ve upon the spring, and run up the
jib and stay-sails; and my orders being obeyed with an alacrity not to be
exceeded, we happily cleared the rocks by a few fathoms, and at noon made
sail to the eastward.

This example proved the anchorage in the eastern part of Goose-Island Bay
to be very bad, the sand being so loose as not to hold the ship with two
anchors, though the water was smooth and the wind not more than a
double-reefed-top-sail breeze; yet further westward, between Goose Island
and the west beach, our anchor had held very well before. The most secure
situation should seem to be off the east end of the middle beach, between
it and the rock, in 4 or 5 fathoms; but I cannot answer for the ground
there being good, though to all appearance it should be the best in the
bay.

The _latitude_ observed from an artificial horizon on the middle beach
was 34 deg. 5' 23" south; and the _longitude_ of the place of observation, a
little east of that before fixed by the time keepers from King George's
Sound, (Vol. I.), will be 123 deg. 9' 37.6" east. Mr. Flinders took three
sets of altitudes between the 18th p.m. and 21st a.m., from which the
rates of the time keepers, and their errors from Greenwich time at noon
there of the 21st, were found to be as under;

Earnshaw's No. 543, slow 3h 10' 59.53" and losing 19.63" per day.
Earnshaw's No. 520, fast 1h 31' 54.28" and losing 34.07" per day.

At the first observation, the longitudes deduced from the Coepang rates
were, by

No. 543--123 deg. 33' 37.5" east,
No. 520--123 25 22.5 east;

the mean of which is 19' 52.4" more than what I consider to be the true
longitude, but on using rates equally accelerated from those at Coepang
to what were found above, the error becomes reduced to 12' 11.6" east;
which is the sum of the apparent irregularity of the time keepers from
April 8 to May 18, or in 40.2 days. The corrections applied to the
longitude during the last passage, are therefore what arise from the
equal acceleration of the rates, and from the proportional part of the
12' 11.6" of irregularity; and when thus corrected, the time keepers did
not appear to differ at Cape Leeuwin and Mount Gardner more than 1' from
the longitude of the former year.

[SOUTH COAST. TOWARDS PORT JACKSON]

SATURDAY 21 MAY 1803

On clearing Goose-Island Bay we steered eastward, with cloudy weather and
a fresh breeze which veered to S. S. W. A small round island, with two
rocks on its north s