d, containing a parchment record of our visit,
and of the names bestowed upon the bays and islands hereabout.

Three natives were observed walking along the sandy beach, at the bottom
of the bay; but they passed on without taking the least notice of our
presence.

We left the anchorage on the 13th, and crossed the bottom of the bay
within Copeland Island: then steering up the west side we passed a large
opening, trending to the North-West. Here we were detained for some time,
by grounding upon a sandbank. But by keeping the sails full, the vessel
dragged over it, and we resumed our course to the northward, along the
west side of Mountnorris Bay; and, at sunset, anchored between it and
Darch's Island, which protected us from both the wind and swell, during a
very squally night. Darch's Island, so named after my esteemed friend,
Thomas Darch, Esquire, of the Admiralty, is, like Valentia Island, very
thickly wooded. Its eastern side is a continued bluff cliffy shore, but
the north and south ends are low, and terminate with a shoal; which, off
the former, is of rocks; and near its extremity is a single mangrove
bush, which was seen and set from Copeland Island's summit.

April 14.

The next morning, at daylight, we passed round the north extremity of the
island, which was named Cape Croker, in compliment to the first secretary
of the Admiralty; and anchored on the north side of a bight round the
cape, which was subsequently named Palm Bay.

In the afternoon we landed, and ascending the hill or bank behind the
beach, obtained a view of the coast of the bay: a distant wooded point,
called, from its unusual elevation, High Point, bounded our view to the
south; but to the South-West some patches of land were indistinctly
visible. Tracks of natives were seen in many places, and the marks of
footsteps on the beach had been very recently impressed. On the bank a
circular spot of ground, of fifteen yards in diameter, was cleared away,
and had very lately been occupied by a tribe of natives. The island is
thickly wooded with a dwarf species of eucalyptus, but here and there the
fan palm and pandanus grew in groups, and with the acacia, served to vary
the otherwise monotonous appearance of the country. The soil, although it
was shallow and poor, was covered with grass, and a great variety of
shrubs and plants in flower, which fully occupied Mr. Cunningham's
attention. As we proceeded through the trees, a group of lofty palms
att