1767.

July.

Friday 3.

which was most likely to preferve the veffel and the crew; inftead therefore of attempting to return back by the fouth eaft, in which, confidering our condition, and the advanced feafon of the year, it was fcarcely poffible that we should fucceed, I bore away to the northward, that I might get into the trade-wind, keeping ftill in fuch a track as, if the charts were to be trufted, was most likely to bring me to fome island, where the refreshments of which we stood fo much in need might be procured; intending then, if the fhip could be put into a proper condition, to have pursued the voyage to the fouthward, when the fit feafon fhould return, to have attempted farther difcoveries in this track; and, if I fhould discover a continent, and procure a fufficient fupply of provifions there, to keep along the coaft to the fouthward till the fun had croffed the equinoctial, and then, getting into a high fouthern latitude, either have gone weft about to the Cape of Good Hope, or returned to the eastward, and having touched at Falkland's Inlands if neceffary, made the best af my way from thence back to Europe.

When I got into latitude 16° S. and not before, I found the true trade wind; and as we proceeded to the north-west, and the northward, we found the variation increase very faft; for when we had advanced to latitude 18° 15′ S. and were in longitude 80° W. of our depar

ture,

1767.

July,

Sunday 26.

ture, it was 7° 30′ E. We had bad weather, with hard gales, and a great fea from the eastward till the 25th, when being in latitude Saturday 12° 15' S. we faw many birds flying in flocks, and supposed ourselves to be near fome land, particularly feveral islands that are laid down in the charts, and one which was seen by Commodore Byron in 1765, and called the Island of Danger; none of these islands however could we fee. At this time it blew fo hard that, although we went before the wind, we were obliged to reef our top-fails, and the weather was ftill very thick and rainy. The next morning, being in latitude 10° S., longitude 167° W:, we kept nearly in the fame parallel, in hopes to have fallen in with fome of the islands called Solomon's Islands, this being the latitude in which the fouthermoft of them is laid down. We had here the trade-wind ftrong, with violent fqualls and much rain, and continuing our course till Monday the 3d of Auguft, we were Monday 3. then in latitude 10° 18′ S., longitude, by account, 1779 E.; our distance weft from the continent of America about twenty-one hundred leagues, and we were five degrees to the weftward of the fituation of those islands in the charts. It was not our good fortune however to fall in with any land; probably we might pafs near fome, which the thick weather prevented our feeing; for in this run great numbers

of

Auguft.

1767

Auguft.

Monday 3.

of fea-birds were often about the fhip: however, as Commodore Byron in his last voyage failed over the northern limits of that part of the ocean in which the Inlands of Solomon are faid to lie, and as I failed over the fouthern limits without feeing them, there is great reason to conclude that, if there are any fuch islands, their fituation in all our charts is erroneously laid down.

From the latitude 14° S., longitude 163° 46′ W., we had a strong gale from the S. E. which made a great fea after us, and from that time I did not observe the long billows from the fouthward till we got into fatitude 10° 18′ S., longitude 177° 30' E., and then it returned from the S. W. and S. S. W. and we found a current fetting to the fouthward, although a current in the contrary direction had attended us almoft all the way from the Streight of Magellan; I conjectured therefore that here the paffage opened between New Zealand and New HolWednef. 5. land. The variation here was 11° 14′ E. On the 5th, being in latitude 10° S., longitude 175° 44′ E.; the variation was 11° 15′ E.; and on the 8th, in latitude 11° S., longitude 171° 14 E. it was 11° E.

Saturd. 8.

1

2

About this time we found our flock of loglines nearly expended, though we had already converted all our fifhing lines to the fame ufe. I was fome time in great perplexity how to

fupply

supply this defect, but upon a very diligent inquiry found that we had, by chance, a few fathom of thick untarred rope. This, which in our fituation was an ineftimable treasure, I ordered to be untwisted; but as the yarns were found to be too thick for our purpose, it became neceffary to pick them into oakham: and when this was done, the moft difficult part of th work remained; for this oakham could not be spun into yarn, till, by combing, it was brought into hemp, its original ftate. This was not feamen's work, and if it had, we should have been at a loss how to perform it for want of combs; one difficulty therefore arofe upon another, and it was neceffary to make combs, before we could try our skill in making hemp. Upon this trying occafion we were again sensible of the danger to which we were exposed by the want of a forge: neceffity, however, the fruitful mother of invention, fuggefted an expedient. The armourer was fet to work to file nails down to a smooth point, with which we produced a tolerable fuccedaneum for a comb; and one of the quartermasters was found fufficiently skilled in the use of this inftrument to render the oakham so smooth and even, that we contrived to fpin it into yarn, as fine as our coarse implements would admit; and thus we made tolerable log-lines, although we found it much more difficult than to make cordage of our old

cables,

1767.

Auguft.

1767.

Auguft.

cables, after they had been converted into junk, which was an expedient that we had been obliged to practife long before. We had alfo long before used all our fewing fail twine, and if, knowing that the quantity with which I had been fupplied was altogether inadequate to the wants of fuch a voyage, I had not taken the whole quantity that had been put on board to repair the feine into my own cuftody, this defi, ciency might have been fatal to us all.

CHAP.