174 cook's second voyage dec. 



We now resumed our course to the east ; and, at 

 sun-set, the most advanced land bore S.E. by E. £ E. ; 

 and a point, which I judged to be the west point of 

 Nassau Bay, discovered by the Dutch fleet under the 

 command of Admiral Hermite in 1624, bore N. 80° 

 E., six leagues distant. In some charts, this point 

 is called false Cape Horn, as being the southern 

 point of Terra del Fuego. It is situated in latitude 

 55° 39' S. From the inlet above-mentioned to this 

 false cape, the direction of the coast is nearly E., 

 half a point S., distant fourteen or fifteen leagues. 



At ten o'clock, having shortened sail, we spent 

 the night in making short boards under the top-sails, 

 and at three next morning, made sail, and steered 

 S.E. by S. with a fresh breeze at W.S.W., the wea- 

 ther somewhat hazy. At this time, the west en- 

 trance to Nassau Bay extended from N. by E. to 

 N. J E., and the south side of Hermite's Isles, E. by 

 S. At four, Cape Horn, for which we now steered, 

 bore E. by S. It is known, at a distance, by a high 

 round hill over it. A point to the W. N. W. shows a 

 surface not unlike this ; but their situations alone 

 will always distinguish the one from the other. 



At half past seven, we passed this famous cape, 

 and entered the Southern Atlantic Ocean. It is the 

 very same point of land I took for the cape, when 

 I passed it in 1769, which at that time I was doubt- 

 ful of. It is the most southern extremity on a group 

 of islands of unequal extent, lying before Nassau 

 Bay, known by the name of Hermite Islands, and is 

 situated in the latitude of 55° 58', and in the longi- 

 tude of 6*8° 13' west, according to the observations 

 made of it in I769. But the observations, which we 

 had in Christmas Sound, and reduced to the cape, by 

 the watch, and others, which we had afterwards, and 

 reduced back to it by the same means, place it in 

 67 19'. It is most probable that a mean between 

 the two, viz. 67°4t>' will be nearest the truth. On 

 the N. W» side of the cape are two peaked rocks 



