At 10 hours 30 minutes P.M. saw land about a quarter of a mile ahead; hauled our wind to west by south; sounded in 12 fathoms water, rocky bottom; it appeared to be about one mile in extent, and about twenty feet above the water.  After running west by south one mile, got no bottom with 40 fathoms of line.  Kept our course south by east:  it (the island) appeared to be quite level with rocks extending to north-west, with heavy breakers.  Made it by observation south latitude 14 degrees 4 minutes; east longitude 123 degrees 31 minutes by good chronometer rated at Roti.

Trouble with the horses.

At 6 A.M. on the morning of the 16th they experienced heavy squalls of wind off Red Island, and this prevented them from getting into Hanover Bay on that day; but on the morning of the 17th they anchored safely, without having lost a single pony, or without having experienced any serious misfortune, having made the passage from Roti in five days.

Unforeseen EMBARRASSMENTS.

Some short time was occupied in narrating the adventures we had respectively encountered since we had last seen one another, and in giving way to the pleasure arising from meeting again in so distant a land, and under such circumstances:  at last came the unpleasant announcement that there was not an atom of forage on board, so that the ponies must of necessity be landed tomorrow; and my plans of disembarking them at a more eligible site were thus at once overthrown.  Being the only person who knew the route to Hanover Bay from the encampment, I was obliged to remain on shore to guide the party over there the next morning.  Mr. Lushington and the Captain however returned on board to make preparations for landing the horses at daybreak.

Landing the horses.

I lay down to sleep this night oppressed with very uneasy thoughts.  I was thoroughly convinced that the position we occupied was a bad one to make a start from; but we had already approached too near the season of the heaviest rains (the beginning of February) to allow of longer delay, so that to have landed the horses, then to cut grass for them, and afterwards to have re-embarked them and the stores, would, in my opinion, have been a tedious and wrong course to adopt.  Unforeseen difficulties, and against which we could not have guarded, had already completely encompassed us, so that, considering the scanty means at our disposal, the remote and unknown region in which we were situated, and the impossibility of our receiving further aid from any quarter, I saw no way of overcoming them.  All therefore that was now left us was to make the most of our actual means, to acquit ourselves like men, and do our utmost.

Excursion by water to Prince regent’s river.

January 18.

Fortune smiled on us this morning in as far as she gave us a fine daybreak, and at dawn we started for Hanover Bay, leaving a small party at the encampment.  After all the trouble I had taken to find a good route for the horses, we still had a great deal to do to render it at all practicable; we however all worked cheerfully and sturdily away at burning the grass, moving rocks and fallen trees, etc., and thus, as it were, fought our way through opposing obstacles to Hanover Bay, over a distance of about four miles.