As no better success attended a trial which was made the next day with hook and line, the only resource for fresh provision was in birds, the store of which was inexhaustible.
The people having wrought hard for two days, and nearly completed their water the captain allowed them the 27th, as a day of rest, to celebrate Christmas.

Many of them, in consequence of this indulgence, went on shore, and made excursions, in different directions, into the country which they found barren and desolate in the highest degree.
One of them in his ramble, discovered, and brought to our commander, in the evening, a quart bottle, fastened with some wire to a projecting rock on the north side of the harbour.

This bottle contained a piece of parchment, on which was written the following inscription: _Ludovico XV.

Galliarum rege et d.

de Boynes regi a Secretis ad Res maritimas annis 1772 et 1773._ It was clear, from this inscription, that our English navigators were not the first who had been in the place.