the western coast is one of the principal objects of the expedition, you
will leave no likely opening unexplored, nor desist from its examination
till fully satisfied; but as no estimate can be formed of the time
required for its solution, so no period can be here assigned at which you
shall abandon it in order to obtain refreshments; when that necessity is
felt, it must be left to your own judgment, whether to have recourse to
the town Balli, in the strait of Allas, or to the Dutch settlement of
Coepang, or even to the Arrou Islands, which have been described as
places well adapted for that purpose; but on these points you will take
pains to acquire all the information which can be obtained from the
residents at Swan River.

Another circumstance which prevents any precise instructions being given
to you on this head, is the uncertainty that prevails here respecting the
weather which you may at that period find in those latitudes, and which
it is possible may be such as if not altogether to prevent the execution
of these orders, may at least cause them to be ineffectually performed,
or perhaps lead to a waste of time, which might be better employed on
other parts of the coast. If such should eventually be the case, it would
be prudent not to attempt this intricate part of the coast during the
prevalence of the north-west monsoon, but to employ it in completing the
examination of Shark Bay and of Exmouth Gulf, as well as of other
unexplored intervals of coast up to the 122nd degree of longitude; or,
with a view to the proximity of one of the above-mentioned places of
refreshment, it might, perhaps, be advisable, if compelled to quit the
vicinity of Dampier Land, to devote that part of the season to a more
careful investigation of the low shores of the gulf of Carpentaria, where
it has been surmised, though very loosely, that rivers of some capacity
will be found.