Thursday 29 September 1836

29^th Sep^t 1836 Directly I awoke wrote this imagine to your-
-selves me sitting in the stern sheets of a boat, Claughton laying alongside
me half asleep three men at our feet (but not in the streightest of
positions in as comfortable a house as you could wish one man
outside preparing breakfast which when ready we soon despatched
At 8 o clock weighed passing along the passage to Southward & keeping
the deepest water, (the direction I went in last night) for about
8 miles got good deep water quite sufficient for any purpose
at last got clear of the Mangroves & in a reach running South formed
by shoals carrying a depth of 3 fms, The reach terminated by
heading out seaward in a N.Westerly direction through which
channel on a very narrow spot the bar got 2 fms. I considered
it about half ebb. About 1 P.M. I reached the Brig, laying
in 5 fms with Mt Lofty about S.E. a little outside &
to the Northw^d of the bar, made my report to the Colonel who
determined of paying it a visit tomorrow. We had passed
many extensive and apparently deep water channels diverging
from the one we came through this morning but wishing to make
known what we had already seen and not examine them.