monsoon, and possesses an equal supply of wood, fish, and birds, with
turtle close at hand on Bountiful Islands. Moreover, should an expedition
be formed for the purpose of exploring the interior from the head of the
Gulf, it is, as Flinders remarks, "particularly well adapted for a ship
during the absence of the travellers." In addition to this, it is a point
at which an expedition would first arrive to arrange plans for the
future; and lastly, I should observe that in case of our being fortunate
enough to find rivers or fertile country on the southern shores of the
Gulf, we at once saw that we might look forward to the time when
Investigator Road* should be the port from which all the produce of the
neighbouring parts of the continent must be shipped, and when it should
bear on its shores the habitations of civilized man, and the heavenward
pointing spires of the Christian Church. The feeling that we might be the
means of bringing about this happy state of things by discovering a
country habitable by Europeans, greatly added to the zest with which we
prosecuted our subsequent researches.

(*Footnote. This road fully deserves the name of a good port, being four
miles in length by one in breadth, with a depth of from 4 to 6 fathoms,
and sheltered at all points except from south to South-South-East, in
which direction the shoalness of the water prevents any sea from getting
up.)

SURVEY THE ANCHORAGE.

On duly weighing these considerations in my mind I determined to make an
accurate survey of this anchorage, including Sweers and the eastern
portion of Bentinck Island; and to despatch two boats to examine the
group of islands to the north-west, and the mainland from thence to
abreast of the south-west end of Bentinck Island. On the morning of the