into plank. The greater part of this week the
winds were moderate with unsettled weather.

Friday 29.

On Friday it blew strong from the south-west with rain, thunder, and
lightning. We continued to catch fish in sufficient quantities for
everybody and had better success with the seine. We were fortunate also
in angling in the lake where we caught some very fine tench. Some of the
people felt a sickness from eating mussels that were gathered from the
rocks; but I believe it was occasioned by eating too many. We found some
spider-crabs, most of them not good, being the female sort and out of
season. The males were tolerably good and were known by the smallness of
their two fore-claws or feeders. We saw the trunk of a dead tree on which
had been cut A.D. 1773. The figures were very distinct; even the slips
made with the knife were discernible. This must have been done by some of
captain Furneaux's people in March 1773, fifteen years before. The marks
of the knife remaining so unaltered, I imagine the tree must have been
dead when it was cut; but it serves to show the durability of the wood
for it was perfectly sound at this time. I shot two gannets: these birds
were of the same size as those in England; their colour is a beautiful
white, with the wings and tail tipped with jet black and the top and back
of the head of a very fine yellow. Their feet were black with four claws,
on each of which was a yellow line the whole length of the foot. The bill
was four inches long, without nostrils, and very taper and sharp-pointed.

The east side of the bay being not so thick of wood as the other parts,
and the soil being good, I fixed on it, at Nelson's recommendation, as
the most proper situation for planting some of the fruit-trees which I
had brought from the Cape of Good Hope. A circumstance much against
anything succeeding here is that in the dry season the fires made by the
natives are apt to communicate to the dried grass and underwood, and to
spread in such a manner as to endanger everything that cannot bear a
severe scorching. We however chose what we thought the safest situations,
and planted three fine young apple-trees, nine vines, six plantain-trees,
a number of orange and lemon-seed, cherry-stones, plum, peach, and
apricot-stones, pumpkins, also two sorts of Indian corn, and apple and
pear kernels. The ground is well adapted for the trees, being of a rich
loamy nature. The spot where we made our plantation was clear