15D 
Wellesley's Islands,'] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
racter and consideration; who, when governor-general of British De 1 c ®^ er< 
India, humanely used his efforts to relieve me from an imprisonment Tuesday 7. 
which was super-added to a shipwreck in the sequel of the voyage. 
This large island is therefore distinguished by the name of Isle 
Momington ; and to the whole of the group, now discovered to exist 
at the head of the Gulph of Carpentaria, I have given the appellation 
of Wellesley’s Islands. 
In the morning of the 8th, the wind was light from the south- Wednes. s. 
ward, and unfavourable for closing in with the main land; but a 
water spout brought the wind up Irorn north-east, and obliged us to 
double reef the top sails. At noon the squalls had mostly passed 
over, and the shore, which then extended from S. E. by S. to W. S. \\ ., 
was distant five miles in the nearest part ; our latitude being then 
1 6° 4,2i' south, and longitude 138° 49' east. We continued to steer 
westward till five o’clock, at nearly the same distance from the land, 
and in soundings between 5 and 3 fathoms , the wind then drew 
forward, and the trending of the shore being W.N. W., we could 
barely lie along it. At seven, tacked for deeper water, and in halt 
an hour anchored in 4 fathoms, sand and shells, the land being dis- 
tant five or six miles, and the furthest extreme from the mast head 
bearing N. 70° W. A meridian altitude of the star Achernar gave 
the latitude 16 0 33^'; and from the sun’s western amplitude the 
variation was 4 0 10', with the ship’s head N. W., or 2 0 37 east, col- 
lected to the meridian. 
T he main land, from Wellesley s Islands to tnis anchoiagc, is 
of the same description as that along which we had previously sailed 
a hundred and ninety leagues, being a very low, woody country, 
fronted by a sandy beach ; there are some slight wavings in the 
shore, but so slight, that not any part of it could be set twice. This 
tedious uniformity began, however, to be somewhat broken; for a 
range of low hills was perceived at three or four leagues inland, and 
the sinuosities of the shore were becoming more distinguishable: 
two smokes were seen during the day. 
