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The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768–1771 [Volume One]
November 1768
November 1768
1. A shoal of small fish were today under our stern who attended the ship for some time; she had however too much way through the water for our instruments so we could not take any of them.
2. This day was quite void of Events, the wind however was very fair and we now approachd the place where we were next to refresh ourselves apace.
3. This morn the sun was immediately over our heads notwith-s[t]anding which the Thermometer was no higher than 77. Since we left the calms under the line the weather has grown cooler by gradual degrees, now we reckon it quite moderate after having felt the heat of 83 so lately.
page 181This Even I for the first time (for other people had seen them much before) observd two Light spots in the heavens apearing much like the milky way, one the largest and brightest Bore S. by E. the other about South.1
4. Still as we got more to the westward the wind became more favourable, today it was almost aft and has been all along creeping to the northward.
5. The thermometer kept still gradualy falling as the wind got more to the northward, which appears odd as the North wind should now be the warm wind; we were not yet however enough to the Southward to find much alteration. Wind this morn was North-east, at noon North by west, between this place and mid channel it has changd from South by East. The Trade being to the Northward upon this coast has been observd long ago, tho I question whether our navigators are sufficiently apprisd of it. Piso in his Natural history of the Brasils2 says that the winds along shore are constantly to the Northward from October to March and to the southward from March to October. Dampier also who certainly had as much experience as most men says the same thing,3 advising ships outward bound to keep to the westward where they are almost certain to find the Trade more Eastward than in mid channel, where it sometimes is due South or within ½ a point of it as we ourselves experienced.
6. Today light winds and very pleasant weather, the Thermometer was never above 76. Towards evening the colour of the water was observd to change upon which we sounded and found ground at 32 fathom; the lead was cast three times between 6 and 10 without finding a foot difference in the depth or quality of the bottom, which was incrusted with coral; we supposd this to be the tail of a great shoal laid down in all our charts by the name of Albrolhos, on which Ld Anson struck soundings in his outward bound passage.4
1 These must have been the Magellanic Clouds, two cloud-like condensations of stars in the southern constellation of Mensa, with a remarkable resemblance to the stars of the Milky Way, though entirely detached from it. They would be visible from the ship's latitude (15*–16* S) in clear weather.
2 See p. 178, n. 1 above.
3 In his Discourse of Winds (1700), Chapter III, ‘Of the Coasting Trade-Winds that shift’.—Dampier's Voyages, ed. Masefield (London 1906), II, pp. 243 ff.
4 Cook spells the name of the shoal ‘Abrollos’: more properly ‘Abrolhos’, from the Portuguese abre os olhos, literally ‘open your eyes’, hence ‘look out, take care’. The Dutch conferred the same name on a reef on the western coast of Australia, ‘Houtman's Abrolhos’. The reference to Anson is to his famous voyage round the world, 1741–4. The account of the voyage by his chaplain, Richard Walter (1748) was evidently on board the Endeavour, as Cook also refers to it. Anson struck soundings in lat. 20* S, long. 36* 30’ W; Cook in lat. 19* 46’ S, long. 36* 54’ W. This is in a region of coral banks, the nearest of which, in modern reckonings, are the Montague Bank and the Sylvia Bank.
7. This morn at four no ground with 100 Fathoms of Line. About noon long ranges of a yellowish colour appeard upon the sea, many of them very large, one (the largest) might be a mile in lengh and 3 or 400 yards wide. The seamen in general affirmd roundly that they were the spawn of fishes and that they had often seen the same appearance before; upon taking up some of the water so coloured we found it to be causd by innumerable small atoms, each pointed at the end and of a yellowish colour, none of them above a quarter of a line in lengh; in the microscope they appeard to be fasciculi of small fibres interwove one within the other, not unlike the nidi of some Phryganeas which we call caddices. What they were or for what purposes designd we could not even guess, nor so much as distinguish whether their substance was animal or vegetable.1
8. At day break today we made the Land which Provd to be the Continent of S. America in Lat. 21.16; about ten we saw a fishing boat who told us that the countrey we saw belongd to the Captain ship of Espirito Santo.
Doctor Solander and myself went on board this boat in which were 11 men (9 of whom were blacks) who all fishd with lines. We bought of them the cheif part of their cargo consisting of Dolphins,2 two kinds of large Pelagick Scombers,3 Sea Bream4 and the fish calld in the West Indies Welshman,5 for which they made us pay 19 shillings and Sixpence. We had taken Spanish silver with us which we imagind was the currency of the Continent, we were therefore not a little surprizd that they askd us for English shillings and preferrd two which we by accident had to the Pistereens, tho they after some words took them also. The Business of these people seemd to be going a good distance from land and catching large fish, which they salted in bulk in a place in the middle of their boat made for that purpose; in this place was about 2 Quintals of fish laid in salt which they offerd to sale for 16 shillings, and would doubtless have taken half the money had we been inclind to buy them, but fresh provisions was all we wanted and the fresh fish they had which we bought servd the whole ships company.
1 Dr W. R. Taylor writes, ‘the reference here is almost certainly to Trichodesmium thiebautii Gomont’. Banks refers to these ‘small particles’ again off Rio de Janeiro, 9–10 December 1768, pp. 205–6 below.
2 In the eighteenth century and earlier the term dolphin usually denoted a small cetacean, but it was also applied, as here (p. 183 below), to the fish Coryphaena hippuris, identified by Solander, p. 209.
3 See below, p. 183, n. 6.
4 Probably Banks's Sparus pagrus, see below, p. 183, n. 8.
5 Holacentrus ascensionis (Osbeck); cf. p. 183, n. 9.
Their provision for the Sea consisted of a cask of water and a bag of the flour of Cassada1 which they call Farinha de Pao or wooden flour, a very proper name for it which indeed tastes more like powderd chipps than any thing else.
Their method of drinking out of their cask of water was truely primitive and pleasd me much. The cask was large, as broad as the boat and exactly fitted a place in the Ballast made for it, they consequently could not get at the bottom of it to put in a tap by which the water might be drawn out. To remedy this dificulty they made use of a cane about three feet long hollow and open at each end; this the man who wanted to drink desired his neighbour to fill for him, which he did by putting it into the cask, and laying the palm of his hand over the uppermost hole hinderd the water from running out of the other, to which the drinker applyd his mouth and the other taking off his hand lett the liquor run into the drinkers mouth till he was satisfied.
Soon after we came on board a Sphynx2 was taken which provd to be quite a new one, and a small bird also who was the Tanagra Jacarini of Linn; it seemd however from Linnés description as well as Edwards's3 and Brissons4 that neither of them had seen the Bird which was in reality a Loxia nitens.5
The fish Brought on board provd to be Scomber anxia and Falcatus6 Coryphéna Hipparis*7 Sparus pagrus8 and Sciéna rubens;9 the second and last not being before describd we calld them by these names.
1 Cassada or Cassava, or Manioc (Manihot utilissima); from its fleshy tuberous roots was obtained the flour, a sort of nutritious starch. There is another species, M. aipi, the sweet cassava.
2 A Hawkmoth, one of the Sphingidae.
3 George Edwards (1694–1773), naturalist. Of humble origin, he got a good education, and after travelling some time in Holland, Norway, and France he attained some note for his coloured drawings of animals, and in 1733 was appointed on Sir Hans Sloane's recommendation librarian to the Royal College of Physicians; F,R.S. 1757. He was the author of A Natural History of Birds (4 vols., 1743–51), which brought him the gold medal of the Royal Society in 1750. It was lavishly illustrated with engravings, and is singular, at a time when fashionable patrons were much sought after, in being dedicated to God.
4 Mathurin Jacques Brisson (1723–1806), French naturalist and physicist, and in his day an extremely eminent scholar. In his youth he was attached to Réaumur, ‘the Pliny of the eighteenth century’. whose collection was the basis of his great Ornithologie, ou Méthods contenant la division des oiseaux en ordres, sections, genres, espèces, et leur variétés (6 vols., Paris 1760). It is to this book (III, p. 28), the major work on birds before Buffon's Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, that Banks refers. Brisson wrote other works on zoology, and on physics and chemistry.
5 Volatinia jacarina: Parkinson I, pl. 37b; Solander, p. 119.
6 Scomber amia: now Seriola lalandi Cuv. and Val., Amber Jack. Parkinson II, pl. 99; Solander, p. 275. Scomber falcatus now Caranx amblyrhynchus Cuv. and Val. Parkinson II, pl. 94; Solander, pp. 271–2.
7 See p. 182, n. 2 above.
8 Now Pagrus pagrus; reported by Solander, p. 231, right across the Atlantic.
9 Now Holocentrus ascensionis (Osbeck), known both as the Welshman and Squirrel-fish. Parkinson II, pl. 63, upper figure; Solander, pp. 249–50.
Afternoon the wind came about South and South by East and it soon came on to blow fresh which we were not at all accustomd to, so we Boarded it1 along shore wihout gaining much.
9. This morn wind continued South and South by west but is more moderate, but still more sea than we should chuse were we directors of the winds and waves.
We however stood in with the land till we found ourselves in a large bay the shores of which were very flat; in the middle of this bay were some large hills which lay far inland and made the prospect very remarkable, as expressd in the view.2 At this time we were by guess within five miles of the shore and our water had decreasd gradualy till we had less than five fathom; it was about four in the Evening so our Captain thought proper to put about and stand off to sea; in the Evening the wind freshend a little but was not near so troublesome as last night.
10. Wind more moderate this morn; we stood in with the land and made it nearly in the same place as we left it last night, our soundings being from 15 to 10 fathoms.
After dinner the wind came more to the Eastward and freshend, and little peices of Seaweed now came floating by the ship which we took and it provd to be Sargaso fucus natans,3 which is generaly supposd to increase upon the surface of the sea in the same manner as duck weed Lemna does on fresh water without having any root; this however plainly shewd that it had been rooted in the Coral rock on the bottom, as two specimens particularly had large lumps of the coral still adhering to their bottoms. Among the weed we got were some few animals but scarcely worth mentioning, one Balistes4 but quite a fry so young that it was impossible to referr it to its species; a worm also was in it which provd to be Neireis pelagica.5
In the course of this night we ran over a small bank on which the water suddenly shoald to 7 fathom and kept thereabouts for some time, it however deepend gradualy.
1 ‘Boarded it’: tacked off and on.
2 Views or ‘coastal profiles’ were drawn in abundance on the voyage, by Buchan and others—Cook did a great many—but this particular one, if it has survived, seems unidentifiable.
3 Genus Sargassum (from Spanish sargazo, seaweed, a name given by mariners to floating seaweeds). The botanist Kjellman recognized about 150 spp.
4 Possibly a Monacanthus sp.
5 Nereis pelagicai a Linnean species of polychaete worm which still bears that name.
Just before dark the Land was seen ahead which we supposed to be an Island off Cape Frio so we hoped to be the lengh of Cape Frio by tomorrow morn.
12. This morn we were abreast of the land which proved as we thought last night to be the Island just without Cape Frio, which is calld in some maps the Isle of Frio;1 the wind was fair and we passd it with a pleasant Breeze hoping tomorrow to get into the harbour. About noon we saw the hill calld Sugar Loaf2 which is just by the harbours mouth, but it was a long way off yet so there were no hopes of reaching it this night.
The shore from Cape Frio to this place has been one uninterruptd beach of the whitest Colour I ever saw which they tell me is a white sand.
This Evening wind still continued fair but very little, we now saw the Sugar Loaf very plain but could not tonight reach it, so shortend sail; we had seen for some time a small vessel under the land which seemd to steer into the harbour as well as we.
The Land all along this Coast has been exceedingly high inland except in the bay mentiond on the 7th:3 the mountains seen now about Rio Janeiro were immensely high so that some of our people compared them with the Pike of Tenerife, tho I do not myself think they deserve a comparison so much higher is the Pike. Notwithstanding the hills are high and begin to rise near the shore the beach is sandy and appears to be of a firm sand.
In the Course of this Evening we aproachd very near the Land and found it very cold, to our feelings at least; the Thermometer at ten O'Clock stood at 68½ which gave us hopes that the countrey would be cooler than we should expect from the accounts of travellers, especially Mr Biron4 who says that no business is done here from 10 till 2 on account of the intense heat.
1 If one goes by modern nomenclature, one may feel a little confusion here. Cape Frio (lat. 23* oi’ S, long. 42* 00'W) is itself the south-east extremity both of Cape Frio Island and of the coast of Brazil, where it turns west to Rio de Janeiro. But a mile north-east of the Cape there is a small islet close to the shore. This perhaps is the island referred to at the end of Banks's previous entry, and was what was ‘called in some maps the Isle of Frio’,
2 In modern nomenclature Pào de Aguçar, 1294 feet.
3 sic, but he means the 9th.
4 The reference is to C. Biron, Curiositez de la nature et de I'art, aportées dans deux voyages, Pun aux Indes d'Occident en 1698 & 1699, et Pautre awe Indes d'Orient en 1701 & 1702. Avec une relation abregée de ces deux voyages. Paris 1703, Biron is an obscure figure, who comes into none of the biographical dictionaries; even his Christian name seems to be unknown.
13. This Morn the Harbour of Rio Janeiro was right ahead about 2 leagues off but it being quite Calm we made our aproaches very slowly. The sea was inconceveably full of small vermes1 which we took without the least dificulty; they were almost all new except Beroe labiata,2 Medusa radiata,3 fimbriata4 and Chrystallina5 Dagysa,6 Soon after that a fishing boat Came a board and sold us three Scombers which proved to be new and were calld Salmoneius;7 his bates were Clupea Chinensis8 of which we also procurd specimens.
1 Vermes, a term applied to many invertebrates besides worms from the time of Aristotle until the nineteenth century.
2 See p. 173, n. 5 above.
3 Aequorea forskalia Péron and Lesueur. Parkinson III pl. 48, and Solander, p.455.
4 Perhaps a variety of A. forskalia? Parkinson III, pl. 49; Solander, p. 459.
5 Liriope sp. Parkinson III, pl. 50, and Solander, p. 461.
6 This is perhaps the ‘Dagysa costata’ of Parkinson III, pl. 36 lower fig., as this is marked ‘Rio Janeiro: it has not been possible to identify it.
7 Pomatomus saltatrix, Bluefish or Skipjack. Parkinson III, pl. 90; Solander, p. 277.
8 Clupea sinensis Linn, has not been identified by later workers.
9 There is no precise equivalent in English for the word Desembargador, and older English writers at various times used ‘judge’, ‘magistrate’, ‘overseer’ and ‘assessor’. The desembargador was a crown lawyer whose legal functions included both judicial and administrative work; and the desembargadores of the council or tribunal da Fazenda acted as overseers of customs houses. Though they were not primarily customs officials, it was no doubt in his customs capacity that Banks's desembargador rowed round the ship.—I am indebted to Professor C. R. Boxer for generous instruction on this point.
14. This morn Captn Cooke went ashore, Dr Solander and myself impatiently waiting for his return which he promisd should be the moment he had spoke with the viceroy, who would no doubt tell him that the practica paper had been deliverd and we were all at liberty to come ashore when we pleasd. About twelve he came on board with a Portugese officer in his boat who had been put there by order of the viceroy, out of a compliment as he termd it, and an English gentleman Mr Forster by name a Leutenant in the Portugese service. The Captn told us that we could not be allowd to have a house or sleep ashore, so the Viceroy had told him, but Mr Forster told us that he had given orders that no person but the Captn and such common sailors as were requird to be upon duty should be permitted to go ashore, and that we the passengers were probably particularly objected to. We however in the Evening dress'd ourselves and attempted to go ashore under pretence of a visit to the Viceroy, but were stopd by the Guard boat whose officer told us that he had particular orders, which he could not transgress, to Lett no officer or Passenger except the Captain pass the boat; after much conversation to no purpose we were obligd to return on board and the Captn went ashore to remonstrate to the viceroy about it, but could get no answer but that it was the King of Portugals orders and consequently must be.
1 I have discussed the episode of the Endeavour at Rio de Janeiro in the Introduction to Cook I, pp. cxxxviii-xl, and in notes to the text of Cook's Journal, and have given the epistolary exchange between Cook and the Viceroy in Appendix I to that volume. There is no essential difference between Cook's account and Banks's, though Banks adds one or two details, in particular on his own movements. The Viceroy, Don Antonio Rolim de Moura (1709–82), had had a distinguished career in the Portuguese imperial service, but seems hardly by nature to have been fitted to cope with scientific reasoning. It also seems very probable that he was acting under recent orders, which made it difficult for him to give the same sort of good reception to an English vessel which Anson had had at the Brazilian island of St Catherine's in 1741 and Byron at Rio in 1764. The Portuguese also were nervous about spies under the guise of scientists, and their treatment of Bougain ville in 1767 led to official complaints by the French government. It was certainly true that the Endeavour looked most unlike a naval vessel, and the English had a bad reputation both as smugglers on the South American coast and as forgers of documents—though, as Cook pointed out, in one of his exchanges with the Viceroy, it would have been difficult to forge officers’ and marines’ uniforms. Gore reports in his journal (18 November) that ‘one suspicion of us among many Others is that our Ship is a Trading Spy and that Mr Banks and the Doctor are both Supercargoes and Engineers and not naturalists for the Business of such being so very abstruse and unprofitable That They cannot believe Gentlemen would come so far as Brazil on that Account only’.
16. The Captn went ashore again and remonstrated particularly against the Centinel that was put in his boat whenever he landed or came aboard, which he was told was a compliment but now found to be a guard. He received no satisfactory answers or rather none at all but that it is the King of Portugals orders.
17. Tird with waiting and remonstrating only in words, both the Captn and myself sent ashore written memorials (of which mine is subjoind as well as another with the answers)1 which complain of his excellency the viceroys behaviour to us as a Kings ship as almost a breach of treaty.
18. Answers to our memorials came on board in which the Captn is told that he has no reason to complain, as such usage as he has receivd has been constantly the custom of the Ports of Brasil and that the Viceroy himself servd an English ship just in the same manner at Bahia; as for me I am told that as I have not brought proper credentials from the Court of Lisbon it is impossible that I can be permitted to land.
1 Banks's memorials are not with his journal, but they are extant both in his drafts now in the Commonwealth National Library, Canberra, and with the copy of his letter to the Earl of Morton, 1 December 1768, B.M., Add. MS 34744 (West Papers, XVIII). See Appendix III, Vol. II, pp. 315–20 below. The original letter has been separated from the copies sent with it: the letter is now in the Nan Kivell collection; the copies of the memorials in the Yale University Library.
This Evening it blew very hard at about South, Puffs coming off about three minutes distant from each other, which seldom lasted above half a minute but in that time were as violent as I ever saw.
At this time Our long boat came on board with 4 cask of rum in her, she with difficulty fetchd the ship and soon after by some mismanagemen[t] which I cannot account for1 broke adrift, carrying with her my small boat which was made fast to her; we had now no boat on board but a small 4 oard yawl, which was immediately sent after her and took her in tow, but notwithstanding all that could be done by the people who rowd in the long boat and those who towd in the yawl she was very soon out of sight, and we were under the greatest uneasiness well knowing that she drove directly upon a reef of Rocks which Runns out from the point of Ilhoa das Ferreiras, just to Leward of where we lay. After remaining in this situation till two in the morning our people cam[e] onboard and told us that the Long boat was sunk, but that they had left her riding to her grapling tho full of water; as for my boat they had in returning to the ship faln in with a reef of rocks, in which dangerous situation they had been obligd to cut her adrift: this was poor comfort tho we were glad to find the people safe, yet the Loss of our long boat which we much feard was perhaps the greatest misfortune that could happen to people who were going as we were upon discoverys.
I should have mentiond that on the detainder of our boats crew a petty officer was sent ashore with the memorials and a letter from the Captn demanding the Boat and men, who was sufferd quietly to go ashore on taking a soldier out of the guard boat; the only answer he got was verbal that the affair could not be settled as yet.
20. This morn the yawl, now the only boat we had, was sent ashore to ask assistance: they returnd about nine and brought with her our boat and crew that had been detaind, as well as another of the Viceroys which had orders to assist us in searching for our boats.
1 Cook mentions no mismanagement. This is not the last time that Banks the landsman casts a sharp critical eye on the sailors.
Our situation this whole day was better imagind than describd: the Shore boat came onboard at noon that the people might have their victuals but brought no news of the Longboat. Tird with expectation I confess I had almost given over all hopes of ever seeing her again, when Just at dark night the pinnace came bringing with her both the boats and all their contents: we now immediately passd from our disagreable though[t]s to a situation as truly happy, and concluded with defying the Viceroy and all that he could do to us.
21. Letters came from the Viceroy to both the Captn and myself, in which he told me very politely that it is not in his power to permit to go ashore; in the captns he raises some doubts of our ship being a Kings ship, so I who could ground my pretensions to going ashore on no other Foundation thought it best to drop them, hoping that by and by when things were more quiet I might have an opportunity of smugling myself ashore.
22. This morn I sent my servants ashore at day break who stayd till dark night and brought off many plants and insects.
23. The viceroys answer to the Captns last memorial came on board in which the Captn is accusd of smugling, which made us all angry but our venting our spleen against the Viceroy will be of very little service to us.
24. My servants went ashore again and brought off many plants &c.
25. This morn Dr Solander went into the town as surgeon of the Ship, to visit a friar who had desird that the surgeon might be sent to him; he receivd civilities from the people rather more than he could expect.1
26. I myself went ashore this morn before day break and stayd till dark night; while I was ashore I met several of the inhabitants who were very civil to me, taking me to their houses where I bought of them stock for the ship tolerably cheap, a porker midlingly fat for 11 shill, a muscovy duck something under two shils &c.
1 Solander does not mention this episode in his letter to Ellis, but gives a rather different account of his day as ‘surgeon's mate’. See below, II, pp. 308–9. Monkhouse, the surgeon, was on shore every day to buy provisions.
The countrey where I saw it abounded with vast variety of Plants and animals, mostly such as have not been describd by our naturalists as so few have had an opportunity of coming here;1 indeed no one that I know of even tolerably curious has been here since Marcgrave2 and Piso about the year 1640, so it is easy to guess the state in which the nat hist of such a countrey must be.
1 The Pocket Book contains 245 specimens collected on this brief encounter with the Brazilian flora.
2 ‘George Marcgrave’ (1610–44) was the German physician and traveller, who with Piso accompanied the Prince of Nassau on his expedition to Brazil in 1636 (cf. p. 178, n. 1 above). He travelled in the country for six years, from Rio Grande to Pernambuco, making observations on geography, astronomy and natural history. These were edited after his death in Guinea in 1644 published with Piso's in the Histaria Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) as Georgii Marggravii historiae rerum naturalium Brasilae libri octo. The first three books are devoted to plants, the others to fish, birds, quadrupeds and serpents, insects, and an imperfect sketch of the country and its inhabitants.
3 See Appendix I, Vol. II, pp. 289–96 below.
4 Dr L. B. Smith suggests these were Tillandsia recuroata and T. usneoides, formerly classified as Renealmiae.
5 Both ‘epidendron’ and ‘Bromelia’ are here used in the general sense, as the terms orchids and bromeliads are today.
6 Neoregelia, most likely N. cruenta (Graham) L. B. Smith, would probably be the first bromeliads encountered on making a beachhead (teste L. B, Smith).
7 Banks here writes ‘Rizophane’ or ‘Rizophanes’, but deletes the word without substitution.
8 George Eberhard Rumpf or Rumphius (1626–93) was a German physician and botanist who went to the East Indies, made his way in 1654 to the Sunda Islands, and entering the service of the Dutch East India Company, became their consul and principal merchant at Amboina. He was a good servant to the Company, but a still better naturalist, and his travels in the islands enabled him to make remarkable collections. In 1669 he was on the point of returning home when he was smitten with total blindness, apparently the result of overwork in an unfavourable climate. This misfortune was followed by the death of his wife and two of his children in an earthquake in 1674. He remained, never theless, for the rest of his life at Amboina, and with the help of secretaries and his son produced his classic Herbarium Amboinense (7 vols, folio, Amsterdam 1741–55); this, together with its supplement or Auctuarium, presented students with a Dutch and Latin text and 695 plates (before his blindness Rumphius was a fine draughtsman). A less important work is the D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer (1705), a folio volume mainly devoted to shells and crustaceans. Banks, it will be seen, refers to Rumphius more than once.
The birds of many species especialy the smaller ones sat in great abundance on the bough's, many of them coverd with most Elegant plumage. I shot Loxia Brasiliensis4 and saw several specimens of them. In sects also were here in great abundance, many species very fine but much more Nimble than our Européans especialy the Butterflies, which almost all flew near the topps of the trees and were very difficult to come at except when the sea breeze blew fresh, which kept them low down among the trees where they might be taken. Humming birds I also saw of one species but could not shoot them.
The banks of the Sea and more remarkably all the Edges of small brooks were coverd with innumerable quantities of small Crabbs, cancer vocans Linn,5 one hand of which is very large. Among these were many both whose hands were remarkably small and of equal size: these my black servant told me were females of the others, and indeed all I examind, which were many, provd to be females tho whether realy of the same species with vocans I cannot determine on so short an acquaintance.
I saw but little cu[l]tivation and that seemd to be taken but little pains with; grass land was the cheif on which were many Lean cattle feeding and lean they might well be, for almost all the species of grass which I observd here were creepers, and consequently so close to the ground that tho there might be upon them a sufficient bite for horses or sheep yet how horned cattle could live at all was all that appeard extraordinary to me.
1 Poinciana pulcherrima, as shown by the existing herbarium collection.
2 A general term for several species of sensitive-leaved Acacias and related genera.
3 Possibly the plant they called Clusia dodecapetala (Pereskia sp.), but the pertinent coll. has not been located—none was preserved in the Pocket Book. See pl. 25.
4 Possibly Ramphocoelus brasilius (Linn.); see pl. 36a of Parkinson I, on the front of which is written in Banks's hand Loxia mexicana’.
5 Uca vocans, one of the fiddler crabs in which the sexes differ as Banks describes. They are noted for the briefly resplendent colours assumed during courtship by the male, who then uses his greatly enlarged claw for beckoning to the female.
In these gardens grow also Yamms and Mandihoca or Cassada which supplys the place of Bread here, for as our Européan bread corn will not grow here all the Flour they have is brought from Portugal at a large expence, too great for even the midling people to purchase much more the inferior ones.
27. This morn when the Boats returnd from watering they brought word that they heard it said in the town that people were sent out in search of some of our people who were ashore without leave: this we concluded meant either Dr Solander or myself which made it nescessary for us to go no more ashore while we stayd.
28. These three days nothing material hapned, Every thing went
29. on as usual only we if possible increasd our haste to be gone
30. from this place.