On the 18th of July, 1801, he sailed from England in the
Investigator, of 334 tons: there were on board, beside the proper and
adequate complement of men, an astronomer, a naturalist, a natural history
painter, a landscape painter, a gardener, and a miner. As soon as he
approached the south coast of New Holland, he immediately began his
examination of the coasts, islands, and inlets of that large portion of it,
called Nuyts' Land; he particularly examined all that part of the coast,
which lies between the limit of the discoveries of Nuyts and Vancouver, and
the eastern extremity of Bass' Straits, where he met a French ship,
employed on the same object. In the month of July, 1802, he left Port
Jackson, whither he had gone to refit, and sailing through Torres' Straits
in 36 hours, he arrived in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the latter end of the
season. In the course of this part of his voyage, he examined
Northumberland and Cumberland islands, and the great barrier reefs of coral
rock; and every part of the eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria; not a
cape, creek, bay, or island on this coast of the gulf escaped his notice
and examination. It was his intention to have pursued the same mode of
close and minute examination: "following the land so closely, that the
washing of the surf upon it should be visible, and no opening nor any thing
of importance escape notice;" but he was prevented by ascertaining that the
vessel was in such a crazy state, that, though in fine weather she might
hold together for six months longer, yet she was by no means fit for such
an undertaking.
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