ROUND T H E WORLD. 3 7S -
G II A V. VI.
Difcovery of a Streight dividing' the Land called Nova'
Britannia into two IJlands, with a Defer ip tion offever al
fmall Ifands that lie in the Paffage, and the Land- on•
each Side,, with the Inhabitants..
WHEN we got about four leagues off the land, after 1767.'
leaving this harbour, we met with a ftrong gale at ,^ept‘mber^:
E. S. E. a direction juft’ contrary to that which would Wcine' ’
have favoured' our getting round the land, and doubling
Cape Saint Maria; We found at the fame time a
ftrong current, fetdng us to the N. W. into a deep bay or
gulph, which Dampier calls Saint George’s Bay, and which
lies between Cape Saint George and Cape Orford. As it-
was impoflible to get round the land, againft both the wind
and current, and follow the track of Dampier, I was under
the necefiity o f attempting a paffage to the weftward by this-
gulph, and the current gave me hopes that Ilhould fucceed.
When I had got, therefore, about five miles to the fouth weft
o f Cocoa-nut Ifland, I fleered to the N. W. and the N. N. W.
as the land trends, and had foon good reafon to believe
that what has been called Saint George’s Bay, and thought'
to be formed by two points of the fame ifland, was indeed a
channel between two iflands, and fo the ev4nt proved it'
to be.
Before it was dark, we found this channel divided b y a'
pretty large ifland w h ic h lc a lle d the Duke of Y o r k ’s I s l an d ,
and1