(Footnote.  Dampier volume 1 page 464 et seq.)

At this anchorage we perceived very little rise and fall of tide, and the flood and ebb both set to the northward, this was also the case at our anchorage within the Lacepede Islands.  At four o’clock the next morning a strong south-easterly breeze sprang up, and moderated again before we weighed; but no sooner were we under sail than it freshened again, and, at half-past five o’clock, blew so strong as to oblige our double reefing the topsails, which had not been done for many weeks before.  At noon the wind fell, and was very calm, at which time our latitude observed was 17 degrees 36 minutes 38 seconds.  The highest part of the land bore North 70 1/2 degrees East, south of which a sandy point, supposed to be Captain Baudin’s Cape Boileau, bore South 87 degrees East; and a smoke, a little to the northward of the masthead extreme, bearing South 42 degrees East must be upon the land in the neighbourhood of Cape Latreille.

Soon after noon the breeze veered round by South to West-South-West, and enabled us to make some progress; at sunset we again anchored in thirteen fathoms, soft sand, at six miles from a sandy projection of the main, which we afterwards found to be the land called by Captain Baudin, Gantheaume Island; the name has therefore been given to the point, for there was no appearance of its being insulated.  It bears a truly desolate appearance, being nothing but ridges of bare white sand, scantily crowned with a few shrubby bushes.

Behind Point Gantheaume the land appeared to be formed by downs of very white sand; and between this point and Cape Boileau is a bay, which at first, from the direction of the flood stream at the anchorage, was conjectured to be an inlet; but as the tide afterwards set to the Northward and North-East, it was concluded to be occasioned by the stream sweeping round the shores of the bay:  according to the depth alongside there was a rise of ten feet; after high-water the ebb set between North 1/2 West and North-North-East, at the rate of a quarter to three quarters of a knot.

During the whole day the horizon was occupied by haze, and produced a very remarkable effect upon the land, which was so raised above the horizon by refraction that many distant objects became visible that could not otherwise have been seen.  This mirage had been frequently observed by us on various parts of the coast, but never produced so extraordinary an effect as on the present occasion.  The coastline appeared to be formed of high chalky cliffs, crowned by a narrow band of woody hillocks; and the land of Cape Villaret was so elevated as to be distinctly seen at the distance of forty miles, whereas two days afterwards, the weather being clear, it was not visible above the horizon for more than five leagues.  This state of the atmosphere caused a rapid evaporation during the day, and as the evening approached a very copious dew commenced falling, which by sunset was precipitated like a shower of rain.