A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schoonerFlinders, Matthew
History
A Voyage to Terra Australis — Volume 2: Undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803, in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland schooner
Flinders, Matthew
Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Voyages and travels
The sun was near setting at the time Cape Byron bore west, three or four
miles; and the coast from thence to Point Look-out having been seen by
captain Cook, we steered off in order to avoid falling in with the reefs
of Point Danger in the night. At eleven, hauled more in for the land; and
at eight next day [MONDAY 26 JULY 1802], Mount Warning was set at S. 25°
W., twenty leagues. On coming in with Point Look-out, I took observations
for the latitude and longitude, which fixed it in 27° 27' south, and 153°
31' east. The latitude is the same as it had been made in the Norfolk,
(Introd. Vol. I), but is 19' south, and 3' west of the situation given in
captain Cook's chart. The bearings of the land at noon were,
Point Look-out, distant 3 leagues, S. 9° W.
Moreton entrance to Glass-house Bay, S. 55 W.
Cape Moreton, distant six leagues, N. 18 W.
A strange vessel seen to the southward, had induced me to carry little
sail all the morning; it was now perceived not to be the Lady Nelson, but
probably one of the two whalers known to be fishing off the coast; we
therefore made sail for Cape Moreton, and came up with it at four
o'clock. I was much surprised to see a small, but dangerous reef lying
between four and five miles off this cape to the north-east, which had
not been noticed in the Norfolk; in entering Glass-house Bay I had then
hauled close round Cape Moreton at dusk in the evening, and in coming out
had passed too far westward to observe it. The longitude of Cape Moreton
was now fixed by the time keepers at 153° 26½' east, differing only 1½'
from the lunar observations before taken in the Norfolk; when its
latitude had been settled at 27° 0½' south.
(Atlas, Plate X.)
TUESDAY 27 JULY 1802
After passing the dangerous reef, we steered northward until three in the
morning; and then hove to until daylight, for the purpose of examining
the land about Double-island Point and Wide Bay, which did not appear to
have been well distinguished by captain Cook. At seven o'clock the point
bore N. 2° W., six leagues, and the shore abreast, a beach with sandy
hills behind it, was distant six miles. Between the S. 63. W. and a low
bluff head bearing S. 32° W., was a bight in the coast where the sand
hills seemed to terminate; for the back land further south was high and
rocky with small peaks on the top, similar to the ridge behind the Glass
Houses, of which it is probably a continuation.
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