Towards Timor.-] TERRA AUSTRALIS. 1 
and return to Port Jackson. There was little chance of obtaining salt ^ 03 - 
provisions at Coepang, but there might be a ship or ships theie, ca- Saturday 26 . 
pable of furnishing a supply, and by which an officer might be con- 
veyed to England ; for it was a necessary part of my project to de- 
spatch lieutenant Fowler to the Admiralty, with an account of our pro- 
ceedings, and a request that he might return as speedily as possible, 
with a vessel fit to accomplish all the objects of the voyage ; and I 
calculated that six months employed upon the North and North-west 
Coasts, and the subsequent passage to Port Jackson, would not leave 
much more than the requisite time for refreshing the ship’s com- 
pany before his arrival might be expected. It is to be observed, that 
the ship had leaked very little in her sides since the caulking done at 
the head of the Gulph ; and the carpenter being now directed to bore 
into some of the timbers then examined, did not find them to have 
become perceptibly worse ; so that I was led to hope and believe that 
the ship might' go through this service, without much more than 
common risk, provided we remained in fine-weather climates, as was 
intended. 
On the 28th, being then in io° 36' south, and 125 0 47' east, Monday 28. 
the high land of Timor was seen bearing N. 6i° W., at the distance 
of thirty, or perhaps more leagues ; but no soundings could be ob- 
tained with qo, nor in the evening with 160 fathoms. Next day, the Tuesday 29 . 
light south-west wind suddenly veered to S. E., and blew fresh; 
and from its dying away at sunset was evidently a sea biceze at- 
tracted by the land, which, however, was forty miles off in its nearest 
part. Our latitude.on the 30th was io° 37' 13", longitude 124° i8£', Wednes 3a 
and the land, mostly high mountains, extended from N. N. E. \ E. 
to W. N. W., the nearest part was distant seven or eight leagues, 
but we still had no soundings. The island Rottee is reckoned 
tolerably high land, but must be greatly inferior to Timor; since 
the round hill at its eastern end was not seen from the mast head 
till four this afternoon, when its distance was little more than fifteen 
leagues. We carried all sail for the strait between the two islands 
