t for the purpose, to purchase any suitable one that
might be offered for sale.

For my guidance I received the following instructions from the Admiralty
and the Colonial Department:--

Admiralty Office, 4th February, 1817.

SIR,

My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty being informed of the
arrangements of Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's principal Secretary of State
for the Colonial Department, for employing you in a survey of the
unexplored parts of the Coast of New South Wales, have commanded me to
express their concurrence therein, and to convey to you the following
instructions, to which you are to conform yourself, in addition to those
which you may receive from the Secretary of State.

The arrangements for providing you with a proper vessel and crew, and
other necessaries for the prosecution of the service having been made by
the Colonial Department, my Lords have no directions to give you on these
subjects, but to recommend you in the conduct and discipline of the
vessel which may be intrusted to your care, to conform, as far as may be
practicable, to the established usages of the navy, and to the
regulations for preserving health, cleanliness, and good order, which
have been established in His Majesty's ships when employed in Voyages of
Discovery.

In order to assist you in the care and use of the timekeepers and
instruments with which their Lordships have directed the Hydrographer of
this department to furnish you, and to follow your orders in all other
particulars relating to the service, my Lords have directed Messrs.
Frederick Bedwell and John Septimus Roe, two young gentlemen, who have
been recommended to them as peculiarly fitted to be of use to you, and
for whose appointment you have expressed your wishes, to accompany you
and to be under your command.

The principal object of your mission is to examine the hitherto
unexplored Coasts of New South Wales, from Arnhem Bay, near the western
entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, westward and southward as far as the
North-west Cape; including the opening, or deep bay called Van Diemen's
Bay, and the cluster of islands called Rosemary Islands, and the inlets
behind them, which should be most minutely examined; and, indeed, all
gulfs and openings should be the objects of particular attention; as the
chief motive for your survey is to discover whether there be any river on
that part of the coast likely to lead to an interior navigation into this
great contin