be certainly more dangerous than any one of the eastern passages, it is doubtful whether it be more so than a four or six weeks extra navigation amongst the straits and islands to the east and north of New Guinea, where some new shoal, bank, or island is discovered by every vessel going that way.  For myself, I should not hesitate to prefer Torres’ Strait, were it only on this account; considering the long continuance of the danger in one case, as being more than a counterbalance to the superior degree of it in the other.

With respect to a passage through Torres’ Strait in the opposite direction—­from the Indian Sea to the Great Ocean—­it has not, to my knowledge, been attempted; and I have some doubt of its practicability.  A ship would have an advantage in entering the strait by its least dangerous side; but as the passage could be made only in December, January, or February, the rainy squally weather which probably will then prevail, would augment the danger from the reefs ten fold.  The experiment is therefore too hazardous for any except a ship on discovery; whose business it is to encounter, and even to seek danger, when it may produce any important benefit to geography and navigation.

BOOK III.

OCCURRENCES FROM THE TIME OF QUITTING PORT JACKSON, IN 1803,
ARRIVING IN ENGLAND IN 1810.

CHAPTER I.

Departure from Port Jackson in the Porpoise,
accompanied by the Bridgewater and Cato. 
The Cato’s Bank. 
Shipwreck of the Porpoise and Cato in the night. 
The crews get on a sand bank; where they are left by the Bridgewater. 
Provisions saved. 
Regulations on the bank. 
Measures adopted for getting back to Port Jackson. 
Description of Wreck-Reef Bank. 
Remarks on the loss of M. de La Perouse.

[EAST COAST. PORT JACKSON]

1803

The third volume of my log book and journal having been lost in the events which succeeded the decay of the Investigator, I have had recourse to a memorandum book and to officers journals to supply the dates and leading facts contained in the first three chapters following; fortunately, my bearings and the astronomical observations taken by lieutenant Flinders and myself were preserved, as also were the rough charts, with one exception; so that there are few cases where this department of the voyage will have materially suffered.  There are, however, many circumstances related in these chapters, which either do not enter at all, or are slightly mentioned in the officers journals; for these, my public papers and copies of letters have principally furnished materials, and a tolerably faithful memory has supplied the rest.  It seemed necessary to explain this, that the reader may know to what the deficiencies and abridgments in some parts of these chapters are to be attributed; and this being premised, I resume the narrative of our preparations for returning to England.