From noon we steered North-North-West, and at 6 P.M. Dunk Island bore South-West eight miles distant; our soundings varying, during that period, from thirteen to fifteen fathoms. During the day we had several opportunities of satisfactorily testing the accuracy of Captain King's chart. While passing Barnard's Group, soon after dark, we found a current setting West-North-West nearly a mile an hour, a rate at which it kept during the whole night, but in a North-North-West direction. During the day we had a light breeze from South-South-East, which shifted to West-South-West during the night. Numerous native fires were observed burning on the shore during the first watch, at the foot of the Bellenden Ker hills, remarkable mountains of considerable altitude.
FITZROY ISLAND.
July 2.
Soon after midnight we were abreast of Frankland Group, and at 7 A.M. passed three miles to the eastward of Fitzroy Island, where our soundings increased to seventeen fathoms, with a current running upwards of a mile an hour to the North-West, an increased velocity, which may be accounted for by the proximity of the reefs to a projection of the coast forming Cape Grafton. I must not, however, pass an island which like Fitzroy, carried in its name a pleasing association to many on board the Beagle, without a word of notice, particularly as its features are in themselves sufficiently remarkable, having a singular peaked summit 550 feet high, near the north-east end. On the western side is a little cove where Captain King found snug anchorage.
REEF NEAR LOW ISLES.
Passing midway between Green Island, which is about twenty feet high, encircled with a coral reef, and Cape Grafton, we steered North-West 1/2 North for a shoal on which Her Majesty's Ship Imogene grounded; and at noon, were exactly on the spot, in latitude 16 degrees 24 1/4 minutes South by observations and bearings of the land, Low Isles being West-North-West four miles. Here we found sixteen fathoms, not having had less than seventeen since the morning. There was no appearance of any such reef nearer than that laid down by Lieutenant Roe, bearing east from the above-mentioned Low Isles and under which Her Majesty's Ship Tamar anchored. It must therefore have been on the North-West part of this reef that the Imogene struck, and the south part must be the reef laid down in the chart as having been seen by her to the southward, which accounts for our not seeing it from the Beagle. We passed through several patches of discoloured water, caused by washings from reefs to windward, which are very deceptive. At sunset the anchor was dropped in thirteen fathoms, for the first time since leaving Port Stephens. The south point of Weary Bay bore West-North-West three miles, and Cape Tribulation South by East six miles. Near the middle of the former, I noticed a patch of discoloured water, which has since been found by a merchant vessel to be a shoal.
HOPE ISLANDS.
The land over the latter place is very high, presenting several singular peaks, one more prominent than the rest, in the shape of a finger. That over Trinity Bay, which we were the greater part of the day crossing, is also of great altitude. In its south corner we noticed the river-like opening spoken of by Captain King, lying in the rear of some remarkable peaks. We had been informed by him, that the greater part of the coast between Weary Bay and Endeavour River, including the Hope Islands, had been altered from his original survey, a tracing of which he had furnished us with previous to leaving Sydney. The few bearings we obtained while at anchor, induced us to consider it correct, a fact we further proved during the early part of the next day's run, as the course steered from our anchorage North by West 1/2 West, carried us a little more than a mile west of the Hope Islands. Had their assigned position in the chart been correct, our course would have led us right over the western isle. On detecting this error, we found it necessary to re-survey this part of the coast, and it affords me much pleasure, after so doing, to be able to bear testimony to the extreme correctness of Captain King's original chart above alluded to. Soon after passing the Hope Islands, we saw the reef where Cook's vessel had so miraculous an escape, after grinding on the rocks for 23 hours, as graphically described in his voyages. It is called Endeavour Reef, from this circumstance.
CAPE BEDFORD.
Continuing on the same course, we passed three miles from Cape Bedford, at 4 P.M. This is one of the most remarkable features on the coast, being a bluff detached piece of tableland, surmounted by a singular low line of cliffs, reminding me forcibly of the lava-capped hills on the river Santa Cruz, in eastern Patagonia. As far as I could judge, by the aid of a good glass, it seemed to be composed of a mixture of red sand and ironstone, of a very deep red hue, bearing a great similarity to the country on the North-West coast, in latitude 15 1/4 degrees South.