But at midnight the wind changed to the eastward, and at daylight (26th), the land was visible from south to South-West.  At ten o’clock we fetched in close to a low sandy point, and then bore up to the westward along the coast, which appeared, as it afterwards proved to be, a part of the main.  The low point which commenced our survey was called Point Braithwaite, and one mile North-West from it is Point Hall:  the shore then trends five miles to the westward to Point Cuthbert, from which a shoal communication extends towards a rock on which the sea broke:  we passed within the rock, carrying two and a quarter fathoms; and then hauled in for a point of land, called after my friend Captain G.H.  Guion, R.N.; but not succeeding in finding anchorage under it, we bore away along the shore, and at night anchored off Point Turner.  Between Points Guion and Turner is a deep but rocky bay, at the bottom of which is an appearance of an opening lined with mangroves:  to the westward of Point Turner is another bay, which circumstances did not then allow of our examining.  From our anchorage the land was traced as far as North-West, and appeared to be an island separated from the main by a strait.

March 27.

The next day we passed through it, and anchored in a bay on the South-West side of the island, at about half a mile from the beach.  The Strait was named Macquarie Strait, after the late Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, who administered the government of New South Wales for a period of nearly twelve years.

As the shores of the bay, in which we had anchored, appeared likely to afford both wood and water, of which articles we were much in want, I was induced to take advantage of the opportunity, and immediately made preparation to commence these occupations.  In the evening a pit was dug for water, which oozed so fast into it, that we did not anticipate any difficulty on that head, and the wood was both plentiful and convenient to the beach.

It was now about the termination of the rainy season, and everything bore the most luxuriant appearance; the grass, which covered the face of the island, was more than six feet high, and completely concealed us from each other as we walked to the summit of the hill, the sides of which were very thickly wooded.  Upon the edge of the beach, the pandanus, the hibiscus, and a variety of other tropical trees and shrubs were growing, and the sand was variegated with the long-stemmed convolvulus in full flower.

The trees upon the hills were principally a small-sized eucalyptus, which we cut for firewood, but the stem was generally found to be unsound, and totally useless for any purpose excepting for fuel.  Among the flowers that were strewed about the island was a superb shrubby grevillea, with scarlet flowers.  The casuarina grew also near the sandy beach but it seemed to prefer the exposed parts near the extremities of the sandy projections of the land where no other tree would grow.  The wood of this tree appeared to be of a closer grain, and of a darker colour than the species that is usually found upon the north coast.