1779. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 101 



them, could judge of it only by their feelings; which, 

 from the warm atmosphere they had left, must have 

 been a very fallacious measure. They found it, how- 

 ever, so cold that they could get but little sleep, and 

 and the natives none at all; both parties being 

 disturbed the whole night by continued coughing. 

 As they could not at this time be at any very con- 

 siderable height, the distance from the sea being 

 only six or seven miles, and part of the road on a 

 very moderate ascent, this extraordinary degree of 

 cold must be ascribed to the easterly wind blowing 

 fresh over the snowy mountains. 



Early on the 27th they set out again, and filled 

 their calibashes at an excellent well, about half a 

 mile from their hut. Having passed the plantations, 

 they came to a thick wood, which they entered by a 

 path made for the convenience of the natives, who go 

 thither to fetch the wild or horse plantain, and to 

 catch birds. Their progress now became very slow, 

 and attended with much labour ; the ground being 

 either swampy, or covered with large stones; the 

 path narrow, and frequently interrupted by trees 

 lying across it, which it was necessary to climb over, 

 the thickness of the under-wood on both sides mak- 

 ing it impossible to pass round them. In these woods 

 they observed, at small distances, pieces of white 

 cloth fixed on poles, which they supposed to be land- 

 marks for the division of property, as they only met 

 with them where the wild plantains grew. The trees, 

 which are of the same kind with those we called the 

 spice-tree at New Holland, were lofty and straight, 

 and from two to four feet in circumference. 



After they had advanced about ten miles in the 

 wood, they had the mortification to find themselves 

 on a sudden within sight of the sea, and at no great 

 distance from it; the path having turned impercep- 

 tibly to the southward, and carried them to the right 

 of the mountain, which it was their object to reach. 

 Their disappointment was greatly increased by the 



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