ur
having passed this low and dangerous projection.

June 16.

At daylight of the 16th, we passed outside the Palm Islands at the
distance of five miles.

The weather continued so thick and rainy, that Mount Hinchinbrook was
quite concealed from our view; but a partial glimpse of the land enabled
me to distinguish Point Hillock, and afterwards to see Cape Sandwich,
Goold Island, and the group of the Family Isles.

June 17.

In passing the largest Frankland Island, the San Antonio was seen lying
at anchor near it, with her fore topsail loose, firing guns: seeing this,
we hauled to the wind, and made sail to beat up towards her, under the
idea of her being in distress; but as we approached, we observed a boat
alongside, and her top-gallant yards across, which were proofs that she
was not in such immediate danger, as to require our beating up, with the
risk of losing some of our spars, for the Dick had already sprung her
jib-boom; we, therefore, hove the vessels to, and soon afterwards the San
Antonio joined and passed under our stern, when Mr. Hemmans informed me
that the guns he had fired were intended as signals to his boat, and that
they were not meant for us. He had been aground, he said, on a reef near
the Palm Islands, but had received no damage: light, however, as he
pretended to make of this accident, it was a sufficient lesson for him,
and we soon found he had profited by it, for instead of preceding us, he
quietly fell into our wake, a station which he never afterwards left,
until all danger was over, and we had passed through Torres Strait.

I had now determined upon taking up an anchorage round Cape Grafton
during the continuance of the bad weather, and for that purpose steered
through the strait that separates the cape from Fitzroy Island; and
anchored in six fathoms mud, at about half a mile from its northern
extremity.

It is little remarkable that the day on which we anchored should be the
anniversary of the discovery of the bay; for Captain Cook anchored here
on the eve of Trinity Sunday, fifty-one years before, and named the bay
between Capes Grafton and Tribulation, in reverence of the following day.
In passing between Cape Grafton and Fitzroy Island, eight or ten natives
were observed seated on the rocks at the south end of the beach: one of
them waved his spear to us as we passed, but the distance was too great
to take any notice of him.

In the afternoon we landed upon the small island in t