ch wounded; and the boats were entirely destroyed.

This account of the accident is by no means to be considered
as a correct statement of it; as it is only collected from little
hints dropt in the course of conversation with different officers
of those ships: they did not appear disposed to speak upon that
subject, we therefore did not presume to interrogate. The voyage
of those ships will no doubt be published by authority; till then
we must wait for the particulars of that, and another unfortunate
accident which happened to them upon the west coast of America,
where they lost two boats and twenty-two men, including six
officers, in a surf.

[A TABLE of the WINDS and WEATHER, etc. etc. on a Passage
from Rio de Janeiro to the Cape of Good Hope; and from thence to
Botany-Bay, on the East Coast of New Holland, on board His
Majesty's Ship SIRIUS, in 1787, and Beginning of 1788.]
[The table is included in the HTML version]

Chapter III

January 1788 to August 1788

-Frequent interviews with the natives.--Weapons
described.--Ornaments.--Persons, manners, and
habitations.--Method of hunting.--Animals described.--Birds, and
insects.--Diary of the weather.--Departure of the Bussole and
Astrolabe.--A convict pretends to have discovered a gold
mine.--The fraud detected.--Observations for the longitude,
etc_.

A Few days after my arrival with the transports in Port
Jackson, I set off with a six oared boat and a small boat,
intending to make as good a survey of the harbour as
circumstances would admit: I took to my assistance Mr. Bradley,
the first lieutenant, Mr. Keltie, the master, and a young
gentleman of the quarter-deck.

During the time we were employed on this service, we had
frequent meetings with different parties of the natives, whom we
found at this time very numerous; a circumstance which I confess
I was a little surprized to find, after what had been said of
them in the voyage of the Endeavour; for I think it is observed
in the account of that voyage, that at Botany-bay they had seen
very few of the natives, and that they appeared a very stupid
race of people, who were void of curiosity. We saw them in
considerable numbers, and they appeared to us to be a very lively
and inquisitive race; they are a straight, thin, but well made
people, rather small in their limbs, but very active; they
examined with the greatest attention, and expressed the utmost
astonishment, at the different covering we had on; for th