clxxvi INTRODUCTION. {Prior Discoveries. 
Elihdbm strong directly into it, there was too much danger in bearing away 
an i d 798. SS ' for its examination. 
At three o'clock, we passed the southern point of the bight, 
at the distance of four miles ; and the coast then again trended 
S. S. E., waving in rocky bights and projections. The land here 
rises by a gentle ascent for two or three miles from the shore ; its 
appearance was smooth and uniform ; but it was destitute of wood, 
and almost of other vegetation : the back mountains were obscured 
by the haze. 
The heavy south-west swell, which had met us at the entrance of 
the Indian Ocean, still continued to roll in, and set dead upon this 
coast ; and the wind blew fresh at W. N. W. Under these circum- 
stances, we looked out for some little beach, where, in case of 
necessity, the sloop might be run on shore with a prospect of safety 
to our lives ; for should the wind come three or four points further 
forward, there was no probability of clearing the land on either tack. 
No such beach could, however, be discovered; and we therefore 
carried all possible sail to get past this dreary coast. A remarkable 
pyramid came in sight in the evening ; at eight o'clock it was 
distant five miles to the east, and seen to be a rock on the north side 
of a point, which projects two or three miles from the coast line. 
This point, named Point Hibbs after the colonial master of the Nor- 
folk, is higher than the neck by which it is joined to the back land; 
and from thence, it appears to have been taken for an island by 
Tasman ; for I consider Point Hibbs and the pyramid to be the two 
islands laid down by him, in 42" 35': their latitude, by our run from 
noon, is 42 0 39'. 
We hauled off, upon a wind, at eight o'clock ; and at four next 
morning, Dec. 1 2, came in again with the same land. At five, when 
our course was resumed along shore, Point Hibbs was distant two 
or three miles, and the pyramid, which bore N. 31 0 E. over its extre- 
mity, then appeared like the crown of a hat. The coast to the 
