SO cook's second voyage august, 



the coast, at noon it was two miles from us ; 

 and our latitude, by observation, was 16° °2 C Z' 30" 

 South. This is nearly the parallel to Port Sandwich, 

 and our never-failing guide, the watch, showed that 

 we were C Z& W. of it; a distance which the breadth of 

 Mallicollo cannot exceed in this parallel. The South- 

 West Cape bore S. 26° East, distant seven miles ; and 

 the most advanced point of land, for which we steered, 

 bore N. W. by N. At three o'clock, we were the 

 length of it, and found the land continued, and trend- 

 ing more and more to the north. We coasted it to 

 its northern extremity, which we did not reach till 

 after dark, at which time we were near enough the 

 shore to hear the voices of people, who were as- 

 sembled round a fire they had made on the beach. 

 There we sounded, and found twenty fathoms and a 

 bottom of sand ; but, on edging off from the shore, 

 we soon got out of sounding, and then made a trip 

 back to the south till the moon got up. After this we 

 stood again to the north, hauled round the point, 

 and spent the night in Bougainville's passage ; being 

 assured of our situation before sunset, by seeing the 

 land, on the north side of the passage, extending as 

 far as N. W. * W. 



The south coast of Mallicollo, from the S. E. end 

 to the S. W. Cape, is luxuriantly clothed with wood, 

 and other productions of nature, from the sea- shore 

 to the very summits of the hills. To the N. W. of 

 the Cape the country is less woody, but more agree- 

 ably interspersed with lawns, some of which appeared 

 to be cultivated. The summits of the hills seemed 

 barren ; and the highest lies between Port Sandwich 

 and the S.W. Cape. Farther north, the land falls in- 

 sensibly lower, and is less covered with wood. I 

 believe it is a very fertile island, and well inhabited ; 

 for we saw smoke by day, and fire by night, in all 

 parts of it. 



Next morning at sunrise, we found ourselves 

 nearly in the middle of the passage, the N. W. end 



