Flinders
1798.
shore, for about seven miles to the northward, lies N. 16° W., and is rocky and nearly straight, and well covered with wood: the Cape itself is grassy. On the south side, the coast trends west, three or four miles, into a sandy bight, and then southward to Cape Howe.
The latitude at noon was 37° 25′, giving a current of twenty miles to the south, in two days; Green Cape bore N. by E. four leagues, and Cape Howe S. by W. five or six miles. Captain Cook lays down the last in 37° 26′, in his chart; but the above observation places it in 37° 30½′, which I afterwards found to agree with an observation of Mr. Bass, taken on the west side of the cape. The shore abreast of the schooner was between one and two miles distant; it was mostly beach, lying at the feet of sandy hillocks which extend from behind Green Cape to the pitch of Cape Howe. There were several fires upon the shore; and near one of them, upon an eminence, stood seven natives, silently contemplating the schooner as she passed.
On coming abreast of Cape Howe, the wind chopped round to the south-west, and the dark clouds which settled over the land concealed it from our view; we observed, however, that it trended to the west, but sought in vain for the small island mentioned by captain Cook as lying close off the Cape.[1]
Our latitude was 38° 30′ next day, or 38′ south of account, although the wind had been, and was still from that direction. Mr. Reed then steered W. by N., to get in again with the coast; and on the following noon, we were in 38° 16′ and, by account, 22′ of longitude to the west of Point Hicks. The schooner was kept more northward in the afternoon; at four o'clock a moderately high, sloping hill was visible in the N. by W., and at seven a small rocky point on the beach bore N. 50° W. three or four leagues. The shore extended E.N.E. and W.S.W., and was low and sandy in front; but at
- ↑ Hawkesworth, Vol. III. p. 80. Mr. Bass sailed close round the cape in his whale boat, but did not see any island lying there.
