TRANSCRIPTION
ON THE MORNING of the 21 st [11 April] we were tacking towards the mainland in the channel between it and Kangaroo Island, when suddenly, on the shore near us, we saw a very brilliant light, like what fishermen carry in the dark. At daybreak we saw much more clearly, and someone even thought he could make out plainly the person carrying it. This indeed could be so, for we saw it being waved in different directions and it was not a fixed fire; at one moment it was in front of our first bearing point and the next, it was beyond it. When light came it disappeared.
Until sunrise, - the winds were very feeble and erratic, but then they settled in the North and a good breeze blew until midday. We sailed along a fairly considerable stretch of the eastern coast of Kangaroo Island. We visited several reasonably deep bays where, in the good season - summer, that is - there must be sound anchorages and shelter from the North-West, West and South winds. But with winds from any other point of the horizon. the sea must be disturbed there, for we found it so with moderate northerlies. The depth all along the coast is fairly regular. At I /2 leagues from the shore, it is 10 fathoms and at a short distance off, it is 7 and 6. The hinterland looks rather pleasant, and although most of the trees had lost their leaves, there remained enough greenery for the view to be attractive. I sailed very close along the land, not only to take exact bearings of it, but also in the hope of discovering the port which the English claim to have found and in which Mr. Flinders told me that he had stayed six weeks, while reconnoitring this part of the coast. So far, it looks as if I misunderstood or misheard the latitude he gave me, for the land does not yet appear to run as far North as I thought I heard him say. During the morning we were obliged to go about in order to double a projecting point. The winds were such that we could not pass by without standing off a little from it.
