We were all glad to leave Port Essington--it was like escaping from an oven.

During our stay the sky was generally overcast, with heavy cumuli, and distant lightning at night, but no rain fell, and the heat was excessive.

These were indications of the approaching change of the monsoon--the rainy season, with a wind more or less westerly, usually commencing in December and continuing until March.
December 3rd.
Latitude 11 degrees 2 minutes South longitude 123 degrees 11 minutes East.

Today we may be said to have cleared the land after a dead beat to the westward, between the Sahul Bank and the islands of Timor and Rottee.
It took us eleven days to make good less than 300 miles.

The land was in sight during the greater portion of this time, and we had a good view of the noble mountain-range of Timor, also of Rottee and the Strait of Semao, which last we entered with the intention of passing through, but the wind headed us and we had to pass to the southward of Rottee.