passed within the three easternmost of the Family Islands, as the
Endeavour did, and landed on the north-easternmost of the group, where
the latitude was found to be 18 degrees 2 minutes 9 seconds. This island,
like the rest, is of small extent, and is surrounded by huge detached
rounded blocks of granite, over which it was not easy to pass. It rises
to a peaked summit of a moderate height, but the face of the hill is so
thickly covered with underwood and climbing plants as to render it
perfectly inaccessible.

Dunk Island, a little to the northward, is larger and higher, and is
remarkable for its double-peaked summit. No natives were seen in passing
these islands, but the smoke of their fires, as usual, lined the coast,
which here began to assume a more improved and favourable appearance: the
shore is diversified by projecting wooded hills and intervening sandy
bays; and, at the back, the hills are very high and separated from each
other by deep valleys, where there must be abundance of water and
probably good soil.

In the evening the anchor was dropped to the eastward of the two
southernmost islands of a group which was named after my friend Edward
Barnard, Esquire. We were followed all the afternoon by a large
hump-backed whale, a fish which appears to be numerous on all parts of
this coast within the reefs. The wind blew so fresh during the night that
having only the stream anchor down it had imperceptibly dragged through
the mud for nearly a mile to the north-west.

June 22.

At daylight we got under sail but the weather had clouded in and bore a
very unsettled appearance. After steering outside the easternmost island