from the people staying so much longer than they had been ordered, it was
thought to have been made by them, as a signal. But on inquiry, they
answered in the negative; and said that they, also, had seen smoke in
several places; and bushes--(here seems to be a line omitted.) "So that
without doubt, here must be exceedingly tall people."

Dec. 3. A boat was sent to the south-east part of the (outer) bay, and
found fresh water; but it broke through the low shore to the sea, and was
brackish; and the soil was too rocky to dig wells. In the afternoon,
commodore Tasman went, with several officers from both vessels in two
boats, to the south-east extremity of the bay; taking with them the
PRINCE'S flag, and a post upon which was cut a compass, to be erected on
shore. One of the boats was obliged to return, from the bad weather; but
the shallop went to a little cove W. S. W. of the ships. The surf being
there too high to admit of landing, the first carpenter, _Pieter
Jacobsz_, swam on shore with the post and Prince's flag; and set it up
near the last of four remarkable trees, which stood in the form of a
crescent, in the middle of the cove. "When the first carpenter had done
this, in the sight of me ABEL J. TASMAN, of the master _Gerrit Jansz_,
and under-merchant _Abraham Coomans_, we went with the shallop as near as
possible to the shore, and the said carpenter swam back, through the
surf. We then returned on board; and left this as a memorial to the
posterity of the inhabitants of this country. They did not show
themselves; but we suspected some to be not far from thence, watching
carefully our doings."

The wind was from the northward all this day; and at sunset, it blew a
storm. The variation at anchor was observed to be 3° east; the latitude
was 43° south, and longitude 167½° east from Teneriffe.