l.ATE ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, ESQ. 249 



I'he dai'k forests on the river abound with the lied Cedar 

 and Bosewood of large dimensions." 



On the 21st, they sailed from Port Macquarie to the 

 northward. On the 30th, Captain King anchored in Rodd's 

 bay, on the shores of which Mr Cunningham detected many 

 plants that he had observed on the north coast in the last 

 voyage; but which had been originally detected in the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria and elsewhere, by Mr Brown. On the 3d 

 of June, the Mermaid anchored under one of the Percy Isles. 

 At Cleveland Bay, where they arrived on the 1 4th, Mr 

 Cunningham made some further collections, and goes on to 

 mention that — " On Palm Island, in Halifax bay, and more 

 particularly on the islands in Rockingham Bay, I noticed plants 

 common to both Indies, viz., Sophora tomentosa, Guilandma 

 Bonduc, Sfc.f and a beautiful purple-flowering Melastoma, {M. 

 Banksii,) a genus that I was not aware existed in Terra Aus- 

 tralis." On the 27th, after an intricate and somewhat peril- 

 ous navigation among the innumerable reefs that line the east- 

 ern coast of New Holland, they reached Endeavour River; 

 anchoring, in all probability, on the very same spot where 

 Captain Cook and Sir Joseph Banks had done so, forty- 

 nine years ago. Of Endeavour River, Mr Cunningham ob- 

 serves — " Our protracted detention, till the 12th of July, at 

 this memorable part of the eastern coast of New Holland, 

 was occasioned by a temporary loss we had previously suffer- 

 ed off the cloud-capt mountainous land of Cape Tribulation, 

 by the swamping of one of our most serviceable whale-boats, 

 which we replaced by building another from the frame of a 

 spare boat we had on board. Thus the convenient south 

 shore of Endeavour River, which most probably has never 

 been visited since the departure of Captain Cook, in 1770, 

 has been a second time converted into a temporary dock- 

 yard. Here was a period of fourteen days that might have 

 been wholly at my disposal, had it not been for the annoy- 

 ances experienced from the provvling natives, who made a 

 rather determined, but unsuccessful attack, upon the boat- 

 builders, &c., on shore, whilst I was at some distance from 



Vol. IV.— No. 29. 2 I 



