234 cook's first voyage SEPT. 



wind, at a time when we knew the south-east mon- 

 soon to be nearly at an end, we began to be im- 

 patient of farther delay, and determined to run the 

 ship in as near to the shore as possible, and then 

 land with the pinnace, while she kept plying off and 

 on, to examine the produce of the country, and the 

 disposition of the inhabitants. For the two last days 

 we had early in the morning a light breeze from the 

 shore, which was strongly impregnated with the fra- 

 grance of the trees, shrubs, and herbage that cover- 

 ed it, the smell being something like that of Gum 

 Benjamin. On the 3d of September, at day-break, 

 we saw the land extending from N. by E. to S. E., 

 at about four leagues distance, and we then kept 

 standing in for it with a fresh gale at E. S. E. and 

 E. by S. till nine o'clock, when being within about 

 three or four miles of it, and in three fathom water, 

 we brought to. The pinnace being hoisted out, I 

 set off from the ship with the boat's crew, accom- 

 panied by Mr. Banks, who also took his servants, 

 and Dr. Solander, being in all twelve persons well 

 armed ; w r e rowed directly towards the shore, but 

 the water was so shallow that we could not reach it 

 by about two hundred yards : we waded, however, 

 the rest of the way, having left two of the seamen 

 to take care of the boat. Hitherto we had seen no 

 signs of inhabitants at this place ; but as soon as we 

 got ashore we discovered the prints of human feet, 

 which could not long have been impressed upon the 

 sand, as they were below high water mark : we 

 therefore concluded that the people were at no great 

 distance, and, as a thick wood came down within a 

 hundred yards of the water, we thought it necessary 

 to proceed with caution, lest we should fall 1 into an 

 ambuscade and our retreat to the boat be cut off. 

 We walked along the skirts of the wood, and at the 

 distance of about two hundred yards from the place 

 where we landed, we came to a grove of cocoa-nut 

 trees, which stood upon the banks of a little brook 



