ame
in at, only on the east instead of the west side of the small shoal: in
which channel we had ten, twelve, and thirteen fathom water, still
deepening upon us till we were out at sea. The day before we came out I
sent a boat ashore to the most northerly of the two islands, which is the
least of them, catching many small fish in the meanwhile, with hook and
line. The boat's crew returning told me that the isle produces nothing
but a sort of green, short, hard, prickly grass, affording neither wood
nor fresh water, and that a sea broke between the two islands--a sign
that the water was shallow. They saw a large turtle, and many skates and
thornbacks, but caught none.

It was August the 14th when I sailed out of this bay or sound, the mouth
of which lies, as I said, in 25 degrees 5 minutes, designing to coast
along to the north-east till I might commodiously put in at some other
port of New Holland. In passing out we saw three water-serpents swimming
about in the sea, of a yellow colour spotted with dark brown spots. They
were each about four foot long, and about the bigness of a man's wrist,
and were the first I saw on this coast, which abounds with several sorts
of them. We had the winds at our first coming out at north, and the land
lying north-easterly. We plied off and on, getting forward but little
till the next day, when the wind coming at south-south-west and south, we
began to coast it along the shore on the northward, keeping at six or
seven leagues off shore, and sounding often, we had between forty and
forty-six fathom water, brown sand with some white shells. This 15th of
August we were in latitude 24 degrees 41 minutes. On the 16th day, at
noon, we were in 23 degrees 22 minutes. The wind coming at east by
north, we could not keep the shore aboard, but were forced to go farther
off, and lost sight of the land; then sounding, we had no ground with
eighty-fathom line. However, the wind shortly after came about again to
the southward, and then we jogged on again to the northward, and saw many
small dolphins and whales, and abundance of cuttle-shells swimming on the
sea, and some water-snakes every day. The 17th we saw the land again and
took a sight of it.

The 18th, in the afternoon, being three or four leagues off shore, I saw
a shoal-point stretching from the land into the sea a league or more; the
sea broke high on it, by which I saw plainly there was a shoal there. I
stood farther off and coa