Page:Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks.djvu/276

218 made in ridges not unlike the South Sea Islands (between the tropics); the tops of these were bare, but in the valleys was plenty of wood.

23rd. As we have now been four days upon nearly the same part of the coast without seeing any signs of inhabitants, I think there is no doubt that this part at least is without inhabitants.

In the evening the land inclined a good deal to the west. We on board were now of two parties, one who wished that the land in sight might, the other that it might not, be a continent. I myself have always been most ﬁrm in the former wish, though sorry I am to say that my party is so small, that I ﬁrmly believe that there are none more heartily of it than myself and one poor midshipman: the rest begin to sigh for roast beef.

4th March. A large smoke was seen, and proved to be an immense ﬁre on the side of a hill which we supposed to have been set on ﬁre by the natives, for though this is the only sign of people we have seen, yet I think it must be an indisputable proof that there are inhabitants, though probably very thinly scattered over the face of this very large country.

9th. The land appeared barren, and seemed to end in a point to which the hills gradually declined, much to the regret of us continent-mongers, who could not help thinking that the great swell from the south-west and the broken ground without it were a pretty sure mark of some remarkable cape being here. By noon we were near the land, which was uncommonly barren; the few flat places we saw seemingly produced little or nothing, and the rest was all bare rocks which were amazingly full of large veins, and patches of some mineral that shone as if it had been polished, or rather looked as if the rocks were really paved with glass; what it was I could not at all guess, but it was certainly some mineral, and seemed to argue by its immense abundance a country abounding in minerals, where, if one may judge