1802.
November.
Tuesday 16.
to a N.N.E. wind, and the soundings remarkably regular, between 3 and 3½ fathoms. Two leagues from the place where the natives had been seen, was a projecting part where the country again became woody; but the coast there, and onward, was as low as before. At noon, the observed latitude was 17° 21′ 15″, and the longitude by time keeper 139° 54′ east; the furthest continuation of the land seen from the mast head, bore W. ½ S., but there was a small lump bearing N. 35° W., towards which we kept up as much as possible. At two o'clock the wind headed, and on coming into 2½ fathoms, we tacked; being then five miles from the low southern land, and three or four leagues from the northern hill, which bore N. 18° W. Not much was gained in working to windward from that time till dusk; and the anchor was then dropped in 4½ fathoms, blue mud, no other land than the small hill being in sight.
There being no island marked in the Dutch chart so near to the head of the Gulph as this hill, made me conclude that it was upon the main land; and to hope that the space of four leagues, between it and the southern coast, was an opening of some importance. In the morning,Wednes. 17. a fresh land wind at south-east favoured our course, the water deepened to 10 fathoms, and at eight o'clock to no ground with 13, near the south end of a reef extending out from the hill. On coming into 5 fathoms behind the reef, the anchor was dropped on a muddy bottom, with the hill bearing N. 15° E., one mile and a quarter, and the dry extremity of the reef S.E. ½ E. The coast to the southward was scarcely visible from the mast head, but land was seen to extend westward from the hill, as far as nine or ten miles; and in order to gain a better knowledge of what this land might be, I went on shore, taking instruments with me to observe for the rates of the time keepers.
The hill proved to be a mass of calcareous rock, whose surface was cut and honey-combed as if it had been exposed to the washing of a surf. It was the highest land we had seen in Carpentaria, after having followed one hundred and seventy-five leagues of coast;
