Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

May.

and woman, and fome little children; they were fitting 1770. under a tree by the water fide, and neither party law the other till they were close together; the Indians fhewed figns of fear, but did not attempt to run away. The man happened to have nothing to give them but a parrot that he had fhot; this he offered, but they refufed to accept it, withdrawing themselves from his hand either through fear or averfion. His stay with them was but short, for he faw feveral canoes near the beach fishing, and being alone, he feared they might come a-fhore and attack him: he said, that these people were very dark coloured, but not black; that the man and woman appeared to be very old, being both greyheaded; that the hair of the man's head was bufhy, and his beard long and rough; that the woman's hair was cropped fhort, and both of them were ftark naked. Mr. Monkhouse the Surgeon, and one of the men, who were with another party near the watering-place, also ftrayed from their companions, and as they were coming out of a thicket obferved fix Indians ftanding together, at the distance of about fifty yards. One of them pronounced a word very loud, which was fuppofed to be a signal, 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 also ran away with such 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 fignal 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

fome

1770. May.

fomewhat refembling our moors in England; the furface 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, increafing by a gradual afcent to a confiderable distance, with marthes 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 fecond Lieutenant out in the yawl a ftriking, and when we got back to the fhip, we found that he also had been very successful. He had obferved that the large fting-rays, of 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 continued northerly I fent out the yawl again, and the people ftruck one still 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 fea, 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 a-breast of it; but from the northward it is not difcovered 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 fouthern fhore fhould be kept on board, till the ship is within a small bare island, which lies clofe under the north fhore; within this island the deepest water on

that

that fide is seven fathoms, fhallowing 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-west shore, 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 fathoms, but
here I found very little fresh water, We anchored
near the fouth shore, 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 stream on the north
fhore, in the first fandy cove within the island, before
which a fhip might lie almost land-locked, and procure
wood as well as water in great abundance. Wood in-
deed 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
vita; the other grows tall and ftrait, fomething like
the pine; and the wood of this, which has fome re-
femblance to the live oak of America, is alfo 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 observed, abound with birds of exquifite
beauty, particularly of the parrot kind; we found alfo
crows here, exactly the fame with thofe 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 moft remarkable was black and white, much
larger than a fwan, and in fhape fomewhat resembling.
a pelican. On thefe banks of fand and mud there are
great quantities of oyfters, mufcles, cockles, and other
fhell-fish, which feem to be the principal subsistence of
the inhabitants, who go into fhoal water with their little.
canoes, and pick them out with their hands. We did
not observe that they eat any of them raw, nor do they

always

1770.

May.

1770. always go on fhore to drefs them, for they have freMay. quently fires in their canoes for that purpose. They do not however fubfift wholly upon this food, for they catch a variety of other fish, some of which they strike with gigs, and fome they take with hook and line. All the inhabitants that we saw were stark 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.

Sunday 6.

During my stay in this harbour, I caused the English colours to be difplayed on fhore every day and the ship's name, and the date of the year, to be infcribed 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. IV.

The Range from Botany Bay to Trinity Bay; with a farther Account of the Country, its Inhabitants and Productions.

A

T day-break, on Sunday the 6th of May 1770, we fet fail from Botany Bay, with a light breeze at N. W. which foon after coming to the fouthward, we fteered along 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 diftant 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 several azimuths, appeared to be 8° E. At fun-fet the northernmost 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

1770.

BROKEN BAY. We steered along the shore N. N. E. all night, at the distance of about three leagues from, May. the land, having from thirty-two to thirty-fix fathoms water, with a hard fandy bottom.

Soon after fun-rife on the 7th, I took several azimuths, Mond. 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 observation, was 33° 22′ S. We were about three leagues from the fhore; the northernmost 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 POINTS, bore S. W. distant five leagues. Our longitude from Botany Bay was 19' E.. In the afternoon, we faw fmoke in feveral places upon the fhore, and in the evening, found the variation to be 8o 25' E. At this time we were between two and three miles from the fshore, in twenty-eight fathoms; and at noon the next day, we had not ad-Tuesd. 8. vanced one step to the northward. We stood off shore, with the wind northerly, till twelve at night, and at the distance of about five leagues, had feventy fathoms ; at the distance of fix leagues we had eighty fathoms, which is the extent of the foundings; for at the distance of ten leagues, we had no ground with 150 fathoms.

The wind continuing northerly, till the morning of Thursd. 10. the 10th, we continued to ftand in and off the shore, with very little change of fituation in other refpects; but a gale then fpringing up at S. W. we made the best of our way along the fhore to the northward. At funrife, our latitude was 33° 2' S. and the variation 8° E. At nine in the forenoon, we paffed a remarkable hill, which stood a little way inland, and somewhat resembled the crown of a hat: and at noon, our latitude, by obfervation, was 32° 53' S. and our longitude 208 W. We were about two leagues diftant from the land, which extended from N. 41 E. to S. 41 W. and a small round rock, or ifland, which lay close under the land, bore S. 82° W. distant between three and four leagues. At four in the afternoon, we passed, at the distance of about a mile, a low rocky point, which I called POINT STEPHENS, on the north fide of which is an inlet, which I called PORT STEPHENS: this inlet appeared to

me,

« ZurückWeiter »