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3 September 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
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3 September 1770
MONDAY 3rd. Steer'd NBE with a fresh breeze at EBN untill 7 oClock in the evening when the wind came to SEBS, with which we kept standing to the Eastward close upon a wind all night having from 17 to 10 fathom Water pretty even soundings At Day light we saw the Land extending from NBE to SE, distant about 4 Leagues. We still kept stand[in]g in for the land having the advantage of a fresh gale at ESE and EBS untill near 9 oClock when being about 3 or 4 Miles from ^off the land and in 3 fathom water we brought too and I went a shore in the Pinnace accompaned by Mr Banks and Dr Solander having a mind to land once in this Country before we quit it altogether which I now ^am determined to do without delay for I found that it was ^is only spending time to little purpose ^and carrying us far out of our way staying upon ^this coast which is so shallow that we can hardly keep within sight of land. At the time we put off from the Ship we saw not the least sign of Inhabitants, but we had no sooner landed than we saw the print of Mens feet fresh upon the Sand and a little way farther we found a small shade or hutt about which lay green shells of Co coa-nutts by this we were well assured that the Inhabitants were not far off Nay we thought we heard their Voices in the woods which were so close and thick that we did not think it safe to venture in for fear of an ambuscade as we had only a boats crew with us apart of which was left to look after the boat which lay above a 1/4 of a Mile from the shore, we therefore took a walk along the Sea beach but had not gone above 200 Yards before we were attacked by 3 or 4 Men who came out of the woods alittle before us but upon our immidiatly fireing upon them they retired; finding that we could not search the Country with any degree of safety, we returnd to the boat and was follow'd by 60 or as some thought about 100 of the natives who had advance'd in small parties out of the woods but they suffer'd us to go to our boat without giving us any trouble, we had now time to View them Attentively, we thought them to be about the Size and Colour of the New-Hollanders with short crop'd hair and quite naked like them - I thought these of a lighter Colour but that might be owing to a whitish Pigment ^with which we thought their bodies were painted because some appear'd darker than others, their Arms were ordinary darts about 4 feet long made of a kind of Reed and pointd at one end with hard wood; but what appear'd most extraordinary to us was something they had which caused a flash of fire or smook very much like the going off of a Pistol or sml Gun but without any report, the deception was so great that the People in the Ship actualy thought that they had fire arms, indeed they seem'd to use these things in imitation of such for the moment the first man we saw made his appearence he fired off one of these things and while we lay looking at them in the boat, 4 or 5 would let them off all at once which had all the appearences in the world of Volleys of Small Arms, but I am confident that nothing came from them but smook, but by what means this was done or what purpose it answer'd we were not able to guess I thought the Combustible matter was containd in a Reed or peice of small Bamboo which they gave a swing round in the hand and caused it to go off. This place lies in the Latitude of 6°..15' St, about 65 Leagues to the N.E of Pt S. Augustino or Walsche Caep, and is near to what is call'd in the Charts ^by the long name of C. de la Colta de Sa Bonaventura. The land is very low like every other part of the Coast we have seen, here it is thick and Luxuriously cloathed with Woods and Verdure all of which appear green and flourishing; here were Cocoa-nutt Trees, Bread fruit Trees and Plantain trees, but we saw no fruit but on the former and these were small and green; the other trees, shrubs, plants &Ca were ^like wise such as is common in the South-Sea Islands and in New-Holland. Upon my return to the Ship we hoisted in the boat and made sail to the Westward with a design to leave the Coast altogether to the no small satisfaction of I beleive the Major part of ye Ships company^ this however ^it was contrary to the inclination and opinion of some of the officers who would have had me send a party of men a shore to cut down the Cocoa-nutt Trees for the sake of the Nutts a thing that I think no man leiving could have justified, for as the Natives had attack'd us for meer land^ing without takeing away any one thing, certainly they would have made a vigorous effort to have defended their property in which case many of them must have been kill'd and perhaps some of our own people too and all this for 2 o[r] 300 green Cocoa-nutts which when we had got them would have done us little service ^besides nothing but the u[t]most necessity would have oblige'd me to have taken this Method to come at refreshments — its true I might have proceeded farther a long the Coast to the northward and westward untill we had found a place where the Ship could lay so near the shore as to cover the people with her guns when landed but it is very probable that before we had found such a place - we should have been carried so far to the West as to have been obliged to have gone to Batavi by the way of the Moluccas ^and on the North side of Java where we were all utter strangers this I did not think was so Safe a Passage —— as to go to the South of Java and through the Straights of Sunda - the way I propose to my self to go; besides as the ship is leaky we are not yet sure whether or no we shall not be obliged to heave her down at Batavi, in this case it be comes the more necessary that we should make the best of our way to that place, especially as no new discovery can be expected to be made in those seas which the Dutch have I beleive long ago narrowly examined, as appears from ^3 Maps bound up with the French History of Voyages to the Terra Australis, published in 1756, which Maps I do suppose by some means have been got from the Dutch as we find the names of many of the places are in that Language. It should likewise seem from the same Maps that the Spaniards and Dutch have at one time or a nother circumnavigated the whole of the Island of New Guinea as the most of the names are in these two Languages, and such part of the Coast as we have been ^were upon I fo^und the Chart tolerable good which obliges me to give some Credit to all the rest notwithstanding we neither know by whome or when they were taken, and I allways understood before I had a sight of these Maps that it was unknown whether or no New-Holland and New-Guinea was not one continued land, and so it is a said in the very History of Voyages these Maps are bou^ntd up in; however we have now put this wholy out of dispute but as I beleive it was known before tho' not publickly I clame no other merit than the clearing up of a doubtfull point. A nother doubtfull point I should liked to have clear'd up ^altho it is of very little if of any concequence which is whether or no the Natives of New-Holland and those of New-Guinea are or were original one People which one might well suppose as these two Countries lay so near to each other and the intermediate space fill'd up with Islands on the other hand if these Two People have or ever had any ^friendly communication with each other it seems strange ^as I have before observed that they should not have transplanted from New-Guinea over to New Holland, Cocoa-nutts. Bread fruit, Plantains &Ca &Ca ^all very usefull Articles for the support of man that we never saw grow in the latter and which we have now seen in the former La Maire hath given us a Vocabulary of words spoke by the people of New-Brittain / which before Dampiers time was taken to be a part of New Guinea / by which it appears that the people of New-brittain speak a very different Language from those of New-Holland. Now should it be found that the Natives of New-Holland Britain and those of New Guiney have had one Origin and speake the same Language, it will follow of Course that the New-Hollanders are a different people from both —
© Transcription by Paul Turnbull of National Library of Australia, Manuscript 1 page 306, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/cook/17700903.html
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