main, passing between it and two small round islands which lie about two miles to the N.W. of it. The two small islands, which I called Wallis's Islands, lie in the middle of the south-west entrance, and these we left to the southward. Our depth of water in the streight was from four to nine fathom, with every where good anchorage, except upon the bank, which lies two leagues to the northward of Wallis's Islands, where at low water there are but three fathom: For a more particular knowledge of this streight, and of the situations of the several islands and shoals on the eastern coast of New Wales, I refer to the chart where they are delineated with all the accuracy that circumstances would admit; yet, with respect to the shoals, I cannot pretend that one half of them are laid down, nor can it be supposed possible that one half of them should be discovered in the course of a single navigation : Many islands also must have escaped my pencil, especially between latitude 20° and 22o, where we saw islands out at sea as far as an island could be distinguished; it must not therefore be supposed, by future navigators, that where no shoal or island is laid down in my chart, no shoal or island will be found in these seas: It is enough that the situation of those that appear in the chart is faithfully ascertained, and, in general, I have the greatest reason to hope that it will be found as free from error as any that has not been corrected by subsequent and successive observations. The latitudes and longitudes of all, or most of the principal head-lands and bays, may be confided in, for we seldom failed of getting an observation once at least every day, by which to correct the latitude of our reckoning, and observations for settling the longitude were equally numerous, no opportunity that was offered by the sun and moon being suffered to escape. It would be injurious to the memory of Mr Green, not to take this opportunity of attesting that he was indefatigable both in making observations and calculating upon them; and that, by his instructions and assistance, many of the petty officers were enabled both to observe and calculate with great exactness. This method of finding the longitude at sea may be put into universal practice, and may always be depended upon within half a degree, which is sufficient for all nautical purposes. If, therefore, observing and calculating were considered as necessary qualifications for every sea officer, the labours of the speculative theorist to solve this problem

might be remitted, without much injury to mankind : Neither will it be so difficult to acquire this qualification, or put it in practice, as may at first appear; for, with the assistance of the nautical almanack, and astronomical ephemeris, the calculations for finding the longitude will take up little more time than the calculation of an azimuth for find ing the variation of the compass.3

SECTION XXXIII.

Departure from New South Wales; a particular Description of the Country, its Products, and People: A Specimen of the Language, and some Observations upon the Currents and Tides.'

Or this country, its products and its people, many parti culars have already been related in the course of the narra

VOL. XIII.

Y

tive,

3 Reference is made above to Cook's large chart, which of course could not be given here with advantage corresponding to the expence of engraving it. This omission is of less moment, as the chart that accompanies the work is quite sufficient for general readers; and as any additional one that may be afterwards given, must derive much of its value from the labours of Cook. Important aids have been afforded the navigator since the date of this publication; and the two great problems in nautical astronomy, viz. the deducing the longitude from lunar distances, and the latitude from two altitudes of the sun, have been brought within the teach of every one who is in full possession of elementary arithmetic. See a Collection of Tables for those important purposes, by Joseph de Mendoza Rios, published at London, 1805,-an account of which is given in the Edin burgh Review, vol. viii. p. 451.

All these particulars will be more fully illustrated hereafter. The present account is certainly imperfect, but it has its value; and it could not have heen omitted without some disparagement to the original work, and some loss of interest to the reader. It is worth while to possess all the histories, and more especially the original ones, of a country like New Holland, which, its extent, position, and nature, as well as some peculiar contingencies, are likely to render more and more conspicuous in the records of mankind. There is another reason for wishing to retain the account now given, and which would not apply to any equally imperfect one of any other country or people where civilization had made greater progress. Dr Robertson, referring to this very description, says, " This perhaps is the country where man has been discovered in the earliest stage of his progress, and it exhibits a miserable specimen of his condition and powers in the uncultivated state. If this country shall be more fully explored by future navigators, the comparison of the manners of its inhabitants, with those of the Americans, will prove an instructive article in the history of the human species."-Note 33, in the ninth volume of his

works

tive, being so interwoven with the events as not to admit of a separation. I shall now give a more full and circumstantial description of each, in which, if some things should happen to be repeated, the greater part will be found new.

New Holland, or, as I have now called the eastern coast, New South Wales, is of a larger extent than any other country in the known world that does not bear the name of a continent: The length of coast along which we sailed, reduced to a straight line, is no less than twenty-seven degrees of latitude, amounting to near 2000 miles, so that its square surface must be much more than equal to all Europe. To the southward of 35 or 34, the land in general is low and level; farther northward it is hilly, but in no part can be called mountainous; and the hills and mountains, taken together, make but a small part of the surface, in comparison with the vallies and plains. It is, upon the whole, rather barren than fertile, yet the rising ground is chequered by woods and lawns, and the plains and vallies are in many places covered with herbage The soil, however, is frequently sandy, and many of the lawns, or savannahs, are rocky and barren, especially to the northward, where, in the best spots, vegetation was less vigorous than in the southern part of the country; the trees were not so tall, nor was the herbage so rich. The grass in general is high, but thin, and the trees, where they are largest, are seldom less than forty feet asunder; nor is the country inland, as far as we could examine it, better clothed than the sea coast. The banks of the bays are covered with mangroves to the distance of a mile within the beach, under which the soil is a rank mud, that is always overflowed by a spring tide; farther in the country we sometimes met with a bog, upon which the grass was very thick and luxuriant, and sometimes with a valley that was clothed with underwood: The soil in some parts seemed to be capable of improvement, but the far greater part is such as can admit of no cultivation. The coast, at least that part of it which lies to the northward of 25° S., abounds with fine bays and harbours, where vessels may lie in perfect security from all winds.

If

works. What was held as a desideratum by this historian, has been accomplished in so far as additional materials are concerned: How far it has been so in a philosophical point of view, may be afterwards considered.

-E.

If we may judge by the appearance of the country while we were there, which was in the very height of the dry season, it is well watered. We found innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers; these brooks, however, probably become large in the rainy season. Thirsty Sound was the only place where fresh water was not to be procured for the ship, and even there, one or two small pools were found in the woods, though the face of the country was every where intersected by salt-creeks and mangrove-land.

Of trees there is no great variety. Of those that could be called timber, there are but two sorts; the largest is the gum-tree, which grows all over the country, and has been mentioned already: It has narrow leaves, not much unlike a willow; and the gum, or rather resin, which it yields, is of a deep red, and resembles the sanguis draconis; possibly it may be the same, for this substance is known to be the produce of more than one plant. It is mentioned by Dampier, and is perhaps the same that Tasman found upon Diemen's Land, where he says he saw "gum of the trees, and gum lac of the ground." The other timber tree is that which grows somewhat like our pines, and has been particularly mentioned in the account of Botany Bay. The wood of both these trees, as I have before remarked, is extremely hard and heavy. Besides these, here are trees covered with a soft bark that is easily peeled off, and is the same that in the East Indies is used for the caulking of ships.

We found here the palm of three different sorts. The first, which grows in great plenty to the southward, has leaves that are plaited like a fan: The cabbage of these is small, but exquisitely sweet; and the nuts, which it bears in great abundance, are very good food for hogs. The second sort bore a much greater resemblance to the true cabbage-tree of the West Indies: Its leaves were large and pinnated, like those of the cocoa-nut; and these also produced a cabbage, which, though not so sweet as the other, was much larger. The third sort, which, like the second, was found only in the northern parts, was seldom more than ten feet high, with small pinnated leaves, resembling those of some kind of fern: It bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts, about the size of a large chesnut, but rounder. As we found the hulls of these scattered round the places where the Indians had made their fires,

we

we took for granted that they were fit to eat; those however who made the experiment paid dear for their knowedge of the contrary, for they operated both as an emetic and cathartic with great violence. Still, however, we made no doubt but that they were eaten by the Indians; and judging that the constitution of the hogs might be as strong as theirs, though our own had proved to be so much inferior, we carried them to the stye: The hogs eat them, indeed, and for some time we thought without suffering any inconvenience; but in about a week they were so much disordered that two of them died, and the rest were recovered with great difficulty. It is probable, however, that the poisonous quality of these nuts may lie in the juice, like that of the cassada of the West Indies; and that the pulp, when dried, may be not only wholesome, but nutricious. Besides these species of the palm, and mangroves, there were several small trees and shrubs altogether unknown in Europe; particularly one which produced a very poor kind of fig; another that bore what we called a plum, which it resembled in colour, but not in shape, being flat on the sides like a little cheese; and a third that bore a kind of purple apple, which, after it had been kept a few days, became eatable, and tasted somewhat like a da

mascene.

Here is a great variety of plants to enrich the collection of a botanist, but very few of them are of the esculent kind. A small plant, with long, narrow, grassy leaves, resembling that kind of bulrush which in England is called the Cat's-tail, yields a resin of a bright yellow colour, exactly resembling gambouge, except that it does not stain : It has a sweet smell, but its properties we had no opportu nity to discover, any more than those of many others with which the natives appear to be acquainted, as they have distinguished them by names.

I have already mentioned the root and leaves of a plant resembling the coccos of the West Indies, and a kind of bean; to which may be added, a sort of parsley and purselain, and two kinds of yams; one shaped like a radish, and the other round, and covered with stringy fibres: Both sorts are very small, but sweet; and we never could find the plants that produced them, though we often saw the places where they had been newly dug up: It is probable

that