venturing into it to examine it more closely. At eight o'clock we
anchored off a projecting point which appeared to form the eastern head
of a deep opening: this projection, on account of a remarkable tree
standing above the bushes near to its extremity, was called Tree Point.

At this anchorage the tide rose eighteen feet and ran nearly at the rate
of two miles per hour.

September 5.

The next morning at daybreak, when the land became visible, Captain
Baudin's Cape Dombey was recognised, bearing South 83 degrees East.
Between Capes Ford and Dombey the coast is higher than usual and thickly
wooded to the verge of the cliffs, which preserve the same deep red
colour with those more to the northward; under them a sandy beach
uninterruptedly lines the coast. The bottom, at from three to five miles
distance, is rather irregular, and varies in its depth between seven and
a half and ten fathoms. An opening in the land is laid down near Cape
Dombey in the French charts, before which are placed the Barthelemy
Islands, which certainly do not exist, and it was not until after the
haze of the day cleared up that two detached quadrilateral shaped hills
were seen over the low land; and as these at a distance would assume
exactly the figure and appearance of islands they must have been the
cause of the mistake; I have therefore called them (by altering the
nomenclature as little as possible) the Barthelemy Hills.

At nine o'clock, having weighed at daylight, we reached within three
miles of Tree Point; when the ebb tide commenced and obliged our
anchoring to wait the turn of tide, in order to examine an opening that
trended deeply in to the southward. Accordingly when the flood made we