120 cook's second voyage SEPT. 



breakers, we bore away N. W. by W., and two hours 

 after saw the reef extending N.W. farther than the 

 eye could reach ; but no land was to be seen. It was 

 therefore probable, that we had passed its N.W. ex- 

 tremity ; and, as we had seen from the hills of Balade 

 its extent to the S.W., it was necessary to know how 

 far it extended to the E. or S. E. while it was in our 

 power to recover the coast. For, by following the 

 direction of the shoals, we might have been carried 

 so far to leeward as not to be able to beat back with- 

 out considerable loss of time. We were already far 

 out of sight of land ; and there was no knowing how 

 much farther we might be carried, before we found 

 an end to them. These considerations, together with 

 the risk we must run in exploring a sea strewed 

 with shoals, and where no anchorage, without them, 

 is to be found, induced me to abandon the design 

 of proceeding round by the N.W., and to ply up to 

 the S.E., in which direction I knew there was a clear 

 sea. With this view, we tacked and stood to the 

 S.E., with the wind at N.E. by E., a gentle breeze. 

 At this time we were in the latitude of 19° 7' S., lon- 

 gitude 165° 57' East. 



In standing to S.E. we did but just weather the 

 point of the reef we had passed the preceding even- 

 ing. To make our situation the more dangerous, the 

 wind began to fail us ; and at three in the afternoon 

 it fell calm, and left us to the mercy of a great 

 swell, setting directly on the reefi which was hardly 

 a league from us. We sounded, but found no bot- 

 tom, with a line of 200 fathoms. I ordered the pin- 

 nace and cutter to be hoisted out to tow the ship • 

 but they were of little use against so great a swell. 

 We, however, found that the ship did not draw near 

 the reef so fast as might be expected ; and at seven 

 o'clock, a light air at N.N.E. kept her head to the 

 sea \ but it lasted no longer than midnight, when it 

 was succeeded by a dead calm. 



At day-break, on the 16th, we had no sight of the 



