1778- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 385 



night, hauled the wind to the southward till day- 

 break, when we resumed our course to the W. 



Daylight availed us little, for the weather was so 

 thick that we could not see a hundred yards before 

 us ; but as the wind was now moderate, I ventured 

 to run. At half past four, we were alarmed at hear- 

 ing the sound of breakers on our larboard bow. 

 On heaving the lead, we found twenty-eight fathoms 

 water, and the next cast, twenty-five. I immedi- 

 ately brought the ship to with her head to the north- 

 ward, and anchored in this last depth, over a bottom 

 of coarse sand, calling the Discovery, she being close 

 to us, to anchor also. 



A few hours after, the fog having cleared away a 

 little, it appeared that we had escaped very imminent 

 danger. We found ourselves three quarters of a 

 mile from the N. E. side of an island, which ex- 

 tended from S. by W. W. to N. by E. - E., each 

 extreme about a league distant. Two elevated rocks, 

 the one bearing S. by E., and the other E. by S., were 

 about half a league each from us, and about the same 

 distance from each other. There were several breakers 

 about them, and yet Providence had, in the dark, 

 conducted the ships through between these rocks, 

 which I should not have ventured in a clear day, and 

 to such an anchoring-place, that I could not have 

 chosen a better. 



Finding ourselves so near land, I sent a boat to 

 examine what it produced. In the afternooon she 

 returned, and the officer who commanded her re- 

 ported, that it produced some tolerably good grass 

 and several other small plants, one of which was 

 like purslain, and ate very well, either in soups or as 

 a salad. There was no appearance of shrubs or 

 trees, but on the beach were a few pieces of drift- 

 wood. It was judged to be low water between ten 

 and eleven o'clock ; and we found, where we lay 

 at anchor, that the flood-tide came fr.om the E. or 

 S. E. 



VOL. VI. C C 



