be
given why this misfortune came upon him, in which he himself was in some
measure to blame; but as this is only conjecture, and would tend to fix
it upon some people in the Ship, whom I would fain believe would hardly
be guilty of such an Action, I shall say nothing about it, unless I shall
hereafter discover the Offenders, which I shall take every method in my
power to do, for I look upon such proceedings as highly dangerous in such
Voyages as this, and the greatest insult that could be offer'd to my
Authority in this Ship, as I have always been ready to hear and redress
every complaint that have been made against any Person in the Ship.* (*
This history of Mr. Orton's misadventure is omitted from the Admiralty
copy. It is an illustration of the times to note that the fact of Orton
having got drunk does not seem to call for the Captain's severe censure.
In these days, though the practical joker receives punishment, the
drunkard would certainly come in for a large share also.)

In the A.M. I went ashore with a party of men in order to Examine the
Country, accompanied by Mr. Banks and the other Gentlemen; we landed a
little within the South point of the Bay, where there is a Channel
leading into a large Lagoon. The first thing that I did was to sound and
examine the Channell, in which I found 3 fathoms, until I got about a
Mile up it, where I met with a Shoal, whereon was little more than one
fathom; being over this I had 3 fathoms again. The Entrance into this
Channell lies close to the South point of this Bay, being form'd on the
East by the Shore, and on the West by a large Spit of sand; it is about a
1/4 of a Mile broad, and lies in South by West; here is room for a few
Ships to lay very secure, and 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, and I imbarqued in the Boats in order to row up the
Lagoon; but in this I was hindred by meeting everywhere with Shoal Water.
As yet we had seen no people, but saw a great deal of Smook up and on the
West side of the Lagoon, which was all too far off for us to go by land,
excepting one; this we went to and found 10 Small fires in a very small
Compass, and 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 and a ha