25' east of Greenwich.
Reef 15 341/2 148 6
Second reef, 15 17 147 57 ]

SATURDAY 23 OCTOBER 1802

Next day at noon, we were in 15 deg. 12' south, and 149 deg. 2' east; the current
had set half a knot to the N. N. W., and many of the former kinds of
birds, as also boobies and petrels, were seen. Hitherto we had kept up
nearly to the wind, in order to gain an offing from the coast and Barrier
Reefs; but next morning [SUNDAY 24 OCTOBER 1802] the course was directed
N. W. At noon, latitude 13 deg. 47', longitude 148 deg. 39': many boobies seen,
and some petrels and tropic birds. On the 25th [MONDAY 25 OCTOBER 1802],
a shag flew round the ship, and a large flock of petrels was seen:
latitude at noon, 12 deg. 55', longitude 147 deg. 23', and the current setting
more than a mile an hour to the west (Atlas, Plate XIII.). At eight in
the evening, when we hauled to the wind, there was no bottom at 130
fathoms.

WEDNESDAY 27 OCTOBER 1802

In the morning of the 27th, a small land bird, resembling a linnet, was
seen; at noon we were in 10 deg. 28' south and 146 deg. 7' east, and the current
had set W. N. W., three quarters of a mile an hour, since the 25th. The
wind, which had been at south-east, then shifted suddenly to north, and
blew fresh with squally weather; but at midnight it veered to south-east
again. These changes were accompanied with thunder, lightning and rain;
indications, as I feared, of the approaching north-west monsoon. We lay
to, during a part of the night; and at day-break [THURSDAY 28 OCTOBER
1802] bore away again upon our north western course. At eight o'clock,
breakers were seen extending from S. W. by W. to N. by. E., distant from
two to six miles; there was a small gap in them, bearing N. by W.1/2 W.,
but we hauled up north-east, to windward of the whole, and made more
sail. I ventured to bear away at ten; and at noon our latitude was 9 deg. 51'
36", and longitude 145 deg. 451/2' by time keeper. No reefs were then in sight;
but in steering west, we passed through a rippling of tide or current,
and a single breaker was seen from the mast head, at three o'clock,
bearing S. W. four or five miles.

These reefs lie nearly a degree to the eastward of those first seen by
the captains Edwards and Bligh, when entering Torres' Strait; for the
north-eastern extreme lies in 10 deg. 2' south, and 145 deg. 45' east. From this
position, the eastern line of the breakers extended ten o