Transcript

Ah good day to you all! Lieutenant James Cook here.

On the sand and mud banks of the bay are oysters, mussels and cockles, which I believe are the main food source of the local inhabitants.

They go into the shallow water with their little canoes and pick them out of the sand and mud with their hands. When we first arrived in the bay we landed in two places, one of which the people had but just left as there were small fires and fresh mussels broiling upon them. There were also vast numbers of shells, mussels and oysters in large piles along the beach.

After observing the local Aboriginal people eating the shellfish, we started collecting sufficient amounts of shellfish and fish to feed the crew of the Endeavour.

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