78 
A VOYAGE TO 
[South Coast 
1802. S. 72° W., between two and three miles from it. The island is low, 
Fridays", smooth, and sterile, and is frequented by seals ; its latitude is 34° 6' 
and longitude 1 20 0 28', and it lies eight or nine miles from the main land. 
At noon, the rocky island was near ten miles astern, and a 
cluster of four small islets appeared in the offing at the distance of 
four leagues. The nearest part of the main land, seven or eight 
miles distant, was low and sandy, as it had been all the way from 
East Mount Barren, and continued to be to the furthest extreme 
visible from the mast head; there were, however, a few scattered 
sandy hillocks on the shore, but nothing could be seen of the back 
country. Our situation, and the bearings taken at this time were as 
under: 0 , „ 
Latitude, observed to the north and south, 34, 1 48 
Longitude by time keepers, - - 12038 
East Mount Barren, N. 8oi W. 
The small island astern, - - S. 65 W. 
Four islets in the offing, - - S. 77 E. 
Mast-head extreme of the coast, - N. 59 E. 
We passed at nearly an equal distance between the four rocky 
islets and the main land, that is to say, at six or eight miles from 
each ; and at five o'clock were abreast of a projecting part of the 
coast, where the sandy hills seemed to form white cliffs. This is 
called Cap des Basses ( Shoal Cape ) in the French chart ; and we 
saw, in fact, an islet under the land, surrounded with much broken 
water, and the soundings decreased from 35 to 25 fathoms soon 
after passing it at the distance of five or six miles. There was 
an appearance of small inlets on each side of Shoal Cape, but as 
admiral D'Entrecasteaux passed within three miles and does not 
mark any, it was probably a deception, caused by the land being 
verv low between the sand hills. 
Before sunset, the westernmost isle of D'Entrecasteaux's 
Archipel de la Recherche was in sight to the eastward, and at half past 
seven, our distance from it was about six miles. The French 
