annel; when the potty officer at the mast-head cried-out that
he saw land a-head, extending quite round to the islands that lay
without us, and a large reef between us and them: Upon this I ran up to
the mast-head myself, from whence I very plainly saw the reef, which was
now so far to windward, that we could not weather it, but the land
a-head, which he had supposed to be the main, appeared to me to be only
a bluster of small islands. As soon as I got down from the mast-head,
the master and some others went up, who all insisted that the land
a-head was not islands, but the main; and, to make their report still
more alarming, they said that they saw breakers all round us. In this
dilemma, we hauled upon a wind in for the land, and made the signal for
the boat that was sounding a-head to come on board, but as she was far
to leeward, we were obliged to edge away to take her up, and soon after
we came to an anchor, under a point of the main, in somewhat less than
five fathom, and at about the distance of a mile from the shore. Cape
Flattery now bore S.E. distant three leagues and a half. As soon as the
ship was at anchor, I went ashore upon the point, which is high, and
afforded me a good view of the sea coast, trending away N.W. by W. eight
or ten leagues, which, the weather not being very clear, was as far as I
could see. Nine or ten small low islands, and some shoals, appeared off
the coast; I saw also some large shoals between the main and the three
high islands, without which, I was clearly of opinion there were more
islands, and not any part of the main. Except the point I was now upon,
which I called _Point Lookout_, and Cape Flattery, the main-land, to the
northward of Cape Bedford, is low, and chequered with white sand and
green bushes, for ten or twelve miles inland, beyond which it rises to a
considerable height. To the northward of Point Lookout, the coast
appeared to be shoal and flat for a considerable distance, which did not
encourage the hope that the channel we had hitherto found in with the
land would continue. Upon this point, which was narrow, and consisted of
the finest white sand we had ever seen, we discovered the footsteps of
people, and we saw also smoke and fire at a distance up the country.

In the evening, I returned to the ship, and resolved the next morning to
visit one of the high islands in the offing, from the top of which, as
they lay five leagues out to sea, I hoped to discover more distinc