es.
Nothing of the interior country could be seen above the bank; but this
might possibly have been owing to the haze, which was so thick that no
extremes of the land could be defined. The wind was fresh at
south-south-west, and by seven in the evening our longitude was augmented
55'; the land was then distant six or seven miles, trending
east-north-eastward; and we hauled to the wind, which had increased in
strength though the barometer was fast rising.

Having stood to the south-east till midnight, we then tacked to the
westward; and at five next morning [SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 1802] bore away
north for the land, the wind being then at south-by-east, and the
barometer announcing by its elevation a return of foul winds. At six we
steered eastward, along the same kind of shore as seen on the preceding
day; but the wind coming more unfavourable, and depth diminishing to 5
fathoms soon after eight o'clock, made it necessary to stretch off to
sea. The coast in latitude 32 deg. 1' and longitude 128 deg. 12' was three miles
distant to the north. A league further on it took a more northern
direction, but without much changing its aspect; it continued to be the
same sandy beach, with a bank behind it of level land topped with small
trees and shrubs as before described.

MONDAY 25 JANUARY 1802

The rest of the day and the whole of the 25th were taken up in beating
fruitlessly against an eastern wind. Azimuths observed when the ship's
head was east-by-north gave variation 6 deg. 4'; and ten miles to the south a
little eastward they gave 3 deg. 8' west, at south-by-east; corrected 3 deg. 2'
and 2 deg. 32', and the mean 2 deg. 47' for the true variation, showing a
decrease since the last of 1 deg. 19' for 2 deg. 11' of longitude.

At ten in the evening our situation was less advanced than on the morning
of the 24th, when we tacked off shore; but the mercury was again
descending, and during the night the wind veered to north-east, to north,
and at eight in the morning [TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 1802] to west-by-north,
when we steered in for the land. At ten the shore was eight or nine miles
distant, and our course was north-east, nearly as it trended. The
latitude at noon, from observations to the north and south, was 31 deg. 51'
34", and longitude by timekeepers 128 deg. 41'; the beach was distant three
or four miles in the north-north-west, and the bank behind it lay two or
three miles inland and was somewhat higher, but had less wood upo