In returning to the sloop they passed a dry shoal lying at the entrance of the river, the deep channel into which was between this shoal and Point Skirmish, where they found from three to six fathoms water.

Before he left the sloop Mr. Flinders had given directions to examine a part on the starboard side, where he suspected the leak to be; and on his return was informed, that it was found to have been occasioned by the starting of a plank from the timber about three or four streaks from the keel.  The caulker had filled it up with oakum from the inside, since which she had made but little water lying at an anchor.

From the situation in which the sloop lay, the bay had not any appearance of closing round, but seemed to promise a large river at its head, and a communication with Moreton Bay, if not something more interesting.  At three in the afternoon they got under weigh to proceed up this river, with a light air from the northward, standing to the southward until dark, at which time they anchored, about three miles from the western shore, in five fathoms, on a soft muddy bottom, whereas the ground before had always been sandy.

CHAPTER XX

Further proceedings in Glass-House Bay
Red Cliff point
Nets of the natives
Moreton Bay found to be an island
The sloop prepared for an attack of the natives
The Event
Account of an island
Enter Pumice-Stone river
See some natives
The leak in the sloop stopped
Interviews with natives
Mr. Flinders visits the Glass-House peaks
Account of the country
Return down the river
Other interviews with natives
Their manner of fishing
Singing
Dancing
Other particulars of, and some conjectures respecting them
Quit Pumice-Stone river, and Glass House Bay

At daylight in the morning of Wednesday the 17th, the sloop was got under weigh, and turned up with a southerly breeze, as long as the flood tide lasted, anchoring about half past ten o’clock, a mile and a half from a point with red cliffs.  A little to the westward of this point, Mr. Flinders found the latitude to be 27 degrees 16 minutes 25 seconds south.  The rocks here were of stone, strongly impregnated with iron, having some small pieces of granite and crystal scattered about the shore.

From Red-cliff Point, they pulled over to a green head-land, about two miles to the westward.  The small reefs which lay off this head presented a miniature of those which form such a barrier to the northern shore of New South Wales, and render it almost inaccessible.