ut in either case, the
investigation of the gulph was terminated; and in honour of the
respectable nobleman who presided at the Board of Admiralty when the
voyage was planned and ship put into commission, I named it SPENCER'S
GULPH. The cliffy-pointed cape which forms the east side of the entrance,
and lies in 35 deg. 18' south and 136 deg. 55' east, was named CAPE SPENCER; and
the three isles lying off it, with their rocks, _Althorp Isles_.

A line drawn from the nearest part of Cape Catastrophe to Cape Spencer
will be forty-eight miles long, and so much is the entrance of the gulph
in width. Gambier's Isles lie not far from the middle of the line; and if
we measure upward from them, the gulph will be found, without regard to
the small windings, to extend one hundred and eighty-five miles into the
interior of the country. For the general exactness of its form in the
chart I can answer with tolerable confidence, having seen all that is
laid down, and, as usual, taken every angle which enters into the
construction. Throughout the whole extent of the shores the water line
was almost every where distinguished; the only exceptions being small
portions at the head of Hardwicke and Louth Bays, of a bight near Point
Lowly, and of the low land at the back of the great Eastern Shoal.

At noon, when off Cape Spencer, the wind became variable and light, with
very hazy, cloudy weather; and the mercury in my marine barometer had
fallen two-tenths of an inch. At six in the evening a breeze sprung up at
west-north-west; and as I expected a gale would come on, and that as
usual it would veer to the south-west, we ceased to follow the coast
beyond Cape Spencer, and steered for the land seen in the southern
quarter. The Althorp Isles were passed at eight o'clock, at the distance
of eight or nine miles; and the wind being fresh at west, we made short
trips during the night between the two lands, not knowing what might be
in the space to leeward. At daylight [SUNDAY 21 MARCH 1802] the ship was
nearly in mid-channel, between the southern land and Cape Spencer, and
nothing was seen to the eastward. It then blew a fresh gale at
south-west, with much sea running; we stretched south-west under
close-reefed top-sails, to get under the lee of the southern land; and at
eight o'clock, when the largest Althorp Isle bore N. 32 deg. W., it was
distant six or seven miles to the south, and extended from S. 61 deg. W. to
79 deg. E. as far as the eye coul