228 SURVEY OF TOE XNTERTROPICAL 
1819. shipwreck, for the night was very dark, and her 
July - 13. distance did not exceed that when she was 
brought up by veering cable. As it was, we 
were so near to the rocks, that in making prepa- 
rations to weigh, we had every reason to expect 
at least the loss of our anchor. We succeeded, 
however, in heaving short, and hoisting the sails 
without starting it ; but it soon after tripped, and 
the cutter at the same time casting the wrong way, 
I was on the point of ordering the cable to be cut 
from the bows, when the wind so favoured us as 
to enable the cutter to weather the reef; all sail 
was instantly made, and happily we succeeded 
both in clearing the reef, which we passed at the 
distance of a cables’ length, and saving our 
anchor, which was quickly hove up and secured. 
After escaping this danger, our course was 
directed to pass outside of Noble Island, in our 
way to which four small wooded isles were left 
in-shore of our track, and named, at Mr. Roe’s 
request, after Captain Sir Christopher Cole, 
K.C.B. Between this group and Noble Island 
two dry sands were observed. Cape Bowen, so 
named by Lieutenant Jeffreys, is a remarkable 
projection in the hills, but not on the coast, for it 
rather forms a bay. To the northward of it 
the hills fall back with some appearance of a 
rivulet, but the sandy beach was traced from the 
