The next morning I went out in my boat in search of Fresh Water Bay; I landed with my second lieutenant upon Sandy Point, and having sent the boat along the shore, we walked abreast of her.[22] Upon the point we found plenty of wood, and very good water, and for four or five miles the shore was exceedingly pleasant.  Over the point there is a fine level country, with a soil that, to all appearance, is extremely rich; for the ground was covered with flowers of various kinds, that perfumed the air with their fragrance; and among them there were berries, almost innumerable, where the blossoms had been shed:  we observed that the grass was very good, and that it was intermixed with a great number of peas in blossom.  Among this luxuriance of herbage we saw many hundreds of birds feeding, which, from their form, and the uncommon beauty of their plumage, we called painted geese.  We walked more than twelve miles, and found great plenty of fine fresh water, but not the bay that we sought; for we saw no part of the shore, in all our walk from Sandy Point, where a boat could land without the utmost hazard, the water being very shoal, and the sea breaking very high.  We fell in with a great number of the huts or wigwams of the Indians, which appeared to have been very lately deserted, for in some of them the fires which they had kindled were scarcely extinguished; they were in little recesses of the woods, and always close to fresh water.  In many places we found plenty of wild celery, and a variety of plants, which probably would be of great benefit to seamen after a long voyage.  In the evening we walked back again, and found the ships at anchor in Sandy Point Bay, at the distance of about half a mile from the shore.  The keen air of this place made our people so voraciously hungry that they could have eaten three times their allowance; I was therefore very glad to find some of them employed in hauling the seine, and others on shore with their guns; sixty very large mullets were just taken with the seine as I came up; and the gunners had good sport, for the place abounded with geese, teale, snipes, and other birds, that were excellent food.

[Footnote 22:  “We sent the boat to sound between Elizabeth’s and St Bartholomew’s Islands, and found it a very good channel, with very deep water.  On this occasion we saw a number of Indians, that hallooed to us from Elizabeth’s Island.  Both the men and the women were of the middle size, well-made, and with smooth black hair; they appear to be of an olive-coloured complexion, but rendered more red than they are naturally, by rubbing a red earth mixed with grease all over their bodies.  They are very active and swift of foot,” &c.]