DAMPIER’s ACCOUNT OF NEW HOLLAND.

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Bay, agrees well enough with my account, which is two hundred and thirty twoleagues, though we differ in latitude; and to confirm my conje&ure that the line ofhis courfe is made too near the Ihore, at leaf!; not far to the eaft of this place, thewater is there fo lhallow that he could not come there fo nigh.

But to proceed; in the night we had a fmall land-breeze, and in the morning Iweighed anchor, defigning to run in among the iflands, for they had large channelsbetween them, of a league wide at leaft, and feme two or three leagues wide ; I fentin my boat before to found, and if they found fhoal-water to return again, but if theyfound water enough, to go alhore on one of the iflands, and flay till the fhip came in,where they might in the mean time fearch for water; fo we followed after with thefhip, founding as we went in, and had twenty fathom, till within two leagues of theBluff-head, and then we had fhoal water, and very uncertain foundings ; yet we ranin flill with an eafy fail, founding and looking out well, for this was dangerous work.When we came abreafl of the Bluff-head, and about two miles from it, we had butfeven fathom; then we edged away from it, but had no more water, and running in alittle farther, we had but four fathoms, fo we anchored immediately; and yet whenwe had veered out a third of a cable we had feven fathom water again, fo un-certain was the water. My boat came immediately on board, and told me that theifland was very rocky and dry, and they had little hopes of finding water there: Ifejit them to found, and bade them, if they found a channel of eight or ten fathomwater, to keep on, and we would follow with the fhip. We were now about fourleagues within the outer fmall rocky iflands, but flill could fee nothing but iflandswithin us, fome five or fix leagues long, others not above a mile round. The largeiflands were pretty high; but all appeared dry, and moflly rocky and barren. Therocks looked of a rufly yellow colour, and therefore I defpaired of getting water onany of them; but was in fome hopes of finding a channel to run in beyond all thefeiflands, could I have fpent time here, and either got to the main of New Holland, orfind out fome other iflands that might afford us water and other refrefhments; befides,that among fo many iflands, we might have found fome fort of rich mineral, orambergreafe, it being a good latitude for both thefe. But we had not failed above aleague farther before our water grew fhoaler again, and then we anchored in fix fathomhard fand.

We were now on the inner fide of the ifland, on whofe outfide is the Bluff-point. Werode a league from the ifland, and I prefently went alhore, and carried fhovels to digfor water, but found none. There grow here two or three forts of fhrubs, one juftlike rofemary, and therefore I called this Rofemary Ifland; it grew in great plentyhere, but had no fmell; fome of the other fhrubs had blue and yellow flowers; and wefound two forts of grain like beans ; the one grew on bufhes, the other on a fort ofa creeping vine that runs along on the ground, having very thick broad leaves, andthe bloffom like a bean bloffom, but much larger, and of a deep red colour, lookingvery beautiful. We faw here fome cormorants, gulls, crabcatchers, &c. a few fmallland-birds, and a fort of white parrots, which flew a great many together. We foundfome fhell-fifh, viz. limpits, perriwinkles, and abundance of fmall oyflers growing 011the rocks, which were very fweet. In the fea we faw fome green turtle, many {harks,and abundance of water-fnakes of feveral forts and fizes. The ftones were all of ruftycolour, and ponderous.

We faw a fmoak on an ifland three or four leagues off; and here alfo the bufheshad been burned, but we found no other fign of inhabitants. It was probable, that

on the ifland where the fmoak was there were inhabitants, and frefh water for them-

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