(*Footnote. Much shoal water was seen to the northward of Green Island from the Tamar's masthead. Roe manuscript.)
SNAPPER ISLAND lies off the point which forms the northern limit of Trinity Bay; it is small, and does not supply any water.*
(*Footnote. Ten or eleven miles South 80 degrees East from Snapper Island is the north-west end of a shoal, extending to the South 41 degrees East for sixteen or seventeen miles; the Tamar anchored under it. Roe manuscript.)
The land behind CAPE TRIBULATION may be seen at a greater distance than twenty leagues. It is here that the outer part of the barrier reefs approach the coast, and there is reason to believe that, in latitude 16 degrees 17 minutes 35 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 27 minutes 40 seconds, they are not more than twenty miles from it. The cape has a hillock at its extremity, and a small rocky islet close to the shore that renders it conspicuous: it is fourteen miles beyond Snapper Island. The shore appears to be bold to: at three miles off we had sixteen fathoms.
Ten miles further to the northward is BLOMFIELD'S RIVULET in Weary Bay: it is blocked up by a rocky bar, having only four feet water over it; the anchorage off it is too much exposed to be safe. The river runs up for four or five miles, having soundings within it from three to four fathoms, its entrance is in 15 degrees 55 minutes 50 seconds.
The coast then extends to the north to Endeavour River, and forms a few inconsiderable sinuosities; it is backed by high land, particularly abreast of the Hope Islands. These islands open of each other in a North 39 degrees East direction, and appear to be connected by a shoal; it is however very likely that a narrow passage may exist between them, but certainly not safe to sail through.
Here the number of the coral reefs begin to increase, and great attention must be paid in navigating amongst them; but, with a careful look out from the masthead, and a quick leadsman in the chains, no danger need be apprehended.
Between reef a and the shoal off the south-west Hope Island there is a passage two miles wide, with twelve fathoms: a is about half a mile in diameter, with a few rocks above water; its centre is in 15 degrees 43 minutes 20 seconds, two miles from the shore, and three miles North 55 degrees West from the south west Hope.
b is about a mile and a quarter long, and has a dry rock at its north end, the latitude of which is 15 degrees 39 minutes 20 seconds: it is divided from Endeavour Reef by a channel of nearly a mile wide, and fifteen fathoms deep: abreast of the south end of b, on the western edge of Endeavour Reef, there is a dry rock, in latitude 15 degrees 39 minutes 55 seconds.
ENDEAVOUR REEF is nine miles long; it lies in a North-West direction; the north end, in 15 degrees 39 minutes South, bears due from the North-east Hope.