East Coast, Sf V. D. s Land.} INTRODUCTION. 
cxliii 
Oct. 14. In the morning, we left Two-fold Bay with a breeze at Flindebs 
north-east; and at sun-set, having. run eleven. leagues from the 
south point, our departure was taken from Cape Howe. I then 
steered S. W. by S., judging it to be the course best calculated to 
bring us within sight of the land supposed, by captain Furneaux, to 
lie in 39 0 south. On the 15th, at noon, our latitude was 38° 34'; 
the weather was fine, but no land visible to the southward. In the 
opposite direction there was a range of hills whose centre bore 
N. by W. i W. ; at sunset it was seen as far as N. 37 0 W., from 
the sloop's deck, and from the mast head of the Nautilus, the 
land was distinguished, or thought to be so, as far as N. 6o° W. 
These bearings, but particularly the last, seemed to shew a strong 
current to the westward, for neither Mr. Bass nor myself could 
believe, that the hills at the back of the Long Beach were sufficiently 
elevated to be seen beyond fifteen leagues ; I therefore took four 
sets of distances, of stars east and west of the moon, which placed 
us, an hour and a half after sunset, in longitude 349 0 13' east, 
agreeing nearly with the dead reckoning. The land, if it really were 
such, was consequently twenty-five or more leagues off ; and if the , 
bearing of N. 60° W. were not a mistake, it must have been thirty 
leagues distant in that direction. This supposed land was visible all 
the afternoon; but it might possibly have been the dense clouds 
hanging over the hills at the back of the Long Beach, and not the 
land itself. 
Our course to the south-westward was continued all night ; but 
the wind having veered to W. S. W. at daybreak of the 16th, the 
sloop was then put on the northern tack. No land was visible in 
any direction ; nor was there any at noon, when the observed lati- 
tude was 38 0 42'. The wind veered round by the south until it 
fixed itself at east ; and when the day broke, on the 17th, the signal 
was made to the Nautilus, and we bore away S. W. by W. until 
noon. The latitude was then 39 0 11' south, and we judged ourselves 
to be nearly in the meridian of the Sisters ; the weather was tolerably 
and Bass. 
1798. 
