James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770: No. 316

                         New Wales or East Coast of New Holland

August 1770   going with the Ship & therefore may land no more upon this Eastern coast of New Holland & on the Western side I can make no new discovery the honour of which belongs to the Dutch Navigators but the Eastern Coast from the Latitude of 98 degrees South down to this place I am confident was never seen or Visited by any European before us & not withstanding I had in the name of His Majesty taken possession of several places upon this Coast I now once more hoisted English Colours & in the Name of His Majesty King George the Third took possession of the whole Eastern coast from the above Latitude down to this place by the Name of New Wales together with all the Bays Harbours Rivers & Islands situated upon the sand Coast after which we fir'd 3 Volleys of small Arms which were answer'd by the like number from the Ship. This done we set out for the Ship but were sometime in getting onboard on account of a very Rapid Ebb Tide which set NE out of the Passage. Ever since we came in among the Shoals this last time we have found a Moderate Tide, the flood setting to the NW and Ebb to the SE. At this place it is high water at the full & Change of the Moon about 1 or 2 o'clock & riseth & falls upon a perpendicular about 10 or 12 feet. We saw upon all the Adjacent lands & Islands a great number of Smokes, a certain sign that they are inhabited & we have daily seen smokes on every part of the Coast we have lately been upon ______   Between 7 & 8 o'clock am, we saw several naked people all or most of them Women down upon the beach picking up Shells etc. They had not a single rag of any kind of Cloathing  upon them & both these & those we saw yesterday were in every respect the same sort of people we have seen every where upon the Coast, 2 or 3 of the Men we saw Yesterday had on pretty large breast plates which we supposed were made of pearl Oyster Shells. This was a thing as well as the Bow & Arrows we had not seen before. _____
At low Water which hapned about 10 o'clock we got under sail & stood to the SW with a light breeze at East which afterwards veer'd to the North by East having the Pinnace ahead, depth of Water from 6 to 10 fathoms except in one place were we passed over a Bank of 5 fathoms. At Noon Possession Island at the SE entrance of the passage bore North 53 degrees East distant  4 Leagues the Western extream of the Main land in sight bore South 43 degrees West distant 4 or 5 Leagues being all exceeding low. The SW point of the largest Island on the NW side of the passage bore North 71 degrees West distant 8 Miles this point I named Cape Cornwall  (Latitude 10 degrees 43 minutes South, Longitude 218 degrees 59 minutes West) & some low Islands laying about the Middle of the Passage which I called Wallice's  Isles bore West by South 1/2 South distance about 2 Leagues. Our Latitude by observation was 10 degrees 46 minutes South ______
Thursday 23rd  In the pm had little wind & Variable with which & the Tide of Flood
we