: Our latitude at noon was 39 deg. 36' S. We had now a hard gale
from the southward, and a great sea from the same quarter, which obliged
us to run under our fore-sail and mizen all night, during which we
sounded every two hours, but had no ground with 120 fathom.

In the morning of the 18th, we saw two Port Egmont hens, and a pintado
bird, which are certain signs of approaching land, and indeed by our
reckoning we could not be far from it, for our longitude was now one
degree to the westward of the east side of Van Diemen's land, according
to the longitude laid down by Tasman, whom we could not suppose to have
erred much in so short a run as from this land to New Zealand, and by
our latitude we could not be above fifty or fifty-five leagues from the
place whence he took his departure. All this day we had frequent
squalls and a great swell. At one in the morning we brought-to and
sounded, but had no ground with 130 fathom; at six we saw land extending
from N.E. to W. at the distance of five or six leagues, having eighty
fathom, water with a fine sandy bottom.

We continued standing westward, with the wind at S.S.W. till eight, when
we made all the sail we could, and bore away along the shore N.E. for
the eastermost land in sight, being at this time in latitude 37 deg. 58' S.,
and longitude 210 deg. 39' W. The southermost point of land in sight, which
bore from us W. 1/4 S., I judged to lie in latitude 38 deg., longitude 211 deg.
7', and gave it the name of _Point Hicks_, because Mr Hicks, the first
lieutenant, was the first who discovered it. To the southward of this
Point no land was to be seen, though it was very clear in that quarter,
and by our longitude, compared with that of Tasman, not as it is laid
down in the printed charts, but in the extracts from Tasman's journal,
published by Rembrantse, the body of Van Diemen's land ought to have
borne due south; and indeed, from the sudden falling of the sea after
the wind abated, I had reason to think it did; yet as I did not see it,
and as I found this coast trend N.E. and S.W. or rather more to the
eastward, I cannot determine whether it joins to Van Diemen's land or
not.[69]

[Footnote 69: This part of geography has been a good deal improved since
Cook's time, as will be illustrated in progress. Van Diemen's land,
which was formerly reckoned a part of New Holland, and is marked as such
in the accompanying chart, is separated from it by Bass's Strait, which
is about