boats, accompanied by several of the
officers and gentlemen, having with us the carpenter and some of his crew,
to cut down such trees as were wanting. While this was doing I took the
bearings of several lands round. The hill on the Isle of Pines bore
S. 59 30' E; the low point of Queen Charlotte's Foreland N. 14 deg. 30' W.; the
high land over it, seen over two low isles, N. 20 deg. W.; and the most
advanced point of land to the west, bore west, half a point south, distant
six or seven leagues. We had, from several bearings, ascertained the true
direction of the coast from the foreland to this point, which I shall
distinguish by the name of Prince of Wales's Foreland. It is situated in
the latitude of 22 deg. 29' S., longitude 166 deg. 57' E., is of considerable
height, and, when it first appears above the horizon, looks like an island.
From this cape, the coast trended nearly N.W. This was rather too northerly
a direction to join that part which we saw from the hills of Balade. But as
it was very high land which opened off the cape in that direction, it is
very probable that lower land, which we could not see, opened sooner; or
else the coast more to the N.W. takes a more westerly direction, in the
same manner as the N.E. coast. Be this as it may, we pretty well know the
extent of the land, by having it confined within certain limits. However, I
still entertained hopes of seeing more of it, but was disappointed.

The little isle upon which we landed, is a mere sandbank, not exceeding
three-fourths of a mile in circuit, and on it, besides these pines, grew
the Etoa-tree of Otaheite, and a variety of other trees, shrubs, and
plants. These gave sufficient employment to our botanists, all the time we
stayed upon it, and occasioned my calling it Botany Isle. On it were
several water-snakes, some pigeons, and doves, seemingly different from any
we had seen. One of the officers shot a hawk, which proved to be of the
very same sort as our English fishing-hawks. Several fire-places, branches,
and leaves very little decayed, remains of turtle, &c. shewed that people
had lately been on the isle. The hull of a canoe, precisely of the same
shape as those we had seen at Balade, lay wrecked in the sand. We were now
no longer at a loss to know of what trees they make their canoes, as they
can be no other than these pines. On this little isle were some which
measured twenty inches diameter, and between sixty and seventy feet in
length,