t position disappointed me, and no satisfactory base was
obtained here; so that the extent of this bay in the chart is rather
uncertain.

My course from the three rocks was directed S. S. E., for the south side
of the bay; the distance was three miles, and the depth for half the way
from 5 to 3 fathoms, but afterwards shoal. Upon some low cliffs there,
partly composed of pipe clay, a few bearings were taken; and after
walking a little way inland, to examine the country, I rowed back to a
small island near the south extremity of Drimmie Head, with soundings
mostly between 3 and 61/2 fathoms; but there is no ship passage between it
and the head. Having taken some additional bearings and looked over the
islet, I returned on board in the evening; passing in the way near a
rock, dry at half tide, but round which, at a ship's length, there is 21/2
to 3 fathoms.

TUESDAY 15 FEBRUARY 1803

Some further bearings and observations were taken on the 15th, and my
intention to sail on the following morning being frustrated by a fresh
wind at north-west, with unsettled weather, Messieurs Brown and Bauer
accompanied me [WEDNESDAY 16 FEBRUARY 1803] in a boat excursion to the
eastern part of the bay. We first landed at the islet near Drimmie Head,
that Mr. Brown might examine its mineralogy; and then steered three miles
eastward for a low projection covered with mangroves, growing on rocks of
strongly impregnated iron stone. Coasting along the mangrove shore from
thence northward, and after landing at one other place, we came to the
isthmus which connects Drimmie Head to the land of Point Dundas; and it
being near high water, the boat was got over the isthmus by a small
passage through the mangroves, and we reached the ship at one o'clock,
where every thing was prepared for weighing the anchor.

This bay is unnoticed in the Dutch chart, and I name it MELVILLE BAY, in
compliment to the Right Hon. Robert Saunders Dundas, viscount Melville,
who, as first lord of the Admiralty, has continued that patronage to the
voyage which it had experienced under some of his predecessors. It is the
best harbour we found in the Gulph of Carpentaria; the entrance is from
the N. N. W., four miles wide, and free from danger; and within side, the
sole dangers not conspicuous, are a sandy spit running half a mile to the
S. S. E. from Point Dundas, and the _Half-tide Rock_. This lies half a
mile from the north-west part of Drimmie Head, and bears (true as us