This Done, We Lay Down To Sleep, Having A Stony
Beach For A Bed, And The Canopy Of Heaven For A Covering.
At length the
tide permitted us to take off the sportsmen; and with them we embarked, and
proceeded for
The place where we had left their boat, which, we soon
reached, having a fresh breeze of wind in our favour, attended with rain.
When we came to the creek which was on the N.W. side of Anchor Isle, we
found there an immense number of blue peterels, some on the wing, others in
the woods in holes in the ground, under the roots of trees and in the
crevices of rocks, where there was no getting them, and where we supposed
their young were deposited. As not one was to be seen in the day, the old
ones were probably, at that time, out at sea searching for food, which in
the evening they bring to their young. The noise they made was like the
croaking of many frogs. They were, I believe, of the broad-bill kind,
which, are not so commonly seen at sea as the others. Here, however, they
are in great numbers, and flying much about in the night, some of our
gentlemen at first took them for bats. After restoring the sportsmen to
their boat, we all proceeded for the ship, which we reached by seven
o'clock in the morning, not a little fatigued with our expedition. I now
learned that our friends the natives returned to their habitation at night;
probably foreseeing that rain was at hand; which sort of weather continued
the whole of this day.
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