[* See Shortland's Journal and Charts in Phillip's Voyage, fourth Edition; and "Discoveries of the French," by M. Fleurieu, late minister of the French Navy: a very ingenious and able work on the discoveries of the French and Spaniards in the South Seas.]
Whether these islands, which I have last mentioned are Captain Carteret's nine islands, or those Lieutenant Shortland saw, I will not be very positive; he says, they extended north-west by west and south-east by east; the direction is nearly the same, and the distance in that direction is fifteen leagues, and their number nine. We did not see much more than half that distance, in which seven only were to be seen.
Our latitude, considering that he passed round the north end, and we the south, will agree very well; and with respect to longitude, his was determined by the reckoning of the ship, mine by lunar observations, and the difference is only about a degree.
At day-light in the morning of the 19th, we saw Sir Charles Hardy's Island, bearing north 2° 00' west, five leagues distant; and Winchelsea, (or Lord Anson's Island, as marked in Captain Carteret's chart) south 48° 00' east; this last was certainly the point which terminated the high land before-mentioned, for we had kept it in sight since the evening before, and were a-breast of it at two in the morning, and were not more than fourteen or fifteen miles from it. Its latitude will be 5° 08' south, and the longitude 154° 31' east. Sir Charles Hardy's Island is low, level, and covered with wood; its latitude is 4° 41' south, and the longitude 154° 20' east.
At noon on the 19th, we saw high land bearing from west to west-north-west. It was very cloudy over it, so that we could not see its extent to the northward; it was distant eight or nine leagues: the west point of it was, no doubt, Cape Saint George, New Ireland. At six in the afternoon of the 20th, Cape Saint George bore north 80° 00' west, five leagues distant. We had light winds during the night, and in the morning, the land was so covered with clouds that we could not discover the extremity or point of the Cape; we steered to the north-north-west, having found, from the general bearings of the land, that we had been set to the southward during the night: at noon it was clearer, and the Cape bore north 14° 00' east ten or eleven miles distant. We had very light and baffling airs during the night of the 21st, which made me apprehensive, from what Captain Carteret has said of strong westerly currents here, that as we had now opened St. George's Channel, we might be set past both Gower and Carteret's harbours, before we could get as much wind as would command the ship; for she was as dull and heavy sailing a vessel as I ever was embarked in, and in my opinion was wholly unfit for the service she was now employed in. When any other vessel would be going three knots with a light wind, we could scarcely give her steerage-way.
In the evening, finding, as I apprehended, the ship setting fast to the westward, we hauled up to the eastward, in order to keep as near the Cape as possible, until day-light. That night also we had little wind, and that was variable; we kept her head as much as possible to the eastward, and at eight in the morning the Cape bore north 16° 00' east, distant eleven or twelve miles; which was much farther off than I wished; at the same time, a projecting point on the coast of New-Britain bore west north-west: we were becalmed most of this day, and were still setting to the westward. In the afternoon of the 22d, a very light breeze sprung up from the eastward, with which we endeavoured to get within Wallis's island; we sounded frequently, but had no ground with 130 fathoms of line: this situation was truly distressing, for although we had every thing set, we could not force the ship more than a knot and a half through the water, and had the mortification to see that we were driving to the westward: about two o'clock the breeze freshened up a little, and although we were within three miles of anchorage in Gower's harbour, we saw plainly we could not fetch it; however I had hope, as Carteret's harbour is laid down in the chart four leagues to leeward of it, that we might with ease get in there; we had a boat in shore at this time sounding, and it was the general opinion, that unless we bore away soon, we should not run the distance before dark, we therefore made the signal for the boat, and bore away.
The northermost point in sight from the ship was, according to the sketch made in the Swallow, Point Carteret; we considered the north-west entrance as near to that point, but intended of course to avail ourselves of being to windward to go in at the southermost passage. The distance, as I have already mentioned, being marked four leagues from Wallis's Island to Carteret harbour, unfortunately deceived us; and Cocoa-nut island being low, when compared with the high land under which it lies, appeared like a low point projecting from it: we were past the south entrance of this harbour, before we thought ourselves within six miles of it, and had now a strong south-east wind, which two hours sooner, would have enabled us to have got into English Cove, in Gower harbour: the distance from harbour to harbour did not appear to me to be more than two leagues, if so much. It was our misfortune, that the distances marked in the sketch just mentioned, did not agree with our judgment of them.
And there is another error which I must take the liberty to correct, and which also tended to deceive us; Point Carteret, in the Swallow's sketch, is the extremity of the land westward, which can be seen from a ship off Gower harbour, and the land from that point inclines immediately to the northward; but there is a point which lies north-west from Point Carteret, not less than four miles, and from that point the land trends to the northward: this point comes suddenly down from very high land to a round bluff point, which is steep to, and Point Carteret is low and woody. We discovered our mistake when it was too late to recover it in such a vessel.
We ran along the shore close in, and endeavoured to find anchorage; we had also a boat a-head for the same purpose, but although we went sometimes within a cable's length of the shore, we could not find bottom. Our situation now became serious, for our water was become short, and we had yet a long voyage before us; it was now absolutely necessary to look for some supply of that article, and as we were only victualled for sixteen weeks when we left Port Jackson, and had already been eight at sea, we could not on that account lose much time, lest we should meet with calms as we came near the Line. Full allowance of water, in so sultry a climate, and so crowded a ship, was a matter which I was exceedingly anxious about, for without a sufficiency of that article, sickness amongst the people was much to be dreaded.
Before we went any farther to the northward, I was determined to try the coast of New-Britain; we therefore stood over for that land, intending, if possible, to find an anchoring place. On the morning of the 22d, we came within three or four leagues of the shore; it then fell calm, and the boat was sent in shore with Mr. Keltie, the master of the Sirius, who had directions to make a certain signal if he found anchorage: in the afternoon, a light breeze sprung up, which enabled us to stand in and meet the boat. Mr. Keltie reported, that the part of the coast which he had been in with, was streight, and had no appearance of any sort of bay, or the smallest probability of anchorage; that he had frequently tried to get bottom within three cables length of the shore, but without success. On this coast we found a regular tide, its general direction was south-east and north-west.