the morning, when we
broke one of our anchors, through an original defect; which surely
deserves much blame, but for which I refer to a certificate I made on
the subject. We now steered for the seeming harbour or bay of St
Augustine, having from our former anchorage in sailing towards it, from
ten to twelve and twenty fathoms; and on coming near the point of the
bay, we had no ground with 100 fathoms, till we came far into the bay,
our skiffs going before, and then had ground at thirty, shoaling to
eight fathoms. We anchored in eighteen fathoms, and laid out another
anchor in forty fathoms, the deepest water being on the south shore, the
other being made shallow by the coming down of rivers. The land bore W.
by S. and N. from our anchorage, and to the north are certain shoals on
which the sea breaks, so that it was only open to five points of the
wind; but the road is very full of pits and deep water, and a strong
stream runs always down from the river.

Captain Hawkins came on board me, and, as I was very unwell, I sent him
ashore with the boats of both ships. He returned on board towards night,
without having seen any people, though their tracks were quite recent in
several places. He left some beads and other trifles in a canoe, to
allure the natives. In his opinion we had small chance here of any
refreshments; but my fishers from the other side of the bay told me of
having seen great store of beasts bones, and bones certainly have once
had flesh. George Evans, one of the Hector's men, was severely bitten by
an _alegarta_, [alligator.] I gave orders to fill our water casks with
all speed, and propose in the mean time to seek for refreshment. The
tide flows here _nearest east_,[161] and rises high. The 21st we saw
four natives, to whom I sent some beads and other baubles, making them
understand by signs that we were in want of cattle, when they promised
in the same manner to bring plenty next day. Seeing people on shore next
day, I went a-land, and found them a subtle people, strong-built and
well-made, almost entirely naked, except a cloth of bark carelessly hung
before them. We bought a calf, a sheep, and a lamb, but they would only
deal for silver. In the afternoon I rowed up the river, which I found
shallow and brackish. The 24th we bought three kine, two steers, and
four calves, which cost us about nineteen shillings and a few beads.
These cattle have far better flesh than those we got at Saldanha, and
have bunch