l
11 p.m., when the tide being at full we pulled for the ship, but not
seeing her lights by 1 a.m. on the 12th, and the men being much fatigued,
we lay on our oars for an hour, and then took a stretch for two miles to
the south-south-east, to get under the shelter of the south-east shore of
the bay, when, having no anchor, we lay-to till daylight, by which time
the boat had drifted into heavy rollers under the high rocky land at the
south-west head of the bay; the wind having risen so much that the boat
was only kept afloat by keeping her head to the sea. As we could not
observe any spot at which we could land without the risk of swamping the
boat and wetting our firearms, we continued pulling towards the ship, the
ebb tide assisting us until 2 p.m., when just as all hands were becoming
thoroughly tired out, a boat was sent from the Dolphin to our relief,
with a timely supply of biscuit and brandy, which, with the assistance of
a tow-line, enabled us to reach the ship by 3 p.m., very thankful that we
had escaped what at one time appeared likely to have proved a serious
disaster.

LANDING EFFECTED.

13th May.

In the morning it blew so fresh from the eastward that Captain Dixon did
not like to move the vessel until 2 p.m., when we stood to the south for
about four miles, and came to anchor in four fathoms. Taking the
life-boat and cutter, both well-manned, we pulled south to the shore
about three miles, the water gradually shoaling until at half a mile from
the shore the boats grounded on a sandbank, from which we walked, through
mud, shells, and coral, to a belt of mangroves about fifty yards through,
behind which rose a sandbank about thirty feet high, covered with flowers
and coarse grass; from this to the foot of a range of rugged metamorphic
sandstone, a distance of half a mile, was an open, undulating, loamy
plain, covered with grass just arriving at maturity, a few small wattles,
hakea, and white-gum trees. As the sun had now set, we had only just time
to ascend a few hundred feet up the rocky ridge, from which elevation
could be discerned a sheet of water about a mile to the eastward, which
we attempted to reach, but it became so dark that it was found better to
return to the boats, which were now high and dry. By 8 p.m. the tide had
risen sufficiently to admit of Captain Dixon's return to the Dolphin,
while I remained with a portion of my own party to make further
examination in the morning; the leaky state o