Early the next morning I went ashore, with a party of men, in order to examine the country, accompanied by Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, the other gentlemen, and Tupia: the wind blew fresh, and we found it so cold, that being at some distance from the shore, we took our cloaks as a necessary equipment for the voyage. We landed a little within the south point of the bay, where we found a channel leading into a large lagoon: this channel I proceeded to examine, and found three fathom water till I got about a mile up it, where I met with a shoal, upon which there was little more than one fathom, but having passed over it, I had three fathom again. The entrance of this channel lies close to the south point of the bay, being formed by the shore on the east, and on the west by a large spit of sand: it is about a quarter of a mile broad, and lies in S. by W. In this place there is room for a few ships to lie in great security, and a small stream of fresh water; I would have rowed into the lagoon, but was prevented by shallows. We found several bogs, and swamps of salt water, upon which, and by the sides of the lagoon, grows the true mangrove, such as is found in the West Indies, and the first of the kind that we had met with. In the branches of these mangroves there were many nests of a remarkable kind of ant, that was as green as grass: when the branches were disturbed they came out in great numbers, and punished the offender by a much sharper bite than ever we had felt from the same kind of animal before. Upon these mangroves also we saw small green caterpillars in great numbers: their bodies were thick set with hairs, and they were ranged upon the leaves side by side like a file of soldiers, to the number of twenty or thirty together: when we touched them, we found that the hair on their bodies had the quality of a nettle, and gave us a much more acute, though less durable pain. The country here is manifestly worse than about Botany Bay: the soil is dry and sandy, but the sides of the hills are covered with trees, which grow separately, without underwood. We found here the tree that yields a gum like the Sanguis draconis; but it is somewhat different from the trees of the same kind which we had seen before, for the leaves are longer, and hang down like those of the weeping willow. We found also much less gum upon them, which is contrary to the established opinion, that the hotter the climate, the more gums exude. Upon a plant also, which yielded a yellow gum, there was less than upon the same kind of plant in Botany Bay. Among the shoals and sand-banks we saw many large birds, some in particular of the same kind that we had seen in Botany Bay, much bigger than swans, which we judged to be pelicans; but they were so shy that we could not get within gun-shot of them. Upon the shore we saw a species of the bustard, one of which we shot, it was as large as a turkey, and weighed seventeen pounds and an half. We all agreed that this was the best bird we had eaten since we left England; and in honour of it we called this inlet BUSTARD BAY. It lies in latitude 24° 4’, longitude 208° 18’. The sea seemed to abound with fish; but, unhappily, we tore our seine all to pieces at the first haul: upon the mud-banks, under the mangroves, we found innumerable oysters of various kinds; among others the hammer-oyster, and a large proportion of small pearl-oysters: if in deeper water there is equal plenty of such oysters at their full growth, a pearl fishery might certainly be established here to very great advantage.

Voyaging Accounts