repeatedly without getting bottom, we came to the conclusion that it did
not exist. Breakers could have been seen at least ten miles from the
Beagle's masthead, as there was a considerable swell from the south-west.

LIGHT WINDS.

On the 15th we were in latitude 16 degrees 05 minutes South and longitude
118 degrees 16 minutes East. After one of those stagnant calms so
frequently met with near the equator, we got a light westerly breeze on
the morning of the 18th. Towards midnight it freshened, veering from
South-West by South to West-South-West with some rather sharp rain
squalls. It appears that the westerly winds had already set in, and that
the calm we experienced on the 17th was an unoccupied space between the
easterly and westerly winds. There are few parts of the globe where light
winds prevail so much as on the North-west coast of New Holland,
particularly between the latitudes of 13 and 17 degrees, and from one to
two hundred miles from the land. They are, however, excepting in the
months of January, February, and March, from the eastward, south-east in
the morning and east in the afternoon. These winds prevented us from
making the coast on the eastward of Depuch Island; and as we had failed
in getting a supply of provisions at Timor, we were compelled to
relinquish the plan of continuing the examination of that part of the
coast between the Turtle Islands and Roebuck Bay.

BEZOUT ISLAND.

The Beagle was consequently anchored under Bezout Island, one of the
eastern isles of Dampier's Archipelago, and boats were sent to examine
the coast on the southward of Cape Lambert.