loud, which was fuppofed to be a fignal, for a lance was immediately thrown at him out of the wood, which very narrowly miffed him. When the Indians faw 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 faw a young Indian, whom he judged to be about nineteen or twenty years old, come down from a tree, and he alfo ran away with fuch speed as made it hopeless to follow him. Mr. Monkhouse was of opinion that he had been watched by these Indians in his paffage 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. In the afternoon, I went myself with a party over to the north fhore, and while fome of our people were hauling the feine, we made an excurfion a few miles into the country, proceeding afterwards in the direction of the coaft. We found this place without wood, and fomewhat refembling: 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 coaft are low, but others rife behind them, increasing by a gradual afcent to a confiderable distance, with marshes and moraffes between. When we returned to the boat, we found that our people had caught with the feine a great number of small fish, which are well known in the Weft Indies, and which our failors call Leather jackets, because their skin is remarkably thick. I had fent the Second Lieutenant out in the yawl a ftriking, and when we got back to the ship, we found that he alfo had been very fuccefsful. He had obferved that the large fting‐rays, of 1770. May. Friday 4. 1770. May. Friday 4. Saturday 5. which there is great plenty in the bay, followed the flowing tide into very fhallow water; he therefore took the opportunity of flood, and ftruck feveral 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. The next morning, as the wind ftill continued northerly I fent out the yawl again, and the people ftruck one ftill larger, for when his entrails were taken out he weighed three hundred and thirty-fix pounds. 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 fituated in the latitude of 34° S., longitude 208° 37′ W. It is capacious, fafe, and convenient, and may be known by the land on the fea-coaft, 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 ifland lying clofe under the fhore. The harbour lies about the middle of this land, and in approaching it from the fouthward, is difcovered before the fhip comes abreast of it; but from the northward it is not discovered fo foon: the entrance is a little more than a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in W.N.W. To fail into it the southern shore should be kept on board, till the fhip is within a small bare island, which lies close under the north fhore; within this island the deepest water on that fide is seven fathom, shallowing to five a good way up. At a confiderable distance from the fouth fhore there is a fhoal, reaching from the inner fouth point quite to the head of the harbour; but over towards the north and north weft fhore 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 6 anchored anchored near the fouth fhore, about a mile within the entrance, for the convenience of failing with a foutherly wind, and because I thought it the best fituation for watering; but I afterwards found a very fine ftream on the north fhore, in the first sandy cove within the island, before which a fhip might lie almost land-locked, and procure wood as well as water in great abundance. Wood indeed is every where plenty, but I faw only two kinds which may be confidered 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 fame that yields the reddish gum like fanguis draconis, and the wood is heavy, hard, and dark-coloured, like lignum vite: the other grows tall and ftrait, fomething 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 fhrubs, and feveral kinds of the palm; mangroves alfo grow in great plenty near the head of the bay. The country in general is level, low, and woody, as far as we could fee. The woods, as I have before obferved, abound with birds of exquifite beauty, particularly of the parrot kind; we found alfo crows here, exactly the fame with those in England. About the head of the harbour, where there are large flats of fand 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 fwan, and in fhape fomewhat refembling a pelican. On these banks of fand and mud there are great quantities of oysters, muscles, cockles, and other shell-fish, which seem to be the principal fubfiftence of the inhabitants, who go into fhoal water with their little canoes, and pick them out with their hands. We did not obferve that they eat any of them raw, nor do they always go on fhore to dress them, for they have frequently fires in their canoes for that pur3 T pofe. VOL. II. 1770. May. Saturday 5. 1770. May. Saturday 5. pofe. They do not however fubfift wholly upon this food, for they catch a variety of other fish, some of which they ftrike with gigs, and fome they take with hook and line. All the inhabitants that we saw were ftark naked: they did not appear to be numerous, nor to live in focieties, 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 fingle article of all that we had left at their huts, and the places they frequented, on purpose for them to take away. During my ftay in this harbour, I caufed the English colours to be displayed on fhore 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. It is high-water here at the full and change of the moon about eight o'clock, and the tide rifes and falls perpendicularly between four and five feet. CHAP. CHA P. IV. The Range from Botany Bay to Trinity Bay; with a farther AT 1770. May. T day-break, on Sunday the 6th of May 1770, we set fail from Botany Bay, with a light breeze at N. W. which foon after coming to the fouthward, we fteered along Sunday 6. the shore N. N. E.; and at noon, our latitude, by obfervation, 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 feveral azimuths, appeared to be 8o E. At fun-fet, the northermoft land in fight bore N, 26 E. and fome broken land, that feemed to form a bay, bore N. 40 W. distant four leagues. This bay, which lies in latitude 33° 42', I called BROKEN BAY. We fteered along the shore N. N. E. all night, at the distance of about three leagues from the land, having from thirty-two to thirty-fix fathom water, with a hard fandy bottom. Soon after fun-rife on the 7th, I took feveral azimuths, Monday 7. with four needles belonging to the azimuth compass, the mean refult of which gave the variation 7° 56′ E. At noon, our latitude, by obfervation, was 33° 22' S.: we were about three leagues from the fhore; the northermoft land in fight bore N. 19 E. and fome lands which projected in three bluff points, and which, for that reafon, I called CAPE THREE 3 T 2 POINTS, |