"Sunday, February 14th...At 5 A.M. Weighed And Made All Sail Down The
Port, By 8 A.M. Grant's Point Bore East By North Distant 10 Miles And
Cape Shanks North-West Distant 7 Miles; Kept Running Down The Land.
A.M.
At half-past 10 South Head of the new Harbour or Port north by east 8
miles distant; by noon the island at entrance of harbour bore north half
a mile distant.
At this time we had a view of this part of the spacious
harbour, its entrance is wide enough to work any vessel in, but, in 10
fathoms. Bar stretches itself a good way across, and, with a strong tide
out and wind in, the ripple is such as to cause a stranger to suspect
rock or shoals ahead. We carried in with us water from 14 to 16 fathoms.
Kept standing up the port with all sail set.
"Monday, February 15th. P.M. Working up, the port with a very strong ebb
against us, we however gained ground. The southern shore of this noble
harbour is bold high land in general and not clothed as all the land at
Western Point is with thick brush but with stout trees of various kinds
and in some places falls nothing short, in beauty and appearance, of
Greenwich Park. Away to the eastward at the distance of 20 miles the land
is mountainous, in particular there is one very high mountain which in
the meantime I named Arthur's Seat from its resemblance to a mountain of
that name a few miles from Edinburgh...to the north-east by north, about
5 miles from the south shore lies a cluster of small rocky islands and
all round them a shoal of sand; plenty of swans and pelicans were found
on them when the boat was down, from which I named them Swan Isles. To
the north-east by east there is an opening, and from our masthead no land
could be seen in it. The northern shores are low with a sandy beach all
along. At half-past 3 P.M. we got to anchor in a sandy cove in 7 fathoms
water, bottom fine sand - Swan Isles bearing north-east by north distance
5 miles, a bold rocky point which I named Point Paterson east-south-east
1 1/2 miles, a long sandy point named Point Palmer west, 1 1/2 miles, and
the nearest point of the shore south-west 1/2 of a mile distant.
"I went on shore and walked through the woods a couple of miles. The
ground was hard and pleasant to walk on. The trees are at a good distance
from each other and no brush intercepts you. The soil is good as far as
we may be judges. I saw several native huts and very likely they have
burnt off several hundred acres of ground. Young grass we found springing
up over all the ground we walked; the only birds we saw were a few
parrots.
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