9 March 1770

Banks's Journal: Daily Entries

Table of Contents On this day ... 9 March 1770 Endeavour Voyage Maps James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia Transcript of Cook's Journal Sydney Parkinson's Journal The authorised published account of Cook's Voyage by John Hawkesworth 1770 Index Search Contact us Search for in Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine

9 March 1770 9. At the first dawn of day a ledge of rocks were discoverd right to leward and very near us, so we had much reason to be thankfull that the wind in the night had been very gentle otherwise we must in all human probability have ran right among them, at least we could have had no chance of escaping them but by hearing them as there was no moon. The land appeard barren and seemd to end in a point to which the hills gradualy declind - much to the regret of us Continent mongers who could not help thinking this, a great swell from SW and the broken ground without it a pretty sure mark of some remarkable Cape being here. By noon we were pretty near the land which was uncommonly barren; the few flat places we saw seemingly produc'd little or nothing and the rest was all bare rocks, which were amazingly full of Large Veins and patches of some mineral that shone as if it had been polishd or rather lookd as if they were realy pavd with glass; what it was I could not at all guess but it certainly was some mineral and seemd to argue by its immense abundance a countrey abounding in minerals, where if one may judge from the corresponding latitudes of South America in all human probability something very valuable might be found. Voyaging Accounts © Derived from State Library of NSW 1998 Transcription of Banks's Endeavour Journal page (vol.2) 153, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/banks/17700309.html