Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/203

East Coast, & V.D.'s Land.]

round it at E. 7° N., (allowing 4° east variation,) and a second from the first, at E. 16° N., their distances asunder being each about five miles. It is the middlemost of these three heads which is called South Cape by captain Cook, as appears from the relative situations of his Peaked Hill and of Swilly rock; but he had not the opportunity of seeing the heads opening one from the other, as we had in the Norfolk. I make the latitude of the Cape (adding the 2′ 40″) to be 49° 37′, nearly as captain Furneaux did; and as captain Cook would have done, had his latitude at noon been taken 43° 42½′, according to the Astronomical Observations, instead of 42° 47′, as in the voyage.

Pedra Blanca, or Swilly rock, became visible at half past seven, when the squalls had mostly blown over; and the following bearings where then taken: At nine o'clock we hauled up for D'Entrecasteaux's Channel, of which I had the sketch of Mr. Hayes, and stood off and on, in the entrance, during the night; the wind blowing hard at west, with dark rainy weather.

Dec. 14, at four in the morning, our situation was far to leeward; and having no prospect of fetching into the channel, we bore away for Boreel's Isles, which were seen bearing N. 65° E. two leagues. Three of these produce some vegetation, and that of the largest had been partially burnt not long before. The two easternmost, called the Friars by captain Furneaux, are bare pyramidal rocks, and, except where they had been made white by the gannets, are of a black, weather-beaten colour: a patch of breakers lies one mile to the north-east from them.

Fluted Cape opened round Tasman's Head at N. 18° E. We passed these steep projections at a mile distance; and not being able to