1767.

Auguft.

Saur. 29.

about 50 S. and its longitude by account 1520 19' E. which is about two thoufauds five hundred leagues due weft from the continent of America, and about one degree and half more to the eastward than its place in the French chart which has been just mentioned. In the afternoon I sent the cutter to examine the coast, and the other boat to get fome cocoa nuts, and haul the feine. The people in the boat caught no fish, but they brought on board about an hundred and fifty cocoa-nuts, which were distributed to the men at the Surgeon's discretion. We had feen fome turtles as we were coming into the bay, and hoping that fome of them might repair to the island in the night, especially as it was fandy, barren, and uninhabited, like the places these animals most frequent, I fent a few men on fhore to watch for them, but they returned in the morning without fuccefs.

We anchored here only to wait till the boats could find a fit place for our purpose, and several very good harbours being discovered not far diftant, we now endeavoured to weigh anchor, but, with the united ftrength of our whole company, were not able: this was an alarming proof of our debility, and with heavy hearts we had recourse to an additional purchase; with this assistance, and our utmost efforts, we got the anchor just clear of the bottom, but the ship cafting in fhore, it almost immediately hooked again in foul ground. Our task was now to begin again, and though all hands that were able to move applied their utmost force, the whole remaining part of the day, with the greatest pure chafe we could make, we were not able to stir it: we were very unwilling to cut the cable, for though it was much worn, we could at this time ill fuftain the lofs of it, as we intended to make a small cord, which we much wanted, of the best part of it. We therefore, with whatever reluctance, defifted for the night, and Sunday 39. the next day, having a little recovered our strength, we were more fuccefsful; we got the anchor up, but we found it fo much injured as to be wholly unferviceable, the palm being broken.

From this place we failed to a little cove about three or four miles diftant, to which we gave the name

of

of ENGLISH COVE: here we anchored, and immediately began to get wood and water, which we found in great plenty, befides ballaft; I also fent the boat out every day to different places with the feine, but though there was plenty of fish, we were able to catch very little; a misfortune which was probably owing in part to the clearness of the water, in part to the rockinefs of the beach, and perhaps in fome degree alfo to our want of skill: we plied this labour day and night, notwithstanding the want of fuccefs, and at the fame time had recourse to the hook and line; but to our great mortification not a fingle fifh would take the bait. We faw a few turtles, but they were so shy that we could not catch one of them; here therefore we were condemned to the curfe of Tantalus, perpetually in the fight of what our appetites most importunately craved, and perpetually disappointed in our attempts to reach it. We got, however, from the rocks at low water, a few rock oysters, and cockles of a very large fize; and from the fhore fome cocoa-nuts, and the upper part of the tree that bears them, which is called the cabbage: this cabbage is a white, crisp, juicy substance, which eaten raw, taftes fomewhat like a chefnut, but when broiled is fuperior to the beft parfnip; we cut it fmall into the broth that we made of our portable foup, which was afterwards thickened with oatmeal, and made a most comfortable mefs: for each of these cabbages however we were forced to cut down a tree, and it was with great regret that we destroyed, in the parent flock, so much fruit, which perhaps is the most powerful antifcorbutic in the world; but neceffity has no law. This fupply of fresh vegetables, and efpecially the milk, or rather the water of the nut, recovered our fick very faft. They also received great benefit and pleasure from the fruit of a tall tree, that refembles a plum, and particularly that which in the West Indies is called the Jamaica plum; our men gave it the fame name; it has a pleasant tartifh tafte, but is a little woody, probably only for want of culture: these plums were not plenty, fo that having the two qualities of a dainty, scarcity and excellence, it is no wonder that they were held in the highest estimation.

The

1767. Auguft.

1767. Auguft.

The shore about this place is rocky, and the country high and mountainous, but covered with trees of various kinds, fome of which are of an enormous growth, and probably would be useful for many purpofes. Among others, we found the nutmeg-tree in great plenty, and I gathered a few of the nuts, but they were not ripe: they did not appear to be the best fort, but perhaps that is owing partly to their growing wild, and partly from their being too much in the shade of taller trees. The cocoa-nut tree is in great perfection, but does not abound. Here are, I believe, all the different kinds of palm, with the beetle-nut tree, various fpecies of the aloe, canes, bamboos, and rattans, with many trees, fhrubs and plants altogether unknown' to me; but no efculent vegetable of any kind. The woods abound with pigeons, doves, rooks, parrots, and a large bird with black plumage, that makes a noise fomewhat like the barking of a dog; with many others which I can neither name nor defcribe. Our people faw no quadruped but two of a fmall fize that they took for dogs, the Carpenter and another man got a tranfient glimpse of them in the woods as they were cutting spars for the ship's use, and faid they were very wild, and ran away the moment they faw them with great fwiftnefs. We faw centipieds, fcorpions, and a few ferpents of different kinds; but no inhabitants. We fell in however with feveral deferted habitations, and by the shells that were fcattered about them, and feemed not long to have been taken out of the water, and some flicks half burnt, the remains of a fire, there is reafon to conclude that the people had but just left the place when we arrived. If we may judge of the people by that which had been their dwelling, they must stand low even in the fcale of a favage life; for it was the most miferable hovel we had ever seen.

While we lay here, having cleared and lightened the fhip, we heeled her fo as to come at the leak, which the Carpenter stopped as well as he could; we found the fheathing greatly decayed, and the bottom much eaten by the worms, but we payed it far as we could get at it with a mixture of hot pitch and tar boiled together. The Carpenter alfo cut down many fpars, for ftudding

fail booms, having but few left of those which he had 1767. Auguft. brought from England.

English Cove lies N. E. N. three or four miles from Wallis's Ifland; there is a small fhoal on the starboard hand going in, which will be easily seen by the fea's breaking upon it. The water ebbs and flows once in four and twenty hours; the flood came in about nine or ten o'clock, and it was high water between three and four in the afternoon, after which it ebbed all night, and was low water about fix in the morning. The water rifes and falls between eight or nine feet, fometimes more, fometimes less; but I doubt whether this fluctuation is not rather the effect of the fea and land breeze, than of a regular tide. We anchored here with our best bower in twenty-feven fathoms water, with a bottom of fand and mud; we veered into the cove a cable and a half from the anchor, moored head and ftern with the stream anchor, and steadied with hawfers on each bow; the fhip then lay in 10 fathoms, at the distance of a cable's length from the fhore at the bottom of the Cove, Wallis's Point bearing S. W.

S. diftant about three or four miles, At this place there is plenty of excellent wood and water, and good fhingle ballaft. The variation was 6o E.

On Monday the 7th of September, I weighed an- September. chor, but before I failed, I took poffeffion of this coun- Monday 7try, with all its iflands, bays, ports, and harbours, for his Majefty George the Third, King of GreatBritain; and we nailed upon a high tree a piece of board, faced with lead, on which was engraved the English Union, with the name of the ship, and her Commander, the name of the Cove, and the time of her coming in and failing out of it. While we lay here, I fent the boat out to examine the harbours upon the coaft, from one of which expeditions fhe returned with a load of cocoa-nuts, which the procured in a fine little harbour, about four leagues W. N. W. from the ftation we were in. The officer on board reported that the trees grew where he had gathered the fruit in great plenty; but as he had obferved that feveral of them were marked, and that there were many huts of the natives near them, I did not think it proper that the boat fhould return: but the refreshment which now offered was of fuch importance to the fick, that I determined

1767. determined to go into the harbour with the ship, and September. place her fo as to protect the men who should be em

ployed to fell the trees, and cut off the cabbages and the fruit. We failed from English Cove with the land breeze early in the morning, and in the evening fecured the ship a-breaft of the grove, where the cocoanuts had been gathered, at a very little distance from the fhore. Here we procured above a thousand cocoanuts, and as many of the cabbages as we could use while they were good; and I would have staid long enough to have given my people all the refreshments they wanted, but the season of the year made the shorteft delay dangerous. There was too much reason to fuppofe that the lives of all on board depended upon our getting to Batavia while the monsoon continued to blow from the eastward; there was indeed time enough for any other ship to have gone three times the diftance, but I knew it was fcarcely fufficient for the Swallow in her prefent condition: and that if we should be obliged to continue here another season, it would probably become impoffible to navigate her at all, especially as fhe had but a fingle fheathing, and her bottom was not filled with nails, fo that the worms would have eaten through it; besides that our provifion would long before that time have been totally exhausted. I therefore weighed anchor and quitted this ftation, which was much the best that had been our lot during the whole Wednef. 9. run from the Streight of Magellan, on the 9th in the morning, at break of day, with a light breeze from the land.

Inland

Leigh's
Island.

To this place we gave the name of CARTERET'S HARDOUR; it is about W. N. W. four leagues from English Cove, and formed by two iflands and the main ; Cocoa-nut the largest, which is to the N. W. we called CocOANUT ISLAND, and the other, which is to the S. E. we called LEIGH'S ISLAND. Between thefe two islands there is fhoal water, and each of them forms an entrance into the harbour; the south-east or weather entrance is formed by Leigh's Island, and in this there is a rock that appears above water, to which we gave the name of BOOBY ROCK; the paffage is between the rock and the ifland, nor is the rock dangerous, there being deep water close to it. The north-west, or lee-entrance, is formed by Cocoa-nut Ifland,

and