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.
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