1770. Auguft. always be depended upon within half a degree, which is fufficient for all nautical purposes. If, in therefore, obferving and calculating were confi- Thursd. 23. dered as neceffary qualifications for every fea officer, the labours of the fpeculative theorist to folve this problem might be remitted, without much injury to mankind: neither will it be fo difficult to acquire this qualification, or put it in practice, as may at firft appear; for, with the afsistance 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 compafs. CHAP. 1770. Auguft. CHAP. VI. Departure from New South Wales; a particular Defcription of the Country, its Products, and People: A Specimen of the Language, and fome Obfervations upon the Currents and Tides. F this country, its products and its people, many particulars have already been related in the course of the narrative, being fo interwoven with the events, as not to admit of a feparation. I fhall now give a more full and circumftantial description of each, in which, if fome things should happen to be repeated, the greater part will be found new. 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 coaft along which we failed, reduced to a straight line, is no less than twentyfeven degrees of latitude, amounting to near 2000 miles, fo that its square furface must be much more than equal to all Europe. To the fouthward 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 fmall part of the furface, in comparison with the vallies and plains. It is upon the whole rather barren than fertile, yet the rifing ground is chequered by woods and lawns, and the plains and vallies are in many places covered with herbage: the foil however is frequently fandy, and many of the lawns, or favannahs, are rocky and barren, especially to the northward, where, in the best spots, vegetation was lefs vigorous than in the fouthern part of the country; the trees were not fo tall, nor was the herbage fo rich. The grass in general is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are largeft, are seldom less than forty feet afunder; nor is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, better clothed than the fea coaft. The banks of the bays are covered with mangroves, to the distance of a mile within the beach, under which the foil is a rank mud, that is always overflowed by a fpring tide; farther in the country we sometimes met with a bog, upon which the grafs was very thick and luxuriant, and fometimes with a valley, that was clothed with underwood: the foil in some parts feemed to be capable of improve. ment, but the far greater part is such as can ad mit of no cultivation. The coaft, at least that part of it which lies to the northward of 25° S., apounds with fine bays and harbours, where VOL. IV. veffels 1770. Auguft. 1770. Auguft. veffels may lie in perfect fecurity from all winds. If we may judge by the appearance of the country while we were there, which was in the very height of the dry feason, it is well watered : we found innumerable fmall brooks and springs, but no great rivers; these brooks, however, probably become large in the rainy feafon. Thirty Sound was the only place where frefh water was not to be procured for the ship, and even there one or two fmall pools were found in the woods, though the face of the country was every where interfected by falt-creeks, and man grove land.. Of trees there is no great variety. Of thofe that could be called timber, there are but two forts; the largest is the gum tree, which grows all over the country, and has been men→ tioned already: it has narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow; and the gum, or rather refin, which it yields, is of a deep red, and resembles the fanguis draconis poffibly it may be the fame, for this fubftance is known to be the produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by Dampier, and is perhaps the fame that Tafman found upon Diemen's Land, where he fays he faw "Gum of the trees, and gum lac of the ground." The other timber tree is that which grows fomewhat like our pines, and has been particu larly mentioned in the account of Botany Bay The The wood of both thefe trees, as I have before remarked, is extremely hard and heavy. Befides thefe, here are trees covered with a foft bark that is eafily peeled off, and is the fame that in the Eaft Indies is used for the caulking of ships. We found here the palm of three different forts. The firft, which grows in great plenty to the fouthward, has leaves that are plaited like a fan the cabbage of these is small, but exquifitely fweet; and the nuts, which it bears in great abundance, are very good food for hogs. The fecond fort bore a much greater resemblance to the true cabbage tree of the Weft 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 fort, which like the fecond, was found only in the northern parts, was feldom more than ten feet high, with fmall pinnated leaves, refembling thofe of fome kind of fern: it bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the fize of a large chefnut, but rounder: as we found the hulls of these scattered round the places where the Indians had made their fires, we took for granted that they were fit to eat; thofe however who made the experiment paid dear for their knowledge of the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and cathartic with great violence. Still, O 2 1770. Auguft. |