On this day ...
4 May 1770
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 Run from New Zealand to Botany Bay
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The next morning, as the wind would not permit me to sail, I sent out several parties into the country to try again whether some intercourse could not be established with the natives. A midshipman who belonged to one of these parties, having straggled a long way from his companions, met with a very old man and woman, and some little children; they were sitting under a tree by the water side, and neither party saw the other till they were close together: the Indians showed signs of fear, but did not attempt to run away. The man happened to have nothing to give them but a parrot that he had shot; this he offered, but they refused to accept it, withdrawing themselves from his hand either through fear or aversion. His stay with them was but short, for he saw several canoes near the beach fishing, and being alone, he feared they might come ashore and attack him: he said, that these people were very dark coloured, but not black; that the man and woman appeared to be very old, being both grey-headed; that the hair of the man’s head was bushy, and his beard long and rough; that the woman’s hair was cropped short, and both of them were stark naked. Mr. Monkhouse the Surgeon, and one of the men, who were with another party near the watering-place, also strayed from their companions, and as they were coming out of a thicket observed six Indians standing together, at the distance of about fifty yards. One of them pronounced a word very loud, which was supposed to be a signal, for a lance was immediately thrown at him out of the wood, which very narrowly missed him. When the Indians saw that the weapon had not taken effect, they ran away with the greatest precipitation; but on turning about towards the place whence the lance had been thrown, he saw a young Indian, whom he judged to be about nineteen or twenty years old, come down from a tree, and he also ran away with such speed as made it hopeless to follow him. Mr. Monkhouse was of opinion that he had been watched by these Indians in his passage through the thicket, and that the youth had been stationed in the tree, to discharge the lance at him, upon a signal as he should come by; but however this be, there could be no doubt but that he was the person who threw the lance.
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© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 502 - 503, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/502.html