284 AUSTRALIA CHAP, xn 



place; so this discovery added but little comfort to our 

 situation. The crew of the pinnace had, on their return, 

 landed on a dry reef, where they found great plenty of shell- 

 fish, so that the boat was completely loaded, chiefly with a 

 large kind of cockle (Chama gigas), one of which was more 

 than two men could eat ; many, indeed, were larger. The 

 coxswain of the boat, a little man, declared that he saw on 

 the reef a dead shell of one so large that he got into it, and 

 it fairly held him. At night the ship floated and was hauled 

 off. An alligator was seen swimming alongside of her for 

 some tune. As I was crossing the harbour in my small 

 boat, we saw many shoals of garfish leaping high out of the 

 water, some of which leaped into the boat and were taken. 



5th. Went to the other side of the harbour, and walked 

 along a sandy beach open to the trade-wind. Here I found 

 innumerable fruits, many of plants I had not seen in this 

 country. Among them were some cocoanuts that had been 

 opened (as Tupia told us) by a kind of crab called by the 

 Dutch Boers krabba (Cancer latro) that feeds upon them. 

 All these fruits were incrusted with sea productions, and 

 many of them covered with barnacles, a sure sign that they 

 have come far by sea, and as the trade-wind blows almost 

 right on shore must have come from some other country, 

 probably that discovered by Quiros, and called Terra del 

 Espiritu Santo [New Hebrides], as the latitudes according to 

 his account agree pretty well with ours here. 



6th. Set out to-day with the second lieutenant, resolved 

 to go a good way up the river, and see if the country inland 

 differed from that near the shore. We went for about three 

 leagues among mangroves : then we got into the country, 

 which differed very little from what we had already seen. 

 The river higher up contracted much, and lost most of its 

 mangroves : the banks were steep and covered with trees of 

 a beautiful verdure, particularly what is called in the West 

 Indies mohoe or bark-tree (Hibiscus tiliaceus). The land was 

 generally low, thickly covered with long grass, and seemed 

 to promise great fertility, were the people to plant and 

 improve it. In the course of the day Tupia saw a wolf, so 



