apprehend would be diminished to eight, at
the neap tides.

CHAPTER VII.

Departure from Sweers' Island.
South side of C. Van Diemen examined.
Anchorage at Bountiful Island: turtle and sharks there.
Land of C. Van Diemen proved to be an island.
Examination of the main coast to Cape Vanderlin.
That cape found to be one of a group of islands.
Examination of the islands; their soil, etc.
Monument of the natives.
Traces of former visitors to these parts.
Astronomical and nautical observations.

[NORTH COAST. WELLESLEY'S ISLANDS.]

WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER 1802

(Atlas, Plate XIV.)

On the 1st of December we got under way, and passed the reef at the
south-east end of Sweers' Island. I wished to run close along the north
side of this, and of Bentinck's Island, and get in with the main land to
the west; but the shoal water and dry banks lying off them presented so
much impediment, that we steered north-westward for land which came in
sight in that direction. At noon, the land was distant six or seven
miles, and appeared to be the inner part of that great projection of the
main, represented in the old chart under the name of _Cape Van Diemen_;
but the rocky nature of the shore and unevenness of the surface were so
different from the sandy uniformity of the continent, that I much doubted
of its connexion. Our situation at this time, and the bearings taken were
as under:

Latitude, observed to the north and south, 16 deg. 48' 29"
Land of Cape Van Diemen, N. 70 deg. W. to 25 W.
A piece apparently separated, N. 18 W. to 11 E.
Bentinck's I., highest part at the north end, S. 15 E.

A smoke was rising in the direction of Horse-shoe Island, but no land was
there visible.

We had a light breeze at E. by N., and steered westward along the rocky
shore, at the distance of two or three miles, till five in the evening;
when the breeze having shifted to S. W., we tacked and came to an anchor
in 6 fathoms, mud and shells. The land was then distant three miles, and
extended from N. 61 deg. E. to a point with a clump of high trees on it,
which appeared to be the south-west extremity of the northern land and
bore N. 84 deg. W. Whether the space between it and the main near Allen's
Isle were the entrance of an inlet, or merely a separation of the two
lands, could not be distinguished; but the tide set W. by S., into the
opening, and there was a low island and many rocks in it. From an
amplitu