Many of the natives were killed upon this occasion; and the loss of the ships was said to have been fourteen persons killed, including Captain de L’Angle, and some other officers; several were much wounded; and the boats were entirely destroyed.

This account of the accident is by no means to be considered as a correct statement of it; as it is only collected from little hints dropt in the course of conversation with different officers of those ships:  they did not appear disposed to speak upon that subject, we therefore did not presume to interrogate.  The voyage of those ships will no doubt be published by authority; till then we must wait for the particulars of that, and another unfortunate accident which happened to them upon the west coast of America, where they lost two boats and twenty-two men, including six officers, in a surf.

[A table of the winds and weather, etc. etc. on a Passage from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope; and from thence to Botany-Bay, on the East Coast of New Holland, on board His Majesty’s Ship Sirius, in 1787, and Beginning of 1788.] [The table is included in the HTML version]

Chapter III

January 1788 to August 1788

-Frequent interviews with the natives.—­Weapons described.—­Ornaments.—­Persons, manners, and habitations.—­Method of hunting.—­Animals described.—­Birds, and insects.—­Diary of the weather.—­Departure of the Bussole and Astrolabe.—­A convict pretends to have discovered a gold mine.—­The fraud detected.—­Observations for the longitude, etc_.

A Few days after my arrival with the transports in Port Jackson, I set off with a six oared boat and a small boat, intending to make as good a survey of the harbour as circumstances would admit:  I took to my assistance Mr. Bradley, the first lieutenant, Mr. Keltie, the master, and a young gentleman of the quarter-deck.

During the time we were employed on this service, we had frequent meetings with different parties of the natives, whom we found at this time very numerous; a circumstance which I confess I was a little surprized to find, after what had been said of them in the voyage of the Endeavour; for I think it is observed in the account of that voyage, that at Botany-bay they had seen very few of the natives, and that they appeared a very stupid race of people, who were void of curiosity.  We saw them in considerable numbers, and they appeared to us to be a very lively and inquisitive race; they are a straight, thin, but well made people, rather small in their limbs, but very active; they examined with the greatest attention, and expressed the utmost astonishment, at the different covering we had on; for they certainly considered our cloaths as so many different skins, and the hat as a part of the head:  they were pleased with such trifles as we had to give them, and always appeared chearful and in good humour:  they danced and sung with us, and imitated our words