to the nose; they had very long whiskers, and frequently
raised themselves half the length of the body out of the water,
to look round them, and often leaped entirely out; which I do not
ever recollect to have seen the seal do: from these
circumstances, I judged them to be something of the
sea-otter.

On the night of the 8th, it blew so strong from
north-north-east and north, as to bring us under close reefed
main top-sail and fore-sail; this gale was accompanied with
thunder, lightning, and rain, which soon changed it to the
south-west quarter, and immediately cleared the weather. On the
10th, we had two very violent white squalls from north-west, with
lightning, thunder, and rain: these squalls came on so very
suddenly, that some of the convoy were taken with too much sail
out, which obliged them to let go their tacks and sheets, by
which means one ship carried away her main-yard in the slings,
another had her three top-sails blown from the yards, and a third
lost her jibb, and some other trifling accident: this occasioned
a short delay, but as soon as these accidents were repaired we
made sail, and availed ourselves of every slant of wind, to get
in with the coast. I was desirous of falling in with it about
Cape Howe, which is in latitude 37 deg. 30' south, and longitude
150 deg. 00' east, and from thence to have run down along the
coast to Botany-bay; but the wind prevailed so long from the
north-ward and north-west, that we could not fetch that part of
the coast.

On the 15th, by a good lunar observation, I found our
longitude to be 152 deg. 43' east, which was twenty-five leagues
farther from the coast than I expected we were. Every endeavour
was exerted to get to the westward, and on the 19th in the
evening, judging from the last observation, (the dead reckoning
being out,) that we could not be above eight or nine leagues from
the land, the wind being from the eastward, I made the signal and
brought to with the convoy till day-light, when we made the land
in latitude 34 deg. 50' south, six or seven leagues distant. We
steered in slanting to the northward, until we were within about
six or seven miles of the shore, and then steered along the coast
at that distance, not choosing, as the wind was easterly, to
carry the convoy nearer.

At noon, we were abreast of Red-point, which is well
determined by Captain Cook: I observed its latitude to be 34 deg.
29' south; this point being only ten leagues from Botany-