Fowler's Bay.
Departure from thence.
Arrival at the Isles of St. Francis.
Correspondence between the winds and the marine barometer.
Examination of the other parts of Nuyts' Archipelago, and of the main
coast.
The Isles of St Peter.
Return to St. Francis.
General remarks on Nuyts' Archipelago.
Identification of the islands in the Dutch chart.

THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 1802

(Atlas, Plate IV.)

The bay in which we anchored on the evening of January 28, at the
extremity of the before known south coast of Terra Australis, was named
FOWLER'S BAY, after my first lieutenant; and the low, cliffy point which
shelters it from southern winds and, not improbably, is the furthest
point (marked B) in the Dutch chart, was called POINT FOWLER. The
botanical gentlemen landed early on the following morning [FRIDAY 29
JANUARY 1802] to examine the productions of the country, and I went on
shore to take observations and bearings, and to search for fresh water.

The cliffs and rocks of Point Fowler are calcareous, and connected with
the main land by a low, sandy isthmus of half a mile broad. Many traces
of inhabitants were found, and amongst others, some decayed spears; but
no huts were seen, nor anything to indicate that men had been here
lately. Upon the beach were the foot marks of dogs, and some of the emu
or cassowary. I found in a hole of the low cliffs one of those large
nests which have before been mentioned, but it contained nothing, and had
been long abandoned.

No fresh water was discovered round the shores of the bay, nor was there
any wood large enough for fuel nearer than the brow of a hill two or
three miles off. Two teal were shot on the beach, whence it seemed
probable that some lake or pond of fresh water was not far distant; a
sea-pie and a gull were also shot, and a few small fish caught alongside.
These constituted everything like refreshment obtained here, and the
botanists found the scantiness of plants equal to that of the other
productions; so that there was no inducement to remain longer.

Fowler's Bay, however, may be useful to a ship in want of a place of
shelter. It is open to the three points of the compass between
south-east-by-south and east-south-east; and it was evident, from plants
growing close to the water side, that a swell capable of injuring a
vessel at anchor was seldom if ever thrown into it.

The _latitude_ of the east extremity of Point Fowler is 32 deg. 1' south.

_Longitude_ of the