I76 cook's first voyage august, 



lies in latitude 14 56' S., longitude 214 43' W., 

 and is a lofty promontory, making next the sea in 

 two hills, which have a third behind them, with low 

 sandy ground on each side : it may however be still 

 better known by the three islands out at sea: the 

 northernmost and largest lies about five leagues from 

 the cape, in the direction of N. N. E. From Cape 

 Flattery the land trends away N. W., and N. W. by 

 W. We steered along the shore N. W. by W. till 

 one o'clock, for what we thought the open channel, 

 when the petty officer at the mast-head cried out 

 that he saw land ahead, extending quite round to 

 the islands that lay without us, and a large reef be- 

 tween us and them : upon this I ran up to the mast- 

 head myself, from whence I very plainly saw the 

 reef, which was now so far to windward, that we 

 could not weather it, but the land ahead, which he 

 had supposed to be the main, appeared to me to be 

 only a cluster of small islands. As soon as I got 

 down from the mast-head, the master, and some 

 others went up, who all insisted that the land ahead 

 was not islands, but the main, and to make their 

 report still more alarming, they said that they saw 

 breakers all round us. In this dilemma we hauled 

 upon a wind in for the land, and made the signal 

 for the boat that was sounding ahead to come on 

 board, but as she was far to leeward, we were obliged 

 to edge away to take her up, and soon after we came 

 to an anchor, under a point of the main, in some- 

 what less than five fathom, and at about the distance 

 of a mile from the shore. Cape Flattery now bore 

 S. E., distant three leagues and a half. As soon as 

 the ship was at anchor, I went ashore upon the 

 point, which is high, and afforded me a good view 

 of the sea coast, trending away N. W. by W. eight 

 or ten leagues, which, the weather not being very 

 clear, was as far as I could see. Nine or ten small 

 low islands, and some shoals, appeared off the coast ; 

 I saw also some large shoals between the main and 



