This day, some of our gentlemen who had made an excursion into the woods, brought home the leaves of a plant, which was thought to be the same that in the West Indies is called coccos; but upon trial, the roots proved too acrid to be eaten; the leaves however were little inferior to spinnage. In the place where these plants were gathered, grew plenty of the cabbage trees which have occasionally been mentioned before, a kind of wild plantain, the fruit of which was so full of stones as scarcely to be eatable; another fruit was also found about the size of a small golden pippin, but flatter, and of a deep purple colour: when first gathered from the tree, it was very hard and disagreeable, but after being kept a few days became soft, and tasted very much like an indifferent damascene. The next morning we began to move some of the weight from the after-part of the ship forward, to ease her; in the mean time the armourer continued to work at the forge, the carpenter was busy in calking the ship, and the men employed in filling water and overhauling the rigging: in the forenoon, I went myself in the pinnace up the harbour, and made several hauls with the seine, but caught only between twenty and thirty fish, which were given to the sick and convalescent. On the 28th, Mr. Banks went with some of the seamen up the country, to show them the plant which in the West Indies is called Indian kale, and which served us for greens. Tupia had much meliorated the root of the coccos, by giving them a long dressing in his country oven, but they were so small that we did not think them an object for the ship. In their walk they found one tree which had been notched for the convenience of climbing it, in the same manner with those we had seen in Botany Bay: they saw also many nests of white ants, which resemble those of the East Indies, the most pernicious insects in the world. The nests were of a pyramidical figure, from a few inches to six feet high, and very much resembled the stones in England, which are said to be monuments of the Druids. Mr. Gore, who was also this day four or five miles up the country, reported that he had seen the footsteps of men, and tracked animals of three or four different sorts, but had not been fortunate enough to see either man or beast. At two o’clock in the morning of the 29th, I observed, in conjunction with Mr. Green, an emersion of Jupiter’s first satellite; the time here was 2^h 18ʹ 53ʺ, which gave the longitude of this place 214° 42ʹ 30ʺ W.: its latitude is 15° 26ʹ S. At break of day, I sent the boat out again with the seine, and, in the afternoon, it returned with as much fish as enabled me to give every man a pound and an half. One of my midshipmen, an American, who was this day abroad with his gun, reported that he had seen a wolf, exactly like those which he had been used to see in his own country, and that he had shot at it, but did not kill it.