James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 265

                                              New Wales or East Coast of New Holland

May 1770   West by a larger pit of sand it is about a 1/4 of a Mile broad & lies in South by West; here is room fpr a few Ships to lay very secure & a small Stream of Fresh Water. After this I made a little excursion into the Woods while some hands made 3 or 4 hauls with the Sean, but caught not above a dozen very small fish. By this time the flood was made & I embarqued in the Boats in order to row up the Lagoon but in this I was hindered by meeting everywhere with Shoal Water, as yet we had seen no people but saw a great deal of Smook up & on the West side of the Lagoon, which was all too far for us to go by land excepting one this we went to & found 10 Small fires in a very small Compass & some Cockle Shells laying by them but the people were gone, on the windward or South side of one of the fires was stuck up a little Bark about a foot & a half high & some few peices lay about in other places, these we concluded where all the covering they had in the Night & many of them I firmly believe have not this, but naked as they are Sleep in the open Air. Tupia who was with us observed that they were Tanta Eno's that is bad or poor people. The Country is visibley worse than at the last place we were at, the Soil is dry & Sandy & the woods are free from under woods of every kind because of the same sort of Trees as we found in Bottonist Harbour with a few other sorts,one sort which is by far the most Numerous sort of any in the woods grow Something like Birch, the Bark at first sight looks like birch bark but upon examination I found it to be very different & so I believe is the Wood but this I could not examine as having no axe or anything with one to cut down a Tree, about the Skirts of the Lagoon grows the true Mangrove such as are found in the west Indies & which we have not seen during the Voyage before; here is likewise a sort of a Palm Tree which grows on low barren sandy places in the South Sea Islands, all or most of the same sort of Land & Water fowl as we saw at Botany Harbour we saw here; besides these we saw some Bustards such as we have in England on of which we kill'd that weighed 171/2 pounds which occasioned my giving this place the Name of Bustard Bay (Latitude 24 degrees 4 minutes Longitude 208 degrees 22 minutes West) we likewise saw some black & white Ducks. Here are plenty of small Oysters sticking to the Rocks, Stones, & Mangrove Trees & some few other shell fish such as large Muscles, Pearl Oysters, Cockels etc. I measured the perpendicular height of the last Tide, & found it to be 8 foot above low water mark & from the time of low water today I found that it must be high Water at the full & Change of the Moon at 8 o'clock ______________
Thursday 24. In the pm I was employ'd ashore in the Transactions before related; at 4 am we weighed with a Gentle breeze at South & made sail out of the Bay. In standing out our soundings were from 5 to 15 fathoms. when in this last Depth we were abreast of the North Point being daylight we discover'd
breakers