250 
A VOYAGE TO 
[ North Coast. 
isos, further off the land, in the hope of getting them more steady. Our 
March. • ° 
Friday is. soundings gradually increased until the 18th, when the deoth was 
150 fathoms in latitude <5° 47' and longitude 130° 17' ; at midnight 
Saturday 19. we had no ground at 160, but next morning the coral bottom was 
seen under the ship, and we tacked until a boat was sent a-head; from 
7 fathoms on the bank, the soundings in steering after the boat in- 
creased to 9, 10, 13, and suddenly to 92 fathoms. 
This small bank appeared to be nearly circular, and about four 
miles round ; it lies in latitude 9 0 56', longitude 129 0 28', and as I 
judge, about twenty-five leagues from the western extremity of the 
northern Van Diemen’s Land. In some of the old charts there are 
shoals marked to a considerable distance from that cape ; and it 
seems not improbable, that a chain of reefs may extend as far out as 
the situation of this bank. We afterwards had soundings at irregular 
Saturday 2(3. depths, from 30 to 100 fathoms, until the evening of the 26th, in 
(Atlas, io° 38' south and 126’ 0 30' east ; in which situation they were lost. 
PI XVJ ) J 
The winds had hung so much in the south-west, and retarded 
our passage as well as driven us near to the island Timor, that I 
judged it advisable to obtain refreshments there for my ship's com- 
pany ; under the apprehension that, as the winter season was fast 
advancing on the south coast of Terra Australis, the bad state of the 
ship might cause more labour at the pumps than our present strength 
was capable of exerting. Some of the smaller articles of sea provi- 
sion, such as peas, rice, and sugar, which formed a principal part 
of our little comforts, were also become deficient, in consequence of 
losses sustained from the heat and moisture* of the climate, and 
leakiness of the ship’s upper works ; and these I was anxious to 
replenish. 
Coepangis a Dutch settlement at the south-west end of Timor ; 
and the determination to put in there being made, I revolved in my 
mind the possibility of afterwards returning to the examination of the 
north and north-west coasts of Terra Australis, during the winter six 
months, and taking the following summer to pass the higher latitudes 
