ittle beach where in case of necessity, the sloop might be
run on shore with a prospect of safety to our lives; for should the wind
come three or four points further forward, there was no probability of
clearing the land on either tack. No such beach could, however, be
discovered; and we therefore carried all possible sail to get past this
dreary coast. A remarkable pyramid came in sight in the evening; at eight
o'clock it was distant five miles to the east, and seen to be a rock on
the north side of a point, which projects two or three miles from the
coast line. This point, named _Point Hibbs_ after the colonial master of
the Norfolk, is higher than the neck by which it is joined to the back
land; and from thence, it appears to have been taken for an island by
Tasman; for I consider Point Ebbs and the pyramid to be the two islands
laid down by him, in 42 deg. 35': their latitude, by our run from noon, is
42 deg. 39'.

We hauled off, upon a wind, at eight o'clock; and at four next morning,
Dec. 12, came in again with the same land. At five, when our course was
resumed along shore, Point Hibbs was distant two or three miles, and the
pyramid, which bore N. 31 deg. E. over its extremity, then appeared like the
crown of a hat. The coast to the southward is more irregular in its
trending, is of somewhat greater elevation, and not so destitute of wood
as on the north side of the point. At the distance of three leagues we
passed a cliffy head, with high rocks lying a mile from it; and two
leagues further, there were some patches of breakers two miles off the
shore: the general trending was between S. by E. and S. S. E.

At ten o'clock, a projection which merited the name of _Rocky Point_ bore
S. 74 deg. E., five miles; and here the direction of the coast was changed to
east, for near seven miles, when it formed a bight by again trending
south-eastward. The shore round the bight is high, and at the back were
several bare peaks which, from their whiteness, might have been thought
to be covered with snow; but their greatest elevation of perhaps 1200
feet, combined with the height of the thermometer at 62 deg., did not admit
the supposition. These peaks are probably what Tasman named De Witt's
Isles, from his distance having been too far off to distinguish the
connecting land, and I therefore called the highest of them, lying in 43 deg.
91/2' south, _Mount De Witt_.

This morning, two sets of distances of the sun west of the moon