1773.
March.
siderable extent, so that our boat ran aground several times. Ducks, shags, black oyster-catchers, and some sorts of plovers were very numerous here. At our return we visited the canoe again, added a hatchet to the other presents which we had left before, and to shew the use of it, we cut several chips out of a tree, and left it sticking there. No natives appeared this second time, though we imagined they could not be far off, as we thought we could smell the smoke of a fire. However, captain Cook desisted at present from searching in the woods, since they purposely avoided us, and choosing to leave it to time and their own free will to cultivate an intercourse with us, he returned on board late in the evening.Monday 29.
Heavy showers of rain fell all the next morning, but intermitted in the afternoon, giving us an opportunity of going into the woods above our cove, where the rains had so thoroughly soaked the soil, that together with the other impediments in walking in this country, the prodigious slipperiness rendered our excursion laborious and fatiguing. We met however with a few plants, which still shewed some late blossoms, notwithstanding the advanced season; but we were at the same time greatly tantalized by the appearance of numerous trees and shrubs, which had already lost their flowers and fruits, and only served to give us an idea of the great profusion of new vegetables in this country.
The
