10 degrees south. I much wished to have ascertained this point but in our
distressful situation any increase of fatigue or loss of time might have
been attended with the most fatal consequences. I therefore determined to
pass on without delay.

As an addition to our dinner of bread and water I served to each person
six oysters.

At two o'clock in the afternoon as we were steering to the south-west
towards the westernmost part of the land in sight we fell in with some
large sandbanks that run off from the coast: I therefore called this
Shoal Cape. We were obliged to steer to the northward again till we got
round the shoals, when I directed the course to the west.

At four o'clock the westernmost of the islands to the northward bore
north four leagues; Wednesday Island east by north five leagues, and
shoal cape south-east by east two leagues. A small island was seen
bearing west, at which we arrived before dark and found that it was only
a rock where boobies resort, for which reason I called it Booby Island.
Here terminated the rocks and shoals of the north part of New Holland for
except Booby Island no land was seen to the westward of south after three
o'clock this afternoon.

I find that Booby island was seen by Captain Cook and, by a remarkable
coincidence of ideas, received from him the same name, but I cannot with
certainty reconcile the situation of some parts of the coast that I have
seen to his survey. I ascribe this to the various forms in which land
appears when seen from the different heights of a ship and a boat. The
chart I have given is by no means meant to supersede that made by Captain
Cook, who had better opportunities than I had and was in every respect
properly provided for surveying. The intention of mine is chiefly to
render this narrative more intelligible, and to show in what manner the
coast appeared to me from an open boat. I have little doubt but that the
opening which I named the Bay of Islands is Endeavour Straits; and that
our track was to the northward of Prince of Wales' Isles. Perhaps, by
those who shall hereafter navigate these seas, more advantage may be
derived from the possession of both our charts than from either of them
singly.

CHAPTER 17.

Passage from New Holland to the Island Timor.
Arrive at Coupang.
Reception there.

June 1789.

Wednesday 3.

At eight o'clock in the evening we once more launched into the open
ocean. Miserable as our situation was in every respe