1779- THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 3()3 



observation, was 38° \6', longitude 142° 9'. The 

 mean of the variation, from observations taken both 

 in the fore and afternoon, was 1° 20' E. 



At half past three in the afternoon, we lost sight 

 of the land ; and, from its breaking off so suddenly, 

 conjectured that what we had seen this day is an 

 island, or perhaps a cluster of islands, lying off the 

 main land of Japan ; but as the islands, called by 

 Jansen the Schildpads, and by Mr. D'Anville Mat- 

 sima, though laid down nearly in the same situation, 

 are not equal in extent to the land seen by us, we 

 must leave this point undecided. Having kept a 

 south-west course during the remaining part of the 

 day, we found ourselves, at midnight, in seventy 

 fathoms' water, over a bottom of fine dark brown 

 sand. We therefore hauled up to the eastward till 

 morning, when we saw the land again, about eleven 

 leagues to the southward of that which we had seen 

 the day before ; and at eight we were within six or 

 seven miles of the shore, having carried in regular 

 soundings from sixty-five to twenty fathoms, over 

 coarse sand and gravel. Unluckily there w r as a haze 

 over the land, which hindered our distinguishing 

 small objects on it. The coast is straight and un- 

 broken, and runs nearly in a north and south di- 

 rection. Toward the sea the ground is low, but rises 

 gradually into hills of a moderate height, whose tops 

 are tolerably even, and covered with wood. 



At nine o'clock, the wind shifting to the south- 

 ward, and the sky lowering, we tacked and stood off 

 to the east, and soon after we saw a vessel close in 

 with the land, standing along the shore to the north- 

 ward, and another in the offing, coming down on us 

 before the wind. Objects of any kind belonging to 

 a country so famous, and yet so little known, it will 

 be easily conceived, must have excited a general 

 curiosity ; and, accordingly, every soul on board was 

 upon deck in an instant to gaze at them. As the 

 vessel to windward approached us, she hauled farther 



