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 wind was at S. by E. in the morning, and we steered northward after
the brig, in order to fall in with the reefs and prosecute our search for
an opening; in an hour they were visible, and we passed along their west
side at the distance of a mile. Before nine o'clock the brig made signal
for having only 17 fathoms, other reefs were discovered in the
north-west, and the course was altered to pass within them. At eleven we
rounded their west end; and at noon were in latitude 20° 38' 58", and
from the bearing of the Cumberland Isle _k_, in longitude 150° 1' east.
We were now obliged to steer westward again, having reefs at the distance
of two miles, from N. E. by E., to N. W. by W.; and seeing that they
extended onward, and the breeze was fresh, I hauled up for the Cumberland
Island marked _l_, the largest yet seen, with the intention of anchoring
there for the night. The tide carried us too far to leeward, but we
fetched a lesser island, _l2_, seven miles to the north; and came to, in
17 fathoms grey sand, one mile from a beach on its north-west side, and
half a mile from the reef which surrounds the island.
SATURDAY 16 OCTOBER 1802
Early in the morning I landed with a party of the gentlemen, and
scrambled through a thick brush and over lumps of rock, to the highest
part near the north end of the island. Hazy weather much contracted my
view; but several new Cumberland Islands were visible, making up the
number to fifteen, of which the greater part had not been seen by captain
Cook. Amongst the bearings taken with a theodolite, were those of 'k' and
'k2', which had been set from No. 4 of the Percy Isles.
'k', the extremes, bore S. 48° 30' to 46° 40' E.
'k2', S. 36 50 to 33 40 E.
Ship at anchor, dist. one mile, N. 64 0 W.
From these bearings and the several latitudes, I ascertained the
difference of longitude made from Upper Head to the ship, to be 12' 37"
west.
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