After ten days' absence, we
returned to the ship; we encountered no difficulty that was not easily
removable; we were furnished with abundance of fresh provisions by our
guns, and met with no obstruction from the natives."
Captain Stirling describes the weather as very different from that
which the French experienced; but the latter were on the coast at the
commencement of the winter season. They were apparently so alarmed at
the gales of wind, the rocks, and the reefs, and the banks, that they
hastened to leave behind them this part of the coast unexamined, with
all convenient speed. The strong westerly winds that prevail
throughout the year in the southern ocean to the southward of the
tropic, appear to assume a northern direction near this part of the
Coast of Australia. These winds are here found to be cool and
pleasant, and were generally accompanied by clear and serene weather.
The summer winds from the N.W. are not infrequent; and, coming charged
with moisture from a warm region into a colder one, they are
invariably accompanied by rain; but, in the immediate vicinity of the
shore, land and sea breezes are constant and regular.
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