As the Dutch charts make the coast of Japan extend about ten leagues to the S.W. of White Point, at eight we tacked, and stood off to the eastward, in order to weather the point. At midnight, we again tacked to the S.W., expecting to fall in with the coast to the southward, but were surprised, in the morning at eight, to see the hummock, at the distance only of three leagues, bearing W.N.W. We began, at first, to doubt the evidence of our senses, and afterward to suspect some deception from a similarity of land; but, at noon, we found ourselves, by observation, to be actually in latitude 35 deg. 43', at a time when our reckonings gave us 34 deg. 48'. So that, during the eight hours in which we supposed we had made a course of nine leagues to the S.W., we had in reality been carried eight leagues from the position we left, in a direction diametrically opposite; which made, on the whole, in that short space of time, a difference in our reckoning of seventeen leagues. From this error, we calculated, that the current had set to the N.E. by N., at the rate of at least five miles an hour. Our longitude, at this time, was 141 deg. 16'. The weather having now the same threatening appearance as on the 29th of October, which was followed by so sudden and severe a gale, and the wind continuing at S.S.E., it was thought prudent to leave the shore, and stand off to the eastward, to prevent our being entangled with the land. Nor were we wrong in our prognostications; for it soon afterward began, and continued till next day, to blow a heavy gale, accompanied with hazy and rainy weather. In the morning of the 3d, we found ourselves, by our reckoning, upward of fifty leagues from the land; which circumstance, together with the very extraordinary effect of currents we had before experienced, the late season of the year, the unsettled state of the weather, and the little likelihood of any change for the better, made Captain Gore resolve to leave Japan altogether, and prosecute our voyage to China; hoping, that as the track he meant to pursue had never yet been explored, he should be able to make amends, by some new discovery, for the disappointments we had met with on this coast. If the reader should be of opinion that we quitted this object too hastily, in addition to the facts already stated it ought to be remarked, that Kaempfer describes the coast of Japan as the most dangerous in the whole world;[103] that it would have been equally dangerous, in case of distress, to run into any of their harbours, where we know, from the best authorities, that the aversion of the inhabitants to any intercourse with strangers, has led them to commit the most atrocious barbarities; that our ships were in a leaky condition, that our sails were worn out, and unable to withstand, a gale of wind, and that the rigging was so rotten as to require constant and perpetual repairs.