214 cook's first voyage sept, 



of plantations or houses, but great fertility, and from 

 the number of fires, we judged that the place must 

 be well peopled. 



When we had approached within a mile and a half 

 of the shore, we tacked and stood off, and the ex- 

 tremes of the coast then extended from N. E. by E 

 to W. by S. - S. The south-westerly extremity was 

 a low point, distant from us about three leagues. 

 While we were standing in for the shore, we sounded 

 several times, but had no ground till we came within 

 about two miles and a half, and then we had five and 

 twenty fathom, with a soft bottom. After we had 

 tacked, we stood off till midnight, with the wind at 

 S.; we then tacked and stood two hours to the west- 

 ward, when the wind veered to S. W. and W. S. W., 

 and we then stood to the southward again. In the 

 morning, we found the variation to be 1 10' W. by 

 the amplitude, and by the azimuth 1 Tf. At noon, 

 our latitude was, by observation, 9 45' S., our lon- 

 gitude 234 12' W. ; we were then about seven 

 leagues distant from the land, which extended from 

 N. 31 E., to W. S. W. W. 



With light land breezes from W. by N. for a few 

 hours in a morning, and sea breezes from S. S. W. 

 and S., we advanced to the westward but slowly. 

 At noon, on the 14th, we were between six and seven 

 leagues from the land, which extended from N. by 

 E., to S. 78 W. ; we still saw smoke in many places 

 by day, and fire by night, both upon the low land 

 and the mountains beyond it. We continued steer- 

 ing along the shore, till the morning of the 15th, the 

 land still appearing hilly, but not so high as it had 

 been : the hills in general came quite down to the 

 sea, and where they did not, we saw, instead of flats 

 and mangrove land, immense groves of cocoa-nut 

 trees, reaching about a mile up from the beach : 

 there the plantations and houses commenced, and 

 appeared to be innumerable. The houses were 

 shaded by groves of the fan palm, or borassus, and 



