On rounding Cape Leeuwin, our crew were attacked with a bowel complaint, and symptoms of dysentery; the want of a surgeon to our establishment was most anxiously felt, from the fear that, by an unskilful or improper use of medicines, I might increase, instead of lessen the progress of complaints, which from the fatigues of such a service, in so warm a climate and in the unhealthy season, threatened to be frequent and severe.  One or two of the people had complained of this disorder before we left Oyster Harbour, but it was not until we had sailed, that it assumed any serious appearance.  After two days it happily began to subside, or I should of necessity have been obliged to resort to some place for relief, for we had, at one time, only four seamen to keep watch.

February 10.

This sickness prevented our examining any part of the West Coast, as we passed it; our course was therefore held at a distance from the shore, and on the 10th the land to the southward of the North-West Cape was descried at daylight.  Its outline was so level as to appear like a thick fog on the horizon; but, as the sun rose, we were undeceived.  At seven miles from the shore we found no soundings with 80 fathoms; but at eight o’clock, being three miles nearer, we had 35 fathoms, sand, coral, and shells.  The bottom then gradually shoaled to 22 fathoms; upon which we steered along the outer edge of a line of breakers that fronted the shore, and after rounding a projection of the reef, steered to the East-North-East, towards the extreme of the land.

The coast is here tolerably elevated, and may be seen at the distance of six or seven leagues; it is composed of a red-coloured, sandy-looking rock, which is very scantily sprinkled with small shrubs, and appears to be extremely arid and sterile.  The shore is fronted with rocks that extend for three or four miles into the sea; on the extremity of which the surf breaks with a continued foam.  To the north the land suddenly terminates with rather a steep slope, but a low sandy plain extends to the East-North-East for three miles further, the extremity of which is the North-West Cape.  The fall of the high-land was called Vlaming Head, after the navigator who first discovered this part.

After obtaining the meridional observation, we rounded the Cape, and steered between it and a patch of breakers which lie at the distance of a mile and a half from the shore:  we were no sooner under the lee of the land, than the air, before of a pleasant and a moderate temperature, became so heated as to produce a scorching sensation; and to raise the mercury in the thermometer from 79 to 89 degrees.  We were also assailed by an incredible number of flies and other insects, among which was a beautiful species of libellula.  The sea swarmed with turtles, sea-snakes, and fish of various sorts; and the dolphin was eminently conspicuous for its speed, and the varied beauty of its colours.

From the Cape, the low sandy land trended to the South-South-East for a mile and a half, and then with the same character to South-South-West 1/2 West, in which direction it was lost in distance; and in the north east, was a low rocky island.