itude was 14 deg. 51' 5", longitude 141 deg. 33', the
extremes seen from the deck bore N. 29 deg. to S. 66 deg. E., and a smoke was
seen rising at S. 28 deg. E. The sea breeze came in from the south-westward;
but the trending of the coast being nearly S. S. E., we lay along it
until past four o'clock, and then tacked off, in 3 fathoms; the nearest
part of the land being distant two or three miles, and the extremes
bearing N. 3 deg. and S. 7 deg. W. At eight in the evening the breeze died away,
and a stream anchor was dropped in 5 fathoms, mud and shells, five or six
miles off shore; where the latitude from an observation of the moon was
15 deg. 5' south.

FRIDAY 12 NOVEMBER 1802

At sunrise, next morning, the ship was steering southward with a land
wind at east; and at seven o'clock we passed an opening near which
several natives were collected. The entrance seemed to be a full mile in
width; but a spit from the south side runs so far across, that there is
probably no access to it, unless for rowing boats: its latitude is 15 deg.
12' south, corresponding with a bight in the Dutch chart to the south of
the second _Water Plaets_; and the variation, with the ship's head in the
meridian, was 4 deg. 43' east. Our course southward was continued at two or
three miles from the shore, in 3 to 4 fathoms; but at eleven o'clock, the
sea breeze having then set in, the depth diminished suddenly to 2
fathoms; and in tacking, the ship stirred up the mud.

The latitude at noon was 15 deg. 25' 20", and longitude 141 deg. 32'; at one
o'clock we steered S. S. W., with the whale boat ahead, and carried from
4 to 6 fathoms until seven in the evening, when the stream anchor was
dropped about four miles from the shore, in 5 fathoms, muddy bottom. This
depth had diminished at daylight [SATURDAY 13 NOVEMBER 1802] to 33/4
fathoms, after a tide had been setting nine hours to the N. by E.; and
for the first time upon this coast it had run with some strength, the
rate being one mile an hour.

We were again under way soon after five o'clock; and at six, being then
four miles from the land, and steering S. S. W., a lagoon was seen from
the mast head, over the front beach. It has doubtless some communication
with the sea, either by a constant, or a temporary opening, but none such
could be perceived. The latitude 15 deg. 53' corresponds with that of _Nassau
River_ in the old chart; and from the examples already had of the Dutch
rivers here, it seems