bruary 11.

And, in the morning, when we attempted to weigh the anchor, the cable
parted, having been cut by rocks. Owing to the bad construction of the
buoy, it did not watch; and, as the tide quickly swept us from the place,
we had no chance left of recovering the anchor. As the sun rose the wind
gradually fell; and, at noon, we were no farther advanced than a mile and
a half to the southward of the north east trend of the Cape. Here the
coast is low and sandy, and is of shoal approach. A small clump of
mangrove-trees on the beach was the first sign of vegetation that we had
seen; and, from the absence of verdure hereabout, is a conspicuous
object. The thermometer stood at 89 degrees. The ebb tide then commenced
and drifted us out near our last night's anchoring ground, and the
evening was spent, without success, in searching for our lost anchor. At
sunset a fresh breeze set in from the South-West, and fearing a
repetition of our loss, we continued under sail during the night, which
was past with great anxiety; and not without reason.

February 12.

For when the day broke, we found ourselves within one mile of the reef
off the South-West end of the island in the north east (which proved to
be Captain Baudin's Muiron Island), and drifting towards it so rapidly,
that in less than half an hour the vessel would have been thrown upon the
rocks. Standing to the eastward we discovered the three sandy islets--h,
i, and k; and at noon, we were near two other sandy islets, y, and z,
which appeared to be the north-westernmost of a group of low, sandy, or
rocky islets, extending to the South-East, beyond the limits of our
masthead view. The islets, y and z, are of circular shape, and not more
than a quarter of a mile in diameter; they are so low as not to be
visible from our deck at a greater distance than seven miles. Their
summits are crowned with a slight shrubby vegetation, the bright verdure
of which, separated from the dark blue colour of the sea by their
glittering sandy beaches, formed a pleasing contrast to the dull,
monotonous appearance of the mainland. These islets are in fact only the
dry parts of a shoal, on which the sand has accumulated, and formed a
soil to receive and nourish the seeds of plants, which have either been
drifted on shore by the tide, or been brought by birds from the
continent.

At sunset we anchored under the land, but soon afterwards the wind blew
so fresh, that the fluke of our anchor broke