histogram in 2d

[Robert Macy]

Is there a program that yields a 2 dimensional histogram,
like the vector histogram hist.m, but in two dimensions?

I have 27,000 datapoints of x, y

>> size(datapoints)
rows = 27000
columns = 2

where datapoints(:,1) are all the x values and 
datapoints(:,2) are all the y values

for this example x and y are equal range centered on zero.

I want to obtain the histogram of these datapoints.

The program I wrote, I can't find fault with but keeps
yielding strange patterns where there should be even
distribution.  

Did I miss one in the manual, or does anybody have a
program like this?

Keep in mind that I'm using octave 2.1.50a so that I can
keep the excellent speed and plotting capaiblities to show
the results.  

Robert