We Were
Daily Attended By Great Numbers Of Sea Birds, And Frequently Saw Porpoises
Curiously Spotted White And Black.
On the 1st of March we were alarmed with the cry of land by the man at the
mast-head, on the larboard beam; which gave us great joy.
We immediately
hauled our wind and stood for it, but to our mortification were
disappointed in a few hours; for, what we took to be land, proved no more
than clouds, which disappeared as we sailed towards them. We then bore
away, and directed our course towards the land laid down in the charts by
the name of Van Diemen's Land, discovered by Tasman in 1642, and laid down
in the latitude 44 deg. S., and longitude 140 deg. E., and supposed to join to New
Holland.
On the 9th of March, having little wind and pleasant weather, about nine a.
m. being then in the latitude of 43 deg. 37' S. longitude, by lunar
observation, 145 deg. 36' E., and by account 143 deg. 10' E. from Greenwich, we saw
the land bearing N.N.E., about eight or nine leagues distance. It appeared
moderately high, and uneven near the sea; the hills farther back formed a
double land, and much higher. There seemed to be several islands, or broken
land, to the N.W., as the shore trenched; but by reason of clouds that hung
over them, we could not be certain whether they did not join to the main.
We hauled immediately up for it, and by noon were within three or four
leagues of it.
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