On quitting Wessel's Islands, we steered a north-west course all night, under easy sail; having a warrant officer placed at the look-out, and the lead hove every quarter of an hour. The soundings increased very gradually till daylight [MONDAY 7 MARCH 1803], when we had 30 fathoms; and no land being distinguishable, the course was then altered to W. by S. Our latitude at noon was 10° 56' 40", longitude by timekeeper 135° 10'; and I judged that part of the coast seen by lieutenant McCluer, in 1791, to lie about fifty miles to the southward. This was the first land seen by him in his course from New Guinea; and according to the comparison afterwards made of his longitude, it should not lie more than twelve leagues from the western part of Point Dale. Mr. McCluer saw some islands near the coast, and amongst others an outer one called New Year's Isle, in latitude 10° 52' south and 133° 12' east, which I purposed to visit in the hope of procuring turtle. But our friendly trade wind gradually died away, and was succeeded by light airs from the N. W. and S. W., by calms, and afterwards by light winds from the north-eastward; so that it was not until daylight of the 12th [SATURDAY 12 MARCH 1803], that the island was seen. At eleven o'clock, lieutenant Fowler went on shore to examine the beach for traces of turtle; but finding none recent, he returned before two, and we again made sail to the westward. New Year's Isle is a bed of sand mixed with broken coral, thrown up on a coral reef. It is four or five miles in circumference, and the higher parts are thickly covered with shrubs and brush wood; but much of it is over-run with mangroves, and laid under water by the tide. Fresh prints of feet on the sand showed that the natives had either visited it very lately, or were then upon the island; turtle also had been there, but their traces were of an old date. The reef extends about a mile off, all round; we had 22 fathoms very near the outer edge, and saw no other danger. Broken land was perceived to the southward, probably the inner isles marked by lieutenant McCluer; and six or seven leagues to the S. W. was a part of the main, somewhat higher but equally sandy, which we traced above half a degree to the westward. I made the _latitude_ of the island to be 10° 55' south, and _longitude_ by time keeper corrected 133° 4' east; being 3' more south and 8' less east than Mr. McCluer's position. The _variation_ of the compass, from azimuths taken twenty leagues to the east of New Year's Isle, was 1° 55' east, with the ship's head W. N. W.; and at thirteen leagues on the west side, 1° 20' with the head N. W.; these being corrected to the meridian, will be 0° 23' and 0° 12' east. The _tide_ ran strong to the N. W. whilst it was ebbing by the shore, so that the flood would seem to come from the westward; whereas in the neighbourhood of Cape Arnhem the flood came mostly from the opposite direction: whether this change were a general one, or arose from some