[NORTH COAST. WELLESLEY'S ISLANDS.] WEDNESDAY 1 DECEMBER 1802 (Atlas, Plate XIV.) On the 1st of December we got under way, and passed the reef at the south-east end of Sweers' Island. I wished to run close along the north side of this, and of Bentinck's Island, and get in with the main land to the west; but the shoal water and dry banks lying off them presented so much impediment, that we steered north-westward for land which came in sight in that direction. At noon, the land was distant six or seven miles, and appeared to be the inner part of that great projection of the main, represented in the old chart under the name of _Cape Van Diemen_; but the rocky nature of the shore and unevenness of the surface were so different from the sandy uniformity of the continent, that I much doubted of its connexion. Our situation at this time, and the bearings taken were as under: Latitude, observed to the north and south, 16° 48' 29" Land of Cape Van Diemen, N. 70° W. to 25 W. A piece apparently separated, N. 18 W. to 11 E. Bentinck's I., highest part at the north end, S. 15 E. A smoke was rising in the direction of Horse-shoe Island, but no land was there visible. We had a light breeze at E. by N., and steered westward along the rocky shore, at the distance of two or three miles, till five in the evening; when the breeze having shifted to S. W., we tacked and came to an anchor in 6 fathoms, mud and shells. The land was then distant three miles, and extended from N. 61° E. to a point with a clump of high trees on it, which appeared to be the south-west extremity of the northern land and bore N. 84° W. Whether the space between it and the main near Allen's Isle were the entrance of an inlet, or merely a separation of the two lands, could not be distinguished; but the tide set W. by S., into the opening, and there was a low island and many rocks in it. From an amplitude at this anchorage, the variation was 3° 16' east, corrected to the meridian, nearly the same as at Allen's Isle, five leagues to the south; and a full degree less than in the Investigator's Road. THURSDAY 2 DECEMBER 1802