the shore; but I saw nobody. All I met with worth observing was two
trees, which were two fathoms or two fathoms and a half in girth, and
sixty or sixty-five feet high from the root to the branches: they had cut
with a flint a kind of steps in the bark, in order to climb up to the
birds' nests: these steps were the distance of five feet from each other;
so that we must conclude that either these people are of a prodigious
size, or that they have some way of climbing trees that we are not used
to; in one of the trees the steps were so fresh, that we judged they
could not have been cut above four days.

The noise we heard resembled the noise of some sort of trumpet; it seemed
to be at no great distance, but we saw no living creature
notwithstanding. I perceived also in the sand the marks of wild beasts'
feet, resembling those of a tiger, or some such creature; I gathered also
some gum from the trees, and likewise some lack. The tide ebbs and flows
there about three feet. The trees in this country do not grow very
close, nor are they encumbered with bushes or underwood. I observed
smoke in several places; however, we did nothing more than set up a post,
on which every one cut his name, or his mark, and upon which I hoisted a
flag. I observed that in this place the variation was changed to 3
degrees eastward. On December 5th, being then, by observation, in the
latitude of 41 degrees 34 minutes, and in the longitude 169 degrees, I
quitted Van Diemen's Land, and resolved to steer east to the longitude of
195 degrees, in hopes of discovering the Islands of Solomon.



CHAPTER V: SAILS FROM THENCE FOR NEW ZEALAND.