198 cook's first voyage august, 



last quarter ebb. At this time, the northermost 

 island in sight bore N. 9 E., Cape Cornwall E., dis- 

 tant three leagues, and Wallis's Isles S. 3 E., distant 

 three leagues. This bank, at least so much as we 

 have sounded, extends nearly N. and S., but to what 

 distance I do not know : its breadth is not more than 

 half a mile at the utmost. When we had got over 

 the bank, we deepened our water to six fathom three 

 quarters, and had the same depth all the way to the 

 small island ahead, which we reached by noon, when it 

 bore S., distant about half a mile. Our depth of 

 water was now five fathom, and the northermost land 

 in sight, which is part of the same chain of islands 

 that we had seen to the northward from the time of 

 our first entering the strait, bore N. 71 E. Our 

 latitude, by observation, was 10 33' S., and our lon- 

 gitude 219 22' W. : in this situation, no part of the 

 main was in sight. As we were now near the island, 

 and had but little wind, Mr. Banks and I landed 

 upon it, and found it, except a few patches of wood, 

 to be a barren rock, the haunt of birds, which had 

 frequented it in such numbers, as to make the sur- 

 face almost uniformly white with their dung : of 

 these birds, the greater part seemed to be boobies, 

 and I therefore called the place Booby Island. 

 After a short stay, we returned to the ship, and in 

 the mean time the wind had got to the S. W. ; it was 

 but a gentle breeze, yet it was accompanied by 

 a swell from the same quarter, which, with other cir- 

 cumstances, confirmed my opinion that we were got 

 to the westward of Carpentaria, or the northern ex- 

 tremity of New Holland, and had now an open sea 

 to the westward, which gave me great satisfaction, 

 not only because the dangers and fatigues of the 

 voyage were drawing to an end, but because it would 

 no longer be a doubt whether New Holland, and 

 New Guinea were two separate islands, or different 

 parts of the same. 



The north-east entrance of this passage or strait, 



