1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 9 



saddle-hill, which is a good direction to it on that 

 quarter. From one league to four leagues north of 

 Cape Saunders, the shore forms two or three bays, 

 in which there appeared to be good anchorage, and 

 effectual shelter from the S. W. westerly, and N. 

 westerly winds ; but my desire of getting to the 

 southward, in order to ascertain whether this country 

 was an island or a continent, prevented my putting 

 into any of them. 



We kept at a small distance from the shore all this 

 morning, with the wind at S. W., and had a very dis- 

 tinct view of it : it is of a moderate height, and the 

 surface is broken by many hills which are green and 

 woody ; but we saw no appearance of inhabitants. 

 At noon, Cape Saunders bore N. SO W. distant about 

 four leagues. We had variable winds and calms till 

 five o'clock in the evening, when it fixed at W. S. W. 

 and soon blew so hard that it put us past our topsails, 

 and split the foresail all to pieces : after getting an- 

 other to the yard, we continued to stand to the 

 southward under two courses ; and at six the next 

 morning, the southermost land in sight bore W. by 

 N. and Cape Saunders N. by W. distant eight leagues : 

 at noon, it bore N. 20 W. fourteen leagues ; and our 

 latitude by observation was 46 36'. The gale con- 

 tinued, with heavy squalls and a large hollow sea all 

 the afternoon ; and at seven in the evening, we lay 

 to under our foresail, with the ship's head to the 

 southward : at noon on the 27th, our latitude was 

 46 54', and our longitude from Cape Saunders 

 1 24*' E. At seven in the evening, we made sail under 

 our courses ; and at eight the next morning set the 

 topsails close reefed. At noon, our latitude was 

 47 43', and our longitude east from Cape Saunders 

 2 10'. At this time, we wore and stood to the north- 

 ward : in the afternoon, we found the variation to be 

 16 34" E. At eight in the evening, we tacked and 

 stood to the southward, with the wind at west. 



At noon this day, our latitude by account was 



