1803.
February.
Monday 14.
the difficulty of finding a convenient position disappointed me, and no satisfactory base was obtained here; so that the extent of this bay in the chart is rather uncertain.
My course from the three rocks was directed S.S.E., for the south side of the bay; the distance was three miles, and the depth for half the way from 5 to 3 fathoms; but afterwards shoal. Upon some low cliffs there, partly composed of pipe clay, a few bearings were taken; and after walking a little way inland, to examine the country, I rowed back to a small island near the south extremity of Drimmie Head, with soundings mostly between 3 and 6 fathoms; but there is no ship passage between it and the head. Having taken some additional bearings and looked over the islet, I returned on board in the evening; passing in the way near a rock, dry at half tide, but round which, at a ship's length, there is 2½ to 3 fathoms.
Tuesday 15.Some further bearings and observations were taken on the 15th, and my intention to sail on the following morning being frustrated by a fresh wind at north-west, with unsettled weather, MessieursWednes. 16. Brown and Bauer accompanied me in a boat excursion to the eastern part of the bay. We first landed at the islet near Drimmie Head, that Mr. Brown might examine its mineralogy; and then steered three miles eastward for a low projection covered with mangroves, growing on rocks of strongly impregnated iron stone. Coasting along the mangrove shore from thence northward, and after landing at one other place, we came to the isthmus which connects Drimmie Head to the land of Point Dundas; and it being near high water, the boat was got over the isthmus by a small passage through the mangroves, and we reached the ship at one o'clock, where every thing was prepared for weighing the anchor.
This bay is unnoticed in the Dutch chart, and I name it Melville Bay, in compliment to the Right Hon. Robert Saunders Dundas, viscount Melville, who, as first lord of the Admiralty, has continued that patronage to the voyage which it had experienced under some of his predecessors. It is the best harbour we found in the Gulph