352 cook's first voyage march, 



CHAP. XIV. 



OUR ARRIVAL AT THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE ; SOME RE- 

 MARKS ON THE RUN FROM JAVA HEAD TO THAT PLACE ; 

 A DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPE, AND OF SAINT HELENA: 

 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE HOTTENTOTS, AND THE 

 RETURN OF THE SHIP TO ENGLAND. 



On Friday the 15th of March, about ten o'clock 

 in the morning, we anchored off the Cape of Good 

 Hope, in seven fathom, with an ouzey bottom. The 

 west point of the bay, called the Lion's Tail, bore 

 W. N. W. and the castle S. W., distant about a mile 

 and a half. I immediately waited upon the Go- 

 vernor, who told me that I should have every thing 

 the country afforded. My first care was to provide 

 a proper place ashore for the sick, which were not 

 a few ; and a house was soon found, where it was 

 agreed they should be lodged and boarded at the 

 rate of two shillings a-head per day. 



Our run from Java Head, to this place, af- 

 forded very few subjects of remark that can be of 

 use to future navigators ; such as occurred, however, 

 I shall set down. We had left Java Head eleven 

 days before we got the general south-east trade- 

 wind, during which time, we did not advance above 

 5 to the southward, and 3 to the west, having 

 variable light airs, interrupted by calms, with sultry 

 weather, and an unwholesome air, occasioned probably 

 by the load of vapours which the eastern trade-wind, 

 and westerly monsoons, bring into these latitudes, 

 both which blow in these seas at the time of year 

 when we happened to be there. The easterly wind 

 prevails as far as 10 or 12 S., and the westerly as 

 far as 6 or 8 ; in the intermediate space the winds 

 are variable, and the air, I believe, always unwhole- 



