we shortened sail and
brought the ship to, with her head to the N.E.; and at six in the
morning made sail and steered west, in order to get within sight of the
land, that I might be sure not to overshoot the passage, if a passage
there was, between this land and New Guinea. At noon, our latitude, by
observation, was 13 deg. 2' S., longitude 216 deg. W.; which was 1 deg. 23' W. of
Lizard Island: At this time we had no land in sight; but a little before
one o'clock, we saw high land from the masthead, bearing W.S.W. At two,
we saw more land to the N.W. of that we had seen before: It appeared in
hills, like islands; but we judged it to be a continuation of the main
land. About three, we discovered breakers between the land and the ship,
extending to the southward farther than we could see; but to the north
we thought we saw them terminate abreast of us. What we took for the end
of them in this direction, however, soon appeared to be only an opening
in the reef; for we presently saw them again, extending northward beyond
the reach of our sight. Upon this we hauled close upon a wind, which was
now at E.S.E. and we had scarcely trimmed our sails before it came to
E. by N. which was right upon the reef, and consequently made our
clearing it doubtful. At sun-set the northermost part of it that was in
sight bore from us N. by E. and was two or three leagues distant; this
however being the best tack to clear it, we kept standing to the
northward with all the sail we could set till midnight; when, being
afraid of standing too far in this direction, we tacked and stood to the
southward, our run from sun-set to this time being six leagues N. and N.
by E. When we had stood about two miles S.S.E. it fell calm. We had
sounded several times during the night, but had no bottom with one
hundred and forty fathom, neither had we any ground now with the same
length of line; yet, about four in the morning, we plainly heard the
roaring of the surf, and at break of day saw it foaming to a vast
height, at not more than a mile's distance. Our distress now returned
upon us with double force; the waves, which rolled in upon the reef,
carried us towards it very fast; we could reach no ground with an
anchor, and had not a breath of wind for the sail. In this dreadful
situation, no resource was left us but the boats; and to aggravate our
misfortune the pinnace was under repair: The long-boat and yawl,
however, were put into the water, and sent a-head t