s be visited by natives; for they found three
spears, and near them was hidden a small shield, of the same form and
substance as that seen in Pumice-Stone river. The spears were of solid
wood, of twelve feet in length, and could not have been used with a
throwing-stick. One of them was barbed with a small piece of some
animal's bone.

From the trending of the shores of this harbour, it was divided into two
bays, an upper and a lower bay; the former of which was the smallest,
and, in comparison with the latter, resembled the cod to a seine. The
shore on the east side of this bay (the upper) was high, and bounded by
white, steep cliffs; whence Mr. Flinders was induced to hope that a deep
channel might be found there, being unwilling to believe that there was
not a good passage even to the head of a sheet of water of six or seven
miles square, and into which most probably one or more streams of water
emptied themselves.

With the intention of attempting the eastern passage into this upper bay,
he returned on board from his visit to the islet (which he named
Curlew-Islet, and which is in the latitude of 25 degrees 17 minutes S)
and got the sloop under weigh; but was obliged to give up the idea, on
finding the shoal water so extensive as to make it probable that it
joined a line of breakers; and, the sun being near the horizon, to get
clear of the shoal water before dark became a principal concern, and
together induced him to shape a course for a sloping hummock on the west
side of the bay.

The soundings deepened gradually to six fathoms; but, shoaling again to
three and even two fathoms, Mr Flinders suspected that the flood tide
might have set the vessel to the southward toward the shore; this,
however, did not appear to have happened; for at daylight the following
morning her situation was what he supposed it would be, the sloping
hummock bearing W 5 degrees N and their distance off shore about two
miles, the wind having remained at SW during the whole night.

Keeping along the shore until nine o'clock, the water shoaled to nine
feet, and obliged them to haul off to the NE. Being now to the northward
of where Captain Cook had laid down the coast line, and the land being
visible at W 10 degrees N from the deck, and as far as NW from the mast
head, he judged it unnecessary to pursue the research any longer, under
the supposition of there being a double bay, and therefore continued his
course for the extreme of Break Sea