CHAPTER 2.
Examination of Rowley's Shoals, and Passage to the North Coast.
Survey of Goulburn Islands, Mountnorris and Raffles Bays.
Meet a Malay Fleet, and communicate with one of the Proas.
Explore Port Essington.
Attacked by Natives in Knocker's Bay.
Anchor in Popham Bay.
Visit from the Malays.
Examination of Van Diemen's Gulf, including Sir George Hope's Islands and
Alligator Rivers.
Survey of the Northern Shore of Melville Island, and Apsley Strait.
Interview with the Natives of Luxmore Head.
Procure wood at Port Hurd.
Natives.
Clarence Strait.
Leave the Coast, and arrival at Timor.

1818. March 6.

The south-east wind, which set in on the morning that we left our
anchorage off Depuch Island, continued to blow with thick misty weather,
and made us conjecture that the westerly monsoon was nearly expended; we,
therefore, steered off the coast with the intention of proceeding to the
eastward towards Cape Arnhem, after ascertaining the position of a shoal
that was seen by Captain Rowley, in H.M.S. Imperieuse, in 1800, and of
two others that are described by Captain Horsburgh to be in its vicinity.
They are situated according to the above authorities as follows, namely: