On the whole, their first visit ashore was satisfactory, and was thought to augur well for the observations of the Transit.  A site was selected for a camp on the eastern point of the bay, to which the name of Point Venus was given, the longitude, according to Cook, 149 degrees 31 minutes West, and to Wharton, 149 degrees 29 minutes West.  Lines were traced for the boundaries, and Banks’s largest tent was pitched and a guard mounted, and then the others went for a walk of inspection.  They passed through some woods that Mr. Hicks had been prevented from exploring the day before, and Banks had the luck to bring down three ducks with one shot, a deed thought likely to impress the natives with respect for the white man’s weapon.  On their road back to camp they were alarmed by a musket shot, and hurrying on, found that one of the sentries had been pushed down and his musket stolen, so the midshipman in command had ordered a shot to be fired at the thief, who was killed, but the musket was not recovered.  All the natives ran away but one, whom Cook calls Awhaa, and whom the Master, Mr. Molineaux, who had been out with Wallis, recognised as being a man of some authority.  Through Awhaa an attempt was made to arrange matters, but the natives were very shy when the English landed the next day.  However, the two chiefs who had first made friends, to whom the names of Lycurgus and Hercules had been given, again came on board, bringing presents of pigs and bread-fruit; they concluded as Hercules’s present was the larger, he was the richer and therefore the more important chief.  To lessen the chances of disagreements in trading and to keep some control of prices, Cook ordered that only one person should conduct the purchasing for the ship, and as Banks had shown aptitude in dealing with the natives, he was appointed.  The natives were to be treated “with every imaginable humanity.”

On the 16th Mr. Buchan, the artist, had another epileptic fit, which was unfortunately fatal, and he was buried at sea in order to run no risk of offending against any of the customs or superstitions of the natives.  Cook, in referring to his death, says:  “He will be greatly missed in the course of this voyage.”

In the afternoon the ship was brought into such a position as to command the site of the proposed camp, and as there was to be an eclipse of one of Jupiter’s satellites, Cook and Green stayed ashore to get an observation, but the weather was unpropitious.

Cook sketches.

The camp was now got into order; the north and south sides were protected by a bank 4 feet 6 inches high on the inside, having a ditch 10 feet wide and 6 feet deep on the outside.  The west side, facing the bay, had a 4 foot bank crowned by a palisade, with no ditch; and the east side, on the bank of the river, was protected by a double row of water casks.  The armament consisted of two carriage guns on the weakest or east side, and six swivel guns, two on