'77°- The next morning I'got the four remaining guns out of
>--- -— i the hold, and mounted them upon the quarter-deck; I alfo
got a fpare anchor, and anchor-flock afhore, and the remaining
part of the ftores and balla.lt that were in the hold: fet
up the fmith’s forge, and employed the armourer and his
mate to make nails and other neceflaries for the repair of the
fhip. In the afternoon, all the officers’ ftores and the ground
tier of water were got o u t; fo that nothing remained in the
fore and main hold, but the coals, and a fmall quantity of
ftone ballaft. This day Mr. Banks crofted the river to take a
view of the country on the other fide: he found it confift
principally of fand-hills, where he faw feme Indian houfes,
which appeared to have been very lately inhabited. In his
walk, he met with vaft flocks of pigeons and crows: of the
pigeons, which were exceedingly beautiful, he fhot feveral;
but the crows, which were exactly like thofe in England,
were fo fhy that he could not get within reach of them.
Vatnef. zo. On the 20th, we landed the powder, and got out the ftone
ballaft and wood, which brought the fhip’s draught of water
to eight feet ten inches forward, and thirteen feet abaft;
and this I thought, with the difference that would be made
by trimming the coals aft, would be fufficient; for I found
that the water rofe and fell perpendicularly eight feet at the
fpring-tides: but as foon as the coals were trimmed from
over the leak, we could hear the water ruffi in a little abaft
the foremaft, about three feet from the ke el: this determined
me to clear the hold intirely. This'evening, Mr.
Banks obferved that in many parts of the inlet there were
large quantities' of pumice ftones, which lay at a confide-
rable diftance above high-water mark ; whither they might
have been carried either by the freffies or extraordinary high
tides, for there could be no doubt but that they came from
the fea.
The
The next morning we went early to work, and by four
o’clock in the afternoon had got out all the coals, call the
moorings loofe, and warped the fhip a little higher up the
harbour to a place which I thought moft convenient for laying
her afhore in order to flop the leak. Her draught of
water forward was now {even feet nine inches, and abaft
thirteen feet fix inches. At eight o’clock, it being high-
water, I hauled her bow clofe afhore; but kept her ftern
afloat, becaufe I was afraid of neiping her ; it was however
necefiary to lay the whole of her as near the ground as
poflible:
1770.
June.
Thurfday 21.
At two o’clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her, Friday u.
and gave us an opportunity to examine the leak, which we
found to be at her floor heads, a little before the ftarboard
fore-chains. In this place the rocks had made their way
through four planks, and even into the timbers; three more
planks were much damaged, and the appearance of thefe
breaches was very extraordinary: there was not a fplinter to
be feen, but all was as fmooth, as if the whole had been
cut away by an inftrument: the timbers in this place were
happily very clofe, and if they had not, it would have been
abfolutely impoflible to have faved the fhip. But after all,
her prefervation depended upon a circumftance ftill more
remarkable: in one of the holes, which was big enough to
have funk us, if we had had eight pumps inftead of four,
and been able to keep them inceflantly going, was in great
meafure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after
havjng made the wound, was left flicking in i t ; fo that the
water which at firft had gained upon our pumps; was what
came in at the interftices, between the ftone and the edges
of the hole that received it. We found alfo feveral pieces
of the fothering, which had made their way between the
U 2 timbers,