30 May 1770

James Cook's Journal: Daily Entries

Table of Contents On this day ... 30 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...

30 May 1770 Wednesday 30th In the PM I went again in search of fresh water but had no better success than before wherefore I gave over all thoughts of laying the Ship a shore being resolved on spending as little time as possible in a place that was likely to afford us no sort of refreshment   but as I had observed from the hills the Inlet to run a good way in land I thought this a good time to penetrate into the Country to see a little of the inland parts   Accordingly I prepar'd for makeing that excursion in the morning, but the first thing I did in the was to get upon a pritty high hill which is at the NW entrance of the inlet before sunrise in order to take a view of the Sea coast and Islands &Ca that lay off it and to take their bearings, having the Azimuth compass with me for that that purpose the needle of which differd from its true posission some thing very considerable even above 30° in some places more and in others less   for I try'd it in several. I found it differ in from it self above 2 points in the space of 14 feet, the loose stones which lay upon the ground had no effect upon the needle   I therefore concluded that it must be owing to Iron ore in the hill visible signs of which appear'd not only here but in several other places - As soon as I had done here I proceeded up the Inlet  I set out with the first of the flood and long before high-water got about 8 Leagues up it, its breadth thus far was from 2 to 4 or 5 Miles upon a SWBS diretion, but here it spread every way and formd a large lake which communcates with the Sea to the NW.   I not only saw the Sea in this direction but found the tide of flood coming Strong in from the NW. I likewise observed an arm of this lake extending to the eastward and it is not att all improbable but what it communicates with the sea in the bottom of the bay which lies to the westward of C. Townshend   on the south side of the lake is a ridge of pretty high hills which I was desireous of going upon, but as the day was far spent and high-water I was afraid of being bewilderd among the Shoals in the night, which promised to be none of the best being already rainy dirty weather, and therefore I made the best of my way to the Ship.   in this little excursion I saw only two people and those at a distance and are all that we have seen in this place but we have met with several fire places and seen smooks at a distance - This inlet which I have named Thirsty Sound by reason we ^could find no fresh water lies in the Latitude of 22°..05' So and Longitude of 210°..24' West. It may be known by a Group of small Islands laying under the shore from 2 to 5 Leagues NW from it.   there is likewise a nother Group of Islands laying right before it between 3 and 4 Leagues out at Sea - over each of the points that form the entrance is a pretty high round hill that on the NW is a peninsula surrounded by the Sea at high-water, the distance from the one to the other is about two Miles bold to both shores. Here is good anchorage in 7, 6, 5, & 4 fathom water and very convenient places for laying a Ship aShore where at Spring tides the tides doth not flow rise less then 16 or 18 feet and flowes at full and change of the Moon about 11 oClock. We met with no fresh water or any other kind of refreshments whatever, we saw two turtle but caught none nor not [sic] sort of fish or wild fowl except a few small land birds    here are the same sort of water fowl as we saw in BotSting Ray^any Harbour Bay and like them so Shy that it is hardly possible to get within shott of them - No signs of fertillity is to be seen upon the land ^the Soil of the uplands is mostly a hard redish Clay and produceth several sorts of trees such as we have seen ^before and some others and clear of all under wood     all the low lands are mostly over run with Man groves and at spring tides ^I beleive over flowed by the Sea, and I beleive in the rainy seasons here are large land floods   as we saw in many places gullies which seem'd to have been made by torrents of water coming from the adjacent hills     besides other vissible signs of the water having been a considerable height above the common spring tides - Dr Solander and I was upon a rising ground up the Inlet which we thought had at one time or a nother been over flowed by the Sea  and if so great part of the Country must at that time been laid under water - Up in the lakes or Lagoons I suppose are shell fish on which the few natives subsist   We found oysters sticking to most of the rocks upon the Shore which were so small as not to be worth the picking off — Voyaging Accounts © Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 246, 2004 Published by kind permission of the Library To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17700530.html