Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/421

Encounter Bay.]

captain Baudin in the afternoon; and in consequence of our meeting here, I distinguish it by the name of. The succeeding part of the coast having been first discovered by the French navigator, I shall make use of the names in describing it which he, or his countrymen have thought proper to apply; that is, so far as the volume published enables me to make them out; but this volume being unaccompanied with charts, and containing few latitudes and longitudes by which the capes and bays can be identified, I must be excused should any errors be committed in the nomenclature.

There was no wind, from noon to two o'clock; and it appeared by the lead that the ship was drifted to the west-north-west, probably by a flood tide. On a breeze springing up from the southward, we stretched in for the shore; and at six in the evening it was four miles distant, being sandy and generally very low; but there were several hillocks upon it high enough to be seen four or five leagues from a ship's deck, and one of them, more bluff than the rest, and nearly destitute of vegetation, bore N. 17° E. Next day at noon our situation was within three miles of the land, but very little advanced beyond that of the preceding day; our latitude being 35° 49⅓′ and the bluff hummock in sight bearing N. 22° W.

A tide or current setting along the shore appeared to retard us considerably, for at sunset we were not so much as two miles from the noon's place; the hummock then bore N. 25° W., and the furthest part of the coast south-east-by-east from the mast head.

An amplitude taken in the morning, with the ship's head west-by-south; gave 5° 11′ east variation; and in the afternoon, when the land was only three miles distant and the head south-east, azimuths with the same compass gave 0° 50′ west. These, corrected to the meridian in the mode I have adopted, will be severally 1° 57′ and 1° 30′ east; and the mean 1° 44′. The variation had therefore decreased considerably since leaving Kanguroo Island, contrary to the natural order; which proves that the quick increase on passing Yorke's Peninsula, was owing to some peculiar attraction, either in