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Updated: May 1, 2025
That most expert of fly-catchers, Dionaea, of which so much has been written and so little known until lately, came very near revealing its secret to Solander and Ellis a hundred years ago, and doubtless to John Bartram, our botanical pioneer, its C probable discoverer, who sent it to Europe.
In the A.M. I went in the Pinnace to the head of the bay, accompanied by Drs. Solander and Monkhouse, in order to Examine the Country, and to try to form some Connections with the Natives. In our way thither we met with 10 or 12 of them fishing, each in a Small Canoe, who retir'd into Shoald water upon our approach.
In the evening, the weather having become fair and moderate, the boats were again ordered out, and I landed, accompanied by Mr Banks and Dr Solander. We were received with great expressions of friendship by the natives, who behaved with a scrupulous attention not to give offence.
During our absence, the TAMERLANE had been joined by the ELIZA ADAMS, the MATILDA SAYER, the CORAL, and the RAINBOW; and it was evident that no whale venturing within the radius of the Solander in the daytime would stand much chance of escaping such a battery of eager eyes. Only three days elapsed after our arrival when whales were seen.
They were dismissed with many presents, and when they went away saluted with nine guns: Mr Banks and Dr Solander went ashore with them; and as soon as they put off they gave us three cheers.
Solander, who, in the prime of life, and the first of them at great expense to himself, quitted all the gratifications of polished society, and engaged in a very tedious, fatiguing, and hazardous navigation, with the laudable views of acquiring knowledge in general, of promoting natural knowledge in particular, and of contributing something to the improvement and the happiness of the rude inhabitants of the earth.
One of the houses visited by Cook, in company with Messrs. Banks and Monkhouse, Dr Solander and others, on his first landing, was that of Tootahah, a middle-aged man, who seemed to be a person of rank.
Tupia, after his first flow of spirits had subsided, grew every day worse and worse; and Tayeto was seized with an inflamation upon his lungs. Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander were attacked by fevers, and in a little time almost every person both on board and on shore, was sick. The distress of our people was indeed very great and the prospect before them discouraging in the highest degree.
That the bay was full of fish, and capable of giving food to a large population, Captain Cook had ample proof; for going with Mr Banks and Dr Solander to a cove on the north side of the bay, in three or four hauls with the seine they took above three hundredweight of fish.
As the whole landscape is thus coloured, it has a sombre, dull appearance; nor is it often enlivened by the rays of the sun. One side of the harbour is formed by a hill about 1500 feet high, which Captain Fitz Roy has called after Sir J. Banks, in commemoration of his disastrous excursion which proved fatal to two men of his party, and nearly so to Dr. Solander.
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