station, N. 81 20 E.
Cape Townshend, north-east extreme, N. 20 25 W.
Northumberland Isles, the 4th, a peak, N. 26 25 W.

[* A painting was made of this view, and is now in the Admiralty; but it
has not been engraved for the voyage.]

Mount Westall and the surrounding hills are stony, and of steep ascent;
pines grow in the gullies, and some fresh water was found there, standing
in holes. The lower hills are covered with grass and trees, as is also
the low land, though the soil be shallow and sandy; the wood is mostly
_eucalyptus_. No natives were seen during our walk, and only one
kangaroo.

At dusk in the evening, when we returned on board, I found the Lady
Nelson at anchor near us, and two boats absent from the ship. In hauling
them up to be hoisted in, the cutter had been upset from the rapidity of
the tides, which ran above four knots, the man in her was thrown out, and
the boat went adrift. The man was taken up by the Lady Nelson; but the
boatswain, who with two men in a small gig had gone after the cutter, was
not heard of till next morning [FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 1802], when he returned
without any intelligence of his object, having been bewildered in the
dark by the rapid tides in a strange place, and in danger of losing
himself.

[EAST COAST. SHOAL-WATER BAY.]

On weighing the kedge anchor to go further up the passage, it came up
broken near the crown, having in all probability hooked a rock. The Lady
Nelson went one mile ahead, a boat was kept sounding close to the ship,
and in this manner we drifted up with the flood tide, till half past
eight; when another kedge anchor was dropped in 7 fathoms, a short mile
from the land on each side, and two from the inner end of the opening.
Lieutenant Fowler was immediately sent away in the whale boat, to search
for the lost cutter; and in the mean time we weighed with the afternoon's
flood, to get through the passage. On approaching a low, triangular
island on the eastern shore, the depth diminished quick, and an anchor
was let go; but in swinging to it, the ship caught upon a bank of sand
and shells where there was no more than twelve feet water. In half an
hour the tide floated her off; and the whale boat having returned, but
without any information of the cutter, it was kept ahead; and before dark
we anchored in 5 fathoms, at the entrance of Shoalwater Bay.

The opening through which we had come was named _Strong-tide Passage_. It
is six miles l