TUESDAY 27 JULY 1802

After passing the dangerous reef, we steered northward until three in the
morning; and then hove to until daylight, for the purpose of examining
the land about Double-island Point and Wide Bay, which did not appear to
have been well distinguished by captain Cook. At seven o'clock the point
bore N. 2 deg. W., six leagues, and the shore abreast, a beach with sandy
hills behind it, was distant six miles. Between the S. 63. W. and a low
bluff head bearing S. 32 deg. W., was a bight in the coast where the sand
hills seemed to terminate; for the back land further south was high and
rocky with small peaks on the top, similar to the ridge behind the Glass
Houses, of which it is probably a continuation.

At half past nine we hauled close round Double-island Point, within a
rock lying between one and two miles to the N. N. E., having 7 fathoms
for the least water. The point answered captain Cook's description: it is
a steep head, at the extremity of a neck of land which runs out two miles
from the main, and lies in 25 deg. 56' south, and 153 deg. 13' east. On the north
side of the point the coast falls back to the westward, and presents a
steep shore of white sand; but in curving round Wide Bay the sandy land
becomes very low, and a small opening was seen in it, leading to a piece
of water like a lagoon; but the shoals which lie off the entrance render
it difficult of access, if indeed there be a passage for any thing larger
than boats. Had the Lady Nelson been with me, I should have attempted to
get her into the lagoon, having previously entertained a conjecture that
the head of Hervey's Bay might communicate with Wide Bay; but the
apprehension that lieutenant Murray would arrive at the first rendezvous,
and proceed to the next before we could join him, deterred me from
attempting it with the Investigator or with boats.

Upon the north side of the opening there was a number of Indians, fifty
as reported, looking at the ship, and near Double-island Point ten others
had been seen, implying a more numerous population than is usual to the
southward. I inferred from hence, that the piece of water at the head of
Wide Bay was extensive and shallow; for in such places the natives draw
much subsistence from the fish which there abound, and are more easily
caught than in deep water. So far as could be seen from the mast head at
three or four miles off, the water extended about five miles westward, to
the feet of