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. 311

Dangers. In the PM as the wind would not permit us to sail out by the same Channel as we came in neither did I care to move until the Pinnace was in better repair I sent the Master with all the other Boats to the Reef to get such refreshments as he could find & in the meantime the Carpenters were repairing the Pinnace Variat.n by the Ampl.de in the morning 4', 9' Easterly, at noon Lat.de observed 12:38 S. Long.de in 216.45 W it being now about low water, I & some other of the officers went to the Masthead to see what we could discover, great part of the reef without us Margin note: Weymouth
was dry & we could see an Opening in it about 2 Long. farther to the Sth than the one we came in by, we likewise saw 2 large spits of sand to the Southward within the Reef, but could see nothing to the Northwest between S. & the Main, on the Mainland within us was a pretty high promontory which I called Cape Weymouth (Latde  12º 42' S. Longitude 217º 15' W. & on the NW side of this cape is a Bay which I called Weymouth Bay.
Saturday 18. Gentle breezes at E v ESE at 4 [indec.] the Boats return'd from the Reef with about 240 [indec.superscript] of shell fish being the Meat of large Cockles exclusive of the Shells, some of these Cockles are as large as 2 men can move & contain several pounds of Meat very good, at 6 in the morning we got under sail & stood away to the NW, as we could not expect a wind to get out to sea by the same Channel as we came in without waiting perhaps a long time for it, nor was it a desirable at this time to go without the shoals but we should by them be carried so far off the Coast as not to be able to determine wether or no New Guinea joins to or makes a part of this land this doubtful point I find from my first coming upon this Coast determined if Pofsible to clear up. I now came to a final resolution to keep the Mainland on [board?] & on this all the Officers concur'd. In standing to the NW we met with very irregular soundings from 10 to 27 fam varying 5 or 6 fam almost every Cast of the Lead. However we kept on having a Boat ahead soundg. A little before noon we pafsed a low small sandy Isle which we left on our Starbd  side at the distance of 2 Miles, at the same time we saw others being part of larger Shoals above water, away to the NW between us & the Mainland. ab Noon we were by [indec. Obres?] in the Latde of 12º28' S, & 4 or 5 Long. from the Main which extended from S[?]W to N71ºW. & some small Islands extending from N40ºW to N54ºW. the Main or outer reef seen from the Masthead away to the NE.
Sunday 19. Gentle breezes at the {ESE?] clear weather at 2 [indec] as we were steering N [wb?] N, saw a large Shoal right ahead extending 3 or 4 Points on each bow upon which we hauld up NNE [indec.] in order to get around the N. point of it, which we reached by 4 o'clock & then Edged away to the westward run between the N end of this Shoal & another which lays 2 Miles to the Northward of it, having a Boat all this time ahead sounding our depth of water was very irregular from 22 to 8 fam at ½ past 6 we Anchor'd in 13 fam . the Northernmost of the Small Islands on [indec.] at