Description of Endeavour Harbour. 115 
hour or creek, which runs in a winding channel, three or four 
leagues inland, and at the head of which there is a fmall brook 
of frefn water : there is no depth of water for fhipping above a 
mile within the bar, and at this diftance only on the north iide, 
where the bank is fo deep for near a quarter of a mile, that a 
fhi p may lie afloat at low water, fo near the Ihore as to reach it 
with a ftage, and thefifuation is extremely convenient for heav- 
ing down ; but at low water, the depth upon the bar is not 
more than nine or ten feet, nor more than feventeen or eigh- 
teen at the height of the tide ; the d’fference between high 
and low water, at fpring tides, being about nine feet. At the 
new and full of the moon it is high water between nine and 
ten o’clock : it mull alfo be remembered, that this part of the 
coaft is fo barricaded with Ihoals, as to make the harbour Hill 
more difficult of accefs ; the fafeft approach is from the fouth- 
ward, keeping the main land clofe upon the board all the way. 
Its fituation may always be found by the latitude, which has 
been very accurately laid down. Over the fouth point is fome 
high land, but the north point is formed by a low Tandy beach, 
which extends about three miles to the northward, where the 
land begins again to be high. 
The chief refrelhment that we procured here, was turtle, 
but as they were not to be had without going five leagues out 
to fea, and the weather was frequently tempeftuous, we did 
not abound with this dainty : what we caught, well as the 
fiih, was always equally divided among us all by weight, the 
meaneft perfon on board having the fame fnare as myfelf • 
and I think every commander, in fuch a voyage as this, will 
find it his ifltereft to follow the fame rule. In feveral parts of 
the fandy beaches, and fand hills near the fea, we found purf- 
lain, and a kind of bean that grows upon a ftalk, which creeps 
along the ground : the purflain we found very good when it 
was boiled, and the beans are not to be defpifed, for we found 
them of great fervice to our fick : the bell greens, however, 
that could be procured here, were the tops of the coccos, 
which have been mentioned already, as known in the Welt- 
Indies by the name of Indian kale : thefe were, in our opinion, 
not much inferior to fpinnage, which, in talle, they fomewhat 
refemble ; the roots indeed are not good, but they might pro- 
bably be meliorated by proper cultivation. They are found 
here chiefly in boggy ground. The few cabbage palms that 
we meet with, were in general fmall, and yielded fo little 
cabbage that they were not worth feeking. 
Befides the kanguroo, and the oppolTum that have been al- 
ready mentioned, and a kind of polecat, there are wolves upon 
this part of the coaft, if we were not deceived by the tracks upon 
the ground, and feveral fpecies of ferpents ; fome of the fer- 
psnts are venemous, and feme harmlefs ; there are no tame 
anixna 
