On this day ...
5 November 1769
Endeavour Voyage Maps
James Cook's Journal Ms 1, National Library of Australia
Transcript of Cook's Journal
Joseph Banks's Journal
Sydney Parkinson's Journal
The Range from Tolaga to Mercury Bay
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After the natives had left us, I went with the pinnace and long-boat into the river with a design to haul the seine, and sent the Master in the yawl to sound the bay and dredge for fish. The Indians who were on one side of the river, expressed their friendship by all the signs they could devise, beckoning us to land among them; but we chose to go ashore on the other side, as the situation was more convenient for hauling the seine and shooting birds, of which we saw great numbers of various kinds: the Indians with much persuasion, about noon, ventured over to us. With the seine we had very little success, catching only a few mullets, neither did we get any thing by the trawl or the dredge, except a few shells; but we shot several birds, most of them resembling sea-pies, except that they had black plumage, and red bills and feet. While we were absent with our guns, the people who staid by the boats saw two of the Indians quarrel and fight: they began the battle with their lances, but some old men interposed and took them away, leaving them to decide the difference, like Englishmen, with their fists: they boxed with great vigour and obstinacy for some time, but by degrees all retired behind a little hill, so that our people could not see the event of the combat.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 333 - 334, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/333.html