182 
A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast . 
1803 . and I ran the ship to leeward and came to an anchor. The whale boat 
January. 
Monday 3 . was picked up, as also one of the men ; but the other, William Murray, 
captain of the fore top, being unable to swim, was unfortunately lost. 
The weather remained squally, and wind unsettled during the 
Tuesday 4. night. In the morning our course was continued to the northward, 
leaving extensive land, which I supposed to be the Groote Eylandt 
of the old charts, six or eight leagues on the starbord hand. Before 
commencing the investigation of that island, I wished to trace the 
main coast further on, and if possible, give the botanists an oppor- 
tunity of examining its productions ; for it was upon the main that 
they usually made the most interesting discoveries, and only once, 
since entering the Gulph of Carpentaria, had we been able to land % 
there. At seven o'clock we edged in for the coast ; and on coming 
into 3- fathoms, dropped the anchor on a bottom of blue mud, within 
a mile of the shore. No part of Groote Eylandt was in sight ; but 
an island of considerable extent and elevation, not noticed in the old 
chart, lay six or seven miles to the E. N. E. ; and I have called it 
Bickerton’s Island, in compliment to admiral Sir Richard Bickerton. 
Between it and the main coast is an open space, from four to six or 
seven miles wide, through which, to all appearance from this side, a 
ship might safely pass. 
Whilst the botanical gentlemen landed abreast of the ship, I 
took the whale boat to a woody islet, five miles off, close to Bicker- 
ton s Island, the soundings across the opening in going to it, beino- 
from 3 to 7 fathoms. A meridian observation to the north and south 
placed the islet in latitude 130 48' 30", and the points of the opening 
to the northward bore N. 18 0 E. and N.si’W.; this last was the 
furthest visible part of the main land; and proving afterwards to be 
a projecting cape, I named it Cape Barrow, after John Barrow, Esq., 
author of the interesting travels at the Cape of Good Hope. The 
islet is about half a mile long, and though many bushes and some 
trees grew upon it, is little more than a bed of sand. There were 
holes in the beach, made by turtle ; and besides other proofs of the 
