1773.
April.
one of the boat's gang-boards, washed clean, answered the several purposes of a table, of dishes, and plates; and our fingers and teeth did yeoman's service, instead of knives and forks. A keen appetite, procured by strong exercise, and excited by the sharp air of the country, soon taught us to overcome the ideas of indelicacy, which civilized nations connect with this way of living; and we never so strongly felt how little is wanting to satisfy the cravings of the stomach, and to support the existence of human beings, as on these occasions. After supper we listened a while to the original comic vein of our boat's crew, who huddled round the fire, made their meal, and recited a number of droll stories, intermixed with hearty curses, oaths, and indecent expressions, but seldom without real humour. Then strewing our tent with heaps of fern leaves, and wrapping ourselves in our boat-cloaks, with our guns and shooting-bags for our pillows, we composed ourselves to sleep.
At day-break Captain Cook and my father, with two men, went in a small boat to take a view of the head of the cove, where they saw some flat land. They went on shore upon it at one corner, and ordered the boat to meet them at the opposite point. They had not walked a great way before they saw some wild-ducks, and, by creeping through the bushes, came near enough to fire and kill one of them. The moment they had fired they heard a hideous shout of several loud and piercing voices round aboutthem