tween five and six o'clock,
when the boats meeting with less and less water, I made the signal
to the Discovery, she being then ahead, to anchor, which we did soon
after. In bringing our ship up, the cable parted at the clinch, which
obliged us to come-to with the other anchor. We rode in six fathoms
water, a sandy bottom, and about four or five leagues from the
main land; Cape Newenham bearing S., seventeen leagues distant. The
farthest hills we could see to the north, bore N.E. by E.; but there
was low land stretching out from the high land as far as N. by E.
Without this was a shoal of sand and stones, that was dry at half ebb.

I had sent the two masters, each in a boat, to sound between this
shoal and the coast. On their return, they reported, that there was a
channel, in which they found six and seven fathoms water; but that it
was narrow and intricate. At low water, we made an attempt to get a
hawser round the lost anchor, but did not succeed then. However,
being determined not to leave it behind me, as long as there was a
probability of recovering it, I persevered in my endeavours, and at
last succeeded in the evening of the 20th.

While we were thus employed, I ordered Captain Clerke to send his
master in a boat to look for a passage in the S.W. quarter. He did so;
but no channel was to be found in that direction; nor did there appear
to be any way to get clear of these shoals, but to return by the track
which had brought us in. For although, by following the channel
we were in, we might probably have got farther down the coast; and
though, possibly, this channel might have led us at last to the north,
clear of the shoals, still the attempt would have been attended with
vast risk; and if we should not have succeeded, there would have been
a considerable loss of time that could ill be spared. These reasons
induced me to return by the way in which we came; and so get without
the shoals.

A number of lunar observations, made by Mr King and myself on this
and the four preceding days, and all reduced to the ship's present
station, gave the longitude

197 deg. 45' 48"
By the time-keeper it was 197 26 48
Our latitude was 59 37 30
Variation by the \ A.M. 23 deg. 34' 3" \
mean of three } P.M. 22 19 40 / mean 22 deg. 56' 51" E.
compasses, /

The northernmost part of the coast that we could see from this
station, I judged to lie in the lat