Had we even recognised the bay above alluded to by Dampier before we passed round Cape Leveque, we could not have anchored in it for the wind was blowing strong from the northward, and a heavy swell was rolling, which would have placed us in rather a dangerous situation, besides its being exposed to easterly winds, which for the last two or three days had blown very strong. During the time we had been among these islands, we had not met with a single spot that we could have anchored upon without the almost certain loss of our anchor; and the weather had been so very thick and hazy that only the land in the vicinity of the vessel's situation could be at all distinguished; and these disadvantages, added to the great strength of the wind and the rapidity of the tides, had materially prevented us from making ourselves better acquainted with the place. It is remarkable that as soon as we passed round the Champagny Isles, hazy weather commenced, and continued without intermission until we were to the westward of Cape Leveque. The French complain of the same thing; and they were so deceived by it that, in their first voyage, they laid down Adele Island as a part of the main, when it is only a sandy island about two or three miles long. No natives were seen on any of the islands but there were many large smokes on the horizon at the back of Cygnet Bay.
We were now beginning to feel the effects of this fatiguing duty. One-fourth of the people who kept watch were ill with bilious or feverish attacks, and we had never been altogether free from sickness since our arrival upon the coast. Mr. Montgomery's wound was, however, happily quite healed, and Mr. Roe had also returned to his duty; but Mr. Cunningham, who had been confined to the vessel since the day we arrived in Careening Bay, was still upon the sick list. Our passage up the east coast, the fatigues of watering and wooding at Prince Regent's River, and our constant harassing employment during the examination of the coast between Hanover Bay and Cape Leveque, had produced their bad effects upon the constitutions of our people. Every means were taken to prevent sickness: preserved meats were issued two days in the week in lieu of salt provisions; and this diet, with the usual proportions of lemon-juice and sugar, proved so good an anti-scorbutic that, with a few trifling exceptions, no case of scurvy occurred. Our dry provisions had suffered much from rats and cockroaches; but this was not the only way these vermin annoyed us, for, on opening a keg of musket ball cartridges, we found, out of 750 rounds, more than half the number quite destroyed, and the remainder so injured as to be quite useless.
August 21.
The following day we made very little progress, from light winds in the morning and a dead calm the whole of the evening. At sunset we anchored at about four miles from the shore, in seventeen fathoms sandy ground.
During the afternoon we were surrounded by an immense number of whales, leaping out of the water and thrashing the sea with their fins; the noise of which, from the calmness and perfect stillness of the air, was as loud as the report of a volley of musketry. Some remorae were also swimming about the vessel the whole day, and a snake about four feet long, of a yellowish brown colour, rose up alongside, but instantly dived upon seeing the vessel.
August 22.
High-water took place the next morning at twenty-six minutes after six o'clock, at which time we got underweigh with a moderate land-breeze from South-South-East, and steered to the southward along the shore. At noon we were in latitude 16 degrees 30 minutes 19 seconds, Cape Borda bearing South 42 1/2 degrees East. Soon after noon the sea-breeze sprung up from the northward and, veering to North-West, carried us to the southward along the coast which is low and sandy. At three o'clock we were abreast of a point which was conjectured to be the land laid down by the French as Emeriau Island; the name has therefore been retained, with the alteration only of Point for Island. To the eastward of Cape Borda the coast falls back and forms a bay, the bottom of which was visible from our masthead and appeared to be composed of sand-downs. From Point Emeriau the coast trends to the south-west, and preserves the same sandy character. At five o'clock Lacepede Islands, which were seen by Captain Baudin, were in sight to the westward; and at sunset we anchored in eight fathoms, at about three leagues within them. These islands are three in number, and appear to be solely inhabited by boobies and other sea-fowl: they are low and sandy and all slightly crowned with a few shrubby bushes; the reef that encompasses them seemed to be of great extent.
August 23.
The next day we were steering along the shore, and passed a sandy projection which was named Cape Baskerville, after one of the midshipman of the Bathurst. To the southward of Cape Baskerville the coast trends in, and forms Carnot Bay; it then takes a southerly direction. It is here that Tasman landed, according to the following extract from Dalrymple's Papua: "In Hollandia Nova, in 17 degrees 12 minutes South (Longitude 121 degrees, or 122 degrees East) Tasman found a naked, black people, with curly hair, malicious and cruel; using for arms, bows and arrows, hazeygaeys and kalawaeys. They once came to the number of fifty, double armed, dividing themselves into two parties, intending to have surprised the Dutch, who had landed twenty-five men; but the firing of guns frightened them so, that they fled. Their proas are made of the bark of trees; their coast is dangerous; there are few vegetables; the people use no houses."
At noon our latitude was 17 degrees 13 minutes 29 seconds. At four o'clock we were abreast of Captain Baudin's Point Coulomb, which M. De Freycinet describes to be the projection at which the Red Cliffs commence. The interior is here higher than to the northward, and gradually rises, at the distance of eight miles from the shore, to wooded hills, and bears a more pleasing and verdant appearance than we have seen for some time past; but the coast still retains the same sandy and uninviting character. During the afternoon we had but a light sea-breeze from the westward; and at sunset the anchor was dropped in thirteen fathoms fine soft sand, at about six miles from the shore. Large flocks of boobies flew over the vessel at sunset, directing their course towards the reefs of Lacepede Islands, and in the direction of the Whale Bank, which, according to the French chart of this part, lies in the offing to the westward. As no island was noticed by us in the position assigned to Captain Baudin's Carnot Island, the bay to the southward of Cape Baskerville has received that name. The smokes of fires have been noticed at intervals of every four or five miles along the shore, from which it may be inferred that this part of the coast is very populous. Captain Dampier saw forty Indians together, on one of the rocky islands to the eastward of Cape Leveque, and, in his quaint style, gives the subjoined interesting account of them: