We steered a due north course, closing a little in with the land; at sunset [MONDAY 6 JUNE 1803] Mount Dromedary bore N. 45° W., and at eight next morning it was seen bearing S. 30° W., at the distance of twenty leagues, although the weather was hazy (Atlas, Plate VIII). The shore was five miles off at noon, when the observed latitude was 35° 17'; the outer part of Cape George bearing N. 32° E., about eight miles, and the Pigeon House S. 77° W. We passed the cape at the distance of two miles, having then but light winds; and at dusk, Bowen's Isle in the entrance of Jervis' Bay was set at N. 51° W. Hat Hill was abreast of the ship at noon next day; but the wind had then veered to the northward, and we beat up until the following noon [WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE 1803] with little advantage, our situation being then in
Latitude observed. 34° 21 2/3' Longitude by time keepers corrected, 151 12 1/2 Hat Hill bore S. 70½ W. Saddle Hill, on Red Point, S. 53 W. Point Bass, S. 33 W. North extreme, near C. Solander., N. 3 W. Nearest shore, distant 8 or 9 miles, N. 72. W.
Whilst beating against this foul wind the dysentery carried off another seaman, Thomas Smith, one of those obtained from governor King; and had the wind continued long in the same quarter, many others must have followed. Happily it veered to the southward at midnight, we passed Botany Bay at three in the morning [THURSDAY 9 JUNE 1803], and at daybreak tacked between the heads of Port Jackson, to work up for Sydney Cove. I left the ship at noon, above Garden Island, and waited upon His Excellency governor King, to inform him of our arrival, and concert arrangements for the reception of the sick at the colonial hospital. On the following day [FRIDAY 10 JUNE 1803] they were placed under the care of Thomas Jamison, Esq., principal surgeon of the colony; from whom they received that kind attention and care which their situation demanded; but four were too much exhausted, and died in a few days. The first of them was Mr. Peter Good, botanical gardener, a zealous, worthy man, who was regretted by all.
Lieutenant Murray had arrived safely with the Lady Nelson, after a somewhat tedious passage from the Barrier Reefs; he made himself an anchor of heavy wood on the coast, for fear of accident to his sole remaining bower, but fortunately had no occasion to use it. Besides the Lady Nelson, we found lying in Sydney Cove H. M. armed vessel Porpoise, the Bridgewater extra-Indiaman, the ships Cato, Rolla, and Alexander, and brig Nautilus. The Géographe and Naturaliste had not sailed for the South Coast till some months after I left Port Jackson to go to the northward, and so late as the end of December, captain Baudin was lying at King's Island in Bass' Strait; it was therefore not very probable that he should reach the Gulph of Carpentaria by the middle of February, when I had finished its examination, nor even at the beginning of March, when the south-west monsoon would set in against him.