Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/413

Rh repaired, we resumed our voyage under more favourable omens,—for we saild with a fair wind and fine weather.

On the 17th July, we were off Moreton Bay, and, in the afternoon, communicated with a whaler which heaved in sight off the Cape (Moreton). My object was to learn whether she had heard any tidings of a boat belonging to the Echo whaler, which ship had been lately wrecked on the Cato's bank: one of her boats with part of her crew, arrived at Sydney a few days before we sailed; but another boat, in which the master and the remainder of her people embarked, had not been heard of; and I entertained hopes that this vessel had picked them up, but, on the master's coming on board, I found that he was quite ignorant of her loss.

It so happened that both ships belonged to the same owner, Messrs. Bennetts, of London; and we had the satisfaction of afterwards hearing that the information we had thus afforded proved useful; for the vessel subsequently succeeded in finding the boat and preserving the lives of the crew. After giving our visiter some information respecting the coast and the reef off Cape Moreton, which he claimed as his discovery, but which, much to his surprise, we shewed him already laid down on Captain Flinders's