17881 had waded through, one of our company Shot a very fin6
A6gaft. duck, which we had dr-efled for fupper, on a little eminence
by the fide of a cabbage tree fwamp, about half a mile
from the runo f the tide. Here the whole party got as much
cabbage, to eat withtheir fait p r o vifion s ,: - • chofe. ;
While we had been detained by the tide, feveral natives
were on the oppofite fide, who alia pointed out to
us the Shoaleft water, and appeared, by their Signs and
geftures, to wifii us very much to coifte overj but before
the tide Was Sufficiently low, they wCnt away> One of
them wore a Skin of a reddiSh colour round hit Shoulder fc*
Near the place where we pitched oUf fieotj' we'law fevera!
quails exactly like thofe in England. I fired four or fife tkn.es
at them, but without fucccfs, as my {hot was too large.
23 d. As foon as the dew was off the^ grads* we began
our march, and about -twelve o’clock in with- tjie
’South branch Brpheft Bay: bufet?fiinding the oountry
round this part very rugged, and the diftance toe great
for our flock of provisions, we returned to the Sea Shore,
in order to examine the fouth part o f the entrance into the
bay. This, like every other part of the country we have
feen, had a very indifferent a£pe&. From the entrance
of
of Tort JackfoM to Broken Bay, in fiome places from fifty
to a hundred, in others to two hundred yards diftant from
the fea, the coaft indeed is very pleafant, and tolerably
clear of wood ; the earth a kind of adhefive clay,, covered
with a thick and Short four grafs.
A ll along the Shore we met the natives, who feem to»
have no fixed rcfidence■ or abode; but, indifcriminately,
»whenever, they‘meet with a hut, of, what is more common,
a convenient excavation or hole in the roefcs, take pofleSfion
of it for,±he_ time. In one o f their hut®, at Broken Bay,
which was conftru&ecT of bark, and W a s o ii e of the beft
I had ever met with, we Saw two very well made nets,
Some fiShing lines not inferior to the netsy fome Spears,
a ftonc hatchet of a very Superior make to what they
ufually have, together with two vehicles for carrying
water, one o f cork, the other made out of the knot of
a large tree hollowed. In this hut there were two piece®
of eoarSe linen which they muft^have - obtabied from
Some of our people, and every thing about it befpofce
more comfort and convenience'than I had oBferved in
any other. A little way,'from it we fell in with a large
party of natives, whom we fuppofed to be the proprietors;
they