REACH THE NORTH-WEST COAST.

We saw the land to the southward of Roebuck Bay on October 8th, and at
noon passed four miles from Cape Bossut, which we found to be in latitude
18 degrees 42 minutes South and longitude 121 degrees 45 minutes East.*
On the south side opened a bay two miles deep, with a small high-water
inlet at its head. From thence we held a general South by West 1/2 West
course, passing along the land at the distance of from three to four
miles, in soundings of 5 and 6 fathoms, and at sunset anchored four miles
from a low sandy coast, on which the sea broke heavily. Cape Joubert,**
distant sixteen miles, was the last projection of any kind we passed.

(*Footnote. The longitudes depend on the meridian of Coepang. which has
been considered in 123 degrees 37 minutes 0 seconds East.)

(**Footnote. In latitude 18 degrees 58 minutes South and longitude 121
degrees 42 minutes East. It is crested with bare white sand, and although
only forty-five feet high is a remarkable headland on this low coast.)

APPEARANCE OF NORTH-WEST COAST.

From that headland commenced a low, wearisome, sandy shore, which we
traced for sixty-five miles in a South-West by West direction, looking in
vain for some change in its character. Nothing beyond the coast
sand-dunes, sprinkled with vegetation, and only twenty feet high, could
be seen from the masthead, although the ship was within three miles of
the beach. This cheerless aspect was heightened by the total absence of
native fires, a fact we had never before observed in such an extent of
country, and truly significant of its want of fertility. Still, in our