Their appearance was followed in the evening by a gale from the SW which
reduced them to their storm sails, and compelled them to keep off and on
during the night. The wind, however, moderating the next day, and a
southerly current having been in their favour, Mr. Flinders concluded his
labours at dusk in the evening of the 20th; at which time he secured his
little vessel alongside his Majesty's ship the _Reliance_ in Port
Jackson.
The observations which were made by Mr. Flinders on the set of the
current at different parts of the coast, being directly opposite to the
remarks of Captain Cook, it may be proper to state them. That great and
able seaman says, in his notice of the current on this coast, that 'It
always ran with more force in shore than in the offing.' Now, in going to
the northward the sloop was kept as near in shore as circumstances would
permit; but the whole sum of southing produced in eight entire days, from
latitude 33 degrees 45 minutes to 24 degrees 22 minutes south, was
sixty-five miles, almost the whole of which were lost off the Three
Brothers and Smoky Cape, when their distance from the shore was more
than in general it used to be.
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