1770. June.

CHAP. VI.

Tranfactions while the Ship was refitting in Endeavour River: a Defcription of the adjacent Country, its Inbabitants, and Productions.

IN

Monday 18. N the morning of Monday the 18th, a ftage was made from the fhip to the shore, which was so bold that the floated at twenty feet distance: two tents were alfo fet up, one for the fick, and the other for ftores and provifions, which were landed in the courfe of the day. We alfo landed all the empty water cafks, and part of the ftores. As foon as the tent for the fick was got ready for their reception, they were fent afhore to the number of eight or nine, and the boat was dispatched to haul the feine, in hopes of procuring fome fish for their refreshment; but the returned without fuccefs. In the mean time, I climbed one of the highest hills among those that overlooked the harbour, which afforded by no means a comfortable profpect: the low land near the river is wholly overrun with mangroves, among which the falt water flows every tide; and the high land appeared to be every where ftony and barren. In the mean time Mr. Banks had alfo taken a walk up the country, and met with the frames of feveral old Indian houfes, and places where they had dreffed fhell-fish; but they seemed not to have been frequented for fome months. Tupia, who had employed himself in angling, and lived intirely upon what he caught, recovered in a furprising degree; but Mr. Green still continued to be extremely ill.

Taefuay 19.

The next morning I got the four remaining guns out of the hold, and mounted them upon the quarterdeck; I alfo got a spare anchor and anchor-flock afhore, and the remaining part of the ftores and ballast that were in the hold: fet up the fmith's forge, and employed the armourer and his mate to make nails and other neceffa ries for the repairs of the fhip. In the afternoon all the officers ftores and the ground tier of water were got out; fo that nothing remained in the fore and main hold, but the coals, and a small quantity of stone ballaft. This

day

1770.

day Mr. Banks croffed the river to take a view of the country on the other fide: he found it confift princi- June. pally of fand-hills, where he faw fome Indian houses, which appeared to have been very lately inhabited. In his walk he met with vaft flocks of pigeons and crows: of the pigeons, which were exceedingly beautiful, he fhot feveral, but the crows, which were exactly like those in England, were fo fhy, that he could not get within reach of them.

On the 20th, we landed the powder, and got out Wedn. 20. the stone ballaft and wood, which brought the fhip's draught of water to eight feet ten inches forward, and thirteen feet a-baft; and this I thought, with the difference that would be made by trimming the coals aft, would be fufficient; for I found that the water rose and fell perpendicularly eight feet at the fpring-tides: but as foon as the coals were trimmed from over the leak, we could hear the water rush in a little abaft the foremast, about three feet from the keel: this determined me to clear the hold intirely. This evening Mr. Banks obferved that in many parts of the inlet there were large quantities of pumice ftones, which lay at a confiderable distance above high-water mark; whither they might have been carried either by the freshes or extraordinary high tides, for there could be no doubt but that they came from the fea.

The next morning we went early to work, and by Thursd, 21. four o'clock in the afternoon had got out all the coals, caft the moorings loofe, and warped the fhip a little higher up the harbour to a place which I thought most convenient for laying her a-fhore in order to stop the lake. Her draught of water forward was now seven feet nine inches, and abaft thirteen feet fix inches. At eight o'clock, it being high-water, I hauled her bow clofe a-fhore; but kept her ftern a-float, because I was afraid of helping her; it was however neceffary to lay the whole of her as near the ground as poffible.

At two o'clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide Friday 22. left her, and gave us an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her floor heads, a little before the ftarboard fore-chains. In this place the rocks had made their way through four planks, and even into the timbers; three more planks were much damaged,

Z 4

1770. June.

damaged, and the appearance of thefe breaches was very extraordinary: there was not a splinter to be seen, but all was as fmooth, as if the whole had been cut away by an inftrument: the timbers in this place were happily very close, and if they had not, it would have been abfolutely impoffible to have faved the fhip. But after all, her prefervation depended upon a circumstance still more remarkable: in one of the holes, which was big enough to have funk us, if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them inceffantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left flicking in it; fo that the water which at firft had gained upon our pumps, was what came in at the interflices, between the ftone and the edges of the hole that received it. We found also feveral pieces of the fothering, which had made their way between the timbers, and in a great measure stopped thofe parts of the leak which the flone had left open. Upon further examination, we found that, besides the leak, confiderable damage had been done to the bottom; great part of the fheathing was gone from under the larboard bow; a confiderable part of the falfe keel was alfo wanting, and these indeed we had feen fwim away in fragments from the veffel, while the lay beating against the rock: the remainder of it was in fo fhattered a condition that it had better have been gone, and the fore-foot and main keel were alfo damaged, but not fo as to produce any immediate danger: what damage fhe might have received abaft could not yet be exactly known, but we had reafon to think it was not much, as but little water made its way into her bottom, while the tide kept below the leak which has already been defcribed. By nine o'clock in the morning the carpenters got to work upon her, while the fmiths were bufy in making bolts and nails. In the mean time, fome of the people were sent on the other fide of the water to fhoot pigeons for the fick, who at their return reported that they had seen an animal as large as a greyhound, of a flender make, a mouse colour, and extremely fwift; they difcovered alfo many Indian houfes, and a fine ftream of fresh

water.

The

yet we

The next morning I fent a boat to haul the feine; but at noon it returned with only three fish, and faw them in plenty leaping about the harbour. This, day the Carpenter finished the repairs that were neceffary on the ftarboard fide, and at nine o'clock in the evening we heeled the fhip the other way, and hauled her off about two feet, for fear of neiping. This day almost every body had feen the animal which the pigeon-fhooters had brought an account of the day before; and one of the feamen, who had been rambling in the woods, told us at his return, that he verily believed he had seen the devil. We naturally inquired in what form he had appeared, and his anfwer was in fo fingular a stile that I fhall fet down his own words: "He was, fays John, as large as a one gallon keg, and "very like it: he had horns and wings, yet he crept "fo flowly through the grafs, that if I had not been "afeard I might have touched him." This formidable apparition we afterwards difcovered to have been a bat; and the bats here must be acknowledged to have a frightful appearance, for they are nearly black, and full as large as a partridge; they have indeed no horns, but the fancy of a man who thought he faw the devil might eafily fupply that defect.

1770.

June.

Saturd. 23.

Early on the 24th the carpenters began to repair the Sunday 24. fheathing under the larboard bow, where we found two planks cut about half through; and in the mean time I fent a party of men, under the direction of Mr. Gore, in fearch of refreshments for the fick; this party returned about noon with a few palm-cabbages, and a bunch or two of wild plantains; the plantains were the fmalleft I had ever feen, and the pulp, though it was well tafted, was full of fmall ftones. As I was walking this morning, at a little diftance from the fhip, I faw myself one of the animals which had been fo often described; it was of a light moufe colour, and in fize and shape very much refembling a greyhound; it had a long tail alfo, which it carried like a greyhound; and I should have taken it for a wild dog, if, instead of running, it had not leaped like a hare or deer; its legs. were faid to be very flender, and the print of its foot to be like that of a goat; but where I faw it, the grafs was fo high that the legs were concealed, and the ground

was

1770.

June.

Monday 25.

was too hard to receive the track. Mr. Banks also had an imperfect view of this animal, and was of opinion that its fpecies was hitherto unknown.

After the ship was hauled afhore, all the water that came into her of course went backwards; fo that, although she was dry forward, fhe had nine feet water abaft. As in this port, therefore, her bottom could not be examined on the infide, I took the advantage of the tide being out, this evening, to get the master and two of the men to go under her, and examine her whole larboard fide without. They found the sheathing gone about the floor-heads a-breast of the main-mast, and part of a plank a little damaged; but all agreed that The had received no other material injury. The lofs of her fheathing alone was a great misfortune, as the worms would now be let into her bottom, which might expofe us to great inconvenience and danger; but as I knew no remedy for the mischief but heaving her down, which would be a work of immense labour and long time, if practicable at all in our present fituation, I was obliged to be content. The carpenters, however, continued to work under her bottom in the evening, till they were prevented by the tide: the morning tide did not ebb out far enough to permit them to work at all; for we had only one tolerable high and low tide in four-and-twenty hours, as indeed we had experienced when we lay upon the rock. The pofition of the ship, which threw the water in her a-baft, was very near depriving the world of all the knowledge which Mr. Banks had endured fo much labour, and fo many risks to procure; for he had removed the curious collection of plants, which he made during the whole voyage, into the bread-room, which lies in the after part of the fhip, as a place of the greatest fecurity; and nobody having thought of the danger to which laying her head fo much higher than the stern would expole them, they were this day found under water. Most of them, however, were, by indefatigable care and attention, reftored to a state of prefervation, but fome were entirely fpoiled and deftroyed.

The 25th was employed in filling water and overhauling the rigging, and at low water the carpenters finished