1802.
November.
Sunday 7.
meridian; or an hour later than it had appeared to be at the Prince of Wales' Islands.
Lieutenant Fowler had got the ship under way, on the sea breeze setting in, and stood off and on the entrance to Coen River, until our return at three o'clock. We then steered south-westward along the shore; and soon after sunset, anchored in 10 fathoms, nearly four miles from the land, which extended from N. 38° to S. 6° E. and was still low and woody, and fronted with a sandy beach.
A breeze came off the land at night, as usual, and the weather was dark and squally. Monday 8.Early in the morning we steered along the coast, with good soundings between 10 and 9 fathoms, muddy bottom. A sandy point with two hillocks on it, which had been the extreme of the preceding evening, was passed at ten o'clock; and seeing a large bight round it, we tacked to work up. At noon, the point bore from N. 44° E., one mile and a half, to the southern extreme at east, three miles. This point is one of the very few remarkable projections to be found on this low coast, but it is not noticed in the Dutch chart; there is little doubt, however, that it was seen in 1606, in the yatcht Duyfhen, the first vessel which discovered any part of Carpentaria; and that the remembrance may not be lost, I gave the name of the vessel to the point. Our observations placed the south extreme of Duyfhen Point in 12° 35′ south, and 141° 42′ east; and the variation from amplitude, with the ship's head W.N.W., was 5° 24′, or reduced to the meridian, 3° 43′ east.
On the sea breeze setting in at two o'clock, we steered into the bight until past five; when having no more than 2½ fathoms, we tacked and stretched out. The bight extends eleven or twelve miles back from the line of the coast, and there are three small openings in it; but the shore being very low, and in many places over-run with mangroves, and the water shallow four or five miles off, these openings are probably no more than drains out of salt swamps or lagoons. The bearings when we tacked in 2½ fathoms, were,
