The latitudes and longitudes of the points and islands along the coast have been either verified or corrected, for there are commonly some differences between any longitudes and those of Vancouver and D’Entrecasteaux.  The observations by which certain places, taken as fixed points, are settled in longitude, are mentioned at those places, as also are the corrections applied to the time-keepers for laying down the intermediate parts; and both are more particularly specified in the Appendix to this volume.

Monsieur Beautemps Beaupre, geographical engineer on board La Recherche, was the constructor of the French charts; and they must be allowed to do him great credit.  Perhaps no chart of a coast so little known as this was will bear a comparison with its original better than those of M. Beaupre.  That the Plates II and III in the accompanying Atlas, are offered as being more full and somewhat more correct, does neither arise from a wish to depreciate those of my predecessor in the investigation, nor from an assumption of superior merit; there is, indeed, very little due to any superiority they may be found to possess; but there would be room for reproach if, after having followed with an outline of his chart in my hand, improvements should not have been made in all or some of those parts where circumstances had not before admitted a close examination.

CHAPTER V.

Fowler’s Bay. 
Departure from thence. 
Arrival at the Isles of St. Francis. 
Correspondence between the winds and the marine barometer. 
Examination of the other parts of Nuyts’ Archipelago, and of the main
coast. 
The Isles of St Peter. 
Return to St. Francis. 
General remarks on Nuyts’ Archipelago. 
Identification of the islands in the Dutch chart.

THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 1802

(Atlas, Plate IV.)

The bay in which we anchored on the evening of January 28, at the extremity of the before known south coast of Terra Australis, was named FOWLER’S BAY, after my first lieutenant; and the low, cliffy point which shelters it from southern winds and, not improbably, is the furthest point (marked B) in the Dutch chart, was called POINT FOWLER.  The botanical gentlemen landed early on the following morning [FRIDAY 29 JANUARY 1802] to examine the productions of the country, and I went on shore to take observations and bearings, and to search for fresh water.

The cliffs and rocks of Point Fowler are calcareous, and connected with the main land by a low, sandy isthmus of half a mile broad.  Many traces of inhabitants were found, and amongst others, some decayed spears; but no huts were seen, nor anything to indicate that men had been here lately.  Upon the beach were the foot marks of dogs, and some of the emu or cassowary.  I found in a hole of the low cliffs one of those large nests which have before been mentioned, but it contained nothing, and had been long abandoned.