New Year's Isle is a bed of sand mixed with broken coral, thrown up on a coral reef. It is four or five miles in circumference, and the higher parts are thickly covered with shrubs and brush wood; but much of it is over-run with mangroves, and laid under water by the tide. Fresh prints of feet on the sand showed that the natives had either visited it very lately, or were then upon the island; turtle also had been there, but their traces were of an old date. The reef extends about a mile off, all round; we had 22 fathoms very near the outer edge, and saw no other danger. Broken land was perceived to the southward, probably the inner isles marked by lieutenant McCluer; and six or seven leagues to the S. W. was a part of the main, somewhat higher but equally sandy, which we traced above half a degree to the westward. I made the latitude of the island to be 10° 55' south, and longitude by time keeper corrected 133° 4' east; being 3' more south and 8' less east than Mr. McCluer's position. The variation of the compass, from azimuths taken twenty leagues to the east of New Year's Isle, was 1° 55' east, with the ship's head W. N. W.; and at thirteen leagues on the west side, 1° 20' with the head N. W.; these being corrected to the meridian, will be 0° 23' and 0° 12' east. The tide ran strong to the N. W. whilst it was ebbing by the shore, so that the flood would seem to come from the westward; whereas in the neighbourhood of Cape Arnhem the flood came mostly from the opposite direction: whether this change were a general one, or arose from some opening to the S. E. of New Year's Isle, our knowledge of the coast was too imperfect to determine.
We had continued to have soundings, generally on a muddy bottom, from the time of quitting Wessel's Islands; nor did they vary much, being rarely less than 25, and never more than 35 fathoms. On the 13th [SUNDAY 13 MARCH 1803] at noon we had 34 fathoms, being then in 10° 41' south and 132° 40' east, and the coast still in sight to the southward. The winds then hung in the southern quarter, being sometimes S. W., and at others S. E., but always light; and I steered further off the land, in the hope of getting them more steady. Our soundings gradually increased until the 18th, when the depth was 150 fathoms in latitude 9° 47' and longitude 130° 17'; at midnight we had no ground at 160, but next morning [SATURDAY 19 MARCH 1803] the coral bottom was seen under the ship, and we tacked until a boat was sent ahead; from 7 fathoms on the bank, the soundings in steering after the boat increased to 9, 10, 13, and suddenly to 92 fathoms.
This small bank appeared to be nearly circular, and about four miles round; it lies in latitude 9° 56', longitude 129° 28' and as I judge, about twenty-five leagues from the western extremity of the northern Van Diemen's Land. In some of the old charts there are shoals marked to a considerable distance from that cape; and it seems not improbable, that a chain of reefs may extend as far out as the situation of this bank. We afterwards had soundings at irregular depths, from 30 to 100 fathoms, until the evening of the 26th [SATURDAY 26 MARCH 1803], in 10° 38' south and 126° 30' east; in which situation they were lost. (Atlas, Plate XVI.)
The winds had hung so much in the south-west, and retarded our passage as well as driven us near to the island Timor, that I judged it advisable to obtain refreshments there for my ship's company; under the apprehension that, as the winter season was fast advancing on the south coast of Terra Australis, the bad state of the ship might cause more labour at the pumps than our present strength was capable of exerting. Some of the smaller articles of sea provision., such as peas, rice, and sugar, which formed a principal part of our little comforts, were also become deficient, in consequence of losses sustained from the heat and moisture of the climate, and leakiness of the ship's upper works; and these I was anxious to replenish.
Coepang is a Dutch settlement at the south-west end of Timor and the determination to put in there being made, I revolved in my mind the possibility of afterwards returning to the examination of the north and north-west coasts of Terra Australis, during the winter six months, and taking the following summer to pass the higher latitudes and return to Port Jackson. There was little chance of obtaining salt provisions at Coepang, but there might be a ship or ships there, capable of furnishing a supply, and by which an officer might be conveyed to England; for it was a necessary part of my project to despatch lieutenant Fowler to the Admiralty, with an account of our proceedings, and a request that he might return as speedily as possible, with a vessel fit to accomplish all the objects of the voyage; and I calculated that six months employed upon the North and North-west Coasts, and the subsequent passage to Port Jackson, would not leave much more than the requisite time for refreshing the ship's company before his arrival might be expected. It is to be observed, that the ship had leaked very little in her sides since the caulking done at the head of the Gulph; and the carpenter being now directed to bore into some of the timbers then examined, did not find them to have become perceptibly worse; so that I was led to hope and believe that the ship might go through this service, without much more than common risk, provided we remained in fine-weather climates, as was intended.
MONDAY 28 MARCH 1803
On the 28th, being then in 10° 36' south, and 125° 47' east, the high land of Timor was seen bearing N. 61° W., at the distance of thirty, or perhaps more leagues; but no soundings could be obtained with 90, nor in the evening with 160 fathoms. Next day [TUESDAY 29 MARCH 1803], the light south-west wind suddenly veered to S. E., and blew fresh; and from its dying away at sunset was evidently a sea breeze attracted by the land, which, however, was forty miles off in its nearest part. Our latitude on the 30th [WEDNESDAY 30 MARCH 1803] was 10° 37' 13", longitude 124° 18½', and the land, mostly high mountains, extended from N. N. E. ½ E. to W. N. W., the nearest part was distant seven or eight leagues, but we still had no soundings. The island Rottee is reckoned tolerably high land, but must be greatly inferior to Timor; since the round hill at its eastern end was not seen from the mast head till four this afternoon, when its distance was little more than fifteen leagues. We carried all sail for the strait between the two islands till midnight, and then had soundings in 120 fathoms, muddy ground; an hour and a half afterwards the land was close, and the depth no more than 10 fathoms, upon which we hauled off till morning.
THURSDAY 31 MARCH 1803
At daylight, the north-east point of Rottee was distant two miles, and we steered along the shore, looking for boats and people to obtain intelligence, and if possible some refreshments; but none were seen, although we passed close to a deep and well-sheltered cove. At ten o'clock, when the sandy north point of Rottee was distant one mile and a half, we hauled up north-eastward, across the passage of about six miles wide, between it and the northern lands; for the purpose of entering Samow Strait, which was then open, and of which Mr. Westall took the view given in the Atlas (Plate XVIII, last View). The south-west point of Timor is surrounded by a reef, which extends from half a mile to a mile off, and runs some distance up the strait; both sides of the entrance are low land, yet at eleven o'clock we had no ground between them with 75 fathoms. The width of the entrance is three miles and a half, and continues nearly the same upwards, with a depth of 36 or more fathoms, and no dangers in it, other than the reef before mentioned. From the observations at noon, the extreme south-west point of Timor lies in 10° 22' south, and longitude by survey back from Coepang, 123° 29' east; captain Cook places it in 10° 23' and 123° 55', and calls it the south point, but there is a sloping projection, three leagues to the eastward, which I set in a line with it at E. 2° S.
[NORTH COAST. COEPANG BAY.]