At the south end of the gut the land opened out into another basin which, like the former, is surrounded by low land overrun with mangroves and studded with several islets, occasionally covered by the tide.

The course of the river still trended to the south-west, in which direction we continued to pull but found some difficulty from its being very shoal; for in the fair way across there was not more water than eighteen feet at three-quarters' flood.

At eleven o'clock, having crossed the basin, we landed on an islet which, like the rest, had been covered by the last high tide.

The river had now contracted to the width of one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards and trended by a winding course to the south and south-east, but the water was still as salt as ever although we were at least sixty miles from the sea.

As there was now no probability of our extending the examination of this river for any useful purpose we stopped at high water and landed on the bank to examine the country whilst the people dined.