(8)
1796
March         Our condition was now as follows; – three days bread, en-
Saturday     -tirely spoiled; – five days flour, not in the least wet; –
      26     tea and coffee, spoiled: – sugar, half wet; – a few cakes of portable
soup, not much worse; – one piece and a half of salt beef and three of
pork, – six pounds of rice and a little sago, good; – the guns, rusty and
full of sand and salt water: the rods incapable of being drawn; – a
barica of water, brackish; – our clothes completely soaked; – a watch
and two pocket compaƒses, wet; – one horn of powder, dry; and two,
wet; – and a small bundle of wet sticks.
      In this miserable plight, we stood towards some eminences of
land, which proved to be islands; and at sunset, paƒsed one of
them, a small, rocky, barren, spot, lying about one mile from
the coast; but the surf which broke all round, making it impoƒ-
-sible to land, we continued to stand on. The other islet was
nearly east from this, about one mile and a half distant, ha-
-ving the same appearance and magnitude. The coast conti-
-nued to be low and sandy, with rocky heads at intervals;
but ended in a projecting point, upon which is four eminences,
forming a kind of double saddle. This point bounded our view
to the southward, though not above two miles distant. At a
small distance off this Saddle Point, lies another island much
larger than the other two, and as such gave us greater hopes of
shelter; for night began now to make its appearance, with its
usual concomitant cold; which, in our wet condition, was a
very unwelcome visiter [sic].
      In our attempts to land upon this larger