19 L 2 cook's first voyage august, 



trees upon it, and we Could discern many huts, or 

 habitations of the natives, whom we supposed occa- 

 sionally to visit these islands from the main, they 

 being only five leagues distant, to catch turtle when 

 they come ashore to lay their eggs. We continued 

 to stand after the pinnace N. N. E., and N. by E. 

 for two other low islands, having two shoals without 

 us, and one between us and the main. At noon we 

 were about four leagues from the main, which we 

 saw extending to the northward, as far as N. W. by 

 N., all flat and sandy. Our latitude, by observation, 

 was 11 23' S., and our longitude 217 46' W., our 

 soundings were from fourteen to twenty-three fa- 

 thom ; but these, as well as the shoals and islands, 

 which are too numerous to be particularly mention- 

 ed, will be best seen upon the chart. By one 

 o'clock we had run nearly the length of the southern- 

 most of the two islands in sight, and finding that 

 the going to windward of them would carry us too 

 far from the main, we bore up and ran to leeward, 

 where, finding a fair open passage, we steered N. by 

 W. in a direction parallel to the main, leaving a 

 small island which lay between it and the ship, and 

 some low sandy isles and shoals without us, of all 

 which we lost sight by four o'clock, and saw no 

 more before the sun went down : at this time the 

 farthest part of the land in sight bore N. N. W. 

 W., and soon after we anchored in thirteen fathom, 

 upon soft ground, at the distance of about five 

 leagues from the land, where we lay till daylight. 



Early in the morning we made sail again, and 

 steered N. N. W. by compass, for the northernmost 

 land in sight ; and at this time, we observed the va- 

 riation of the needle to be 3 6' E. At eight o'clock 

 we discovered shoals a-head, and on our larboard bow, 

 and saw that the northernmost land, which we had 

 taken for the main, was detached from it, and that 

 we might pass between them, by running to leeward 

 of the shoals on our larboard bow, which were now 



