ccii 
INTRODUCTION. 
{Prior Discoveries, 
Flinders, remarkable. The smokes in different places bespoke the country to 
1 ' "' be inhabited in the scanty numbers usual on other parts of the east 
coast ; but none of the people were seen. 
Aug. 7, at ten in the evening, we passed the end of Break-sea 
Spit in 13 fathoms, and hauled up south-east; but the winds were 
so unfavourable, that on the 14th our latitude was no more than 
29° 19'. I kept the land barely within sight, in order to obtain the 
greatest advantage from the southwardly current ; for, contrary to 
captain Cook's observation, it was found to be strongest at the dis- 
tance of six, and from thence to twenty leagues. Close in with the 
shore, more especially in the bights which fall within the general 
line of the coast, an eddy had been found setting to the northward. 
Light northern winds favoured us for two days ; but returning 
to the south-west, and sometimes blowing strong, it was the 20th in 
the evening before the sloop was secured in Port Jackson, although 
the current had set us 210 miles on the way. 
I must acknowledge myself to have been disappointed in not being 
able to penetrate into the interior of New South Wales, by either of 
the openings examined in this expedition ; but, however mortifying 
the conviction might be, it was then an ascertained fact, that no river 
of importance intersected the East Coast between the 24th and 39th 
degrees of south latitude. 
Conclusive The account of the discoveries which resulted from the establish- 
Remarks. ment of the co i onv j n New South Wales, closes with this expedition ; 
and it remains only to point out what was wanted to be done in these 
parts of Terra Australis. 
(AUas,Pi.i.) In Van Diemen's Land, the opening round Point St. Vincent and 
the space between Maria's Island and Cape Portland required to be 
further explored. The north side also, from the want of a time 
keeper in the Norfolk, required to have the longitude of its points 
better ascertained ; and that the bight between Circular Head and 
Cape Grim should be examined. In Bass' Strait, some of the islands 
