able on every account to the dangerous navigation
without the reefs, which has hitherto been chiefly used.

As it was not intended that I should make the survey of this extensive
tract of coast I did not feel myself authorized to examine in any very
detailed way the bottom of every bay or opening that presented itself;
but merely confined myself to laying down the vessel's track and the
positions of various reefs that were strewed on either side of it; and
also to fixing the situations of the head-lands. In doing this enough has
been effected to serve as the precursor of a more particular examination
of the coast, the appearance of which, from its general fertile and
mountainous character, made me regret the necessity of passing so hastily
over it.

CHAPTER 9.
Equipment for the third voyage.
Leave Port Jackson.
Loss of bowsprit, and return.
Observations upon the present state of the colony, as regarding the
effect of floods upon the River Hawkesbury.
Re-equipment and final departure.
Visit Port Bowen.
Cutter thrown upon a sandbank.
Interview with the natives, and description of the country about Cape
Clinton.
Leave Port Bowen.
Pass through the Northumberland, and round the Cumberland Islands.
Anchor at Endeavour River.
Summary of observations taken there.
Visit from the natives.
Vocabulary of their language.
Observations thereon in comparing it with Captain Cook's account.
Mr. Cunningham visits Mount Cook.
Leave Endeavour River, and visit Lizard Island.
Cape Flinders and Pelican Island.
Entangled in the reefs.
Haggerston's Island, Sunday Island, and Cairncross Island.
Cutter springs a leak.
Pass round Cape York.
Endeavour Strait.
Anchor under Booby Island.
Remarks upon the Inner and Outer routes through Torres Strait.

1820. June 21.

In preparing our little vessel for a third voyage, it became requisite to
give her a considerable repair; and among many other things there was an
absolute necessity for her being fresh coppered; but from the pretended
scarcity of copper sheathing in the colony and other circumstances that
opposed the measure, we found more than a common difficulty in effecting
it. The cutter was careened at a place appointed for the purpose on the
east side of Sydney Cove; and whilst undergoing her repair the crew lived
on board a hulk hired for the occasion. This offered so favourable an
opportunity for destroying the rats and cockroaches with which she was
completely overrun, a meas