COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
229 
a passage of forty- six days without encountering I 823 . 
a gale of wind, or the occurrence of any event Jan. i5. 
worth recording. 
We left Simon’s Bay on the 9th of February, Feb. 9. 
and after touching at St. Helena, and Ascension, 
crossed the line in 22° 6' W ; and, on the 7th of 
April, made the Island of Flores, one of the 
Azores. On the same morning we fell in with 
two French men of war, a frigate and a corvette, 
who bore down, but, upon shewing our colours, 
hauled their wind, and resumed their course 
without communicating with us. Between this 
and the Channel we were delayed by a suc- 
cession of northerly winds. The Lizard Lights 
were made in the night of the 22d of April, 
and the following day we anchored in Ply- 
mouth Sound ; after an absence of more than six 
years. 
It may not be considered irrelevant here to 
make a few brief observations upon what has 
been effected by these voyages, and what yet 
remains to be done upon the northern coasts of 
Australia. Beginning with the north-eastern 
coast, I have been enabled to lay down a very 
safe and convenient track for vessels bound 
through Torres’ Strait, and to delineate the 
coast line between Cape Hillsborough, in 20° 
54' S., and Cape York, the north extremity of 
