Mark's Pages

"We walked the rest of Point Venus, trying to reconstruct the narrow promontory described in English maps and journals. A river from which the Endeavour's crew had filled water casks was now a muddy, trash-choked trench. At the approximate site of the fort the English erected, sanitation men raked coconut husks, plastic bottles, Styrofoam, and other refuse into piles and set them alight, filling the air with industrial-smelling smoke."

— Tony Horwitz, Blue Latitudes

This erstwhile river is one of the main reasons the English chose Matavai Bay for their favored anchoring spot. Bligh grew his breadfruit here.