The length of the bank is about one hundred and fifty fathoms, by fifty in breadth, and the general elevation three or four feet above the common level of high water; it consists of sand and pieces of coral, thrown up by the waves and eddy tides on a patch of reef five or six miles in circuit; and being nearly in the middle of the patch, the sea does no more, even in a gale, than send a light spray over the bank, sufficient, however, to prevent the growth of any other than a few diminutive salt plants.  On its north and north-west sides, and at one or two cables length from the reef, there is from 18 to 25 fathoms on a bottom of coral sand; where the Bridgewater might have anchored in safety, so long as the wind remained between S. W. and E. S. E., and received every person from the wrecks, with provisions for their subsistence.  The latitude of the bank was found to be 22 deg. 11’ south, and longitude by the time keeper No. 520, reduced up from an observation on the afternoon preceding the shipwreck, 155 deg. 3’; but this was afterwards found to require correction.  This excellent time keeper did not seem to have been affected by the violent motion of the ship; but No. 513 stopped, and Arnold’s watch No. 1736 was spoiled by the salt water.

In searching for something wherewith to make a fire on the first night of our landing, a spar and a piece of timber, worm eaten and almost rotten, were found and burnt.  The timber was seen by the master of the Porpoise, who judged it to have been part of the stern post of a ship of about four hundred tons; and I have thought it might, not improbably, have belonged to La Boussole or L’Astrolabe.  Monsieur de la Perouse, on quitting Botany Bay, intended to visit the south-west coast of New Caledonia; and he might have encountered in the night, as we did, some one of the several reefs which lie scattered in this sea.* (Atlas, Plate I.) Less fortunate than we were, he probably had no friendly sand bank near him, upon which his people might be collected together and the means of existence saved out of the ships; or perhaps his two vessels both took the unlucky direction of the Cato after striking, and the seas which broke into them carried away all his boats and provisions; nor would La Perouse, his vessels, or crews be able, in such a case, to resist the impetuosity of the waves more than twenty-four hours.  If such were the end of the regretted French navigator, as there is now but too much reason to fear, it is the counterpart of what would have befallen all on board the Porpoise and Cato, had the former ship, like the Cato, fallen over towards the sea instead of heeling to the reef.