A thick haze hanging over the land, few observations could be made of it. What we first saw was the South-west Cape of New Holland, between which and the South Cape the land appeared high and rocky, rising gradually from the shore, and wearing in many places a very barren aspect. In small cavities, on the summit of some of the high land, was the appearance of snow. Over the South Cape the land seemed covered with wood; the trees stood thick, and the bark of them appeared in general to have a whitish cast. The coast seemed very irregular, projecting into low points forming creeks and bays, some of which seemed to be deep; very little verdure was any where discernible; in many spots the ground looked arid and sterile. At night we perceived several fires lighted on the coast, at many of which, no doubt, were some of the native inhabitants, to whom it was probable our novel appearance must have afforded matter of curiosity and wonder. In all the preceding passage we had been scarcely a day without seeing birds of different kinds; and we also met with many whales. The weather was in general very rough, and the sea high, but the wind favourable, blowing mostly from north-west to south-west. The convoy behaved well, paying more attention and obedience to signals than ships in the merchant service are commonly known to do. The ships, however, began to grow foul, not one of them being coppered, and we now anxiously wished for a termination of the voyage, particularly as the hay provided for the horses was on the point of being wholly expended. The fair wind which had accompanied us to New Holland suddenly left us, shifting round to north-east and by east; we were obliged to lay our heads off-shore, in order to weather Swilly and the Eddystone (a perpendicular rock about a league to the eastward of Swilly) and the next day we had the mortification of a foul wind, a thing to which we had been long unaccustomed. In the night of the 9th the _Golden Grove_ shipped a sea, which stove in all her cabin windows: it was nearly calm at the time, with a confused heavy swell*. [* This circumstance has since occurred to other ships nearly in the same situation.] At two o'clock in the afternoon of the following day a very heavy and sudden squall took the _Sirius_ and laid her considerably down on her starboard side: it blew very fresh, and was felt more or less by all the transports, some of which suffered in their sails. Our progress along the coast to the northward was very slow, and it was not until the 19th that we fell in with the land, when we were nearly abreast of the Point named by Captain Cook Red Point. Before evening, however, we were gratified with the sight of the entrance into Botany Bay, but too late to attempt standing into it with the transports that night. The convoy therefore was informed by Captain Hunter how the entrance of the bay bore, and directed to be very attentive in the morning when the _Sirius _made sail or bore up.