(*Footnote. There is a dry sand at one mile and three-quarters, and another at two miles and a half North-North-West from North Hannibal Island.)
v and w; these shoals are separated by a safe channel of a mile and a quarter wide; v is circular, and has a dry sand at its north-west edge, and a rocky key at its south-west end; the channel between it and Hannibal's Islands is two miles and a half wide: w is nearly four miles long, and is entirely covered; the course between them is west, but, by hauling close round the east end of v, a West by North 1/2 North course will carry a vessel a quarter of a mile to leeward of the west end of w; the north-west extreme of w is three miles and a quarter South 35 degrees West from Islet 1.
The islets 1 and 2 are contained in a triangular-shaped reef, of about a mile and three quarters in extent; they are covered with low trees. Islet 1 is in latitude 11 degrees 28 minutes 45 seconds. Number 3 is a sandy islet crowned with bushes at the north-west end of a coral reef of about a mile and a half in length. Between the two latter reefs there appeared to be a channel of a mile wide in the direction of about North-West. 4, 5, and 6, are sandy islets covered with bushes, on small detached reefs, with, apparently, a passage between each: 4 is in latitude 11 degrees 22 minutes 30 seconds. 7, a small bushy island,* is separated from CAIRNCROSS ISLAND by a channel two miles wide. The latter is a small woody island, situated at the north-west end of a coral reef, more than two miles long and one broad; the north-west point of the reef runs off with a sharp point for about a quarter of a mile from the islet. There is good anchorage under it, but the depth is fifteen fathoms, and the sea is rather heavy at times with the tide setting against the wind; the latitude of its centre is 11 degrees 33 minutes 30 seconds, and its longitude 142 degrees 50 minutes 35 seconds. (See volume 1 and above.)
(*Footnote. A rocky reef extends for two miles to the southward of islet 7. Roe manuscript.)
8, 9, and 10, are low, woody islets: 8 is five miles to the eastward of Cairncross Island; 9 and 10 are to the northward of 8.
11 is also low and woody, but its position was not clearly ascertained.
ORFORDNESS is a sandy projection of the coast under Pudding-pan Hill (of Bligh) the shape of which, being flat-topped, is very remarkable: the hill is in latitude 11 degrees 18 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 43 minutes 35 seconds.
The country between Cape Grenville and Cape York is low and sandy, with but few sinuosities in its coast line: it is exposed to the trade wind, which often blows with great strength, from South-East and South-East by East.
ESCAPE RIVER, in 10 degrees 57 1/2 minutes, is an opening in the land of one mile in breadth, trending in for two or three miles, when it turns to the north, and is concealed from the view; the land on the north side of the entrance is probably an island, for an opening was observed in Newcastle Bay, trending to the south, which may communicate with the river. The entrance is defended by a bar, on which the Mermaid was nearly lost. (Volume 1.) The deepest channel may probably be near the south head, which is rocky. The banks on the south side are wooded, and present an inviting aspect.
NEWCASTLE BAY is nine miles in extent by six deep; its shores are low, and apparently of a sandy character; at the bottom there is a considerable opening bearing West 1/4 North eight miles and a half from Turtle Island.