On the 5th of May we were near as far to the northward as the southermost part of this land, but did not see it, being by our longitude in 163 deg. 33’ east, which is more than a degree to the eastward of the south part seen by the Supply; the weather was now dark and gloomy, with heavy rain at times, and light, variable winds.  Queen Charlotte’s Islands certainly lie farther to the eastward than has generally been supposed, otherwise we must have made them, for we crossed their latitude in 163 deg. 30’ east longitude, which is nearly what the west end of Egmont Island is said to lie in.

On the 8th of May we had a number of very good observations of the sun and moon’s distance, by which our longitude was at noon 163 deg. 32’ east, and the latitude at the same time 9 deg. 33’ south.  On the 10th, in the morning, we saw land bearing west-north-west, distant about seven leagues; we bore down to make it plain, and it proved to be a cluster of small islands, five in number; they were well covered with trees, amongst which we thought we observed the cocoa-nut.

These islands, when we first discovered them, appeared as only one, which induced me to think it might be Carteret’s Island; and had it not been that by going nearer we discovered that there were five of them, and that they did not at all answer the description of that given by Captain Carteret, I should have concluded that it was so, although the longitude of his island must have been very erroneous, had it been the case.  Their latitude is 8 deg. 26’ south, which is nearly the latitude of Carteret’s; and their longitude, deduced from the preceding day’s observations, is 163 deg. 18’ east.  We steered from them directly to the northward, in order to see if we could discover Gower’s Island, which Captain Carteret says lies about ten or eleven leagues to the northward of Carteret’s; but as we saw nothing, I concluded they had never been seen before; I therefore called them Stewart’s Islands, as a mark of my respect for the honourable Keith Stewart.

The two largest of the islands just mentioned I judged to be about three miles in length; whether they were inhabited or not we could not discover:  we passed to windward of them, and not being situated conveniently for making discoveries, or exploring unknown lands, we made the best of our way to the northward:  just after we left these islands, we passed through a very strong ripling of a tide or current, and saw the trunks of several large trees in the water.  On the 12th, at nine o’clock in the morning, the man at the mast-head discovered breakers on the starboard bow, and not more than six miles distant; soon after, breakers were seen on the starboard quarter, and on the beam, extending in the direction of east-south-east and west-north-west five leagues distant:  at eleven, breakers were seen on the larboard beam, in different patches about two miles long, and lying parallel to those on the starboard side.