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November.

For this offence I ordered each of them to be punished 1769. with twelve lashes, after which two of them were discharged; but the third, infifting that it was no crime in an Englishman to plunder an Indian plantation, though it was a crime in an Indian to defraud an Englishman of a nail, I ordered him back into his confinement, from which I would not release him till he had received fix lashes more.

On the 30th, there being a dead calm, and no pro- Thursd. 30. bability of our getting to fea, I fent the master with two boats to found the harbour; and all the forenoon had several canoes about the fhip, who traded in a very fair and friendly manner. In the evening we went afhore upon the main, where the people received. us very cordially; but we found nothing worthy of notice.

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In this bay we were detained by contrary winds and calms feveral days, during which time our intercourse with the natives was continued in the most peaceable and friendly manner, they being frequently about the fhip, and we a-fhore, both upon the islands and the main. In one of our visits to the continent, an old man fhewed us the inftrument they use in ftaining their bodies, which exactly resembled thofe that were employed for the fame purpose at Otaheite. We faw alfo the man who was wounded in attempting to steal our buoy the ball had passed through the fleshy part of his arm, and grazed his breaft; but the wound, under the care of Nature, the best furgeon, and a fimple diet, the best nurse, was in a good state, and feemed to give the patient neither pain nor apprehension. We faw alfo the brother of our old Chief, who had been wounded with small-shot in our skirmish: they had ftruck his thigh obliquely, and though feveral of them were ftill in the flesh, the wound feemed to be attended with neither danger nor pain. We found among their plantations the morus papyrifera, of which thefe people, as well as thofe of Otaheite, make cloth; but here the plant feems to be rare, and we faw no pieces of the cloth large enough for any ufe, but to wear by way of ornament in their ears.

1769.

Having one day landed in a very diftant part of the November, bay, the people immediately fled, except one old man, who accompanied us wherever we went, and feemed much pleased with the little prefents we made him. We came at last to a little fort, built upon a small rock, which at high water was furrounded by the fea, and acceffible only by a ladder. We perceived that he eyed us with a kind of restless folicitude as we approached it, and upon our expreffing a defire to enter it, he told us that his wife was there. He faw that our curiofity was not diminished by this intelligence, and, after fome hesitation, he faid, if we would promife to offer no indecency he would accompany us: our promise was readily given, and he immediately led the way. The ladder confifted of fteps faftened to a pole, but we found the afcent both difficult and dangerous. When we entered we found three women, who, the moment they faw us, burst into tears of terror and furprize; fome kind words, and a few prefents, foon removed their apprehenfions, and put them into good humour. We examined the house of our old friend, and by his interest two others, which were all that the fortification contained, and having distributed a few more prefents, we parted with mutual fatisfaction.

December.

At four o'clock in the morning of the 5th of DeTueday 5. cember, we weighed with a light breeze; but it being variable, with frequent calms, we made little way. We kept turning out of the bay till the afternoon, and about ten o'clock we were fuddenly becalmed, fo that the fhip would neither wear nor ftay; and the tide or current setting strong, fhe drove towards land fo fast, that before any measures could be taken for her fecurity, he was within a cable's length of the breakers; we had thirteen fathoms water, but the ground was fo foul that we did not dare to drop our anchor; the pinnace therefore was immediately hoifted out to take the ship in tow, and the men, fenfible of their danger, exerting themselves to the utmost, and a faint breeze fpringing up off the land, we perceived with unfpeakable joy that he made head way, after having been fo near the fhore that Tupia, who was not fenfible of our hair's breadth escape, was at this very time converfing with the people upon the beach, whofe

December.

voices were distinctly heard, notwithstanding the roar 1769. of the breakers. We now thought all danger was over, but about an hour afterwards, juft as the man in the chains had cried " feventeen fathom," the ship ftruck. The fhock threw us all into the utmost confternation; Mr. Banks, who had undressed himself and was stepping into bed, ran bastily up to the deck, and the man in the chains called out" five fathom;" by this time, the rock on which we had ftruck being to windward, the ship went off without having received the least damage, and the water very foon deepened to twenty fathom.

This rock lies half a mile W. N. W. of the northermost or outermost island on the fouth-east side of the bay. We had light airs from the land, with calms, till nine o'clock the next morning, when we got out of the Wednef. 6, bay, and a breeze springing up at N.N. W. we stood out to fea.

This bay, as I have before obferved, lies on the weft fide of Cape Bret, and I named it the BAY OF ISLANDS, from the great number of iflands which line its fhores, and form feveral harbours equally safe and commodious, where there is room and depth for any number of shipping. That in which we lay is on the fouth-weft fide of the fouth-westermoft island, called MATUARO, on the fouth-eaft fide of the bay. I have made no accurate furvey of this bay, being discouraged by the time it would coft me; I thought alfo that it was fufficient to be able to affirm that it afforded us good anchorage, and refreshment of every kind. It was not the season for roots, but we had plenty of fish, most of which, however, we purchased of the natives, for we could catch very little ourselves either with net or line. When we fhewed the natives our feine, which is fuch as the King's fhips are generally furnished with, they laughed at it, and in triumph produced their own, which was indeed of an enormous fize, and made of a kind of grafs, which is very ftrong: it was five fathoms deep, and by the room it took up, it could not be less than three or four hundred fathoms long. Fishing seems indeed to be the chief business of life in this' part of the country; we faw about all their towns a great number of nets, laid in heaps like hay-cocks,

and

December.

1759. and covered with a thatch to keep them from the weather, and we scarcely entered a house where some of the people were not employed in making them. The fish we procured here were sharks, fting-rays, fea-bream, mullet, mackrel, and fome others.

Thurf, 7.

The inhabitants in this bay are far more numerous than in any other part of the country that we had before visited; it did not appear to us that they were united under one head, and tho' their towns were fortified, they seemed to live together in perfe& amity.

It is high-water in this bay, at the full and change of the moon, about eight o'clock, and the tide then rifes from fix to eight feet perpendicularly. It appears, from fuch observations as I was able to make of the tides upon the fea-coaft, that the flood comes from the fouthward; and I have reason to think that there is a current which comes from the westward, and sets along the shore to S. E, or S. S. E. as the land happens to lie.

CHAP. V.

Range from the Bay of Islands, round North-Cape to
Queen Charlotte's Sound; and a Defcription of that
Part of the Coaft.

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N Thursday the 7th of December, at noon, Cape Bret bore S. S. E. E. diftant ten miles, and our latitude, by obfervation, was 34° 59' S. Soon after we made feveral obfervations of the fun and moon, the refult of which made our longitude 185° 36′ W. The wind being against us, we had made but little way. In the afternoon we stood in-fhore, and fetched clofe under the Cavalles, from which islands the main trends W. by N. feveral canoes put off and followed us, but a light breeze fpringing up, I did not choose to wait for them. I kept ftanding to the W. N. W. and Friday 8. N. W. till the next morning ten o'clock, when I tacked and stood in for the shore, from which we were about five leagues diftant. At noon, the westermoft land in fight bore W. by S. and was about four leagues distant, In the afternoon, we had a gentle breeze to the weft,

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which in the evening came to the fouth, and continuing fo all night, by day-light brought us pretty well in with the land, feven leagues to the weftward of the Cavalles, where we found a deep bay running in S.W. by W. and W. S. W. the bottom of which we could but just fee, and there the land appeared to be low and level. To this bay, which I called DOUBTLESS BAY, the entrance is formed by two points, which lie W.N.W. and E. S. E and are five miles distant from each other. The wind not permitting us to look in here, we steered for the westermost land in fight, which bore from us W. N. W. about three leagues, but before we got the length of it, it fell calm.

1769. December,

Saturd. 9.

While we lay becalmed, feveral canoes came off to us, but the people having heard of our guns, it was. not without great difficulty that they were perfuaded to come under our ftern: after having bought fome of their cloaths, as well as their fish, we began to make inquiries concerning their country, and learned, by the help of Tupia, that, at the diftance of three days rowing in their canoes, at a place called MOORE WHENNUA, the land would take a fhort turn to the fouthward, and from thence extend more to the west. This place we concluded to be the land difcovered by Tasman, which he called CAPE MARIA VAN DIEMEN, and finding these people fo intelligent, we inquired farther, if they knew of any country befides their own? They anfwered, that they never had vifited any other, but that their ancestors had told them, that to the N. W. by N. or N. N. W. there was a country of great extent, called ULIMAROA, to which fome people had failed in a very large canoe; that only part of them returned, and reported, that, after a pasfage of a month, they had feen a country where the people eat hogs. Tupia then inquired whether these adventurers brought any hogs with them when they returned? they said, No. Then, replied Tupia, your ftory is certainly falfe, for it cannot be believed that men who came back from an expedition without hogs, had ever vifited a country where hogs were to be procured. It is however remarkable, notwithstanding the fhrewdnefs of Tupia's objection, that when they mentioned

hogs,

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