CHAP. V.

Departure from Endeavour River; a particular Defcription of the Harbour there, in which the Ship was refitted, the adjacent Country, and feveral Islands near the Coaft: The Range from Endeavour River to the Northern Extremity of the Country, and the Dangers of that Navigation.

To harbour which we had left, I the name

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O the harbour which we had now left, I gave the name of ENDEAVOUR RIVER. It is only a small bar ha harbour, or creek, which runs in a winding channel three or four Saturday 4. leagues inland, and at the head of which there is a fmall brook of fresh water: there is not depth of water for fhipping above a mile within the bar, and at this distance only on the north fide, where the bank is fo fteep 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 fituation 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 fpring 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 coaft is fo barricaded with fhoals, 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 fituation may always be found by the latitude, which has been very accuVOL. III.

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rately

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rately laid down. Over the fouth point is fome high land,. but the north point is formed by a low fandy beach, which extends about three miles to the northward, where the land begins again to be high..

The chief refreshment that we procured here, was turtle, but as they were not to be had without going five leagues out to fea, 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 fame fliare as myself; and I think every commander, in fuch a voyageas this, will find it his intereft to follow the fame rule.. In feveral parts of the fandy beaches, and fand hills near the fea, we found purflain, and a kind of bean that grows upon a ftalk, which creeps along the ground: the purflain 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 fick 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: thefe were, in our opinion, not much inferior to fpinnage, 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 fo little cabbage that they were not worth fecking.

Befides the kanguroo, and the opoffum that have been already mentioned, and a kind of polecat, there are wolves upon this part of the coaft, if we were not deceived by the tracks upon the ground, and feveral fpecies of serpents; fome of the ferpents are venomous, and fome harmless: 3

there

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 fcattered near them. There does not indeed feem to be many of any animal, except the kanguroo; we fcarcely faw any other above once, but this we met with almost every time we went into the woods. Of land fowls we faw crows, kites, hawks, cockatoos of two forts, one white and the other black, a very beautiful kind of loriquets, fome parrots, pigeons of two or three forts, and feveral fmall birds not known in Europe. The water fowls are herns, whilling ducks, which perch, and, I believe, rooft upon trees, wild geefe, curlieus, and a few others, but thefe 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 foil of the hills is hard, dry, and ftony, yet it produces coarse grafs befides wood: the foil of the plains and vallies is in fome places fand, and in some clay; in fome 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, fome of which are fix or eight feet high, and twice as much in circumference. The trees here are not of many forts; the gum tree, which we found on the fouthern part of the coaft, is the most common, but here it is not fo large: on each fide of the river, through its whole course, there are mangroves in great numbers, which in fome places extend a mile within the coaft. The country is in all parts well watered, there being feveral 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 feafon; we were however well fupplied with water by springs, which were not far off.

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