and would have done very well for a foremast to the Resolution, had
one been wanting. Since trees of this size are to be found on so small a
spot, it is reasonable to expect to find some much larger on the main, and
larger isles; and, if appearances did not deceive us, we can assert it.

If I except New Zealand, I, at this time, knew of no island in the South
Pacific Ocean, where a ship could supply herself with a mast or yard, were
she ever so much distressed for want of one. Thus far the discovery is or
may be valuable. My carpenter, who was a mast-maker as well as a ship-
wright, two trades he learnt in Deptford-yard, was of opinion that these
trees would make exceedingly good masts. The wood is white, close-grained,
tough, and light. Turpentine had exuded out of most of the trees, and the
sun had inspissated it into a rosin, which was found sticking to the
trunks, and lying about the roots. These trees shoot out their branches
like all other pines; with this difference, that the branches of these are
much smaller and shorter; so that the knots become nothing when the tree is
wrought for use. I took notice, that the largest of them had the smallest
and shortest branches, and were crowned, as it were, at the top, by a
spreading branch like a bush. This was what led some on board into the
extravagant notion of their being basaltes: Indeed no one could think of
finding such trees here. The seeds are produced in cones; but we could find
none that had any in them, or that were in a proper state for vegetation or
botanical examination. Besides these, there was another tree or shrub of
the spruce-fir kind, but it was very small. We also found on the isle a
sort of scurvy-grass, and a plant, called by us Lamb's Quarters, which,
when boiled, eat like spinnage.

Having got ten or twelve small spars to make studding-sail booms, boat-
masts, &c., and night approaching, we returned with them on board.

The purpose for which I anchored under this isle being answered, I was now
to consider what was next to be done. We had from the top-mast-head taken a
view of the sea around us, and observed the whole, to the west, to be
strewed with small islets, sand-banks, and breakers, to the utmost extent
of our horizon. They seemed indeed not to be all connected, and to be
divided by winding channels. But when I considered that the extent of this
S.W. coast was already pretty well determined, the great risk attending a
more accurate survey,