ly to two or three individuals who
were not able to endure the very great heat. Upon the whole we thought
ourselves very fortunate that, considering the frequency of illness on
board and the violence of the diseases by which some of our people had
been attacked, particularly in the cases of Mr. Bedwell and Mr.
Cunningham, we had only lost one man; and this from a complaint which
even medical assistance might not, perhaps, have cured; and by an
accident which could not have been prevented, for our people were at the
moment so busily employed in working the vessel through a dangerous
navigation that the unfortunate man's situation was not known until the
vital spark was nearly extinct, and too far gone for any human means to
save his life. The thermometer now ranged between 80 and 87 degrees in
the shade; and the fast approach of the sun (the declination of which was
3 degrees South) was daily felt.

CHAPTER 8.
Examination of the coast between Cape Londonderry and Cape Voltaire,
containing the surveys of Sir Graham Moore's Islands, Eclipse Islands,
Vansittart Bay, Admiralty Gulf, and Port Warrender.
Encounter with the natives of Vansittart Bay.
Leave the coast at Cassini Island for Coepang.
Obliged to bear up for Savu.
Anchor at Zeeba Bay, and interview with the rajah.
Some account of the inhabitants.
Disappointed in not finding water.
Leave Zeeba Bay, and beat back against the monsoon to Coepang.
Complete wood and water, and procure refreshments.
Return to Port Jackson.
Pass the latitude assigned to the Tryal Rocks.
Arrival in Sydney Cove.

1819. October 1.

We had now reached a part of the coast which, excepting a few of the
islands that front it, the French expedition did not see: we should
therefore have commenced its examination with more pleasure had we been
in a state better fitted for the purpose; for we were rapidly consuming
our stock of water without any prospect of finding a supply at this
season; and this, added to the loss of our anchors, considerably lessened
the satisfaction we should otherwise have felt in viewing the prospect
before us.

After a calm and sultry morning a breeze from the North-East carried us
towards the land, the situation of which was pointed out by the smoke of
natives' fires. A little before three o'clock it was seen from the deck
and as we stood towards it we narrowly escaped striking on a part of the
shoal that extends off Cape Londonderry: our course was then directed