We had a fresh breeze at south-east by south with fair weather.  At two o’clock in the afternoon we dined, each person having a full pint and a half of stewed oysters and clams, thickened with small beans which Nelson informed me were a species of Dolichos.  Having eaten heartily and completed our water I waited to determine the time of high-water, which I found to be at three o’clock, and the rise of the tide about five feet.  According to this it is high-water on the full and change at 19 minutes past 9 in the morning:  I observed the flood to come from the southward, though at Restoration Island I thought it came from the northward.  I think Captain Cook mentions that he found great irregularity in the set of the flood on this coast.

We steered for the key seen in the north-west by north where we arrived just at dark, but found it so surrounded by a reef of rocks that I could not land without danger of staving the boat; and on that account we came to a grapnel for the night.

Monday June 1.

At dawn of day we got on shore and tracked the boat into shelter for, the wind blowing fresh without and the ground being rocky, it was not safe to trust her at a grapnel lest she should be blown to sea:  I was therefore obliged to let her ground in the course of the ebb.  From appearances I expected that if we remained till night we should meet with turtle as we discovered recent tracks of them.  Innumerable birds of a noddy kind made this island their resting-place; so that we had reason to flatter ourselves with hopes of getting supplies in greater abundance than it had hitherto been in our power.  Our situation was at least four leagues distant from the main.  We were on the north-westernmost of four small keys which were surrounded by a reef of rocks connected by sandbanks except between the two northernmost, and there likewise it was dry at low water, the whole forming a lagoon island into which the tide flowed:  at this entrance I kept the boat.

As usual I sent parties away in search of supplies but, to our great disappointment, we could only get a few clams and some dolichos:  with these and the oysters we had brought from Sunday Island I made up a mess for dinner with the addition of a small quantity of bread.

Towards noon Nelson and some others who had been to the easternmost key returned, but Nelson was in so weak a condition that he was obliged to be supported by two men.  His complaint was a violent heat in his bowels, a loss of sight, much drought, and an inability to walk.  This I found was occasioned by his being unable to support the heat of the sun and that, when he was fatigued and faint, instead of retiring into the shade to rest he had continued to attempt more than his strength was equal to.  I was glad to find that he had no fever; and it was now that the little wine which I had so carefully saved became of real use.  I gave it in very small quantities with some pieces of bread soaked in it;