Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/272

 

CHAPTER X.

 

Departure from Timor. Search made for the Trial Rocks. Anchorage in Goose-Island Bay. Interment of the boatswain, and sickly state of of the ship's company. Escape from the bay, and passage through Bass's Strait. Arrival at Port Jackson. Losses in men. Survey and condemnation of the ship. Plans for continuing the survey; but preparation finally made for returning to England. State of the colony at Port Jackson.

 

1803.
April.
Friday 8.
(Atlas,
Plate XVI.)When we stretched out of Coepang Bay on the 8th of April, the wind was light from the westward; in the afternoon we tacked toward Pulo Samow, hoping that a canoe seen under the land might have the two deserters on board; but this not being the case, they were given up. At six in the evening, when we stood off, the town of Coepang bore S. 60° E., six or seven miles, and the north point of Samow distant one mile, with the north-west extremity behind it, S. 70° W. In this situation the depth was 74 fathoms, and soon afterwards 130 did not reach the bottom.

Saturday 9.During the night the breeze veered to the south and eastward, and in the morning to north-east, and we coasted along the west side of Samow, four or five miles off, without getting soundings; it is woody, hilly land, but not mountainous, and toward the south end is quite low. A woody islet, called Tios in the charts, lies off the south-west point, which is the sole thing like danger on the west side of Samow; but the tides run strong here, and make ripplings which at first alarm, from their great resemblance to breakers.

Sunday 10.It was evening on the 10th before we had any regular wind; it then sprung up from the southward, and at six, when we made sail,