CAPTAIN COOK. 



33 



narrative says nothing about it, that such a circumstance as this was not allowed to 

 pass without the usual festivities, and it is not difficult to hear in fancy the rattle 

 of the royal salute from the muskets of the marines; thus awakening, and probably 

 for the first time, the echoes of a silent Continent. 



At day-break on the 6th of May, 1770, the Endeavour sailed out of Botany Bay, 

 and while passing northward along the coast, sighted a small opening which appeared 



to be the entrance to a 

 large harbour. To this 

 Cook gave the name of 

 Port Jackson, in honour 

 of his friend Sir George 

 Jackson, the Secretary 

 to the Admiralty ; but 

 he kept on his course, 

 and thus again missed 

 the opportunity of add- 

 ing to his fame by a 

 report of the discovery 

 of one of the finest and 

 most commodious har- 

 bours in the world. Soon 

 afterwards another break 

 in the rocks was noted, 

 and this Cook judged to 

 be the entrance to a 

 small inlet, which he 

 called Broken Bay. Pur- 

 suing his course northward, and not having time to examine the various indentations along 

 the coast, and merely setting down the general trend of the land, he sailed past high shores 

 of rolling hills, verdant to the very top with dark-foliaged trees, and sighted Smoky Cape 







so named from the smoke of the natives' fires upon it ; the next prominent head- 

 land, Cape Byron, was called after the distinguished circumnavigator, who was at that time 

 an admiral, and Governor of Newfoundland ; at Point Danger the Endeavour experienced 

 a somewhat narrow escape from disaster ; and so the process of discovery and naming 

 after an old-world place or friend, a high authority, some incident of the voyage or 

 natural feature that came under the navigator's notice, went on daily. 



Without knowing it to be insular, Cook passed the long stretch of miserable sand- 



AUSTRALIAN BIRDS AND FISH. 



