48 
A VOYAGE TO 
[South Coast. 
1801. It was drunk upon deck; and with half a biscuit, made a luncheon 
November. f QJ , 0 fg cers an( j p e0 pi e The allowance of grog was never 
issued until half an hour after the dinner time. 
December. On the 6th of December, our latitude was 35 0 io', and longi- 
Sunday 6. tude 114 „ ^ . w hich placed us about S.W. i S. twenty-two leagues 
from the westernmost isles lying off the south-west cape of New 
Holland, according to their position by the French rear-admiral 
D'Entrecasteaux ; a traced copy of whose general chart of this coast 
had been furnished to me from the hydrographical office at the 
Admiralty. There were no names applied in this copy ; but in the 
charts of the French voyage, lately published, these isles are called 
lies St. Alouarn. 
Notwithstanding the nearness of the land, there were no signs 
of such proximity: no discolouring in the water, no sea weed, no 
new birds, and but few of the species before seen. The current had, 
indeed, somewhat changed ; for whilst, during the three preceding 
days, it had setN. 12 0 W. twenty-seven miles per day, on an average, 
it was found this day to have run N. 47 0 E. twenty-two miles. This 
change however could scarcely be thought a sign of land, since 
equal, or greater differences had occurred during the passage, and 
might arise, in part, from errors in the log. 
(Atlas, At two in the afternoon, the wind being north-westward 
ate 11.) we h au i ec j U p to ma k e the south-western point of Leeuwin's Land 
and bent the cables. At seven, land was seen right a-head, bearing 
N. 14 0 E., at the supposed distance of ten leagues; and on sounding, 
there was 85 fathoms, coral sand. We stood for it until eleven at 
night, and then veered to the south-west, in 65 fathoms, same 
bottom. 
The examination of Nuyts' and of Leeuwin's Lands was not 
prescribed in my instructions to be made at this time ; but the diffe- 
rence of sailing along the coast at a distance, or in keeping near it 
and making a running survey, was likely to be so little, that I judged 
