TRANSCRIPTION
DURING THE NIGHT we drew near to the northern coast of Kangaroo Island that we had left on the evening of the 21st to head towards the mainland. Now, on the morning of the 25th [15 April], we sighted our last bearings on this island. After studying them from a short way off, we coasted it in a westerly direction until about ten o'clock. At that stage it seemed to run a little to the South. The weather was fine all morning and a fresh breeze blew from the East.
From the top of the masts, the look-out men continually reported that we had some very low-lying land to starboard which would come into sight as we proceeded West. But we could not see it at all from on deck. However, we did sight several columns of smoke to the North which assured us of the truth of their reports.
I did not expect to find so long an island off the mainland coast as this one seemed to be. I was amazed therefore, not to see the end of it approaching, for as we doubled one point, another immediately appeared further on. The entire coast that we examined, both in the morning and the afternoon, was high and rose steeply from the shore. Now and then we saw some small. shallow coves, but with no shelter from the North round to the South-East. The depth varied little: we were never in less than 20 fathoms and were often in 25 at a bare league off shore. This island presents an agreeable and very varied aspect. Although it is not entirely tree-clad, it had the advantage for us of giving us more pleasure than all the coast that we had seen so far.
At midday the latitude observed was 35† 30í 35" and the chronometer put us in 134† 46í 34" of longitude.
In the afternoon several islands were reported to leeward. I thought they might be some considerable heights on the mainland, the lower parts of which were hidden from us; but at three o'clock we passed a very lofty little island,* about which we had no doubt. However, I do not think the other pieces of land reported as islands (but not visible from on deck) can be such, despite their looking like them. We continued coasting the northern side of Kangaroo Island throughout the afternoon and only saw the end of it at sunset, in spite of there being a good breeze. We proceeded slowly, and a strong current, which seemed to be running East-West, appeared to hinder us considerably.
During the night we made several tacks between the small island seen in the afternoon and Kangaroo Island, and at two o'clock we headed North towards the mainland.
* One of the Althorpe Islands.
