19th October.
As it was necessary to give the horses a few days' rest previous to
swimming them off to the ship, I started this morning in the life-boat,
accompanied by Captain Dixon and Messrs. Brown, Harding, and Walcott, to
examine the eastern shores of the bay, for the purpose of ascertaining
whether a more suitable spot for a landing place and site for a future
town could be found in that quarter. Leaving the Dolphin at 5.30 a.m., we
ran to the eastward with a light south wind, passing, at six miles, two
small islands in the mouth of the small bay into which the Nickol River
discharges itself. These islands had been visited already by Mr. Walcott,
and I gave them the name of Pemberton and Walcott Islands. Continuing to
run along the shore towards Cape Lambert, the soundings gave from two to
three fathoms, with a good bottom of mud and sand, but the landing was
generally indifferent and rocky until we came to within about nine miles
of the cape, when a deep opening was passed, affording good shelter and
landing for small craft. Two miles further we landed in a small rocky
cove for breakfast, which gave me an opportunity of climbing a hill and
examining the surrounding country, which proved very dry and rocky. A
little further we passed a bold headland, against the extremity of which
rested a singular flying buttress, forming half an arch of fifty or sixty
feet span, and from thirty to forty feet in height. Turning this
headland, another opening was observed, which we entered with the tide,
and soon found that it communicated with the first one, forming an island
of some extent and elevation, to which was given the name of Dixon
Island. We continued to beat down the channel, which had an average width
of over half a mile, until late in the evening, when we came to anchor in
eleven feet of water.
20th October.
At daylight we found ourselves high and dry, only a narrow channel a few
yards wide being left. Having walked over the mud to Dixon Island to
breakfast, the vicinity was examined for water, but without success. At 6
a.m. the tide came in again so rapidly that it was not without some
little difficulty that we gained our boat, when the wind set in so
strongly from the south-west that, after several hours' almost
ineffectual attempts to work to windward, we again landed not two miles
from our last night's anchorage, the character of the country being
equally unfavourable for landing, as it was cut up by deep mangrove
creeks running far up the valleys into the steep rocky hills, forming a
difficult and unpromising country. The breeze having moderated and
shifted a point more to the westward, we again attempted to beat out into
the bay, but by 9 p.m. had not made more than three miles, when we landed
for the night, leaving two of the party in charge of the boat to keep her
off the rocks when the tide fell.
21st October.
The wind and tide being now in our favour, by 3.30 a.m. we took to our
boat, and arrived on board the Dolphin by 10, when she was very soon got
underweigh for the purpose of taking her closer in to ship the horses;
light and variable winds, however, prevented our working more than a mile
nearer the landing cove by sundown, when we dropped anchor for the night.
22nd October.
With a light west wind the Dolphin was worked into eleven feet water, one
and a quarter miles off the point near the cove; the vessel drawing over
ten feet, brought the mud up to the surface in our wake. Eight horses
were soon swam off without much difficulty, as we all had now some little
experience in this sort of work.