At noon,

Latitude observed, 16° 11½'
Longitude by time keeper, 137 53
The extremes of the land bore S. 21° E. to 89 W.
Nearest part, dist. 3 miles, S. 35 W.
Small opening, supposed R. Van Alphen, S. 3 W.

This opening may be half a mile in width, but a dry sand runs across from the west side, and left no prospect of its being accessible to the ship; the shoal water, indeed, extended further out than usual, being caused, probably, by a deposit of sand from the inlet. The range of low hills, before mentioned as running behind the coast, was still perceived; but in front, the country was low as before, and somewhat less covered with wood.

The direction of the coast, which had been from north to north-west the day before, was now again W. N. W.; and after making a tack at noon, in 3 fathoms, and stretching off for an hour, we lay along it till near eight o'clock. At that time the depth diminished from 3½, suddenly to 2½ fathoms; and before the helm was put down the ship touched upon a rock, and hung abaft. By keeping the sails full she went off into 3 fathoms, but in five minutes hung upon another rock; and the water being more shallow further on, the head sails were now laid aback. On swinging off, I filled to stretch out by the way we had come; and after another slight touch of the keel we got into deep water, and anchored in 4 fathoms, on a bottom of blue mud. The bad state of the ship would have made our situation amongst these rocks very alarming, had we not cleared them so quickly; but the water was very smooth at this time, and it could not be perceived that any injury had been sustained.

Our distance here from the shore was three miles. It is very low and broken, with many dry rocks and banks lying near it; and in the space of seven or eight miles we had counted five small openings, and behind them some lagoons were perceived from the mast head. The Abel Tasman's River of the old chart is marked in about this situation; and however little these shallow openings and salt lagoons resemble a river, there is no other place to which the name could have been applied.

I was preparing to take altitudes of the star Rigel, to ascertain our longitude at this anchorage, when it was found that the time keepers had stopped, my assistant having forgotten to wind them up at noon. In the morning [SUNDAY 12 DECEMBER 1802] they were set forward, and altitudes of the sun taken to find their errors from the time under this meridian. The moon and planet Mars had been observed in the night, from which, and the noon's observation following, the latitude of the anchorage was ascertained to be 16° 7½'; and a projection on the west side of the R. Van Alphen, which had been the nearest shore at the preceding noon, was now set at S. 64½° E. From these data and from the log, I ascertained the difference of longitude, from half past ten in the morning of the 11th, when the last observations for the time keepers had been taken, to be 20' 18"; and that this anchorage was in 137° 37' 18" east. The errors from mean Greenwich time were thence obtained; and they were carried on as before, with the rates found at Sweers' Island, which it was to be presumed, had undergone no alteration from the letting down, since none had been caused by former accidents of the same kind. An amplitude taken when the ship's head was W. N. W., gave variation 3° 46', or 1° 47' east, corrected to the meridian; being nearly a degree less than on the east side of the River Van Alphen, when the land lay to the west of the ship.

Soon after seven o'clock the anchor was weighed; and the breeze being at N. W., we stretched off till noon, when the observed latitude from both sides was 16° 2' 11", and the land was nine or ten miles distant; but the only part visible from the deck was the range of low hills, two or three leagues behind the shore. We then tacked to the westward, and kept closing in with the coast until sunset; at which time the corrected variation was 1° 47' east, as on the preceding evening, and the following bearings were taken.

Eastern extreme of the shore S. 31° E.
Small opening, dist. 4 or 5 miles, S. 54 W.
Western extreme of the main, a sandy head, N. 75 W.

Beyond the head, much higher land than any we had passed in the gulph was seen from aloft as far as N. W. by N. This I expected was the Cape Vanderlin of the old chart; and if so, there ought to be a large double bay between it and the sandy head; and in fact, no land was visible there in a space of two points.

Our course along the shore was prolonged till dusk, when we tacked in 3½ fathoms; and on getting 4½, came to an anchor upon fine sandy ground. In the morning [MONDAY 13 DECEMBER 1802], the wind was light from the south-westward, and little progress was made until the sea breeze set in. At noon, our situation was in