inders also took with him his old friend Bongaree, "the worthy and
brave fellow" who had accompanied him on the Norfolk voyage in 1799, and
a native lad named Nambaree.

It was determined, after consultation with King, to sail to the north of
Australia and explore Torres Strait and the east side of the Gulf of
Carpentaria, as well as to examine the north-east coast with more care
than Cook had been able to give to it. The Lady Nelson, under Murray's
direction, was to accompany the Investigator; if rivers were found, it
was hoped that she would be able to penetrate the country by means of
them.

On the 21st July the provisioning of the ship was completed, the new boat
was hoisted into her place, and the Investigator dropped down the harbour
to make her course northward.

The Lady Nelson proved more of a hindrance than a help to the work of
exploration. She was painfully slow, and, to make matters worse, Murray,
"not being much accustomed to make free with the land," hugged the coast,
and kept the Investigator waiting for him at every appointed rendezvous.
In August she bumped on a reef in Port Curtis and lost her sliding keel;
in September she ran aground in Broad Sound and injured her main keel.
Her capacity for beating to windward was never great, and after she had
been repaired her tardiness became irritating. Murray had also lost one
anchor and broken another. His ship sailed so ill, in fact, and required
so much attention, that she dragged on Flinders' vessel; and Murray had
given many proofs that he "was not much acquainted with the kind of
service" in which they were engaged. On October 18th, therefore, Flinders
sent her back to Sydney, with an expression of regret at depriving
Murray, who had shown zeal to make himself useful, of the advantage of
continuing the voyage.

On August 7th Port Curtis was discovered, and was named after Sir Roger
Curtis, the admiral at the Cape who had been so attentive to the
requirements of the Investigator on her voyage out from England. In
Keppel Bay (discovered by Cook in 1770) the master's mate and a seaman
became bogged in a mangrove swamp, and had to pass the night persecuted
by clouds of mosquitoes. In the morning their plight was relieved by a
party of aboriginals, who took them to a fire whereat they dried
themselves, and fed them on broiled wild duck. Natives were encountered
at every landing-place, and were invariably friendly.

Another important discovery was made on