436 cook's voyage to april, 



was clumsy in figure, and, to appearance, unskilfully 

 managed ; yet she out-sailed us exceedingly. The 

 colours which she hoisted were different from any 

 we had seen ; some supposed them to be Portu- 

 gueze, others Imperial. 



At day-light the next morning, the land again ap- 

 peared to the north north-west, and, in the forenoon, 

 a snow was seen bearing down to us, which proved 

 to be an English East-India packet, that had left 

 Table Bay three days before, and was cruizing with 

 orders for the China fleet, and other India ships. 

 She told us, that about three weeks before, Mons. 

 Trongoller's squadron, consisting of six ships, had 

 sailed from the Cape, and was gone to cruize off 

 St. Helena, for our East-India fleet. This intelli- 

 gence made us conjecture, that the five sail we had 

 seen standing to the eastward must have been the 

 French squadron, who, in that case, had given over 

 their cruize, and were probably proceeding to the 

 Mauritius. Having informed the packet of our 

 conjectures, and also of the time we understood the 

 China ships were to sail from Canton, we left them, 

 and proceeded toward the Cape. 



In the evening of the 10th, the Gunner's Quoin 

 bore north by east, and False Cape east north-east ; 

 but the wind being at south-west, and variable, pre- 

 vented our getting into False Bay, till the evening 

 of the 12th, when we dropt anchor abreast of 

 Simon's Bay. We found a strong current setting to 

 the westward, round the Cape, which, for some time, 

 we could but just stem, with a breeze that would 

 have carried us four knots an hour. The next 

 morning, we stood into Simon's Bay ; and at eight 

 came to anchor, and moored a cable each w T ay ; the 

 best bower to the east south-east, and small bower 

 west north-west ; the south-east point of the bay 

 bearing south by east, Table Mountain north-east 

 half north ; distant from the nearest shore one-third 

 of a mile. We found lying here, the Nassau and 



18 



