(Footnote.  More perfect specimens were afterwards collected by Mr. Baxter, and sent, through Mr. Henchman his employer, to my friend Mr. Brown, the original discoverer of the tree in Captain Flinders’ voyage, and the author of the paper in the appendix at the end of the volume relating to it.)

(**Footnote.  Flinders volume 1 page 60.)

December 1 to February 9, 1823.

Having effected our departure from King George’s Sound we proceeded on our way towards Simon’s Bay at the Cape of Good Hope, which we reached on the 14th January after a passage of forty-six days without encountering a gale of wind or the occurrence of any event worth recording.

February 9 to April 23.

We left Simon’s Bay on the 9th of February and, after touching at St. Helena and Ascension, crossed the line in 22 degrees 6 minutes West; and on the 7th of April made the Island of Flores, one of the Azores.  On the same morning we fell in with two French men of war, a frigate and a corvette, who bore down but, upon showing our colours, hauled their wind and resumed their course without communicating with us.  Between this and the Channel we were delayed by a succession of northerly winds.  The Lizard Lights were made in the night of the 22nd of April and the following day we anchored in Plymouth Sound; after an absence of more than six years.

It may not be considered irrelevant here to make a few brief observations upon what has been effected by these voyages, and what yet remains to be done upon the northern coasts of Australia.  Beginning with the north-eastern coast, I have been enabled to lay down a very safe and convenient track for vessels bound through Torres Strait, and to delineate the coastline between Cape Hillsborough, in 20 degrees 54 minutes South, and Cape York, the north extremity of New South Wales; a distance of six hundred and ninety miles.  As my instructions did not authorise my delaying to examine any part of this coast I could not penetrate into the many numerous and extensive openings that presented themselves in this space; particularly in the neighbourhoods of Cape Gloucester, Upstart, and Cleveland; where the intersected and broken appearances of the hills at the back are matters of interesting enquiry and research.

My instructions at first confined me between Cape Arnhem and the North-west Cape, but were subsequently extended to the western coast.  The examination of the northern and part of the north-western coasts, from Wessel Islands to Port George the Fourth, a distance of seven hundred and ninety miles, has been carefully made and, with a few exceptions, every opening has been explored.  Those parts in this interval that yet require examination are some inlets on the south side of Clarence Strait, and one of more considerable size to the eastward of Cambridge Gulf, trending in to the south-east:  otherways, the coast comprised within these limits has been sufficiently examined for all the purposes of navigation.