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The following extract is taken from Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. III. - Hunter. 1786-1799., ed. F.M. Bladen, N.S.W. Government, 1895.
pp. 312-315.
“Sunday, Decr. 3rd. [1797] - At 6 p.m. we rowed out between the Heads, and finding the wind N.E. by E. set the sails and stood to the southward. At 9 we anchored in Little Harbour, * [Footnote - * Now known as Little Bay.] three miles on this side of Botany Bay, for the night looked squally and uncertain, and things had not yet found their proper places in the boat.
At 5 a.m. * [Footnote - * In following Bass’s movements, it must be borne in mind that the times given in this journal are those of the nautical day, which was reckoned from noon to noon.] we sailed to the southward with a light breeze at north. At 8, when within 3 or 4 miles of Watamowley [Wattamolla], the wind, after wavering about for some time, flew round to W.S.W. and blew violently; we therefore took in the sails and pulled in under the cliffs in expectation of reaching Watamowley [Wattamolla], but the wind coming round further to the southward we bore up and went into Port Hacking.
“Monday, 4th. - P.M.: Gales at W.S.W. A.M. 5: Being moderate, we sailed, but at 8 the wind headed in flurries; we therefore went into Watamowley [Wattamolla], being then abreast of it.
“Tuesday, 5th. - P.M.: At 1 sailed with a fresh sea-breeze at N.E., and at sunset passed the five islands laying off Hat Hill [Mount Kembla]. It was calm all night, but in the morning we stood along the land with a light air almost at east, which continued till noon, when our latitude was 34 degrees 36 minutes.
“Wednesday, 6th. - P.M.: At 1 the air of wind freshened up into a breeze, and at the same time southerned so much that we could not lay along the land; we therefore went into a bight and anchored. * [Footnote - * Evidently the bight of which Point Bass forms the southern extremity.]
“The shore in this bight, and also for some distance on each side of it, bears evident marks of volcanic fire. Several of the little heads and points are of a basaltic nature; some irregular, others columnar basaltis. Upon landing, I perceived, near the extremity of one of the heads, the rocks laying scattered about in a very irregular manner, and upon examination it appeared that a volcanic eruption had formerly taken place there. The earth for a considerable distance round, in a form approaching that of a circle, seemed to have given way; it was now a green slope.
“Towards the centre was a deep ragged hole of about 25 or 30 feet in diameter, and on one side of it the sea washed in through a subterraneous passage with a most tremendous noise. The pieces of rock that lay scattered about had all been burnt, but some were in a state of scoria.
“Nothing can be said as to the soil, for the easternmost part of the Blue Mountains comes to the sea here. * [Footnote - * This range of mountains, which Bass regards as a continuance of the Blue Mountains, is now known as the Illawarra Range, and runs in a N.E. direction from Kangaloon to the coast-line near Coal Cliff.] At 10 p.m., the wind coming at east, we stood to the southward.
“Thursday, 7th. - P.M : At 1 passed Long Nose Point, to the southward of which the coast bights backs considerably, to the westward, and forms a long bay, whose southerly extremity is terminated by Cape St. George. * [Footnote - * Captain Cook first sighted the cape now known as Cape St. George on 24th April, 1770. Hawkesworth (vol. iii, p. 487) states that the name given to the point was Cape George; but in all Cook’s maps, and in all that which Hawkesworth published, it appears as Cape St. George.] [see below]
“At 5, seeing an opening in the bottom of the bay, * [Footnote - * It will now be seen by the memorandum at the conclusion of the journal (post, p. 332) that Bass had been misled by Bowen’s calculations. The point Bass here refers to as Long Nose Point is evidently that at the northern extremity of Seven-mile Beach. [Black Head at Gerroa] ] We judged it to be an inlet, and ran down to it, but found it to be a shallow lagoon, with a bar breaking all across the mouth [the Shoalhaven River]; we therefore rowed on along the bay for a rocky projecting point that promised fair for affording shelter, and at 6 came up with it, and found a small river, into which we went. This little place [Crookhaven], which deserves no better name than Shoals Haven [now known as Shoalhaven], for it is not properly a river, is very narrow at the entrance, the south side of which is formed by the rocky point, and the north by a breaking spit of sand that runs out from a sandy point; within it widens, but the channel, though deep, is very small, the greater part being filled up by shoals of mud and sand.
“The country round it is in general low and swampy, and the soil for the most part is rich and good, but seemingly much subject to extensive inundations.
“There are, however, at 6 or 8 miles back from the head of the west branch, many thousands of acres of open ground which never can be overflowed, whose soil is a rich vegetable mould.
“These extensive openings must formerly have been swamps, but now filled up by repeated floodings and the annual decay of vegetable growth.
“Patches and points of trees, the islands, and points of the former swamps still remain to shew what the country has once been.
“The vicinity of that body of mountains which we call the Blue Mountains does not a little contribute towards keeping this part of the low land wetter than it would otherwise be. From Long Nose Point [meaning Black Head at Gerroa] they run inland about S.W., and form to the country here as complete a barrier to the north and west as they do at Port Jackson to the south and west. Here, indeed, their southern extremity - that is, that point of them which is formed by their turning off sharp to the north-west - is perfectly distinct, whereas there is every reason to believe that we are as completely shut in by them to the northward as to the southward, though that part has not yet been traced.
“The Blue Mountains, in short, appear to be nothing more than a body of mountains that, getting up somewhere to the northward - where, we cannot tell, but not very far, I am well convinced, on the north side of Port Stephens, perhaps at Cape Hawke - run southerly in about a S.b.W. or S.S.W. direction as far as the Cow Pastures, and then turn away eastward and come to the sea 18 or 20 miles to the southward of Botany Bay. Their breadth were they come to the sea is about 25 or 30 miles, but I suspect that as they advance northward their breadth decreases.
“During my examination of the country back of Shoals Haven [Shoalhaven] I fell in with an arm of water [the Shoalhaven River] that, upon tracing down to the sea, I found to be the main stream of a the barred lagoon that we had in vain tried to enter. It runs about 9 or 10 miles westward until it strikes upon the mountains laying S.W., and then enters them with high rocky banks [this is in the vicinity of the present road bridge at Nowra] similar to those of the Grose [River]. Tench, * [Footnote - * Now known as the Nepean River.] and George’s Rivers, on this side of the mountains. The south bank of this arm is a slip of soil exactly resembling the banks of the Hawkesbury. At its back lie the extensive plains already spoken of.
“However capable the soil of this country might, upon a more accurate investigation, be found to be of agricultural improvement, certain it is that the difficulty of shipping off the produce must ever remain a bar to colonization. A nursery of cattle might perhaps be carried on here with advantage, and that sort of produce ships of itself.
“The tide in Shoals Haven [Crookhaven] rise 7 or 8 feet, and flows full, and changes about half-past 8. The ebb shoots down strong. The latitude of it I made to be 34 degrees 52 minutes [This is almost the exact latitude of the mouth of the Shoalhaven River].’
Around Jervis Bay Bass’ nomenclature becomes quite confusing and the following names, taken from Matthew Weatherhead’s Plan of Jervis Bay on the east coast of New Holland, 1791, clarifies the situation somewhat:
Old Name on Weathead’s Chart Name in Use Today
Cape George Point Perpendicular
Point Perpendicular Crocodile Head
Cape St. George Lamond Head
Long Nose Beecroft Head
Rocky Point Bindjine
Cawod Point Green Point
Cabbage Tree Point Plantation Point
Bowen’s Island Bowen Island
pp. 315-324.
“Sunday, 10th. - P.M. : 1/2, sailed to the southward with a strong breeze at N.E. At 2 passed Cape St. George [Bass is actually referring to Beecroft Head], in which I suspect there is a vein of coal, but altho’ I took some pains when at Port Jervis to get down the face of the cliff, yet I never could approach near enough to ascertain whether it was coal or only slate.
“At 3 entered Jervis Bay. This is a wide open bay of a very unpromising appearance on first entering it. On the north and N.E. side, from Point Perpendicular to Cuckold’s Point [In Jervis Bay; just inside Point Perpendicular], * [Footnote - * It will be seen from the memorandum attached to this journal that Cuckold’s Point was dentical [sic] with the Long Nose Point of Captain Cook, - Post, p. 332.] the shore is steep rocks; one beach [Target Beach] and a little cove [Boat Harbour], which, from being the only place we found fresh water in, I have called Freshwater Cove, excepted. There are two streams of water in this cove, and large holes like tanks, seemingly always full. Any launch might at half-tide fill her casks with a hose, baling it out of the tank into the mouth of the hose. Between Cuckold’s Point [Longnose Point, Jervis Bay], which is a long rocky point like an artificial pier, and the northernmost beach [Hare Bay] on this north side is what appears to be the most proper place for anchorage. Even here ships are not landlocked; but I conjecture, from a comparison of the large swell rolling into the mouth of the bay with the smoothness of the water in this anchoring-place at the time we were there, that they might at most or all times ride in safety, and even with ease to themselves and ground-tackling. The N.W., west, and south sides are all shoal beaches, with a heavy surf breaking upon them.
“Bowen’s Island lies about a fourth of a mile from the south point of the bay, but nothing larger than boats can pass between, on account of reefs that run out from each and nearly join. Off a little beach upon the inner part of the island there appears to be shelter for shipping, with the wind as far round as S.E., in about 8 fathoms, on a firm sandy bottom.
“The country round the bay is in general barren. The north side is rocky, brushy and heathy. The west is low and swampy, but sandy. In patches of a few score acres the ground runs tolerably good, but these are distant from each other, and too much intersected by lagoons and salt swamps to promise any advantage by cultivation. The south is grassy and brushy, and might serve for the pasturage of cattle. The bay near its mouth seems at some past period to have undergone a change of form by the operation of volcanic fire. The rocks on the N.E. side bear strong marks of it, and being disposed in parallel layers, their declination from the horizontal line is sufficiently evident. Their fall has been to the westward. Great quantities of pumice-stone are lying scattered about to some distance on the shore. Bowen’s Island has altogether suffered an alteration by the earth under its western side giving way. The parallel strata now make with the surface of the sea an angle of not less than 14 or 18 degrees.
“The north part of the bay bights in so far that all the N.E. shore of it, together with the coast on northward as far as Cape St. George [Lamond Head], * [Footnote - * Bass, misled by Bowen’s data, placed Cape St. George to the north instead of the south of Jervis Bay, - Post, p.332.] [as can be seen from the above Bass was obviously working from the names used on Weatherhead’s chart] a distance of 14 or 15 miles, is nothing more than a very narrow-necked peninsula; the south part of the bottom of the bay, between Long Nose [Beecroft Head] and Cape George [Lamond Head], being not more than three or four hundred yards distant from the north part of Jervis Bay.
“In the sketch Capt. Bowen has given of this bay he lays down a conjectural river 10 or 11 miles north of Point Perpendicular. I walked over and examined this place, but found it to be only a deep notch in the cliffs, without landing-place or shelter for vessels of any kind.
“Wednesday, 13th. - At 9 a.m. sailed, with a fresh N.E. sea-breeze. At noon our latitude was 35 degrees 16 minutes, the Pidgeon House [Pigeon House] bearing west. [This latitude is actually offshore of Lake Conjola]
“Thursday, 14th. - P.M. : Wind fresh, N.E. At 3 passed an island, laying S.E. from the Pidgeon House [Pigeon House], upon which we observed a pole or stump sticking on so high and conspicuous a part that we had every reason to believe some shipwrecked persons had erected it there. There was too heavy and fiery a following sea for us to dare to haul up for it now; we therefore left it for our return. * [Footnote - * This was apparently Brush Island, about sixteen miles north of Bateman’s Bay.]
“At 5 we entered Bateman Bay.
“Bateman Bay falls far short of that figure it makes in the charts, for its depth back is not more than a mile, and its length a mile and three-fourths or two miles. It has a high steep north head, behind which it runs in northerly about a fourth of a mile, but there is no shelter except merely from northerly winds. Even in the furthest corner there is too much surf upon the beach for any boat to lay without constant attendance.
“The north and south sides are hill. Grass grows tolerably luxuriant upon them, but they seem only fit for feeding cattle. The land on the west side is low and wet, but a few grassy risings might afford good sites. The vallies [sic] and the slopes of several of the little hills at some distance back are capable of cultivation, some of them to great advantage. The only difference remarkable in the vegetable productions is the increased size of the she and swamp oaks. [By the description this is obviously not Batemans Bay; see Cambage.]
“Friday, 15th. - P.M. : 10, sailed with a sea-breeze at E.N.E. At noon our latitude was 35 degrees 43 minutes [This is the latitude for the North Head of Batemans Bay.], two or three small islands lying close under the shore; bore west.
“Saturday, 16th. - P.M. : At 7 anchored for the night under the lee of a point.
“A.M. : Daylight, sailed with an air at west. At 6 the wind flew round to south, bore up, and laid the boat upon the end of a little beach under the same point we had started from.
“Sunday, 17th. - P.M. : Employed in examining the country round about us. The form of the ground in general is either low and swampy or at once inclining to the mountainous, there being little or none upon a plane. The whole is intersected by extensive salt swamps and the the arms of a branching lagoon that comes to the sea about a mile to the northward of the point. * [Footnote - * It would appear from this that the point under which Bass anchored was that now known as Marka Point [Potato Point]. It is situated about a mile to the south of the entrance of the large salt-water lagoon into which the Tuross River empties itself. Bass in the course of this day passed unnoticed the entrance of the Moruya River.] A ridge of low but hummocky hills is passing to the southward, at the distance of about 8 or 9 miles back.
“The qualities of the soil are but very indifferent. Some of the best of the low ground before you approach the edges of the swamps is thickly covered with long grass and fern, but the soil is sandy and light. A wet salt marsh leads you down into the swamps. The sides of the hills where they do no rise up from the lake or swamp side very suddenly are really meadows, but these are few in number. The tops of some of the lower hills are well grassed, but the soil is too poor and sandy for cultivation.
“The country seems to be at all times but sparingly watered, but it is now in a state of drought. In the course of our round of not less than 12 or 14 miles, we could not find a drop of fresh water, altho’ the heat of the day made us search for it with extreme eagerness. We met with numbers of native huts deserted, the cause of which appeared when we traced down their paths to the dried up waterholes they had dug in the very heart of the largest of the swamps. We saw here the only grey kangaroo we ever met with during our whole absence. The latitude of this point is 36 degrees 00 minutes [This is actually the exact latitude for Bingie Bingie Point].
“A,M, : The wind came strong at N.N.W., therefore as soon as we had daylight enough to get the boat through the surf we launched her and proceeded on to the southward. At 11 passed Mount Dromedary. There is an island [Monatgue Island] laying of this mount, of about 2 miles in circuit, and about the same distance from the main. At noon our latitude was 36 degrees 23 minutes [This actual longitude is just south of Wallaga Lake].
“Monday, 18th. - P.M. : 4, after falling away gradually to a light breeze at N.N.W., the wind suddenly burst out at south and blew hard; we therefore hauled in for a break in the land that we had just before we bore away for. At 5 landed in the a sheltered little beach at the mouth of an inlet that broke across. At 10 am., seeing the mouth of the inlet did not break, we went in and examined it. Were it not for the extreme shallowness of the bar this little inlet would be a complete harbour for small craft, but a small boat even must watch her times for going in. At high water there is not more than 8 or 9 feet. The upper part of this place is a kind of lagoon, or at least a flat, but the lower part downwards, as far as the bar, is one of the prettiest little harbours as to form that was perhaps ever seen. One would take it to have been intended as the model of some large deep harbour. Every small bight has its little sandy beach, and every turning its firm rocky point, the depth of the water holding a corresponding proportion to the size of the model.
“The ground round it as far as I examined is rocky and barren in front, and low and salt at the head of it.
“I have named the place Barmouth Creek [This is the Pambula River; see Flinders Map, published 1814]; its latitude by computation is about 36 degrees 47 minutes [This is actually in the vicinity of Wallagoot Gap in the Bournda National Park].
“Tuesday, 19th. - A.M. : Sailed at daylight with a light breeze at N.N.W.; at 7 rounded the north point of a bay [Twofold Bay] which seemed capable of affording security for shipping. At 9, the sea-breeze coming at N.E., we continued sailing round the bay, and then stood away to the southward; for I thought it better to leave this bay for further examination at our return than lose a fair opportunity of getting to the southward.* {Footnote - * This was evidently Twofold Bay. See the entry under date 17th February, 1798 - Post, p. 329.]
“Wednesday, 20th. - P.M. : wind N.E. At 5, the wind coming at S.S.W., we anchored under the lee of a point, but could not land.
A.M. : Daylight, with a light air at north; 10, sea-breeze at E.N.E.; 11. passed Cape Howe; at noon our latitude 37 degrees 30 minutes Just south of Cape Howe].
“Thursday, 21st. - P.M. : 5, landed in a little bight * [Footnote - * Doubtless that now known as Wingan Inlet.] [This is incorrect, see Flinders Letter to Bass, p. 2, regarding distances] upon the end of a little beach about a mile north of the Ram Head [see Flinders’ 1801 Map; this is marked on modern maps as Little Rame Head] to fill as much water as we could cask, for as the coast was now very rapidly becoming more sandy and low as we advanced to the southward, and we had every reason to believe the country at this time to everywhere unusually dry. I was under some apprehension that, unless we had a stock of water to serve for several days, we might be obliged to return to the northward from the difficulty of meeting with it, and to lose the object of our research.
“Friday, 22nd. - A gale set in at S.W. b W., which continued for ten days. The country here is generally low, sandy, and not without lagoons, yet in figure hilly, but the hills are little else than sand; they have indeed a patched covering of green which might deceive the eye at a distance, but the usual sterility of soil still prevails. The best I have been able to find is like what at Port Jackson is reckoned so favourable for potatoes, which is a mixture of sand with a very small proportion of vegetable earth.
“The general productions are short deformed gum-trees, the tea-tree, some small shrubs, and patches of an almost impenetrable underwood of small brush, ground fern, and vines. The foliage of the underwood is rich and green, but the trees are far more dusky and brown than I have seen anywhere else. A luxuriant crop of grass may occasionally be found in places where the underwood has thinned off, but the soil is still the same. Where thick grass belly-high and fern plants are growing together one might expect a better soil, but it is only a blackish sand like the rest.
“It is but a very few miles that I have been able to penetrate into this close country, but by the sand patches, which when I ascended the Ram Head I could distinctly see peeping out of the sides of the back hills, I can conclude no otherwise than that the soil to a great distance inland is equally [as] poor as, if not worse than, that which I have already trodden over.
“We had remarked at every stage from Jervis Bay to Barmouth Creek [Pambula River] that the fresh water kept increasing both in badness and in difficulty of procuring it.
“On this coast of almost mere sand we expected the difficulty to increase in a still greater proportion, but we were deceived, for there are many little runs of excellent water that, draining out of the sandhills, trickle over the rocky spots at their feet or sink through the beaches into the sea.
“Saturday, 30th. - The gale broke up, and we had a light breeze at E.N.E. The boat had never been beached all the time we had been here, for at high water the surf washed up over the beach to the foot of the sand-cliffs, but she lay off at anchor in a place where, though a swell came in, no breaking-water could. When we attempted to weigh the anchor to go out we found it so completely buried in the sand that the boat could not lift it; we therefore waited till low water, and then attempted with our feet and with sticks to scrape away the sand from it, but in vain. We tried at the next low water, when the cable parted at the clinch [the hitch of the rope at the anchor ring], and after some further ineffectual attempts we gave it up as irrecoverable, unless that at our return the sand that the late gale had thrown into the corner should be by that time worked out again. The anchor was not buried less than 4 or 5 feet.
“Sunday, 31st. - A.M. : Daylight, got out and steered along to the southward in anxious expectation, being now nearly come upon an hitherto unknown part of the coast. The wind was at N.N.E.; our course up till noon, when our latitude was 37 degrees 42 minutes [this position is actually in the Benedore River area], was about W.S.W.; we had then run, according to our rough way of reckoning, about 30 miles., the land all the way being of nearly the same height as about the Ram Head [Little Rame Head] - in front, long beaches at the bottom of bights of no great depth, lying between low rocky projecting points - there might be about three of these in the whole distance; in the back land lay some short ridges of lumpy irregular hills at a little distance from the sea.
“Monday, Jan. 1, 1798. - P.M. : The wind continued at E.N.E., and we steered along close in with the land. By 9 we supposed ourselves to have gone upon a nearly W.S.W. course about from 30 to 36 miles, but we here and there observed a draining of a current which increased the uncertainty. The land in the whole of this distance was nothing but a low beach [Ninety Mile Beach] - a very small hummock appeared indeed every now and then inland. There were many large smokes behind the beach, as we conjectured by the sides of lagoons, of which there was reason to believe the back country was full.
At 10, being bright moonlight and the sky without a cloud, we could see the land distinctly; it was still ow and level. At 11.30 we lost the distinct sight, so as not to be able to judge of any gaps or breaks there might be in it; it was low, however, but a haze had arisen over it. At 12, the haze thickening, we could scarcely see the land at all. At 2 a.m., the sea becoming more hollow and lofty, we judged ourselves to be getting into shoal water, or that the beach was altering its direction; we therefore hauled out to S.W. b. S., having since 9 ran about S.W. 10 or 12 miles. At 3.10 sufficient day had broken in upon the sky for us to see the land; it was still low and level sand, and seemed to trend in nearly the direction of our course. At 7 we were surprised by the sight of a high hummocky land right ahead [Wilsons Promontory], but at a considerable distance. We steered for it, but that did not oblige us to quit the beach, for it also appeared to be making the same way in nearly as straight a course as it was able. At noon our latitude was 38 degrees 41 minutes [actually the southern end of Woodside Beach]; the high land was now almost abreast of us; its northernmost end bore W. b. B., 2 or 3 miles. There were several small islands laying in various directions to the southward. Vast flights of petrels and other birds flying about us. Our course and distance since 3.10 had been about S.W. b. S. from 35 to 40 miles or more, the beach keeping by the side of us until within a few miles of the high land, where it bighted back in two or three places that had the appearance of inlets I now found we had filled up the before unexplored space between what is called Point Hicks, a point we could not at all distinguish from the rest of the beach, and the land seen by Furneaux in latitude 39 degrees 00 minutes [this is the actual position of Wilsons Promontory but not this is not the land seen by Furneaux], for this high hummocky land could be no other than the land seen by him.
“Tuesday, 2nd. - P.M. : we stood in to the southward along by the high land, with the wind fresh at E.N.E. At 2 steered down for a large hummock, bearing S. 1/2 E., that had just risen out of the water, and from its being so much larger than the rest, I suppose might be the main continued on by very low land from the back part of Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory]. At 4 the hummock proved to be an island. Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory], too, appeared like an island; we could see no land joining to it, either on the east or west sides. We continued standing on for the hummock island, expecting, as it seemed large, to get shelter there, or, perhaps, landing.
“At 6 we anchored under its lee, but could not land. Vast numbers of petrels, gulls, and other birds were roosting upon it, and on the rocks were many seals with a remarkably long tapering neck and sharp-pointed head. At daylight, the wind being strong at N.E. b. E., and apprehending we should not fetch Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory], I judged it best to steer about S. 1/2 E. for the islands lying to the northward of Van Dieman’s Land [Tasmania]. Accordingly, we sailed, but at 6 the wind shifted to E. b. S., when I presently found from the sea that was going, and the lee way the boat was making by being obliged every now and then to launch her off to the westward before the heaviest of the breaking seas, that we should not fetch near the land we were steering for. I stood, however, with an intention, as we were thus far from the main, to endeavour to make the north coast of Van Dieman’s Land [Tasmania], and coasting it along to the eastward, return to the northward by Cape Barren. I had hopes too of being able to procure rice at the island * [Footnote - * Preservation Island. Appendix A.] the Sydney Cove wreck is laying on, and by that means be enabled to lengthen our stay from Port Jackson, which would in some measure do away the effects of the persecution we had so much experienced from foul winds. At noon our latitude was 39 degrees 51 minutes [about the same latitude as the northern tip of Flinders Island], no land in sight. The south part of Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory] I computed to bear N.N.E. or N.E. b. N., the north part of Van Dieman’s Land [Tasmania] about S.S.E. or S.E. b. S. We were therefore at the back of the island laying to the southward of the Sisters, and might be distant from it about 20 or 26 miles or more.
“Wednesday, 3rd. - P.M. : We stood in south, the wind E. by S. At 3 the water was observed to gush in through the boat’s side pretty plentifully near the water-line abaft [towards the stern]. We had frequently remarked in the morning how much looser the boat had become by the last two or three day’s working. As there appeared to be some risque of a plank starting, I determined, notwithstanding that the north part of Van Dieman’s Land [Tasmania] could now be at no very great distance, to stand back for Furneaux’s Land [Wilson’s Promontory]. and coast along it in which ever way the land might trend, for the state of the boat did not seem to allow of our quitting the shore with propriety. At 4 wore and stood to the northward, keeping the boat close to the wind. It was at this time so clear to the southward that we judged ourselves capable of seeing land at a moderate height full 4 or 5 leagues, had there been any at that distance. From the time of the observation until this time we had steered due south at the rate of 2 1/2 or 3 knots per hour; we must therefore now have been in the latitude 40 minutes 00 minutes, at least.
“At 6 the wind back to E.S.E., and by 9 blew hard. A great sea got up, and ran very hollow and irregular. We had a bad night of it, but the excellent qualities of the boat brought us through. Soon after daylight we saw the island we left the morning before, bearing N.E. b. E., 16 or 18 miles, and at 6 saw Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory], and steered in for it. At noon no observation, there being too much sea flying about.
“Thursday, 4th. - P.M. : At 2 we were standing in under the land and looking out for some place of shelter, and at 8 anchored in one of the bights, not being able to land.
“A.M. : At daylight, the wind being at N.E., we stood round a kind of bay [Waratah Bay] lying along from Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory], about W. b. N. At noon no observation, the sun being too much over the land.
“Friday, 5th. - P.M. : We continued running along the shore about W.N.W. The shore in the bights is low and sandy, but wherever a rocky point comes down to the sea a ridge of high land extends from it backwards as far as can be seen.
“At 7, seeing a large break in the land, we stood in for it and found a strong outset of tide. Many shoals were breaking in different parts of the entrance, so that we could not then see where the channel was. I therefore landed to look for it, and found we were at the back of a long spit which we could not now round, as the tide of flood was beginning
to make in strong; we therefore waited until high water, and then crossed the spit and entered a very extensive harbour. Our course, independent of the bights we had sailed round from Furneaux’s Land [Wilsons Promontory] to this place, had been about W. b. N. 1/2 N., some 60 or more miles.
“we stayed here until the 17th, for what from the weather, the peculiar circumstances of the harbour itself, and the necessary re-equipment of our boat and gear, I did not find myself able to make up my mind concerning it sooner.
“I have named this place, from its relative situation to every other known harbour on the coast, Western Port. It is a large sheet of water branching out into two arms which end in wide flats of several miles in extent, and it was not until we had been here some days that we found it to be formed by an island [Phillip Island], and to have two outlets to the sea - an eastern and a western passage. We went in a came out by the former, which is winding and narrow. The latter, the western entrance, is, in the present imperfectly known state of them, the preferable one. As the weather would not allow us to go through it, I walked along the west side of the island at a time when it was blowing fresh from the S.W. and a heavy surf going upon the shore, so that I must have seen everything that broke, but saw no breakers except those I have marked in the sketch, which I am sorry to say, after all the vexation I have had with it, is but very imperfect. The general rise of the tide is from 10 to 14 feet. It flows on the full and change days about half-past twelve. The soundings are frequently irregular, which is perhaps occasioned by the cross-setting of the tide out of the two arms into the two outlets, and by the softness of the bottom, which is chiefly mud with a little sand; mud abounds so much that the greater part of the points are not approachable except towards the top of high water, and then at the risque of having your boat left until the next tide, for the mud runs out far and flat, and so soft that there is no walking the boat over it. There are indeed in some places sand-shoals, and those tolerably hard, but even they tail off in mud. I have not in the sketch * [Footnote - * Unfortunately, the sketch Bass made has been lost; and no copies of it are known to exist. The track of his whaleboat is shown, in part, in a chart by Flinders. - Appendix B.] attempted to lay down all the shoals, except in that place where any vessel would be most likely to anchor, or their exact direction. Accuracy, independent of its being altogether out of my reach, would, I believe, to anyone be the labour of months.
“The land round Western Port is low but hilly, the hills rising as they recede, which gives it a pleasing appearance. Upon the borders of the harbour it is in general low and level. In the different places I landed I found the soil almost uniformly the same all round - a light brown mould free from sand, and the lowest lying grounds a kind of peaty earth. There are many hundred acres of such sort ground. The grass and ferns grow luxuriantly, and yet the country is but thinly and lightly timbered. The gum-tree, she and swamp oaks, are the most common trees. Little patches of brush are to be met with everywhere, but there are upon the east side several thick brushes of some miles in extent, whose soil is a rich vegetable mould. In front of these brushes are salt marshes. The island is but barren. Starved shrubs grow upon the higher land, and the lower is nothing better than sandy brushes, at this time dried up.
“we had great difficulty in finding good water, and even that which was brackish was very scarce. There is, however, every appearance of an unusual drought in the country.
“The head of a winding creek on the east side [Bass River], which I have marked with Fresh Water in the sketch, was the only place we could procure it at free from a brackish taste. At half-tide there is water enough over the shoals for the largest boat, and within the creek there is at all times sufficient depth.
“There seem to be but few natives about this place. We saw only four, and that the day after we came in, but they were so shy we could not get near them. There are paths and other marks of them in several places, but none very recent. The want of water has perhaps driven them further back upon the higher lands. We saw a few of the brush kangaroo, the wallabah [wallaby], but no other kind. Swans may be seen here, hundreds in flight, and ducks, a small but excellent kind, fly in thousands. There is an abundance of most kinds of wild fowl.
“The eastern entrance of this place has so conspicuous an appearance by the gap it makes in the land that it cannot fail of being known by any one coming from the eastward.
“The point of the island, which is a high cape, like a snapper’s head, forms an island. The entrance appears like a passage between it and the main. The latitude of it will be found to be somewhere about 38 degrees 25 minutes.
“As the seventh week had now expired, our reduced stock of provisions forced us to turn our heads homewards. We did it very reluctantly.”
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