Читать книгу Northmost Australia - Robert Logan Jack - Страница 39

"On the 1st September, 1791, the BOATS were completed and were launched, and we put everything we had saved on board of them, and at half-past ten on the forenoon we embarked...We steered NW. by W. and WNW., within the reef. This channel through the reef is better than any hitherto known, besides the advantage it has of being situated further to the north, by which many difficulties would be avoided when within the reef. In the run from thence to the entrance of Endeavour Straits, there is a small white island or key on the larboard end of the channel, which lies in latitude l1° 23' S. The sides are strong and irregular. "On the 2nd September, in the morning, saw land, which probably was the coast of NEW SOUTH WALES. The yawls were sent on shore to ground [sound?] and look

[1) I correct the dates from this point onward. Captain Edwards had lost a day in sailing round the world, but he did not make the correction till he reached Timor.-R. L. J.]

out. They saw ['on entering a very fine bay,' according to Hamilton] a run of water, landed and filled their two barricois, which were the only vessels of consequence they had with them, [What follows is the narrative of Captain Edwards in the pinnace, the Surgeon, with the yawls, having taken a more southerly course, almost west, for the nearest land.—R. L. J.], and I steered for an island called by Lieutenant Bligh MOUNTAINOUS ISLAND [Mount Adolphus Island.—R.L.J.], and when JOINED BY THE BOATS ran into a bay of that island [on 3rd September]..."