WITH THE "INVESTIGATOR" 



proved herself from the first to be an unsuitable ship, and merely 

 a drag on the larger vessel, and was sent back on i8th October. 

 In following the coast to the north, Flinders named (yth August) 

 PORT CURTIS, now the port of GLADSTONE, and (28th September) 

 the PERCY ISLANDS. (ADMIRALTY CHART, No. 2759 A.) On 

 20th October, he got outside of the Barrier Reef (18 45' S. ; 

 148 10' E.) by the passage which now bears his own name. Nine 

 days later, he came inside of the reef by a passage in 9 50' S. 

 and 144 45' E., between Portlock and Boot Reefs, which 

 he identified as the one used by Captain Edwards of the " Pan- 

 dora" in 1791, and therefore named PANDORA ENTRANCE. 1 (SEE 

 MAP A.) The same night (29^ October, 1802), he was at anchor 

 north of the largest of the MURRAY ISLANDS. He remarks, 2 " I 

 did not forget that the inhabitants of these islands had made an 

 attack on the ' Providence ' and f Assistant, s nor that Mr. 

 Bampton had some people cut off at Darnley Island in 1793 (pp. 

 xxxiv-xxxix). The marines were therefore kept under arms. . . . 

 Bows and arrows were contained in all the canoes, but no 

 intimation of hostility was manifested by the Indians." He 

 bartered iron articles, including hatchets, for plantains, bows and 

 arrows, etc., with forty or fifty islanders. 



From Murray Island, Flinders picked his way cautiously 

 among the reefs and low islets southward and westward towards 

 Cape York. Late in the afternoon of $oth October, he anchored 

 at the south end of the reef surrounding what he called HALFWAY 

 ISLAND. This island is described as being barely a mile in cir- 

 cumference, only a few feet above the reach of spring tides, and 

 covered with casuarina and other trees. Indications of the 

 recent presence of " Indians " were observed. 



On 31 st October, good progress was maintained to the south- 

 west. At noon, the position was 10 26" 45" S. and 142 393-' E., 

 and from this position high land was seen bearing SSE. and at 

 an estimated distance of 10 or 12 miles almost certainly the 

 MOUNT ADOLPHUS ISLANDS, the larger of which rises to 548 feet. 

 By 2 p.m., the ship passed on the north side of DOUBLE ISLAND 

 and the course was altered to SW. by S., in which direction lay 

 some rocky islets. These, however, when reached, afforded no 

 shelter, and the ship wore round to the west until an anchorage 

 was found on the north side of WEDNESDAY ISLAND (10 30' S. ; 

 142 iSf' E.), which had been named by Bligh. 



On 1st November, the weather was too rough for landing or 



1 Now on Admiralty charts as " Pandora Passage." Not to be confounded with the 

 " Pandora Entrance " in Admiralty Chart, No. 2759 A, in 11 25' S. and 144 E., where 

 the " Pandora " was wrecked. 



2 Terra Auslralis. Introduction, p. xxiv. 



3 This attack was at Darnley Island, 30 miles north-west of Murray Island. The 

 expression " these islands " evidently referred to the group. Flinders was the first to 

 visit the Murray Islands (agth October, 1802), although they were seen and named by 

 Edwards in August, 1791, a few days before the " Pandora " was wrecked. 



