Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/249

English Company's Islands.]

swinging of the ship in the road, it appeared that the last of the ebb, as well as the whole of the flood, came from the N.E.; an irregularity which might be caused by the shallow passage between the two islands.

The weather was still squally on the 23rd, but in the afternoon became finer; and at three o'clock we steered south-westward, between the islands and the main, with a flood-tide in our favour and the whale boat sounding a-head. All the points of the main coast, like the western sides of the islands, are low and rocky, and they are bordered with reef; but we had tolerably good soundings, from 20 to 7 fathoms, in passing along them at the distance of a mile. At dusk in the evening we came to, in 5 fathoms muddy ground, in a place much like Malay Road; it is formed by Inglis' and Bosanquet's Islands, and except in a space between them, of half a mile wide, we had land at various distances all round.

Inglis' Island forms here a pretty looking cove, in which is a woody islet. In the morning I sounded the cove; and finding it to be shallow, went on, accompanied by the landscape painter, to take bearings from the steep north-east head of the island. From thence the main coast was visible four leagues further, extending in the same south-western direction; at the end of it was an island of considerable elevation, which I named Mallison's Island, and west of it another, with land running at the back. The bearings which most served to prolong the survey, were these:

We had not brought any provision in the boat; but Inglis' Island appearing to terminate three or four miles further on, I hoped to make the circuit, and reach the ship to a late dinner. An Indian followed along the shore, inviting us by signs to land; but when the boat's head was turned that way, he retreated into the wood