CAPTAIN COOK ’S FIRST VOYAGE. 547
"wife tormented with the perpetual hinging of mufquitoes. In the interior parts of thecountry they found gum-trees, on the branches of which were white ants nefts formedof clay, as big as a bufhel. On another tree they found black ants, which formedtheir lodging in the body of it, after they had eaten away the pith ; yet the trees werein a flourilhing condition. They found butterflies in fuch incredible numbers, thatwhatever way they looked, many thoufands were to be feen in the air, while everybough and twig was covered with multitudes. They likewife difcoveredon dry ground,where it was fuppofed to have been left by the tide, a fifh about the fize of a minnow,having two ftrong breaft fins, with which it leaped away as nimbly as a frog : it didnot appear to be weakened by being out of water, nor even to prefer that element tothe land ; for when feen in the water it leaped on fhore, and purfued its way. It waslikewife remarked, that where there were fmall ftones projecting above the water, itchofe rather to leap* from one ftone to another, than to fwim. There was no goodWater to be found here, therefore they did not lay the fhip alhore as they intended.
On Tuefday, they faw very large columns of fmoke rifing from the low lands. Thisday they gave name to Cleveland Bay, the eaft point of which was called Cape Cleve-land, and the weft Magnetical Ifle, becaufe the compafs did not traverfe well whenthey were near it. Hence they ranged northward along the fhore, towards a dullerof iflands, on one of which about forty men, women, and children were Handingtogether, and looking at the fhip with a curiofity never obferved among thefe peoplebefore. Here Meffrs. Banks and Solander went on fhore with the captain, whofe chiefview was to procure water, which not being eafily to be got, they foon returned onboard, and the next day arrived near Trinity Bay, which was fo called, becaufe it wasdifcovered on Trinity Sunday.
As no accident remarkably unfortunate had befallen our adventurers, during a navi-gation of more than thirteen hundred miles, upon a coaft every where abounding withthe mod dangerous rocks and Ihoals, no name expreffive of diftrefs had hitherto beengiven to any cape or point of land which they had feen. But they now gave the name°f Cape Tribulation to a point which they had juft difcovered, as they here becamea cquainted with misfortune.
This cape is in 16 0 6' fouth latitude, and 214 0 39' weft longitude.
To avoid the danger of fome rocks they Ihortened fail and kept Handing off fromjtx o’clock in the evening till near nine, with a fine breeze and bright moon. Theyhad got from fourteen into twenty-one fathom water; when fuddenly they fell intotwelve, ten, and eight fathom, in a few minutes. Every man was ififtantly orderedt° his ftation, and they were on the point of anchoring, when, on a fudden, they hada gain deep water, fo that they thought all danger was at an end, concluding they hadld fted over the tail of fome ihoals which they had feen in the evening. They hadf tventy fathom and upwards before ten o’clock, and this depth continuing fome time,he gentlemen, who had hitherto been upon deck, retired to reft ; but in lefs than an^our the water fhallowed at once from twenty to feventeen fathom, and before found-j. n S s could be again taken, the fhip ftruck againft a rock, and remained fixed, but*°m the motion given her from the beating of the furge. Everyone was inftantly onock, with countenances fully exprefiive of the agitation of their minds. As they knew
e y were not near the fhore, they concluded they had ftruck againft a rock ol coral,
. e points of which being {harp, and the furface fo rough, as to grind away whateverls rubbed againft it, though with a gentle motion, they hadreafon to dread the horror0 '■heir fituation!
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