1802.
November.
Wednes. 17.
nor was any land to be distinguished from the top of the hill which had an equal degree of elevation; yet it did not much exceed the height of the ship's mast head! The land round it proved to be an island of five miles long; separated from other land to the west by a channel of nearly two miles in width. The wide opening between this land and the low coast to the southward, I take to have been what is called Maatsuyker's River in the old chart; and that the island, which Tasman, or whoever made the examination, did not distinguish well from being too far off, is the projecting point marked on the west side of that river. Maatsuyker was one of the counsellors at Batavia, who signed Tasman's instructions in 1644; but as there is no river here, his name, as it stands applied in the old chart, cannot remain. I would have followed in the intention of doing him honour, by transferring his name to the island, but Maatsuyker's Isles already exist on the south coast of Van Diemen's Land; I therefore adopt the name of Sweers, another member of the same Batavia council; and call the island at the entrance of the supposed river, Sweers' Island. The hill obtained the name of Inspection Hill; and after taking bearings from it, I rowed into the channel which separates Sweers' Island from the western land; and finding the shelter to be good, the bottom soft, and soundings regular between 3 and 6 fathoms, the shores on each side were searched for fresh water, with a view to filling up the holds there and caulking the ship, before proceeding further in the examination of the Gulph: the search, however, was unsuccessful.
In Torres' Strait, when running with a fresh side wind, the ship had leaked to the amount of ten inches of water per hour, and in some hours the carpenters had reported as much as fourteen; but no anchorage, adapted to the purpose of caulking the bends, had presented itself until our arrival here. Before going on shore, I had left orders for the ship to be put on a careen, and the carpenters began upon the larbord side. In the course of their work two planks were found to be rotten, and the timber underneath was in no better state; it was