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. 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 trees 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. 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 overhauling 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. 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, re ported ported 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. 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 2h 18′ 58", 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 a 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. 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. 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 copious supplies of fish, afforded us unspeakable refreshment. 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 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 pro bably 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. 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 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. 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 us for some time; and at high water we made another effort to float the ship, 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. The 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 sandbank 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. 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: 1 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 alongside 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. 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. On the 7th, I sent the master again out to sound about the the shoals, the account which he had brought me of the 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. 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 yerdure, 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 approach ed, |