In the courſe of the night a large wave daſhed over the deck of our veſſel, having made its way through the opening between the fore-caſtle and quarter-deck, where we kept our boats. When I ſprang out of my bed, I found the cabin filled with water, and imagined we were going to the bottom. It kept us a long time employed before we could rid the ſhip of the water it had taken in. Three or four ſuch waves would infallibly have ſunk us. We ſhould not have ran such a hazard, if we had been provided with means to lay gratings over the large opening by which the wave entered.
On the 17th of April, when we were in lat. 43° S. long. 129° E. the variation of the magnetic needle was 0.
The Eſperance was apprised, that in caſe of ſeparation, our rendezvous at Van Diemen's Cape was to be the Bay of Adventure, inſtead of the Baie des Huitres.
We lay to under our fore-ſail during the night of the 20th, as our day's work had brought us ſo near the coast, that we could not carry full ſail. At nine in the evening, we ſounded, without ſtriking ground, with a line of ſeventy-five fathoms. We brought up with the lead a great quantity of phoſphoric substances, from about three to ſeven inches in circumference. As the
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