10 
SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL 
1S21. masts ; but he declined it as he was anxious to 
June 12, get on without delay ; and, having Captain Flin- 
ders’s charts, intended to run and night 
through the reefs he told me that he had an- 
chored here with the intention of watering and 
cutting some pine spars, but that not finding 
the latter worth the trouble, he was then getting 
underweigh to proceed. When I went away, he 
accompanied me to look over my plan of the 
passage ; after which he returned to his vessel, 
which soon afterwards steered past us on her 
way to the northward. Mr. Hemmans told me 
that he had anchored under Eeppel Islands, 
where he had a friendly communication with the 
natives, who used nets, which he thought were 
of European construction ; but from his descrip- 
tion, they are similar to what have been before 
seen on the coast, and are constructed by the 
natives themselves. 
13. At eight o’clock the next morning we got un- 
derweigh ; but the Dick in weighing her an- 
chor found both flukes broken off. The next 
14 . day, we rounded the north extremity of the 
Cumberland Islands ; and at four o’clock a.m. 
15. the 15 th, were abreast of Cape Gloucester. 
Thick cloudy weather with rain and a fresh 
breeze from the southward, variable between 
S.S.E. and S.S.W., now set in, and was unfa- 
