284 AUSTRALIA CHAP. XII 
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 time. 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 
