sails, and at 1 A.M. brought too and Sounded, but had no ground with
130 fathoms of line. At 5, set the Topsails close reef'd, and 6, saw
land* (* The south-east coast of Australia. See chart.) extending from
North-East to West, distance 5 or 6 Leagues, having 80 fathoms, fine
sandy bottom. We continued standing to the Westward with the Wind at
South-South-West until 8, at which time we got Topgallant Yards a Cross,
made all sail, and bore away along shore North-East for the Eastermost
land we had in sight, being at this time in the Latitude of 37 degrees 58
minutes South, and Longitude of 210 degrees 39 minutes West. The
Southermost point of land we had in sight, which bore from us West 1/4
South, I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38 degrees 0 minutes South and
in the Longitude of 211 degrees 7 minutes West from the Meridian of
Greenwich. I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieutenant Hicks was the
first who discover'd this Land. To the Southward of this point we could
see no land, and yet it was clear in that Quarter, and by our Longitude
compared with that of Tasman's, the body of Van Diemen's land ought to
have bore due South from us, and from the soon falling of the Sea after
the wind abated I had reason to think it did; but as we did not see it,
and finding the Coast to trend North-East and South-West, or rather more
to the Westward, makes me Doubtfull whether they are one land or no.* (*
Had not the gale on the day before forced Cook to run to the northward,
he would have made the north end of the Furneaux Group, and probably have
discovered Bass Strait, which would have cleared up the doubt, which he
evidently felt, as to whether Tasmania was an island or not. The fact was
not positively known until Dr. Bass sailed through the Strait in a
whale-boat in 1797. Point Hicks was merely a rise in the coast-line,
where it dipped below the horizon to the westward, and the name of Point
Hicks Hill is now borne by an elevation that seems to agree with the
position.) However, every one who compares this Journal with that of
Tasman's will be as good a judge as I am; but it is necessary to observe
that I do not take the Situation of Vandiemen's from the Printed Charts,
but from the extract of Tasman's Journal, published by Dirk Rembrantse.
At Noon we were in the Latitude of 37 degrees 50 minutes and Longitude of
210 degrees 29 minutes West. The extreams of the Land extending from
North-West to East-North-East, a remarkable po