. --page 1049

The sea in this country is much more liberal of food to the inhabitants than the land; and though fish is not quite so plenty here as they generally are in higher latitudes, yet we seldom hauled the seine without taking from fifty to two hundred weight. They are of various sorts; but, except the mullet, and some of the shell-fish, none of them are known in Europe: most of them are palatable, and some are very delicious. Upon the shoals and reef there are incredible numbers of the finest green turtle in the world, and oysters of various kinds, particularly the rock-oyster and the pearl-oyster. The gigantic cockles have been mentioned already; besides which there are sea-crayfish, or lobsters, and crabs; of these however we saw only the shells. In the rivers and salt crecks there are aligators. --page 1050

The only person who has hitherto given any account of this country or its inhabitants is Dampier, and though he is,* in general, a writer of credit, yet in many particulars he is mistaken. The people whom he saw were indeed inhabitants of a part of the coast very distant from that which we visited; but we also saw inhabitants upon parts of the coast very distant from each other, and there being a perfect uniformity in person and customs among them all, it is reasonable to conclude, that distance in another direction has not considerably broken it. --page 1051

The number of inhabitants in this country appears to be very small in proportion to its extent. We never saw so many as thirty of them together but once, and that was at Botany Bay, when men, women, and children, assembled upon a rock to see the ship pass by: when they manifestly formed a resolution to engage us, they never could muster above fourteen or fifteen fighting men; and we never saw a number of their sheds or houses together that could accommodate a larger party. It is true, indeed, that we saw only the sea-coast on the eastern side; and that, between this and the western shore, there is an immense tract of country wholly unexplored: but there is great reason to believe that this immense tract is either wholly desolate, or at least still more thinly inhabited than the parts we visited. It is impossible that the inland country should subsist inhabitants at all seasons without cultivation; it is extremely improbable that the inhabitants of the coast should be totally ignorant of arts of cultivation, which were practised inland; and it is equally improbable that, if they knew such arts, there should be no traces of them among them. It is certain that we did not see one foot of ground in a state of cultivation in the whole country; and therefore it may well be concluded that where the sea does not contribute to feed the inhabitants,* the country is not inhabited. --page 1052

The only tribe with which we had any intercourse, we found where the ship was careened; it consisted of one and twenty persons; twelve men, seven women, one boy, and one girl: the women we never saw but at a distance; for when the men came over the river they were always left behind. The men here, and in other places, were of a middle size, and in general well made, clean limbed, and remarkably vigorous, active, and nimble: their countenances were not altogether without expression, and their voices were remarkably soft and effeminate. --page 1053

Their skins were so uniformly covered with dirt, that it was very difficult to ascertain their true colour: we made several attempts, by wetting our fingers and rubbing it, to remove the incrustations, but with very little effect. With the dirt they appear nearly as black as a Negroe; and according to our best discoveries, the skin itself is of the colour of wood soot, or what is commonly called a chocolate colour. Their features are far from being disagreeable, their noses are not flat, nor are their lips thick; their teeth are white and even, and their hair naturally long and black, it is however universally cropped short; in general it is strait, but sometimes it has a slight curl; we saw none that was not matted and filthy, though without oil or grease, and to our great astonishment free from lice. Their beards were of the same colour with their hair, and bushy and thick: they are not however suffered to grow long. A man whom we had seen one day with his beard somewhat longer than his companions, we saw the next, with it somewhat shorter, and upon examination found the ends of the hairs burnt: from this incident, and our having never seen any sharp instrument among them,* we concluded that both the hair and the beard were kept short by singeing them. --page 1054

Both sexes, as I have already observed, go stark naked, and seem to have no more sense of indecency in discovering the whole body, than we have in discovering our hands and face. Their principal ornament is the bone which they thrust through the cartilage that divides the nostrils from each other: what perversion of taste could make them think this a decoration, or what could prompt them, before they had worn it or seen it worn, to suffer the pain and inconvenience that must of necessity attend it, is perhaps beyond the power of human sagacity to determine: as this bone is as thick as a man's finger, and between five and six inches long, it reaches quite across the face, and so effectually stops up both the nostrils that they are forced to keep their mouths wide open for breath, and snuffle so when they attempt to speak, that they are scarcely intelligible even to each other. Our seamen, with some humour, called it their spritsail-yard; and indeed it had so ludicrous an appearance, that till we were used to it, we found it difficult to refrain from laughter. Beside this nose-jewel, they had necklaces made of shells, very neatly cut and strung together; bracelets of small cord, wound two or three times about the upper part of their arm, and a string of plaited human hair about as thick as a thread of yarn, tied round the waist. Besides these, some of them had gorgets of shells hanging round the neck, so as to reach cross the breast. But though these people wear no clothes, their bodies have a covering besides the dirt, for they paint them both white and red: the red is commonly laid on in broad patches upon the shoulders and breast; and the white in stripes, some narrow, and some broad: the narrow were drawn over the limbs, and the broad over the body, not without some degree of taste. The white was also laid on in small patches upon the face,* and drawn in a circle round each eye. The red seemed to be ochre, but what the white was we could not discover; it was close grained, saponaceous to the touch, and almost as heavy as white lead; possibly it might be a kind of Steatites, but to our great regret we could not procure a bit of it to examine. They have holes in their ears, but we never saw any thing worn in them. Upon such ornaments as they had, they set so great a value, that they would never part with the least article for any thing we could offer; which was the more extraordinary as our beads and ribbons were ornaments of the same kind, but of a more regular form and more showy materials. They had indeed no idea of traffic, nor could we communicate any to them: they received the things that we gave them; but never appeared to understand our signs when we required a return. The same indifference which prevented them from buying what we had, prevented them also from attempting to steal: if they had coveted more, they would have been less honest; for when we refused to give them a turtle, they were enraged, and attempted to take it by force, and we had nothing else upon which they seemed to set the least value; for, as I have before observed, many of the things that we had given them, we found left negligently about in the woods, like the playthings of children, which please only while they are new. Upon their bodies we saw no marks of disease or sores, but large scars in irregular lines, which appeared to be the remains of wounds which they had inflicted upon themselves with some blunt instrument, and which we understood by signs to have been memorials of grief for the dead. --page 1055

They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we saw nothing like a town or village in the whole country. Their houses, if houses they may be called, seem to be formed with less art and industry than any we had seen,* except the wretched hovels at Terra del Fuego, and in some respects they are inferior even to them. At Botany Bay, where they were best, they were just high enough for a man to sit upright in; but not large enough for him to extend himself in his whole length in any direction: they are built with pliable rods about as thick as a man's finger, in the form of an oven, by sticking the two ends into the ground, and then covering them with palm leaves, and broad pieces of bark: the door is nothing but a large hole at one end, opposite to which the fire is made, as we perceived by the ashes. Under these houses, or sheds, they sleep, coiled up with their heels to their head; and in this position one of them will hold three or four persons. As we advanced northward, and the climate became warmer, we found these sheds still more slight: they were built, like the others, of twigs, and covered with bark; but none of them were more than four feet deep, and one side was intirely open: the close side was always opposed to the course of the prevailing wind, and opposite to the open side was the fire, probably more as a defence from the musquitos than the cold. Under these hovels it is probable, that they thrust only their heads and the upper part of their bodies, extending their feet towards the fire. They were set up occasionally by a wandering hord, in any place that would furnish them for a time with subsistence, and left behind them when, after it was exhausted, they went away: but in places where they remained only for a night or two, they slept without any shelter, except the bushes or grass, which is here near two feet high. We observed, however, that though the sleeping huts which we found upon the main, were always turned from the prevailing wind, those upon the islands were turned towards it; which seems to be a proof that they have a mild season here, during which the sea is calm,* and that the same weather which enables them to visit the islands, makes the air welcome even while they sleep. --page 1056

The only furniture belonging to these houses that fell under our observation, is a kind of oblong vessel made of bark, by the simple contrivance of tying up the two ends with a withy, which not being cut off serves for a handle; these we imagined were used as buckets to fetch water from the spring, which may be supposed sometimes to be at a considerable distance. They have however a small bag, about the size of a moderate cabbage-net, which is made by laying threads loop within loop, somewhat in the manner of knitting used by our ladies to make purses. This bag the man carries loose upon his back by a small string which passes over his head; it generally contains a lump or two of paint and resin, some fish-hooks and lines, a shell or two, out of which their hooks are made, a few points of darts, and their usual ornaments, which includes the whole worldly treasure of the richest man among them. --page 1057

Their fish-hooks are very neatly made, and some of them are exceedingly small. For striking turtle they have a peg of wood which is about a foot long, and very well bearded; this fits into a socket at the end of a staff of light wood, about as thick as a man's wrist, and about seven or eight feet long: to the staff is tied one end of a loose line about three or four fathom long, the other end of which is fastened to the peg. To strike the turtle, the peg is fixed into the socket, and when it has entered his body, and is retained there by the barb, the staff flies off and serves for a float to trace their victim in the water; it assists also to tire him, till they can overtake him with their canoes, and haul him ashore. One of these pegs, as I have mentioned already, we found buried in the body of a turtle, which had healed up over it.* Their lines are from the thickness of a half inch rope to the fineness of a hair, and are made of some vegetable substance, but what in particular we had no opportunity to learn. --page 1058

Their food is chiefly fish, though they sometimes contrive to kill the kanguroo, and even birds of various kinds; notwithstanding they are so shy that we found it difficult to get within reach of them with a fowling-piece. The only vegetable that can be considered as an article of food is the yam; yet doubtless they eat the several fruits which have been mentioned among other productions of the country; and indeed we saw the shells and hulls of several of them lying about the places where they had kindled their fire. --page 1059

They do not appear to eat any animal food raw; but having no vessel in which water can be boiled, they either broil it upon the coals, or bake it in a hole by the help of hot stones, in the same manner as is practised by the inhabitants of the islands in the South Seas. --page 1060

Whether they are acquainted with any plant that has an intoxicating quality, we do not know; but we observed that several of them held leaves of some sort constantly in their mouths, as an European does tobacco, and an East Indian betele: we never saw the plant, but when they took it from their mouths at our request; possibly it might be a species of the betele, but whatever it was, it had no effect upon the teeth or the lips. --page 1061

As they have no nets, they catch fish only by striking, or with a hook and line, except such as they find in the hollows of the rocks and shoals, which are dry at half ebb. --page 1062

Their manner of hunting we had no opportunity to see; but we conjectured by the notches which they had every where cut in large trees in order to climb them,* that they took their station near the tops of them, and there watched for such animals as might happen to pass near enough to be reached by their lances: it is possible also, that in this situation they might take birds when they came to roost. --page 1063

I have observed that when they went from our tents upon the banks of Endeavour river, we could trace them by the fires which they kindled in their way; and we imagined that these fires were intended some way for the taking the kanguroo, which we observed to be so much afraid of fire, that our dogs could scarcely force it over places which had been newly burnt, though the fire was extinguished. --page 1064

They produce fire with great facility, and spread it in a wonderful manner. To produce it they take two pieces of dry soft wood, one is a stick about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat: the stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, and pressing it upon the other, turn it nimbly by holding it between both their hands as we do a chocolate mill, often shifting their hands up, and then moving them down upon it, to increase the pressure as much as possible. By this method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from the smallest spark they increase it with great speed and dexterity. We have often seen one of them run along the shore, to all appearance with nothing in his hand, who stooping down for a moment, at the distance of every fifty or a hundred yards, left fire behind him, as we could see first by the smoke, and then by the flame among the drift wood, and other litter which was scattered along the place. We had the curiosity to examine one of these planters of fire, when he set off, and we saw him wrap up a small spark in dry grass, which, when he had run a little way, having been fanned by the air that his motion produced, began to blaze;* he then laid it down in a place convenient for his purpose, inclosing a spark of it in another quantity of grass, and so continued his course. --page 1065

There are perhaps few things in the history of mankind more extraordinary than the discovery and application of fire: it will scarcely be disputed that the manner of producing it, whether by collision or attrition, was discovered by chance: but its first effects would naturally strike those to whom it was a new object, with consternation and terror: it would appear to be an enemy to life and nature, and to torment and destroy whatever was capable of being destroyed or tormented; and therefore it seems not easy to conceive what should incline those who first saw it receive a transient existence from chance, to reproduce it by design. It is by no means probable that those who first saw fire, approached it with the same caution, as those who are familiar with its effects, so as to be warmed only and not burnt; and it is reasonable to think that the intolerable pain which, at its first appearance, it must produce upon ignorant curiosity, would sow perpetual enmity between this element and mankind; and that the same principle which incites them to crush a serpent, would incite them to destroy fire, and avoid all means by which it would be produced, as soon as they were known. These circumstances considered, how men became sufficiently familiar with it to render it useful, seems to be a problem very difficult to solve: nor is it easy to account for the first application of it to culinary purposes, as the eating both animal and vegetable food raw, must have become a habit, before there was fire to dress it, and those who have considered the force of habit will readily believe, that to men who had always eaten the flesh of animals raw, it would be as disagreeable dressed, as to those who have always eaten it dressed, it would be raw. It is remarkable that the inhabitants of Terra del Fuego produce fire from a spark by collision,* and that the happier natives of this country, New Zealand, and Otaheite, produce it by the attrition of one combustible substance against another: is there not then some reason to suppose that these different operations correspond with the manner in which chance produced fire in the neighbourhood of the torrid and frigid zones? Among the rude inhabitants of a cold country, neither any operation of art, or occurrence of accident, could be supposed so easily to produce fire by attrition, as in a climate where every thing is hot, dry, and adust, teeming with a latent fire which a slight degree of motion was sufficient to call forth; in a cold country therefore, it is natural to suppose that fire was produced by the accidental collision of two metallic substances, and in a cold country, for that reason, the same expedient was used to produce it by design: but in hot countries, where two combustible substances easily kindle by attrition, it is probable that the attrition of such substances first produced fire, and here it was therefore natural for art to adopt the same operation, with a view to produce the same effect. It may indeed be true that fire is now produced in many cold countries by attrition, and in many hot by a stroke; but perhaps upon enquiry there may appear reason to conclude that this has arisen from the communication of one country with another, and that with respect to the original production of fire in hot and cold countries, the distinction is well founded. --page 1066

There may perhaps be some reason to suppose that men became gradually acquainted with the nature and effects of fire, by its permanent existence in a volcano, there being remains of volcanoes, or vestiges of their effects, in almost every part of the world: by a volcano, however, no method of producing fire, otherwise than by contact, could be learnt▪ the production and application of fire therefore,* still seem to afford abundant subject of speculation to the curious. --page 1067

The weapons of these people are spears or lances, and these are of different kinds: some that we saw upon the southern part of the coast had four prongs, pointed with bone, and barbed; the points were also smeared with a hard resin, which gave them a polish, and made them enter deeper into what they struck. To the northward, the lance has but one point: the shaft is made of cane, or the stalk of a plant somewhat resembling a bulrush, very strait and light, and from eight to fourteen feet long, consisting of several joints, where the pieces are let into each other, and bound together; to this are fitted points of different kinds; some are of hard heavy wood, and some are the bones of fish: we saw several that were pointed with the stings of the sting-ray, the largest that they could procure, and barbed with several that were smaller, fastened on in a contrary direction; the points of wood were also sometimes armed with sharp pieces of broken shells, which were stuck in, and at the junctures covered with resin: the lances that are thus barbed, are indeed dreadful weapons, for when once they have taken place, they can never be drawn back without tearing away the flesh, or leaving the sharp ragged splinters of the bone or shell which forms the beard, behind them in the wound. These weapons are thrown with great force and dexterity; if intended to wound at a short distance, between ten and twenty yards, simply with the hand, but if at the distance of forty or fifty, with an instrument which we called a throwing stick. This is a plain smooth piece of a hard reddish wood, very highly polished, about two inches broad, half an inch thick, and three feet long, with a small knob, or hook at one end, and a cross piece about three or four •nches long at the other: the knob at one end is received in a small dent or hollow,* which is made for that purpose in the shaft of the lance near the point, but from which it easily slips, upon being impelled, forward: when the lance is laid along upon this machine, and secured in a proper position by the knob, the person that is to throw it holds it over his shoulder, and after shaking it, delivers both the throwing stick and lance with all his force, but the stick being stopped by the cross piece which comes against the shoulder, with a sudden jerk, the lance flies forward with incredible swiftness, and with so good an aim, that at the distance of fifty yards these Indians were more sure of their mark than we could be with a single bullet. Besides these lances, we saw no offensive weapon upon this coast, except when we took our last view of it with our glasses, and then we thought we saw a man with a bow and arrows, in which it is possible we might be mistaken. We saw, however, at Botany Bay, a shield or target, of an oblong shape, about three feet long, and eighteen inches broad, which was made of the bark of a tree: this was fetched out of a hut by one of the men that opposed our landing, who, when he ran away, left it behind him, and upon taking it up, we found that it had been pierced through with a single pointed lance near the center. These shields are certainly in frequent use among the people here, for though this was the only one that we saw in their possession, we frequently found trees from which they appeared manifestly to have been cut, the marks being easily distinguished from those that were made by cutting buckets: sometimes also we found the shields cut out, but not yet taken off from the tree, the edges of the bark only being a little raised by wedges, so that these people appear to have discovered that the bark of a tree becomes thicker and stronger by being suffered to remain upon the trunk after it has been cut round. --page 1068

The canoes of New Holland are as mean and rude as the houses.* Those on the southern part of the coast are nothing more than a piece of bark, about twelve feet long, tied together at the ends, and kept open in the middle by small bows of wood: yet in a vessel of this construction we once saw three people. In shallow water they are set forward by a pole, and in deeper by paddles, about eighteen inches long, one of which the boatman holds in each hand; mean as they are, they have many conveniences, they draw but little water, and they are very light, so that they go upon mud banks to pick up shell fish, the most important use to which they can be applied, better perhaps than vessels of any other construction. We observed, that in the middle of these canoes there was a heap of sea-weed, and upon that a small fire; probably that the fish may be broiled and eaten the moment it is caught. --page 1069

The canoes that we saw when we advanced farther to the northward, are not made of bark, but of the trunk of a tree hollowed, perhaps by fire. They are about fourteen feet long, and, being very narrow, are fitted with an outrigger to prevent their oversetting. These are worked with paddles, that are so large as to require both hands to manage one of them: the outside is wholly unmarked by any tool, but at each end the wood is left longer at the top than at the bottom, so that there is a projection beyond the hollow part resembling the end of a plank; the sides are tolerably thin, but how the tree is felled and fashioned, we had no opportunity to learn. The only tools that we saw among them are an adze, wretchedly made of stone, some small pieces of the same substance in form of a wedge, a wooden mallet, and some shells and fragments of coral. For polishing their throwing sticks, and the points of their lances, they use the leaves of a kind of wild fig-tree, which bites upon wood almost as keenly as the shave-grass of Europe,* which is used by our joiners: with such tools, the making even such a canoe as I have described, must be a most difficult and tedious labour: to those who have been accustomed to the use of metal, it appears altogether impracticable; but there are few difficulties that will not yield to patient perseverance, and he who does all he can, will certainly produce effects that greatly exceed his apparent power. --page 1070

The utmost freight of these canoes is four people, and if more at any time wanted to come over the river, one of those who came first was obliged to go back for the rest: from this circumstance, we conjectured that the boat we saw, when we were lying in Endeavour River, was the only one in the neighbourhood: we have however some reason to believe that the bark canoes are also used where the wooden ones are constructed, for upon one of the small islands where the natives had been fishing for turtle, we found one of the little paddles which had belonged to such a boat, and would have been useless on board any other. --page 1071

By what means the inhabitants of this country are reduced to such a number as it can subsist, is not perhaps very easy to guess; whether, like the inhabitants of New Zealand, they are destroyed by the hands of each other in contests for food; whether they are swept off by accidental famine, or whether there is any cause which prevents the increase of the species, must be left for future adventurers to determine. That they have wars, appears by their weapons; for supposing the lances to serve merely for the striking of fish, the shield could be intended for nothing but a defence against men; the only mark of hostility, however, which we saw among them, was the perforation of the shield by a spear which has been just mentioned, for none of them appeared to have been wounded by an enemy. Neither can we determine whether they are pusilanimous or brave;* the resolution with which two of them attempted to prevent our landing, when we had two boats full of men, in Botany Bay, even after one of them was wounded with small shot, gave us reason to conclude that they were not only naturally courageous, but that they had acquired a familiarity with the dangers of hostility, and were, by habit as well as nature, a daring and warlike people; but their precipitate flight from every other place that we approached, without even a menace, while they were out of our reach, was an indication of uncommon tameness and timidity, such as those who had only been occasionally warriors must be supposed to have shaken off, whatever might have been their natural disposition. I have faithfully related facts, the reader must judge of the people for himself. --page 1072

From the account that has been given of our commerce with them, it cannot be supposed that we should know much of their language; yet as this is an object of great curiosity, especially to the learned, and of great importance in their researches into the origin of the various nations that have been discovered, we took some pains to bring away such a specimen of it as might, in a certain degree, answer the purpose, and I shall now give an account how it was procured. If we wanted to know the name of a stone, we took a stone up into our hands, and as well as we could, intimated by signs that we wished they should name it: the word that they pronounced upon the occasion, we immediately wrote down. This method, though it was the best we could contrive, might certainly lead us into many mistakes; for if an Indian was to take up a stone, and ask us the name of it, we might answer a pebble or a flint; so when we took up a stone, and asked an Indian the name of it, he might pronounce a word that distinguished the species and not the genus,* or that, instead of signifying stone simply, might signify a rough stone, or a smooth stone; however, as much as possible to avoid mistakes of this kind, several of us contrived, at different times, to get from them as many words as we could, and having noted them down, compared our lists: those which were the same in all, and which, according to every one's account, signified the same thing, we ventured to record, with a very few others, which, from the simplicity of the subject, and the ease of expressing our question with plainness and precision by a sign, have acquired equal authority. --page 1073

English. New Holland. The head, Wageegee. Hair, Morye. Eyes, Meul. Ears, Melea. Lips, Yembe. Nose, Bonjoo. Tongue, Unjar. Beard, Wallar. Neck, Doomboo. Nipples, Cayo. Hands, Marigal. Thighs, Coman. Navel, Toolpoor. Knees, Pongo. Feet, Edamal. Heel. Kniorror. Cockatoo, Wanda. The soal of the foot, Chumal. Ankle, Chongurn. Nails, Kulke. Sun, Gallan. Fire, Meanang. A stone, Walba. Sand, Yowall. A rope, Gurka. A man, Bama. A male turtle, Poinga. A female, Mameingo. A canoe, Marigan. To paddle, Pelenyo. Sit down, Takai. Smooth, Mier Carrar. A dog, Cotta, or Kota. A loriquet, Perpere, or pier-pier. Blood, Garmbe. Wood, Yocou. The bone in the nose, Tapool. A bag, Charngala. Arms, Aco, or Acol. Thumb, Eboorbalga. The fore, middle, and ring fingers, Egalbaiga. The little finger, Nakil, or Eboornakil. The sky, Kere, or Kearre. A father, Dunjo. A son, Jumurre. A great cockle, Moingo.* Cocos, yams, Maracotu. Expressions, as we supposed, of admiration, which they continually used when they were in company with us. Cherr, Cherco, Yarcaw, Tut, tut, tut, tut, I shall now quit this country, with a few observations relative to the currents and tides upon the coast. From latitude 32°, and somewhat higher, down to Sandy Cape, in latitude 24° 46′, we constantly sound a current setting to the southward, at the rate of about ten or fifteen miles a day, being more or less, according to our distance from the land, for it always ran with more force in shore than in the offing; but I could never satisfy myself whether the flood-tide came from the southward, the eastward, or the northward: I inclined to the opinion that it came from the south-east, but the first time we anchored off the coast, which was in latitude 24° 30′, about ten leagues to the south east of Bustard Bay, I found it come from the north west; on the contrary, thirty leagues farther to the north west, on the south side of Keppel Bay, I found that it came from the east, and at the northern part of that Bay it came from the northward, but with a much slower motion than it had come from the east: on the east side of the Bay of Inlets, it set strongly to the westward, as far as the opening of Broad Sound; but on the north side of that Sound, it came with a very slow motion from the north west; and when we lay at anchor before 〈◊〉 Bay, it came from the northward:* to account for its course in all this variety of directions, we need only admit that the flood-tide comes from the east or south east. It is well known, that where there are deep inlets, and large creeks into low lands, running up from the sea, and not occasioned by rivers of fresh water, there will always be a great indraught of the flood-tide, the direction of which will be determined by the position or direction of the coast which forms the entrance of such inlet, whatever be its course at sea; and where the tides are weak, which upon this coast is generally the case, a large inlet will, if I may be allowed the expression, attract the flood-tide for many leagues. --page 1074

A view of the chart will at once illustrate this position. To the northward of Whitsunday's Passage there is no large inlet, consequently the flood sets to the northward, or north westward, according to the direction of the coast, and the ebb to the south, or south eastward, at least such is their course at a little distance from the land, for very near it they will be influenced by small inlets. I also observed, that we had only one high tide in twenty-four hours, which happened in the night. The difference between the perpendicular rise of the water in the day and the night, when there is a spring-tide, is no less than three feet, which, where the tides are so inconsiderable as they are here, is a great proportion of the whole difference between high and low water. This irregularity of the tides, which is worthy of notice, we did not discover till we were run ashore, and perhaps farther to the northward it is still greater: after we got within the reef the second time, we found the tides more considerable than we had ever done before, except in the Bay of Inlets, and possibly this may be owing to the water being more confined between the shoals; here also the flood sets to the north west,* and continues in the same direction to the extremity of New Wales, from whence its direction is west and south west into the Indian sea. --page 1075

IN the afternoon of Thursday August the 23d,* after leaving Booby Island, we steered W. N. W. with light airs from the S. S. W. till five o'clock, when it fell calm, and the tide of ebb soon after setting to the N. E. we came to an anchor in eight fathom water, with a soft sandy bottom. Booby Island bore S. 50 E. distant five miles, and the Prince of Wales's Isles extended from N. E. by N. to S. 55 E.; between these there appeared to be a clear open passage, extending from N. 46 E. to E. by N. --page 1076

At half an hour after five, in the morning of the 24th,* as we were purchasing the anchor, the cable parted at about eight or ten fathom from the ring: the ship then began to drive, but I immediately dropped another anchor, which brought her up before she got more than a cable's length from the buoy; the boats were then sent to sweep for the anchor, but could not succeed. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 10° 30′ S. As I was resolved not to leave the anchor behind, while there remained a possibility of recovering it, I sent the boats again after dinner, with a small line, to discover where it lay; this being happily effected, we swept for it with a hawser, and by the same hawser hove the ship up to it: we proceeded to weigh it, but just as we were about to ship it,* the hawser slipped, and we had all our labour to repeat: by this time it was dark, and we were obliged to suspend our operations till the morning. --page 1077

*As soon as it was light, we sweeped it again, and heaved it to the bows: by eight o'clock, we weighed the other anchor, got under sail, and, with a fine breeze at E. N. E. stood to the north west. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 10° 18′ S. longitude 219° 39′ W. At this time, we had no land in sight, but about two miles to the southward of us lay a large shoal, upon which the sea broke with great violence, and part of which, I believe, is dry at low water. It extends N. W. and S. E. and is about five leagues in circuit. Our depth of water, from the time we weighed till now, was nine fathom, but it soon shallowed to seven fathom; and at half an hour after one, having run eleven miles between noon and that time, the boat which was a-head made the signal for shoal water; we immediately let go an anchor, and brought the ship up with all the sails standing, for the boat having just been relieved, was at but a little distance: upon looking out from the ship, we saw shoal water almost all round us, both wind and tide at the same time setting upon it. The ship was in six fathom, but upon sounding round her, at the distance of half a cable's length, we found scarcely two. This shoal reached from the east, round by the north and west, as far as the south west, so that there was no way for us to get clear but that which we came. This was another hair's-breadth escape, for it was near high water, and there run a short cockling sea, which must very soon have bulged the ship if she had struck; and if her direction had been half a cable's length more either to the right or left, she must have struck before the signal for the shoal was made. The shoals which, like these, lie a fathom or two under water, are the most dangerous of any, for they do not discover themselves till the vessel is just upon them,* and then indeed the water looks brown, as if it reflected a dark cloud. Between three and four o'clock the tide of ebb began to make, and I sent the Master to sound to the southward and south westward, and in the mean time, as the ship tended, I weighed anchor, and with a little sail stood first to the southward, and afterwards edging away to the westward, got once more out of danger. At sunset, we anchored in ten fathom, with a sandy bottom, having a fresh gale at E. S. E. --page 1078

At six in the morning, we weighed again and stood west,* having, as usual, first sent a boat ahead to sound. I had intended to steer N. W. till I had made the south coast of New Guinea, designing, if possible, to touch upon it; but upon meeting with these shoals, I altered my course, in hopes of finding a clearer channel, and deeper water. In this I succeeded, for by noon our depth of water was gradually increased to seventeen fathom. Our latitude was now by observation 10° 10′ S.; and our longitude 220° 12′ W. No land was in sight. We continued to steer west till sunset, our depth of water being from twenty-seven to twenty-three fathom: we then shortened sail, and kept upon a wind all night; four hours on one tack, and four on another. At day-light, we made all the sail we could,* and steered W. N. W. till eight o'clock, and then N. W. At noon, our latitude by observation was 9° 56′ S.; longitude 221° W.; variation 2° 30′ E. We continued our N. W. course till sunset, when we again shortened sail, and hauled close upon a wind to the northward: our depth of water was twenty-one fathom. At eight, we tacked and stood to the southward till twelve; then stood to the northward with little sail till day-light:* our soundings were from twenty-five to seventeen fathom, the water growing gradually shallow as we stood to the northward. At this time we made sail and stood to the north,* in order to make the land of New Guinea: from the time of making sail till noon, the depth of water gradually decreased from seventeen to twelve fathom, with a stoney and shelly bottom. Our latitude by observation was now 8° 52′ S. which is in the same parallel as that in which the southern parts of New Guinea are laid down in the charts; but there are only two points so far to the south, and I reckoned that we were a degree to the westward of them both, and therefore did not see the land, which trends more to the northward. We found the sea here to be in many parts covered with a brown scum, such as sailors generally call spawn. When I first saw it, I was alarmed, fearing that we were among shoals; but upon sounding, we found the same depth of water as in other places. This scum was examined both by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, but they could not determine what it was: it was formed of innumerable small particles, not more than half a line in length, each of which in the microscope appeared to consist of thirty or forty tubes; and each tube was divided through its whole length by small partitions into many cells, like the tubes of the conferva: they were supposed to belong to the vegetable kingdom, because upon burning them they produced no smell like that of an animal substance. The same appearance had been observed upon the coast of Brazil and New Holland, but never at any considerable distance from the shore. In the evening a small bird hovered about the ship, and at night, settling among the rigging, was taken. It proved to be exactly the same bird which Dampier has described, and of which he has given a rude figure, by the name of a Noddy from New Holland. [See his Voyages, vol. iii. p. 98. Tab. of Birds, Fig. 5.] --page 1079

We continued standing to the northward with a fresh gale at E. by E. and S.E. till six in the evening,* having very irregular soundings, the depth changing at once from twenty-four fathom to seven. At four, we had seen the land from the mast-head, bearing N.W. by N.; it appeared to be very low, and to stretch from W.N.W. to N.N.E. distant four or five leagues. We now hauled close upon a wind till seven, then tacked and stood to the southward till twelve, at which time we wore and stood to the northward till four in the morning, then laid the head of the vessel off till day-light,* when we again saw the land, and stood in N.N.W. directly for it, with a fresh gale at E. by S. Our soundings during the night were very irregular from seven to five fathom, suddenly changing from deep to shallow, and from shallow to deep, without in the least corresponding with our distance from the land. At half an hour after six in the morning a small low island, which lay at the distance of about a league from the main, bore N. by W. distant five miles: this island lies in latitude 8° 13′ S., longitude 221° 25′ W.; and I find it laid down in the charts by the names of Bartholomew and Whermoysen. We now steered N.W. by W. W.N.W. W. by N. W. by S. and S.W. by W. as we found the land lie, with from five to nine fathom; and though we reckoned we were not more than four leagues from it, yet it was so low and level that we could but just see it from the deck. It appeared however to be well covered with wood, and among other trees, we thought we could distinguish the cocoa-nut. We saw smoke in several places, and therefore knew there were inhabitants. At noon we were about three leagues from the land; the westermost part of which that was in sight bore S. 79° W. Our latitude by observation was 8° 19′ S. and longitude 221° 44′ W. The island of St. Bartholomew bore N. 74 E. distant 20 miles. --page 1080

*After steering S.W. by W. six miles, we had shoal water on our starboard bow, which I sent the yawl to sound, and at the same time hauled off upon a wind till four o'clock, and though during that time we had run six miles, we had not deepened our water an inch. I then edged away S.W. four miles more; but finding it still shoal water, I brought to and called the boats aboard. At this time, being between three and four leagues from the shore, and the yawl having found only three fathom water in the place to which I had sent her to sound, I hauled off close upon a wind, and weathered the shoal about half a mile. --page 1081

Between one and two o'clock, we passed a bay or inlet before which lies a small island that seems to shelter it from the southerly winds; but I very much doubt whether there is sufficient depth of water behind it for shipping. I could not attempt to determine the question, because the S.E. trade wind blows right into the bay, and we had not as yet had any breeze from the land. --page 1082

We stretched off to sea till twelve o'clock, when we were about eleven leagues from the land, and had deepened our water to twenty-nine fathom. We now tacked and stood in till five in the morning;* when, being in six fathom and an half, we tacked and laid the head of the vessel off till day-light, when we saw the land, bearing N.W. by W. at about the distance of four leagues. We now made sail, and steered first W.S.W. then W. by S.; but coming into five fathom and an half, we hauled off S. W. till we deepened our water to eight fathom, and then kept away W. by S. and W. having nine fathom, and the land just in sight from the deck; we judged it to be about four leagues distant, and it was still very low and woody. Great quantities of the brown scum continued to appear upon the water, and the sailors, having given up the notion of its being spawn,* found a new name for it, and called it Sea-saw-dust. At noon, our latitude by observation was 8° 30′ S.; our longitude 222° 34′ W.; and Saint Bartholomew's isle bore N. 69 E. distant seventy-four miles. --page 1083

As all this coast appears to have been very minutely examined by the Dutch, and as our track with the soundings will appear by the chart, it is sufficient to say, that we continued our course to the northward with very shallow water, upon a bank of mud, at such a distance from the shore as that it could scarcely be seen from the ship, till the 3d of September. During this time we made many attempts to get near enough to go on shore, but without success; and having now lost six days of fair wind, at a time when we knew the south east monsoon to be nearly at an end, we began to be impatient of farther delay, and determined to run the ship in as near to the shore as possible, and then land with the pinnace, while she kept plying off and on, to examine the produce of the country, and the disposition of the inhabitants. For the two last days we had early in the morning a light breeze from the shore, which was strongly impregnated with the fragrance of the trees, shrubs, and herbage that covered it, the smell being something like that of Gum Benjamin. On the 3d of September, at day-break,* we saw the land extending from N. by E. to S.E. at about four leagues distance, and we then kept standing in for it with a fresh gale at E.S.E. and E. by S. till nine o'clock, when being within about three or four miles of it, and in three fathom water, we brought to. The pinnace being hoisted out, I set off from the ship with the boat's crew, accompanied by Mr. Banks, who also took his servants, and Dr. Solander, being in all twelve persons well armed; we rowed directly towards the shore,* but the water was so shallow that we could not reach it by about two hundred yards: we waded however the rest of the way, having left two of the seamen to take care of the boat. Hitherto we had seen no signs of inhabitants at this place; but as soon as we got ashore we discovered the prints of human feet, which could not long have been impressed upon the sand, as they were below high-water mark: we therefore concluded that the people were at no great distance, and, as a thick wood came down within a hundred yards of the water, we thought it necessary to proceed with caution, lest we should fall into an ambuscade and our retreat to the boat be cut off. We walked along the skirts of the wood, and at the distance of about two hundred yards from the place where we landed, we came to a grove of cocoa-nut trees, which stood upon the banks of a little brook of brackish water. The trees were of a small growth, but well hung with fruit; and near them was a shed or hut, which had been covered with their leaves, though most of them were now fallen off: about the hut lay a great number of the shells of the fruit, some of which appeared to be just fresh from the tree. We looked at the fruit very wishfully, but not thinking it safe to climb, we were obliged to leave it without tasting a single nut. At a little distance from this place we found plantains, and a breadfruit tree, but it had nothing upon it; and having now advanced about a quarter of a mile from the boat, three Indians rushed out of the wood with a hideous shout, at about the distance of a hundred yards; and as they ran towards us, the foremost threw something out of his hand, which slew on one side of him, and burnt exactly like gunpowder, but made no report: the other two instantly threw their lances at us; and, as no time was now to be lost, we discharged our pieces, which were loaded with small shot.* It is probable that they did not feel the shot, for though they halted a moment, they did not retreat; and a third dart was thrown at us. As we thought their farther approach might be prevented with less risk of life, than it would cost to defend ourselves against their attack if they should come nearer, we loaded our pieces with ball, and fired a second time: by this discharge it is probable that some of them were wounded; yet we had the satisfaction to see that they all ran away with great agility. As I was not disposed forcibly to invade this country, either to gratify our appetites or our curiosity, and perceived that nothing was to be done upon friendly terms, we improved this interval, in which the destruction of the natives was no longer necessary to our own defence, and with all expedition returned towards our boat. As we were advancing along the shore, we perceived that the two men on board made signals that more Indians were coming down; and before we got into the water we saw several of them coming round a point at the distance of about five hundred yards: it is probable that they had met with the three who first attacked us; for as soon as they saw us they halted, and seemed to wait till their main body should come up. We entered the water, and waded towards the boat; and they remained at their station, without giving us any interruption. As soon as we were aboard we rowed abreast of them, and their number then appeared to be between sixty and a hundred. We now took a view of them at our leisure; they made much the same appearance as the New Hollanders, being nearly of the same stature, and having their hair short cropped: like them also they were all stark naked, but we thought the colour of their skin was not quite so dark; this however might perhaps be merely the effect of their not being quite so dirty. All this while they were shouting defiance, and letting off their fires by four or five at a time.* What these fires were, or for what purpose intended, we could not imagine: those who discharged them had in their hands a short piece of stick, possibly a hollow cane, which they swung sideways from them, and we immediately saw fire and smoke, exactly resembling those of a musquet, and of no longer duration. This wonderful phaenomenon was observed from the ship, and the deception was so great that the people on board thought they had fire-arms; and in the boat, if we had not been so near as that we must have heard the report, we should have thought they had been firing volleys. After we had looked at them attentively some time, without taking any notice of their flashing and vociferation, we fired some musquets over their heads: upon hearing the balls rattle among the trees, they walked leisurely away, and we returned to the ship. Upon examining the weapons they had thrown at us, we found them to be light darts, about four feet long, very ill made, of a reed or bamboo cane, and pointed with hard wood, in which there were many barbs. They were discharged with great force; for though we were at sixty yards distance, they went beyond us, but in what manner we could not exactly see: possibly they might be shot with a bow; but we saw no bows among them when we surveyed them from the boat, and we were in general of opinion that they were thrown with a stick, in the manner practised by the New Hollanders. --page 1084

This place lies in the latitude of 6° 15′ S. and about sixty-five leagues to the N. E. of Port Saint Augustine, or Walche Caep, and is near what is called in the charts C. de la Colta de St. Bonaventura. The land here, like that in every other part of the coast is very low, but covered with a luxuriance of wood and herbage that can scarcely be conceived. We saw the cocoa-nut, the bread-fruit, and the plantain tree,* all flourishing in a state of the highest perfection, though the cocoa-nuts were green, and the bread-fruit not in season; besides most of the trees, shrubs, and plants that are common to the South Sea islands, New Zealand, and New Holland. --page 1085

Soon after our return to the ship, we hoisted in the boat and made sail to the westward, being resolved to spend no more time upon this coast, to the great satisfaction of a very considerable majority of the ship's company. But I am sorry to say that I was strongly urged by some of the officers to send a party of men ashore, and cut down the cocoa-nut trees for the sake of the fruit. This I peremptorily refused, as equally unjust and cruel. The natives had attacked us merely for landing upon their coast, when we attempted to take nothing away, and it was therefore morally certain that they would have made a vigorous effort to defend their property if it had been invaded, in which case many of them must have fallen a sacrifice to our attempt, and perhaps also some of our own people. I should have regretted the necessity of such a measure, if I had been in want of the necessaries of life; and certainly it would have been highly criminal when nothing was to be obtained but two or three hundred of green cocoa-nuts, which would at most have procured us a mere transient gratification. I might indeed have proceeded farther along the coast to the northward and westward, in search of a place where the ship might have lain so near the shore as to cover the people with her guns when they landed; but this would have obviated only part of the mischief, and though it might have secured us, it would probably in the very act have been fatal to the natives. Besides, we had reason to think that before such a place would have been found,* we should have been carried so far to the westward as to have been obliged to go to Batavia, on the north side of Java; which I did not think so safe a passage as to the south of Java, through the Streights of Sunday: the ship also was so leaky that I doubted whether it would not be necessary to heave her down at Batavia, which was another reason for making the best of our way to that place; especially as no discovery could be expected in seas which had already been navigated, and where every coast had been laid down by the Dutch geographers. The Spaniards indeed, as well as the Dutch, seem to have circumnavigated all the islands in New Guinea, as almost every place that is distinguished in the chart has a name in both languages. The charts with which I compared such part of this coast as I visited, are bound up with a French work, intitled, "Histoire des Navigationes aux Terres Australes," which was published in 1756, and I found them tolerably exact; yet I know not by whom, nor when they were taken: and though New Holland and New Guinea are in them represented as two distinct countries, the very history in which they are bound up, leaves it in doubt. I pretend however to no more merit in this part of the voyage, than to have established the fact beyond all controversy. --page 1086

As the two countries lie very near each other, and the intermediate space is full of islands, it is reasonable to suppose that they were both peopled from one common stock: yet no intercourse appears to have been kept up between them; for if there had, the cocoa-nuts, bread-fruit, plantains, and other fruits of New Guinea, which are equally necessary for the support of life, would certainly have been transplanted to New Holland, where no traces of them are to be found. The Author of the "Histoire des Navigationes aux Terres Australes," in his account of La Maire's voyage,* has given a vocabulary of the language that is spoken in an island near New Britain, and we find, by comparing that vocabulary with the words which we learnt in New Holland, that the languages are not the same. If therefore it should appear, that the languages of New Britain and New Guinea are the same, there will be reason to suppose that New Britain and New Guinea were peopled from a common stock; but that the inhabitants of New Holland had a different origin, notwithstanding the proximity of the countries. --page 1087

*WE made sail, from noon on Monday the 3d to noon on Tuesday the 4th, standing to the westward, and all the time kept in soundings, having from fourteen to thirty fathom; not regular, but sometimes more, sometimes less. At noon on the 4th, we were in fourteen fathom, and latitude 6° 44′ S., longitude 223° 51′ W.; our course and distance since the 3d at noon, were S. 76 W. one hundred and twenty miles to the westward.* At noon on the 5th of September, we were in latitude 7° 25′ S., longitude 225° 41′ W.; having been in soundings the whole time from ten to twenty fathom. --page 1088

*At half an hour after one in the morning of the next day, we passed a small island which bore from us N. N. W. distant between three and four miles; and at day-light we discovered another low island, extending from N.N.W. to N.N.E. distant about two or three leagues. Upon this island, which did not appear to be very small, I believe I should have landed to examine its produce, if the wind had not blown too fresh to admit of it. When we passed this island we had only ten fathom water, with a rocky bottom; and therefore I was afraid of running down to leeward, lest I should meet with shoal water and foul ground. These islands have no place in the charts except they are the Arrou islands; and if these, they are laid down much too far from New Guinea.* I found the south part of them to lie in latitude 7° 6′ S., longitude 225° W. --page 1089

We continued to steer W. S. W. at the rate of four miles and an half an hour, till ten o'clock at night, when we had forty-two fathom, at eleven we had thirty-seven, at twelve forty-five, at one in the morning forty-nine, and at three 120, after which we had no ground. At day-light, we made all the sail we could, and at ten o'clock, saw land, extending from N. N. W. to W. by N. distant between five and six leagues: at noon, it bore from N. to W. and at about the same distance: it appeared to be level, and of a moderate height: by our distance from New Guinea, it ought to have been part of the Arrou Islands, but it lies a degree farther to the south than any of these islands are laid down in the charts; and by the latitude should be Timor Laoet: we sounded, but had no ground with fifty fathom. --page 1090

As I was not able to satisfy myself from any chart, what land it was that I saw to leeward, and fearing that it might trend away more southerly, the weather also being so hazy that we could not see far, I steered S. W. and by four had lost sight of the island. I was now sure that no part of it lay to the southward of 8° 15′ S. and continued standing to the S. W. with an easy sail, and a fresh breeze at S. E. by E. and E. S. E.: we sounded every hour, but had no bottom with 120 fathom. --page 1091

At day-break in the morning,* we steered W. S. W. and afterwards W. by S. which by noon brought us into the latitude of 9° 30′ S. longitude 229° 34′ W. and by our run from New Guinea, we ought to have been within sight of Weasel Isles, which in the charts are laid down at the distance of twenty or twenty-five leagues from the coast of New Holland; we however saw nothing,* and therefore they must have been placed erroneously; nor can this be thought strange, when it is considered that not only these islands, but the coast which bounds this sea, have been discovered and explored by different people, and at different times, and the charts upon which they are delineated, put together by others, perhaps at the distance of more than a century after the discoveries had been made; not to mention that the discoverers themselves had not all the requisites for keeping an accurate journal, of which those of the present age are possessed. --page 1092

*We continued our course, steering W. till the evening of the 8th, when the variation of the compass, by several azimuths, was 12′ W. and by the amplitude 5′ W. At noon, on the 9th,* our latitude, by observation, was 9° 46′ S., longitude 232° 7′ W. For the last two days we had steered due W. yet, by observation, we made sixteen miles southing, six miles from noon on the 6th to noon on the 7th, and ten miles from noon on the 7th to noon on the 8th, by which it appeared that there was a current setting to the southward. At sunset, we found the variation to be 2 W. and at the same time, saw an appearance of very high land bearing N. W. --page 1093

*In the morning of the 10th, we saw clearly that what had appeared to be land the night before, was Timor. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 10° 1′ S. which was fifteen miles to the southward of that given by the log; our longitude, by observation, was 233° 27′ W. We steered N. W. in order to obtain a more distinct view of the land in sight, till four o'clock in the morning of the 11th,* when the wind came to the N. W. and W. with which we stood to the southward till nine, when we tacked and stood N. W. having the wind now at W. S. W. At sun-rise, the land had appeared to extend from W. N. W. to N. E. and at noon, we could see it extend to the westward as far as W. by S. ½ S. but no farther to the eastward than N. by E. We were now well assured,* that as the first land we had seen was Timor, the last island we had passed was Timor Laoet, or Laut. Laoet, is a word in the language of Malaca, signifying Sea, and this island was named by the inhabitants of that country. The south part of it lies in latitude 8° 15° S. longitude 228° 10′ W. but in the charts the south point is laid down in various latitudes, from 8° 30′ to 9° 30′: it is indeed possible that the land we saw might be some other island, but the presumption to the contrary is very strong, for if Timor Laut had lain where it is placed in the charts, we must have seen it there. We were now in latitude 9° 37′ S.; longitude, by an observation of the sun and moon, 233° 54′ W. we were the day before in 233° 27′; the difference is 27′, exactly the same that was given by the log: this, however, is a degree of accuracy in observation that is seldom to be expected. In the afternoon, we stood in shore till eight in the evening, when we tacked and stood off, being at the distance of about three leagues from the land, which at sun-set extended from S. W. ½ W. to N. E.: at this time we sounded, and had no ground with 140 fathom. At midnight, having but little wind,* we tacked and stood in, and at noon the next day, our latitude, by observation, was 9° 36′ S. This day, we saw smoke on shore in several places, and had seen many fires during the night. The land appeared to be very high, rising in gradual slopes one above another: the hills were in general covered with thick woods, but among them we could distinguish naked spots of a considerable extent, which had the appearance of having been cleared by art. At five o'clock in the afternoon, we were within a mile and a half of the shore, in sixteen fathom water, and abreast of a small inlet into the low land, which lies in latitude 9° 34′S. and probably is the same that Dampier entered with his boat,* for it did not seem to have sufficient depth of water for a ship. The land here answered well to the description that he has given of it: close to the beach it was covered with high spiry trees, which he mentions as having the appearance of pines; behind these there seemed to be salt water creeks, and many mangroves, interspersed however with cocoa-nut trees: the flat land at the beach appeared in some places to extend inward two or three miles before the rise of the first hill; in this part, however, we saw no appearance of plantations or houses, but great fertility, and from the number of fires, we judged that the place must be well peopled. --page 1094

When we had approached within a mile and an half of the shore, we tacked and stood off, and the extreams of the coast then extended from N. E. by E. to W. by S. ½ S. The south westerly extremity was a low point, distant from us about three leagues. While we were standing in for the shore, we sounded several times, but had no ground till we came within about two miles and a half, and then we had five and twenty fathom, with a soft bottom. After we had tacked, we stood off till midnight, with the wind at S.; we then tacked and stood two hours to the westward, when the wind veered to S. W. and W. S. W. and we then stood to the southward again.* In the morning, we found the variation to be 1° 10′ W. by the amplitude, and by the azimuth 1° 27′. At noon, our latitude was, by observation, 9° 45′ S. our longitude 234° 12′W.; we were then about seven leagues distant from the land, which extended from N. 31 E. to W. S. W. ½ W. --page 1095

With light land breezes from W. by N. for a few hours in a morning, and sea breezes from S. S. W. and S. we advanced to the westward but slowly.* At noon on the 14th, we were between six and seven leagues from the land, which extended from N. by E. to S. 78 W.;* we still saw smoke in many places by day, and sire by night, both upon the low land and the mountains beyond it. We continued steering along the shore, till the morning of the 15th,* the land still appearing hilly, but not so high as it had been: the hills in general came quite down to the sea, and where they did not, we saw instead of flats and mangrove land, immense groves of cocoa-nut trees, reaching about a mile up from the beach: there the plantations and houses commenced, and appeared to be innumerable. The houses were shaded by groves of the fan palm, or borassus, and the plantations, which were inclosed by a fence, reached almost to the tops of the highest hills. We saw however neither people nor cattle, though our glasses were continually employed, at which we were not a little surprised. --page 1096

We continued our course, with little variation, till nine o'clock in the morning of the 16th,* when we saw the small island called ROTTE; and at noon, the island SEMAU, lying off the south end of Timor, bore N. W. --page 1097

Dampier, who has given a large description of the island of Timor, says, that it is seventy leagues long, and sixteen broad, and that it lies nearly N. E. and S. W. I found the east side of it to lie nearest N. E. by E. and S. W. by W. and the south end to lie in latitude 10° 23′ S. longitude 236° 5′ W. We ran about forty-five leagues along the east side, and found the navigation altogether free from danger. The land which is bounded by the sea, except near the south end, is low for two or three miles within the beach, and in general intersected by salt creeks: behind the low land are mountains, which rise one above another to a considerable height. We steered W. N. W. till two in the afternoon, when, being within a small distance of the north end of Rotte, we hauled up N. N. W. in order to go between it and Semau:* after steering three leagues upon this course, we edged away N. W. and W. and by six, we were clear of all the islands. At this time, the south part of Semau, which lies in latitude 10° 15′ S. bore N. E. distant four leagues, and the island of Rotte extended as far to the southward as S. 36 W. The north end of this island, and the south end of Timor, lie N. ½ E. and S. ½ W. and are about three or four leagues distant from each other. At the west end of the passage between Rotte and Semau, are two small islands, one of which lies near the Rotte shore, and the other off the south west point of Semau: there is a good channel between them, about six miles broad, through which we passed. The isle of Rotte has not so lofty and mountainous an appearance as Timor, though it is agreeably diversified by hill and valley: on the north side, there are many sandy beaches, near which grew some trees of the fan palm, but the far greater part was covered with a kind of brushy wood, that was without leaves. The appearance of Semau was nearly the same with that of Timor, but not quite so high. About ten o'clock at night, we observed a phaenomenon in the heavens, which in many particulars resembled the aurora borealis, and in others, was very different: it consisted of a dull reddish light, and reached about twenty degrees above the horizon: its extent was very different at different times, but it was never less than eight or ten points of the compass: through, and out of this, passed rays of light of a brighter colour, which vanished, and were renewed nearly in the same time as those of the aurora borealis, but had no degree of the tremulous or vibratory motion which is observed in that phaenomenon: the body of it bore S. S. E. from the ship, and it continued, without any diminution of its brightness, till twelve o'clock, when we retired to sleep, but how long afterwards,* I cannot tell. --page 1098

Being clear of all the islands,* which are laid down in the maps we had on board, between Timor and Java, we steered a west course till six o'clock the next morning, when we unexpectedly saw an island bearing W. S. W. and at first I thought we had made a new discovery. We steered directly for it, and by ten o'clock were close in with the north side of it, where we saw houses, cocoa-nut trees, and, to our very agreeable surprise, numerous flocks of sheep. This was a temptation not to be resisted by people in our situation, especially as many of us were in a bad state of health, and many still repining at my not having touched at Timor: it was therefore soon determined to attempt a commerce with people who appeared to be so well able to supply our many necessities, and remove at once the sickness and discontent that had got footing among us. The pinnace was hoisted out, and Mr. Gore, the Second Lieutenant, sent to see if there was any convenient place to land, taking with him some trifles, as presents to the natives, if any of them should appear. While he was gone, we saw from the ship two men on horseback, who seemed to be riding upon the hills for their amusement, and often stopped to look at the ship. By this we knew that the place had been settled by Europeans, and hoped, that the many disagreeable circumstances which always attend the first establishment of commerce with savages, would be avoided. In the mean time, Mr. Gore landed in a small sandy cove near some houses, and was met by eight or ten of the natives, who, as well in their dress as their persons, very much resembled the Malays: they were without arms, except the knives which it is their custom to wear in their girdles, and one of them had a jack ass with him: they courteously invited him ashore, and conversed with him by signs,* but very little of the meaning of either party could be understood by the other. In a short time he returned with this report, and, to our great mortification, added, that there was no anchorage for the ship. I sent him however a second time, with both money and goods, that he might, if possible, purchase some refreshments, at least for the sick; and Dr. Solander went in the boat with him. In the mean time I kept standing on and off with the ship, which at this time was within about a mile of the shore. Before the boat could land, we saw two other horsemen, one of whom was in a complete European dress, consisting of a blue coat, a white waistcoat, and a laced hat: these people, when the boat came to the shore, took little notice of her, but sauntered about, and seemed to look with great curiosity at the ship. We saw however other horsemen, and a great number of persons on foot, gather round our people, and, to our great satisfaction, perceived several cocoa-nuts carried into the boat, from which we concluded that peace and commerce were established between us. --page 1099

After the boat had been ashore about an hour and a half, she made the signal for having intelligence that there was a bay to leeward, where we might anchor: we stood away directly for it, and the boat following, soon came on board. The Lieutenant told us, that he had seen some of the principal people, who were dressed in fine linen, and had chains of gold round their necks: he said, that he had not been able to trade, because the owner of the cocoa-nuts was absent, but that about two dozen had been sent to the boat as a present, and that some linen had been accepted in return. The people, to give him the information that he wanted, drew a map upon the sand, in which they made a rude representation of a harbour to leeward, and a town near it: they also gave him to understand, that sheep, hogs, fowls, and fruit might there be procured in great plenty.* Some of them frequently pronounced the word Portuguese, and said something of Larntuca, upon the island of Ende: from this circumstance, we conjectured that there were Portuguese somewhere upon the island, and a Portuguese, who was in our boat, attempted to converse with the Indians in that language, but soon found that they knew only a word or two of it by rote: one of them however, when they were giving our people to understand that there was a town near the harbour to which they had directed us, intimated, that as a token of going right, we should see somewhat, which he expressed by crossing his fingers, and the Portuguese instantly conceived that he meant to express a cross. Just as our people were putting off, the horseman in the European dress came up, but the officer not having his commission about him, thought it best to decline a conference. --page 1100

At seven o'clock in the evening, we came to an anchor in the bay to which we had been directed, at about the distance of a mile from the shore, in thirty-eight fathom water, with a clear sandy bottom. The north point of the bay bore N. 30 E. distant two miles and an half, and the south point, or west end of the island, bore S. 63 W. Just as we got round the north point, and entered the bay, we discovered a large Indian town or village, upon which we stood on, hoisting a jack on the fore top-mast head: soon after, to our great surprize, Dutch colours were hoisted in the town, and three guns fired; we stood on, however, till we had soundings, and then anchored. --page 1101

As soon as it was light in the morning,* we saw the same colours hoisted upon the beach, abreast of the ship; supposing therefore that the Dutch had a settlement here, I sent Lieutenant Gore ashore, to wait upon the Governor, or the chief person residing upon the spot,* and acquaint him who we were, and for what purpose we had touched upon the coast. As soon as he came ashore, he was received by a guard of between twenty and thirty Indians, armed with muskets, who conducted him to the town, where the colours had been hoisted the night before, carrying with them those that had been hoisted upon the beach, and marching without any military regularity. As soon as he arrived, he was introduced to the Raja, or King of the island, and by a Portuguese interpreter, told him, that the ship was a man of war belonging to the King of Great Britain, and that she had many sick on board, for whom he wanted to purchase such refreshments as the island afforded. His Majesty replied, that he was willing to supply us with whatever we wanted, but, that being in alliance with the Dutch East India Company, he was not at liberty to trade with any other people, without having first procured their consent, for which, however, he said he would immediately apply to a Dutchman who belonged to the company, and who was the only white man upon the island. To this man, who resided at some distance, a letter was immediately dispatched, acquainting him with our arrival and request: in the mean time, Mr. Gore dispatched a messenger to me, with an account of his situation, and the state of the treaty. In about three hours, the Dutch resident answered the letter that had been sent him, in person: he proved to be a native of Saxony, and his name is Johan Christopher Lange, and the same person whom we had seen on horseback in a European dress: he behaved with great civility to Mr. Gore, and assured him, that we were at liberty to purchase of the natives whatever we pleased. After a short time, he expressed a desire of coming on board, so did the king also, and several of his attendants: Mr. Gore intimated that he was ready to attend them, but they desired that two of our people might be left ashore as hostages, and in this also they were indulged.* --page 1102

About two o'clock, they all came aboard the ship, and our dinner being ready, they accepted our invitation to partake of it: I expected them immediately to sit down, but the King seemed to hesitate, and at last, with some confusion, said he did not imagine that we, who were white men, would suffer him, who was of a different colour, to sit down in our company; a compliment soon removed his scruples, and we all sat down together with great cheerfulness and cordiality: happily we were at no loss for interpreters, both Dr. Solander and understanding Dutch enough to keep up a conversation with Mr. Lange, and several of the seamen were able to converse with such of the natives as spoke Portuguese. Our dinner happened to be mutton, and the King expressed a desire of having an English sheep; we had but one left, however that was presented to him: the facility with which this was procured, encouraged him to ask for an English dog, and Mr. Banks politely gave up his greyhound: Mr. Lange then intimated that a spying-glass would be acceptable, and one was immediately put into his hand. Our guests then told us that the island abounded with buffaloes, sheep, hogs, and fowls, plenty of which should be driven down to the beach the next day, that we might purchase as many of them as we should think fit: this put us all into high spirits, and the liquor circulated rather faster than either the Indians or the Saxon could bear; they intimated their desire to go away, however, before they were quite drunk, and were received upon deck, as they had been when they came aboard, by the marines under arms. The King expressed a curiosity to see them exercise, in which he was gratified, and they sired three rounds: he looked at them with great attention, and was much surprised at their regularity and expedition,* especially in cocking their pieces; the first time they did it, he struck the side of the ship with a stick that he had in his hand, and cried out with great vehemence, that all the locks made but one click. They were dismissed with many presents, and when they went away saluted with nine guns: Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went ashore with them; and as soon as they put off they gave us three cheers. --page 1103

Our Gentlemen, when they came ashore, walked up with them to the town, which consists of many houses, and some of them are large; they are however nothing more than a thatched roof, supported over a boarded floor, by pillars about four feet high. They produced some of their palm-wine, which was the fresh unfermented juice of the tree; it had a sweet, but not a disagreeable taste; and hopes were conceived that it might contribute to recover our sick from the scurvy. Soon after it was dark, Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander returned on board. --page 1104

*In the morning of the 19th, I went ashore with Mr. Banks, and several of the officers and Gentlemen, to return the King's visit; but my chief business was to procure some of the buffaloes, sheep and fowls, which we had been told should be driven down to the beach. We were greatly mortified to find that no steps had been taken to fulfil this promise; however, we proceeded to the house of assembly, which with two or three more had been erected by the Dutch East India company, and are distinguished from the rest by two pieces of wood resembling a pair of cow's horns, one of which is set up at each end of the ridge that terminates the roof; and these were certainly what the Indian intended to represent by crossing his fingers, though our Portuguese, who was a good Catholic, construed the sign into a cross,* which had persuaded us that the settlement belonged to his countrymen. In this place we met Mr. Lange, and the King, whose name was A Madocho Lomi Djara, attended by many of the principal people. We told them that we had in the boat goods of various kinds, which we proposed to barter for such refreshments as they would give us in exchange, and desired leave to bring them on shore; which being granted, they were brought ashore accordingly. We then attempted to settle the price of the buffaloes, sheep, hogs, and other commodities which we proposed to purchase, and for which we were to pay in money; but as soon as this was mentioned Mr. Lange left us, telling us that these preliminaries must be settled with the natives: he said, however, that he had received a letter from the Governor of Concordia in Timor, the purport of which he would communicate to us when he returned. --page 1105

As the morning was now far advanced, and we were very unwilling to return on board and eat salt provisions, when so many delicacies surrounded us ashore, we petitioned his Majesty for liberty to purchase a small hog and some rice, and to employ his subjects to dress them for us. He answered very graciously, that if we could eat victuals dressed by his subjects, which he could scarcely suppose, he would do himself the honour of entertaining us. We expressed our gratitude, and immediately sent on board for liquors. --page 1106

About five o'clock, dinner was ready; it was served in six and thirty dishes, or rather baskets, containing alternately rice and pork; and three bowls of earthen ware, filled with the liquor in which the pork had been boiled: these were ranged upon the floor, and mats laid round them for us to sit upon. We were then conducted by turns to a hole in the floor, near which stood a man with water in a vessel, made of the leaves of the fan-palm,* who assisted us in washing our hands. When this was done, we placed ourselves round the victuals, and waited for the king. As he did not come, we enquired for him, and were told that the custom of the country did not permit the person who gave the entertainment to sit down with his guests; but that, if we suspected the victuals to be poisoned, he would come and taste it. We immediately declared that we had no such suspicion, and desired that none of the rituals of hospitality might be violated on our account. The prime minister and Mr. Lange were of our party, and we made a most luxurious meal: we thought the pork and rice excellent, and the broth not to be despised; but the spoons, which were made of leaves, were so small that few of us had patience to use them. After dinner, our wine passed briskly about, and we again enquired for our royal host, thinking that though the custom of his country would not allow him to eat with us, he might at least share in the jollity of our bottle; but he again excused himself, saying, that the master of a feast should never be drunk, which there was no certain way to avoid but by not tasting the liquor. We did not however drink our wine where we had eaten our victuals; but as soon as we had dined made room for the seamen and servants, who immediately took our places: they could not dispatch all that we had left, but the women who came to clear away the bowls and baskets, obliged them to carry away with them what they had not eaten. As wine generally warms and opens the heart, we took an opportunity, when we thought its influence began to be felt, to revive the subject of the buffaloes and sheep, of which we had not in all this time heard a syllable, though they were to have been brought down early in the morning. But our Saxon Dutchman, with great phlegm, began to communicate to us the contents of the letter which he pretended to have received from the Governor of Concordia. He said,* that after acquainting him that a vessel had steered from thence towards the island where we were now ashore, it required him, if such ship should apply for provisions in distress, to relieve her; but not to suffer her to stay longer than was absolutely necessary, nor to make any large presents to the inferior people, or to leave any with those of superior rank to be afterwards distributed among them: but he was graciously pleased to add, that we were at liberty to give beads and other trifles in exchange for petty civilities, and palm-wine. --page 1107

It was the general opinion that this letter was a fiction; that the prohibitory orders were feigned with a view to get money from us for breaking them; and that by precluding our liberality to the natives, this man hoped more easily to turn it into another channel. --page 1108

In the evening, we received intelligence from our trading-place that no buffaloes or hogs had been brought down, and only a few sheep, which had been taken away before our people, who had sent for money, could procure it. Some fowls however had been bought, and a large quantity of a kind of syrup made of the juice of the palm tree, which, though infinitely superior to molasses or treacle, sold at a very low price. We complained of our disappointment to Mr. Lange, who had now another subterfuge; he said, that if we had gone down to the beach ourselves, we might have purchased what we pleased; but that the natives were afraid to take money of our people, lest it should be counterfeit. We could not but feel some indignation against a man who had concealed this, being true; or alleged it, being false. I started up, however, and went immediately to the beach, but no cattle or sheep were to be seen, nor were any at hand to be produced.* While I was gone, Lange, who knew well enough that I should succeed no better than my people, told Mr. Banks that the natives were displeased at our not having offered them gold for their stock; and that if gold was not offered, nothing would be bought. Mr. Banks did not think it worth his while to reply, but soon after rose up, and we all returned on board, very much dissatisfied with the issue of our negociations. During the course of the day, the King had promised that some cattle and sheep should be brought down in the morning, and had given a reason for our disappointment somewhat more plausible; he said that the buffaloes were far up the country, and that there had not been time to bring them down to the beach. --page 1109

*The next morning we went ashore again: Dr. Solander went up to the town to speak to Lange, and I remained upon the beach, to see what could be done in the purchase of provisions. I found here an old Indian, who, as he appeared to have some authority, we had among ourselves called the Prime Minister; to engage this man in our interest I presented him with a spying-glass, but I saw nothing at market except one small buffalo. I enquired the price of it, and was told five guineas: this was twice as much as it was worth; however, I offered three, which I could perceive the man who treated with me thought a good price; but he said that he must acquaint the King with what I had offered before he could take it. A messenger was immediately dispatched to his Majesty, who soon returned, and said, that the buffalo would not be sold for any thing less than five guineas. This price I absolutely refused to give; and another messenger was sent away with an account of my refusal: this messenger was longer absent than the other, and while I was waiting for his return I saw, to my great astonishment, Dr. Solander coming from the town,* followed by above a hundred men, some armed with musquets and some with lances. When I enquired the meaning of this hostile appearance, the Doctor told me, that Mr. Lange had interpreted to him a message from the King, purporting that the people would not trade with us, because we had refused to give them more than half the value of what they had to sell; and that we should not be permitted to trade upon any terms longer than this day. Besides the officers who commanded the party, there came with it a man who was born at Timor, of Portuguese parents, and who, as we afterwards discovered, was a kind of colleague to the Dutch factor; by this man what they pretended to be the King's order was delivered to me, of the same purport with that which Dr. Solander had received from Lange. We were all clearly of opinion that this was a mere artifice of the factors to extort money from us, for which we had been prepared by the account of a letter from Concordia; and while we were hesitating what step to take, the Portuguese, that he might the sooner accomplish his purpose, began to drive away the people who had brought down poultry and syrup, and others that were now coming in with buffaloes and sheep. At this time, I glanced my eye upon the old man whom I had complimented in the morning with the spying-glass, and I thought, by his looks, that he did not heartily approve of what was doing; I therefore took him by the hand, and presented him with an old broad sword. This instantly turned the scale in our favour; he received the sword with a transport of joy, and flourishing it over the busy Portuguese, who crouched like a fox to a lion, he made him, and the officer who commanded the party, sit down upon the ground behind him: the people, who, whatever were the crafty pretences of these iniquitous factors for a Dutch company, were eager to supply us with whatever we wanted,* and seemed also to be more desirous of goods than money, instantly improved the advantage that had been procured them, and the market was stocked almost in an instant. To establish a trade for buffaloes, however, which I most wanted, I found it necessary to give ten guineas for two, one of which weighed no more than a hundred and sixty pounds; but I bought seven more much cheaper, and might afterwards have purchased as many as I pleased almost upon my own terms, for they were now driven down to the waterside in herds. In the first two that I bought so dear, Lange had certainly a share, and it was in hopes to obtain part of the price of others, that he had pretended we must pay for them in gold. The natives however sold what they afterwards brought down much to their satisfaction, without paying part of the price to him as a reward for exacting money from us. Most of the buffaloes that we bought, after our friend, the Prime Minister, had procured us a fair market, were sold for a musquet apiece, and at this price we might have bought as many as would have freighted our ship. --page 1110

The refreshments which we procured here, consisted of nine buffaloes, six sheep, three hogs, thirty dozen of fowls, a few limes, and some cocoa-nuts; many dozen of eggs, half of which however proved to be rotten; a little garlic, and several hundred gallons of palm-syrup. --page 1111

THIS island is called by the natives SAVU;* the middle of it lies in about the latitude 10° 35′ S., longitude 237° 30′ W.; and has in general been so little known that I never saw a map or chart in which it is clearly or accurately laid down. I have seen a very old one, in which it is called Sou, and confounded with Sandel Bosch. Rumphius mentions an island by the name of Saow; and he also says that it is the same which the Dutch call Sandel Bosch: but neither is this island, nor Timor, nor Rotte, nor indeed any one of the islands that we have seen in these seas, placed within a reasonable distance of its true situation. It is about eight leagues long from east to west; but what is its breadth, I do not know, as I saw only the north side. The harbour in which we lay is called Seba, from the district in which it lies: it is on the north west side of the island, and well sheltered from the south west trade wind, but it lies open to the north west. We were told, that there were two other bays where ships might anchor; that the best, called Timo, was on the south west side of the south east point: of the third we learnt neither the name nor situation. The sea-coast, in general, is low; but in the middle of the island there are hills of a considerable height. We were upon the coast at the latter end of the dry season, when there had been no rain for seven months; and we were told that when the dry season continues so long,* there is no running stream of fresh water upon the whole island, but only small springs, which are at a considerable distance from the sea-side: yet nothing can be imagined so beautiful as the prospect of the country from the ship. The level ground next to the sea-side was covered with cocoa-nut trees, and a kind of palm called Arecas; and beyond them the hills, which rose in a gentle and regular ascent, were richly clothed, quite to the summit, with plantations of the fan-palm, forming an almost impenetrable grove. How much even this prospect must be improved, when every foot of ground between the trees is covered with verdure, by maize, and millet and indico, can scarcely be conceived but by a powerful imagination, not unacquainted with the stateliness and beauty of the trees that adorn this part of the earth. The dry season commences in March or April, and ends in October or November. --page 1112

The principal trees of this island, are the fan-palm, the cocoa-nut, tamarind, limes, oranges, and mangoes; the other vegetable productions are maize, Guinea corn, rice, millet, callevances, and water-melons. We saw also one sugar-cane, and a few kinds of European garden-stuff; particularly cellery, marjoram, fennel, and garlic. For the supply of luxury, it has betele, areca, tobacco, cotton, indico, and a small quantity of cinnamon, which seems to be planted here only for curiosity; and indeed we doubted whether it was the genuine plant, knowing that the Dutch are very careful not to trust the spices out of their proper islands. There are however several kinds of fruit, besides those which have been already mentioned; particularly the sweet sop, which is well known to the West Indians, and a small oval fruit, called the Blimbi, both of which grow upon trees. The blimbi is about three or four inches long, and in the middle about as thick as a man's finger,* tapering towards each end: it is covered with a very thin skin of a light green colour, and in the inside are a few feeds disposed in the form of a star: its flavour is a light, clean, pleasant acid, but it cannot be eaten raw; it is said to be excellent as a pickle; and stewed, it made a most agreeable sour sauce to our boiled dishes. --page 1113

The tame animals are buffaloes, sheep, goats, hogs, fowls, pigeons, horses, asses, dogs and cats; and of all these there is great plenty. The buffaloes differ very considerably from the horned cattle of Europe in several particulars; their ears are much larger, their skins are almost without hair, their horns are curved towards each other, but together bend directly backwards, and they have no dewlaps. We saw several that were as big as a well grown European ox, and there must be some much larger; for Mr. Banks saw a pair of horns which measured from tip to tip three feet nine inches and an half, across their widest diameter four feet one inch and an half, and in the whole sweep of their semicircle in front seven feet six inches and a half. It must however be observed, that a buffalo here of any given size, does not weigh above half as much as an ox of the same size in England: those that we guessed to weigh four hundred weight did not weigh more than two hundred and fifty; the reason is, that so late in the dry season the bones are very thinly covered with flesh: there is not an ounce of fat in a whole carcass, and the flanks are literally nothing but skin and bone: the flesh however is well tasted and juicy, and I suppose better than the flesh of an English ox would be if he was to starve in this sun-burnt country. --page 1114

The horses are from eleven to twelve hands high, but though they are small, they are spirited and nimble, especially in pacing,* which is their common step: the inhabitants generally ride them without a saddle, and with no better bridle than a halter. The sheep are of the kind which in England are called Bengal sheep, and differ from ours in many particulars. They are covered with hair instead of wool, their ears are very large, and hang down under their horns, and their noses are arched; they are thought to have a general resemblance to a goat, and for that reason are frequently called cabritos: their flesh we thought the worst mutton we had ever eaten, being as lean as that of the buffalo's, and without flavour. The hogs, however, were some of the fattest we had ever seen, though, as we were told, their principal food is the outside husks of rice, and the palm syrup dissolved in water. The fowls are chiefly of the game breed, and large, but the eggs are remarkably small. --page 1115

Of the fish which the sea produces here, we know but little: turtles are sometimes found upon the coast, and are by these people, as well as all others, considered as a dainty. --page 1116

The people are rather under, than over the middling size; the women especially are remarkably short and squat built: their complexion is a dark brown, and their hair universally black and lank. We saw no difference in the colour of rich and poor, though in the South Sea islands those that were exposed to the weather were almost as brown as the New Hollanders, and the better sort nearly as fair as the natives of Europe. The men are in general well-made, vigorous, and active, and have a greater variety in the make and disposition of their features than usual; the countenances of the women, on the contrary, are all alike. --page 1117

The men fasten their hair up to the top of their heads with a comb, the women tie it behind in a club, which is very far from becoming.* Both sexes eradicate the hair from under the arm, and the men do the same by their beards, for which purpose, the better sort always carry a pair of silver pincers hanging by a string round their necks; some however suffer a very little hair to remain upon their upper lips, but this is always kept short. --page 1118

The dress of both sexes consists of cotton cloth, which being died blue in the yarn, and not uniformly of the same shade, is in clouds or waves of that colour, and even in our eye had not an inelegant appearance. This cloth they manufacture themselves, and two pieces, each about two yards long, and a yard and a half wide, make a dress: one of them is worn round the middle, and the other covers the upper part of the body: the lower edge of the piece that goes round the middle, the men draw pretty tight just below the fork, the upper edge of it is left loose, so as to form a kind of hollow belt, which serves them as a pocket to carry their knives, and other little implements which it is convenient to have about them. The other piece of cloth is passed through this girdle behind, and one end of it being brought over the left shoulder, and the other over the right, they fall down over the breast, and are tucked into the girdle before, so that by opening or closing the plaits, they can cover more or less of their bodies as they please; the arms, legs, and feet are always naked. The difference between the dress of the two sexes consists principally in the manner of wearing the waist-piece, for the women, instead of drawing the lower edge tight, and leaving the upper edge loose for a pocket, draw the upper edge tight, and let the lower edge fall as low as the knees, so as to form a petticoat; the body-piece, instead of being passed through the girdle, is fastened under the arms, and cross the breast, with the utmost decency. I have already observed, that the men fasten the hair upon the top of the head,* and the women tie it in a club behind, but there is another difference in the headdress, by which the sexes are distinguished: the women wear nothing as a succedaneum for a cap, but the men constantly wrap something round their heads in the manner of a fillet; it is small, but generally of the finest materials that can be procured: we saw some who applied silk handkerchiefs to this purpose, and others that wore fine cotton, or muslin, in the manner of a small turban. --page 1119

These people bore their testimony that the love of finery is a universal passion, for their ornaments were very numerous. Some of the better sort wore chains of gold round their necks, but they were made of plaited wire, and consequently were light and of little value; others had rings, which were so much worn that they seemed to have descended through many generations; and one person had a silver-headed cane, marked with a kind of cypher, consisting of the Roman letters V, O, C, and therefore probably a present from the Dutch East India Company, whose mark it is: they have also ornaments made of beads, which some wear round their necks as a solitaire, and others, as bracelets, upon their wrists: these are common to both sexes, but the women have besides, strings or girdles of beads, which they wear round their waists, and which serve to keep up their petticoat. Both sexes had their ears bored, nor was there a single exception that fell under our notice, yet we never saw an ornament in any of them; we never indeed saw either man or woman in any thing but what appeared to be their ordinary dress, except the King and his minister, who in general wore a kind of night-gown of coarse chintz, and one of whom once received us in a black robe, which appeared to be made of what is called prince's stuff. We saw some boys, about twelve or fourteen years old, who had spiral circles of thick brass wire passed three or four times round their arms, above the elbow,* and some men wore rings of ivory, two inches in breadth, and above an inch in thickness, upon the same part of the arm: these, we were told, were the sons of the Rajas, or Chiefs, who wore these cumbrous ornaments as badges of their high birth. --page 1120

Almost all the men had their names traced upon their arms, in indelible characters of a black colour, and the women had a square ornament of flourished lines, impressed in the same manner, just under the bend of the elbow. We were struck with the similitude between these marks, and those made by tattowing in the South Sea islands, and upon enquiring into its origin, we learnt that it had been practised by the natives long before any Europeans came among them; and that in the neighbouring islands the inhabitants were marked with circles upon their necks and breasts. The universality of this practice, which prevails among savages in all parts of the world, from the remotest limits of North America, to the islands in the South Seas, and which probably differs but little from the method of staining the body that was in use among the ancient inhabitants of Britain, is a curious subject of speculation†. --page 1121

The houses of Savu are all built upon the same plan, and differ only in size, being large in proportion to the rank and riches of the proprietor.* Some are four hundred feet long, and some are not more than twenty: they are all raised upon posts, or piles, about four feet high, one end of which is driven into the ground, and upon the other end is laid a substantial floor of wood, so that there is a vacant space of four feet between the floor of the house and the ground. Upon this floor are placed other posts or pillars, that support a roof of sloping sides, which meet in a ridge at the top, like those of our barns: the eaves of this roof, which is thatched with palm leaves, reach within two feet of the floor, and over-hang it as much: the space within is generally divided lengthwise into three equal parts; the middle part, or center, is inclosed by a partition of four sides, reaching about six feet above the floor, and one or two small rooms are also sometimes taken off from the sides, the rest of the space under the roof is open, so as freely to admit the air and the light: the particular uses of these different apartments, our short stay would not permit us to learn, except that the close room in the center was appropriated to the women. --page 1122

The food of these people consists of every tame animal in the country, of which the hog holds the first place in their estimation, and the horse the second; next to the horse is the buffalo, next to the buffalo their poultry, and they prefer dogs and cats to sheep and goats. They are not fond of fish, and, I believe, it is never eaten but by the poor people, nor by them, except when their duty or business requires them to be upon the beach, and then every man is furnished with a light casting net, which is girt round him, and makes part of his dress; and with this he takes any small fish which happen to come in his way. --page 1123

The aesculent vegetables and fruits have been mentioned already, but the fan-palm requires more particular notice, for at certain times it is a succedaneum for all other food both to man and beast. A kind of wine, called toddy,* is procured from this tree, by cutting the buds which are to produce flowers, soon after their appearance, and tying under them small baskets, made of the leaves, which are so close as to hold liquids without leaking. The juice which trickles into these vessels, is collected by persons who climb the trees for that purpose, morning and evening, and is the common drink of every individual upon the island; yet a much greater quantity is drawn off than is consumed in this use, and of the surplus they make both a syrup and coarse sugar. The liquor is called dua, or duac, and both the syrup and sugar, gula. The syrup is prepared by boiling the liquor down in pots of earthen ware, till it is sufficiently inspissated; it is not unlike treacle in appearance, but is somewhat thicker, and has a much more agreeable taste: the sugar is of a reddish brown, perhaps the same with the Jugata sugar upon the continent of India, and it was more agreeable to our palates than any cane sugar, unrefined, that we had ever tasted. We were at first afraid that the syrup, of which some of our people eat very great quantities, would have brought on fluxes, but its aperient quality was so very slight, that what effect it produced was rather salutary than hurtful. I have already observed, that it is given with the husks of rice to the hogs, and that they grow enormously fat without taking any other food: we were told also, that this syrup is used to fatten their dogs and their fowls, and that the inhabitants themselves have subsisted upon this alone for several months, when other crops have failed, and animal food has been scarce. The leaves of this tree are also put to various uses, they thatch houses, and make baskets, cups, umbrellas, and tobacco-pipes. The fruit is least esteemed, and as the blossoms are wounded for the tuac or toddy, there is not much of it:* it is about as big as a large turnip, and covered, like the cocoa-nut, with a fibrous coat, under which are three kernels, that must be eaten before they are ripe, for afterwards they become so hard that they cannot be chewed; in their eatable state they taste not unlike a green cocoa-nut, and, like them, probably they yield a nutriment that is watry and unsubstantial. --page 1124

The common method of dressing food here is by boiling, and as fire-wood is very scarce, and the inhabitants have no other fuel, they make use of a contrivance to save it, that is not wholly unknown in Europe, but is seldom practised except in camps. They dig a hollow under ground, in a horizontal direction, like a rabbit burrow, about two yards long, and opening into a hole at each end, one of which is large and the other small: by the large hole the fire is put in, and the small one serves for a draught. The earth over this burrow is perforated by circular holes, which communicate with the cavity below; and in these holes are set earthen pots, generally about three to each fire, which are large in the middle, and taper towards the bottom, so that the fire acts upon a large part of their surface. Each of these pots generally contains about eight or ten gallons, and it is surprising to see with how small a quantity of sire they may be kept boiling; a palm leaf, or a dry stalk, thrust in now and then, is sufficient: in this manner they boil all their victuals, and make all their syrup and sugar. It appears by Frazier's account of his voyage to the South Sea, that the Peruvian Indians have a contrivance of the same kind, and perhaps it might be adopted with advantage by the poor people even of this country, where fuel is very dear. --page 1125

Both sexes are enslaved by the hateful and pernicious habit of chewing beetle and areca, which they contract even while they are children,* and practise incessantly from morning till night. With these they always mix a kind of white lime, made of coral stone and shells, and frequently a small quantity of tobacco, so that their mouths are disgustful in the highest degree both to the smell and the fight: the tobacco taints their breath, and the beetle and lime make the teeth not only as black as charcoal, but as rotten too. I have seen men between twenty and thirty, whose fore teeth have been consumed almost down to the gums, though no two of them were exactly of the same length or thickness, but irregularly corroded like iron by rust. This loss of teeth is, I think, by all who have written upon the subject, imputed to the tough and stringy coat of the areca nut; but I impute it wholly to the lime: they are not loosened, or broken, or forced out, as might be expected if they were injured by the continual chewing of hard and rough substances, but they are gradually wasted like metals that are exposed to the action of powerful acids; the stumps always adhering firmly to the socket in the jaw, when there is no part of the tooth above the gums: and possibly those who suppose that sugar has a bad effect upon the teeth of Europeans, may not be mistaken, for it is well known that refined loaf sugar contains a considerable quantity of lime; and he that doubts whether lime will destroy bone of any kind, may easily ascertain the fact by experiment. --page 1126

If the people here are at any time without this odious mouthful, they are smoking. This operation they perform by rolling up a small quantity of tobacco, and putting it into one end of a tube about six inches long, and as thick as a goose quill, which they make of a palm leaf. As the quantity of tobacco in these pipes is very small, the effect of it is increased, especially among the women, by swallowing the smoke. --page 1127

*When the natives of this island were first formed into a civil society, is not certainly known, but at present it is divided into five principalities or nigrees: LAAI, SEBA, REGEEUA, TIMO, and MASSARA, each of which is governed by its respective Raja or King. The Raja of Seba, the principality in which we were ashore, seemed to have great authority, without much external parade or show, or much appearance of personal respect. He was about five and thirty years of age, and the fattest man we saw upon the whole island: he appeared to be of a dull phlegmatic disposition, and to be directed almost implicitly by the old man who, upon my presenting him with a sword, had procured us a fair market, in spight of the craft and avarice of the Dutch factors. The name of this person was MANNU DJARME, and it may reasonably be supposed that he was a man of uncommon integrity and abilities, as, notwithstanding his possession of power in the character of a favourite, he was beloved by the whole principality. If any difference arises among the people, it is settled by the Raja and his counsellors, without delay or appeal, and, as we were told, with the most solemn deliberation and impartial justice. --page 1128

We were informed by Mr. Lange, that the chiefs who had successively presided over the five principalities of this island, had lived for time immemorial in the strictest alliance and most cordial friendship with each other; yet he said the people were of a warlike disposition, and had always courageously defended themselves against foreign invaders. We were told also, that the island was able to raise, upon very short notice, 7300 fighting men, armed with muskets, spears, lances, and targets. Of this force, Laai was said to furnish 2600, Seba 2000, Regeeua 1500, Timo 800, and Massārā 400. Besides the arms that have been already mentioned, each man is furnished with a large pole-ax, resembling a wood-bill, except that it has a strait edge,* and is much heavier: this, in the hands of people who have courage to come to close quarters with an enemy, must be a dreadful weapon; and we were told that they were so dexterous with their lances, that at the distance of sixty feet they would throw them with such exactness as to pierce a man's heart, and such force as to go quite through his body. --page 1129

How far this account of the martial prowess of the inhabitants of Savu may be true, we cannot take upon us to determine, but during our stay, we saw no appearance of it. We saw indeed in the town-house, or house of assembly, about one hundred spears and targets, which served to arm the people who were sent down to intimidate us at the trading place; but they seemed to be the refuse of old armories, no two being of the same make or length, for some were six, and some sixteen feet long: we saw no lance among them, and as to the muskets, though they were clean on the outside, they were eaten into holes by the rust within; and the people themselves appeared to be so little acquainted with military discipline, that they marched like a disorderly rabble, every one having, instead of his target, a cock, some tobacco, or other merchandise of the like kind, which he took that opportunity to bring down to sell, and few or none of their cartridge boxes were furnished with either powder or ball, though a piece of paper was thrust into the hole to save appearances. We saw a few swivel guns, and pateraros at the town-house, and a great gun before it; but the swivels and pateraros lay out of their carriages, and the great gun lay upon a heap of stones, almost consumed with rust, with the touch-hole downwards, possibly to conceal its size, which might perhaps be little less than that of the bore. --page 1130

*We could not discover that among these people there was any rank of distinction between the Raja and the land-owners: the land-owners were respectable in proportion to their possessions; the inferior ranks consist of manufacturers, labouring poor, and slaves. The slaves, like the peasants in some parts of Europe, are connected with the estate, and both descend together: but though the land-owner can sell his slave, he has no other power over his person, not even to correct him, without the privity and approbation of the Raja. Some have five hundred of these slaves, and some not half a dozen: the common price of them is a fat hog. When a great man goes out, he is constantly attended by two or more of them: one of them carries a sword or hanger, the hilt of which is commonly of silver, and adorned with large tassels of horse hair; and another carries a bag which contains betel, areca, lime, and tobacco. In these attendants consists all their magnificence, for the Raja himself has no other mark of distinction. --page 1131

The chief object of pride among these people, like that of a Welchman, is a long pedigree of respectable ancestors, and indeed a veneration for antiquity seems to be carried farther here than in any other country: even a house that has been well inhabited for many generations, becomes almost sacred, and few articles either of use or luxury bear so high a price as stones, which having been long sat upon, are become even and smooth: those who can purchase such stones, or are possessed of them by inheritance, place them round their houses, where they serve as seats for their dependants. --page 1132

Every Raja sets up in the principal town of his province, or nigree, a large stone, which serves as a memorial of his reign. In the principal town of Seba, where we lay, there are thirteen such stones, besides many fragments of others, which had been set up in earlier times,* and are now mouldering away: these monuments seem to prove that some kind of civil establishment here is of considerable antiquity. The last thirteen reigns in England make something more than 276 years. --page 1133

Many of these stones are so large, that it is difficult to conceive by what means they were brought to their present station, especially as it is the summit of a hill; but the world is full of memorials of human strength, in which the mechanical powers that have been since added by mathematical science, seem to be surpassed; and of such monuments there are not a few among the remains of barbarous antiquity in our own country, besides those upon Salisbury plain. --page 1134

These stones not only record the reigns of successive princes, but serve for a purpose much more extraordinary, and probably altogether peculiar to this country. When a Raja dies, a general feast is proclaimed throughout his dominions, and all his subjects assemble round these stones; almost every living creature that can be caught is then killed, and the feast lasts for a less or greater number of weeks or months, as the kingdom happens to be more or less furnished with live stock at the time; the stones serve for tables. When this madness is over, a fast must necessarily ensue, and the whole kingdom is obliged to subsist upon syrup and water, if it happens in the dry season, when no vegetables can be procured, till a new stock of animals can be raised from the few that have escaped by chance, or been preserved by policy from the general massacre, or can be procured from the neighbouring kingdoms. Such, however, is the account that we received from Mr. Lange. --page 1135

*We had no opportunity to examine any of their manufactures, except that of their cloth, which they spin, weave, and dye; we did not indeed see them employed, but many of the instruments which they use fell in our way. We saw their machine for clearing cotton of its seeds, which is made upon the same principles as those in Europe, but is so small that it might be taken for a model, or a toy: it consists of two cylinders, like our round rulers, somewhat less than an inch in diameter, one of which, being turned round by a plain winch, turns the other by means of an endless worm; and the whole machine is not more than fourteen inches long, and seven high: that which we saw had been much used, and many pieces of cotton were hanging about it, so that there is no reason to doubt its being a fair specimen of the rest. We also once saw their apparatus for spinning; it consisted of a bobbin, on which was wound a small quantity of thread, and a kind of distaff filled with cotton; we conjectured therefore that they spin by hand, as the women of Europe did before the introduction of wheels; and I am told that they have not yet found their way into some parts of it. Their loom seemed to be in one respect preferable to ours, for the web was not stretched upon a frame, but extended by a piece of wood at each end, round one of which the cloth was rolled, and round the other the threads: the web was about half a yard broad, and the length of the shuttle was equal to the breadth of the web, so that probably their work goes on but slowly. That they dyed this cloth we first guessed from its colour, and from the indigo which we saw in their plantations; and our conjecture was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Lange's account. I have already observed, that it is dyed in the yarn, and we once law them dying what was said to be girdles for the women, of a dirty red, but with what drug we did not think it worth while to enquire. --page 1136

The religion of these people,* according to Mr. Lange's information, is an absurd kind of paganism, every man chusing his own god, and determining for himself how he should be worshipped; so that there are almost as many gods and modes of worship as people. In their morals, however, they are said to be irreproachable, even upon the principles of Christianity: no man is allowed more than one wife; yet an illicit commerce between the sexes is in a manner unknown among them: instances of theft are very rare; and they are so far from revenging a supposed injury by murder, that if any difference arises between them, they will not so much as make it the subject of debate, lest they should be provoked to resentment and ill-will, but immediately and implicity refer it to the determination of their King. --page 1137

They appeared to be a healthy and long-lived people; yet some of them were marked with the small-pox, which Mr. Lange told us had several times made its appearance among them, and was treated with the same precautions as the plague. As soon as a person was seized with the distemper, he was removed to some solitary place, very remote from any habitation, where the disease was left to take its course, and the patient supplied with daily food by reaching it to him at the end of a long pole. --page 1138

Of their domestic oeconomy we could learn but little: in one instance however their delicacy and cleanliness are very remarkable. Many of us were ashore here three successive days, from a very early hour in the morning till it was dark; yet we never saw the least trace of an offering to Cloacina, nor could we so much as guess where they were made. In a country so populous this is very difficult to be accounted for,* and perhaps there is no other country in the world where the secret is so effectually kept. --page 1139

The boats in use here are a kind of proa. --page 1140

This island was settled by the Portuguese almost as soon as they first found their way into this part of the ocean; but they were in a short time supplanted by the Dutch. The Dutch however did not take possession of it, but only sent sloops to trade with the natives, probably for provisions to support the inhabitants of their spice islands, who applying themselves wholly to the cultivation of that important article of trade, and laying out all their ground in plantations, can breed few animals: possibly their supplies by this occasional traffic were precarious; possibly they were jealous of being supplanted in their turn; but however that be, their East India Company, about ten years ago, entered into a treaty with the Rajas, by which the Company stipulated to furnish each of them with a certain quantity of silk, fine linen, cutlery ware, arrack and other articles, every year; and the Rajas engaged that neither they nor their subjects should trade with any person except the company, without having first obtained their consent, and that they would admit a resident on behalf of the Company, to reside upon the island, and see that their part of the treaty was fulfilled: they also engaged to supply annually a certain quantity of rice, maize, and calevances. The maize and calevances are sent to Timor in sloops, which are kept there for that purpose, each of which is navigated by ten Indians; and the rice is fetched away annually by a ship which brings the Company's returns, and anchors alternately in each of the three bays. These returns are delivered to the Rajas in the form of a present, and the cask of arrack they and their principal people never cease to drink,* as long as a drop of it remains. --page 1141

In consequence of this treaty, the Dutch placed three persons upon the island: Mr. Lange, his colleague, the native of Timor, the son of an Indian woman by a Portuguese, and one Frederick Craig, the son of an Indian woman by a Dutchman. Lange visits each of the Rajas once in two months, when he makes the tour of the island, attended by fifty slaves on horseback. He exhorts these Chiefs to plant, if it appears that they have been remiss, and observes where the crops are got in, that he may order sloops to fetch it; so that it passes immediately from the ground to the Dutch storehouses at Timor. In these excursions he always carries with him some bottles of arrack, which he finds of great use in opening the hearts of the Rajas with whom he is to deal. --page 1142

During the ten years that he had resided upon this island he had never seen a European besides ourselves, except at the arrival of the Dutch ship, which had sailed about two months before we arrived; and he is now to be distinguished from the natives only by his colour and his dress, for he sits upon the ground, chews his betele, and in every respect has adopted their character and manners: he has married an Indian woman of the island of Timor, who keeps his house after the fashion of her country; and he gave that as a reason for not inviting us to visit him, saying, that he could entertain us in no other manner than the Indians had done, and he spoke no language readily but that of the country. --page 1143

The office of Mr. Frederic Craig is to instruct the youth of the country in reading and writing, and the principles of the Christian religion; the Dutch having printed versions of the New Testament, a catechism, and several other tracts, in the language of this and the neighbouring islands.* Dr. Solander, who was at his house, saw the books, and the copybooks also, of his scholars, many of whom wrote a very fair hand. He boasted that there were no less than six hundred Christians in the township of Seba; but what the Dutch Christianity of these Indians may be, it is not perhaps very easy to guess, for there is not a church, nor even a priest, in the whole island. --page 1144

While we were at this place, we made several enquiries concerning the neighbouring islands, and the intelligence which we received, is to the following effect: --page 1145

A small island to the westward of Savu, the name of which we did not learn, produces nothing of any consequence but areca-nuts, of which the Dutch receive annually the freight of two sloops, in return for presents that they make to the islanders. --page 1146

Timor is the chief, and the Dutch residents on the other islands go thither once a year to pass their accounts. The place is nearly in the same state as in Dampier's time, the Dutch having there a fort and storehouses; and by Lange's account we might there have been supplied with every necessary that we expected to procure at Batavia, salt provisions and arrack not excepted. But the Portuguese are still in possession of several towns on the north side of the island, particularly Laphao and Sesial. --page 1147

About two years before our arrival, a French ship was wrecked upon the east coast of Timor; and after she had lain some days upon the shoal, a sudden gale broke her up at once, and drowned the Captain, with the greatest part of the crew: those who got ashore, among whom was one of the Lieutenants, made the best of their way to Concordia; they were four days upon the road, where they were obliged to leave part of their company through fatigue,* and the rest, to the number of about eighty, arrived at the town. They were supplied with every necessary, and sent back to the wreck, with proper assistance, for recovering what could be fished up: they fortunately got up all their bullion, which was in chests, and several of their guns, which were very large. They then returned to the town, but their companions who had been left upon the road were missing, having, as it was supposed, been kept among the Indians, either by persuasion or force; for they are very desirous of having Europeans among them, to instruct them in the art of war. After a stay of more than two months at Concordia, their number was diminished nearly one half by sickness, in consequence of the fatigue and hardship which they had suffered by the shipwreck, and the survivors were sent in a small vessel to Europe. --page 1148

Rotte is in much the same situation as Savu; a Dutch factor resides upon it to manage the natives, and look after its produce, which consists, among other articles, of sugar. Formerly it was made only by bruising the canes, and boiling the juice to a syrup, in the same manner as Toddy; but great improvements have lately been made in preparing this valuable commodity. The three little islands called the Solars are also under the influence of the Dutch settlement at Concordia: they are flat and low, but abound with provisions of every kind, and the middlemost is said to have a good harbour for shipping. Ende, another little island to the westward of the Solars, is still in the hands of the Portuguese, who have a good town and harbour on the north east corner of it called Larntuca: they had formerly an harbour on the south side of it, but that, being much inferior to Larntuca, has for some time been altogether neglected. --page 1149

*The inhabitants of each of these little islands speak a language peculiar to themselves, and it is an object of Dutch policy to prevent, as much as possible, their learning the language of each other. If they spoke a common language, they would learn, by a mutual intercourse with each other, to plant such things as would be of more value to themselves than their present produce, though of less advantage to the Dutch; but their languages being different, they can communicate no such knowlege to each other, and the Dutch secure to themselves the benefit of supplying their several necessities upon their own terms, which it is reasonable to suppose are not very moderate. It is probably with a view to this advantage that the Dutch never teach their own language to the natives of these islands, and have been at the expence of translating the Testament and catechisms into the different languages of each; for in proportion as Dutch had become the language of their religion, it would have become the common language of them all. --page 1150

To this account of Savu, I shall only add a small specimen of its language, by which it will appear to have some affinity with that of the South Sea islands, many of the words being exactly the same, and the numbers manifestly derived from the same source. --page 1151

A man, Momonne. A woman, Mobunnee. The head, Catoo. The hair, Row catoo. The eyes, Matta. The eye-lashes, Rowna matta. The nose, Swanga. The checks, Cavaranga. The ears, Wodeeloo. The tongue, Vaio. The neck, Lacoco. The breasts, Soofoo. The nipples, Caboo soosoo, The belly, Dulloo. The navel, Assoo. The thighs, Tooga. The knees, Rootoo. The legs, Baibo. The feet, Dunceala. The toes, Kissovei yilla. The arms, Camacoo. The hand, Wulaba. A buffalo, Cabaou. A horse, Djara. A hog, Vavee. A sheep, Doomba. A goat, Kesavoo. A dog, Guaca. A cat, Maio. A fowl, Mannu. The tail, Carow. The beak, Pangoutoo. A fish, Ica. A turtle, Unjoo. A cocoa-nut, Nieu. Fan-palm, Boaceree. Areca, Calella. Betele, Canana. Lime, Aou. A fish-hook, Maänadoo. Tattow, the marks on the skin, Tata. The sun, Lodo.* The moon, Wurroo. The sea, Aidassec. Water, Ailea. Fire, Aee. To die, Maate. To sleep, Tabudge. To rise, Tateetoo. One, Usse. Two, Lhua. Three, Tullu. Four, Uppah. Five, Lumme. Six, Unna. Seven, Pedu. Eight, Arru. Nine, Saou. Ten, Singooroo. Eleven, Singurung usse. 20, Lhuangooroo. 100, Sing assu. 1000, Setuppah. 10,000, Selacussa, 100,000, Serata. 1,000,000 Sereboo. In this account of the island of Savu it must be remembered, that except the facts in which we were parties, and the account of the objects which we had an opportunity to examine, the whole is founded merely upon the report of Mr. Lange, upon whose authority alone therefore it must rest. --page 1152

*IN the morning of Friday the 21st of September, 1770, we got under sail, and stood away to the westward, along the north side of the island of Savu, and of the smaller that lies to the westward of it, which at noon bore from us S.S.E. distant two leagues. At four o'clock in the afternoon, we discovered a small low island, bearing S. S. W. distant three leagues, which has no place in any chart now extant, at least in none that I have been able to procure: it lies in latitude 10° 47′ S., longitude 238° 28′ W. --page 1153

*At noon on the 22d, we were in latitude 11° 10′ S., longitude 240° 38′ W.* In the evening of the 23d, we found the variation of the needle to be 2° 44′ W.; as soon as we got clear of the islands we had constantly a swell from the southward, which I imagined was not caused by a wind blowing from that quarter, but by the sea being so determined by the position of the coast of New Holland. --page 1154

*At noon on the 26th, being in latitude 10° 47′ S., longitude 249° 52′ W. we found the variation to be 3° 10′ W. and our situation to be twenty-five miles to the northward of the log; for which I know not how to account. At noon on the 27th,* our latitude by observation was 10° 51′ S. which was agreeable to the log; and our longitude was 252° 11′ W. We steered N. W. all day on the 28th,* in order to make the land of Java; and at noon on the 29th,* our latitude by observation was 9° 31′ S., longitude 254° 10′ W.; and in the morning of the 30th, I took into my possession the log-book an journals, at least all I could find, of the officers, petty officers, and seamen, and enjoined them secrecy with respect to where they had been. --page 1155

At seven in the evening, being in the latitude of Java Head, and not seeing any land, I concluded that we were too far to the westward: I therefore hauled up E. N. E. having before steered N. by E. In the night, we had thunder and lightning; and about twelve o'clock, by the light of the flashes, we saw the land bearing east. I then tacked and stood to the S. W. till four o'clock in the morning of the 1st of October; and at six, Java Head, or the west end of Java,* bore S. E. by E. distant five leagues: soon after we saw Prince's Island, bearing E. ½ S.; and at ten, the island of Cracatoa, bearing N.E. Cracatoa is a remarkably high-peaked island, and at noon it bore N. 40 E. distant seven leagues. --page 1156

I must now observe that, during our run from Savu, I allowed twenty minutes a-day for the westerly current, which I concluded must run strong at this time, especially off the coast of Java, and I found that this allowance was just equivalent to the effect of the current upon the ship. --page 1157

At four o'clock in the morning of the 2d,* we fetched close in with the coast of Java, in fifteen fathom; we then stood along the coast, and early in the forenoon, I sent the boat ashore to try if she could procure some fruit for Tupia, who was very ill, and some grass for the buffaloes that were still alive. In an hour or two she returned with four cocoa-nuts, and a small bunch of plantains, which had been purchased for a shilling, and some herbage for the cattle, which the Indians not only gave us, but assisted our people to cut. The country looked like one continued wood,* and had a very pleasant appearance. --page 1158

About eleven o'clock, we saw two Dutch ships lying off Anger point, and I sent Mr. Hicks on board of one of them to enquire news of our country, from which we had been absent so long. In the mean time it fell calm, and about noon I anchored in eighteen fathom with a muddy bottom. When Mr. Hicks returned, he reported that the ships were Dutch East Indiamen from Batavia, one of which was bound to Ceylon, and the other to the coast of Malabar; and that there was also a flyboat or packet, which was said to be stationed here to carry letters from the Dutch ships that came hither to Batavia, but which I rather think was appointed to examine all ships that pass the streight: from these ships we heard, with great pleasure, that the Swallow had been at Batavia about two years before. --page 1159

At seven o'clock a breeze sprung up at S. S. W. with which having weighed, we stood to the N. E. between Thwart-the-way-Island and the Cap, sounding from eighteen to twenty-eight fathom: we had but little wind all night, and having a strong current against us, we got no further by eight in the morning than Bantam Point.* At this time the wind came to the N. E. and obliged us to anchor in two and twenty fathom, at about the distance of two miles from the shore; the point bore N. E. by E. distant one league, and here we found a strong current setting to the N. W. In the morning we had seen the Dutch packet standing after us, but when the wind shifted to the N. E. she bore away. --page 1160

At six o'clock in the evening, the wind having obliged us to continue at anchor, one of the country boats came along side of us, on board of which was the Master of the packet. He seemed to have two motives for his visit, one to take an account of the ship, and the other to sell us refreshments;* for in the boat were turtle, fowls, ducks, parrots, paroquets, rice-birds, monkies, and other articles, which they held at a very high price, and brought to a bad market, for our Savu stock was not yet expended: however, I gave a Spanish dollar for a small turtle, which weighed about six and thirty pounds; I gave also a dollar for ten large fowls, and afterwards bought fifteen more at the same price; for a dollar we might also have bought two monkies, or a whole cage of rice-birds. The Master of the sloop brought with him two books, in one of which he desired that any of our officers would write down the name of the ship and its Commander, with that of the place from which she sailed, and of the port to which she was bound, with such other particulars relating to themselves, as they might think proper, for the information of any of our friends that should come after us: and in the other he entered the names of the ship and the Commander, himself, in order to transmit them to the Governor and Council of the Indies. We perceived that in the first book many ships, particularly Portuguese, had made entries of the same kind with that for which it was presented to us. Mr. Hicks, however, having written the name of the ship, only added "from Europe." He took notice of this, but said, that he was satisfied with any thing we thought fit to write, it being intended merely for the information of those who should enquire after us from motives of friendship. --page 1161

Having made several attempts to sail with a wind that would not stem the current, and as often come to an anchor, a proa came alongside of us in the morning of the 5th,* in which was a Dutch officer, who sent me down a printed paper in English, duplicates of which he had in other languages, particularly in French and Dutch,* all regularly signed, in the name of the Governor and Council of the Indies, by their secretary: it contained nine questions, very ill expressed, in the following terms: --page 1162

1. To what nation the ship belongs, and its name? --page 1163

2. If it comes from Europe, or any other place? --page 1164

3. From what place it lastly departed from? --page 1165

4. Whereunto designed to go? --page 1166

5. What and how many ships of the Dutch Company by departure from the last shore there layed, and their names? --page 1167

6. If one or more of these ships in company with this, is departed for this, or any other place? --page 1168

7. If during the voyage any particularities is happened or seen? --page 1169

8. If not any ships in sea, or the Streights of Sunda, have seen or hailed in, and which? --page 1170

9. If any other news worth of attention, at the place from whence the ship lastly departed, or during the voyage, is happened. --page 1171

BATAVIA, in the Castle. --page 1172

By order of the Governor General, and the Counsellors of India, J. BRANDER BUNGL, SEC. --page 1173

Of these questions I answered only the first and the fourth; which when the officer saw, he said answers to the rest were of no consequence: yet he immediately added, that he must send that very paper away to Batavia, and that it would be there the next day at noon. I have particularly related this incident,* because I have been credibly informed that it is but of late years that the Dutch have taken upon them to examine ships that pass through this Streight. --page 1174

At ten o'clock the same morning, we weighed, with a light breeze at S. W.; but did little more than stem the current, and about two o'clock anchored again under Bantam Point, where we lay till nine; a light breeze then springing up at S.E. we weighed and stood to the eastward till ten o'clock the next morning,* when the current obliged us again to anchor in twenty-two fathom, Pulababi bearing E. by S. ½ S. distant between three and four miles. Having alternately weighed and anchored several times, till four in the afternoon of the 7th, we then stood to the eastward,* with a very faint breeze at N. E. and passed Wapping Island, and the first island to the eastward of it; when the wind dying away, we were carried by the current between the first and second of the islands that lie to the eastward of Wapping Island, were we were obliged to anchor in thirty fathom, being very near a ledge of rocks that run out from one of the islands. At two the next morning we weighed with the land wind at south,* and stood out clear of the shoal; but before noon were obliged to come to again in twenty-eight fathom, near a small island among those that are called the Thousand Islands, which we did not find laid down in any chart. Pulo Pare at this time bore E. N. E. distance between six and seven miles. --page 1175

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander went ashore upon the island, which they found not to be more than five hundred yards long, and one hundred broad; yet there was a house upon it, and a small plantation, where among other things was the Palma Christi, from which the castor oil is made in the West Indies: they made a small addition to their collection of plants, and shot a bat, whose wings when extended measured three feet from point to point:* they shot also four plovers, which exactly resembled the golden plover of England. Soon after they returned, a small Indian boat came alongside with two Malays on board, who brought three turtles, some dried fish, and a few pumpkins: we bought the turtle, which altogether weighed a hundred and forty-six pounds, for a dollar, and considering that we had lately paid the Dutchman a dollar for one that weighed only six and thirty pounds, we thought we had a good bargain. The seller appeared equally satisfied, and we then treated with him for his pumpkins, for which he was very unwilling to take any money but a dollar; we laid that a whole dollar was greatly too much; to which he readily assented, but desired that we would cut one and give him a part: at last, however, a fine shining Portuguese petacka tempted him, and for that he sold us his whole stock of pumpkins, being in number twenty-six. At parting, he made signs that we should not tell at Batavia that any boat had been aboard us. --page 1176

We were not able to weather Pulo Pare this day, but getting the land wind at south about ten o'clock at night, we weighed and stood to the E. S. E. all night. At ten in the morning,* we anchored again, to wait for the sea breeze; and at noon it sprung up at N.N.E. with which we stood in for Batavia road, where at four o'clock in the afternoon we came to an anchor. --page 1177

We found here the Harcourt Indiaman from England, two English private traders of that country, thirteen sail of large Dutch ships, and a considerable number of small vessels. A boat came immediately on board, from a ship which had a broad pendant flying, and the officer who commanded having enquired who we were, and whence we came, immediately returned with such answers as we thought fit to give him: both he and his people were as pale as spectres,* a sad presage of our sufferings in so unhealthy a country; but our people, who, except Tupia, were all rosy and plump, seemed to think themselves so seasoned by various climates that nothing could hurt them. In the mean time, I sent a Lieutenant ashore to acquaint the Governor of our arrival, and to make an excuse for our not saluting; for as I could salute with only three guns, except the swivels, which I was of opinion would not be heard, I thought it was better to let it alone. As soon as the boat was dispatched the carpenter delivered me an account of the defects of the ship, of which the following is a copy: --page 1178

The defects of his Majesty's bark Endeavour, Lieutenant James Cook Commander. --page 1179

The ship very leaky, as she makes from twelve to six inches water an hour, occasioned by her main keel being wounded in many places, and the scarfs of her stern being very open: the false keel gone beyond the midships from forward, and perhaps farther, as I had no opportunity of seeing for the water when hauled ashore for repairing: wounded on the larboard side under the main channel, where I imagine the greatest leak is, but could not come at it for the water: one pump on the larboard side useless; the others decayed within an inch and an half of the bore. Otherwise masts, yards, boats, and hull, in pretty good condition. --page 1180

As it was the universal opinion that the ship could not safely proceed to Europe without an examination of her bottom, I determined to apply for leave to heave her down at this place; and as I understood that it would be necessary to make this application in writing, I drew up a request, and the next morning,* having got it translated into Dutch, we all went ashore. --page 1181

We repaired immediately to the house of Mr. Leith, the only Englishman of any credit who is resident at this place; he received us with great politeness, and engaged us to dinner: to this gentleman we applied for instructions how to provide ourselves with lodgings and necessaries while we should stay ashore, and he told us, that there was a hotel, or kind of inn, kept by the order of government, where all merchants and strangers were obliged to reside, paying half per cent upon the value of their goods for warehouse room, which the master of the house was obliged to provide; but that as we came in a King's ship, we should be at liberty to live where we pleased, upon asking the Governor's permission, which would be granted of course. He said, that it would be cheaper for us to take a house in the town, and bring our own servants ashore, if we had any body upon whom we could depend to buy in our provisions; but as this was not the case, having no person among us who could speak the Malay language, our gentlemen determined to go to the hotel. At the hotel, therefore, beds were immediately hired, and word was sent that we should sleep there at night. --page 1182

At five o'clock in the afternoon, I was introduced to the Governor-General, who received me very courteously; he told me, that I should have every thing I wanted, and that in the morning my request should be laid before the council, which I was desired to attend. --page 1183

About nine o'clock, we had a dreadful storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, during which the main-mast of one of the Dutch East Indiamen was split, and carried away by the deck; the main-top-mast and top-gallant-mast were shivered all to pieces;* she had an iron spindle at the main-top-gallant-mast-head, which probably directed the stroke. This ship lay not more than the distance of two cables' length from ours, and in all probability we should have shared the same fate, but for the electrical chain which we had but just got up, and which conducted the lightning over the side of the ship; but though we escaped the lightning, the explosion shook us like an earthquake, the chain at the same time appearing like a line of fire: a centinel was in the action of charging his piece, and the shock forced the musket out of his hand, and broke the rammer rod. Upon this occasion, I cannot but earnestly recommend chains of the same kind to every ship, whatever be her destination, and I hope that the fate of the Dutchman will be a warning to all who shall read this narrative, against having an iron spindle at the mast-head. --page 1184

The next morning, I attended at the council-chamber,* and was told that I should have every thing I wanted. In the mean time, the gentlemen ashore agreed with the keeper of the hotel for their lodging and board, at the rate of two rix-dollars, or nine shillings sterling a day for each; and as there were five of them, and they would probably have many visitors from the ship, he agreed to keep them a separate table, upon condition that they should pay one rix-dollar for the dinner of every stranger, and another for his supper and bed, if he should sleep ashore. Under this stipulation they were to be furnished with tea, coffee, punch, pipes and tobacco, for themselves and their friends, as much as they could consume; they were also to pay half a rupee, or one shilling and three pence a day for each of their servants. --page 1185

They soon learnt that these rates were more than double the common charges of board and lodging in the town, and their table,* though it had the appearance of magnificence, was wretchedly served. Their dinner consisted of one course of fifteen dishes, and their supper of one course of thirteen, but nine or ten of them consisted of bad poultry, variously dressed, and often served up the second, third, and even the fourth time: the same duck having appeared more than once roasted, found his way again to the table as a fricasee, and a fourth time in the form of forced meat. It was not long, however, before they learnt that this treatment was only by way of essay, and that it was the invariable custom of the house, to supply all strangers, at their first coming, with such fare as could be procured for the least money, and consequently would produce the most gain: that if either through indolence or good-nature they were content, it was continued for the benefit of the host, but that if they complained, it was gradually amended till they were satisfied, which sometimes happened before they had the worth of their money. After this discovery, they remonstrated, and their fare became better; however, after a few days, Mr. Banks hired a little house, the next door on the left hand to the hotel, for himself and his party, for which he paid after the rate of ten rix-dollars, or two pounds five shillings sterling a month; but here they were very far from having either the convenience or the privacy which they expected; no person was permitted to sleep in this private house occasionally, as a guest to the person who hired it, under a penalty, but •amost every Dutchman that went by ran in without any ceremony, to ask what they sold, there having been very seldom any private persons at Batavia who had not something to sell. Every body here hires a carriage, and Mr. Banks hired two. They are open chaises, made to hold two people, and driven by a man sitting on a coach-box; for each of these he paid two rix-dollars a day. --page 1186

As soon as he was settled in his new habitation,* he sent for Tupia, who till now had continued on board upon account of his illness, which was of the bilious kind, and for which he had obstinately refused to take any medicine. He soon came ashore, with his boy Tayeto, and though while he was on board, and after he came into the boat, he was exceedingly listless and dejected, he no sooner entered the town than he seemed to be animated with a new soul. The houses, carriages, streets, people, and a multiplicity of other objects, all new, which rushed upon him at once, produced an effect like the sudden and secret power that is imagined of fascination. Tayeto expressed his wonder and delight with still less restraint, and danced along the street in a kind of extasy, examining every object with a restless and eager curiosity, which was every moment excited and gratified. One of the first things that Tupia remarked, was the various dresses of the passing multitude, concerning which he made many enquiries; and when he was told that in this place, where people of many different nations were assembled, every one wore the habit of his country, he desired that he might conform to the custom, and appear in that of Otaheite. South Sea cloth was therefore sent for from the ship, and he equipped himself with great expedition and dexterity. The people who had seen Otourou, the Indian who had been brought hither by M. Bougainville, enquired whether Tupia was not the same person: from these enquiries, we learnt who it was that we had supposed to be Spaniards, from the accounts that had been given of two ships by the Islanders. --page 1187

In the mean time, I procured an order to the superintendant of the island of Ourust, where the ship was to be repaired, to receive her there; and sent by one of the ships that sailed for Holland, an account of our arrival here, to Mr. Stephens, the Secretary to the Admiralty. --page 1188

*The expences that would be incurred by repairing and refitting the ship, rendered it necessary for me to take up money in this place, which I imagined might be done without difficulty, but I found myself mistaken; for after the most diligent enquiry, I could not find any private person that had ability and inclination to advance the sum that I wanted. In this difficulty I applied to the Governor himself, by a written request, in consequence of which, the Shebander had orders to supply me with what money I should require out of the Company's Treasury. --page 1189

*On the 18th, as soon as it was light, having by several accidents and mistakes suffered a delay of many days, I took up the anchor, and ran down to Ourust: a few days afterwards, we went along-side of the wharf, on Cooper's Island, which lies close to Ourust, in order to take out our stores. --page 1190

By this time, having been here only nine days, we began to feel the fatal effects of the climate and situation. Tupia, after the flow of spirits which the novelties of the place produced upon his first landing, sunk on a sudden, and grew every day worse and worse. Tayeto was seized with an inflammation upon his lungs, Mr. Banks's two servants became very ill, and himself and Dr. Solander were attacked by fevers: in a few days, almost every person both on board and ashore was sick; affected, no doubt, by the low swampy situation of the place, and the numberless dirty canals which intersect the town in all directions. On the 26th, I set up the tent for the reception of the ship's company, of whom there was but a small number able to do duty. Poor Tupia, of whose life we now began to despair, and who till this time had continued ashore with Mr. Banks, desired to be removed to the ship, where, he said, he should breathe a freer air than among the numerous houses which obstructed it ashore: on board the ship, however, he could not go,* for she was unrigged, and preparing to be laid down at the careening place; but on the 28th,* Mr. Banks went with him to Cooper's Island, or, as it is called here, Kuypor, where she lay, and as he seemed pleased with the spot, a tent was there pitched for him: at this place, both the sea breeze and the land breeze blew directly over him, and he expressed great satisfaction in his situation. Mr. Banks, whose humanity kept him two days with this poor Indian, returned to the town on the 30th, and the fits of his intermittent,* which was now become a regular tertian, were so violent as to deprive him of his senses while they lasted, and leave him so weak that he was scarcely able to crawl down stairs: at this time, Dr. Solander's disorder also increased, and Mr. Monkhouse, the Surgeon, was confined to his bed. --page 1191

On the fifth of November,* after many delays in consequence of the Dutch ships coming along-side the wharfs to load pepper, the ship was laid down, and the same day, Mr. Monkhouse, our Surgeon, a sensible, skilful man, fell the first sacrifice to this fatal country, a loss which was greatly aggravated by our situation. Dr. Solander was just able to attend his funeral, but Mr. Banks was confined to his bed. Our distress was now very great, and the prospect before us discouraging in the highest degree: our danger was not such as we could surmount by any efforts of our own; courage, skill, and diligence were all equally ineffectual, and death was every day making advances upon us, where we could neither resist nor fly. Malay servants were hired to attend the sick, but they had so little sense either of duty or humanity, that they could not be kept within call, and the patient was frequently obliged to get out of bed to seek them. On the 9th, we lost our poor Indian boy Tayeto,* and Tupia was so much affected,* that it was doubted whether he would survive till the next day. --page 1192

In the mean time, the bottom of the ship being examined, was found to be in a worse condition than we apprehended: the false keel was all gone to within twenty feet of the stern post; the main keel was considerably injured in many places; a great quantity of the sheathing was torn off, and several planks were much damaged; two of them, and the half of a third, under the main channel near the keel, were, for the length of six feet, so worn, that they were not above an eighth part of an inch thick, and here the worms had made their way quite into the timbers; yet in this condition she had sailed many hundred leagues, where navigation is as dangerous as in any part of the world: how much misery did we escape, by being ignorant that so considerable a part of the bottom of the vessel was thinner than the sole of a shoe, and that every life on board depended upon so slight and fragile a barrier between us and the unfathomable ocean! It seemed, however, that we had been preserved only to perish here; Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were so bad that the physician declared they had no chance for recovery but by removing into the country; a house was therefore hired for them, at the distance of about two miles from the town, which belonged to the master of the hotel, who engaged to furnish them with provisions, and the use of slaves. As they had already experienced their want of influence over slaves that had other masters, and the unfeeling inattention of these fellows to the sick, they bought each of them a Mallay woman, which removed both the causes of their being so ill served; the women were their own property, and the tenderness of the sex, even here, made them good nurses. While these preparations were making, they received an account of the death of Tupia,* who sunk at once after the loss of the boy, whom he loved with the tenderness of a parent. --page 1193

By the 14th,* the bottom of the ship was thoroughly repaired, and very much to my satisfaction: it would, indeed, be injustice to the officers and workmen of this yard, not to declare that, in my opinion, there is not a marine yard in the world, where a ship can be laid down with more convenience, safety, and dispatch, nor repaired with more diligence and skill. At this place they heave down by two masts, a method which we do not now practise; it is, however, unquestionably more safe and expeditious to heave down with two masts than one, and he must have a good share of bigotry to old customs, and an equal want of common sense, who will not allow this, after seeing with what facility the Dutch heave down their largest ships at this place. --page 1194

Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander recovered slowly at their country-house, which was not only open to the sea breeze, but situated upon a running stream, which greatly contributed to the circulation of the air: but I was now taken ill myself; , and a seaman who had attended Mr. Banks, were also seized with intermittents; and indeed there was not more than ten of the whole ship's company that were able to do duty. --page 1195

We proceeded however in rigging the ship, and getting water and stores aboard: the water we were obliged to procure from Batavia, at the rate of six shillings and eight pence a leager, or one hundred and fifty gallons. --page 1196

About the 26th, the westerly monsoon set in,* which generally blows here in the night from the S. W. and in the day from the N. W. or N. For some nights before this, we had very heavy rain, with much thunder; and in the night between the 25th and 26th,* such rain as we had seldom seen, for near four hours without intermission. Mr. Banks's house admitted the water in every part like a sieve, and it ran through the lower rooms in a stream that would have turned a mill: he was by this time sufficiently recovered to go out, and upon his entering Batavia the next morning, he was much surprised to see the bedding every where hung out to dry. --page 1197

The wet season was now set in, though we had some intervals of fair weather. The frogs in the ditches, which croak ten times louder than any frogs in Europe, gave notice of rain by an incessant noise that was almost intolerable, and the gnats and musquitos, which had been very troublesome even during the dry weather, were now become innumerable, swarming from every plash of water like bees from a hive; they did not, however, much incommode us in the clay, and the stings, however troublesome at first, never continued to itch above half an hour, so that none of us felt in the day, the effects of the wounds they had received in the night. --page 1198

*On the 8th of December, the ship being perfectly refitted, and having taken in most of her water and stores, and received her sick on board, we ran up to Batavia Road, and anchored in four fathom and an half of water. --page 1199

*From this time, to the 24th, we were employed in getting on board the remainder of our water and provisions, with some new pumps, and in several other operations that were necessary to fit the ship for the sea, all which would have been effected much sooner, if sickness and death had not disabled or carried off a great number of our men. --page 1200

While we lay here, the Earl of Elgin, Captain Cook, a ship belonging to the English East India Company, came to an anchor in the Road. She was bound from Madrass to China,* but having lost her passage, put in here to wait for the next season. The Phoenix, Captain Black, an English country ship, from Bencoolen, also came to an anchor at this place. --page 1201

In the afternoon of Christmas eve, the 24th, I took leave of the Governor, and several of the principal gentlemen of the place, with whom I had formed connections, and from whom I received every possible civility and assistance; but in the mean time an accident happened, which might have produced disagreeable consequences. A seaman had run away from one of the Dutch ships in the Road, and entered on board of mine: the Captain had applied to the Governor, to reclaim him as a subject of Holland, and an order for that purpose was procured: this order was brought to me soon after I returned from my last visit, and I said, that if the man appeared to be a Dutchman, he should certainly be delivered up. Mr. Hicks commanded on board, and I gave the Dutch officer an order to him, to deliver the man up under that condition. I slept myself this night on shore, and in the morning,* the Captain of the Dutch Commodore came and told me that he had carried my order on board, but that the officer had refused to deliver up the man, alleging, not only that he was not a Dutchman, but that he was a subject of Great Britain, born in Ireland; I replied, that the officer had perfectly executed my orders, and that if the man was an English subject, it could not be expected that I should deliver him up. The Captain then said, that he was just come from the Governor, to demand the man of me in his name, as a subject of Denmark, alleging, that he stood in the ship's books as born at Elsineur. The claim of this man as a subject of Holland, being now given up, I observed to the Captain, that there appeared to be some mistake in the General's message,* for that he would certainly never demand a Danish seaman from me, who had committed no other crime than preferring the service of the English to that of the Dutch. I added, however, to convince him of my sincere desire to avoid disputes, that if the man was a Dane he should be delivered up as a courtesy, though he could not be demanded as a right; but that if I found he was an English subject, I would keep him at all events. Upon these terms we parted, and soon after I received a letter from Mr. Hicks, containing indubitable proof that the seaman in question was a subject of his Britannic Majesty. This letter I immediately carried to the Shebander, with a request that it might be shewn to the Governor, and that his Excellency might at the same time be told, I would not upon any terms part with the man. This had the desired effect, and I heard no more of the affair. --page 1202

In the evening, I went on board, accompanied by Mr. Banks, and the rest of the gentlemen who had constantly resided on shore, and who, though better, were not yet perfectly recovered. --page 1203

*At six in the morning, of the 26th, we weighed and set sail, with a light breeze at S. W. The Elgin Indiaman saluted us with three cheers and thirteen guns, and the garrison with fourteen, both which, with the help of our swivels, we returned, and soon after the sea breeze set in at N. by W. which obliged us to anchor just without the ships in the Road. --page 1204

At this time, the number of sick on board amounted to forty, and the rest of the ship's company were in a very feeble condition. Every individual had been sick except the sail-maker, an old man between seventy and eighty years of age, and it is very remarkable that this old man,* during our stay at this place, was constantly drunk every day: we had buried seven, the Surgeon, three seamen, Mr. Green's servant, Tupia, and Tayeto his boy. All but Tupia fell a sacrifice to the unwholesome, stagnant, putrid air of the country, and he who from his birth had been used to subsist chiefly upon vegetable food, particularly ripe fruit, soon contracted all the disorders that are incident to a sea life, and would probably have sunk under them before we could have completed our voyage, if we had not been obliged to go to Batavia to refit. --page 1205

*BATAVIA, the capital of the Dutch dominions in India, and generally supposed to have no equal among all the possessions of the Europeans in Asia, is situated on the north side of the island of Java, in a low fenny plain, where several small rivers, which take their rise in the mountains called Blaeuwen Berg, about forty miles up the country, empty themselves into the sea, and where the coast forms a large bay, called the Bay of Batavia, at the distance of about eight leagues from the streight of Sunda. It lies in latitude 6° 10′ S. and longitude 106° 50′ E. from the meridian of Greenwich, as appears from astronomical observations made upon the spot, by the Reverend Mr. Mohr, who has built an elegant observatory, which is as well furnished with instruments as most in Europe. --page 1206

The Dutch seem to have pitched upon this spot for the convenience of water-carriage, and in that it is indeed a second Holland, and superior to every other place in the world. There are very few streets that have not a canal of considerable breadth running through them, or rather stagnating in them, and continued for several miles in almost every direction beyond the town, which is also intersected by five or six rivers, some of which are navigable thirty or forty miles up the country. As the houses are large, and the streets wide, it takes up a much greater extent, in proportion to the number of houses it contains,* than any city in Europe. Valentyn, who wrote an account of it about the year 1726, says, that in his time there were, within the walls, 1242 Dutch houses, and 1200 Chinese; and without the walls 1066 Dutch, and 1240 Chinese, besides 12 arrack houses, making in all 4760: but this account appeared to us to be greatly exaggerated, especially with respect to the number of houses within the walls. --page 1207

The streets are spacious and handsome, and the banks of the canals are planted with rows of trees, that make a very pleasing appearance; but the trees concur with the canals to make the situation unwholesome. The stagnant canals in the dry season exhale an intolerable stench, and the trees impede the course of the air, by which in some degree the putrid effluvia would be dissipated. In the wet season the inconvenience is equal, for then these reservoirs of corrupted water overflow their banks in the lower part of the town, especially in the neighbourhood of the hotel, and fill the lower stories of the houses, where they leave behind them an inconceivable quantity of slime and filth: yet these canals are sometimes cleaned; but the cleaning them is so managed as to become as great a nuisance as the foulness of the water; for the black mud that is taken from the bottom is suffered to lie upon the banks, that is, in the middle of the street, till it has acquired a sufficient degree of hardness to be made the lading of a boat, and carried away. As this mud consists chiefly of human ordure, which is regularly thrown into the canals every morning, there not being a necessary-house in the whole town, it poisons the air while it is drying to a considerable extent. Even the running streams become nuisances in their turn, by the nastiness or negligence of the people; for every now and then a dead hog,* or a dead horse, is stranded upon the shallow parts, and it being the business of no particular person to remove the nuisance, it is negligently left to time and accident. While we were here, a dead buffalo lay upon the shoal of a river that ran through one of the principal streets above a week, and at last was carried away by a flood. --page 1208

The houses are in general well adapted to the climate; they consist of one very large room or hall on the ground floor, with a door at each end, both which generally stand open: at one end a room is taken off by a partition, where the master of the house transacts his business; and in the middle between each end there is a court, which gives light to the hall, and at the same time increases the draught of air. From one corner of the hall the stairs go up to the floor above, where also the rooms are spacious and airy. In the alcove, which is formed by the court, the family dine; and at other times it is occupied by the female slaves, who are not allowed to sit down any where else. --page 1209

The public buildings are, most of them, old, heavy, and ungraceful; but the new church is not inelegant; it is built with a dome, that is seen from a great distance at sea, and though the outside has rather a heavy appearance, the inside forms a very fine room: it is furnished with an organ of a proper size, being very large, and is most magnificently illuminated by chandeliers. --page 1210

The town is inclosed by a stone wall, of a moderate height; but the whole of it is old, and many parts are much out of repair. This wall itself is surrounded by a river, which in some places is fifty, and in some a hundred yards wide: the stream is rapid, but the water is shallow. The wall is also lined within by a canal, which in different parts is of different breadths; so that, in passing either out or in through the gates, it is necessary to cross two draw-bridges;* and there is no access for idle people or strangers to walk upon the ramparts, which seem to be but ill provided with guns. --page 1211

In the north east corner of the town stands the castle or citadel, the walls of which are both higher and thicker than those of the town, especially near the landing-place, where there is depth of water only for boats, which it completely commands, with several large guns that make a very good appearance. --page 1212

Within this castle are apartments for the Governor General, and all the Council of India, to which they are enjoined to repair in case of a siege. Here are also large storehouses, where great quantities of the Company's goods are kept, especially those that are brought from Europe, and where almost all their writers transact their business. In this place also are laid up a great number of cannon, whether to mount upon the walls or furnish shipping, we could not learn; and the Company is said to be well supplied with powder, which is dispersed in various magazines, that if some should be destroyed by lightning, which in this place is very frequent, the rest may escape. --page 1213

Besides the fortifications of the town, numerous forts are dispersed about the country to the distance of twenty or thirty miles; these seem to have been intended merely to keep the natives in awe, and indeed they are fit for nothing else. For the same purpose a kind of houses, each of which mounts about eight guns, are placed in such situations as command the navigation of three or four canals, and consequently the roads upon their banks: some of these are in the town itself, and it was from one of these that all the best houses belonging to the Chinese were levelled with the ground in the Chinese rebellion of 1740. These defences are scattered over all parts of Java,* and the other islands of which the Dutch have got possession in these seas. Of one of these singular forts, or fortified houses, we should have procured a drawing, if our Gentlemen had not been confined by sickness almost all the time they were upon the island. --page 1214

If the Dutch fortifications here are not formidable in themselves, they become so by their situation; for they are among morasses where the roads, which are nothing more than a bank thrown up between a canal and a ditch, may easily be destroyed, and consequently the approach of heavy artillery either totally prevented or greatly retarded: for it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to transport them in boats, as they all muster every night under the guns of the castle, a situation from which it would be impossible for an enemy to take them. Besides, in this country, delay is death; so that whatever retards an enemy, will destroy him. In less than a week, we were sensible of the unhealthiness of the climate; and in less than a month half the ship's company were unable to do their duty. We were told, that of a hundred soldiers who arrive here from Europe, it was a rare thing for fifty to survive the first year; that of those fifty, half would then be in the hospital, and not ten of the rest in perfect health: possibly this account may be exaggerated; but the pale and feeble wretches whom we saw crawling about with a musquet, which they were scarcely able to carry, inclined us to believe that it was true. Every white inhabitant of the town indeed is a soldier; the younger are constantly mustered, and those who have served five years are liable to be called out when their assistance is thought to be necessary; but as neither of them are ever exercised, or do any kind of duty, much cannot be expected from them. The Portuguese, indeed, are in general good marksmen,* because they employ themselves much in shooting wild hogs and deer: neither the Mardykers nor the Chinese know the use of fire-arms; but as they are said to be brave, they might do much execution with their own weapons, swords, lances, and daggers. The Mardykers are Indians of all nations, who are descended from free ancestors, or have themselves been made free. --page 1215

But if it is difficult to attack Batavia by land, it is utterly impossible to attack it by sea: for the water is so shallow, that it will scarcely admit a longboat to come within cannon shot of the walls, except in a narrow channel, called the river, that is walled on both sides by strong piers, and runs about half a mile into the harbour. At the other end, it terminates under the fire of the strongest part of the castle; and here its communication with the canals that intersect the town is cut off by a large wooden boom, which is shut every night at six o'clock, and upon no pretence opened till the next morning. The harbour of Batavia is accounted the finest in India, and to all appearance with good reason; it is large enough to contain any number of ships, and the ground is so good that one anchor will hold till the cable decays: it never admits any sea that is troublesome, and its only inconvenience is the shoal water between the road and the river. When the sea breeze blows fresh, it makes a cockling sea that is dangerous to boats: our longboat once struck two or three times as she was attempting to come out, and regained the river's mouth with some difficulty. A Dutch boat, laden with sails and rigging for one of the Indiamen, was entirely lost. --page 1216

Round the harbour, on the outside, lie many islands, which the Dutch have taken possession of, and apply to different uses. To one of them, called Edam, they transport all Europeans who have been guilty of crimes that are not worthy of death:* some are sentenced to remain there ninety-nine years, some forty, some twenty, some less, down to five, in proportion to their offence; and during their banishment, they are employed as slaves in making ropes, and other drudgery. In another island, called Purmerent, they have an hospital, where people are said to recover much faster than at Batavia. In a third, called Kuyper, they have warehouses belonging to the Company, chiefly for rice, and other merchandize of small value; and here the foreign ships, that are to be laid down at Ourust, another of these islands, which with Kuyper has been mentioned before, discharge their cargoes at wharfs which are very convenient for the purpose. Here the guns, sails, and other stores of the Falmouth, a man of war, which was condemned at this place when she was returning from Manilla, were deposited, and the ship herself remained in the harbour with only the warrant officers on board for many years. Remittances were regularly made them from home; but no notice was ever taken of the many memorials they sent, desiring to be recalled. Happily for them, the Dutch thought fit, about six months before our arrival, to sell the vessel and all her stores, by public auction, and send the officers home in their own ships. At Ourust, they repair all their own shipping, and keep a large quantity of naval stores. --page 1217

The country round Batavia is for some miles a continued range of country houses and gardens. Many of the gardens are very large, and, by some strange fatality, all are planted with trees almost as thick as they can stand; so that the country derives no advantage from its being cleared of the wood that originally covered it, except the fruit of that which has been planted in its room. These impenetrable forests stand in a dead flat,* which extends some miles beyond them, and is intersected in many directions by rivers, and more still by canals, which are navigable for small vessels. Nor is this the worst, for the fence of every field and garden is a ditch; and interspersed among the cultivated ground there are many filthy fens, bogs, and morasses, as well fresh as salt. --page 1218

It is not strange that the inhabitants of such a country should be familiar with disease and death: preventive medicines are taken almost as regularly as food; and every body expects the returns of sickness, as we do the seasons of the year. We did not see a single face in Batavia that indicated perfect health, for there is not the least tint of colour in the cheeks either of man or woman: the women indeed are most delicately fair; but with the appearance of disease there never can be perfect beauty. People talk of death with as much indifference as they do in a camp; and when an acquaintance is said to be dead, the common reply is, "Well, he owed me nothing;" or, --page 1219

I must get my money of his executors. To this description of the environs of Batavia there are but two exceptions. The Governor's country house is situated upon a rising ground; but its ascent is so inconsiderable, that it is known to be above the common level only by the canals being left behind, and the appearance of a few bad hedges: his Excellency, however, who is a native of this place, has, with some trouble and expence, contrived to inclose his own garden with a ditch; such is the influence of habit both upon the taste and the understanding. A famous market also, called Passar Tanabank, is held upon an eminence that rises perpendicularly about thirty feet above the plain; and except these situations, the ground, for an extent of between thirty and forty miles round Batavia,* is exactly parallel to the horizon. At the distance of about forty miles inland there are hills of a considerable height, where, as we were informed, the air is healthy, and comparatively cool. Here the vegetables of Europe flourish in great perfection, particularly strawberries, which can but ill bear heat; and the inhabitants are vigorous and ruddy. Upon these hills some of the principal people have country houses, which they visit once a-year; and one was begun for the Governor, upon the plan of Blenheim, the famous seat of the Duke of Marlborough in Oxfordshire, but it has never been finished. To these hills also people are sent by the physicians, for the recovery of their health, and the effects of the air are said to be almost miraculous: the patient grows well in a short time, but constantly relapses soon after his return to Batavia. --page 1220

But the same situation and circumstances which render Batavia and the country round it unwholesome, render it the best gardener's ground in the world. The soil is fruitful beyond imagination, and the conveniences and luxuries of life that it produces are almost without number. --page 1221

Rice, which is well known to be the corn of these countries, and to serve the inhabitants instead of bread, grows in great plenty: and I must here observe, that in the hilly parts of Java, and in many of the eastern islands, a species of this grain is planted, which in the western parts of India is intirely unknown. It is called by the natives Paddy Gunning, or Mountain rice; this, contrary to the other sort which must be under water three parts in four of the time of its growth, is planted upon the sides of hills where no water but rain can come: it is however planted at the beginning of the rainy season, and reaped in the beginning of the dry. How far this kind of rice might be useful in our West Indian islands, where no bread corn is grown,* it may perhaps be worth while to enquire. --page 1222

Indian corn, or maize, is also produced here; which the inhabitants gather when young, and toast in the ear. Here is also a great variety of kidney beans, and lentiles, which they call Cadjang, and which make a considerable part of the food of the common people; besides millet, yams both wet and dry, sweet potatoes, and European potatoes, which are very good, but not cultivated in great plenty. In the gardens, there are cabbages, lettuces, cucumbers, rhadishes, the white rhadishes of China, which boil almost as well as a turnep; carrots, parsley, celery, pigeon peas, the egg plant, which broiled, and eaten with pepper and salt, is very delicious; a kind of greens resembling spinage; onions, very small, but excellent; and asparagus: besides some European plants of a strong smell, particularly sage, hysop, and rue. Sugar is also produced here in immense quantities: very great crops of the finest and largest canes that can be imagined are produced with very little care, and yield a much larger proportion of sugar than the canes of the West Indies. White sugar is sold here at two pence half-penny a pound; and the molasses makes the arrack, of which, as of rum, it is the chief ingredient; a small quantity of rice, and some cocoa-nut wine, being added, chiefly, I suppose, to give it flavour. A small quantity of indigo is also produced here, not as an article of trade, but merely for home consumption. --page 1223

But the most abundant article of vegetable luxury here, is the fruit; of which there is no less than six and thirty different kinds, and I shall give a very brief account of each. --page 1224

1. The pine apple; Bromelin Ananas. This fruit, which is here called Nanas, grows very large, and in such plenty that they may sometimes be bought at the first hand for a farthing a piece;* and at the common fruit shops we got three of them for two pence half-penny. They are very juicy and well flavoured; but we all agreed that we had eaten as good from a hot-house in England: they are however so luxuriant in their growth that most of them have two or three crowns, and a great number of suckers from the bottom of the fruit; of these Mr. Banks once counted nine, and they are so forward that very often while they still adhered to the parent plant they shot out their fruit, which, by the time the large one became ripe, were of no inconsiderable size. We several times saw three upon one apple, and were told that a plant once produced a cluster of nine, besides the principal: this indeed was considered as so great a curiosity, that it was preserved in sugar, and sent to the Prince of Orange. --page 1225

2. Sweet oranges. These are very good, but while we were here, sold for six pence a piece. --page 1226

3. Pumplemoeses, which in the West Indies are called Shaddocks. These were well flavoured, but not juicy; their want of juice however was an accidental effect of the season. --page 1227

4. Lemons. These were very scarce; but the want of them was amply compensated by the plenty of limes. --page 1228

5. Limes. These were excellent, and to be bought at about twelve pence a hundred. We saw only two or three Seville oranges, which were almost all rind; and there are many sorts, both of oranges and lemons, which I shall not particularly mention, because they are neither esteemed by Europeans nor the natives themselves. --page 1229

6. Mangos. This fruit during our stay was so infested with maggots, which bred in the inside them, that scarcely one in three was eatable; and the best of them were much inferior to those of Brazil; they are generally compared by Europeans to a melting peach, which, indeed,* they resemble in softness and sweetness, but certainly fall much short in flavour. The climate here, we were told, is too hot and damp for them; but there are as many sorts of them as there are of apples in England, and some are much superior to others. One sort, which is called Mangha Cowani, has so strong a smell that a European can scarcely bear one in the room; these, however, the natives are fond of. The three sorts which are generally preferred, are the Mangha Doodool, the Mangha Santock, and the Mangha Gure. --page 1230

7. Bananes. Of these also there are innumerable sorts, but three only are good; the Pissang Mas, the Pissang Radja, and the Pissang Ambou: all these have a pleasant vinous taste, and the rest are useful in different ways; some are fried in batter, and others are boiled and eaten as bread. There is one which deserves the particular notice of the botanist, because, contrary to the nature of its tribe, it is full of seeds, and is therefore called Pissang Batu, or Pissang Bidjie; it has however no excellence to recommend it to the taste, but the Malays use it as a remedy for the flux. --page 1231

8. Grapes. These are not in great perfection, but they are very dear; for we could not buy a moderate bunch for less than a shilling or eighteen pence. --page 1232

9. Tamarinds. These are in great plenty, and very cheap: the people however do not put them up in the manner practised by the West Indians, but cure them with salt, by which means they become a black mass, so disagreeable to the sight and taste, that few Europeans chuse to meddle with them. --page 1233

10. Water melons. These are in great plenty, and very good. --page 1234

*11. Pumpkins. These are beyond comparison the most useful fruit that can be carried to sea; for they will keep without any care several months, and with sugar and lemon-juice, make a pye that can scarcely be distinguished from one made of the best apples; and with pepper and salt, they are a substitute for turneps, not to be despised. --page 1235

12. Papaws. This fruit when it is ripe is full of seeds, and almost without flavour; but if when it is green it is pared, and the core taken out, it is better than the best turnep. --page 1236

13. Guava. This fruit is much commended by the inhabitants of our islands in the West Indies, who probably have a better sort than we met with here, where the smell of them was so disagreeably strong that it made some of us sick; those who tasted them, said, that the flavour was equally rank. --page 1237

14. Sweet sop. The Annona squammosa of Linnaeus. This is also a West Indian fruit; it consists only of a mass of large kernels, from which a small proportion of pulp may be sucked, which is very sweet, but has little flavour. --page 1238

15. Custard apple. The Annona reticulata of Linnaeus. The quality of this fruit is well expressed by its English name, which it acquired in the West Indies; for it is as like a custard, and a good one too, as can be imagined. --page 1239

16. The cashew apple. This is seldom eaten on account of its astringency. The nut that grows upon the top of it is well known in Europe. --page 1240

17. The cocoa-nut. This is also well known in Europe; there are several sorts, but the best of those we found here is called Calappi Edjou, and is easily known by the redness of the flesh between the skin and the shell. --page 1241

. Mangostan. The Garcinia Mangostana of Linnaeus.* This fruit, which is peculiar to the East Indies, is about the size of the crab apple, and of a deep red-wine colour: on the top of it is the figure of five or six small triangles joined in a circle, and at the bottom several hollow green leaves, which are remains of the blossom. When they are to be eaten, the skin, or rather flesh, must be taken off, under which are found six or seven white kernels, placed in a circular order, and the pulp with which these are inveloped, is the fruit, than which nothing can be more delicious: it is a happy mixture of the tart and the sweet, which is no less wholesome than pleasant; and with the sweet orange, this fruit is allowed in any quantity to those who are afflicted with fevers, either of the putrid or inflammatory kind. --page 1242

19. The jamboo. The Eugenia Mallaccensis of Linnaeus. This fruit is of a deep red colour, and an oval shape; the largest, which are always the best, are not bigger than a small apple; they are pleasant and cooling, though they have not much flavour. --page 1243

20. The jambu-eyer. A species of the Eugenia of Linnaeus. Of this fruit there are two sorts of a similar shape, resembling a bell, but differing in colour; one being red, the other white. They somewhat exceed a large cherry in size, and in taste have neither flavour nor even sweetness, containing nothing but a watry juice, slightly acidulated; yet their coolness recommends them in this hot country. --page 1244

21. Jambu-eyer mauwar. The Eugenia jambos of Linnaeus. This is more grateful to the smell than the taste; in taste it resembles the conserve of roses, and in smell the fresh scent of those flowers. --page 1245

22. The pomgranate. This is the same fruit that is known by the same name all over Europe. --page 1246

*23. Durion. A fruit that in shape resembles a small melon, but the skin is covered with sharp conical spines, whence its name; for dure, in the Malay language, signifies prickle. When it is ripe, it divides longitudinally into seven or eight compartments, each of which contains six or seven nuts, not quite so large as chesnuts, which are covered with a substance that in colour and consistence very much resembles thick cream: this is the part that is eaten, and the natives are fond of it to excess. To Europeans it is generally disagreeable at first; for in taste, it somewhat resembles a mixture of cream, sugar, and onions; and in the smell, the onions predominate. --page 1247

24. Nanca. This fruit, which in some parts of India is called Jack, has, like the Durion, a smell very disagreeable to strangers, and somewhat resembling that of mellow apples mixed with garlic: the flavour is not more adapted to the general taste. In some countries that are favourable to it, it is said to grow to an immense size. Rumphius relates, that it is sometimes so large that a man cannot easily lift it; and we were told by a Malay, that at Madura it is sometimes so large as not to be carried but by the united efforts of two men. At Batavia, however, they never exceed the size of a large melon, which in shape they very much resemble: they are covered with angular prickles, like the shootings of some chrystals, which however are not hard enough to wound those who handle them. --page 1248

25. Champada. This differs from the Nanca in little except size, it not being so big. --page 1249

26. Rambutan. This is a fruit little known to Europeans; in appearance it very much resembles a chesnut with the husk on, and like that, is covered with small points, which are soft and of a deep red colour: under this skin is the fruit, and within the fruit a stone;* the eatable part therefore is small in quantity, but its acid is perhaps more agreeable than any other in the whole vegetable kingdom. --page 1250

27. Jambolan. This in size and appearance is not unlike a damascene; but in taste is still more astringent, and therefore less agreeable. --page 1251

28. The Boa Bidarra; or Rhamnus Jujuba of Linnaeus. This is a round yellow fruit, about the size of a gooseberry; its flavour is like that of an apple, but it has the astringency of a crab. --page 1252

29. Nam nam. The Cynometra Cauliflora of Linnaeus. This fruit in shape somewhat resembles a kidney; it is about three inches long, and the outside is very rough: it is seldom eaten raw, but fried with batter it makes a good fritter. --page 1253

30, 31. The Catappa, or Terminalia Catappa; and the Canare, the Canarium commune of Linnaeus; are both nuts, with kernels somewhat resembling an almond; but the difficulty of breaking the shell is so great, that they are no where publicly sold. Those which we tasted were gathered for curiosity by Mr. Banks, from the tree upon which they grew. --page 1254

32. The Madja; or Limonia of Linnaeus; contains, under a hard brittle shell, a lightly acid pulp, which cannot be eaten without sugar; and with it, is not generally thought pleasant. --page 1255

33. Suntul. The Trichilia of Linnaeus. This is the worst of all the fruits that I shall particularly mention: in size and shape it resembles the Madja; and within a thick skin contains kernels like those of the Mangostan, the taste of which is both acid and astringent, and so disagreeable that we were surprised to see it exposed upon the fruit-stalls. --page 1256

*34, 35, 36. The Blimbing, or Averrhoa Belimbi; the Blimbing Besse, or Averrhoa Carambola; and the Cherrema, or Averrhoa acida of Linnaeus, are three species of one genus; and though they differ in shape, are nearly of the same taste. The Blimbing Besse is the sweetest: the other two are so austerely acid, that they cannot be used without dressing; they make however excellent pickles and sour sauce. --page 1257

37. The Salack; or Calamus Rotang Zalacca of Linnaeus. This is the fruit of a prickly bush; it is about as big as a walnut, and covered with scales, like those of a lizard: below the scales are two or three yellow kernels, in flavour somewhat resembling a strawberry. --page 1258

Besides these, the island of Java, and particularly the country round Batavia, produces many kinds of fruit which were not in season during our stay; we were also told that apples, strawberries, and many other fruits from Europe, had been planted up in the mountains, and flourished there in great luxuriance. We saw several fruits preserved in sugar, that we did not see recent from the tree, one of which is called Kimkit, and another Boa Atap: and here are several others which are eaten only by the natives, particularly the Kellor, the Guilindina, the Moringa, and the Soccum. The Soccum is of the same kind with the bread-fruit in the South Sea islands, but so much inferior, that if it had not been for the similitude in the outward appearance both of the fruit and the tree, we should not have referred it to that class. These and some others do not merit to be particularly mentioned. --page 1259

The quantity of fruit that is consumed at Batavia is incredible; but that which is publicly exposed to sale is generally over-ripe. A stranger however may get good fruit in a street called Passar Pissang, which lies north from the great church, and very near it.* This street is inhabited by none but Chinese fruit-sellers, who are supplied from the gardens of Gentlemen in the neighbourhood of the town, with such as is fresh, and excellent in its kind, for which however they must be paid more than four times the market price. --page 1260

The town in general is supplied from a considerable distance, where great quantities of land are cultivated merely for the production of fruit. The country people, to whom these lands belong, meet the people of the town at two great markets; one on Monday, called Passar Sineen; and the other on Saturday, called Passar Tanabank. These fairs are held at places considerably distant from each other, for the convenience of different districts; neither of them however are more than five miles distant from Batavia. At these fairs, the best fruit may be bought at the cheapest rate; and the sight of them to a European is very entertaining. The quantity of fruit is astonishing; forty or fifty cart loads of the finest pine apples, packed as carelessly as turneps in England, are common, and other fruit in the same profusion. The days however on which these markets are held are ill contrived; the time between Saturday and Monday is too short, and that between Monday and Saturday too long: great part of what is bought on Monday is always much the worse for keeping before a new stock can be bought, either by the retailer or consumer; so that for several days in every week there is no good fruit in the hands of any people but the Chinese in Passar Pissang. --page 1261

The inhabitants of this part of India practise a luxury which seems to be but little attended to in other countries; they are continually burning aromatic woods and resins, and scatter odours round them in a profusion of flowers, possibly as an antidote to the noisome effluvia of their ditches and canals.* Of sweet smelling flowers they have a great variety, altogether unknown in Europe, the chief of which I shall briefly describe. --page 1262

1. The Champacka, or Michelia Champacca. This grows upon a tree as large as an apple tree, and consists of fifteen long narrow petala, which give it the appearance of being double, though in reality it is not so: its colour is yellow, and much deeper than that of a jonquil, to which it has some resemblance in smell. --page 1263

2. The Cananga, or Uvaria Cananga, is a green flower, not at all resembling the blossom of any tree or plant in Europe: it has indeed more the appearance of a bunch of leaves than a flower; its scent is agreeable, but altogether peculiar to itself. --page 1264

3. The Mulatti, or Nyctanthes Sambac. This is well known in English hot-houses by the name of Arabian jessamine: it grows here in the greatest profusion, and its fragrance, like that of all other Indian flowers, though exquisitely pleasing, has not that over-powering strength which distinguishes some of the same sorts in Europe. --page 1265

4, 5. The Combang Caracnassi, and Combang Tonquin, Percularia Glabro. These are small flowers, of the dog's-bane kind, very much resembling each other in shape and smell, highly fragrant, but very different from every product of an English garden. --page 1266

6. The Bonga Tanjong, or Mimusops Elengi of Linnaeus. This flower is shaped like a star of seven or eight rays, and is about half an inch in diameter; it is of a yellowish colour, and has an agreeable smell. --page 1267

Besides these, there is the Sundal Malam, or Polianthes Tuberosa. This flower, being the same with our own tuberose, can have no place among those that are unknown in Europe,* but I mention it for its Malay name, which signifies "Intriguer of the Night," and is not inelegantly conceived. The heat of this climate is so great, that few flowers exhale their sweets in the day; and this in particular, from its total want of scent at that time, and the modesty of its colour, which is white, seems negligent of attracting admirers, but as soon as night comes on, it diffuses its fragrance, and at once compels the attention, and excites the complacency of all who approach it. --page 1268

These are all sold about the streets every evening at sunset, either strung upon a thread, in wreaths of about two feet long, or made up into nosegays of different forms, either of which may be purchased for about a halfpenny. Besides these, there are, in private gardens many other sweet flowers, which are not produced in a sufficient quantity to be brought to market. With a mixture of these flowers, and the leaves of a plant called pandang, cut into small pieces, persons of both sexes fill their hair and their clothes, and with the same mixture indulge a much higher luxury by strewing it on their beds, so that the chamber in which they sleep, breathes the richest and purest of all odours, unallayed by the fumes which cannot but arise where the sleeper lies under two or three blankets and a quilt, for the bed covering here is nothing more than a single piece of fine chintz. --page 1269

Before I close my account of the vegetable productions of this part of India, I must take some notice of the spices Java originally produced none but pepper. This is now sent from hence into Europe to a great value, but the quantity consumed here is very small: the inhabitants use Capsicum, or, as it is called in Europe, Cayan pepper, almost universally in its stead. Cloves and nutmegs, having been monopolized by the Dutch,* are become too dear to be plentifully used by the other inhabitants of this country, who are very fond of them. Cloves, although they are said originally to have been the produce of Machian, or Bachian, a small island far to the eastward, and only fifteen miles to the northward of the line, and to have been from thence disseminated by the Dutch, at their first coming into these parts, over all the eastern islands, are now confined to Amboina, and the small isles that lie in its neighbourhood; the Dutch having, by different treaties of peace between them and the conquered kings of all the other islands, stipulated, that they should have only a certain number of trees in their dominions, and in future quarrels, as a punishment for disobedience and rebellion, lessened the quantity, till at last they left them no claim to any. Nutmegs have in a manner been extirpated in all the islands except their first native soil, Banda, which easily supplies every nation upon earth, and would as easily supply every nation in another globe of the same dimensions, if there was any such to which the industrious Hollander could transport the commodity; it is, however, certain, that there are a few trees of this spice upon the coast of New Guinea. There may perhaps be both cloves and nutmegs upon other islands to the eastward; for those, neither the Dutch, nor any other European, seem to think it worth while to examine. --page 1270

The principal tame quadrupeds of this country are horses, cattle, buffalos, sheep, goats, and hogs. The horses are small, never exceeding in size what we call a stout galloway, but they are nimble and spirited, and are reported to have been found here when the Europeans first came round the Cape of Good Hope. The horned cattle are said to be the same species as those in Europe, but they differ so much in appearance, that we were inclined to doubt it: they have indeed the palearia or dewlap,* which naturalists make the distinguishing characteristic of the European species, but they certainly are found wild, not only in Java but several of the eastern islands. The slesh of those that we eat at Batavia, had a finer grain than European beef, but it was less juicy, and miserably lean. Buffalos are plenty, but the Dutch never eat them, nor will they drink their milk, being prepossessed with a notion that both are unwholesome, and tend to produce fevers; though the natives and Chinese eat both, without any injury to their health. The sheep are of the kind which have long ears that hang down, and hair instead of wool: the flesh of these is hard and tough, and in every respect the worst mutton we ever saw: we found here, however, a few Cape sheep, which are excellent, but so dear that we gave five and forty shillings a-piece for four of them, the heaviest of which weighed only five and forty pounds. The goats are not better than the sheep, but the hogs, especially the Chinese breed, are incomparable, and so fat, that the purchaser agrees for the lean separately. The butcher, who is always a Chinese, without the least scruple cuts off as much of the fat as he is desired, and afterwards sells it to his countrymen, who melt it down, and eat it instead of butter with their rice: but notwithstanding the excellence of this pork, the Dutch are so strongly prejudiced in favour of every thing that comes from their native country, that they eat only of the Dutch breed, which are here sold as much dearer than the Chinese, as the Chinese are sold dearer than the Dutch in Europe. --page 1271

Besides these animals, which are tame, they have dogs and cats, and there are among the distant mountains some wild horses and cattle: buffalos are not found wild in any part of Java, though they abound in Macassar, and several other eastern islands. The neighbourhood of Batavia, however, is plentifully supplied with two kinds of deer,* and wild hogs, which are sold at a reasonable price by the Portuguese, who shoot them, and are very good food. --page 1272

Among the mountains, and in the desart parts of the island, there are tygers, it is said, in great abundance, and some rhinoceroses; in these parts also there are monkies, and there are a few of them even in the neighbourhood of Batavia. --page 1273

Of fish, here is an amazing plenty; many sorts are excellent, and all are very cheap, except the few that are scarce. It happens here, as in other places, that vanity gets the better even of appetite: the cheap fish, most of which is of the best kind, is the food only of slaves, and that which is dear, only because it is scarce, and very much inferior in every respect, is placed upon the tables of the rich. A sensible housekeeper once spoke to us freely upon the subject. I know, said he, as well as you, that I could purchase a better dish of fish for a shilling, than what now costs me ten; but if I should make so good a use of my money, I should here be as much despised, as you would be in Europe, if you were to cover your table with offals, fit only for beggars or dogs. --page 1274

Turtle is also found here, but it is neither so sweet nor so fat as the West Indian turtle, even in London; such as it is, however, we should consider it as a dainty; but the Dutch, among other singularities, do not eat it. We saw some lizards, or Iguanas, here of a very large size; we were told that some were as thick as a man's thigh, and Mr. Banks shot one that was five feet long: the flesh of this animal proved to be very good food. --page 1275

Poultry is very good here, and in great plenty: fowls of a very large size, ducks, and geese are very cheap; pigeons are dear, and the price of turkies extravagant.* We sometimes found the flesh of these animals lean and dry, but this was merely the effect of their being ill fed, for those that we fed ourselves were as good as any of the same kind that we had tasted in Europe, and we sometimes thought them even better. --page 1276

Wild fowl in general is scarce. We once saw a wild duck in the fields, but never any that were to be sold. We frequently saw snipes of two kinds, one of them exactly the same as that in Europe, and a kind of thrush was always to be had in great plenty of the Portuguese, who, for I know not what reason, seem to have monopolized the wild fowl and game. Of snipes, it is remarkable that they are found in more parts of the world than any other bird, being common almost all over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. --page 1277

With respect to drink, Nature has not been quite so liberal to the inhabitants of Java as to some whom she has placed in the less fruitful regions of the north. The native Javanese, and most of the other Indians who inhabit this island, are indeed Mahometans, and therefore have no reason to regret the want of wine; but, as if the prohibition of their law respected only the manner of becoming drunk, and not drunkenness itself, they chew opium, to the total subversion not only of their understanding but their health. --page 1278

The arrack that is made here, is too well known to need a description: besides which, the palm yields a wine of the same kind with that which has already been described in the account of the island of Savu; it is procured from the same tree, in the same manner, and is sold in three states. The first, in which it is called Tuac manise, differs little from that in which it comes from the tree; yet even this has received some preparation altogether unknown to us,* in consequence of which it will keep eight and forty hours, though otherwise it would spoil in twelve: in this state it has an agreeable sweetness, and will not intoxicate. In the other two states it has undergone a fermentation, and received an infusion of certain herbs and roots, by which it loses its sweetness, and acquires a taste very austere and disagreeable. In one of these states it is called Tuac cras, and in the other Tuac cuning, but the specific difference I do not know; in both, however, it intoxicates very powerfully. A liquor called Tuac is also made from the cocoa-nut tree, but this is used chiefly to put into the arrack, for in that which is good it is an essential ingredient. --page 1279

THE town of Batavia, although,* as I have already observed, it is the capital of die Dutch dominions in India, is so far from being peopled with Dutchmen, that not one fifth part, even of the European inhabitants of the town, and its environs, are natives of Holland, or of Dutch extraction: the greater part are Portuguese, and besides Europeans, there are Indians of various nations, and Chinese, besides a great number of negro slaves. In the troops, there are natives of almost every country in Europe, but the Germans are more than all the rest put together; there are some English and French, but the Dutch, though other Europeans are permitted to get money here, keep all the power in their own hands, and consequently possess all public employments. No man, of whatever nation, can come hither to settle, in any other character than that of a soldier in the Company's service, in which, before they are accepted, they must covenant to remain five years. As soon however as this form has been complied with, they are allowed, upon application to the council, to absent themselves from their corps, and enter immediately into any branch of trade, which their money or credit will enable them to carry on; and by this means it is that all the white inhabitants of the place are soldiers. --page 1280

Women, however, of all nations, are permitted to settle here, without coming under any restrictions; yet we were told that there were not,* when we were at Batavia, twenty women in the place that were born in Europe, but that the white women, who were by no means scarce, were descendants from European parents of the third or fourth generation, the gleanings of many families who had successively come hither, and in the male line become extinct; for it is certain that, whatever be the cause, this climate is not so fatal to the ladies as to the other sex. --page 1281

These women imitate the Indians in every particular; their dress is made of the same materials, their hair is worn in the same manner, and they are equally enslaved by the habit of chewing betel. --page 1282

The merchants carry on their business here with less trouble perhaps than in any other part of the world: every manufacture is managed by the Chinese, who sell the produce of their labour to the merchant, resident here, for they are permitted to sell it to no one else; so that when a ship comes in, and bespeaks perhaps a hundred leagers of arrack, or any quantity of other commodities, the merchant has nothing to do but to send orders to his Chinese to see them delivered on board: he obeys the command, brings a receipt signed by the master of the ship for the goods to his employer, who receives the money, and having deducted his profit, pays the Chinese his demand. With goods that are imported, however, the merchant has a little more trouble, for these he must examine, receive, and lay up in his warehouse, according to the practice of other countries. --page 1283

The Portuguese are called by the natives Oranserane, or Nazareen men, (Oran, being Man in the language of the country,) to distinguish them from other Europeans; yet they are included in the general appellation of Caper, or Cafir, an opprobrious term, applied by Mahometans to all who do not profess their faith. These people, however,* are Portuguese only in name; they have renounced the religion of Rome, and become Lutherans: neither have they the least communication with the country of their forefathers, or even knowlege of it: they speak indeed a corrupt dialect of the Portuguese language, but much more frequently use the Malay: they are never suffered to employ themselves in any but mean occupations: many of them live by hunting, many by washing linen, and some are handicraftsmen and artificers. They have adopted all the customs of the Indians, from whom they are distinguished chiefly by their features and complexion, their skin being considerably darker, and their noses more sharp; their dress is exactly the same, except in the manner of wearing their hair. --page 1284

The Indians, who are mixed with the Dutch and Portuguese in the town of Batavia, and the country adjacent, are not, as might be supposed, Javanese, the original natives of the island, but natives of the various islands from which the Dutch import slaves, and are either such as have themselves been manumized, or the descendants of those who formerly received manumission; and they are all comprehended under the general name of Oranslam, or Isalam, signifying Believers of the true Faith. The natives of every country, however, in other respects keep themselves distinct from the rest, and are not less strongly marked than the slaves by the vices or virtues of their respective nations. Many of these employ themselves in the cultivation of gardens, and in selling fruit and flowers. The betel and areca, which are here called Siri and Pinang, and chewed by both sexes and every rank in amazing quantities, are all grown by these Indians: lime is also mixed with these roots here as it is in Savu, but it is less pernicious to the teeth, because it is first slaked, and, besides the lime, a substance called gambir, which is brought from the continent of India;* the better sort of women also add cardamum, and many other aromatics, to give the breath an agreeable smell. Some of the Indians, however, are employed in fishing, and as lightermen, to carry goods from place to place by water; and some are rich, and live with much of the splendour of their country, which chiefly consists in the number of their slaves. --page 1285

In the article of food these Isalams are remarkably temperate: it consists chiefly of boiled rice, with a small proportion of buffalo, fish, or fowl, and sometimes of dried fish, and dried shrimps, which are brought hither from China; every dish, however, is highly seasoned with Cayan pepper, and they have many kinds of pastry made of rice flower, and other things to which I am a stranger; they eat also a great deal of fruit, particularly plantanes. --page 1286

But notwithstanding their general temperance, their feasts are plentiful, and, according to their manner, magnificent. As they are Mahometans, wine and strong liquors professedly make no part of their entertainment, neither do they often indulge with them privately, contenting themselves with their betel and opium. --page 1287

The principal solemnity among them is a wedding, upon which occasion both the families borrow as many ornaments of gold and silver as they can, to adorn the bride and bride-groom, so that their dresses are very showy and magnificent. The feasts that are given upon these occasions among the rich, last sometimes a fortnight, and sometimes longer; and during this time, the man, although married on the first day, is, by the women, kept from his wife. --page 1288

The language that is spoken among all these people, from what place soever they originally came, is the Malay; at least it is a language so called, and probably it is a very corrupt dialect of that spoken at Malacca.* Every little island indeed has a language of its own, and Java has two or three, but this lingua franca is the only language that is now spoken here, and, as I am told, it prevails over a great part of the East Indies. A dictionary of Malay and English was published in London by Thomas Bowrey, in the year 1701. --page 1289

Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon the head, and to increase the quantity, they use oils, and other preparations of various kinds. Of this ornament Nature has been very liberal; it is universally black, and is formed into a kind of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpressibly elegant: the wreath of hair is surrounded by another of flowers, in which the Arabian jessamine is beautifully intermixed with the golden stars of the Bonger Tanjong. --page 1290

Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the river at least once a day, a practice which, in this hot country, is equally necessary both to personal delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also, whatever they may suffer in their colour by chewing beetle, are an object of great attention: the ends of them, both in the upper and under jaw, are rubbed with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and painful operation, till they are perfectly even and slat, so that they cannot lose less than half a line in their length. A deep grove is then made cross the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, and in the middle between them and the extremity of the teeth; the depth of this groove is at least equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, so that it penetrates far beyond what is called the enamel, the least injury to which, according to the dentists of Europe, is fatal; yet among these people, where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is universal, we never saw a rotten told that there were not,* when we were at Batavia, twenty women in the place that were born in Europe, but that the white women, who were by no means scarce, were descendants from European parents of the third or fourth generation, the gleanings of many families who had successively come hither, and in the male line become extinct; for it is certain that, whatever be the cause, this climate is not so fatal to the ladies as to the other sex. --page 1291

These women imitate the Indians in every particular; their dress is made of the same materials, their hair is worn in the same manner, and they are equally enslaved by the habit of chewing betel. --page 1292

The merchants carry on their business here with less trouble perhaps than in any other part of the world: every manufacture is managed by the Chinese, who sell the produce of their labour to the merchant, resident here, for they are permitted to sell it to no one else; so that when a ship comes in, and bespeaks perhaps a hundred leagers of arrack, or any quantity of other commodities, the merchant has nothing to do but to send orders to his Chinese to see them delivered on board: he obeys the command, brings a receipt signed by the master of the ship for the goods to his employer, who receives the money, and having deducted his profit, pays the Chinese his demand. With goods that are imported, however, the merchant has a little more trouble, for these he must examine, receive, and lay up in his warehouse, according to the practice of other countries. --page 1293

The Portuguese are called by the natives Oranserane, or Nazareen men, (Oran, being Man in the language of the country,) to distinguish them from other Europeans; yet they are included in the general appellation of Caper, or Cafir, an opprobrious term, applied by Mahometans to all who do not profess their faith. These people, however,* are Portuguese only in name; they have renounced the religion of Rome, and become Lutherans: neither have they the least communication with the country of their forefathers, or even knowlege of it: they speak indeed a corrupt dialect of the Portuguese language, but much more frequently use the Malay: they are never suffered to employ themselves in any but mean occupations: many of them live by hunting, many by washing linen, and some are handicraftsmen and artificers. They have adopted all the customs of the Indians, from whom they are distinguished chiefly by their features and complexion, their skin being considerably darker, and their noses more sharp; their dress is exactly the same, except in the manner of wearing their hair. --page 1294

The Indians, who are mixed with the Dutch and Portuguese in the town of Batavia, and the country adjacent, are not, as might be supposed, Javanese, the original natives of the island, but natives of the various islands from which the Dutch import slaves, and are either such as have themselves been manumized, or the descendants of those who formerly received manumission; and they are all comprehended under the general name of Oranslam, or Isalam, signifying Believers of the true Faith. The natives of every country, however, in other respects keep themselves distinct from the rest, and are not less strongly marked than the slaves by the vices or virtues of their respective nations. Many of these employ themselves in the cultivation of gardens, and in selling fruit and flowers. The betel and areca, which are here called Siri and Pinang, and chewed by both sexes and every rank in amazing quantities, are all grown by these Indians: lime is also mixed with these roots here as it is in Savu, but it is less pernicious to the teeth, because it is first slaked, and, besides the lime, a substance called gambir, which is brought from the continent of India;* the better sort of women also add cardamum, and many other aromatics, to give the breath an agreeable smell. Some of the Indians, however, are employed in fishing, and as lightermen, to carry goods from place to place by water; and some are rich, and live with much of the splendour of their country, which chiefly consists in the number of their slaves. --page 1295

In the article of food these Isalams are remarkably temperate: it consists chiefly of boiled rice, with a small proportion of buffalo, fish, or fowl, and sometimes of dried fish, and dried shrimps, which are brought hither from China; every dish, however, is highly seasoned with Cayan pepper, and they have many kinds of pastry made of rice flower, and other things to which I am a stranger; they eat also a great deal of fruit, particularly plantanes. --page 1296

But notwithstanding their general temperance, their feasts are plentiful, and, according to their manner, magnificent. As they are Mahometans, wine and strong liquors professedly make no part of their entertainment, neither do they often indulge with them privately, contenting themselves with their betel and opium. --page 1297

The principal solemnity among them is a wedding, upon which occasion both the families borrow as many ornaments of gold and silver as they can, to adorn the bride and bride-groom, so that their dresses are very showy and magnificent. The feasts that are given upon these occasions among the rich, last sometimes a fortnight, and sometimes longer; and during this time, the man, although married on the first day, is, by the women, kept from his wife. --page 1298

The language that is spoken among all these people, from what place soever they originally came, is the Malay; at least it is a language so called, and probably it is a very corrupt dialect of that spoken at Malacca.* Every little island indeed has a language of its own, and Java has two or three, but this lingua franca is the only language that is now spoken here, and, as I am told, it prevails over a great part of the East Indies. A dictionary of Malay and English was published in London by Thomas Bowrey, in the year 1701. --page 1299

Their women wear as much hair as can grow upon the head, and to increase the quantity, they use oils, and other preparations of various kinds. Of this ornament Nature has been very liberal; it is universally black, and is formed into a kind of circular wreath upon the top of the head, where it is fastened with a bodkin, in a taste which we thought inexpressibly elegant: the wreath of hair is surrounded by another of flowers, in which the Arabian jessamine is beautifully intermixed with the golden stars of the Bonger Tanjong. --page 1300

Both sexes constantly bathe themselves in the river at least once a day, a practice which, in this hot country, is equally necessary both to personal delicacy and health. The teeth of these people also, whatever they may suffer in their colour by chewing beetle, are an object of great attention: the ends of them, both in the upper and under jaw, are rubbed with a kind of whetstone, by a very troublesome and painful operation, till they are perfectly even and slat, so that they cannot lose less than half a line in their length. A deep grove is then made cross the teeth of the upper jaw, parallel with the gums, and in the middle between them and the extremity of the teeth; the depth of this groove is at least equal to one-fourth of the thickness of the teeth, so that it penetrates far beyond what is called the enamel, the least injury to which, according to the dentists of Europe, is fatal; yet among these people, where the practice of thus wounding the enamel is universal, we never saw a rotten tooth;* nor is the blackness a stain, but a covering, which may be washed off at pleasure, and the teeth then appear as white as ivory, which however is not an excellence in the estimation of the belles and beaus of these nations. --page 1301

These are the people among whom the practice that is called a mock, or running a muck, has prevailed for time immemorial. It is well known, that to run a muck in the original sense of the word, is to get intoxicated with opium, and then rush into the street with a drawn weapon, and kill whoever comes in the way, till the party is himself either killed or taken prisoner; of this several instances happened while we were at Batavia, and one of the officers, whose business it is, among other things, to apprehend such people, told us, that there was scarcely a week in which he, or some of his brethren, were not called upon to take one of them into custody. In one of the instances that came to our knowlege, the party had been severely injured by the perfidy of women, and was mad with jealousy before he made himself drunk with opium; and we were told, that the Indian who runs a muck is always first driven to desperation by some outrage, and always first revenges himself upon those who have done him wrong: we were also told, that though these unhappy wretches afterwards run into the street with a weapon in their hand, frantic and foaming at the mouth, yet they never kill any but those who attempt to apprehend them, or those whom they suspect of such an intention, and that whoever gives them way is safe. They are generally slaves, who indeed are most subject to insults, and least able to obtain legal redress: freemen, however, are sometimes provoked into this extravagance, and one of the persons who run a muck while we were at Batavia, was free and in easy circumstances. He was jealous of his own brother, whom he first killed, and afterwards two others, who attempted to oppose him: he did not, however, come out of his house,* but endeavoured to defend himself in it, though the opium had so far deprived him of his senses, that of three muskets, which he attempted to use against the officers of justice, not one was either loaded or primed. If the officer takes one of these amocks, or mohawks, as they have been called by an easy corruption, alive, his reward is very considerable, but if he kills them, nothing is added to his usual pay; yet such is the fury of their desperation, that three out of four are of necessity destroyed in the attempt to secure them, though the officers are provided with instruments like large tongs, or pincers, to lay hold of them without coming within the reach of their weapon. Those who happen to be taken alive are generally wounded, but they are always broken alive upon the wheel, and if the physician who is appointed to examine their wounds, thinks them likely to be mortal, the punishment is inflicted immediately, and the place of execution is generally the spot where the first murder was committed. --page 1302

Among these people, there are many absurd practices and opinions which they derive from their Pagan ancestors: they believe that the devil, whom they call Satan, is the cause of all sickness and adversity, and for this reason, when they are sick, or in distress, they consecrate meat, money, and other things to him as a propitiation. If any one among them is restless, and dreams for two or three nights successively, he concludes that Satan has taken that method of laying his commands upon him, which if he neglects to fulfil, he will certainly suffer sickness or death, though they are not revealed with sufficient perspicuity to ascertain their meaning: to interpret his dream, therefore, he taxes his wits to the uttermost, and if, by taking it literally or figuratively, directly or by contraries, he can put no explanation upon it that perfectly satisfies him,* he has recourse to the cawin or priest, who assists him with a comment and illustrations, and perfectly reveals the mysterious suggestions of the night. It generally appears that the devil wants victuals or money, which are always allotted him, and being placed on a little plate of cocoa-nut leaves, are hung upon the branch of a tree near the river, so that it seems not to be the opinion of these people, that in prowling the earth the devil "walketh through dry places." Mr. Banks once asked, whether they thought Satan spent the money, or eat the victuals; he was answered, that as to the money it was considered rather as a mulct upon an offender, than a gift to him who had enjoined it, and that therefore if it was devoted by the dreamer, it mattered not into whose hands it came, and they supposed that it was generally the prize of some stranger who wandered that way; but as to the meat they were clearly of opinion that, although the devil did not eat the gross parts, yet, by bringing his mouth near it, he sucked out all its savour without changing its position, so that afterwards it was as tasteless as water. --page 1303

But they have another superstitious opinion that is still more unaccountable. They believe that women, when they are delivered of children, are frequently at the same time delivered of a young crocodile, as a twin to the infant: they believe that these creatures are received most carefully by the midwife, and immediately carried down to the river, and put into the water. The family in which such a birth is supposed to have happened, constantly put victuals into the river for their amphibious relation, and especially the twin, who, as long as he lives, goes down to the river at stated seasons, to fulfil this fraternal duty, for the neglect of which it is the universal opinion that he will be visited with sickness or death. What could at first produce a notion so extravagant and absurd, it is not easy to guess,* especially as it seems to be totally unconnected with any religious mystery, and how a fact which never happened, should be pretended to happen every day, by those who cannot be deceived into a belief of it by appearances, nor have any apparent interest in the fraud, is a problem still more difficult to solve. Nothing however can be more certain than the firm belief of this strange absurdity among them, for we had the concurrent testimony of every Indian who was questioned about it, in its favour. It seems to have taken its rise in the islands of Celebes and Boutou, where many of the inhabitants keep crocodiles in their families; but however that be, the opinion has spread over all the eastern islands, even to Timor and Ceram, and westward as far as Java and Sumatra, where, however, young crocodiles are, I believe, never kept. --page 1304

These crocodile twins are called Sudaras, and I shall relate one of the innumerable stories that were told us, in proof of their existence, from ocular demonstration. --page 1305

A young female slave, who was born and bred up among the English at Bencoolen, and had learnt a little of the language, told Mr. Banks that her father, when he was dying, acquainted her that he had a crocodile for his sudara, and solemnly charged her to give him meat when he should be dead, telling her in what part of the river he was to be found, and by what name he was to be called up. That in pursuance of her father's instructions and command, she went to the river, and standing upon the bank, called out Radja Pouti, white king, upon which a crocodile came to her out of the water, and eat from her hand the provisions that she had brought him. When she was desired to describe this paternal uncle, who in so strange a shape had taken up his dwelling in the water, she said, that he was not like other crocodiles,* but much handsomer; that his body was spotted and his nose red; that he had bracelets of gold upon his feet, and earrings of the same metal in his ears. Mr. Banks heard this tale of ridiculous falsehood patiently to the end, and then dismissed the girl, without reminding her, that a crocodile with ears was as strange a monster as a dog with a cloven foot. Some time after this a servant whom Mr. Banks had hired at Batavia, and who was the son of a Dutchman by a Javanese woman, thought fit to acquaint his master that he had seen a crocodile of the same kind, which had also been seen by many others, both Dutchmen and Malays: that being very young, it was but two feet long, and had bracelets of gold upon its feet. There is no giving credit to these stories, said Mr. Banks, for I was told the other day that a crocodile had earrings; and you know that could not be true, because crocodiles have no ears. Ah Sir, said the man, these Sudara Oran are not like other crocodiles; they have five toes upon each foot, a large tongue that fills their mouth, and ears also, although they are indeed very small. --page 1306

How much of what these people related they believed, cannot be known; for there are no bounds to the credulity of ignorance and folly. In the girl's relation, however, there are some things in which she could not be deceived; and therefore must have been guilty of wilful falsehood. Her father might perhaps give her a charge to feed a crocodile, in consequence of his believing that it was his Sudara; but its coming to her out of the river, when she called it by the name of White King, and taking the food she had brought it, must have been a fable of her own invention; for this being false, it was impossible that she should believe it to be true. The girl's story, however, as well as that of the man, is a strong proof that they both firmly believed the existence of crocodiles that are Sudaras to men;* and the girl's fiction will be easily accounted for, if we recollect, that the earnest desire which every one feels to make others believe what he believes himself, is a strong temptation to support it by unjustifiable evidence. And the averring what is known to be false, in order to produce in others the belief of what is thought to be true, must, upon the most charitable principles, be imputed to many, otherwise venerable characters, through whose hands the doctrines of Christianity passed for many ages in their way to us, as the source of all the silly fables related of the Romish saints, many of them not less extravagant and absurd than this story of the White King, and all of them the invention of the first relater. --page 1307

The Bougis, Macassars, and Boetons, are so firmly persuaded that they have relations of the crocodile species in the rivers of their own country, that they perform a periodical ceremony in remembrance of them. Large parties of them go out in a boat, furnished with great plenty of provisions, and all kinds of music, and row backwards and forwards, in places where crocodiles and allegators are most common, singing and weeping by turns, each invoking his kindred, till a crocodile appears, when the music instantly stops, and provisions, betele, and tobacco are thrown into the water. By this civility to the species, they hope to recommend themselves to their relations at home; and that it will be accepted instead of offerings immediately to themselves, which it is not in their power to pay. --page 1308

In the next rank to the Indians stand the Chinese, who in this place are numerous, but possess very little property; many of them live within the walls, and keep shops. The fruit-sellers of Passar Pissang have been mentioned already; but others have a rich show of European and Chinese goods: the far greater part however live in a quarter by themselves,* without the walls, called Campang China. Many of them are carpenters, joiners, smiths, taylors, slipper makers, dyers of cotton, and embroiderers; maintaining the character of industry that is universally given of them: and some are scattered about the country, where they cultivate gardens, fow rice and sugar, or keep cattle and buffaloes, whose milk they bring daily to town. --page 1309

There is nothing clean or dirty, honest or dishonest, provided there is not too much danger of a halter, that the Chinese will not readily do for money. But though they work with great diligence, and patiently undergo any degree of labour; yet no sooner have they laid down their tools than they begin to game, either at cards or dice, or some other play among the multitude that they have invented, which are altogether unknown in Europe: to this they apply with such eagerness, as scarcely to allow time for the necessary refreshments of food and sleep; so that it as rare to see a Chinese idle, as it is to see a Dutchman or an Indian employed. --page 1310

In manners they are always civil, or rather obsequious; and in dress they are remarkably neat and clean, to whatever rank of life they belong. I shall not attempt a description either of their persons or habits, for the better kind of China paper, which is now common in England, exhibits a perfect representation of both, though perhaps with some slight exaggerations approaching towards the caricatura. --page 1311

In eating they are easily satisfied, though the few that are rich have many savory dishes. Rice, with a small proportion of flesh or fish, is the food of the poor; and they have greatly the advantage of the Mahometan Indians, whose religion forbids them to eat of many things which they could most easily procure. The Chinese, on the contrary, being under no restraint, eat, besides pork, dogs, cats, frogs, lizards,* serpents of many kinds, and a great variety of sea animals, which the other inhabitants of this country do not consider as food: they eat also many vegetables, which an European, except he was perishing with hunger, would never touch. --page 1312

The Chinese have a singular superstition with regard to the burial of their dead; for they will upon no occasion open the ground a second time, where a body has been interred. Their burying grounds, therefore, in the neighbourhood of Batavia, cover many hundred acres, and the Dutch, grudging the waste of so much land, will not sell any for this purpose but at the most exorbitant price. The Chinese, however, contrive to raise the purchase money, and afford another instance of the folly and weakness of human nature, in transferring a regard for the living to the dead, and making that the object of solicitude and expence, which cannot receive the least benefit from either. Under the influence of this universal prejudice, they take an uncommon method to preserve the body intire, and prevent the remains of it from being mixed with the earth that surrounds it. They inclose it in a large thick coffin of wood, not made of planks joined together, but hollowed out of the solid timber like a canoe; this being covered, and let down into the grave, is surrounded with a coat of their mortar, called Chinam, about eight or ten inches thick, which in a short time becomes as hard as a stone. The relations of the deceased attend the funeral ceremony, with a considerable number of women that are hired to weep: it might reasonably be supposed that the hired appearance of sorrow could no more slatter the living than benefit the dead; yet the appearance of sorrow is known to be hired among people much more reflective and enlightened than the Chinese. In Batavia, the law requires that every man should be buried according to his rank,* which is in no case dispensed with; so that if the deceased has not left sufficient to pay his debts, an officer takes an inventory of what was in his possession when he died, and out of the produce buries him in the manner prescribed, leaving only the overplus to his creditors. Thus in many instances are the living sacrificed to the dead, and money that should discharge a debt, or feed an orphan, lavished in idle processions, or deposited in the earth to rot. --page 1313

Another numerous class among the inhabitants of this country is the slaves; for by slaves the Dutch, Portuguese, and Indians, however different in their rank or situation, are constantly attended: they are purchased from Sumatra, Malacca, and almost all the eastern islands. The natives of Java, very few of whom, as I have before observed, live in the neighbourhood of Batavia, have an exemption from slavery under the sanction of very severe penal laws, which I believe are seldom violated. The price of these slaves is from ten to twenty pounds sterling; but girls, if they have beauty, sometimes fetch a hundred. They are a very lazy set of people; but as they will do but little work, they are content with a little victuals, subsisting altogether upon boiled rice, and a small quantity of the cheapest fish. As they are natives of different countries, they differ from each other extremely, both in person and disposition. The African negroes, called here Papua, are the worst, and consequently may be purchased for the least money: they are all thieves, and all •ncorrigible. Next to these are the Bougis and Macassars, both from the island of Celebes; these are lazy in the highest degree, and though not so much addicted to theft as the negroes, have a cruel and vindictive spirit, which renders them extremely dangerous; especially as, to gratify their resentment, they will make no scruple of sacrificing life.* The best slaves, and consequently the dearest, are procured from the island of Bali: the most beautiful women from Nias, a small island on the coast of Sumatra; but they are of a tender and delicate constitution, and soon fall a sacrifice to the unwholesome air of Batavia. Besides these, there are Malays, and slaves of several other denominations, whose particular characteristics I do not remember. --page 1314

These slaves are wholly in the power of their masters with respect to any punishment that does not take away life; but if a slave dies in consequence of punishment, though his death should not appear to have been intended, the master is called to a severe account, and he is generally condemned to suffer capitally. For this reason the master seldom inflicts punishment upon the slave himself, but applies to an officer called a Marineu, one of whom is stationed in every district. The duty of the Marineu is to quell riots, and take offenders into custody; but more particularly to apprehend runaway slaves, and punish them for such crimes as the master, supported by proper evidence, lays to their charge: the punishment however is not inflicted by the Marineu in person, but by slaves who are bred up to the business. Men are punished publicly, before the door of their master's house; but women within it. The punishment is by stripes, the number being proportioned to the offence; and they are given with rods made of rattans, which are split into slender twigs for the purpose, and fetch blood at every stroke. A common punishment costs the master a rixdollar, and a severe one a ducatoon, about six shillings and eight pence. The master is also obliged to allow the slave three dubbeleheys, equal to about seven pence half-penny a week, as an encouragement, and to prevent his being under temptations to steal too strong to be resisted. --page 1315

*Concerning the government of this place I can say but little. We observed however a remarkable subordination among the people. Every man who is able to keep house has a certain specific rank acquired by the length of his services to the company; the different ranks which are thus acquired are distinguished by the ornaments of the coaches and the dresses of the coachmen: some are obliged to ride in plain coaches, some are allowed to paint them in different manners and degrees, and some to gild them. The coachman also appears in clothes that are quite plain, or more or less adorned with lace. --page 1316

The officer who presides here has the title of Governor General of the Indies, and the Dutch Governors of all the other settlements are subordinate to him, and obliged to repair to Batavia that he may pass their accounts. If they appear to have been criminal, or even negligent, he punishes them by delay, and detains them during pleasure, sometimes one year, sometimes two years, and sometimes three; for they cannot quit the place till he gives them a dismission. Next to the Governor are the members of the council, called here Edele Heeren, and by the corruption of the English, Idoleers. These Idoleers take upon them so much state that whoever meets them in a carriage, is expected to rise up and bow, then to drive on one side of the road, and there stop till they are past: the same homage is required also to their wives and even their children; and it is commonly paid them by the inhabitants. But some of our Captains have thought so slavish a mark of respect beneath the dignity which they derived from the service of his Britannic Majesty, and have refused to pay it; yet, if they were in a hired carriage, nothing could deter the coachman from honouring the Dutch Grandee at their expence, but the most peremptory menace of immediate death. --page 1317

Justice is administered here by a body of lawyers,* who have ranks of distinction among themselves. Concerning their proceedings in questions of property, I know nothing; but their decisions in criminal cases seem to be severe with respect to the natives, and lenient with respect to their own people, in a criminal degree. A Christian always is indulged with an opportunity of escaping before he is brought to a trial, whatever may have been his offence; and if he is brought to a trial and convicted, he is seldom punished with death: while the poor Indians on the contrary are hanged, and broken upon the wheel, and even impaled alive without mercy. --page 1318

The Malays and Chinese have judicial officers of their own, under the denominations of Captains and Lieutenants, who determine in civil cases, subject to an appeal to the Dutch court. --page 1319

The taxes paid by these people to the Company are very considerable; and that which is exacted of them for liberty to wear their hair, is by no means the least. They are paid monthly, and to save the trouble and charge of collecting them, a slag is hoisted upon the top of a house in the middle of the town when a payment is due, and the Chinese have experienced that it is their interest to repair thither with their money without delay. --page 1320

The money current here consists of ducats, worth a hundred and thirty-two stivers; ducatoons, eighty stivers; imperial rixdollars, sixty; rupees of Batavia, thirty; schellings, six; double cheys, two stivers and a half; and doits, one fourth of a stiver. Spanish dollars, when we were here, were at five shillings and five pence; and we were told, that they were never lower than five shillings and four pence, even at the Company's warehouse.* For English guineas we could never get more than nineteen shillings upon an average; for though the Chinese would give twenty shillings for some of the brightest, they would give no more than seventeen shillings for those that were much worn. --page 1321

It may perhaps be of some advantage to strangers to be told that there are two kinds of coin here, of the same denomination, milled and unmilled, and that the milled is of most value. A milled ducatoon is worth eighty stivers; but an unmilled ducatoon is worth no more than seventy-two. All accounts are kept in rixdollars and stivers, which, here at least, are mere nominal coins, like our pound sterling. The rixdollar is equal to forty-eight stivers, about four shillings and six pence English currency. --page 1322

ON Thursday the 27th of December, at six o'clock in the morning, we weighed again and stood out to sea.* After much delay by contrary winds, we weathered Pulo Pare on the 29th, and stood in for the main;* soon after we fetched a small island under the main, in the midway between Batavia and Bantam, called Maneater's Island. The next day,* we weathered first Wapping Island, and then Pulo Babi. On the 3•st, we stood over to the Sumatra shore;* and on the morning of New Year's day. 1771,* we stood over for the Java shore. --page 1323

We continued our course as the wind permitted us till three o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th,* when we anchored under the south east side of Prince's Island in eighteen fathom, in order to recruit our wood and water, and procure refreshments for the sick, many of whom were now become much worse than they were when we left Batavia. As soon as the ship was secured, I went ashore accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr Solander, and we were met upon the beach by some Indians who carried us immediately to a man, who, they said, was their King. After we had exchanged a few compliments with his Majesty, we proceeded to business; but in settling the price of turtle we could not agree:* this however did not discourage us, as we made no doubt but that we should buy them at our own price in the morning. As soon as we parted, the Indians dispersed, and we proceeded along the shore in search of a watering-place. In this we were more successful; we found water very conveniently situated, and, if a little care was taken in filling it, we had reason to believe that it would prove good. Just as we were going off, some Indians, who remained with a canoe upon the beach, sold us three turtle; but exacted a promise of us that we should not tell the King. --page 1324

*The next morning, while a party was employed in filling water, we renewed our traffic for turtle: at first, the Indians dropped their demands slowly, but about noon, they agreed to take the price that we offered, so that before night we had turtle in plenty: the three that we had purchased the evening before, were in the mean time served to the ship's company, who, till the day before, had not once been served with salt provisions from the time of our arrival at Savu, which was now near four months In the evening, Mr. Banks went to pay his respects to the King, at his palace, in the middle of a rice field, and though his Majesty was busily employed in dressing his own supper, he received the stranger very graciously. --page 1325

The next day, the natives came down to the trading-place, with fowls, fish, monkies, small deer, and some vegetables, but no turtle, for they said that we had bought them all the day before. The next day, however, more turtle appeared at market, and some were brought down every day afterwards, during our stay, though the whole, together, was not equal to the quantity that we bought the day after our arrival. --page 1326

On the 11th,* Mr. Banks having learnt from the servant whom he had hired at Batavia, that the Indians of this island had a town upon the shore, at some distance to the westward, he determined to see it: with this view he set out in the morning, accompanied by the Second Lieutenant, and as he had some reason to think that his visit would not be agreeable to the inhabitants, he told the people whom he met, as he was advancing along the shore, that he was in search of plants, which indeed was also true. In about two hours they arrived at a place where there were four or five houses, and meeting with an old man, they ventured to make some enquiries concerning the town. He said that it was far distant; but they were not to be discouraged in their enterprise, and he, seeing them proceed in their journey, joined company and went on with them. He attempted several times to lead them out of the way, but without success; and at length they came within fight of the houses. The old man then entered cordially into their party, and conducted them into the town. The name of it is Samadang, it consists of about four hundred houses, and is divided by a river of brackish water into two parts, one of which is called the old town and the other the new. As soon as they entered the old town, they met several Indians whom they had seen at the trading-place, and one of them undertook to carry them over to the new town, at the rate of two pence a head. When the bargain was made, two very small canoes were produced, in which they embarked; the canoes being placed alongside of each other, and held together, a precaution which was absolutely necesssary to prevent their oversetting, the navigation was at length safely performed, though not without some difficulty; and when they landed in the new town, the people received them with great friendship, and showed them the houses of their Kings and principal people, which are in this district:* few of them however were open, for at this time the people had taken up their residence in the rice-grounds, to defend the crop against the birds and monkies, by which it would otherwise have been destroyed. When their curiosity was satisfied, they hired a large sailing boat for two roupees, four shillings, which brought them back to the ship time enough to dine upon one of the small deer, weighing only forty pounds, which had been bought the day before, and proved to be very good and savory meat. --page 1327

We went on shore in the evening, to see how the people who were employed in wooding and watering went on, and were informed that an ax had been stolen. As the passing over this fault might encourage the commission of others of the same kind, application was immediately made to the King, who after some altercation promised that the ax should be restored in the morning;* and kept his word, for it was brought to us by a man who pretended that the thief, being afraid of a discovery, had privately brought it and left it at his house in the night. --page 1328

We continued to purchase between two and three hundred weight of turtle in a day, besides fowls and other necessaries; and in the evening of the 13th,* having nearly completed our wood and water, Mr. Banks went ashore to take leave of his Majesty, to whom he had made several trifling presents, and at parting gave him two quires of paper, which he graciously received. They had much conversation, in the course of which his Majesty enquired, why the English did not touch there as they had been used to do. Mr. Banks replied, that he supposed it was because they found a deficiency of turtle, of which there not being enough to supply one ship, many could not be expected. To supply this defect, he advised his Majesty to breed cattle, buffaloes, and sheep, a measure which he did not seem much inclined to adopt.* --page 1329

On the 14th we made ready to sail,* having on board a good stock of refreshments, which we purchased of the natives, consisting of turtle, fowl, fish, two species of deer, one as big as a sheep, the other not larger than a rabbit; with cocoa-nuts, plantains, limes, and other vegetables. The deer however served only for present use, for we could seldom keep one of them alive more than four and twenty hours after it was on board. On our part, the trade was carried on chiefly with Spanish dollars, the natives seeming to set little value upon any thing else; so that our people, who had a general permission to trade, parted with old shirts and other articles, which they were obliged to substitute for money to great disadvantage. In the morning of the 15th, we weighed,* with a light breeze at N.E. and stood out to sea. Java Head, from which I took my departure, lies in latitude 6° 49′ S., longitude 253° 12′ W. --page 1330

Prince's Island, where we lay about ten days, is, in the Malay language, called Pulo Selan; and in the language of the inhabitants, Pulo Paneitan. It is a small island, situated in the western mouth of the Streight of Sunda. It is woody, and a very small part of it only has been cleared: there is no remarkable hill upon it, yet the English call the small eminence which is just over the landing-place the Pike. It was formerly much frequented by the India ships of many nations, but especially those of England, which of late have forsaken it, as it is said, because the water is bad; and touch either at North Island, a small island that lies on the coast of Sumatra, without the east entrance of the Streight, or at New Bay, which lies only a few leagues from Prince's Island, at neither of which places any considerable quantity of other refreshments can be procured.* Prince's Island is, upon the whole, certainly more eligible than either of them; and though the water is brackish, if it is filled at the lower part of the brook, yet higher up it will be found excellent. --page 1331

The first and second, and perhaps the third ship that comes in the season may be tolerably supplied with turtle; but those that come afterwards must be content with small ones. Those that we bought were of the green kind, and at an average cost us about a half-penny or three farthings a pound. We were much disappointed to find them neither fat nor well flavoured; and we imputed it to their having been long kept in crawls or pens of brackish water, without food. The fowls are large, and we bought a dozen of them for a Spanish dollar, which is about five pence a piece: the small deer cost us two pence a piece, and the larger, of which two only were brought down, a rupee. Many kinds of fish are to be had here, which the natives sell by hand, and we found them tolerably cheap. Cocoa-nuts we bought at the rate of a hundred for a dollar, if they were picked; and if they were taken promiscuously, one hundred and thirty. Plantains we found in great plenty; we procured also some pine apples, water melons, jaccas, and pumpkins; besides rice, the greater part of which was of the mountain kind, that grows in dry land; yams, and several other vegetables, at a very reasonable rate. --page 1332

The inhabitants are Javanese, whose Raja is subject to the Sultan of Bantam. Their customs are very similar to those of the Indians about Batavia; but they seem to be more jealous of their women, for we never saw any of them during all the time that we were there, except one by chance in the woods, as she was running away to hide herself. They profess the Mahometan religion, but I believe there is not a mosque in the whole island:* we were among them during the fast, which the Turks call Ramadan, which they seemed to keep with great rigour, for not one of them would touch a morsel of victuals, or even chew their betel till sun-set. --page 1333

Their food is nearly the same as that of the Batavian Indians, except the addition of the nuts of the palm, called Cycas circinalis, with which, upon the coast of New Holland, some of our people were made sick, and some of our hogs poisoned. --page 1334

Upon observing these nuts to be part of their food, we enquired by what means they deprived them of their deleterious quality; and they told us, that they first cut them into thin slices, and dried them in the sun, then steeped them in fresh water for three months, and afterwards, pressing out the water, dried them in the sun a second time; but we learnt that, after all, they are eaten only in times of scarcity, when they mix them with their rice to make it go farther. --page 1335

The houses of their town are built upon piles, or pillars, four or five feet above the ground: upon these is laid a floor of bamboo canes, which are placed at some distance from each other, so as to leave a free passage for the air from below: the walls also are of bamboo, which are interwoven, hurdlewise, with small sticks, that are fastened perpendicularly to the beams which form the frame of the building: it has a sloping roof, which is so well thatched with palm leaves, that neither the sun nor the rain can find entrance. The ground over which this building is created, is an oblong square. In the middle of one side is the door, and in the middle between that and the end of the house, towards the left hand, is a window: a partition runs out from each end towards the middle, which, if continued, would divide the whole floor into two equal parts, longitudinally, but they do not meet in the middle,* so that an opening is left over-against the door; each end of the house therefore, to the right and left of the door, is divided into two rooms, like stalls in a stable, all open towards the passage from the door to the wall on the opposite side: in that next the door, to the left hand, the children sleep; that opposite to it, on the right hand, is allotted to strangers; the master and his wife sleep in the inner room on the left hand, and that opposite to it is the kitchen. There is no difference between the houses of the poor and the rich, but in the size; except that the royal palace, and the house of a man, whose name is Gundang, the next in riches and influence to the King, is walled with boards instead of being wattled with sticks and bamboo. --page 1336

As the people are obliged to abandon the town, and live in the rice-fields at certain seasons, to secure their crops from the birds and the monkies, they have occasional houses there for their accommodation. They are exactly the same as the houses in the town, except that they are smaller, and are elevated eight or ten feet above the ground instead of four. --page 1337

The disposition of the people, as far as we could discover it, is good. They dealt with us very honestly, except, like all other Indians, and the itinerant retailers of fish in London, they asked sometimes twice, and sometimes thrice as much for their commodities as they would take. As what they brought to market, belonged, in different proportions, to a considerable number of the natives, and it would have been difficult to purchase it in separate lots, they found out a very easy expedient with which every one was satisfied: they put all that was bought of one kind, as plantains, or cocoa-nuts, together, and when we had agreed for the heap, they divided the money that was paid for it, among those of whose separate property it consisted,* in a proportion corresponding with their contributions. Sometimes, indeed, they changed our money, giving us 240 doits, amounting to five shillings, for a Spanish dollar, and ninety-six, amounting to two shillings, for a Bengal roupee. --page 1338

They all speak the Malay language, though they have a language of their own, different both from the Malay and the Javanese. Their own language they call Catta Gunung, the language of the mountains; and they say that it is spoken upon the mountains of Java, whence their tribe originally migrated, firs to New Bay, and then to their present station, being driven from their first settlement by tygers, which they found too numerous to subdue. I have already observed, that several languages are spoken by the native Javanese, in different parts of their island; but when I say that the language of these people is different from the Javanese, I mean that it is different from the language which is spoken at Samarang, a place that is distant only one day's journey from the residence of the emperor of Java. The following is a list of corresponding words in the languages of Prince's Island, Java, and Malacca. --page 1339

• English.
• Prince's Island.
• Javanese.
• Malay.
• A man,
• Jalma,
• Oong Lanang,
• Oran Lacki Lacki.
• A woman,
• Becang,
• Oong Wadong,
• Parampuan.
• A child,
• Oroculatacke,
• Lari,
• Anack.
• The head,
• Holo,
• Undass,
• Capalla.
• The nose,
• Erung,
• Erung,
• Edung.
• The eyes,
• Mata,
• Moto,
• Mata.
• The ears,
• Chole,
• Cuping,
• Cuping.
• The teeth,
• Cutock,
• Untu,
• Ghigi.
• The belly,
• Beatung,
• Wuttong,
• Prot.
• The Backside,
• Serit,
• Celit,
• Pantat.
• *The thigh,
• Pimping,
• Poopoo,
• Paha.
• The knee,
• Hullootoor,
• Duncul,
• Lontour.
• The leg,
• Metis,
• Sickil,
• Kauki.
• A nail,
• Cucu,
• Cucu,
• Cucu.
• A hand,
• Langan,
• Tangan,
• Tangan.
• A finger,
• Ramo Langan,
• Jari,
• Jaring.

In this specimen of the languages of places so near to each other, the names of different parts of the body are chosen, because they are easily obtained from people whose language is utterly unknown, and because they are more likely to be part of the original stamen of the language, than any other, as types of the first objects to which they would give names. It is very remarkable that the Malay, the Javanese, and the Prince's Island language, have words, which, if not exactly similar to the corresponding words in the language of the islands in the South Seas, are manifestly derived from the same source, as will appear from the following table: --page 1340

• English.
• South Sea.
• Malay.
• Javanese.
• Prince's Island.
• An eye,
• Matta,
• Mata,
• Moto,
• Mata.
• To eat,
• Maa,
• Macan,
• Mangan.
• To drink,
• Einu,
• Menum,
• Gnumbe.
• To kill,
• Matte,
• Matte,
• Matte.
• A louse,
• Outou,
• Coutou.
• Rain,
• Euwa,
• Udian,
• Udan.
• Bamboo cane,
• Owhe,
• Awe.
• A breast,
• Eu,
• Sousou,
• Sousou.
• A bird,
• Mannu,
• Mannu,
• Mannuck.
• A fish,
• Eyca,
• Ican,
• Iwa.
• The foot,
• Tapao,
• Tapaan.
• A lobster,
• Tooura,
• Udang,
• Urang.
• Yams,
• Eufwhe,
• Ubi,
• Urve.

English. South Sea. Malay. Javanese.* To bury, Etannou, Tannam, Tandour. A moschito, Enammou, Gnammuck. To sratch, Hearu, Garru, Garu. Coccos roots, Taro, Tallas, Talas. In-land, Uta, Utan. This similitude is particularly remarkable in the words expressing number, which at first sight seems to be no inconsiderable proof that the science at least of these different people has a common root. But the names of numbers in the island of Madagascar, are, in some instances, similar to all these, which is a problem still more difficult to solve. That the names of numbers, in particular, are in a manner common to all these countries, will appear from the following comparative table, which Mr. Banks drew up, with the assistance of a negro slave, born at Madagascar, who was on board an English ship at Batavia, and sent to him to gratify his curiosity on this subject. --page 1342

English. S. Sea Islands. Malay. Javanese. Prince's Island. Madagascar. One, Tahie, Satou, Sigi, Hegie, Isse. Two, Rua, Dua, Lorou, Dua, Rua. Three, Torou, Tiga, Tullu, Tollu, Tellou. Four, Haa, Ampat, Pappat, Opat, Effats. Five, Reina, Lima, Limo, Limah, Limi. Six, Wheney, Annam, Nunnam, Gunnap, Ene. Seven, Hetu, Tudju, Petu, Tudju, Titou. Eight, Waru, Delapau, Wolo, Delapan, Walon. Nine, Iva, Sembilan, Songo, Salapan, Sivi. Ten, Ahouroa, Sapoulou, Sapoulou, Sapoulou, Tourou. In the language of Madagascar, there are other words similar to words of the same import in the Malay. The nose in Malay is called Erung, at Madagascar Ourou; Lida, the tongue,* is Lala; Tangan, the hand, is Tang; and Tanna, the ground, is Taan. --page 1343

From the similitude between the language of the Eastern Indies, and the islands of the South Sea, conjectures may be formed with respect to the peopling those countries, which cannot easily be referred to Madagascar. The inhabitants of Java and Madagascar appear to be a different race; the Javanese is of an olive complexion, and has long hair; the native of Madagascar is black, and his head is not covered with hair, but wool; and yet perhaps this will not conclude against their having common ancestors so strongly as at first appears. It does not seem less difficult to account for the personal difference between a native of England and France, as an effect of mere local situation, than for the difference between the natives of Java and Madagascar; yet it has never been supposed, that England and France were not peopled from common ancestors. If two natives of England marry in their own country, and afterwards remove to our settlements in the West Indies, the children that are conceived and born there will have the complexion and cast of countenance that distinguish the Creole; if they return, the children conceived and born afterwards, will have no such characteristics. If it be said that the mother's mind being impressed with different external objects, impresses corresponding features and complexion upon the child during her pregnancy, it will be as difficult to refer the effect into this cause, upon mere physical principles, as into the other; for it can no more be shewn how a mere idea, conceived in the mother's imagination, can change the corporeal form of her infant, than how its form can be changed by mere local situation. We know that people within the small circle of Great Britain and Ireland, who are born at the distance of two or three hundred miles from each other, will be distinguished by the Scotch face, the Welsh face, and the Irish face;* may we not then reasonably suppose, that there are in nature qualities which act powerfully as efficient causes, and yet are not cognizable by any of the five modes of perception which we call senses? A deaf man, who sees the string of a harpsichord vibrate, when a corresponding tone is produced by blowing into a flute at a distance, will see an effect of which he can no more conceive the cause to exist in the blowing air into the flute, than we can conceive the cause of the personal difference of the various inhabitants of the globe to exist in mere local situation; nor can he any more form an idea of the cause itself, in one case, than we can in the other: what happens to him then, in consequence of having but four senses instead of five, may, with respect to many phaenomena of nature, happen to us, in consequence of having but five senses instead of six, or any greater number. --page 1344

Possibly, however, the learning of ancient Aegypt might run in two courses, one through Africa, and the other through Asia, disseminating the same words in each, especially terms of number, which might thus become part of the language of people who never had any communication with each other. --page 1345

We now made the best of our way for the Cape of Good Hope, but the seeds of disease which we had received at Batavia began to appear with the most threatening symptoms in dysenteries and slow fevers. Lest the water which we had taken in at Prince's Island should have had any share in our sickness, we purified it with lime, and we washed all parts of the ship between decks with vinegar, as a remedy against infection. Mr. Banks was among the sick, and for some time there was no hope of his life. We were very soon in a most deplorable situation; the ship was nothing better than an hospital,* in which those that were able to go about, were too few to attend the sick, who were confined to their hammocks; and we had almost every night a dead body to commit to the sea. In the course of about six weeks, we buried Mr. Sporing, a gentleman who was in Mr. Banks's retinue, Mr. Parkinson, his natural history painter, Mr. Green the astronomer, the boatswain, the carpenter and his mate, Mr. Monkhouse the midshipman, who had fothered the ship after she had been stranded on the coast of New Holland, our old jolly sail-maker and his assistant, the ship's cook, the corporal of the marines, two of the carpenter's crew, a midshipman, and nine seamen; in all three and twenty persons, besides the seven that we buried at Batavia. --page 1346

ON Friday the 15th of March,* about ten o'clock in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good Hope, in seven fathom with an ouzey bottom. The west point of the bay, called the Lion's Tail, bore W. N. W. and the castle S. W. distant about a mile and a half. I immediately waited upon the Governor, who told me that I should have every thing the country afforded. My first care was to provide a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not a few; and a house was soon found, where it was agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the rate of two shillings a head per day. --page 1347

Our run from Java head, to this place, afforded very few subjects of remark that can be of use to future navigators; such as occurred, however, I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven days before we got the general south east trade-wind, during which time, we did not advance above 5° to the southward, and 3° to the west, having variable light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry weather, and an unwholesome air, occasioned probably by the load of vapours which the eastern trade-wind, and westerly monsoons, bring into these latitudes, both which blow in these seas at the time of year when we happened to be there. The easterly wind prevails as far as 10 or 12° S. and the westerly as far as 6 or 8°;* in the intermediate space the winds are variable, and the air, I believe, always unwholesome; it certainly aggravated the diseases which we brought with us from Batavia, and particularly the flux, which was not in the least degree checked by any medicine, so that whoever was seized with it, considered himself as a dead man; but we had no sooner got into the trade-wind, than we began to feel its salutary effects: we buried indeed several of our people afterwards, but they were such as had been taken on board in a state so low and feeble that there was scarcely a possibility of their recovery. At first we suspected that this dreadful disorder might have been brought upon us by the water that we took on board at Prince's Island, or even by the turtle that we bought there; but there is not the least reason to believe that this suspicion was well grounded, for all the ships that came from Batavia at the same season, suffered in the same degree, and some of them even more severely, though none of them touched at Prince's Island in their way. --page 1348

A few days after we left Java, we saw boobies about the ship for several nights successively, and as these birds are known to roost every night on shore, we thought them an indication that some island was not far distant; perhaps it might be the island of Selam, which, in different charts, is very differently laid down both in name and situation. --page 1349

The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java is about 3° W. and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track of ships to the longitude of 288° W. latitude 22 S. after which it increased apace, so that in longitude 295°, latitude 230°, the variation was 10° 20′ W.: in seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude, it increased two degrees; in the same space, farther to the west,* it increased five degrees: in latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24° 20′, in latitude 29° longitude 317°, it was 26° 10′, and was then stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but in latitude 34°, longitude 333°, we observed it twice to be 28°¼ W. and this was its greatest variation, for in latitude 35°½, longitude 337°, it was 24°, and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape Anguillas it was 22° 30′, and in Table Bay 20° 30′ W. --page 1350

As to currents it did not appear that they were at all considerable, till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagascar; for after we had made 52° of longitude from Java Head, we found, by observation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it was the same when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing partly to a current setting to the westward, partly to our not making proper allowances for the setting of the sea before which we run, and perhaps to an error in the assumed longitude of Java Head. If that longitude is erroneous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of the charts of which I made use in reducing the longitude from Batavia, to that place, for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia is well determined. After we had passed the longitude of 307°, the effects of the westerly currents began to be considerable; for in three days, our error in longitude was 1° 5′: the velocity of the current kept increasing, as we proceeded to the westward, in so much that for five days successively after we made the land, we were driven to the S. W. or S. W. by W. not less than twenty leagues a day; and this continued till we were within sixty or seventy leagues of the Cape, where the current set sometimes one way, and sometimes the other, though inclining rather to the westward. --page 1351

*After the boobies had left us, we saw no more birds till we got nearly abreast of Madagascar, where, in latitude 27° ¾ S. we saw an albatross, and after that time we saw them every day in great numbers, with birds of several other sorts, particularly one about as big as a duck, of a very dark brown colour, with a yellowish bill. These birds became more numerous as we approached the shore, and as soon as we got into soundings we saw gannets, which we continued to see as long as we were upon the bank which stretches off Anguillas to the distance of forty leagues, and extends along the shore to the eastward, from Cape False, according to some charts, one hundred and sixty leagues. The real extent of this bank is not exactly known; it is however useful as a direction to shipping when to haul in, in order to make the land. --page 1352

While we lay here, the Houghton Indiaman sailed for England, who, during her stay in India, lost by sickness between thirty and forty men; and when she left the Cape had many in a helpless condition with the scurvy. Other ships suffered in the same proportion, who had been little more than twelve months absent from England; our sufferings therefore were comparatively light, considering that we had been absent near three times as long. --page 1353

Having lain here to recover the sick, procure stores, and perform several necessary operations upon the ship and rigging,* till the 13th of April, I then got all the sick on board, several of whom were still in a dangerous state, and having taken leave of the Governor,* I unmoored the next morning, and got ready to sail. --page 1354

The Cape of Good Hope has been so often described, and is so well known in Europe, that I shall mention only a few particulars,* which in other relations are omitted or misrepresented. --page 1355

Notwithstanding all that has been said to the contrary, no country that we saw during the voyage makes a more forlorn appearance, or is in reality a more sterile desart. The land over the Cape, which constitutes the peninsula formed by Table Bay on the north, and False Bay on the south, consists of high mountains, altogether naked and desolate: the land behind these to the east, which may be considered as the isthmus, is a plain of vast extent, consisting almost wholly of a light kind of sea sand, which produces nothing but heath, and is utterly incapable of cultivation. All the spots that will admit of improvement, which together bear about the same proportion to the whole as one to one thousand, are laid out in vineyards, orchards, and kitchen grounds; and most of these little spots lie at a considerable distance from each other. There is also the greatest reason to believe, that in the interior parts of this country, that which is capable of cultivation does not bear a greater proportion to that which is incorrigibly barren; for the Dutch told us, that they had settlements eight and twenty days journey up the country, a distance equal to at least nine hundred miles, from which they bring provisions to the Cape by land; so that it seems reasonable to conclude that provisions are not to be had within a less compass. While we were at the Cape, a farmer came thither from the country, at the distance of fifteen days journey, and brought his young children with him. We were surprised at this, and asked him, if it would not have been better to have left them with his next neighbour: Neighbour! said the man, I have no neighbour within less than five days journey of me. Surely the country must be deplorably barren in which those who settle only to raise provisions for a market,* are dispersed at such distances from each other. That the country is every where destitute of wood appears to demonstration; for timber and planks are imported from Batavia, and fuel is almost as dear as food. We saw no tree, except in plantations near the town, that was six feet high; and the stems, that were not thicker than a man's thumb, had roots as thick as an arm or a leg, such is the influence of the winds here to the disadvantage of vegetation, setting the sterility of the soil out of the question. --page 1356

The only town which the Dutch have built here is, from its situation, called Cape Town, and consists of about a thousand houses, neatly built of brick, and in general whited on the outside; they are however covered only with thatch, for the violence of the south east winds would render any other roof inconvenient and dangerous. The streets are broad and commodious, all crossing each other at right angles. In the principal street there is a canal, on each side of which is planted a row of oaks, that have flourished tolerably well, and yield an agreeable shade: there is a canal also in one other part of the town, but the slope of the ground in the course of both is so great, that they are furnished with floodgates, or locks, at intervals of little more than fifty yards. --page 1357

A much greater proportion of the inhabitants are Dutch in this place than in Batavia; and as the town is supported principally by entertaining strangers, and supplying them with necessaries, every man, to a certain degree, imitates the manners and customs of the nation with which he is chiefly concerned. The ladies however are so faithful to the mode of their country, that not one of them will stir without a chaudpied or chausset, which is carried by a servant that it may be ready to place under her feet whenever she shall sit down. This practice is the more remarkable, as very few of these chaussets have sire in them,* which indeed the climate renders unnecessary. --page 1358

The women in general are very handsome; they have fine clear skins, and a bloom of colour that indicates a purity of constitution, and high health. They make the best wives in the world, both as mistresses of a family and mothers; and there is scarcely a house that does not swarm with children. --page 1359

The air is salutary in a high degree; so that those who bring diseases hither from Europe, generally recover perfect health in a short time; but the diseases that are brought from India are not so certainly cured. --page 1360

Notwithstanding the natural sterility of the climate, industry has supplied this place with all the necessaries, and even the luxuries of life in the greatest profusion. The beef and mutton are excellent, though the cattle and sheep are natives of the country; the cattle are lighter than ours, more neatly made, and have horns that spread to a much wider extent. The sheep are clothed with a substance between wool and hair, and have tails of an enormous size; we saw some that weighed twelve pounds, and were told that there were many much larger. Good butter is made of the milk of the cows, but the cheese is very much inferior to our own. Here are goats, but they are never eaten, hogs, and a variety of poultry. Hares are also found here, exactly like those of Europe; antelopes of many kinds, quails of two sorts, and bustards, which are well flavoured, but not juicy. The fields produce European wheat and barley, and the gardens European vegetables, and fruit of all kinds, besides plantains, guavas, jambu, and some other Indian fruits, but these are not in perfection; the plantains in particular, are very bad, and the guavas no larger than gooseberries. The vineyards also produce wine of various sorts, but not equal to those of Europe, except the Constantia,* which is made genuine only at one vineyard, about ten miles distant from the town. There is another vineyard near it, where wine is made that is called by the same name, but it is greatly inferior. --page 1361

The common method in which strangers live here, is to lodge and board with some of the inhabitants, many of whose houses are always open for their reception: the rates are from five shillings to two shillings a day, for which all necessaries are found. Coaches may be hired at four and twenty shillings a day, and horses at six shillings; but the country affords very little temptation to use them. There are no public entertainments; and those that are private, to which strangers of the rank of Gentlemen are always admitted, were suspended while we were there by the breaking out of the measles. --page 1362

At the farther end of the High-street, the Company have a garden, which is about two thirds of an English mile long; the whole is divided by walks that intersect each other at right angles, and are planted with oaks that are clipt into wall hedges, except in the center walk, where they are suffered to grow to their full size, and afford an agreeable shade, which is the more welcome, as, except the plantations by the sides of the two canals, there is not a single tree that would serve even for a shepherd's bush, within many miles of the town. The greater part of this garden is kitchen ground; but two small squares are allotted to botanical plants, which did not appear to be so numerous by one half as they were when Oldenland wrote his catalogue. At the farther end of the garden is a menagerie, in which there are many birds and beasts that are never seen in Europe; particularly a beast called by the Hottentots Coe Doe, which is as large as a horse, and has the fine spiral horns which are sometimes seen in private and public collections of curiosities.* --page 1363

Of the natives of this country, we could learn but little except from report; for there were none of their habitations, where alone they retain their original customs, within less than four days journey from the town; those that we saw at the Cape were all servants to Dutch farmers, whose cattle they take care of, and are employed in other drudgery of the meanest kind. These are in general of a slim make, and rather lean than plump, but remarkably strong, nimble, and active. Their size is nearly the same with that of Europeans, and we saw some that were six feet high: their eyes are dull and without expression: their skins are of the colour of soot, but that is in a great measure caused by the dirt, which is so wrought into the grain that it cannot be distinguished from complexion; for I believe they never wash any part of their bodies. Their hair curls strongly, not like a negroe's, but falls in ringlets about seven or eight inches long. Their clothing consists of a skin, generally that of a sheep, thrown over their shoulders; besides which, the men wear a small pouch in the middle of the waist, and the women, a broad leather flap, both which hang from a girdle or belt that is adorned with beads and small pieces of copper. Both men and women wear necklaces, and sometimes bracelets, of beads; and the women wear rings of hard leather round their ancles, to defend them from the thorns, with which their country every where abounds: some of them have a sandal, made of wood or bark; but the greater part of them are unshod. --page 1364

To a European, their language appears to be scarcely articulate; besides which it is distinguished by a very remarkable singularity. At very frequent intervals, while they are speaking,* they cluck with the tongue against the roof of the mouth: these clucks do not appear to have any meaning, but rather to divide what they say into sentences. Most of these Hottentots speak Dutch, without any peculiarity of pronunciation. --page 1365

They are all modest, even to sheepishness; for it was not without the greatest difficulty that we could persuade any of them to dance, or even to speak in their own language to each other, in our presence. We did however both see them dance, and hear them sing; their dances are by turns active and sluggish to excess; sometimes consisting of quick and violent motions, with strange distortions of the body, and unnatural leaps backwards and forwards, with the legs crossing each other; and being sometimes so spiritless that the dancer only strikes the ground first with one foot and then with the other, neither changing place nor moving any other part of his body: the songs also are alternately to quick and slow movements, in the same extremes as the dance. --page 1366

We made many enquiries concerning these people of the Dutch, and the following particulars are related upon the credit of their report: --page 1367

Within the boundaries of the Dutch settlements there are several nations of these people, who very much differ from each other in their customs and manner of life: all however are friendly and peaceable, except one clan that is settled to the eastward, which the Dutch call Bosch men, and these live entirely by plunder, or rather by theft; for they never attack their neighbours openly, but steal the cattle privately in the night. They are armed however to defend themselves, if they happen to be detected, with lances or assagays, and arrows, which they know how to poison by various ways, some with the juice of herbs, and some with the venom of the serpent called Cobra di Capelo;* in the hands of these people a stone also is a very formidable weapon, for they can throw it with such force and exactness as repeatedly to hit a dollar at the distance of a hundred paces. As a defence against these freebooters, the other Indians train up bulls, which they place round their towns in the night, and which, upon the approach of either man or beast, will assemble and oppose them, till they hear the voice of their masters encouraging them to fight, or calling them off, which they obey with the same docility as a dog. --page 1368

Some nations have the art of melting and preparing copper, which is found among them, probably native; and of this they make broad plates, which they wear as ornaments upon their foreheads. Some of them also know how to harden bits of iron, which they procure from the Dutch, and form into knives, so as to give them a temper superior to that of any they can buy. --page 1369

The Chiefs, many of whom are possessors of very numerous herds of cattle, are generally clad in the skins of lions, tygers, or zebras, to which they add fringes, and other ornaments in a very good taste. Both sexes frequently anoint the body with grease, but never use any that is rancid or foetid, if fresh can be had. Mutton suet and butter are generally used for this purpose; butter is perferred, which they make by shaking the milk in a bag made of the skin of some beast. --page 1370

We were told that the priest certainly gives the nuptial benediction by sprinkling the bride and bridegroom with his urine. But the Dutch universally declared that the women never wrapped the entrails of sheep round their legs, as they have been said to do, and afterwards make them part of their food. Semicastration was also absolutely denied to be general;* but it was acknowledged that some among the particular nation which knew how to melt copper had suffered that operation, who were said to be the best warriors, and particularly to excel in the art of throwing stones. --page 1371

We were very desirous to determine the great question among natural historians, whether the women of this country have or have not that fleshy flap or apron which has been called the Sinus pudoris, and what we learnt I shall relate. Many of the Dutch and Malays, who said they had received favours from Hottentots women, positively denied its existence; but a physician of the place declared that he had cured many hundreds of venereal complaints, and never saw one without two fleshy, or rather skinny appendages, proceeding from the upper part of the Labia, in appearance somewhat resembling the teats of a cow, but flat; they hung down, he said, before the Pudendum, and were in different subjects of different lengths, in some not more than half an inch, in others three or four inches: these he imagined to be what some writers have exaggerated into a flap, or apron, hanging down from the bottom of the abdomen, of sufficient extent to render an artificial covering of the neighbouring parts unnecessary. --page 1372

Thus much for the country, its productions, and inhabitants. The bay is large, safe, and commodious; it lies open indeed to the north west winds, but they seldom blow hard; yet as they sometimes send in a great sea, the ships moor N. E. and S. W. so as to have an open hawser with north west winds: the south east winds blow frequently with great violence, but as this direction is right out of the bay, they are not dangerous. Near the town a wharf of wood is run out to a proper distance for the convenience of landing and shipping goods. To this wharf water is conveyed in pipes, from which several boats may fill water at the same time;* and several large boats or hoys are kept by the Company to carry stores and provisions to and from the shipping in the harbour. The bay is defended by a square fort, situated close to the beach on the east side of the town, and by several outworks and batteries extending along the shore, as well on this side of the town as the other; but they are so situated as to be cannonaded by shipping, and are in a manner defenceless against an enemy of any force by land. The garrison consists of eight hundred regular troops, besides militia of the country, in which is comprehended every man able to bear arms. They have contrivances to alarm the whole country by signals in a very short time, and the militia is then to repair immediately to the town. --page 1373

The French at Mauritius are supplied from this place with salted beef, biscuit, flour, and wine: the provisions for which the French contracted this year were 500,000 lb. weight of salt beef, 400,000 lb. of flour, 400,000 lb. of biscuit, and 1,200 leagers of wine. --page 1374

In the morning of the 14th,* we weighed and stood out of the bay; and at five in the evening anchored under Penquin, or Robin Island: we lay here all night, and as I could not sail in the morning for want of wind, I sent a boat to the island for a few trifling articles which we had forgot to take in at the Cape. But as soon as the boat came near the shore, the Dutch hailed her, and warned the people not to land at their peril, bringing down at the same time six men armed with musquets, who paraded upon the beach. The officer who commanded the boat not thinking it worth while to risk the lives of the people on board for the sake of a few cabbages, which were all we wanted, returned to the ship. At first we were at a loss to account for our repulse, but we afterwards recollected,* that to this island the Dutch at the Cape banish such criminals as are not thought worthy of death, for a certain number of years, proportioned to the offence; and employ them as slaves in digging lime-stone, which though scarce upon the continent is plenty here: and that a Danish ship, which by sickness had lost great part of her crew, and had been refused assistance at the Cape, came down to this island, and sending her boat ashore, secured the guard, and took on board as many of the criminals as she thought proper to navigate her home: we concluded therefore that the Dutch, to prevent the rescue of their criminals in time to come, had given order to their people here to suffer no boat of any foreign nation to come ashore. --page 1375

*On the 25th, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we weighed, with a light breeze at S. E. and put to sea. About an hour afterwards, we lost our Master, Mr. Robert Mollineux, a young man of good parts, but unhappily given up to intemperance, which brought on disorders that put an end to his life. --page 1376

We proceeded in our voyage homeward without any remarkable incident;* and in the morning of the 29th, we crossed our first meridian, having circumnavigated the globe in the direction from east to west, and consequently lost a day, for which we made an allowance at Batavia. --page 1377

*At day-break, on the 1st of May, we saw the island of St. Helena; and at noon, we anchored in the road before James's fort. --page 1378

We staid here till the 4th, to refresh, and Mr. Banks improved the time in making the complete circuit of the island, and visiting the most remarkable places upon it. --page 1379

It is situated as it were in the middle of the vast Atlantic ocean,* being four hundred leagues distant from the coast of Africa, and six hundred from that of America. It is the summit of an immense mountain rising out of the sea, which, at a little distance all round it, is of an unfathomable depth, and is no more than twelve leagues long, and six broad. --page 1380

The seat of volcanoes has, without exception, been found to be the highest part of the countries in which they are found. Aetna and Vesuvius have no land higher than themselves, in their neighbourhood; Hecla is the highest hill in Iceland; volcanoes are frequent in the highest part of the Andes in South America; and the pike of Teneriffe is known to be the covering of subterraneous fire: these are still burning, but there are innumerable other mountains which bear evident marks of fire that is now extinct, and has been so from the time of our earliest traditions: among these is Saint Helena, where the inequalities of the ground, in its external surface, are manifestly the effect of the sinking of the earth, for the opposite ridges, though separated always by deep, and sometimes by broad vallies, are exactly similar both in appearance and direction; and that the sinking of the earth in these parts, was caused by subterraneous fire, is equally manifest from the stones, for some of them, especially those in the bottom of the vallies, are burnt almost to a cinder: in some there are small bubbles, like those that are seen in glass which has been urged almost to fusion, and some, though at first sight they do not appear to have been exposed to the action of great heat, will be found, upon a closer inspection, to contain small pieces of extraneous bodies, particularly mundick, which have yielded to the power of fire, though it was not sufficient to alter the appearance of the stone which contained them. --page 1381

*It appeared, as we approached it on the windward side, like a rude heap of rocks, bounded by precipices of amazing height, and consisting of a kind of half friable stone, which shows not the least sign of vegetation; nor is it more promising upon a nearer view: in sailing along the shore, we came so near the huge cliffs, that they seemed to over-hang the ship, and the tremendous effect of their giving way, made us almost fear the event: at length we opened a valley, called Chappel Valley, which resembles a large trench; and in this valley we discovered the town. The bottom of it is slightly covered with herbage, but the sides are as naked as the cliffs that are next the sea. Such is the first appearance of the island in its present cultivated state, and the first hills must be passed before the vallies look green, or the country displays any other marks of fertility. --page 1382

The town stands just by the sea side, and the far greater part of the houses are ill built; the church, which originally was a mean structure, is in ruins, and the market-house is nearly in the same condition. --page 1383

The white inhabitants are all English, who, as they are not permitted by the East India Company, to whom the island belongs, to carry on any trade or commerce on their own account, subsist wholly by supplying such ships as touch at the place with refreshments, which, however, they do not provide in proportion to the fertility of the soil, and the temperament of the climate, which would enable them, by cultivation, to produce all the fruits and vegetables both of Europe and India. This island indeed, small as it is, enjoys the different advantages of different climates, for the cabbage trees which grow upon the highest ridges, can by no art be cultivated upon the ridges next below, where the red-wood and gum-wood both flourish, which will not grow upon the ridges above,* and neither of the three are to be found in the vallies, which, in general, are covered with European plants, and the more common ones of India. --page 1384

Here are a few horses, but they are kept only for the saddle, so that all labour is performed by slaves; nor are they furnished with any of the various machines which art has invented to facilitate their task. The ground is not every where too steep for a cart, and where it is, the wheelbarrow might be used with great advantage, yet there is no wheelbarrow in the whole island; every thing is conveyed from place to place by the slaves, and they are not furnished even with the simple convenience of a porter's knot, but carry their burden upon their heads. They are indeed very numerous, and are brought from almost every part of the world, but they appeared to be a miserable race, worn out partly by excessive labour, and partly by ill usage, of which they frequently complained; and I am sorry to say, that instances of wanton cruelty are much more frequent among my countrymen here, than among the Dutch, who are, and perhaps not without reason, generally reproached with want of humanity at Batavia and the Cape. --page 1385

Among the native products of this island, which are not numerous, must be reckoned ebony, though the trees are now nearly extinct, and are not remembered to have been plenty: pieces of the wood are frequently found in the vallies, of a fine black colour, and a hardness almost equal to iron: these pieces, however, are always so short and crooked, that no use can be made of them. Whether the tree is the same with that which produces ebony upon the isle of Bourbon, or the islands adjacent, is not known, as the French have not yet published any account of it. --page 1386

*There are but few insects in this place, but there is a species of snail found upon the tops of the highest ridges, which probably has been there since the original creation of their kind, at the beginning of the world. It is indeed very difficult to conceive how any thing which was not deposited here at its creation, or brought hither by the diligence of man, could find its way to a place so severed from the rest of the world, by seas of immense extent, except the hypothesis that has been mentioned on another occasion be adopted, and this rock be supposed to have been left behind, when a large tract of country, of which it was part, subsided by some convulsion of nature, and was swallowed up in the ocean. --page 1387

*At one o'clock in the afternoon, of the 4th of May, we weighed and stood out of the Road, in company with the Portland man of war, and twelve sail of Indiamen. --page 1388

We continued to sail in company with the fleet, till the 10th in the morning,* when, perceiving that we sailed much heavier than any other ship, and thinking it for that reason probable that the Portland would get home before us, I made the signal to speak with her, upon which Captain Elliot himself came on board, and I delivered to him a letter for the Admiralty, with a box, containing the common log books of the ship, and the journals of some of the officers. We continued in company,* however, till the 23d in the morning, and then there was not one of the ships in sight. About one o'clock in the afternoon, died our First Lieutenant Mr. Hicks, and in the evening we committed his body to the sea, with the usual ceremonies. The disease of which he died, was a consumption, and as he was not free from it when we sailed from England, it may truly be said that he was dying during the whole voyage,* though his decline was very gradual till we came to Batavia: the next day, I gave Mr. Charles Clerk an order to act as Lieutenant in his room, a young man who was extremely well qualified for that station. --page 1389

Our rigging and sails were now become so bad, that something was giving way every day. We continued our course, however, in safety till the 10th of June, when land,* which proved to be the Lizard, was discovered by Nicholas Young, the same boy that first saw New Zealand;* on the 11th we run up the channel,* at six in the morning of the 12th we passed Beachy Head, at noon we were abreast of Dover, and about three came to an anchor in the Downs, and went ashore at Deal. --page 1390

FINIS. --page 1391