1 May 1770

James Cook's Journal: Daily Entries

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

1 May 1770 Tuesday, May 1st Gentle breezes northerly. In the PM ten of the Natives again Viseted the watering place. I being on board at this time went emmediatly aShore, but before I got there they were going away, I follow'd them alone and unarm'd some distance along shore but they would not stop untill they got farther off than I thought choose to trust myself     these were arm'd in the same manner as those that came yesterday. In the evening I sent some hands to haul the Saine but they caught but a very few fish. A little after sun rise I found the Variation to be 11°..3' East. Last night Torby Sutherland seaman departed this life and in the AM his body was buried a shore at the watering place which occasioned my calling the south point of this Bay after his name. This morning a party of us went aShore to some hutts not far from the watering place where some of the natives are daily seen, here we left several articles such as Cloth, Looking glasses, Combs, Beeds, Nails &Ca   after this we made an excursion into the country which we found deversified with woods, Lawns and Marshes; the woods are free from under wood of every kind and the trees are at such a distance from one a nother that the whole Country or at least great part of it might be cultivated without being oblig'd to cut down a single tree,    we found the soil every where except in the Marshes to be a light white sand and produceth a quanty of good grass which grows in little tufts about as big as one can hold in ones hand and pretty close to one another, in this manner the surface of the ground is coated in the woods between the trees. Dr Solander had a bad sight of a small Animal some thing like a rabbit and we found the dung of an Animal which must feed upon grass and which we judge could not be less than a deer   we also saw the track of a dog or some such like Animal. we met with some hutts or and places where the natives had been and at our first seting out one of them was seen  the others I suppose had fled upon our approach. I saw some trees that had been cut down by the natives with some sort of a blunt instrument and several trees that were barked the bark of which had been cut by the same Instrument, in many of the trees, especialy the palms, were cut steps about 3 or 4 feet asunder for the conveniency of Climeing them - We found 2 sorts of Gum one sort of which is ^like Gum Dragon and is the same as what I suppose Tasman took for Gum lac and it ^is extracted from the largest tree in the woods. Voyaging Accounts © Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 229, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17700501.html