Mr. McCluer saw some islands near the coast, and amongst others an outer one called New Year’s Isle, in latitude 10 deg. 52’ south and 133 deg. 12’ east, which I purposed to visit in the hope of procuring turtle.  But our friendly trade wind gradually died away, and was succeeded by light airs from the N. W. and S. W., by calms, and afterwards by light winds from the north-eastward; so that it was not until daylight of the 12th [SATURDAY 12 MARCH 1803], that the island was seen.  At eleven o’clock, lieutenant Fowler went on shore to examine the beach for traces of turtle; but finding none recent, he returned before two, and we again made sail to the westward.

New Year’s Isle is a bed of sand mixed with broken coral, thrown up on a coral reef.  It is four or five miles in circumference, and the higher parts are thickly covered with shrubs and brush wood; but much of it is over-run with mangroves, and laid under water by the tide.  Fresh prints of feet on the sand showed that the natives had either visited it very lately, or were then upon the island; turtle also had been there, but their traces were of an old date.  The reef extends about a mile off, all round; we had 22 fathoms very near the outer edge, and saw no other danger.  Broken land was perceived to the southward, probably the inner isles marked by lieutenant McCluer; and six or seven leagues to the S. W. was a part of the main, somewhat higher but equally sandy, which we traced above half a degree to the westward.  I made the latitude of the island to be 10 deg. 55’ south, and longitude by time keeper corrected 133 deg. 4’ east; being 3’ more south and 8’ less east than Mr. McCluer’s position.  The variation of the compass, from azimuths taken twenty leagues to the east of New Year’s Isle, was 1 deg. 55’ east, with the ship’s head W. N. W.; and at thirteen leagues on the west side, 1 deg. 20’ with the head N. W.; these being corrected to the meridian, will be 0 deg. 23’ and 0 deg. 12’ east.  The tide ran strong to the N. W. whilst it was ebbing by the shore, so that the flood would seem to come from the westward; whereas in the neighbourhood of Cape Arnhem the flood came mostly from the opposite direction:  whether this change were a general one, or arose from some opening to the S. E. of New Year’s Isle, our knowledge of the coast was too imperfect to determine.

We had continued to have soundings, generally on a muddy bottom, from the time of quitting Wessel’s Islands; nor did they vary much, being rarely less than 25, and never more than 35 fathoms.  On the 13th [SUNDAY 13 MARCH 1803] at noon we had 34 fathoms, being then in 10 deg. 41’ south and 132 deg. 40’ east, and the coast still in sight to the southward.  The winds then hung in the southern quarter, being sometimes S. W., and at others S. E., but always light; and I steered further off the land, in the hope of getting them more steady.  Our soundings gradually increased until the 18th, when the depth was 150 fathoms in latitude 9 deg. 47’ and longitude 130 deg. 17’; at midnight we had no ground at 160, but next morning [SATURDAY 19 MARCH 1803] the coral bottom was seen under the ship, and we tacked until a boat was sent ahead; from 7 fathoms on the bank, the soundings in steering after the boat increased to 9, 10, 13, and suddenly to 92 fathoms.