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The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With the journal of her first commander Lieutenant James Grant by Ida Lee
page 50 of 327 (15%)
westward of Seal Islands there will be found sufficient room for any
number of vessels to beat in. Mr. Bass, when he visited this place in the
whale boat, entered the port by the eastern passage which is much the
smallest, and coasting the western shore, from whence he made his
remarks. It is probable that these islands, lying so close to the western
side of him, did not show themselves to be detached...It had rained
constantly and heavily all night and...we could not see any great
distance from the vessel therefore I kept the lead going as she worked up
the harbour."

At half-past five she was "brought to" opposite to a sandy point which he
named Lady Nelson's Point "as a memorial of the vessel as she was the
first decked one that ever entered this port...Mr. Barrallier went on
shore with the second mate. They saw black swans and redbills, an aquatic
bird so called whose back is black, breast white, beak red and feet not
fully webbed. On Sunday 22nd or, according to our sea account the 23rd at
noon, I went with two of our crew in the smallest boat to search for a
river or stream described by Mr. Bass."

In proceeding along the shore Grant passed a muddy flat, and fell in with
an island* (* The log says this island bore north-north-west, 2 miles.)
"separated from the main by a very narrow channel at low water."...On
this he landed. "The situation of it was so pleasant that this together
with the richness of the spot made me conceive the idea that it was
excellently adapted for a garden." The island was called Churchill's
Island after John Churchill, Esquire, of Dawlish, in the county of Devon,
who, when the Lady Nelson left England, had given her commander vegetable
seeds, the stones of peaches, and the pips of several sorts of apples,
telling him "to plant them for the future benefit of our fellow-men, be
they countrymen, Europeans or savages." Captain Schanck had also supplied
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