Wednesday 23 November 1836

23 November-I have this day been taking more angles on shore to ascertain the direction of the harbour, but find they differ so little from the first that it is not worthwhile altering until an accurate trigonometrical survey commences. You are, I hope, aware that all my plans hitherto have been done from hasty angles by theodolites, bearings by pocket compass, and in many cases estimated distances, for I have done them frequently alone and with interruption of bad weather; but I am quite sure they are more than sufficiently accurate to give you a better idea of the coast than any former chart, and quite enough for any ship to sail by. While employed on shore, I requested Mr Field to lay down a buoy at the end of each spit forming the mouth of this harbour-and I hope in a short time to be able to take all ships coming here into as beautiful and safe a harbour as the world can produce. We want a mud boat also to deepen the channel for large ships drawing more than seventeen feet water. If we consider these channels to have remained with three fathoms at high water for ages with the natural drainings from the land, a little human industry may render these parts as deep as the rest, particularly as they extend but a short distance. There is another and a stronger reason than all for this idea-I have observed the ebb tide runs much stronger than the flood, a proof that the harbour is supplied from more than the flowing of the sea. Yesterday in the gale, with twenty fathoms of cable, the ship rode to the tide the whole time with the wind right up.