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Barrier Reefs.]

advantages in fixing the positions of places; it cannot therefore be thought presumptuous, that I should consider the Investigator's longitude to be preferable.

We ran from noon, five leagues W. ¾ N. along the south side of the reefs; and seeing their termination at two o'clock, steered N.N.W., Holborne Isle then bearing S. 53° W., about four leagues. At half past four we had a small reef two or three miles to the W.S.W., and a larger four miles to the N.E.; and behind this last was one more extensive, with high breakers on the outside, reaching from N.E. by N. to E. ½ S. I hauled up with the intention of anchoring under the lee of these reefs, till morning; but not finding sufficient shelter against the sea, we tacked and stretched southward for the clear water between the reefs and the land. At sunset, the variation from amplitude was 5° 39′ east; Holborne Isle bore S. by W. from the mast head, and no breakers were in sight. This tack was prolonged, under treble-reefed top sails, till ten o'clock; when a light was seen bearing S. by E. ½ E., probably upon the isle, and we stood to the northward.

The wind blew fresh from the eastward all night, and raised a short swell which tried the ship more than any thing we had encountered from the time of leaving Port Jackson; and I was sorry to find, brought on her former leakiness, to the amount of five inches of water per hour. We tacked to the south, soon after mid-night, and to the northward at three in the morning. Holborne Isle was seen bearing S. 6° W., four or five leagues, at daylight; and at seven we passed betwen three small reefs, of which the easternmost had been set at W.S.W. on the preceding afternoon. In half an hour, when the latitude from the moon was 19° 14′, and longitude by time keeper 148° 21½′, distant high breakers were seen to the north and eastward; the nearest small reef bore S.W. ½ W., two miles, and a much larger one extended from N. ½ E. to W. by N. The passage between these two being three miles wide, we bore away through it; and in following the south side of the great reef,