COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
447 
Sir Roger Curtis Island, and the next day cleared isao. 
the strait. Nov - 29 
On the 2d we were off Mount Dromedary ; and Dec. 2. 
the wind blew strong from the East, the weather 
assuming a threatening appearance. The next 
day we passed the heads of Jervis Bay, at the 3 . 
distance of three or four leagues, and the course 
was altered to North and N.b.W. parallel to the 
coast. At noon an indifferent observation for 
the latitude, and a sight of the land, which for a 
few minutes was visible through the squalls, 
shewed that our situation was very much nearer 
to the shore than we had expected, a circum- 
stance that was attributed to a current setting 
into the bight to the northward of Jervis Bay. 
The wind from the eastward was light and 
baffling, and this, added to the critical situation 
we were in, made me very anxious to obtain an 
offing before night, for there was every appear- 
ance of a gale from the eastward. 
After two or three squalls a breeze sprung up 
from the E.S.E. with heavy rain, and a N.N.E. 
course was steered, which should have taken us 
wide of the coast : having run thirty-seven miles 
on that course, we steered N.b.E. four miles, 
and then N.JW., that we might not be more than 
twenty miles from the shore in the morning, and 
sufficiently near to see the light-house on the 
