132 A VOYAGE TO [North Coast. 
1802. chart on each side of Staten River; but where that river can be found 
November 
Saturday 13. I know not. 
The nearest approach made to the land in the afternoon, was 
five or six miles, with g fathoms water ; at dusk we anchored in 6 
fathoms, mud, at six or seven miles from the shore, having been 
forced off a little by the sea breeze veering southward. A tide here 
ran gently to the S. S. W., till near ten o’clock, and then set north- 
Sunday i 4 . ward till daylight ; at which time the water had fallen nine feet by 
the lead line. We got under way with a land wind from the north- 
east, which afterwards veered to north-west, and steered a course 
nearly due south ; which, as the coast then trended south-westward, 
brought us in with it. At noon, the latitude was 17 0 3' 15", longitude 
141 0 o'; a projecting partbore N. 5 9 0 E. three or four miles, and 
the depth was gi fathoms. There appeared to be a small opening 
on the south side of this little projection, which corresponds in lati- 
tude to V an Diemen’s River in the old chart ; but across the entrance 
was an extensive flat, nearly dry, and would probably prevent even 
boats from getting in. If this place had any title to be called a 
river in 1644, the coast must have undergone a great alteration since 
that time. 
In the afternoon our course along shore was more westward ; 
and this, with the increasing shallowness of the water, made me 
apprehend that the Gulph would be found to terminate nearly as re- 
presented in the old charts, and disappoint the hopes formed of a 
strait or passage leading out at some other part of Terra Australis. 
At four o’clock, after running more than an hour in 32. fathoms, or 
less than 3 at low water, our distance from the shore was five miles ; 
and a small opening then bore S. 14 0 E., which seems to be the Caron 
River , marked at the south-east extremity of the Gulph in the Dutch 
chart ; but whatever it might have been in Tasman’s time, no navi- 
gator would now think of attempting to enter it with a ship ; the 
latitude is 17° 26', and longitude 140°52' east. From four till seven 
our course was W. by S. ; close to the wind, the depth being mostly 
