Table of Contents
On this day ...
23 - 31 October 1769
Endeavour Voyage Maps
Picturesque views on the coast
Most of the rocks, which are many on the sea shore, are composed of a sandy stone, through which the surf had worn several passages. One of them, in particular, was very romantic, it had the appearance of a large arch which led from the sea-side into the vallies, and through it ran a stream of water. The whole formed a very uncommon view, [see pl. XX.] peculiarly striking to a curious spectator.
From the view which we had of the coast, and the observations made, we might judge that the country is well situated, naturally fertile, and capable of great improvement by cultivation, especially as the climate is distinguishably mild and favourable.
We had clear and fair weather all the time we were upon the coast, excepting one day, and, though the weather was hot, yet it seemed, by what we observed, that a sea breeze constantly set in about eleven oclock in the forenoon, which moderated it.
On the 30th, having obtained a sufficient quantity of wood and water, we left the bay, and, sailing along the coast, about noon came up with a point of land be-fore an island: this point we called East Cape; and the island. East Island, from which the land altered its direction, and tended away to the west. This day the land appeared to us considerably higher than the rest. It was divided by fine deep valleys, and had all the appearance of a rich fertile country, being cloathed with large verdant trees, had some parcels of ground cultivated, and several rivulets among them which lost themselves in the sea. We could also discover several villages, which seemed to have been fenced in by art. We passed a bay which we called Hickss Bay, after our first lieutenant.
On the 31st, we sailed along the coast, and had light breezes, and pleasant weather. In the forenoon seven canoes came off to us in a hostile manner, bran-dishing their lances, and waving their paddles. One of these canoes was very large, and had between fifty and sixty people in her; some of them gave us an heivo; and one of them, a priest, as we supposed, talked very much. They kept pad-dling about us, calling out to us Kaka kee, no Tootwais, harre yoota patta pattoo; that is to say, if we would go on shore they would beat us with their patta pattoos; and, being apprehensive that if we suffered them to approach nearer to us, we might be obliged to offer violence to them, the captain ordered a gun, loaded with grape-shot, to be fired over their heads, the report of which terrified them so much, that they paddled away till they had got, as they supposed, out of our reach, and then they stopped, and held a consultation; after which they seemed as if they intended to return, and we fired another gun loaded with ball, and then they made as fast as possible to the shore. These were the same sort of people, and their canoes of the same kind with those we had seen before. Being at this time off a cape, we named it, from the hasty retreat of the natives, Cape Run-away. This day we discovered land to the N. E. of us.
© Derived from the London 1773 edition printed for Stanfield Parkinson, pages 100 - 99, 2004
Published by South Seas, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
To cite this page use: http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-ss-jrnl-parkinson-139