INCENDIARISM BY BLACKS.

On 4th July the good ship was afloat again, so well repaired that only about an inch of water per hour was taken in, easily kept under by the pumps. She was laid over on a sandbank on the opposite side of the river and more carefully examined, the sheathing being found to be very badly damaged. The carpenter, in whom Cook had every confidence, reported that, with the means at his disposal, he could not make a satisfactory job, but he thought they might push on to some place where greater facilities could be obtained. She was therefore taken alongside the staging, the stores and ballast replaced, everything got ready for the prosecution of the voyage, and the Master sent off in the pinnace to look for a passage to the north-east; but was unsuccessful. He was again sent out, but again reported badly; the shoals appeared to get worse the further he went. He, however, brought back with him three turtles weighing about 800 pounds, which were most welcome as the crew had now been some months without fresh meat; a second trip to where these were caught resulted in getting three or four more, and a large supply of shell-fish. They had made several attempts to get on good terms with the few natives they had seen, and on one occasion two or three who were fishing had a long and animated conversation with Tupia, in which neither party could understand the other, though one or two were persuaded to visit the camp. Shortly before the last of the stores were taken in, Cook and Banks received friendly overtures from a small party, and ten of them visited the ship. They were offered various gifts, but seemed to set little value on anything except the turtles. They made signs they wanted them, and when they found these signs ignored, attempted to carry off two, and when their aim was frustrated, went ashore to where some of the crew were at work. One of them took a lighted stick from under the pitch kettle, and, making a wide circuit round the place, fired the grass as he ran. Fortunately there were not many things left ashore, and the powder had just been safely got on board, so the most serious damage appears to have been the premature roasting of a young pig. They then went off to where others of the crew were washing, and drying the fishing nets, and another attempt was made to burn the grass; but a charge of small shot caused a retreat, and on their way they set fire to the undergrowth to cover their repulse. Banks was greatly impressed with the manner in which the grass and undergrowth burnt, and declared he would never pitch tents again without first burning the grass for some distance round.

Gore, Banks, and three men made a few days' excursion up the river, but, with the exception of a kangaroo being shot by Gore, the first ever killed by a European, they met with nothing worth noting. On 18th July Cook, Banks, and Solander went up a hill some six or eight miles along the coast to see if they could form any idea of the general run of the coast and the surrounding reefs, and Cook says: "In whatever direction we looked, it [the sea] was covered with shoals as far as the eye could see."

Before leaving the river, Banks gives some notes as to the country, and puts it down as "in every respect the most barren country we have yet seen." The animals were not numerous; he gives kangaroo, wolf (the dingo or native dog), bats (flying foxes), wild cats (dasyurus), and opossums. Amongst the birds, several kinds of duck, shags, pelicans, crows, and flock pigeons, all, with the exception of the last, difficult to shoot. Of the crow he says: "A crow in England though in general sufficiently wary is, I must say, a fool to a New Holland crow." None of the beasts or birds seem to have come amiss to the pot; all that was necessary was the meat should not be salt, "that alone was sufficient to make it a delicacy." He quotes the description given by a sailor of an animal he saw:

"It was as black as the devil and had wings, indeed I took it for the devil, or I might have catched it, for it crawled away very slowly through the grass."

After some little trouble Banks discovered this to have been a large bat (flying fox). Of the insect life seen, he was particularly struck by the white ants and their nests, and formed a very respectful opinion of the mosquito.

Cook's opinion agrees fairly well with that of Banks, but on the whole he thought the east coast was not so barren and desolate as Dampier had described the west coast, and adds:

"We are to consider that we see this country in the pure state of nature; the Industry of Man has had nothing to do with any part of it, and yet we find all such things as Nature hath bestowed upon it, in a flourishing state. In this Extensive Country, it can never be doubted, but what most sorts of grain, Fruit, roots, etc., of every kind would flourish here were they once brought hither, planted and cultivated by the hands of Industry; and here are provender for more cattle, at all seasons of the year, than ever can be brought into the country."

This is a fair example of the observations and deductions to be found scattered through Cook's Journals, and an improvement on the would-be scientific and classical rubbish put into his mouth by his editors.