Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/317

 dampier's voyages. 161

of shells as here, though I know they also gather'd some shell fish. The lances also of those were such as these had ; however, they being upon an island, with their women and children, and all in our power, they did not there use them against us as here on the continent, where we saw none but some of the men under head, who come out purposely to observe us. We saw no houses at either place ; and I be- lieve they have none, since the former people on the island had none, tho' they had all their families with them.

Upon returning to my men I saw that tho' they had dug eight or nine foot deep, yet found no water. So I return'd aboard that evening, and the next day, being September 1st, I sent my boatswain ashore to dig deeper, and sent the sain ■with him to catch fish. While I staid aboard I observed the flowing of the tide, which runs very swift here, so that our nun-buoy would not bear above the water to be seen. It flows here (as on that part of N. Holland I described formerly) about five fathom ; and here the flood runs S.E, by S. till the last quarter ; then it sets right in towards the shore (which lies here S.S.W. and N.N.E.) and the ebb runs N.W. by N. "When the tides slackned we fish'd with hook and line, as we had already done in several places on this coast, on which in this voyage hitherto we had found but little tides ; but by the heighth, and strength, and course of them hereabouts, it should seem that if there be such a passage or streight going through eastward to the great South Sea, as I said one might suspect, one would expect to find the mouth of it somewhere between this place and Rosemary Island, which was the part of New Holland I came last from.

Next morning my men came aboard and brought a rund- let of brackish water, M^hich they got out of another well that they dug in a place a mile off, and about half as far from the shore ; but this water was not fit to drink. How- ever we all concluded that it would serve to boil our oat-

Y