116 CANTON. [1846 



monotonous appearance of our territory of Balambangan, 

 upon which, indeed, one or two hillocks appeared to 

 assert that it was not entirely a Mangrove swamp. As 

 we passed the bar, connecting the small islet off Balam- 

 bangan with Banguey, we had as little as four fathoms, 

 but as this was nearly the same as given by Dalrymple's 

 chart, it was unnoticed beyond hauling a little more 

 towards Balambangan. The sun had failed, and as we 

 neared the spot on which we intended to anchor, I felt, 

 perhaps, more nervous than I otherwise should, from cir- 

 cumstances arising from a Court Martial on the Master of 

 the ' Vestal ', for unfortunately touching one of its shoals, 

 and this investigation having thrown doubts upon the 

 accuracy of the charts, it behoved us to be more cautious. 

 The good fortune, usually attending us, led us in the dark 

 into the very position which I should have selected by 

 bright day, although not more than sixty yards from the 

 rocks when daylight discovered them to us. 



In order to establish a good look-out position from 

 which the ' Royalist ' might be seen, as well as a conspi- 

 cuous feature for our principal station and astronomical 

 position, the summit of one of the southern peninsulas 

 was cleared of trees and levelled for the tent; this 

 enabled us to command the entire sea view westerly, as 

 well as the whole channel between Balambangan and 

 Banguey. The customary duties of the survey engaged 

 our attention generally. The two great bays of Balam- 

 bangan had been examined partly by Dalrymple, but the 

 coast of Banguey was completely a terra incognita, and 

 in the event of resuming our claims on the Island of 

 Balambangan, it would become important that we should 



