Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/159

Wellesley's Islands.]

the 1st of December we got under way, and passed the reef at the south-east end of Sweers' Island. I wished to run close along the north side of this, and of Bentinck's Island, and get in with the main land to the west; but the shoal water and dry banks lying off them presented so much impediment, that we steered north-westward for land which came in sight in that direction. At noon, the land was distant six or seven miles, and appeared to be the inner part of that great projection of the main, represented in the old chart under the name of Cape Van Diemen; but the rocky nature of the shore and unevenness of the surface were so different from the sandy uniformity of the continent, that I much doubted of its connexion. Our situation at this time, and the bearings taken were as under: A smoke was rising in the direction of Horse-shoe Island, but no land was there visible.

We had a light breeze at E. by N., and steered westward along the rocky shore, at the distance of two or three miles, till five in the