The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)Phillip, Arthur
History
The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay: With an Account of the Establishment of the Colonies of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (1789)
Phillip, Arthur
Natural history -- Australia -- New South Wales; New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Norfolk Island
Between ten and eleven, some canoes were seen with Indians in them, who
came close up to the ship without any visible apprehension. Ropes were
thrown to them over the stern, of which they took hold, and suffered the
ship to tow them along; in this situation they willingly exchanged a kind
of rings which they wore on their arms, small rings of bone, and beads of
their own manufacture, for nails, beads, and other trifles, giving
however a manifest preference to whatever was made of iron. Gimlets were
most acceptable, but they were also pleased with nails, and pieces of
iron hoops. They dealt very fairly, not betraying the least desire to
steal or to defraud. But though they so readily suffered themselves to be
towed after the ship, they could not by any means be prevailed upon to go
along side, and whenever an attempt was made to haul up a canoe by one of
the ropes, the men in it immediately disengaged themselves from that
rope, and took hold of another. At the same time they appeared extremely
desirous that our people should anchor on the coast, and go ashore with
them; and, by way of enticement, held up the rind of an orange or lemon,
the feathers of tame fowls, and other things, signifying that they might
be procured on shore. They presented also to Lieutenant Shortland, a
fruit, which he conceived to be the bread-fruit; it was about the size of
a small cocoa-nut, brown on the outside and white within, and contained a
kind of soft pithy substance which stuck between the teeth, and was
rather troublesome to chew, besides three or four kernels not unlike
chesnuts, but very white. The leaves of the plantain served the Indians
to make boxes or small cases, of which every man had one to contain his
small rings and beads. At noon a point of land which runs from the Two
Brothers, and was now named Cape Satisfaction, bore north north-east; and
the rock which had been mistaken for a ship was called the Eddystone, and
bore north by west, distant four leagues. The Eddystone bears from Cape
Satisfaction south south-west, distant two leagues. As the land from Cape
Satisfaction began to trend northward, Lieutenant Shortland again
entertained hopes of finding a passage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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