(Jape Catastrophe.} TERRA AUSTRAL1S. 135 
and casuarina. No water could be found; and as the ship's hold was 1802. 
becoming very empty, I returned on board, after observing, the Sunday 21'. 
latitude, with the intention of running over to the main in search of 
it. But on comparing the longitude observed by lieutenant Flinders 
with that resulting from my bearings, a difference was found which 
made it necessary to repeat the observation on shore ; and as this 
would prolong the time too near dusk for moving the ship, Mr. 
Thistle was sent over with a cutter to the main land, in search of an 
anchoring place where water might be procured. 
The latitude of a small beach , on the north end of Thistle's 
Island, was found to be 34 0 56'; and longitude by the time keepers 
corrected, 136 0 3^', agreeing with thirty sets of lunar observations 
reduced to a place connected with this by land bearings. The 
strongest tides set past the ship at the rate of two miles an hour, 
from the north-north-east and south-south-west; the latter, which 
appeared to be the flood, ceasing to run at the time of the moon's 
passage over the meridian. It rose seven feet and a half by the lead 
line, in the night of the 20th; and there were two tides in the twenty- 
four hours. 
At dusk in the evening, the cutter was seen under sail, returning 
from the main land ; but not arriving in half an hour, and the sight of 
it having been lost rather suddenly, a light was shown and lieutenant 
Fowler went in a boat, with a lan thorn, to see what might have 
happened. Two hours passed without receiving any tidings. A 
gun was then fired, and Mr. Fowler returned soon afterward, but 
alone. Near the situation where the cutter had been last seen, he 
met with so strong a rippling of tide that he himself narrowly 
escaped being upset; and there was reason to fear that it had actually 
happened to Mr. Thistle. Had there been daylight, it is probable 
that some or all of the people might have been picked up; but it 
was too dark to see anything, and no answer could be heard to the 
hallooing, or to the firing of muskets. The tide was setting to the 
southward and ran an hour and a half after the missing boat had 
