298 
A VOYAGE TO 
{East Coast. 
isos. about fifty leagues, the set was something in our favour. The wind 
Monday is. was then at south, and our course steered was north for twenty- 
Wednes. lr. four hours, then N. by W. ; and on the 17th at noon we were in 
piatex’.) latitude 23 0 22', longitude 155 0 34', and had the wind at S. It. by S. 
Soon after two o’clock, the Cato being some distance on our lar- 
bord quarter made the signal for seeing land. This proved to be a 
dry sand bank, which bore S. S. W. about three leagues ; and the 
Porpoise sailing faster than the other ships, they were directed to 
keep on their course whilst we hauled up to take a nearer view of 
the bank. At three o’clock, when it bore S. by E. five or six miles, 
we hove to and sounded, but had no bottom at 80 fathoms. The 
Cato’s Bank, for so it was named, is small and seemed to be desti- 
tute of vegetation ; there was an innumerable quantity of birds 
hovering about, and it was surrounded with breakers ; but their ex- 
tent seemed very little to exceed that of the bank, nor could any 
other reef near it be discovered. The situation was ascertained to 
be nearly 23 0 6' south, and 155 0 23' east ; and we then made sail 
after the Bridgewater and Cato, to take our station a-head of them 
as before. 
Some apprehensions were excited for the following night by 
meeting with this bank ; but as it was more than two degrees to the 
eastward of the great Barrier Reefs, we thought it unconnected 
with any other, like the two discovered by captain Ball and Mr. 
Bampton, further towards the north end of New Caledonia. I had, be- 
sides, steered for Torres’ Strait in the Investigator, from reefs several 
degrees to the westward, without meeting with any other danger 
than what lay near the Barrier or belonged to the Strait ; and by the 
time we had rejoined the ships in the evening, the distance run from 
the bank was thirty-five miles, and no other danger had been descried. 
It did not therefore seem necessary to lose a good night’s run by 
heaving to ; and I agreed with lieutenant Fowler, that it would be 
sufficient to make the signal for the ships to run under easy, work- 
ing sail during the night, — to take our usual station a-head, — and to 
