464 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



by the new jungle. They used the trees to brew a beer 

 which Cook praised highly; but he was thinking of medicine 

 rather than of drink, and his taste in liquor was probably 

 utilitarian. They explored the neighbouring coves, " every 

 place affording something, especially to us to whom nothing 

 came amiss." Some climbed the mountains, but could 

 see nothing inland but more " barren mountains with huge 

 craggy precipices frightful to behold." They shot ducks 

 in Duck Creek, landed geese in Geese Cove, and lunched 

 in Luncheon Cove. For half an hour they had "chit-chat " 

 with two native women, and the sailors made the laborious 

 joke that " women did not want tongue in any part of 

 the world." " Her volubility of tongue," says Cook 

 of one of them, " exceeded every thing I have ever met 

 with." Nevertheless, he summed up strongly in favour 

 of Dusky Bay, not only as a place of refreshment, but 

 also as a possible centre of British commerce ; and 

 " although," he wrote, " this country be far remote 

 from the present trading parts of the world, we can by 

 on means tell what use future ages may make of the 

 discovery." He praised especially the magnificent timber, 

 which was " large enough to make mainmast for a 

 fifty-gun ship." 



Fumeaux Thence Cook sailed to the rendezvous in Queen Charlotte 



\Si reS Sound, where, on the iith of May, he found the Adventure,. 



Diemen's Furneaux had anchored there six weeks before. After 



an ' losing sight of the Resolution on the 7th of February, 



he had sailed for Van Diemen's Land. He had seen land 



on the Qth of March, and had found the soil " very rich." 



He thought he was on Tasman's South Cape. In reality 



he was on the South- West Cape. He sailed Eastward 



identifying the headlands with those named by Tasman, 



and identifying them all wrongly. 1 Owing to his initial 



mistake he always imagined that he was further to the 



East than was the case. He anchored in Adventure 



Bay in Bruny Island and thought that he was in Tasman's 



Frederick Henry Bay on the East coast. Later he realised 



that Frederick Henry Bay was further North, but he never 



1 Cf. Walker's Early Tasmania, p. 137. See maps, pp. 272, 273. 



