t can be
imagined. Nothing is to be seen but hills of sand, on which there is
scarcely a blade of verdure; and a vast sea, impelled by the westerly
winds, breaking upon it in a dreadful surf, renders it not only forlorn,
but frightful; complicating the idea of danger with desolation, and
impressing the mind at once with a sense of misery and death. From this
place I steered to the northward, resolving never more to come within
the same distance of the coast, except the wind should be very
favourable indeed. I stood under a fresh sail all the day, hoping to get
an offing by the next noon, and we made good a course of a hundred and
two miles N. 38 W. Our latitude by observation was 35 deg. 10'S.; and Cape
Maria bore N. 10 E. distance forty-one miles. In the night, the wind
shifted from S.W. by S. to S. and blew fresh. Our course to the noon of
the 5th was N. 75 W. distance eight miles.

At day-break on the 6th, we saw the land which we took to be Cape Maria,
bearing N.N.E. distant eight or nine leagues: And on the 7th, in the
afternoon, the land bore east: And some time after we discovered a
turtle upon the water; but being awake, it dived instantly, so that we
could not take it. At noon, the high land, which has just been
mentioned, extended from N. to E. at the distance of five or six
leagues; and in two places, a flat gave it the appearance of a bay or
inlet. The course that we made good the last four-and-twenty hours was
S. 33 E. fifty-three miles; Cape Maria bearing N. 25 W. distant thirty
leagues.

We sailed within sight of land all this day, with gentle gales between
the N.E. and N.W.; and by next noon had sailed sixty-nine miles, in the
direction of S. 37 E.; our latitude, by observation was 36 deg. 39' S. The
land which on the 4th we had taken for a bay, now bore N.E. by N.
distant five leagues and a half; and Cape Maria N. 29 W. forty-seven
leagues.

On the 9th, we continued a south-east course till eight o'clock in the
evening, having run seven leagues since noon, with the wind at N.N.E.
and N. and being within three or four leagues of the land, which
appeared to be low and sandy. I then steered S.E. by S. in a direction
parallel wills the coast, having from forty-eight to thirty-four fathom
water, with a black sandy bottom. At day-break the next morning, we
found ourselves between two and three leagues from the land, which began
to have a better appearance, rising in gentle slopes, and being covered
with t