6 August 1788

At five o’clock in the morning of Wednesday, August 6th, they made sail again to the north-west; and at eight discerned a rock which had exactly the appearance of a ship under sail, with her top-gallant sails flying.  So strongly were all the Alexander’s people prepossessed with this imagination, that the private signal was made, under the supposition that it might be either the Boussole or Astrolabe, or one of the two transports which had parted from them on the coast of New South Wales.  Nor was the mistake detected till they approached it within three or four miles.  This rock bore from the Two Brothers south south-west, distant one league.

Between ten and eleven, some canoes were seen with Indians in them, who came close up to the ship without any visible apprehension.  Ropes were thrown to them over the stern, of which they took hold, and suffered the ship to tow them along; in this situation they willingly exchanged a kind of rings which they wore on their arms, small rings of bone, and beads of their own manufacture, for nails, beads, and other trifles, giving however a manifest preference to whatever was made of iron.  Gimlets were most acceptable, but they were also pleased with nails, and pieces of iron hoops.  They dealt very fairly, not betraying the least desire to steal or to defraud.  But though they so readily suffered themselves to be towed after the ship, they could not by any means be prevailed upon to go along side, and whenever an attempt was made to haul up a canoe by one of the ropes, the men in it immediately disengaged themselves from that rope, and took hold of another.  At the same time they appeared extremely desirous that our people should anchor on the coast, and go ashore with them; and, by way of enticement, held up the rind of an orange or lemon, the feathers of tame fowls, and other things, signifying that they might be procured on shore.  They presented also to Lieutenant Shortland, a fruit, which he conceived to be the bread-fruit; it was about the size of a small cocoa-nut, brown on the outside and white within, and contained a kind of soft pithy substance which stuck between the teeth, and was rather troublesome to chew, besides three or four kernels not unlike chesnuts, but very white.  The leaves of the plantain served the Indians to make boxes or small cases, of which every man had one to contain his small rings and beads.  At noon a point of land which runs from the Two Brothers, and was now named Cape Satisfaction, bore north north-east; and the rock which had been mistaken for a ship was called the Eddystone, and bore north by west, distant four leagues.  The Eddystone bears from Cape Satisfaction south south-west, distant two leagues.  As the land from Cape Satisfaction began to trend northward, Lieutenant Shortland again entertained hopes of finding a passage.