My Lords.—Before entering into a detail of matters of note occurring on the abovementioned voyage, it may not perhaps be superfluous to offer a few preliminary observations, in order to throw a clearer light upon the subject; briefly these :—that the above mentioned vessels having, in accordance with the instructions delivered to their crew by your excellency, on the twentieth of January of this year, weighed anchor from the port of Batavia on the 23rd of the same month, heard on their way, at Rembang on the east coast of Java, how the sloop Doriados, which had been destined for this voyage instead of the Waijer, had been disabled, but has been helped on its way by friendly vessels to Timor, and thence to New Holland.

They arrived on the twelfth of February before Copang, on the island of Timor, where they were obliged, by bad weather, to remain for twenty days, until the second of March. A month later, namely, on the second of April, they explored the north-west corner of Van Diemen's land, without having so far observed anything remarkable on this voyage, except that for fifty or sixty miles straight north and south from this point, the land is elevated, and along the whole of this coast there was continually found from fifty to twenty, and fewer fathoms' water; besides, that on the passage from Timor, the compasses were on the sixth of March affected by the thunder and lightning to such a degree, that the north-end of the needle pointed due south, and was brought home in that position.