ve openings unite in the mouth of a river, or that they
branch off from a wide and deep gulf. Moderate and regular soundings
extend far out from Cape Villaret: you will, therefore, in the first
instance, make that headland; and, keeping along the southern shore of
Roebuck Bay, penetrate at once as far as the Beagle and her boats can
find sufficient depth of water; but you must, however, take care not too
precipitately to commit His Majesty's ship among these rapid tides, nor
to entangle her among the numerous rocks with which all this part of the
coast seems to abound; but by a cautious advance of your boats, for the
double purpose of feeling your way, and at the same time of surveying,
you will establish her in a judicious series of stations, equally
beneficial to the progress of the survey, and to the support of your
detached people.

Prince Regent River appears to have been fully examined by Captain King
up to its freshwater rapids, but as the adjacent ridges of rocky land
which were seen on both sides of Collier Bay, were only laid down from
their distant appearance, it is probable that they will resolve
themselves into a collection of islands in the rear of Dampier Land; and
it is possible that they may form avenues to some wide expanse of water,
or to the mouth of some large river, the discovery of which would be
highly interesting.

As this question, whether there are or are not any rivers of magnitude on
the western coast is one of the principal objects of the expedition, you
will leave no likely opening unexplored, nor desist from its examination
till fully satisfied; but as no estimate can be formed of the time
required for its solution, so no period can be here assigned at which you
shall abandon it in order to obtain refreshments; when that necessity is
felt, it must be left to your own judgment, whether to have recourse to
the town Balli, in the strait of Allas, or to the Dutch settlement of
Coepang, or even to the Arrou Islands, which have been described as
places well adapted for that purpose; but on these points you will take
pains to acquire all the information which can be obtained from the
residents at Swan River.

Another circumstance which prevents any precise instructions being given
to you on this head, is the uncertainty that prevails here respecting the
weather which you may at that period find in those latitudes, and which
it is possible may be such as if not altogether to prevent the executi