Rodrigue Island. 
Effects of a hurricane at Mauritius. 
The crew and passengers of a foundered vessel saved. 
Bourbon. 
Madagascar. 
Simon’s Bay. 
Deep sea soundings. 
Arrival in England. 
Take leave of the Beagle. 
The Surveying service.

The barometer, which had been rising gradually within the last three days, now standing at 30.20, showed that the opportunity of getting round the South-West Cape, had at length arrived.  We therefore left Sullivan Cove on the morning of the 15th; and by the following midnight passed the above-mentioned storm-beaten headland with a fine northerly wind.  Previous, however, to so doing, we had soundings in 84 fathoms, six miles South-West of the Mew Stone.  From the result of others we had obtained at different times off the south coast of Tasmania, it appears that soundings of a moderate depth extend out only a short distance, and that a ship in 60 fathoms will be within ten miles of the land.

MONUMENT TO FLINDERS.

It had been my intention, on our passage to the westward, to have examined the south and west sides of Kangaroo Island, with the rocks lying off the former.  I was also anxious to visit South Australia for another meridian distance, those already obtained not being satisfactory, I wished, moreover, to comply with Sir John Franklin’s desire, that we should set up a monument, dedicated to the memory of poor Flinders, which he had sent to Port Lincoln, the centre of his honoured commander’s most important discoveries on the south coast of Australia.* The performance of such a task would have constituted an appropriate conclusion to our labours on the shores of this great continent; and certainly nothing could have been more agreeable to our feelings than to be instrumental in paying a tribute of respect to our distinguished predecessor in the career of discovery.  I shall always regret that we were prevented from doing so.  At the same time I must say, that it will reflect great discredit on the colony of South Australia, if some portion of its wealth be not devoted to the erection of a suitable monument to the memory of Flinders in one of the squares of Adelaide.

(Footnote.  Sir John Franklin was a midshipman with Captain Flinders when he discovered this part of Australia.)

Strong northerly winds prevented us, as I have above hinted, from closing with the land, we consequently continued our course to the westward; and on the twenty-third day arrived at King George’s Sound, whence, after completing our wooding and watering, we sailed on the morning of the 21st of April.  At noon we passed between Bald Head and Vancouver Reef.*

(Footnote.  See plate.)

ROTTNEST LIGHTHOUSE.