130 
A VOYAGE TO 
{ North Coast. 
isos, therefore desirable to find a place where the holds could be completed 
with water, and the botanists and myself find useful employment for 
a few days, whilst the deficiencies were repairing. Such a place, it was 
reasonable to expect, the opening to the westward would afford ; and 
the carpenters having patched up the bad part by the evening of 
Thursday is. the 18th, and another set of observations for the time keepers being 
obtained, we were then ready to proceed in the examination. 
Friday la. Next morning at sunrise, we steered up the op n ng with a 
land wind at S. S. E. ; and until ten o’clock, when we had reached 
the furthest part of the western land seen from Inspection Hill, the 
soundings were between 6 and 3 fathoms, reduced to low water. 
This land proved to be an island of ten or eleven miles long, and I 
have given it the name of Bentinck, in honour of the Right Hon. 
Lord William Bentinck; of whose obliging attention, when 
governor of Madras, I shall hereafter have to speak in praise. To the 
north-west of Bcntinck’s Island, several small isles came in sight; 
but a northern sea breeze having set in, we kept on our western 
course for the low main land, which trended here north-westward. 
At one o’clock, the diminution of depth to 2^ fathoms, obliged us to 
tack ; the main being four miles distant, and the eastern extreme of 
the nearest island bearing N. 3 0 W., two leagues : this was named 
Allens Isle , after the practical miner of the expedition. In working 
to windward, the water was found to be shallow in almost every 
direction ; and the deepest being at three or four miles from the 
south-west point of Bentinck’s Island, the anchor was there dropped 
in 4,^ fathoms, muddy bottom. 
Satur lay 20. In the morning we steered towards Allen’s Isle, with the 
whale boat a-head ; and anchored one mile and a half from its south- 
east end, in fathoms, mud. Our latitude here was 17 0 5', longi- 
tude 139 0 2 6 ' ; and azimuths taken with the surveying compass, when 
the head was N. by E., gave variation 2 0 49', or 3’ 13' east, corrected. 
I went on shore with the botanical gentlemen, in order to take bear- 
ings, and explore further up the opening. 
