In the morning, we steered out on the north side of the islet, between it and a low point two miles off, with a boat ahead; our soundings being 9, 6, 4, 2½, 5, 8, and soon afterward 23 fathoms. The low point, which has several rocks near it, lies seven or eight miles northward from the south-east extremity of Groote Eylandt; from thence the shore trends westward about four leagues, and forms a large bight, mostly bounded by a sandy beach; but in the middle of it is a point with many rocks. On the west side of the bight, two or three miles back, are the same woody hills which seem to occupy all the middle of the island; and on this side they terminate to the north-east in a bluff. The depth of water at noon was 19 fathoms, and our situation and principal bearings were as under.
Latitude, observed to the north and south, 14° 5' 31"
Longitude by time keeper and survey, 137 3
Groote Eylandt, low eastern point, dist. 4 miles, S. 1 W.
Groote Eylandt, woody hills, the north-east bluff, N. 64 W.
Groote Eylandt, furthest visible extreme, N. 6 W.
We were then steering across the bight before a south-east wind; but the depth of water becoming less, and the wind more dead on the shore, we hauled up N. by E. for the furthest land in sight. At three o'clock, a small opening was seen under the north-east bluff, but our distance of three leagues was too great to distinguish it accurately. Towards evening, when three miles from the shore, the sounding jumped from 9 to 4 fathoms, and we tacked to the south-east; and the night promising to be fine, anchored at dusk in 19 fathoms, mud and sand, with the north-east point of Groote Eylandt bearing N. 33° W., about seven miles (Atlas, Plate XV.); further out lay two small islands, and a hill upon the outermost was set at N. 10° W. The latitude of this anchorage was ascertained, from altitudes of two stars and the moon, to be 13° 53 1/3' south; and an amplitude with the ship's head N. E. by N., gave variation 2° 57', or 4° 4' east, corrected to the meridian.
TUESDAY 11 JANUARY 1803
We had the wind at N. W. in the morning, and steered close to it on the larbord tack, until noon; when the hill on the outer north-east island, bore S. 89½° W., nine or ten miles. The latitude of the hill is 13° 38¼', and from six sets of distances of stars east and west of the moon, its longitude would be 136° 36'; but from the survey and more numerous observations, it is 137° 0½' east.* After a calm the sea breeze came in, and our course was directed for the north-east point of Groote Eylandt; at sunset we approached a rocky islet three or four miles from the point, and anchored under it in 6½ fathoms, sandy ground, with the point bearing S. 5° E., and the furthest visible part, very low and sandy, S. 63° W. five or six miles. On the other side, the north-east islands extended from N. 32° E. to 39° W., with many small rocks scattered along them; the nearest of which, a split rock, was distant a short mile.
[* The apparent error of 24½' in the first longitude, is greater than should exist in the mean result of six sets of distances. There is an interval of three days in the observations of the moon at Greenwich with which these distances were compared; and it seems probable that a great part of the error might arise from that cause.]
WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY 1803
In the morning we steered close to a N. N. W. wind, for the low sandy point, where the shore was found to trend southward; and five or six miles to the west there was other land, moderately high and in some places cliffy, which took nearly a parallel direction; and the bight between them ran so far up towards the north-east bluff of the woody hills, that a junction with the small opening seen on the outside appeared to be probable. A shelving spit extended out from the low point, and on opening the bight our soundings decreased from 6 to 2½ fathoms, which made it necessary to tack; and the wind being adverse to passing within the north-east islands, if indeed there be water enough for a ship, which seemed doubtful, we steered out by the way we had come in.
Having little wind, the isles were not passed till late in the evening, and from the same cause not much progress was made to the westward next day [THURSDAY 13 JANUARY 1803]; but the land was better distinguished than before, and many straggling rocks and two islets were seen to lie off the north end of Groote Eylandt. In the morning of the 14th [FRIDAY 14 JANUARY 1803] we weathered all these, and on the wind dying away, anchored in 11½ fathoms, blue mud; the outer North-point Islet, which lies in 13° 37' south and 136° 45' east, then bore E. 3° S. five miles, and the furthest extreme of a higher cliffy island, S. 38° W. three miles.
I went in a boat to this last island with the botanical gentlemen, intending to take bearings from the uppermost cliffs; but the many deep chasms by which the upper parts are intersected, made it impossible to reach the top in the short time we had to spare, and a few bearings from the eastern low point were all that could be obtained. This was called Chasm Island; it lies one mile and a half from a low point of Groote Eylandt, where the shore trends southward and seemed to form a bay, into which I proposed to conduct the ship.