JULY 1770 LEAVE ENDEAVOUR RIVER 291 



had we looked further we should have found our other 

 trinkets, for they seemed to set no value on anything we 

 had except our turtle, which of all things we were the least 

 able to spare them. 



24tth. While travelling in a deep valley, the sides of 

 which were steep almost as a wall, but covered with trees and 

 plenty of brushwood, we found marking-nuts (Anacardium 

 orientale) lying on the ground. Desirous as we were to 

 find the tree on which they had grown, a thing that I 

 believe no European botanist has seen, we were not with all 

 our pains able to find it, so after cutting down four or five 

 trees, and spending much time, we were obliged to give 

 over our hopes. 



26th. While botanising to-day I had the good fortune to 

 take an animal of the opossum (Didelphis) tribe ; it was a 

 female, and with it I took two young ones. It was not 

 unlike that remarkable one which De Buffon has described 

 by the name of Phalanger as an American animal. It was, 

 however, not the same. M. de Buffon is certainly wrong in 

 asserting that this tribe is peculiar to America, and in all 

 probability, as Pallas has said in his Zoologia, the Phalanger 

 itself is a native of the East Indies, as my animals and that 

 agree in the extraordinary conformation of their feet, in 

 which particular they differ from all the others. 



2*1 th. This day was dedicated to hunting the wild animal. 

 We saw several, and had the good fortune to kill a very 

 large one weighing 84 Ibs. 



28th. Botanising with no kind of success, the plants 

 were now entirely completed, and nothing new to be found, 

 so that sailing is all we wish for, if the wind would but 

 allow us. 



IQth August. Fine weather, so the anchor was got up, 

 and we sailed down to leeward, hoping there might be a 

 passage that way. In this we were much encouraged by 

 the sight of some high islands where we hoped the shoals 

 would end. By twelve we were among these, and fancied 

 that the grand or outer reef ended on one of them, so were 

 all in high spirits ; but about dinner-time the people who 



