1769. ROUND THE WORLD. 331 



On the eleventh, there was so much wind and 

 rain that no canoe came off; but the long-boat was 

 sent to fetch oysters from one of the beds which had 

 been discovered the day before: the boat soon re- 

 turned, deeply laden, and the oysters, which were 

 as good as ever came from Colchester, and about the 

 same size, were laid down under the booms, and the 

 ship's company did nothing but eat them from the 

 time they came on board till night, when, as may 

 reasonably be supposed, great part of them were ex- 

 pended ; this, however, gave us no concern, as we 

 knew that not the boat only, but the ship, might 

 have been loaded, almost in one tide, as the beds are 

 dry at half ebb. 



In the morning of Sunday the 12th, two canoes 

 came off full of people whom we had never seen be- 

 fore, but who appeared to have heard of us by the 

 caution which they used in approaching us. As we 

 invited them to come alongside with all the tokens of 

 friendship that we could show, they ventured up, 

 and two of them came on board; the rest traded very 

 fairly for what they had : a small canoe also came 

 from the other side of the bay, and sold us some very 

 large fish, which they gave us to understand they 

 w^ould have brought yesterday, having caught them 

 the day before, but that the wind was so high they 

 could not venture to sea. 



After breakfast, I went with the pinnace and 

 yawl, accompanied by Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, 

 over to the north side of the bay, to take a view of 

 the country, and two fortified villages which we had 

 discovered at a distance. We landed near the smallest 

 of them, the situation of which was the most beauti- 

 fully romantic that can be imagined ; it was built 

 upon a small rock, detached from the main, and 

 surrounded at high water. The whole body of this 

 rock was perforated by an hollow or arch, which pos- 

 sessed much the largest part of it; the top of the 

 arch was above sixty feet perpendicular above the 



