Midnight squall.

The squall gave but slight warning of its approach, and four hours afterwards the mutinous assemblage of clouds had wholly disappeared from the heavens, leaving nothing to stay the advent of light which came pouring itself in floods of molten glory over the cloudless sky, as the morning broke.  This was the signal of our again moving towards Port Patterson, which we entered, passing on the eastern side of the reef in the mouth, and anchoring close to the eastern shore of the outermost of a chain of sandy islets, forming the west entrance point of the harbour, and extending eight miles in a North-North-East 1/2 East direction from the land.  This group is based on a great coral ledge that dries in part at low-water, thus affording the natives the means of going over easily to them, a circumstance of which they avail themselves, as we found them on the outer island.  They would not, however, come near us, moving off as we landed.  Doubtless the terror of some of their party, in a great measure arose from a vivid recollection of the raft interview, which was likely to dwell long in their minds; at all events, if not of the same party, they had heard of us, and it will readily be believed, that we had been painted in sufficiently terrible and exaggerated colours to render a second interview, in their minds, very undesirable.

Quail island.

Our discovering them in this place, which we named Quail Island, from that bird being found in great abundance, quite destroyed the hope we had previously entertained of procuring turtle there.  It was the season for their incubation, and at that time the island swarmed with them; but our sable friends had abundantly availed themselves of this fact, as we saw the remains of several of their turtle feasts.  Although low, and composed entirely of sand, we found a native well of excellent water near the middle of the island, which, having been enlarged, afforded an ample supply, a circumstance that at once renders this a spot of importance and value.  Both on this and others of the group there were a few small trees and a sprinkling of brushwood.

We did not notice any of the singular detached hills seen at Port Darwin, and the greatest elevation any of the land in the neighbourhood attained was 200 feet; neither did we observe any primary rocks.

The observations were made at the South-East point of Quail Island, which by them is placed in latitude 12 degrees 30 9/10 minutes South, and longitude 1 degree 42 1/4 minutes West of Port Essington.  The almost insulated character of this part of the coast, and the quantity of soundings the openings required detained us until the 6th of October, when we passed out on the western side of the large reef in the centre of the entrance, which is the proper one, and received the name of West Channel.  The western entrance point of Bynoe’s Harbour, bearing South 15 degrees East, leads through it.  This