Tracks of natives were seen in many parts of the island; and their beaten paths were noticed leading from the beach to all parts of it; but it did not appear that it was inhabited during our visit.  This delay gave Mr. Cunningham a good opportunity of increasing his botanical collection.  Among the various trees which grow upon this island he found a nutmeg tree (Myristica cimicifera), two species of olive (Olea paniculata and Notoloea punctata), and three palms, namely the Corypha australis or large fan palm, the Seaforthia elegans, and another, remarkable for its prickly leaves.  We also found and procured seeds of Sophora tomentosa, and a plant of the natural order scitamineae, Hellenia coerulea, Brown:  two parasitical plants of orchideae were found growing upon the bark of trees in the shady place near our watering-place; one was Dendrobium caniculatum, Brown; the other was also subsequently found at Cape Grafton and is not yet described; it has oblong, three-nerved, thick and leathery leaves; we saw no quadrupeds and but very few birds.

June 24.

On the 24th we left Fitzroy Island and, steering round Cape Grafton, hauled in towards the centre of Trinity Bay.  To the west of Cape Grafton an opening was observed in the beach that bore every appearance of being the mouth of a rivulet, from the broken and irregular form of the hills behind it.

At noon our latitude was 16 degrees 28 minutes 48 seconds, and three small islands were in sight ahead, which we passed to seaward of.  They are laid down by Captain Cook as one island, whereas they are distinctly three, but all connected by a reef which was covered when we passed.  At 2 hours 30 minutes p.m. we anchored under Snapper Island (so called by Lieutenant Jeffreys), but found the anchorage more open than had been expected.

Snapper Island is high and covered with a thick impenetrable mass of underwood, but no fresh water was found.  The ashes of a fireplace, strewed around with broken shells, was the only trace seen of natives.  The beach, like that of Fitzroy Island, is composed of dead coral and is fronted by rocks.

June 25.

We left this anchorage the next morning with a fresh breeze of wind from south-east; as we steered round Cape Tribulation the sea ran so heavy that our boat, which was towed astern, filled and overset, and in a moment went to pieces.  The wind had now increased to a gale, and the weather threatened so much that we were induced to take advantage of a bight to the northward of the Cape, in which we anchored at three quarters of a mile from the mouth of a rivulet, the entrance of which was blocked up by a ridge of rocks on which the water rippled; we were here tolerably well sheltered by high land from the wind, and the water was quite smooth.

June 26.

On the following day, the weather continued so unfavourable that we remained at the anchorage, and Mr. Bedwell was sent to examine the opening, which was called Blomfield’s Rivulet.  On his return he reported the bar to be too shoal to admit an entrance to vessels of greater draught than four feet, but that having passed it, the inlet runs up a considerable distance, with soundings from three to four fathoms.