The next morning we got a breeze easterly, and what was uncommon with this wind, clear weather, so that we not only saw the volcano, but other mountains, both to the east and west of it, and all the coast of the main land under them, much plainer than at any time before.  It extended from N.E. by N. to N.W. 1/2 W., where it seemed to terminate.  Between this point and the islands without it, there appeared a large opening, for which I steered, till we raised land beyond it.  This land, although we did not perceive that it joined the continent, made a passage through the opening very doubtful.  It also made it doubtful, whether the land which we saw to the S.W., was insular or continental, and, if the latter, it was obvious that the opening would be a deep bay or inlet, from which, if once we entered it with an easterly wind, it would not be so easy to get out.  Not caring, therefore, to trust too much to appearances, I steered to the southward.  Having thus got without all the land in sight, I then steered west, in which direction the islands lay, for such we found this land to be.

By eight o’clock we had passed three of them, all of a good height.  More of them were now seen to the westward, the south-westernmost part of them bearing W.N.W.  The weather, in the afternoon, became gloomy, and at length turned to a mist, and the wind blew fresh at E. I therefore, at ten at night, hauled the wind to the southward till day-break, when we resumed our course to the W.

Day-light availed us little, for the weather was so thick, that we could not see a hundred yards before us; but as the wind was now moderate, I ventured to run.  At half-past four, we were alarmed at hearing the sound of breakers on our larboard bow.  On heaving the lead, we found twenty-eight fathoms water, and the next cast, twenty-five.  I immediately brought the ship to, with her head to the northward, and anchored in this last depth, over a bottom of coarse sand, calling to the Discovery, she being close by us, to anchor also.

A few hours after, the fog having cleared away a little, it appeared that we had escaped very imminent danger.  We found ourselves three quarters of a mile from the N.E. side of an island, which extended from S. by W. 1/2 W. to N. by E. 1/2 E., each extreme about a league distant.  Two elevated rocks, the one bearing S. by E., and the other E. by S., were about half a league each from us, and about the same distance from each other.  There were several breakers about them, and yet Providence had, in the dark, conducted the ships through, between these rocks, which I should not have ventured in a clear day, and to such an anchoring-place, that I could not have chosen a better.

Finding ourselves so near land, I sent a boat to examine what it produced.  In the afternoon she returned, and the officer, who commanded her, reported, that it produced some tolerable good grass, and several other small plants, one of which was like purslain, and eat very well, either in soups or as a sallad.  There was no appearance of shrubs or trees, but on the beach were a few pieces of drift wood.  It was judged to be low water between ten and eleven o’clock, and we found, where we lay at anchor, that the flood-tide came from the E. or S.E.