1822.  April 25 to September 25.

Upon an examination of the brig’s defects after our arrival at Port Jackson her stern and cut-water were found so defective as to require a considerable repair; but from the difficulty of procuring seasoned wood, so long a time elapsed before it was effected that we were not ready for sea until the beginning of September, when other delays of minor importance detained us until the 25th.

At Port Jackson I found orders from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to return to England in the Bathurst when the survey should be completed; but as we were in want of many things that the colony could not furnish, and as we should be detained until the month of February before the monsoon would allow of our going upon the coast; it was deemed most advantageous for the public service to return without making another voyage.  Accordingly on the 25th September we sailed from Sydney with the intention of proceeding to the north through Torres Strait, and calling at the Mauritius on our way; but no sooner had we put to sea than a hard gale set in from the north which induced me to bear up and either to go round Van Diemen’s Land to the westward, if the wind should favour such a proceeding, or, by doubling the south end of New Zealand to make the eastern passage round Cape Horn.

1822.  October 6.

Having reached the south-east end of Van Diemen’s Land on the 6th of October, and a fresh north-easterly wind setting in at the same time, I determined upon adopting the first plan; and therefore proceeded round the south side of the island, in doing which I had the opportunity of verifying some observations formerly taken by which it appeared that the coast between Storm Bay and the South-west Cape was very erroneously laid down both by Captain Flinders and the French expeditions under d’Entrecasteaux and Baudin.

On my voyage to Macquarie Harbour in 1819 I found so many errors in the bearings that were taken as induced me to suspect an original error, and on this occasion a very considerable one was detected.

When Captain Flinders passed round Van Diemen’s Land in the Norfolk he obtained a meridional supplementary altitude of the sun to the south, his vessel being under the land, which made the South-west Cape in 43 degrees 29 minutes South; but finding the next day that his instrument was 2 minutes 40 seconds in error to the north he assigned to the cape a position of 43 degrees 32 minutes.  In the Introduction to his voyage* he makes some remarks in a note upon the positions assigned to it by Captains Cook and Furneaux; the latter officer placed it in 43 degrees 39 minutes, in which I also found it to be by its transient bearing from the South Cape.  By a series of bearings carried along the coast its position is thirty-three miles West 3 degrees South true, from the South Cape.

(Footnote.  Flinders volume 1 Introduction page 179.)