90 cook's first voyage may, 



found also crows here, exactly the same with those 

 in England. About the head of the harbour, where 

 there are large flats of sand and mud, there is great 

 plenty of water-fowl, most of which were altogether 

 unknown to us ; one of the most remarkable was 

 black and white, much larger than a swan, and in 

 shape somewhat resembling a pelican. On these 

 banks of sand and mud there are great quantities 

 of oysters, muscles, cockles, and other shell-fish, 

 which seem to be the principal subsistence of the in- 

 habitants, who go into shoal water with their little 

 canoes, and pick them out with their hands. We 

 did not observe that they eat any of them raw, nor 

 do they always go on shore to dress them, for they 

 have frequently fires in their canoes for that purpose. 

 They do not, however, subsist wholly upon this food, 

 for they catch a variety of other fish, some of which 

 they strike with gigs, and some they take with hook 

 and line. All the inhabitants that we saw were stark 

 naked ; they did not appear to be numerous, nor to 

 live in societies, but, like other animals, were scat- 

 tered about along the coast, and in the woods. Of 

 their manner of life, however, we could know but 

 little, as we were never able toform the least connection 

 with them: after the first contest at our landing, they 

 would never come near enough to parley; nor did they 

 touch a single article of all that we had left at their 

 huts, and the places they frequented, on purpose for 

 them to take awa}^. 



During my stay in this harbour I caused the Eng- 

 lish colours to be displayed on shore every day, and 

 the ship's name, and the date of the year, to be in- 

 scribed upon one of the trees near the watering-place. 



It is high-water here at the full and change of the 

 moon about eight o'clock, and the tide rises and falls 

 perpendicularly between four and Hve feet. 



