I continued to stand to the north, with a fine breeze at W. and W.N.W. till near seven o'clock in the evening, when I tacked to wait for day-light. At this time we were in forty-eight fathoms water, and about four leagues from the land, which extended from N. to S.E. 1/2 E. and a small round hill, which had the appearance of being an island, bore N. 3/4 E., distant six or seven leagues, as I guessed; it appears to be of a tolerable height, and was but just to be seen from the deck. Between this island or rock, and the northern extreme of the land, there appeared to be a small opening, which flattered us with the hopes of finding an harbour. These hopes lessened as we drew nearer; and at last we had some reason to think that the opening was closed by low land. On this account I called the point of land to the north of it _Cape Flattery_. It lies in the latitude of 48 deg. 15' N., and in the longitude of 235 deg. 3' E. There is a round hill of a moderate height over it; and all the land upon this part of the coast is of a moderate and pretty equal height, well covered with wood, and had a very pleasant and fertile appearance. It is in this very latitude where we now were, that geographers have placed the pretended strait of Juan de Fuca. But we saw nothing like it; nor is there the least probability that ever any such thing existed.[5] [Footnote 5: See Michael Locke's apocryphal account of Juan de Fuca and his pretended strait, in Purchas, vol. iii. p. 849-852, and many later Collections.--D.] I stood off to the southward till midnight, when I tacked, and steered to the N.W. with a gentle breeze at S.W. intending to stand in for the land as soon as day-light should appear. But, by that time, we were reduced to two courses and close-reefed top-sails, having a very hard gale, with rain, right on shore; so that, instead of running in for the land, I was glad to get an offing, or to keep that which we had already got. The south-west wind was, however, but of short continuance; for in the evening it veered again to the west. Thus had we perpetually strong west and north-west winds to encounter. Sometimes, in an evening, the wind would become moderate, and veer to the southward; but this was always a sure prelude to a storm, which blew the hardest at S.S.E. and was attended with rain and sleet. It seldom lasted above four or six hours, before it was succeeded by another gale from the N.W. which, generally, brought with it fair weather. It was, by the means of these southerly blasts, that we were enabled to get to the north-west at all.