DISCOVERY OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA 413 



ance was not favourable enough to induce him to " lose 

 time in beating up to it." On the same day Banks com- 

 pared the country to " the back of a lean cow, covered 

 in general with long hairs, but, nevertheless, where her 

 scraggy hip bones have stuck out further than they ought, 

 accidental rubs and knocks have entirely bared them 

 of their share of covering." On the 28th they tried to 

 land in the yawl at some place near Wollongong, 1 but 

 they were prevented by " the great surf which beat every- 

 where upon the shore." Banks had to be content to 

 " gaze upon the products of nature " in one of the most 

 lovely and fertile regions in Australia. 



Next morning, the 2pth of April, 2 " the land appeared In Botany 

 different, barren, without wood." But "at daylight," writes Bay " 



1 Cf. Historical Records of N.S.W., vol. i. part i. p. 214. Pickersgill 

 writes : " The shore appeared very pleasant, with tall trees, having 

 little or no underwood, and some very fine plains in the woods ; they 

 saw some trees like cabbage-trees, a hut, and two small boats, ill-made." 



2 Dr. Frederick Watson writes in the Sydney Morning Herald, i5th 

 September, 1920 : 



" The accepted date for the landing of Captain Cook at Botany 

 Bay appears in official publications and most histories as April 28, 1770. 

 This is erroneous, the correct date being April 29-. The mistake origi- 

 nated with John Hawkesworth, LL.D., when he edited Cook's voyage 

 in the Endeavour for the British Government (published in 1773), and 

 the mistake has continued ever since. The error has arisen in the 

 following way : 



" In all the log books or journals except one, which were kept on the 

 Endeavour, the landing is described as taking place in the p.m. of 

 Sunday, April 29. These log books and journals, with the one exception, 

 were kept in nautical time, and the p.m. of April 29 in such reckoning 

 corresponded to the afternoon of April 28 civil time. In the one 

 exception, a log book attributed to Charles Green, the astronomer, 

 the landing is described as taking place in the p.m. of April 28. This 

 log is presumably kept in astronomical time, and the p.m. of the 28th 

 would correspond to the afternoon of April 28 civil time. 



"But Captain Cook, before touching on the coast of Australia, had 

 sailed from England, via Cape Horn. In the logs and journals, no 

 allowance was made for the day lost in sailing west across the iSoth 

 meridian of longitude until he arrived at Batavia, when Thursday, 

 October n, 1770, was eliminated from the ship's calendar. 



" The corrected reading of the logs and journals, kept in nautical 

 time, for the day of the landing at Botany Bay should be therefore 

 in the p.m. of Monday, April 30, instead of " Sunday, April 29," and, 

 in the log kept in astronomical time, April 29, instead of April 28. 

 These dates correspond to the afternoon of April 29, 1770, according to 

 the civil method of reckoning time. 



" Similar corrections must be made for most of the accepted dates 



