[Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia by Phillip Parker King]@TWC D-Link bookNarrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia CHAPTER 7 17/45
The western side of Paterson Bay is formed by very low land off which many patches of dry rocks were seen to extend; beyond this the coast appeared to be low and sandy. August 29. Light and adverse winds and calms, with a constant easterly current, detained us in the vicinity of Paterson Bay until the following sunset; when, in order to preserve the little progress made, we anchored near the reefs on the western side of the bay.
During the preceding day, sixteen or twenty natives were noticed upon the sandy beach that fronts the red cliffs on the eastern side of the bay, engaged in fishing, or perhaps in watching our movements; and this evening the smokes of their fires were observed among the trees near the same spot. August 30. The next day we made but little progress along the coast to the south-west which is so low as not to be visible from the cutter's deck, at a greater distance than six miles; this rendered the examination of it very inconvenient and even dangerous, as the rocks and reefs which lined the coast extended in some parts beyond that distance. The land appeared to be barren and arid, and were it not for a few bushes or mangrove trees, scattered about the beach, it might be called a complete desert. 1819.
September 1. Westerly winds and calms continued without intermission until the 1st of September; during which the thermometer ranged between 79 and 93 degrees. On this day a breeze from the North-East enabled us to make progress to the southward; and after examining an indenture of the coast we anchored at night off a point of land, which, from the circumstance of a very large fire burning upon it, was called Point Blaze.
The land still continued low; but more wooded and less sandy than that we had seen within the last two days. September 2. The next morning we resumed our course along the coast.
To the south-west a sandy hillock was observed, which proved to be on Captain Baudin's Peron Island.
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