While Mr Banks was gathering plants near the watering-place, I went with Dr Solander and Mr Monkhouse to the head of the bay, that I might examine that part of the country, and make farther attempts to form some connection with the natives. In our way we met with eleven or twelve small canoes, with each a man in it, probably the same that were afterwards abreast of the shore, who all made into shoal water upon our approach. We met other Indians on shore the first time we landed, who instantly took to their canoes, and paddled away. We went up the country to some distance, and found the face of it nearly the same with that which has been described already, but the soil was much richer; for instead of sand, I found a deep black mould, which I thought very fit for the production of grain of any kind. In the woods we found a tree which bore fruit that in colour and shape resembled a cherry; the juice had an agreeable tartness, though but little flavour. We found also interspersed some of the finest meadows in the world: Some places, however, were rocky, but these were comparatively few: The stone is sandy, and might be used with advantage for building. When we returned to the boat, we saw some smoke upon another part of the coast, and went thither in hopes of meeting with the people, but at our approach, these also ran away. We found six small canoes, and six fires very near the beach, with some mussels roasting upon them, and a few oysters lying near: By this we judged that there had been one man in each canoe, who, having picked up some shell-fish, had come ashore to eat it, and made his separate fire for that purpose: We tasted of their cheer, and left them in return some strings of beads, and other things which we thought would please them. At the foot of a tree in this place we found a small well of fresh water, supplied by a spring; and the day being now far spent, we returned to the ship. In the evening, Mr Banks made a little excursion with his gun, and found such a number of quails, resembling those in England, that he might have shot as many as he pleased; but his object was variety and not number.
The next morning, as the wind would not permit me to sail, I sent out several parties into the country to try again whether some intercourse could not be established with the natives. A midshipman who belonged to one of these parties having straggled a long way from his companions, met with a very old man and woman, and some little children; they were sitting under a tree by the water-side, and neither party saw the other till they were close together: The Indians showed signs of fear, but did not attempt to run away. The man happened to have nothing to give them but a parrot that he had shot; this he offered, but they refused to accept it, withdrawing themselves from his hand, either through fear or aversion. His stay with them was but short, for he saw several canoes near the beach fishing, and being alone, he feared they might come ashore 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 grey-headed; that the hair of the man's head was bushy, and his beard long and rough; that the woman's hair was cropped short, and both of them were stark naked. Mr Monkhouse the surgeon, and one of the men, who were with another party near the watering-place, also strayed from their companions, and as they were coming out of a thicket, observed six Indians standing together, at the distance of about fifty yards. One of them pronounced a word very loud, which was supposed to be a signal, for a lance was immediately thrown at him out of the wood, which very narrowly missed him. When the Indians saw 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 saw 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 passage 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 that he was the person who threw the lance.
In the afternoon I went myself with a party over to the north shore, and while some of our people were hauling the seine, we made an excursion a few miles into the country, proceeding afterwards in the direction of the coast. We found this place without wood, and somewhat resembling 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 coast are low, but others rise behind them, increasing by a gradual ascent to a considerable distance, with marshes and morasses between. When we returned to the boat, we found that our people had caught with the seine a great number of small fish, which are well known in the West-Indies, and which our sailors call leather-jackets, because their skin is remarkably thick. I had sent the second lieutenant out in the yawl a-striking, and when we got back to the ship, we found that he also had been very successful. He had observed that the large sting-rays, of which there is great plenty in the bay, followed the flowing tide into very shallow water; he therefore took the opportunity of flood, and struck several 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 still continued northerly, I sent out the yawl again, and the people struck one still larger, for when his entrails were taken out he weighed three hundred and thirty-six 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.[72] It is situated in the latitude of 34° S., longitude 208° 37' W. It is capacious, safe, and convenient, and maybe known by the land on the sea-coast, 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 island lying close under the shore. The harbour lies about the middle of this land, and in approaching it from the southward, is discovered before the ship comes abreast of it; but from, the northward it is not discovered so soon: The entrance is a little more than a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in W.N.W. To sail into it the southern shore should be kept on board, till the ship is within a small bare island, which lies close under the north shore; within this island the deepest water on that side is seven fathom, shallowing to five a good way up. At a considerable distance from the south shore there is a shoal, reaching from the innersouth 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 fathom, but here I found very little fresh water. We anchored near the south shore, about a mile within the entrance, for the convenience of sailing with a southerly wind, and because I thought it the best situation for watering; but I afterwards found a very fine stream on the north shore, in the first sandy cove within the island, before which a ship might lie almost land-locked, and procure wood as well as water in great abundance. Wood indeed is every where plenty, but I saw only two kinds which may be considered 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 same that yields the reddish gum like sanguis draconis, and the wood is heavy, hard, and dark-coloured, like lignum vitae; the other grows tall and straight, something 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 shrubs, and several kinds of the palm; mangroves also grow in great plenty near the head of the bay. The country in general is level, low, and woody, as far as we could see. The woods, as I have before observed, abound with birds of exquisite beauty, particularly of the parrot kind; we found also crows here, exactly the same with those in England. About the head of the harbour, where there are large flats of sand 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 swan, and in shape somewhat resembling a pelican. On these banks of sand and mud there are great quantities of oysters, mussels, cockles, and other shell-fish, which seem to be the principal subsistence of the inhabitants, who go into shoal 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 go on shore to dress them, for they have frequently fires in their canoes for that purpose. They do not however subsist wholly upon this food, for they catch a variety of other fish, some of which they strike with gigs, and some 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 societies, 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 single article of all that we had left at their huts, and the places they frequented, on purpose for them to take away.
[Footnote 72: The reader will be plentifully supplied with information respecting this noted place, and the settlement of British convicts made at Port Jackson, in another part of this work. It would be very injudicious to break down the matter intended to be given there, for the purpose of ekeing out the limited remarks here made. This intimation may be equally applied to the whole subject of New Holland: about which the reader may promise himself very ample satisfaction in the course of this collection. Let this then be accepted as a pledge in apology for the paucity of observations on the text.--E.]
During my stay in this harbour, I caused the English colours to be displayed on shore 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 rises and falls perpendicularly between four and five feet.
SECTION XXIX.
The Range from Botany Bay to Trinity Bay; with a farther Account of the Country, its Inhabitants; and Productions.