Walkd today from the watering Place to Crusoe hall Mr Phipps’s Habitation of which more when it is finished at Present give him his due he works night & day & Lets the Mosquetos eat more of him than he does of any Kind of food all through Eagerness in the way to him I found Moon wort, Osmunda Lunaria, a Kind of Grass a Plant which seems of the Carex kind dioecious but found only males a Kind of Cuckow flower
18 Walkd out shooting today Killd nothing but found a Plant which I thought had been Peculiar to Lapland, Diapensia Lapponica, it grows however but in one spot & there was only a single Plant of it Wooly Mouse Ear, Cerastium alpinum tomentosum, a small Flower Like a daizy, ?Erigeron ?Philadelphicum, a species of Moss, Bryum, a small nest Nidus, was brought to me by the Master Carpenter who Declard he saw a bee fly out of it When he took it a species of stone which appears white from a great distance Mr Ankille brought me in a species of Owl, Strix ?Ulula, he had shot My servant shot a bird quite Black Neither of which I can find Describd
19 This Morn we had intelligence that a white Bear with two cubbs had been seen on a hill above St Julians a Party was raisd to go in search of her of which I was one but we returnd without success Just as we returnd a shallop with the master of board was Setting Sail to Examine some of the Harbours to the southward I got on board6 in hopes of some opportunity of Gathering Plants or Collecting insects that night we arriv’d at Inglie* in the Mouth of Canada Bay 11 Leagues to the southward of Croque but so late that I had not an opportunity of Collecting any thing the next morn Wind blew to hard for our Vessel to
20 Attempt getting out which gave me an opportunity of Examining a small Island above the Harbour which I found Loaded with Plants I had not seen before in a Wonderful manner …
Banks lists a score of them, including one with “a beautiful Yellow Flower growing on the tops of dry hills a Kind of Anemone in Company with it”: he also observes that there were half a dozen English vessels fishing there and near twice that number of French; “the French indeed have almost the Sole Possession of the Fishery in this Part of the Island Many Harbours (St Julians for instance) not having so much as one Englishman in them they seem to Value & Encourage the trade more than we do sending out infinitely Larger ships and Employing more hands in the Trade.” The next day they looked at two other harbours, Wild Cove and Hilliard’s Arm, where Banks found a most Elegant Plant with red Flowers.
22 here we slept tonight the next morn Early set out for Conche with the wind Directly in our teeth here we found a bad harbour Exposd to both sea and wind only one Englishman & 3 or 4 french were fishing here the Englishman complained grievously of the french hindering him from taking bait by denying him his Proper turn with the Seine while they were fishing and mooring bait boats on the ground where the fish were usualy Caught he told us that if Proper Precautions were not taken mischief would certainly Ensue as the french sent out arms allowing two Musquets to Each Bait boat he had intelligence during this Voyage that the French Carreid on an illicit trade with the Esquimaux indians tho Probably not Countenanced by Government as one ship only had been seen Engaged in it Precautions will be taken this fall to find what ship it is if she ventures to attempt it again this night at 3 o’clock came to the ship very Compleatly tired as we had not Pulld off our Cloaths since we came out nor lodgd any where but in the aft Cuddy of our boat.
After a few more shattering trips of this kind, in which he kept his notes on small pieces of paper so that his book might not be looked into by “Every Petty officer who chose to peruse it” – the only note of ill-humour in the whole journal, in spite of his frequent and very bad seasickness, the cold, and the discomfort and promiscuity of shipboard life – after a few more trips of this kind, Banks came down with
a fever which to my great misfortune Confined me the greatest Part of that month [July, 1766, for which there are no entries at all] to the ship incapable of Collecting Plants at the Very season of the Year when they are the most Plentifull Some few indeed I got by the Diligence of my servant who I sent often Out to bring home any thing he thought I had not got He also shot several birds for me But My situation far too weak and dispirited by my illness to Examine Systematically any thing that was brought has made my Bird tub a Chaos of which I Cannot Give so good an account as I could wish & has left many Blanks in my Plants which I fear I must trouble my good freinds in England to fill up.
As soon as my health was sufficiently Established to be allowed to go on shore I employd my time in Collecting insects & the remainder of the Plants which ought to have been Collected through the month of July and insects tho I was baffled by Every Butterfly who chose to fly away for some time till my strength returned & which it did in an uncommonly short time & I thought myself able to take another Boat Expedition to the Island of Belleisle de Grois for which Place I set out about the 1st or 2nd of this month [August] & was repayd for my Trouble by the acquisition of several Valuable Plants & the sight of a wild Bear who was seen about 4 Miles above Conche into which harbour we were forc’d by Contrary winds
August 6 But Successfull as This Expedition was in itself in its Consequences it was much the Contrary as Several Plants were left at Croque some not in Perfect order for Drying others which as I could every day Procure were Left For the Present Least they should take up time Better employd in Visiting Places I had not seen since my Illness upon my arrival at Croque I found the Ship under orders to Sail without Delay for Chatteaux Bay which the Next morning august 6th She did & met with as Strong a gale of Wind as She Could have feard had she saild at the worst time of the Year which however She weatherd it out Extremely well & on the 9th arrivd at Chatteaux where she Found the Zephyr Captn Omyny & the Wells Cutter Captn Lawson which Last She had sent from Croque before her.
In this trip I for the first time Experienced the happiness of Escaping intirely the seasickness which had so much harrassd me always before in the Least Degree of Rough Weather which I attributed in Great measure to my having been so much at sea in Boats which by being so much more uneasy than the Ship made me less Sensible of her motion.
Here we have remaind Ever since the Ships Company Employd in Assisting in the Building of a Block house in which a leuftenant & 20 men are to be Left in the winter to Defend the winterers & Protect the fishery for the Future from the Indians
The Country about this Place tho much more Barren is far more agreeable than Croque here you may walk for miles over Barren Rocks without being interupted by a Bush or a tree – when there you Could not go as many Yards without being Entangled in the Brushwood it abounds also in Game Partridges of 2 sorts Ducks teal in great abundance But particularly at this season with a Bird of Passage Calld here a Curlew7 from his Great Likeness to the smaller sort of that Bird found in England their Chief food is Berries which are here in Great abundance of Several Sorts with which they make themselves very near as fat & I think tho Prejudicd almost as good as our Lincolnshire Ruff & Reve
about a week after the Curlew8 The Green Plover made its appearance tho not in near so great abundance feeding like him upon Berries!
For most of August Banks abandoned the day-by-day chronicle and wrote in a far more general way: he speaks of the finding of an immense amount of whalebone, carefully buried long ago on the nearby Eskimo Island but now so old as to be utterly decayed, “scarce distinguishable from Birch Bark”, and of a few boat expeditions, one to St Peter’s Bay,
where we found the Wreck of a Birch Bark Canoe a sign Probably that some of the Nfland Indians9 Live not Very far from them tho as Yet we Know nothing of them.
This Subject Leads me to say Something (tho I have as yet been able to Learn Very little about them) of the Indians that inhabit the interior Parts of Newfoundland
