In the ^AM I went a shore with a party of men in order to examine the Country accompaned by M^r Banks and the other gentlemen.   we landed alittle within the South point of the Bay where there is a channel leading into a large Lagoon,   the first thing that I did was to sound and examine this channel in which I found 3 fathom water untill I got about a Mile up it where I met with a Shoal whereon was little more than one fathom    being over this I had 3 fathom again.  the entrance into this channel lies close to the South point of the Bay being form'd on the East by the shore and on the West by a large spit of sand    it is about a quarter of a Mile broad and lies in SBW here is room for a few Ships to lay very secure and a small Stream of fresh water. After this I made a little excursion into the woods while some hands made 3 or 4 hauls with the Sain but caught not above a dozen very small fish, by this time the flood was made, and I embarqued in the boat in order to row up the Lagoon but in this I was hindred by meeting every where with shoal water,   as yet we had seen no people but saw a great deal of smook up and on the west side of the Lagoon which was all too far off for us to go by land excepting one   this we went to and found 10 small fires in a very small compass and some cockle shells laying by them _^^{but the people were gone}    On the windward or South Side of one fire was stuck up a little _^^bark about a foot and a half high and some few peices lay about in other places, these we concluded were all the covering they had in the night and many of them I firmly believe have not this but naked as they are _^^Sleep lay in the open air,   Tupia who was with us observed that they were Taata Eno's that is bad or poor people. The Country is vissibly worse than at the last place we was were at, the Soil is dry and Sandy and the woods are free from under wood of every kind. here are of the same sort of trees as we found in Sting Ray Harbour ^{Botany Bay} with a few other sorts. one sort _^^{which is by far the most numerous of any in the woods} grow something like birch   the bark at first sight looks like birch bark but upon examination I found it to be of a very different and so I believe is the wood but this I could not examine as having no ax or any thing with me to cut down a tree - about the skirts of the Lagoon grows the true Mangrove such as are found in the West Indias and which we have not seen during the Voyage before - here is likewise a sort of a Palm tree which grows on low barren and sandy places in the South Sea Islands and calld by the natives of these Islands —————— All or most of the same sorts of land and sea ^water fowl as we saw at Sting _^^{Botanist Botany Bay} Ray harbour we saw here  besides these _^^{Black & White Ducks, and} we saw some Bustards such as we have in England one of which we kill'd that weigh'd 17 1/2 pounds and _^^{which occasioned my giving this place the name of Bustard Bay ^/Latd 24.4. Longd 208.22/} likewise _^^saw some black and white ducks, Here are plenty of small oysters sticking to the Rocks, stones and some to the Mangrove trees and some few other shell fish such as large Musels, Pearl oysters, Cockels &C^a I measured the perpendicular height of the last tide and found that it to be 8 foot above low-water mark and from the time of low-water to day I found that it must be high water at the full and change of the Moon at 8 oClock, and from observⁿ I have made of the tides upon the Coast I find that the flood comes from the northward —

Voyaging Accounts