Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 - No. 0265
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[Page 265]
South Sea
April 1769
one of land, tho that sea is so shut in by banks & reefs that no ship can get into it.
8. Pleasant breeze but we have as yet found the trade hardly so strong as it was in the Atlantick at 2 O'Clock Land was seen from the masthead the ship stands for it & about sunset came abreast of it distant 2 leagues it proved an Island larger than any we had seen as it extended 6 or 7 leagues it was every where coverd with plenty of large trees probably Cocoa nuts & it is also inhabited & we judge from a smoak rising from among the trees in every thing it appeard exactly of the same nature with the rest which we have seen we could plainly distinguish it in some places broken off into reefs behind which we saw distant land & thence judg'd that there was a lagoon within it the land however appeard to be broader than any we had seen before
[In right-hand margin]
Chain Island
9. Fine weather & pleasant breeze.
it is now almost night & time for me to wind up the clue of my this days lucubrations so as we have found no Island today I shall employ the time & paper which I had allotted to describe one in a work which I am sure will be more usefull at