This evening and all the next day, the wind blew so strong that it was impossible to land; nor did I think it prudent to quit the anchorage, though anxious to commence the survey of the Gulph of Carpentaria. Upon Hammond's Island some fires were seen; but Wednesday Island showed no signs of being inhabited, unless some whitish, conical figures like sentry boxes, were huts; there were bushes and small trees scattered over both islands, but their general appearance was rocky and barren.
The tide here ran nine hours to the westward, at the strongest two-and-half knots; and three hours north-eastward, but scarcely perceptible; which deviation from the regular order was probably caused by the current setting westward. So far as the soundings taken every hour could ascertain the rise, it was at least two fathoms, and high water took place four or five hours after the moon's passage over and under the meridian, and was completed by the three hours tide. According to this, it would be high water here, and low water at Murray's Islands at the same time, which would present a remarkable analogy between this strait and that of Bass to the southward; this however is certain, that the tide set E. by S. one knot and a quarter, at Murray's Islands, at four in the morning; and that two days afterward, at Wednesday Island, it set from one-and-half to two-and-half knots W. by S., from one till seven in the morning. I will not venture to say that the latter part of the flood comes from southwest at the Prince of Wales' Islands, though appearances bespoke it; because captain Cook, who had better opportunity for observation, found it setting from the east, in Endeavour's Strait. He also gives the time of high water at one or two hours after the moon, which comes nearer to what I observed at Murray's Islands.
From azimuths with the surveying compass when the head was S. E. by E., the variation was 3° 32', or corrected to the meridian, 4° 52' east.
TUESDAY 2 NOVEMBER 1802
In the morning of Nov. 2, the wind being more moderate and at E. S. E., we steered between Hammond's Island and the north-western reef, with soundings from 6 to 9 fathoms. Another island appeared beyond Hammond's, to the south-west, which, as it had no name, I called Good's Island, after Mr. Good, the botanical gardener; and we hauled up for it, passing a rock and a small reef between the two. On seeing an extensive shoal ahead, which would have carried us off the land to go round it, we anchored in 7 fathoms, dead coral and shells, with the north end of Hammond's Island bearing N. 64° E., four or five miles. The botanical gentlemen landed on Good's Island; and in the afternoon I took these bearings amongst others, from a hill near its south-west end.
The ship, distant 1¼ miles, N. 58° 0' W.
Wallis' Isles, over the Shoal Cape of Bligh, S. 23 5 W.
Booby Isle, centre, S. 80 0 W.
Northern isles, the westernmost visible, N. 28° 10' to 24 5 W.
Hawkesbury Island, N. 9 15 to 4 0 W.
North-west reef, its apparent termination, N. 38 50 W.
The shoal which stopped our progress did not run off from Shoal Cape, as captain Bligh had supposed, but from a smaller and nearer island, two miles from my station. Within the large island, of which Shoal Cape forms the north-western point, I saw water like an inclosed port, probably the Wolf's Bay of captain Edwards; and it seemed possible that the land may be there divided; but the best information I can give of the forms and extent of all these islands, will be seen in the particular chart.
It was now ascertained, that the figures resembling sentry boxes were ant hills, of eight or more feet high; Pelsert found similar hills on the West Coast, and says they might have been taken for the houses of Indians, as in fact we did take them at a distant view. They were also seen by Dampier on the North-west Coast, who mistook them in the same way; but says he found them to be so many rocks, probably from not making the examination with his usual care. The insects which inhabit, and I suppose erect these structures, are small, reddish, with black heads, and seemed to be a sluggish and feeble race. We found the common black flies excessively numerous here; and almost as troublesome as Dampier describes them to be on the North-west Coast.
Good's Island is between one and two miles long, and resembles the rest of the cluster in being hilly, woody, and rocky, with small beaches on the leeward side. The stone is granitic and brittle; but there is also porphyry, and in one place I found streaks of verdegrease, as if the cliffs above had contained copper ore. A log of wood, resembling the cedar of Port Jackson, was thrown up on the beach, but none of the trees were seen; those scattered over the island, though of various kinds, were small and fit for little else than the fire. A species of silk-cotton plant was plentiful; the fibres in the pod are strong, and have a fine gloss, and might perhaps be advantageously employed in manufacture.
From two supplements of the sun's meridian altitude to the north, the latitude of our anchorage would be 10° 34' 12"; but the supplements observed on the 31st having given 1' 14" too far south, the correct latitude is taken to be 10° 32' 58". The longitude from nine sets of distances of the sun west of the moon, was 142° 23'; but by the corrected time keeper, which I prefer, it was 142° 10½' east. To compare this longitude with that of captain Cook, it must be reduced to some point distinctly laid down by him, and I take Booby Island, which was in sight. According to that navigator, Booby Isle is in 140° 38' east (Hawkesworth, III, 214); whereas I made it to lie in 141° 57', or 1° 19' further east, a difference which certainly appears very extraordinary; but it is still more so, that the island should be laid down 63' of longitude to the west of the high, flat-topped York Isle, instead Of 43' or 44'. To show that the longitude by my time keeper was not much, if any thing too great, I have to observe, that in captain Bligh's manuscript chart of 1792, Mount Augustus is laid down from his time keepers in 142° 14'; and the mean of his lunar observations, taken eight days before and six days afterward, was 16' more east. My time keeper now placed Mount Augustus in 142° 18', or only 4' more east than captain Bligh's chart, consequently in 12' less than by his lunar observations; by which quantity it was also less than the nine sets of distances now taken by lieutenant Flinders.