The next day, July the 1st, being Sunday, every body had liberty to go ashore, except one from each mess, who were again sent out with the seine. The seine was again equally successful, and the people who went up the country gave an account of having seen several animals, though none of them were to be caught. They saw a fire also about a mile up the river, and Mr Gore, the second lieutenant, picked up the husk of a cocoa-nut, which had been cast upon the beach, and was full of barnacles: This probably might come from some island to windward, perhaps from the Terra del Espirito Santo of Quiros, as we were now in the latitude where it is said to lie. This day the thermometer in the shade rose to 87, which was higher than it had been on any day since we came upon this coast.
Early the next morning, I sent the master in the pinnace out of the harbour, to sound about the shoals in the offing, and look for a channel to the northward: At this time we had a breeze from the land, which continued till about nine o'clock, and was the first we had since our coming into the river. At low water we lashed some empty casks under the ship's bows, having some hope that as the tides were rising she would float the next high water. We still continued to fish with great success, and at high water we again attempted to heave the ship off, but our utmost efforts were still ineffectual.
The next day at noon the master returned, and reported that he had found a passage out to sea between the shoals, and described its situation. The shoals, he said, consisted of coral rocks, many of which were dry at low water, and upon one of which he had been ashore. He found here some cockles of so enormous a size, that one of them was more than two men could eat, and a great variety of other shell-fish, of which he brought us a plentiful supply: In the evening he had also landed in a bay about three leagues to the northward of our station, where he disturbed some of the natives who were at supper; they all fled with the greatest precipitation at his approach, leaving some fresh sea-eggs, and a fire ready kindled, behind them, but there was neither house nor hovel near the place. We observed that although the shoals that lie just within sight of the coast, abound with shell-fish, which may be easily caught at low water; yet we saw no such shells about the fire-places on shore. This day an allegator was seen to swim about us for some time; and at high water we made another effort to float the ship, which happily succeeded: We found however that by lying so long with her head a-ground, and her stern a-float, she had sprung a plank between decks, a-breast of the main-chains, so that it was become necessary to lay her ashore again.
The next morning was employed in trimming her upon an even keel, and in the afternoon, having warped her over, and waited for high water, we laid her ashore on the sandbank on the south side of the river; for the damage she had received already from the great descent of the ground, made me afraid to lay her broad-side to the shore in the same place from which we had just floated her. I was now very desirous to make another trial to come at her bottom, where the sheathing had been rubbed off, but though she had scarcely four feet water under her, when the tide was out, yet that part was not dry.
On the 5th, I got one of the carpenter's crew, a man in whom I could confide, to go down again to the ship's bottom, and examine the place. He reported, that three streaks of the sheathing, about eight feet long, were wanting, and that the main plank had been a little rubbed. This account perfectly agreed with the report of the master, and others, who had been under her bottom before: I had the comfort, however, to find the carpenter of opinion that this would be of little consequence, and therefore, the other damage being repaired, she was again floated at high water, and moored alongside the beach, where the stores had been deposited; we then went to work to take the stores on board, and put her in a condition for the sea. This day, Mr Banks crossed to the other side of the harbour, where, as he walked along a sandy beach, he found innumerable fruits, and many of them such as no plants which he had discovered in this country produced: Among others were some cocoa-nuts, which Tupia said had been opened by a kind of crab, which from his description we judged to be the same that the Dutch call Beurs Krabbe, and which we had not seen in these seas. All the vegetable substances which he found in this place were encrusted with marine productions, and covered with barnacles; a sure sign that they must have come far by sea, and, as the trade-wind blows right upon the shore, probably from Terra del Espirito Santo, which has been mentioned already.
The next morning, Mr Banks, with Lieutenant Gore, and three men, set out in a small boat up the river, with a view to spend two or three days in an excursion, to examine the country, and kill some of the animals which had been so often seen at a distance.
On the 7th, I sent the master again out to sound about the shoals, the account which he had brought me of the channel being by no means satisfactory; and we spent the remainder of this day, and the morning of the next, in fishing, and other necessary occupations.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr Banks and his party returned, and gave us an account of their expedition. Having proceeded about three leagues among swamps and mangroves, they went up into the country, which they found to differ but little from what they had seen before: They pursued their course therefore up the river, which at length was contracted into a narrow channel, and was bounded, not by swamps and mangroves, but by steep banks, that were covered with trees of a most beautiful verdure, among which was that which in the West Indies is called Mohoe, or the bark tree, the hibiscus tiliaceus; the land within was in general low, and had a thick covering of long grass: The soil seemed to be such as promised great fertility to any who should plant and improve it. In the course of the day, Tupia saw an animal, which, by his description, Mr Banks judged to be a wolf: They also saw three other animals, but could neither catch nor kill one of them, and a kind of bat, as large, as a partridge, but this also eluded all their diligence and skill. At night, they took up their lodging close to the banks of the river, and made a fire, but the musquitos swarmed about them in such numbers, that their quarters were almost untenable: They followed them into the smoke, and almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, they could better endure than the stings of these insects, which were an intolerable torment. The fire, the flies, and the want of a better bed than the ground, rendered the night extremely uncomfortable, so that they passed it not in sleep, but in restless wishes for the return of day. With the first dawn they set out in search of game, and in a walk of many miles, they saw four animals of the same kind, two of which Mr Banks's greyhound fairly chaced, but they threw him out at a great distance, by leaping over the long thick grass, which prevented his running: This animal was observed not to run upon four legs, but to bound or hop forward upon two, like the Jerbua, or Mus Jaculus. About noon, they returned to the boat, and again proceeded up the river, which was soon contracted into a fresh-water brook, where, however, the tide rose to a considerable height. As evening approached, it became low water, and it was then so shallow that they were obliged to get out of the boat and drag her along, till they could find a place in which they might, with some hope of rest, pass the night. Such a place at length offered, and while they were getting the things out of the boat, they observed a smoke at the distance of about a furlong: As they did not doubt but that some of the natives, with whom they had so long and earnestly desired to become personally acquainted, were about the fire, three of the party went immediately towards it, hoping that so small a number would not put them to flight: When they came up to the place, however, they found it deserted, and therefore they conjectured, that before they had discovered the Indians, the Indians had discovered them. They found the fire still burning, in the hollow of an old tree that was become touch-wood, and several branches of trees newly broken down, with which children had been playing: They observed also many footsteps upon the sand, below high-water mark, which were certain indications that the Indians had been recently upon the spot. Several houses were found at a little distance, and some ovens dug in the ground, in the same manner as those of Otaheite, in which victuals appeared to have been dressed since the morning; and scattered about them, lay some shells of a kind of clamm, and some fragments of roots, the refuse of the meal. After regretting their disappointment, they repaired to their quarters, which was a broad sand-bank, under the shelter of a bush. Their beds were plantain leaves, which they spread upon the sand, and which were as soft as a mattress; their cloaks served them for bed-clothes, and some bunches of grass for pillows: With these accommodations they hoped to pass a better night than the last, especially as, to their great comfort, not a musquito was to be seen. Here then they lay down, and, such is the force of habit, they resigned themselves to sleep, without once reflecting upon the probability and danger of being found by the Indians in that situation. If this appears strange, let us for a moment reflect, that every danger, and every calamity, after a time becomes familiar, and loses its effect upon the mind. If it were possible that a man should first be made acquainted with his mortality, or even with the inevitable debility and infirmities of old age, when his understanding had arrived at its full strength, and life was endeared by the enjoyments of youth, and vigour, and health, with what an agony of terror and distress would the intelligence be received! yet, being gradually acquainted with these mournful truths, by insensible degrees, we scarce know when, they lose all their force, and we think no more of the approach of old age and death, than these wanderers of an unknown desert did of a less obvious and certain evil, the approach of the native savages, at a time when they must have fallen an easy prey to their malice or their fears. And it is remarkable, that the greater part of those who have been condemned to suffer a violent death, have slept the night immediately preceding their execution, though there is perhaps no instance of a person accused of a capital crime having slept the first night of his confinement. Thus is the evil of life in some degree a remedy for itself, and though every man at twenty deprecates fourscore, almost every man is as tenacious of life at fourscore as at twenty; and if he does not suffer under any painful disorder, loses as little of the comforts that remain by reflecting that he is upon the brink of the grave, where the earth already crumbles under his feet, as he did of the pleasures of his better days, when his dissolution, though certain, was supposed to be at a distance.[84]
[Footnote 84: The reader will receive this hypothetical statement as he finds it agreeable, or not, to his own experience,--a better guide, in all probability, than mere philosophy. The writer has his doubts upon the subject. But let every one judge for himself. For his part, he is convinced that frequent contemplation of death, though it certainly aids the mind in reasoning about it, does not lessen the apprehension of it, but the reverse: so that, did not some peculiar principle come to his aid, and seem indeed to acquire continually more clearness and efficiency, his distress or uneasy feeling would be much heightened by the exercise. But he sees no reason either to expect, or to wish, that it may be ever otherwise with him; for he is persuaded, that much of man's dignity and welfare consists in his seeing things just as they are, without any disguise or delusion; and that whatever death really is, there is an infallible remedy provided against its greatest terrors, to which he can always have recourse. So far, on the other hand, as his observation on others, which has not been small, extends, he would notice, that, on the whole, young persons die more easily than the aged; he means, they submit to that event, when really imminent, with more apparent tranquillity, though, when at a distance, they are much less disposed either to think or to speak about it. It will not be easy to reconcile these two facts with the reasoning in the text. But to be sure, a wider induction is requisite for the establishment of any theory. This is not the place for it. The instances adduced by Dr H. in support of his theory, are explicable on another principle, viz. that every excitement of mind or body is followed by a depression precisely proportioned to its intensity. This seems a law in our economy, deducible from almost unlimited observation, and of extreme importance, both in point of fact, and as a principle for discussion. Before ending this note, it is suggested to the reader, to consult, on the subjects of it, his own heart and mind, in preference to all the books ever written, save one. If that one enforce the dictates promulgated within, and at the same time minister consolation, he will smile at philosophy, and gain the best victory over the fear of death. To him then, notwithstanding every outward difficulty to which he can possibly be exposed, and all that inward strife and humiliation which he cannot but experience, the words of Cowper will be expressively applicable:--
"Therefore in Contemplation is his bliss,
Whose power is such, that whom she lifts from earth
She makes familiar with a heaven unseen,
And shows him glories yet to be revealed."But this is a mystery!--E.]
Our travellers having slept, without once awaking, till the morning, examined the river, and finding the tide favoured their return, and the country promised nothing worthy of a farther search, they re-embarked in their boat, and made the best of their way to the ship.