cxxii 
INTRODUCTION. 
[Prior Discoveries. 
Flinders, shore, for about seven miles to the northward, lies N. 16 0 W., and is 
1798 ' rocky and nearly straight, and well covered with wood : the Cape 
itself is grassy. On the south side, the coast trends west, three 
or four miles, into a sandy bight, and then southward to Cape 
Howe. 
The latitude at noon was 37 0 25', giving a current of twenty miles 
to the south, in two days ; Green Cape bore N. by E. four leagues, 
and Cape Howe S. by W. five or six miles. Captain Cook lays 
down the last in 37° 26', in his chart ; but the above observation 
places it in 37 0 3oi', which I afterwards found to agree with an ob- 
servation of Mr. Bass, taken on the west side of the cape. The 
shore abreast of the schooner was between one and two miles dis- 
tant ; it was mostly beach, lying at the feet of sandy hillocks which 
extend from behind Green Cape to the pitch of Cape Howe. There 
were several fires upon the shore ; and near one of them, upon an 
eminence, stood seven natives, silently contemplating the schooner 
as she passed. 
On coming abreast of Cape Howe, the wind chopped round to the 
South-west, and the dark clouds which settled over the land con- 
cealed it from our view ; we observed, however, that it trended to 
the west, but sought in vain for the small island mentioned by cap- 
tain Cook as lying close off the Cape.* 
Our latitude was 38 0 30' next day, or 38' south of account, although 
the wind had been, and was still from that direction. Mr. Reed then 
steered W. by N„ to get in again with the coast; and on the fol- 
lowing noon, we were in 38 0 16' and, by account, 22' of longitude to 
the west of Point Hicks. The schooner was kept more northward 
in the afternoon; at four o'clock a moderately high, sloping hill 
was visible in the N. by W., and at seven a small rocky point on the 
Beach bore N. 50 0 W. three or four leagues. The shore extended 
E. N. E. and W. S. W., and was low and sandy in front ; but at 
* Hawkesworth, Vol. HI. p. 80. Mr. Bass sailed close round the cape in his whale boat, 
but did not see any island lying there. 
