he Endeavour's compass in passing it. There is good anchorage on the
west side, where it is densely covered with trees, amidst which a few
straggling pines reared their lofty and angular-shaped heads, giving by
their variety a picturesque appearance to the scene.* We passed the Palm
Islands early in the forenoon. The largest we found to be 750 feet high,
with a remarkable white rock off its South-East extreme.

(*Footnote. See the view annexed.)

THE CORDILLERA.

Behind these isles we saw numerous blue streaks of smoke from the fires
of the natives, indicating the state of population on the slope of that
lofty range of hills, which may be called the Cordillera of Eastern
Australia, and which at this point, tower to a great height, overlooking
the coast.* We were abreast about noon of its most remarkable feature,
Mount Hinchinbrook, in latitude 18 degrees 22 minutes South, rising to
the height, according to our observations, of 3500 feet.

(*Footnote. The proximity of this high land to the coast, may account for
the gloomy weather of the previous night.)

Although a number of fires being once seen is not always a sign in
Australia of a densely populated part of the country, yet when they are
constantly visible, as in this part of the continent, it is fair to
infer, that the inhabitants are numerous, and the soil fertile. I might
further remark, that Captain King found the natives well disposed; and at
Goold Island, in this neighbourhood, they even came on board his vessel
uninvited, an evidence of friendship and confidence, rarely
characterizing a race of beings so wary as are generally the inhabitants
of Australia.

It is not a little singular that the altitude of Mount Hinchinbrook
should be identical with what Strzelecki considers the mean height of the
Cordillera, which he traced continually on foot, from 31 to 44 degrees
South latitude giving to the highest point, 6500 feet in latitude 36
degrees 20 minutes South, the name of Mount Kosciusko, for reasons most
admirably and feelingly expressed, and which we therefore, in justice to
his patriotic sentiments, give below in his own words.* It will thus be
seen that there is a northerly dip in the cordillera of 3000 feet in 18
degrees of latitude.

(*Footnote. "The particular configuration of this eminence struck me so
forcibly, by the similarity it bears to a tumulus elevated in Krakow,
over the tomb of the patriot Kosciusko, that although in a foreign
country,