DAMPIEBl’s ACCOUNT OE NEW HOLLAND.

475

Thefe grow on bullies ; but here are alfo a fruit like beans growing on a creeping fortof lhrub-like vine. There was great plenty of all thefe forts of cod-fruit growing onthe fand-hills by the fea-fide, fome of them green, fome ripe, and fome fallen on theground: but I could not perceive that any of them had been gathered by the natives ;and might not probably be wholefome food.

The land farther in, that is, lower than what borders on the fea, was fo much as wefaw of it, very plain and even ; partly favannahs and partly woodland. The favannahsbear a fort of thin coarfe grafs. The mould is alfo a coarfer fand than that by thefea-fide, and in fome places it is clay. Here are a great many rocks in the large fa-vannah we were in, which are five or fix feet high, and round at top like a hay-cock,very remarkable; fome red and fome white. The woodland lies farther in ftill,where there were divers forts of fmall trees, fcarce any three feet in circumference,their bodies twelve or fourteen feet high, with a head of fmall knibs or boughs. Bythe fides of the creeks, efpecially nigh the fea, there grow a few fmall black mangrove-trees.

There are but few r land-animals. I faw fome lizards; and my men faw two or threebeads like hungry wolves, lean like fo many fkeletons, being nothing but fkin andbones ; it is probable that it was the foot of one of thofe beafts that I mentioned asfeen by us in New Holland. We faw a rackoon or two, and one fmall fpeckled fnake.

The land-fowls that w'e faw here were crows, juft fuch as ours in England, fmallbawks and kites ; a few of each fort: but here are plenty of fmall turtle-doves, thatare plump, fat, and very good meat. Here are two or three forts of fmaller birds,fome as big as larks, fome lefs; but not many of either fort. The fea-fowl arcpelicans, boobies, noddies, curlews, fea-pies, &c. and but few of thefe neither.

The fea is plentifully ftocked with the largeft whales that I ever faw; but not tocompare with the vaft ones of the Northern Seas. We faw alfo a great many greenturtle, but caught none, here being no place to fet a turtle-net in; there being nochannel for them, and the tides running fo ftrong. We faw fome Iharks and parra-coots ; and with hooks and lines we caught fome rock-filh and old-wives. Of Ihell-fifli, here were oyfters both of the common kind for eating, and of the pearl kind ;a nd alfo wilks, conchs, mufcles, limpits, perriwinkles, &c. and I gathered a few ftrangeftells, chiefly a fort not large, and thick-fet all about with rays or fpikes growing inrows.

And thus having ranged about a confiderable time upon this coaft, without findingan y good frelh water, or any convenient place to clean the fhip, as I had hoped for;a ud it being moreover the heighth of the dry feafon, and my men growing fcorbutic* 0r want of refrelhments, fo that I had little encouragement to fearch further, I refolvedto leave this coaft, and accordingly in the beginning of September fet fail towards

■Timor.

On the 12th of December 1699, we failed from Babao, coafting along the iflandTimor to the eaftward, towards New Guinea . It was the 20th before we got as far as■baphao, which is but forty leagues. We faw black clouds in the north-weft, andexpected the wind from that quarter above a month fooner.

That afternoon we faw the opening between the iflands Omba and Fetter, but fearedl P pafs through in the night. At two o’clock in the morning it fed calm, and con-ned fo till noon, in which time we drove with the current back again fouth-weft fix° r feven leagues.

On the 2 2d, fleering to the eaftward to get through between Omba and Fetter, wemet a very ftrong tide againft us, fo that although we had a very frelh gale, we yet

3 P 2 made