June. NORTH-EAST COAST SAN SEBASTIAN. 457 



Smoke was seen at but one place, about two miles inland. In 

 the evening we got a breeze off shore, and stood along the 

 coast, the moon shining brightly and the weather being fine. 

 I kept rather close to the land, during the night, in order to be 

 near the entrance of the supposed St, Sebastian Channel in 

 the morning. 



" At midnight Cape Santa Inez was distant from us 

 three or four miles, but thence we saw very little of the land, 

 till three, near Cape Penas, after which the weather became 

 thick, and the wind drew round to the N.E., which made 

 me keep more off shore until daylight (9th), when we bore 

 up and stood for the land. Having found Cape Santa Inez 

 and Cape Penas correctly laid down on the chart we used, 

 I thought Cape St. Sebastian would not be far wrong, and 

 we had taken several observations during the early part of the 

 night to correct our reckoning. Standing towards the shore, 

 we quickly shoaled our water, and found a ground swell 

 increasing. Having made what I supposed to be Cape Sebas- 

 tian, and seeing from the mast-head a large opening to the 

 northward of it similar to that laid down in the chart, 

 with low distant land yet farther northward corresponding 

 to the shores of ' Bahia de Nombre de Jesus,' I stood on 

 confidently, thinking how well the chart of this coast had 

 been laid down, and regardless of the soundings decreasing 

 as we went on. Seeing, however, from the mast-head, what 

 seemed to be a tide-ripple, two or three miles distant, I called 

 the boatswain, who had been much among the tide-races on 

 this coast, to ask his opinion of it : but before he could get 

 up aloft to me, I saw that it was very low land, almost level 

 with the sea, and what 1 thought the ripple, was the surf on 

 the beach. Standing on a little farther we had but seven 

 fathoms water over a bottom of dark muddy sand, with bits of 

 black slate. At this time, the weather had cleared enough to 

 see the land fifteen or twenty miles on each side, but nothing 

 like an opening appearing, on the contrary, a plain extending 

 to the westward, as horizontal as the sea, I hauled to the wind 

 and stood alongshore to the S.E., to look for an inlet, fancying 



