On the 14th in the morning, we saw land bearing north; this we found to be two islands joined together, or nearly so, by a long sandy spit, above water, which reached for about two-thirds of the distance from the eastermost or largest island, to the westmost, which is small. All round the largest is a sand-bank above water, which extends from the foot of the higher land about half a mile into the sea, and may have shoal water from it. We saw on the beach a few natives running along shore, as the ship sailed past. These islands are dangerous to people in the night, on account of the sandy spits which project from them; they were covered with shrubs, and had but few tall trees on them, and the land is but low: the latitude of the large or eastmost island, is 8 deg. 06' north, and longitude 140 deg. 03' east. I did at first suppose them to have been part of the New Carolines, but they seem to lie quite alone, and are about five miles asunder. I called them Phillip Islands, after Arthur Phillip, the governor of New South Wales. On the 17th of July in the morning, we saw land from the mast-head, bearing west by south nine or ten leagues distant; at noon we could see it from the deck, and it appeared to be three islands; at four in the afternoon, they bore south by west three-quarters west, and were by intersections taken from the ship, distant eight leagues. A considerable number of fish being at that time round the ship, the people, in looking over the side at them, discovered rocks under the bottom; we immediately sounded, and had fifteen fathoms: the rocks appeared very large, with patches of white sand between them; in twenty minutes, the water appeared to deepen, and we had no ground with forty fathoms of line. This ridge of rocks appeared to be about half a mile in breadth, and was seen from the mast-head to stretch to the southward towards the islands, and considerably to the northward of the ship; although it be of great extent in a north-north-east and south-south-west direction, yet I do not think there is any very shoal water upon it, for we saw no break, surf, or rippling, which would indicate shoal water; and there was a sufficient swell of the sea to have occasioned some appearance where any ship would have struck the ground.