Book I. 
Ill The V O Y 
with them in the Morning, that we could eafily outrun 
them'*, To a nimble young Man, that was with me, feeing 
feme of them there, ran towards them, and they, for fome 
time, ran away before him •, but he foon overtaking them, 
they faced about, and fought him. He had a Cutlafs, and 
they had wooden Lances, with which, being many of them, 
they were too hard for him. When he firft ran towards 
them, I chafed two more, that were by the Shore ; but, 
fearing how it might be with my young Man, I turned 
back quickly, and went up to the Top of a fandy Hill, 
whence I faw him near me, clofely engaged with them. 
Upon their feeing me, one of them threw a Lance at me, 
which narrowly miffed me. I difcharged my Gun to fcare 
them ; but avoided fhooting any of them, till, finding the 
young Man in great Danger, and myfelf in fome, and that, 
tho 5 the Gun had a little frightened them at firft, yet they 
had foon learnt to defpife it, toffing up their Hands, and 
crying Pooh, pooh , pooh , and coming on afrefh with a great 
Noife, I thought it high time to charge again, and fhoot 
one of them ; which 1 did. The reft, feeing him fall, 
made a Stand ; and my young Man took the Opportunity 
to difengage himfelf, and come off to me. My other Man 
alfo was with me, who had done nothing all this while, 
having come out unarmed ; and I returned back with my 
Men, defigning to attempt the Natives no further, being 
very forry for what had happened already. They took up 
their wounded Companion ; and my young Man, who had 
been ftruck through the Cheek with one of their Lances, 
was afraid it had been poifoned ; but I did not think that 
likely. His Wound was very painful to him, being made 
with a blunt Weapon ; but he foon recovered of it. Among 
the New Hollanders , whom we were thus engaged with, 
there was one, who by his Appearance and Carriage, as 
well in the Morning, as this Afternoon, feemed to be the 
Chief of them, and a kind of Prince or Captain among 
them. Pie was a young brifk Man, not very tall, nor fo 
perfonable as fome of the reft, tho’ more aftive and cou- 
rageous. He was painted (which none of the reft were at 
at all) with a Circle of white Pigment, a fort of Lime, as 
we thought, about his Eyes, and a white Streak down his 
Nofe, from his Forehead to the Tip of it ; and his Breaft, 
and fome Part of his Arms, were alfo made white with the 
fame Paint ; not for Beauty or Ornament, one would think ; 
but, as fome wild Indian Warriors are faid to do, he 
feemed thereby to defign the looking more terrible, this 
his Painting adding very much to his natural Deformity ; 
for they all of them have the moft unpleafant Looks, and 
the worft Features, of any People I ever faw, though I 
have feen great Variety of Savages. Thefe New Hollanders 
were probably the fame fort of People, as thofe I met with 
on this Coaft in my Voyage round the Globe ; for the Place 
I then touched at, was not above forty or fifty Leagues 
to the North-eaft of this, and thefe were much the fame 
blinking Creatures •, here being alfo abundance of the fame 
kind of Flefh-fiies teizing them, and with the fame black 
Skins, and Hair frizzled, tall and thin, &c. as thefe were ; 
but we had not the Opportunity to fee whether thefe, as 
the former, wanted two of their fore Teeth. We faw a 
great many Places where they had made Fires, and where 
there were commonly three or four Boughs ftuck up to 
Windward of them ; for the Wind, which is the Sea- 
breeze in the Day-time, blows always one Way with them, 
and the Land-breeze is but fmall. By their Fire-places 
we always found great Heaps of Fifh-fhells of feveral 
Sorts ; and his probable, that thefe poor Creatures here 
lived on the Shell-fifh, as thofe I defcribed before did on 
fmall Fifh, which they caught in Wires, or Holes in the 
Sand at Low- water. Thefe gathered their Shell-fifh on 
the Rocks at Low- water, but had no Wires that we faw, 
. whereby to get any other Sorts of Fifh, as, among the 
former, I faw not any Heaps of Shells as here, though I 
know they alfo gathered fome Shell-fifh : The Lances alfo 
of thefe were fuch as the former had ; however, they being 
upon an liland with their Women and Children, and all in 
our Power, they did not there ufe them againft us, as here 
on the Continent, where we faw none but fome of the Men 
at a Diftance, who came out purpofely to obferve us : We 
faw no Houfes at either Place •, and I believe they have 
none* fince the former People on the liland had none, 
4 
AGES of 
though they had all their Families with them. Upon re- 
turning to my Men, I faw that they had dug eight or 
nine Feet deep, yet found no Water : So I returned aboard 
that Evening •, and the next Day, being September i . I 
fent my Boatfwain afhore to dig deeper, and fent the Sain 
with him to catch Fifh. While I ft aid aboard, I obferved 
the Flowing of the Tide, which runs very fwift here, fo 
that our Nun-buoy would not bear above the Water to be 
feen. It flows here, as on the Part of New Holland I 
defcribed formerly, about five Fathom ; and here the Flood 
runs South-eaft by South till the laft Quarter ; then it fets 
right in towards the Shore, which lies here South South- 
weft, and North North-eaft, and the Ebb runs North-weft 
by North. When the Tides flackened, we fifhed with 
Hook and Line, as we had already done in feveral Places 
on this Coaft, on which, in this Voyage hitherto, we had 
found but little Tides ; but, by the Height, Strength, and 
Courfe of them hereabouts, it fhould feem, that if there 
be fuch a Paffage or Streight going through Eaftwards to 
the Great South Sea, as I faid one might fufpedt, one would 
expedt to find the Mouth of it fomewhere between this 
Place and Rofemary Eland, which was the Part of New 
Holland I came laft from. 
12. If it were not for that fort of Pleafure which refults 
from the Difcovery even of the barreneft Spot upon the 
Globe, this Coaft of New Holland would not have charmed 
me much. The Lands here, as well as in other Parts of 
New Holland that I have feen, are fo fenced by a Chain of 
Sand-hills towards the Sea, that there is no fuch Thing as 
difcerning what lies beyond them ; at High-water the Tides 
rife fo furprifingly on this Coaft, that the Land appears 
very low \ but, at Low- water again, it appears of an indif- 
ferent Height ; but then the Shore is fo rocky, that there 
is no fuch thing as landing with a Boat \ but at High-water 
a Boat may very eafily come in over all thofe Rocks to 
the fandy Bay which furrounds this Coaft. The Land, 
for about 5 or 600 Yards from the Sea, is of a dryifh fandy 
Soil, with nothing but a few Shrubs and Bufhes, which, 
when I was there, feemed to be in Bloom, bearing Flowers 
of feveral Colours, fuch as Yellow, Blue, and White, of 
a very fragrant Smell ; and, as to their Fruit, they feem to 
be a kind of Peafe or Beans. Farther within Land, the 
Country feemed to be low and level, partly Savannas, and 
partly Wood-land : The former affords a coarfe kind of 
Grafs, and the latter Groves of Trees that are fmall, and 
not above twelve or fourteen Feet high. There are very 
few Land-animals *, fome Lizards I faw, and fome of my 
Seamen faw two or three Creatures not unlike Wolves, 
but fo lean, that they looked like mere Skeletons. As 
for Land-fowls, there are Crows, Hawks, Kites, and 
Turtle-doves, that are fmall, but very plump and fat. 
The Sea-fowls are Pelicans, Boobies, Noddies, Curlecos, 
Sea-pies, in great Numbers. There are abundance of 
Whales in thefe Seas, and thofe of the large Kind: 
We faw alfo green Turtle, but there being no proper 
Chanel for them, we caught none, as having no Place to 
feta Turtle-net in. We faw fome Sharks, and caught, 
with Hooks and Lines, fome Rock-fifh and Old-wives. 
Of Shell-fifh, we found here Oyfters of the Pearl-kind, 
and fit for eating ; and Wilks, Muffels, Limpits, Peri- 
winkles, and many other Sorts ; and I gathered fome cu- 
rious Shells on the Shore. The Scurvy beginning to pre- 
vail amongft my Men, gave me great Uneafinefs ; efpeci- 
ally, as I had Reafon to apprehend, that the Diftemper 
would increafe, rather than diminifh, while I remained here, 
on account of the bad Air, and brackifh Water , and there- 
fore I frequently fent afhore to fearchfor frefh- water Brooks, 
or to dig Wells, but to no Purpofe : Wherefore I de- 
termined to proceed in my Voyage ; and, if I met with no 
Refrefhment elfewhere, to profecute my Courfe to the 
Eland of Timor. 
13. I had fpent about five Weeks in ranging off-and-on 
the Coaft of New Holland , in Length of about 300 
Leagues ; and had put in at three feveral Places to fee 
what there might be thereabouts worth difcovering, and, 
at the fame time, to recruit my Stock of frefh Water and 
Provifions, for the farther Difcoveries I purpofed to at- 
tempt on the Terra Aufiralis . This large, and hitherto 
almoft unknown. Tract of Land, is fituated fo very ad- 
vantagebufly. 
