Cape Villaret.

At this anchorage the flood-tide set East and by North, from one to one and a half knots per hour.  Before weighing I procured a specimen of live coral from the depth of 11 fathoms.

Light airs, and the aid of the flood-tide, carried us into the centre of Roebuck Bay, where we came to an anchor in 7 fathoms, Cape Villaret bearing South by West 1/2 West about 10 miles.  The fall of the tide here was no less than 18 feet.

As we closed with the land, I had a good opportunity of speculating upon its appearance, and the probability of our investigation confirming or contradicting the opinion entertained by Captains King and Dampier, that a channel would be found to connect Roebuck Bay with an opening behind Buccaneers Archipelago, thus making Dampier’s Land an island.  I confess, my own impressions at first sight differed from that of those high authorities, nor did a nearer examination shake my opinion.  Cape Villaret, a short ridge lying East and West, and about 150 feet high, was still the most remarkable object; the sand on its side having a curious red appearance.  From the masthead the land was not visible to the eastward for the space of one point of the compass; yet its level character, and the shoalness of the water, led alike to the opinion that no such communication as supposed would be found to exist.

January 17.

Collecting materials for the chart was the chief occupation of the day.  Mr. Usborne discovered a high-water inlet in the south shore of the bay, five miles east of Cape Villaret, having a dry bank of sand before it at low-water.

Visit from the natives.

While the party were on shore, they were visited by six of the natives, a larger race of men than those on the south coast, naked, with the exception of a grass mat round the waist, and the hair straight and tied up behind, seemingly ignorant of the use of the throwing stick, but carrying spears ill-shapen and unbarbed.  One of them had a kiley, or boomerang, and each carried a rude hatchet of stone.  None of them had suffered the loss of the front tooth, which, with some tribes, is a distinction of manhood.  When asked by signs for fresh water, of which our party saw no traces, they pointed to the South-East; a circumstance which I record, as it may possibly be of some service to future explorers.  As the boat was leaving, one of them, supposing, I presume, that they were out of our reach, and might therefore attack us with impunity, threw a stone at the boat, which luckily did no harm, though hurled with great dexterity and force.  Upon this, a pistol was discharged over their heads, when they retired with far greater rapidity than they had advanced.

An almost white race.