took up kedge intending
to sail if wind came to anything, it however kept constantly falling calm
and then a light air would spring up for a few minutes; this kind of
weather obliged me to keep fast. At noon heard distant thunder around us.

"Saturday, February 13th. From 7 P.M. till 10 P.M. constant loud thunder,
vivid lightning and very hard rain later part, till 9 A.M. Was calm then.
A breeze sprung up at east. Hove up our B.* (* Bower, that is anchor.)
and hung by the kedge, by this time it fell calm and our hopes of getting
to sea vanished, needless to observe this kind of weather is as
destructive to the intent of this cruise as gales at sea. I took a walk
along the beach far enough to see all the entrances to this port and by
ascending an eminence was confirmed in my opinion that several of those
dangerous sand rollers had shifted their berths and by so doing had
rendered the channel narrower than hithertofore.

"Sunday, February 14th...At 5 A.M. weighed and made all sail down the
port, by 8 A.M. Grant's Point bore east by north distant 10 miles and
Cape Shanks north-west distant 7 miles; kept running down the land. A.M.
At half-past 10 South Head of the new Harbour or Port north by east 8
miles distant; by noon the island at entrance of harbour bore north half
a mile distant. At this time we had a view of this part of the spacious
harbour, its entrance is wide enough to work any vessel in, but, in 10
fathoms. Bar stretches itself a good way across, and, with a strong tide
out and wind in, the ripple is such as to cause a stranger to suspect
rock or shoals ahead. We carried in with us water from 14 to 16 fathoms.
Kept standing up the port with all sail set.

"Monday, February 15th. P.M. Working up, the port with a very strong ebb
against us, we however gained ground. The southern shore of this noble
harbour is bold high land in general and not clothed as all the land at
Western Point is with thick brush but with stout trees of various kinds
and in some places falls nothing short, in beauty and appearance, of
Greenwich Park. Away to the eastward at the distance of 20 miles the land
is mountainous, in particular there is one very high mountain which in
the meantime I named Arthur's Seat from its resemblance to a mountain of
that name a few miles from Edinburgh...to the north-east by north, about
5 miles from the south shore lies a cluster of small rocky islands and
all round them a shoal of sand; plenty of swans a