About four o’clock in the afternoon, Mr. Banks and his party returned, and gave us an account of their expedition. Having proceeded about three leagues among swamps and mangroves, they went up into the country, which they found to differ but little from what they had seen before: they pursued their course therefore up the river, which at length was contracted into a narrow channel, and was bounded, not by swamps and mangroves, but by steep banks, that were covered with trees of a most beautiful verdure, among which was that which in the West Indies is called Mohoe, or the bark-tree, the _hibiscus tiliaceus_; the land within was in general low, and had a thick covering of long grass: the soil seemed to be such as promised great fertility, to any who should plant and improve it. In the course of the day, Tupia saw an animal, which, by his description, Mr. Banks judged to be a wolf: they also saw three other animals, but could neither catch nor kill one of them, and a kind of bat, as large as a partridge, but this also eluded all their diligence and skill. At night, they took up their lodging close to the banks of the river, and made a fire, but the musquitos swarmed about them in such numbers, that their quarters were almost untenable; they followed them into the smoke, and almost into the fire, which, hot as the climate was, they could better endure than the stings of these insects, which were an intolerable torment. The fire, the flies, and the want of a better bed than the ground, rendered the night extremely uncomfortable, so that they passed it, not in sleep, but in restless wishes for the return of day. With the first dawn they set out in search of game, and in a walk of many miles, they saw four animals of the same kind, two of which Mr. Banks’s greyhound fairly chased, but they threw him out at a great distance, by leaping over the long thick grass, which prevented his running: this animal was observed not to run upon four legs, but to bound or hop forward upon two, like the _Jerbua_, or _Mus Jaculus_. About noon, they returned to the boat, and again proceeded up the river, which was soon contracted into a fresh-water brook, where, however, the tide rose to a considerable height: as evening approached, it became low water, and it was then so shallow that they were obliged to get out of the boat and drag her along, till they could find a place in which they might, with some hope of rest, pass the night. Such a place at length offered, and while they were getting the things out of the boat, they observed a smoke at the distance of about a furlong: as they did not doubt but that some of the natives, with whom they had so long and earnestly desired to become personally acquainted, were about the fire, three of the party went immediately towards it, hoping that so small a number would not put them to flight: when they came up to the place, however, they found it deserted, and therefore they conjectured,