many of them such as no plants which he had
discovered in this country produced: Among others were some cocoa-nuts,
which Tupia said had been opened by a kind of crab, which from his
description we judged to be the same that the Dutch call _Beurs Krabbe_,
and which we had not seen in these seas. All the vegetable substances
which he found in this place were encrusted with marine productions, and
covered with barnacles; a sure sign that they must have come far by sea,
and, as the trade-wind blows right upon the shore, probably from Terra
del Espirito Santo, which has been mentioned already.

The next morning, Mr Banks, with Lieutenant Gore, and three men, set out
in a small boat up the river, with a view to spend two or three days in
an excursion, to examine the country, and kill some of the animals which
had been so often seen at a distance.

On the 7th, I sent the master again out to sound about the shoals, the
account which he had brought me of the channel being by no means
satisfactory; and we spent the remainder of this day, and the morning of
the next, in fishing, and other necessary occupations.

About four o'clock in the afternoon, Mr Banks and his party returned,
and gave us an account of their expedition. Having proceeded about three
leagues among swamps and mangroves, they went up into the country, which
they found to differ but little from what they had seen before: They
pursued their course therefore up the river, which at length was
contracted into a narrow channel, and was bounded, not by swamps and
mangroves, but by steep banks, that were covered with trees of a most
beautiful verdure, among which was that which in the West Indies is
called _Mohoe_, or the bark tree, the _hibiscus tiliaceus_; the land
within was in general low, and had a thick covering of long grass: The
soil seemed to be such as promised great fertility to any who should
plant and improve it. In the course of the day, Tupia saw an animal,
which, by his description, Mr Banks judged to be a wolf: They also saw
three other animals, but could neither catch nor kill one of them, and a
kind of bat, as large, as a partridge, but this also eluded all their
diligence and skill. At night, they took up their lodging close to the
banks of the river, and made a fire, but the musquitos swarmed about
them in such numbers, that their quarters were almost untenable: They
followed them into the smoke, and almost into the fire, which, hot as
the climate