12 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1821. the guns he had fired were intended as signals to 
June 17. his boat, and that they were not meant for us. 
\ He had been aground, he said, on a reef near 
the Palm Islands, but had received no damage : 
light, however, as he pretended to make of this 
accident, it was a sufficient lesson for him, and 
we soon found he had profited by it, for instead 
of preceding us, he quietly fell into our “ wake,” a 
station which he never afterwards left, until all 
danger was over, and we had passed through 
Torres Strait. 
I had now determined upon taking up an an- 
chorage round Cape Grafton during the conti- 
nuance of the bad weather, and for that purpose 
steered through the strait that separates the 
cape from Fitzroy Island ; and anchored in six 
fathoms mud, at about half a mile from its 
northern extremity. 
It is a little remarkable that the day on which 
we anchored should be the anniversary of the 
discovery of the bay ; for Captain Cook anchored 
here on the eve of Trinity Sunday, fifty-one 
years before, and named the bay between Capes 
Grafton and Tribulation, in reverence of the fol- 
lowing day. In passing between Cape Grafton 
and Fitzroy Island, eight or ten natives were 
observed seated on the rocks at the south end of 
the beach : one of them waved his spear to us 
