1773. ROUND THE WORLD. 243 



again, and brought with them a quantity of fish, 

 which they exchanged for two hatchets. 



Fair weather on the 12th enabled us to finish pick- 

 ing, airing, and baking our biscuit ; four thousand 

 two hundred and ninety-two pounds of which we 

 found totally unfit to eat ; and about three thousand 

 pounds more could only be eaten by people in our 

 situation. 



On the 13th, clear and pleasant weather. Early 

 in the morning the natives brought us a quantity of 

 fish, which they exchanged as usual. But their 

 greatest branch of trade was the green talc or stone, 

 called by them Poenammoo, a thing of no great value; 

 nevertheless, it was so much sought after by our 

 people, that there was hardly a thing they would not 

 give for a piece of it. 



The 15th, being a pleasant morning, a party of us 

 went over to the East Bay, and climbed one of the 

 hills which overlooked the eastern part of the strait, 

 in order to look for the Adventure. We had a fa- 

 tiguing walk to little purpose ; for when we came to 

 the summit, we found the eastern horizon so foggy, 

 that we could not see above two miles. Mr. Forster, 

 who was one of the party, profited by this excursion, 

 in collecting some new plants. I now began to 

 despair of seeing the Adventure any more, but was 

 totally at a loss to conceive what was become of her. 

 Till now, I thought she had put into some port in 

 the strait, when the wind came to north-west the day 

 we anchored in the cove, and waited to complete her 

 water. This conjecture was reasonable enough at 

 first, but it was now hardly probable she could be 

 twelve days in our neighbourhood, without our either 

 hearing or seeing something of her. 



The hill we now mounted is the same that I was 

 upon in 1770, when 1 had the second view of the 

 strait : we then built a tower with the stones we 

 found there, which we now saw had been levelled to 

 the ground, no doubt by the natives, with a view of 



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