e twenty-five preceding days were as under:

Earnshaw's No. 520, fast, 0h 49' 54.85" and losing 33.38" per day.

[EAST COAST. STEERING NORTHWARD.]

(Atlas, Plate I.)

The winds were light, and mostly from the eastward during the first two
days of our quitting Port Jackson; and not being able to get far enough
from the land to avoid the southern current, it had retarded us 35' on
the 12th at noon [FRIDAY 12 AUGUST 1803], when the islands of Port
Stephens were in sight. On the following day the wind became more steady
in the south-western quarter, and as our distance from the land
increased, the current abated; and on the 15th, when the latitude was 27 deg.
27', longitude 156 deg. 22', and distance from the coast about fifty leagues,
the set was something in our favour. The wind was then at south, and our
course steered was north for twenty-four hours, then N. by W.; and on the
17th at noon [WEDNESDAY 17 AUGUST 1803] we were in latitude 23 deg. 22',
longitude 155 deg. 34', and had the wind at S. E. by S. (Atlas, Plate X.)

Soon after two o'clock, the Cato being some distance on our larbord
quarter made the signal for seeing land. This proved to be a dry sand
bank, which bore S. S. W. about three leagues; and the Porpoise sailing
faster than the other ships, they were directed to keep on their course
whilst we hauled up to take a nearer view of the bank. At three o'clock,
when it bore S. by E. five or six miles, we hove to and sounded but had
no bottom at 80 fathoms. The _Cato's Bank_, for so it was named, is small
and seemed to be destitute of vegetation; there was an innumerable
quantity of birds hovering about, and it was surrounded with breakers;
but their extent seemed very little to exceed that of the bank, nor could
any other reef near it be discovered. The situation was ascertained to be
nearly 23 deg. 6' south, and 155 deg. 23' east; and we then made sail after the
Bridgewater and Cato, to take our station ahead of them as before.

Some apprehensions were excited for the following night by meeting with
this bank but as it was more than two degrees to the eastward of the
great Barrier Reefs, we thought it unconnected with any other, like the
two discovered by captain Ball and Mr. Bampton, further towards the north
end of New Caledonia. I had, besides, steered for Torres' Strait in the
Investigator, from reefs several degrees to the westward, without meeting
with any other danger than what lay near the Barrier o