she stuck fast. We now got down the fore-yard, fore topmasts, and booms, and taking them overboard, made a raft of them alongside of the ship. The tide was happily rising, and about one o'clock in the afternoon she floated. We soon warped her into the harbour, and having moored her alongside of a steep beach to the south, we got the anchors, cables, and all the hawsers on shore before night.

SECTION XXXI.

Transactions while the Ship was refitting in Endeavour River : A Description of the adjacent Country, its Inhabitants and Productions.

In the morning of Monday the 18th, a stage was made from the ship to the shore, which was so bold that she -floated at twenty feet distance: Two tents were also set up, one for the sick, and the other for stores and provisions, which were landed in the course of the day. We also landed all the empty water-casks, and part of the stores. As soon as the tent for the sick was got ready for their reception, they were sent ashore to the number of eight or nine, and the boat was dispatched to haul the seine, in hopes of procuring some fish for their refreshment; but she returned without success. In the mean time, I climbed one of the highest hills among those that overlooked the harbour, which afforded by no means a comfortable prospect: The low land near the river is wholly over-run with mangroves, among which the salt water flows every tide; and the high land appeared to be every where stoney and barren. In the mean time, Mr Banks had also taken a walk up the country, and met with the frames of several old Indian houses, and places where they had dressed shell-fish; but they seemed not to have been frequented for some months. Tupia, who had employed himself in angling, and lived entirely upon what he caught, recovered in a surprising degree; but Mr Green still continued to be extremely ill.

The next morning I got the four remaining guns out of the hold, and mounted them upon the quarter-deck; I also got a spare anchor and anchor-stock ashore, and the remaining part of the stores and ballast that were in the hold; set up the smith's forge, and employed the armourer and his

mate

mate to make nails and other necessaries for the repair of the ship. In the afternoon, all the officers' stores and ground tier of water were got out, so that nothing remained in the fore and main hold but the coals, and a small quantity of stone ballast. This day Mr Banks crossed the river to take a view of the country on the other side; he found it consist principally of sand-hills, where he saw some Indian houses, which appeared to have been very lately inhabited. In his walk he met with vast flocks of pigeons and crows: Of the pigeons, which were exceedingly beautiful, he shot several; but the crows, which were exactly like those in England, were so shy that he could not get within reach of them.

On the 20th, we landed the powder and got out the stone ballast and wood, which brought the ship's draught of water to eight feet ten inches forward, and thirteen feet abaft; and this I thought, with the difference that would be made of trimming the coals aft, would be sufficient; for I found that the water rose and fell perpendicularly eight feet at the spring-tides: But as soon 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 entirely. This evening Mr Banks observed that in many parts of the inlet there were large quantities of pumice-stones, which lay at a considerable 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 sea.

The next morning we went early to work, and by four o'clock in the afternoon had got out all the coals, cast the moorings loose, and warped the ship a little higher up the harbour to a place which I thought most convenient for laying her ashore in order to stop the leak. Her draught of water forward was now seven feet nine inches, and abaft thirteen feet six inches. At eight o'clock, it being high water, I hauled her bow close ashore, but kept her stern afloat, because I was afraid of neiping her; it was however necessary to lay the whole of her as near the ground as possible.

At two o'clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her, and gave us an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her floor-heads, a little before the star

board

board 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, and the appearance of these breaches was very extraordinary: There was not a splinter to be seen, but all was so smooth as if the whole had been cut away by an instrument: The timbers in this place were happily very close, and if they had not, it would have been absolutely impossible to have saved the ship. But after all, her preservation depended upon a circumstance still more remarkable: One of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us, if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it, so that the water which at first had gained upon our pumps was what came in at the interstices, between the stone and the edges of the hole that received it. We found also several pieces of the fothering, which had made their way between the timbers, and in a great measure stopped those parts of the leak which the stone had left open. Upon further examination, we found that, besides the leak, considerable damage had been done to the bottom; great part of the sheathing was gone from under the larboard bow; a considerable part of the false keel was also wanting, and these indeed we had seen swim away in fragments from the vessel, while she lay beating against the rock: The remainder of it was in so shattered a condition, that it had better have been gone; and the fore foot and main keel were also damaged, but not so as to produce any immediate danger: What damage she might have received abaft could not yet be exactly known, but we have reason 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 described. By nine o'clock in the morning the carpenters got to work upon her, while the smiths were busy in making bolts and nails. In the mean time, some of the people were sent on the other side of the water to shoot pigeons for the sick, who at their return reported that they had seen an animal as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, a mouse-colour, and extremely swift; they discovered also many Indian houses, and a fine stream of fresh water.

The next morning I sent a boat to haul the seine; but at noon it returned with only three fish, and yet we saw them

in

in plenty leaping about the harbour. This day the carpenter finished the repairs that were necessary on the starboard side; and at nine o'clock in the evening we heeled the ship the other way, and hauled her off about two feet for fear of neiping. This day almost every body had seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the day before; and one of the seamen, who had been rambling in the woods, told us at his return that he verily believed he had seen the devil: We naturally enquired in what form he had appeared, and his answer was in so singular a style, that I shall set down his own words: "He was," says John, "as large as a one gallon keg, and very like it; he had horns and wings, yet he crept so slowly through the grass, that if I had not been afeard I might have touched him." This formidable apparition we afterwards discovered to have been a batt; and the batts 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 saw the devil, might easily supply that defect.

Early on the 24th the carpenters began to repair the sheathing under the larboard bow, where we found two planks cut about half through; and in the mean time I sent a party of men, under the direction of Mr Gore, in search of refreshments for the sick: This party returned about noon with a few palm cabbages, and a bunch or two of wild plantain; the plantains were the smallest I had ever seen, and the pulp, though it was well tasted, was full of sm all stones. As I was walking this morning at a little distance from the ship, I saw myself one of the animals which had been so often described; it was of a light mouse-colour, and in size and shape very much resembling a greyhound; it had a long tail also, which it carried like a greyhound; and I should have taken it for a wild-dog, if, instead of running, it had not leapt like a hare or deer: Its legs were said to be very slender, and the print of its foot to be like that of a goat; but where I saw it the grass was so high that the legs were concealed, and the ground was too hard to receive the track. Mr Banks also had an imperfect view of this animal, and was of opinion that its spe cies was hitherto unknown."

VOL. XIII.

T

After

It is almost superfluous to tell any reader now that the animal mentioned is the kangaroo, of which specimens are to be seen in nearly every tra velling collection of wild beasts.-E.

After the ship was hauled ashore, all the water that came into her of course went backwards; so that although she was dry forwards, she had nine feet water abaft: As in this part therefore her bottom could not be examined on the inside, 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 side without. They found the sheathing gone about the floor-heads abreast of the main-mast, and part of a plank a little damaged; but all agreed that she had received no other material injury. The loss of her sheathing alone was a great misfortune, as the worm would now be let into her bottom, which might expose 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 situation, 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 position of the ship, which threw the water in her abaft, was very near depriving the world of all the knowledge which Mr Banks had endured so much labour, and so many risks, to procure; for he had removed the curious collection of plants which he made during the whole voyage into the breadroom, which lies in the after-part of the ship, as a place of the greatest security; and nobody having thought of the danger to which laying her head so much higher than the stern would expose them, they were this day found under water. Most of them however were, by indefatigable care and attention, restored to a state of preservation, but some were entirely spoilt and destroyed.

The 25th was employed in filling water and overhauling the rigging, and at low-water the carpenters finished the repairs under the larboard bow, and every other place which the tide would permit them to come at; some casks were then lashed under her bows to facilitate her floating, and at night, when it was high water, we endeavoured to heave her off, but without success, for some of the casks that were Jashed to her gave way.

The morning of the 26th was employed in getting more

casks