The 18th in the afternoon, being 3 or 4 leagues offshore, I saw a shoal point, stretching from the land into the sea a league or more.  The sea broke high on it; by which I saw plainly there was a shoal there.  I stood farther off and coasted alongshore to about 7 or 8 leagues distance:  and at 12 o’clock at night we sounded, and had but 20 fathom hard sand.  By this I found I was upon another shoal, and so presently steered off west half an hour, and had then 40 fathom.  At one in the morning of the 18th day we had 85 fathom:  by two we could find no ground; and then I ventured to steer alongshore again, due north, which is two points wide of the coast (that lies north-north-east) for fear of another shoal.  I would not be too far off from the land, being desirous to search into it wherever I should find an opening or any convenience of searching about for water, etc.  When we were off the shoal point I mentioned where we had but 20 fathom water, we had in the night abundance of whales about the ship, some ahead, others astern, and some on each side blowing and making a very dismal noise; but when we came out again into deeper water they left us.  Indeed the noise that they made by blowing and dashing of the sea with their tails, making it all of a breach and foam, was very dreadful to us, like the breach of the waves in very shoal water, or among rocks.  The shoal these whales were upon had depth of water sufficient, no less than 20 fathom, as I said; and it lies in latitude 22 degrees 22 minutes.  The shore was generally bold all along; we had met with no shoal at sea since the Abrolho Shoal, when we first fell on the New Holland coast in the latitude of 28, till yesterday in the afternoon, and this night.  This morning also when we expected by the chart we had with us to have been 11 leagues offshore we were but 4; so that either our charts were faulty, which yet hitherto and afterwards we found true enough as to the lying of the coast, or else here was a tide unknown to us that deceived us; though we had found very little of any tide on this coast hitherto.  As to our winds in the coasting thus far, as we had been within the verge of the general trade (though interrupted by the storm I mentioned) from the latitude of 28, when we first fell in with the coast:  and by that time we were in the latitude of 25 we had usually the regular tradewind (which is here south-south-east) when we were at any distance from shore:  but we had often sea and land-breezes, especially when near shore, and when in Shark’s Bay; and had a particular north-west wind, or storm, that set us in thither.  On this 18th of August we coasted with a brisk gale of the true tradewind at south-south-east, very fair and clear weather; but, hauling off in the evening to sea, were next morning out of sight of land; and the land now trending away north-easterly, and we being to the northward of it, and the wind also shrinking from the south-south-east to the east-south-east (that