CHAP. VII.

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 Coast: the Range from Endeavour River to the Northern Extremity of the Country, and the Dangers of that Navigation.

O the harbour which we had now left, I gave the name

To the harbour which we had left, I gave the

1770

Auguft.

of ENDEAVOUR RIVER. It is only a small bar 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 small 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 so steep for near a quarter of a mile, that a fhip may lie afloat at low water, fo 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 feventeen or eighteen at the height of the tide; the difference between high and low water, at spring 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 ftill more difficult of accefs; the safest approach is from the fouthward, keeping the main land close upon the board all the way. Its fituation may always be found by the latitude, which has been very accurately

4

1770. Auguft.

Saturday 4.

1

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 tempeftuous, 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 same share as myself; and I think every commander, in fuch a voyage as 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 purslain, 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 defpifed, 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 these were, in our opinion, not much inferior to fpinnage, which in tafte 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 seeking.

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 ferpents; fome of the ferpents are venomous, and fome harmless:

there

there are no tame animals here except dogs, and of these we faw but two or three, which frequently came about the tents, to pick up the fcraps and bones that happened to lie fcattered near them. There does not indeed feem to be many of any animal, except the kanguroo; we scarcely saw any other above once, but this we met with almoft every time we went into the woods. Of land fowls we saw 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, whistling 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 occafionally men- tioned before, is agreeably diversified by hill and valley, lawn and wood. The foil of the hills is hard, dry, and stony, yet it produces coarse grafs befides wood: the foil of the plains and vallies is in fome places fand, and in fome clay; in fome alfo it is rocky and ftony, 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 coast, is the most common,, but here it is not fo large: on each fide of the river, through its whole courfe, 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 several 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 supplied with water by springs, which were not far off.

In:

In the afternoon of the 4th, we had a gentle breeze at S. E. and clear weather, but as I did not intend to fail till the morning, I fent all the boats to the reef, to get what turtle and shell fish they could. At low water, I went up to the maft-head, and took a view of the fhoals, which made a very threatening appearance: I could fee feveral at a remote distance, and part of many of them was above water. The fea appeared most open to the north east of the turtle reef, and I came to a refolution to ftretch out that way clofe upon a wind, because if we should find no paffage, we could always return the way we went. way we went. In the evening, the boats brought in a turtle, a fting-ray, and as many large cockles as came to about a pound and a half a man, for in each of them there was not lefs than two pounds of meat: in the night alfo we caught feveral fharks, which, though not a dainty, were an acceptable increase of our fresh provision.

In the morning, I waited till half ebb before I weighed, because at that time the fhoals begin to appear, but the wind then blew fo hard that I was obliged to remain at anchor: in the afternoon, however, the gale becoming more moderate, we got under fail, and flood out upon a wind N. E. by E. leaving the turtle reef to windward, and having the pinnace founding ahead: we had not kept this course long, before we discovered fhoals before us, and upon both the bows; and at half an hour after four, having run about eight miles, the pinnace made the fignal for fhoal water, where we little expected it: upon this we tacked, and flood on and off, while the pinnace ftretched farther to the caftward, and night'approaching, I came to an anchor in twenty fathom water, with a muddy bottom. Endeavour River then bore S. 52 W. Cape Bedford W. by N. N. diftant five leagues, the northermost land in fight, which had the appearance of an ifland, N.; and a shoal, a small fandy part

of