Flinders
1799.
remarkable. The smokes in different places bespoke the country to be inhabited in the scanty numbers usual on other parts of the east coast; but none of the people were seen.
Aug. 7, at ten in the evening, we passed the end of Break-sea Spit in 13 fathoms, and hauled up south-east; but the winds were so unfavourable, that on the 14th our latitude was no more than 29° 19′. I kept the land barely within sight, in order to obtain the greatest advantage from the southwardly current; for, contrary to captain Cook's observation, it was found to be strongest at the distance of six, and from thence to twenty leagues. Close in with the shore, more especially in the bights which fall within the general line of the coast, an eddy had been found setting to the northward.
Light northern winds favoured us for two days; but returning to the south-west, and sometimes blowing strong, it was the 20th in the evening before the sloop was secured in Port Jackson, although the current had set us 210 miles on the way.
I must acknowledge myself to have been disappointed in not being able to penetrate into the interior of New South Wales, by either of the openings examined in this expedition; but, however mortifying the conviction might be, it was then an ascertained fact, that no river of importance intersected the East Coast between the 24th and 39th degrees of south latitude.
Conclusive
Remarks.The account of the discoveries which resulted from the establishment of the colony in New South Wales, closes with this expedition; and it remains only to point out what was wanted to be done in these parts of Terra Australis.
