300 cook's first voyage oct. 



ing with a harbour, and the country manifestly al- 

 tering for the worse, 1 thought that standing farther 

 in that direction would be attended with no advan- 

 tage, but on the contrary would be a lossof time that 

 might be employed with a better prospect of success 

 in examining the coast to the northward ; about one, 

 therefore, in the afternoon, I tacked, and stood north, 

 with a fresh breeze at west. Th« high bluff head, 

 with yellowish cliffs, which we were abreast of at 

 noon, I called Cape Turnagain, because here we 

 turned back. It lies in latitude 40° 34/ S. longitude 

 182^ 55' W., distant eighteen leagues S. S. W. and 

 S. S. W. i W. from Cape Kidnappers. The land 

 betw^een them is of a very unequal height ; in some 

 places it is lofty next the sea with white cliffs, in 

 others low, with sandy beaches : the face of the 

 country is not so well clothed with wood as it is about 

 Hawke's bay, but looks more like our high downs in 

 England : it is, however, to all appearance, well in- 

 habited ; for as we stood along the shore, we saw 

 several villages, not only in the valleys, but on the 

 tops and sides of the hills, and smoke in many other 

 places. The ridge of mountains which has been 

 mentioned before, extends to the southward farther 

 than we could see, and was then every where che- 

 quered with snow. At night we saw two fires, in- 

 land, so very large, that we concluded they must 

 have been made to clear the land for tillage ; but 

 however that be, they are a demonstration that the 

 part of the country where they appeared is inhabited. 

 On the 18th, at four o'clock in the morning. Cape 

 Kidnappers bore N. S% W. distant two leagues : in 

 this situation we had sixty-two fathom, and when the 

 cape bore W. by N. distant three or four leagues, 

 we had forty-five fathom : in the mid- way between 

 the isle of Portland and the cape we had sixty-five 

 fathom. In the evening, being abreast of the pen- 

 insula, within Portland island, called Tekakako, a 



