walking.  The land birds we saw, are a bird like a raven; some of the crow kind, black, with the tips of the feathers of the tail and wings white, their bill long and very sharp; some paroquets; and several kinds of small birds.  The sea-fowl are ducks, teal, and the sheldrake.  I forgot to mention a large white bird, that one of the gentlemen shot, about the size of a large kite of the eagle kind.  As for beasts, we saw but one, which was an opossom; but we observed the dung of some, which we judged to be of the deer kind.  The fish in the bay are scarce; those we caught were mostly sharks, dog-fish, and a fish called by the seamen nurses, like the dog-fish, only full of small white spots; and some small fish not unlike sprats.  The lagoons (which are brackish) abound with trout, and several other sorts of fish, of which we caught a few with lines, but being much encumbered with stumps of trees, we could not haul the seine.

While we lay here, we saw several smokes and large fires, about eight or ten miles in shore to the northward, but did not see any of the natives; though they frequently come into this bay, as there were several wigwams or huts, where we found some bags and nets made of grass, in which I imagine they carry their provisions and other necessaries.  In one of them there was the stone they strike fire with, and tinder made of bark, but of what tree could not be distinguished.  We found in one of their huts, one of their spears, which was made sharp at one end, I suppose, with a shell or stone.  Those things we brought away, leaving in the room of them medals, gun-flints, a few nails, and an old empty barrel with the iron hoops on it.  They seem to be quite ignorant of every sort of metal.  The boughs, of which their huts are made, are either broken or split, and tied together with grass in a circular form, the largest end stuck in the ground, and the smaller parts meeting in a point at the top, and covered with fern and bark, so poorly done, that they will hardly keep out a shower of rain.  In the middle is the fire-place, surrounded with heaps of muscle, pearl, scallop, and cray-fish shells, which I believe to be their chief food, though we could not find any of them.  They lie on the ground, on dried grass, round the fire; and I believe they have no settled place of habitation (as their houses seemed built only for a few days), but wander about in small parties from place to place in search of food, and are actuated by no other motive.  We never found more than three or four huts in a place, capable of containing three or four persons each only; and what is remarkable, we never saw the least marks either of canoe or boat, and it is generally thought they have none; being altogether, from what we could judge, a very ignorant and wretched set of people, though natives of a country capable of producing every necessary of life, and a climate the finest in the world.  We found not the least signs of any minerals or metals.