94 
1802. 
October. 
Friday 15. 
Saturday 16- 
A VOYAGE TO [East Coast. 
for the night. The tide carried us too far to leeward, but we fetched 
a lesser island, / 2, seven miles to the north ; and came to, in 17 
fathoms grey sand, one mile from a beach on its north-west side, 
and half a mile from the reef which surrounds the island. 
Early in the morning I landed with a party of the gentlemen, 
and scrambled through a thick brush and over lumps of rock, to the 
highest part near the north end of the island. Hazy weather much 
contracted my view ; but several new Cumberland Islands were 
visible, making up the number to fifteen, of which the greater part 
had not been seen by captain Cook. Amongst the bearings taken 
with a theodolite, were those of k and k 2, which had been set from 
No. 4 of the Percy Isles. 
k, the extremes, bore - S. 48° 30' to 46° 40' E. 
£2,' - - - S. 36 50 to 33 40 E. 
Ship at anchor, dist. one mile, N. 6 4 o W. 
From these bearings and the several latitudes, I ascertained the 
difference of longitude made from Upper Head to the ship, to be 
12' 37" west. 
This little island 1 2 is of a triangular shape, and each side of it 
is a mile long ; it is surrounded by a coral reef which, as usual, pre- 
sented a beautiful piece of marine scenery. The stone which forms 
the basis of the island, and is scattered loosely over the surface, is a 
kind of porphyry ; a small piece of it, applied to the theodolite, did 
not affect the needle, although, on moving the instrument a few 
yards southward, the east variation was increased 2 0 23'. Not 
much vegetable earth was contained amongst the stones on the sur- 
face, yet the island was thickly covered with trees and brush wood, 
whose foliage was not devoid of luxuriance. Pines grow here, but 
they were more abundant, and seemingly larger, upon some other 
of the islands, particularly on / 3, to the westward. There did not 
appear to be any fixed inhabitants ; but proofs of the island having 
been visited some months before, were numerous ; and upon the 
larger island /, there was a smoke. The time of high water coincided 
