144 
A VOYAGE TO 
[ North Coast. 
November. A passage to Port Jackson at this time, presented no common 
Friday 26. difficulties. In proceeding by the west, the unfavourable monsoon 
was likely to prove an obstacle not to be surmounted ; and in returning 
by the east, stormy weather was to be expected in Torres' Strait, a 
place where the multiplied dangers caused such an addition to be 
peculiarly dreaded. These considerations, with a strong desire to 
finish, if possible, the examination of the Gulph of Carpentaria, fixed 
my resolution to proceed as before in the survey, during the con- 
tinuance of the north-west monsoon ; and when the fair wind should 
come, to proceed by the west to Port Jackson, if the ship should 
prove capable of a winter’s passage along the South Coast, and if 
not, to make for the nearest port in the East Indies. 
Sunday 28. Ey the 28th, the watering and wooding of the ship were com- 
pleted, the gunner had dried all his powder in the sun, and the tents 
and people were brought on board. All that the carpenters could 
do at the ship was to secure the hooding ends to the stem,— shift some 
of the worst parts in the rotten planking,— and caulk all the bends; 
and this they had finished, the wind being south-east onthemorn- 
Monday 29. ing of the 29th, I attempted to quit the Investigator’s Road by steer- 
ing out to the northward ; but this being found impracticable, from 
the shallowness of the water, we were obliged to beat out to the 
south ; and so contrary did' the wind remain, that not being able to 
weather the reef at the south-east end of Sweers’ Island, we anchored 
Tuesday 3o. within it on the evening of the 30th. 
I shall now sum up into one view, the principal remarks made 
during our stay amongst these islands. The stone most commonly 
seen on the shores is an iron ore, in some places so strongly impreg- 
nated, that I conceive it would be a great acquisition to a colony 
fixed in the neighbourhood. Above this is a concreted mass of coral, 
shells, coral sand, and grains of iron ore, which sometimes appears 
at the surface, but is usually covered either with sand or vege- 
table earth, or a mixture of both. Such appeared most generally, to 
be the consistence of all the islands , but there are many local varieties. 
