134 
A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast. 
1805. 
November. 
Tuesday 16. 
Wednes. 17- 
to a N. N. E. wind, and the soundings remarkably regular, between 
3 and fathoms. Two leagues from the place where the natives 
had been seen, was a projecting part where the country again be- 
came woody ; but the coast there, and onward, was as low as before. 
At noon, the observed latitude was 17 0 2 i' 15", and the longitude 
by time keeper 139 0 54' east ; the furthest continuation of the land 
seen from the mast head, bore W. - S., but there was a small lump 
bearing N. 35 0 W., towards which we kept up as much as possible. 
At two o'clock the wind headed, and on coming into fathoms, 
we tacked ; being then five miles from the low southern land, and 
three or four leagues from the northern hill, which bore N. 18 0 W. 
Not much was gained in working to windward from that time till 
dusk ; and the anchor was then dropped in 4- fathoms, blue mud, no 
other land than the small hill being in sight. 
There being no island marked in the Dutch chart so near to the 
head of the Gulph as this hill, made me conclude that it was upon the 
main land ; and to hope that the space of four leagues, between it 
and the southern coast, was an opening of some importance. In the 
morning, a fresh land wind at south-east favoured our course, the 
water deepened to 10 fathoms, and at eight o'clock to no ground with 
13, near the south end of a reef extending out from the hill. On 
coming into 5 fathoms behind the reef, the anchor was dropped on 
a muddy bottom, with the hill bearing N. 15 0 E., one mile and a 
quarter, and the dry extremity of the reef S. E. ~ E. The coast to 
the southward was scarcely visible from the mast head, but land was 
seen to extend westward from the hill, as far as nine or ten miles ; 
and in order to gain a better knowledge of what this land might be, 
I went on shore, taking instruments with me to observe for the rates 
of the time keepers. 
The hill proved to be a mass of calcareous rock, whose sur- 
face was cut and honey-combed as if it had been exposed to the wash- 
ing of a surf. It was the highest land we had seen in Carpentaria, 
after having followed one hundred and seventy-five leagues of coast ; 
