100 cook's first voyage may, 



patches of many acres, were moveable, and that some 

 of them had not been long in the place they pos- 

 sessed ; for we saw in several parts trees half buried, 

 the tops of which were still green ; and in others, 

 the naked trunks of such as the sand had surrounded 

 long enough to destroy. In other places the woods 

 appeared to be low and shrubby, and we saw no signs 

 of inhabitants. Two water-snakes swam by the ship : 

 they were beautifully spotted, and in every respect 

 like land snakes, except that their tails were broad 

 and flat, probably to serve them instead of fins in 

 swimming. In the morning of this day the variation 

 was 8 20' E., and in the evening 8 36'. During the 

 night we continued our course to the northward, 

 with a light breeze from the land, being distant from 

 it between two and three leagues, and having from 

 twenty-three to twenty-seven fathom, with a fine 

 sandy bottom. 



At noon, on the 19th, we were about four miles 

 from the land, with only thirteen fathom. Our lati- 

 tude was 25 4', and the northernmost land in sight 

 bore N. 21 W., distant eight miles. At one o'clock, 

 being still four miles distant from the shore, but 

 having seventeen fathom water, we passed a black 

 bluff head, or point of land, upon which a great 

 number of the natives were assembled, and which 

 therefore 1 called Indian Head : it lies in lati- 

 tude $5 S'. About four miles N. by W. of this 

 this head is another very like it, from whence the 

 land trends away somewhat more to the westward : 

 next to the sea it is low and sandy, and behind it 

 nothing was to be seen, even from the mast-head. 

 Near Indian Head we saw more of the natives, and 

 upon the neighbouring shore fires by night, and 

 smoke by day. We kept to the northward all night, 

 at the distance of from four miles to four leagues 

 from the shore, and with a depth of water from 

 seventeen to thirty-four fathom. At day-break, the 

 northernmost land bore from us W. S. W., and seemed 



