Two of the three men were advanced in years, and from the resemblance of feature were probably brothers. With the exception of two chiefs at Taheity, these were the tallest Indians I had ever seen; the two brothers being from three to four inches higher than my coxswain, who measured five feet eleven. They were not remarkable for being either stout or slender; though like most of the Australians, their legs did not bear the European proportion to the size of their heads and bodies. The third native was not so tall as the other two; and he was, according to our notions, better proportioned. Their features did not much differ from those of their countrymen on the South and East Coasts; but they had each of them lost two front teeth from the upper jaw. Their hair was short, though not curly; and a fillet of net work, which the youngest man had wrapped round his head, was the sole ornament or clothing seen amongst them. The two old men appeared, to my surprise, to have undergone circumcision; but the posture of the youngest, who remained sitting down, did not allow of observation being made upon him.

After being five minutes with them, the old men proposed to go to our boat; and this being agreed to, we proceeded together, hand in hand. But they stopped half way, and retreating a little, the eldest made a short harangue which concluded with the word jahree! pronounced with emphasis: they then returned to the rafts, and dragged them towards their three companions who were sitting on the furthest rocks. These I judged to be women, and that the proposal of the men to go to our boat was a feint to get us further from them; it did not seem, however, that the women were so much afraid of us, as the men appeared to be on their account; for although we walked back, past the rafts, much nearer than before, they remained very quietly picking oysters. It was not my desire to annoy these poor people; and therefore, leaving them to their own way, we took an opposite direction to examine the island.

This low piece of land is between one and two miles long, and from its form received the name of Horse-shoe Island; there is very little soil mixed with the sand on its surface, and except the mangrove trees upon the shore, it bears nothing larger than bushes. We did not find any huts; but the dried grass spread round two or three neighbouring fire places, marked the last residence of the Indians. Near it were lying several large spiral shells, probably the vessels in which they had brought water from the main land; for none was found on the island, nor was there any appearance that it could be procured. Shells and bones of turtle, some of them fresh, were plentifully scattered around; upon the beach also there were turtle tracks, and several of these animals were seen in the water during the day; but it was not our fortune to take one of them.

In returning to the ship in the evening, I steered from Horse-shoe, to the south-east end of Allen's Isle, and sounded the channel between them; but had only once so much as 3 fathoms. There was consequently no fit passage this way for the ship, and the several low islets to the north-east, precluded the expectation of finding one any where to the west of Bentinck's Island; I therefore judged it most advisable to return, and place the ship between Bentinck's and Sweers' Islands, until the necessary caulking was finished. Natives had been seen on both those islands; and this gave a hope that water might still be found to complete the holds previously to encountering the bad weather of the north-west monsoon, which I had been expecting to set in every day.

SUNDAY 21 NOVEMBER 1802

At daylight next morning the anchor was weighed; and having to work against foul winds, the breadth of the ship passage between Bentinck's Island and the southern main, was ascertained and sounded; and at dusk in the evening we anchored half a mile from the west sandy point of Sweers' Island, in 5 fathoms, small stones and shells. This anchorage between the two islands, though it may not be called a port, is yet almost equally well sheltered, and I named it Investigator's Road; it has the appearance of being exposed between N. N. W. and N. E. ½ N.; but the rocks from each shore occupy nearly one half of the space, and the water is too shallow in the remaining part to admit any surge to endanger a ship.

MONDAY 22 NOVEMBER 1802

Next day, a boat was sent to fish with the seine upon Sweers' Island, and an officer went to the opposite shore to dig for water; the botanists divided themselves into two parties, to visit both islands, and the carpenters began caulking the starbord side of the ship. I repeated the observations under Inspection Hill, for the rates of the time keepers; and being informed on my return, that the midshipman of the seining boat had discovered a small hole containing a little muddy water, with a shell lying near it, I had the place dug out, through the sand and a stratum of whitish clay, to the depth of ten or eleven feet. Under the clay we found a bottom of stone and gravel, and the water then flowed in clear, and tolerably fast. This was a great acquisition; more especially as the spring was not far from the beach at the west point of Sweers' Island, where the casks could be conveniently landed, and where we had had great success in fishing.

The gentlemen who visited Bentinck's Island, found a small lake of fresh water at no great distance from the sea side; and it appeared that the interior part of Sweers' Island, towards the northern end, was occupied by swamps. This comparative abundance of water upon such low islands, and at the end of the dry season, seemed very remarkable; it may perhaps be attributed to the clayey consistence of the stratum immediately under the sand, and to the gravelly rock upon which that stratum rests; the one preventing the evaporation of the rains, and the other obstructing their further infiltration.

TUESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 1802