At day-light in the morning of the 19th, we saw Sir Charles Hardy’s Island, bearing north 2 deg. 00’ west, five leagues distant; and Winchelsea, (or Lord Anson’s Island, as marked in Captain Carteret’s chart) south 48 deg. 00’ east; this last was certainly the point which terminated the high land before-mentioned, for we had kept it in sight since the evening before, and were a-breast of it at two in the morning, and were not more than fourteen or fifteen miles from it.  Its latitude will be 5 deg. 08’ south, and the longitude 154 deg. 31’ east.  Sir Charles Hardy’s Island is low, level, and covered with wood; its latitude is 4 deg. 41’ south, and the longitude 154 deg. 20’ east.

At noon on the 19th, we saw high land bearing from west to west-north-west.  It was very cloudy over it, so that we could not see its extent to the northward; it was distant eight or nine leagues:  the west point of it was, no doubt, Cape Saint George, New Ireland.  At six in the afternoon of the 20th, Cape Saint George bore north 80 deg. 00’ west, five leagues distant.  We had light winds during the night, and in the morning, the land was so covered with clouds that we could not discover the extremity or point of the Cape; we steered to the north-north-west, having found, from the general bearings of the land, that we had been set to the southward during the night:  at noon it was clearer, and the Cape bore north 14 deg. 00’ east ten or eleven miles distant.  We had very light and baffling airs during the night of the 21st, which made me apprehensive, from what Captain Carteret has said of strong westerly currents here, that as we had now opened St. George’s Channel, we might be set past both Gower and Carteret’s harbours, before we could get as much wind as would command the ship; for she was as dull and heavy sailing a vessel as I ever was embarked in, and in my opinion was wholly unfit for the service she was now employed in.  When any other vessel would be going three knots with a light wind, we could scarcely give her steerage-way.

In the evening, finding, as I apprehended, the ship setting fast to the westward, we hauled up to the eastward, in order to keep as near the Cape as possible, until day-light.  That night also we had little wind, and that was variable; we kept her head as much as possible to the eastward, and at eight in the morning the Cape bore north 16 deg. 00’ east, distant eleven or twelve miles; which was much farther off than I wished; at the same time, a projecting point on the coast of New-Britain bore west north-west:  we were becalmed most of this day, and were still setting to the westward.  In the afternoon of the 22d, a very light breeze sprung up from the eastward, with which we endeavoured to get within Wallis’s island; we sounded frequently, but had no ground with 130 fathoms of line:  this situation was truly distressing, for although we had every thing set, we could not force the ship more than a knot and a half