At day-break, therefore, I set out in the pinnace and long-boat, accompanied by Mr Banks, Dr Solander, and Tupia; and we found the inlet end in a river, about nine miles above the ship:  Into this river we entered with the first of the flood, and within three miles found the water perfectly fresh.  Before we had proceeded more than one third of that distance, we found an Indian town, which was built upon a small bank of dry sand, but entirely surrounded by a deep mud, which possibly the inhabitants might consider as a defence.  These people, as soon as they saw us, thronged to the banks, and invited us on shore.  We accepted the invitation; and made them a visit notwithstanding the mud.  They received us with open arms, having heard of us from our good old friend Toiava; but our stay could not be long, as we had other objects of curiosity in view.  We proceeded up the river till near noon, when we were fourteen miles within its entrance; and then, finding the face of the country to continue nearly the same, without any alteration in the course of the stream, which we had no hope of tracing to its source, we landed on the west side, to take a view of the lofty trees which every where adorned its banks.  They were of a kind that we had seen before, though only at a distance, both in Poverty Bay and Hawke’s Bay.  Before we had walked an hundred yards into the wood, we met with one of them which was nineteen feet eight inches in the girt, at the height of six feet above the ground:  Having a quadrant with me, I measured its height from the root to the first branch, and found it to be eighty-nine feet:  It was as straight as an arrow, and tapered but very little in proportion to its height; so that I judged there were three hundred and fifty-six feet of solid timber in it, exclusive of the branches.  As we advanced, we saw many others that were still larger; we cut down a young one, and the wood proved heavy and solid, not fit for masts, but such as would make the finest plank in the world.  Our carpenter, who was with us, said that the timber resembled that of the pitch-pine, which is lightened by tapping; and possibly some such method might be found to lighten these, and they would then be such masts as no country in Europe can produce.  As the wood was swampy, we could not range far; but we found many stout trees of other kinds, all of them utterly unknown to us, specimens of which we brought away.

The river at this height is as broad as the Thames at Greenwich, and the tide of flood as strong; it is not indeed quite so deep, but has water enough for vessels of more than a middle size, and a bottom of mud, so soft that nothing could take damage by running ashore.