[* Le coeur est comme ces sortes d’arbres, qui ne donnent leur baume pour les blessures des hommes que lorsque le fer les a blesses eux-memes.  Chateaubriant’s Genie de Christianisme, Episode d’ Attala.]

CHAPTER III.

Passage in the Cumberland to Torres’ Strait. 
Eastern Fields and Pandora’s Entrance. 
New channels amongst the reefs. 
Anchorage at Half-way Island, and under the York Isles. 
Prince of Wales’s Islands further examined. 
Booby Isle. 
Passage across the Gulph of Carpentaria. 
Anchorage at Wessel’s Islands. 
Passage to Coepang Bay, in Timor; and to Mauritius,
where the leakiness of the Cumberland makes it necessary to stop. 
Anchorage at the Baye du Cap, and departure for Port Louis.

[EAST COAST. TOWARDS TORRES’ STRAIT]

TUESDAY 11 OCTOBER 1803

(Atlas, Plate I.)

On parting from the Rolla, at noon Oct. 11, off Bird Islet, our course was steered N. N. W. by compass for Torres’ Strait.  At eight in the evening we had run thirteen leagues from Wreck Reef, without seeing any danger; but I thought it advisable to lie to in the night, until the distance was further increased.  We made sail again at five in the morning [WEDNESDAY 12 OCTOBER 1803], and at noon were in 20 deg. 46’ south and 155 deg. 2’ east.  During the two following days and nights, our course by compass was N. W. by N., and afterwards N. W.; and on the 15th [SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 1803] at noon we had reached the latitude 15 deg. 29’ and longitude 151 deg. 24’, the current having set, upon the average of four days, 3/4 of a mile an hour to the W. N. W. This situation was a little to the north, and about one degree to the east of Bougainville’s Bank of Diana, and the tropic birds, petrels, and boobies seen every day were this evening more numerous, especially the boobies; they most probably belonged to Diana’s Bank, but lest some other might lie in our way, we hauled to the wind at eight o’clock.  The little Cumberland was still very leaky at such times as the wind came more on the side and caused her to lie over; and the pumps were so bad that a fourth part of the day was frequently required at them to keep her free, and they were becoming worse from such constant use.

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 1803

Our north-west course was resumed at five in the morning, and continued without interruption, or sight of any danger, to the 19th [WEDNESDAY 19 OCTOBER 1803] at noon, when the latitude was 10 deg. 53’ south, and longitude by time keeper 147 deg. 6’ east; the current had set above 3/4 of a mile an hour to the N. 60 deg.  W., and we had every day seen boobies, noddies, tropic birds, and some gulls.  At four in the afternoon the course was altered one point more west, in order to make the Eastern Fields (Atlas,