130 cook's SECOND VOYAGE OCT. 



sand-banks, and breakers, to the utmost extent of our 

 horizon. They seemed, indeed, not to be all con- 

 nected, and to be divided by winding channels. But 

 when I considered, that the extent of this S.W. coast 

 was already pretty well determined ; the great risk 

 attending a more accurate survey, and the time it 

 would require to accomplish it, on account of the 

 many dangers we should have to encounter, I de- 

 termined not to hazard the ship down to leeward, 

 where we might be so hemmed in as to 'find it difficult 

 to return, and by that means lose the proper season 

 for getting to the south. I now wished to have had 

 the little vessel set up, the frame of which we had on 

 board. I had some thoughts of doing this when we 

 were last at Otaheite, but found it could not be exe- 

 cuted, without neglecting the caulking and other 

 necessary repairs of the ship, or staying longer there 

 than the route I had in view would admit. It was 

 now too late to begin setting her up, and then to 

 use her in exploring this coast ; and in our voyage to 

 the south, she could be of no service. These reasons 

 induced me to try to get without the shoals ; that is, 

 to the southward of them. 



Next morning, at day-break, we got under sail, 

 with a light breeze at E. by N. We had to make 

 some trips to weather the shoals to leeward of 

 Botany Isle ; but when this was done, the breeze 

 began to fail; and at three P.M. it fell calm. The 

 swell, assisted by the current, set us fast to S.W. 

 towards the breakers, which were yet in sight in that 

 direction. Thus we continued till ten o'clock, at 

 which time a breeze springing up at N.N.W. we 

 steered E. S. E., the contrary course we had come in ; 

 not daring to steer farther south till day-light. 



At three o'clock next morning, the wind veered to 

 S. W., blew hard, and in squalls, attended with rain, 

 which made it necessary to proceed with our courses 

 up, and topsails on the cap, till day-break, when the 

 hill on the Isle of Pines bore N., and our distance 



