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. 270

            New Wales or East Coast of new Holland
May 1770  
side of the Lake is a ridge of pretty high hills which I was desirous of going upon, but as the day was far spent & high water I was afraid of being bewilder'd among the Shoals in the night which promised to be none of the best, being already rainy dirty weather & therefore I made the best of my way to the Ship, in this little Excursion I saw only 2 people & those at a distance & are all that we have seen in this place but we have met with several fire places & seen smokes at a distance. This inlet which I have named Thirsty Sound by reason we could find no fresh Water lies in the Latitude of 22 degrees 05 minutes South & Longitude 210 degrees 24 minutes West. It may be known by a Group of small Islands Laying under the shore from 2 to 5 Leagues NW from it. There is likewise another Group of Islands laying right before it between 3 & 4 Leagues out at Sea. Over each of the points that form the Entrance is a pretty high round Hill that on the NW is a peninsular surrounded by the Sea at high water, the distance from the one to the other is about 2 Miles bold to both Shores. Here is good Anchoring in 7, 6,5 & 4 fathoms water & very Convenient places for laying a Ship ashore where at Spring tides the tides doth not rise less than 16 or 18 feet & flows at full & Change of the Moon about 11 o'clock. We met with no fresh water or any other kind of refreshments whatever; we saw 2 Turtle but caught none nor no sort of Fish or wild fowl except a few small land birds. Here are the same sort of water Fowl as we saw in Botany Bay & like them so shy that it is hardly possible to get within shott of them. No signs of Fertility is to be seen upon the Land, the Soil of the up lands is mostly a hard redish Clay & produceth  several sorts of Trees, such as we have seen before & some others & clear of all under woods; all the low lands are mostly over run with Mangroves & at Spring tides overflow'd by the Sea & I believe in the rainy Seasons here are large land floods as we saw in many places Gullys which seem'd to have been made by torrents of Water coming from the Adjacent hills, besides other Visible signs of the Water having been a Considerable height above the Common Spring Tides. Dr Solander & I was upon a rising Ground up the inlet which we thought had at one time or another been overflow'd by the Sea & if so great part of the Country must at that time been laid under Water. Up in the lakes are Lagoons I suppose are shell fish on which the few Natives subsist. We found Oysters sticking to most of the Rocks upon the Shore which were so Small as not to be worth the picking off __________________   
Thursday 31st Winds  Southerly & SE Dark Hazey weather with rain. In the pm finding no one inducement to stay longer in this place we at 6 am Weighed & put to Sea & stood to the NW having the Advantage of a fresh breeze at SSE. We keept within the Group of Islands which lay in Shore & to the NW of Thirsty Sound as there appear'd to be no safe passage between them & the Main; at the same time we had a number of Islands without us extending out to Sea as far as would