128 
1802. 
November. 
Sunday 7 • 
Monday 8. 
A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast. 
meridian ; or an hour later than it had appeared to be at the Prince 
of Wales' Islands. 
Lieutenant Fowler had got the ship under way, on the sea 
breeze setting in, and stood off and on the entrance to Coen River, 
until our return at three o'clock. We then steered south-westward 
along the shore; and soon after sunset, anchored in lo fathoms, 
nearly four miles from the land, which extended from N. 3 8 9 to S. 6° E. 
and was still low and woody, and fronted with a sandy beach. 
A breeze came off the land at night, as usual, and the weather 
was dark and squally. Early in the morning we steered along t ic 
coast, with good soundings between 10 and 9 fathoms, muddy bot- 
tom. A sandy point with two hillocks on it, which had been the ex- 
treme of the preceding evening, was passed at ten o'clock ; and seeing 
a large bight round it, we tacked to work up. At noon, the pom 
bore from N. 44° E., one mile and a half, to the southern extreme at 
east, three miles. This point is one of the very few remarkable pro- 
jections to be found on this low coast, but it is not noticed in the 
Dutch chart; there is little doubt, however, that it was seen m lbob 
in the yatcht Duyfhen, the first vessel which discovered any part ot 
Carpentaria ; and that the remembrance may not be lost I gave the 
name of the vessel to the point. Our observations placed the south 
extreme of Duyfhen Point in is* 35 ' south, and H 1 ' 4 * a " d 
the variation from amplitude, with the ship’s head W.N.W.,was 
-° 24/, or reduced to the meridian, 3 0 43' east. 
On the sea breeze setting in at two o'clock, we steered into 
the bight until past five ; when having no more than 2j fathoms, we 
tacked and stretched out. The bight extends eleven or twelve miles 
back from the line of the coast, and there are three small openings 
in it ; but the shore being very low, and in many places over-run 
with mangroves, and the water shallow four or five miles off, these 
openings are probably no more than drains out of salt swamps or 
lagoons, The bearings when we tacked in 2| fathoms, were, 
