Joseph Banks

“ Quite calm today go out in the boat and shoot Procellaria velox (the dove of the 31st) , vagabunda (the grey backd shearwater of the same day) , Passerina (the small mother Careys chicken of the 10th) . Took with the dipping net Medusa vitrea, Phillodoce velella to one specimen of which stuck Lepas anatifera, Doris complanata, Helix violacea, Cancer..... Very few birds were to be seen, there were however some Albatrosses and a kind of Shearwater quite black which I was not fortunate enough to shoot. A large hollow swell from the South. ”

“ Our water is as sweet and has rather more spirit than it had when drank out of the river at Otahite. Our bread indeed is but indifferent, occasiond by the quantity of Vermin that are in it, I have often seen hundreds nay thousands shaken out of a single bisket. We in the Cabbin have however an easy remedy for this by baking it in an oven, not too hot, which makes them all walk off, but this cannot be allowd to the private people who must find the taste of these animals very disagreable, as they every one taste as strong as mustard or rather spirits of hartshorn. ”

“ Pleasant breeze: some birds about us, Albatrosses and black and grey shearwaters.
1769 September 22. Moderate. Few birds cheifly Albatrosses and Pintados; towards night a large flock of Black shearwaters are seen that do not change their place but keep hovering as if some prey was under them; two whales were also seen. Southerly swell still continued.
1769 September 23. Moderate today. Several birds are about the ship cheifly Pintados and Albatrosses; in the evening another flock of Black shearwaters passd the ship and soon after two whales were seen. ”