let was not quite reached at noon
next day [THURSDAY 10 NOVEMBER 1803]; and it was near five in the evening
before we anchored abreast of Fort Concordia. This was the thirtieth day
of our departure from Wreck Reef, and two days might be deducted from
them for the deviations and stoppages made for surveying; the indifferent
sailing of the schooner was also against making a quick passage, for with
all the sail we could set, so much as six knots was not marked on the log
board; yet notwithstanding these hindrances, and the much greater of my
six-weeks voyage in the boat to Port Jackson and twelve days stay at
Wreck Reef, the Bridgewater had arrived at Batavia only four days before
we anchored in Coepang Bay. Had not the unfortunate accident happened to
the Porpoise, I have little doubt that we could, with the superior
sailing of that ship, have reached the longitude of Java Head on the
fortieth, perhaps on the thirty-fifth day of our departure from Port
Jackson.

[AT TIMOR. COEPANG BAY.]

Mynheer Geisler, the former governor of Coepang, died a month before our
arrival, and Mr. Viertzen at this time commanded. He supplied us with
almost every thing our situation required, and endeavoured to make my
time pass as pleasantly as was in his power, furnishing me with a house
near the fort to which I took the time keeper and instruments to
ascertain a new rate and error; but my anxious desire to reach England,
and the apprehension of being met by the north-west monsoon before
passing Java, induced me to leave him as soon as we could be ready to
sail, which was on the fourth day. The schooner had continued to be very
leaky whenever the wind caused her to lie over on the side, and one of
the pumps had nearly become useless; I should have risked staying two or
three days longer, had Coepang furnished the means of fresh boring and
fitting the pumps, or if pitch could have been procured to pay the seams
in the upper works after they were caulked; but no assistance in this way
could be obtained; we however got a leak stopped in the bow, and the
vessel was afterwards tight so long as she remained at anchor.

Mr. Viertzen informed me that captain Baudin had arrived at Coepang near
a month after I had left it in the Investigator, and had sailed early in
June for the Gulph of Carpentaria; and I afterwards learned, that being
delayed by calms and opposed by south-east winds, he had not reached Cape
Arnhem when his people and himself began