Having stood to the south-east till midnight, we then tacked to the westward; and at five next morning [SUNDAY 24 JANUARY 1802] bore away north for the land, the wind being then at south-by-east, and the barometer announcing by its elevation a return of foul winds.  At six we steered eastward, along the same kind of shore as seen on the preceding day; but the wind coming more unfavourable, and depth diminishing to 5 fathoms soon after eight o’clock, made it necessary to stretch off to sea.  The coast in latitude 32 deg. 1’ and longitude 128 deg. 12’ was three miles distant to the north.  A league further on it took a more northern direction, but without much changing its aspect; it continued to be the same sandy beach, with a bank behind it of level land topped with small trees and shrubs as before described.

MONDAY 25 JANUARY 1802

The rest of the day and the whole of the 25th were taken up in beating fruitlessly against an eastern wind.  Azimuths observed when the ship’s head was east-by-north gave variation 6 deg. 4’; and ten miles to the south a little eastward they gave 3 deg. 8’ west, at south-by-east; corrected 3 deg. 2’ and 2 deg. 32’, and the mean 2 deg. 47’ for the true variation, showing a decrease since the last of 1 deg. 19’ for 2 deg. 11’ of longitude.

At ten in the evening our situation was less advanced than on the morning of the 24th, when we tacked off shore; but the mercury was again descending, and during the night the wind veered to north-east, to north, and at eight in the morning [TUESDAY 26 JANUARY 1802] to west-by-north, when we steered in for the land.  At ten the shore was eight or nine miles distant, and our course was north-east, nearly as it trended.  The latitude at noon, from observations to the north and south, was 31 deg. 51’ 34”, and longitude by timekeepers 128 deg. 41’; the beach was distant three or four miles in the north-north-west, and the bank behind it lay two or three miles inland and was somewhat higher, but had less wood upon it than further westward.  The wind was fresh at south-west, and the mercury was rising; but the haziness of the weather was such that no extremes of the land could be set.

Our course from noon was nearly east at the distance of five or six miles from the shore; and we ran at the rate of between seven and eight knots, under double-reefed top-sails and foresail.  Abreast of our situation at half-past two the level bank again closed in upon the shore, and formed cliffs very similar to those along which we had before run thirty leagues.  Their elevation appeared to be from four to six hundred feet, the upper part was brown, and the lower two-thirds white; but as we advanced, the upper brown stratum was observed to augment in proportional quantity.  We could not distinguish, as before, the smaller layers in the two strata; and from the number of excavations in the white part, apparently from pieces having fallen down (see Mr. Westall’s sketch, Atlas, Plate XVII.  View 6.), I was led to think the lower portion of these cliffs to be grit stone rather than calcareous rock.  The bank was not covered with shrubs, as before it came to the water side, but was nearly destitute of vegetation, and almost as level as the horizon of the sea.