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we founded every part of it with great care, as high as
a fhip could go, and found that there is no danger but
what may be seen at low water; fo that now fresh wa-
ter is found, though at some distance from the beach,
it would be a very convenient place for fhips to touch
at, if it were not for the rapidity of the tide. The
country about the bay abounds with guanicoes, and a
great variety of wild fowl, particularly ducks, geese,
widgeon, and fea-pies, befides many others for which
we have no name. Here is also fuch plenty of excel-
lent muscles, that a boat may be loaded with them
every time it is low water.
Wood indeed is scarce;

however in fome parts of this coaft there are bushes,
which in a cafe of neceffity might produce a tolerable
fupply of fuel.

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On Wednesday the 5th of December, I unmoored, Wednef. 4in order to get out, but the best bower came up foul, and before we could heave short upon the small bower, the tide of ebb made ftrong; for at this place flack water fcarcely continues ten minutes; fo that we were obliged to wait till it fhould be low water. Between

five and fix in the evening, we weighed, and steered out E. N. F. with a fresh gale at N. N. W.

CHA P. III.

Courfe from Port Defire, in Search of Pepy's Island, and afterwards to the Coaft of Patagonia, with a Defcription of the Inhabitants.

A

S foon as we were out of the bay, we steered for Pepy's Ifland, which is said to lie in latitude 47° S. Our latitude was now 47° 22' S. longitude 65° 49′ W. Port Defire bore S. 66 W. diftant twentythree leagues; and Pepy's Ifland, according to Halley's Chart, E. & N. diftant thirty four leagues. The variation here was 19° E.

We continued our courfe the next day with a pleafant gale and fine weather, fo that we began to think Thursd. 6. that this part of the world was not wholly without a fummer. On the 7th, I found myfelf much farther VOL. I.

C

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Friday 7.

1764. December

to the northward than I expected, and therefore fup pofed the ship's way had been influenced by a current. I had now made eighty degrees eafting, which is the dif tance from the main at which Pepy's Ifland is placed in Halley's chart, but unhappily we have no certain account of the place. The only person who pretends to have feen it, is Cowley, the account of whofe voyage is now before me; and all he fays of its fituation is, that it lies in latitude 47 S. for he fays nothing of its longitude: he fays indeed that it has a fine harbour; but he adds, that the wind blew fo hard he could not get into it, and that he therefore flood away to the fouthward. At this time I alfo was fteering fouthward; for the weather being extremely fine, I could fee very far to the northward of the fituation in which it is laid down. As I fuppofed it 'muft lie to the eastward of us, if indeed it had any exiftence, I made the Tamar's fignal to spread early in the afternoon; and as the weather continued to be very elear, we could fee, between us, at least twenty leagues. We steered S. E. by the Saturday S. compafs, and at night brought to, being by my account in latitude 47° 18′ S. The next morning it blew very hard at N. W. by N. and I ftill thought the island might lie to the eastward; I therefore intended to ftand about thirty leagues that way, and ifI found no ifland, to return into the latitude of 47 again. But a hard gale coming on, with a great fea, I brought to about fix o'clock in the evening under the main-fail, Sunday 9. and at fix o'clock the next morning, the wind being at W. S. W. we made fail again under our courfes to the northward. I now judged myself to be about fixteen leagues to the caftward of the track I had run before: Port Defire bore S. 80° 53' W. diftant ninety-four leagues; and in this fituation I faw a great quantity of rockweed, and many birds. birds. We continued to stand to Monday 10. the northward the next day under our courfes, with a hard gale from S. W. to N. W. and a great fea. At night, being in latitude 460 50' S. I wore fhip, and flood in to the weftward again, our fhips having fpread every day as far as they could be feen by each other: and on the 11th at noon, being now certain that there could be no fuch iiland as is mentioned by Cowley, and laid down by Halley under the name of Pepy's ifland, I refolved to ftand in for the main, and take in

Twefday.

wood

1764.

December.

wood and water, of which both ships were in great want, at the first convenient place I could find, efpecially at the season was advancing very faft, and we had no time to lose. From this time we continued to haul in for the land as the winds would permit, and kept a look-out for the islands of Sebald de Wert, which, by all the charts we had on board, could not be far from our track: a great number of birds were every day about the fhip, and large whales were continually fwimming by her. The weather in general was fine, but very cold, and we all agreed, notwithstanding the hope we had once formed, that the only difference between the middle of fummer here, and the middle of winter in England, lies in the length of the days. On Saturday the 15th, being in latitude 50° 33' S. lon- Saturd. 15. gitude 66° 59′ W. we were overtaken about fix in the evening by the hardest gale at S. W. that I was ever in, with a fea ftill higher than any I had feen in going round Cape Horn with Lord Anfon: I expected every moment that it would fill us, our ship being much too deep waisted for fuch a voyage: it would have been fafeft to put before it under our bare poles, but our stock of fresh water was not sufficient, and I was afraid of being driven so far off the land as not to be able to recover it before the whole was exhaufted; we therefore lay to under a balanced mizen, and fhipped many heavy feas, though we found our fkreen bulk-heads of infinite fervice.

The ftorm continued with unabated violence the whole night, but, about eight in the morning, began Sunday 16. to fubfide. At ten, we made fail under our courses, and continued to fteer for the land till Tuesday the 18th, Tuesday 18. when, at four in the morning, we faw it from the masthead. Our latitude was now 51° 8' S. our longitude 710 4 W. and Cape Virgin Mary, the north entrance of the ftreight of Magellan, bore S. 19° 50' W. diftant nineteen leagues. As we had little or no wind, we could not get in with the land this day; the next-morn- Wedn. 194 ing, however, it being northerly, I stood into a deep bay, at the bottom of which there appeared to be a harbour, but I found it barred, the fea breaking quite from one fide of it to the other; and at low water I could perceive that it was rocky, and all dry: the water C 2

was

1764. December.

Thurfd. 20.

Friday 21.

was fhoal at a good diftance from it, and I was in fix fathom before I ftood out again. In this place there feemed to be plenty of fish, and we faw many porpoifes fwimming after them, that were as white as fnow, with black spots, a very uncommon and beautiful fight. The land here has the fame appearance as about Port Defire, all downs, without a fingle tree.

At break of day, on the 20th, we were off Cape Fair-weather, which bore about Weft at the distance of four leagues, and we had here but thirteen fathom water, fo that it appears neceffary to give that Cape a good birth. From this place I ran clofe in fhore to Cape Virgin Mary, but I found the coast to lie S. S. E. very different from Sir John Narborough's defcription, and a long fpit of fand running to the fouthward of the Cape for above a league: in the evening I worked up clofe to this fpit of fand, having feen many guanicoes feeding in the valleys as we went along, and a great fmoke all the afternoon, about four or five leagues up the ftreight, upon the north fhore. At this place I came to an anchor in fifteen fathom water, but the Tamar was fo far to leeward, that she could not fetch the anchoring ground, and therefore kept under way all night.

The next morning, at day-break, I got again under fail, and feeing the fame fmoke that I had obferved the day before, I ftood in for it, and anchored about two miles from the fhore. This is the place where the crew of the Wager, as they were paffing the ftreight in their boat, after the lofs of the veffel, faw a number of horfemen, who waved what appeared to be white handkerchiefs, inviting them to come on fhore, which they were very defirous to have done, but it blew fo hard that they were obliged to ftand out to fea. Bulkely, the Gunner, of the Wager, who has published some account of her voyage, fays, that they were in doubt whether thefe people were Europeans who had been fhipwrecked upon the coaft, or native inhabitants of the country about the river Gallagoes. Juft as we came to an anchor, I faw with my glafs exactly what was feen by the people in the Wager, a number of horfemen riding backward and forward, directly a-breast of the fhip, and waving fomewhat white, as an invitation

to

December.

to us to come on fhore. As I was very defirous 1764. to know what these people were, I ordered out my twelve-oar'd boat, and went towards the beach, with Mr. Marshall, my fecond Lieutenant, and a party of men, very well armed; Mr. Cumming, my first Lieutenant, following in the fix-oar'd cutter. When we came within a little diftance of the fhore, we faw, as near as I can guefs, about five hundred people, fome on foot, but the greater part on horfeback; they drew up upon a floney fpit, which ran a good way into the fea, and upon which it was very bad landing, for the water was shallow, and the ftones very large. The people on shore kept waving and hallooing, which, as we understood, were invitations to land; I could not perceive that they had any weapons among them, however I made figns that they fhould retire to a little diftance, with which they immediately complied; they continued to fhout with great vociferation, and in a fhort time we landed, though not without great difficulty, most of the boat's crew being up to the middle in water. I drew up my people upon the beach, with my officers at their head, and gave orders that none of them fhould move from that ftation, till I fhould either call or beckon to them. I then went forward alone towards the Indiants; but perceiving that they retired as I advanced, I made figns that one of them fhould come near as it happened, my fignals were understood, and one of them, who afterwards appeared to be a Chief, came towards me; he was of a gigantic ftature, and feemed to realize the tales of monsters in a human fhape; he had the fkin of fome wild beaft thrown over his fhoulders, as a Scotch Highlander wears his plaid, and was painted fo as to make the most hideous appearance I ever beheld: round one eye was a large circle of white, a circle of black furrounded the other, and the reft of his face was freaked with a paint of different colours; I did not measure him, but if I may judge of his height by the proportion of his ftature to my own, it could not be much less than feven feet. When this frightful Coloffus came up, we muttered fomewhat to each other as a falutation, and I then walked with him towards his companions, to whom, as I advanced, I made figns that they should fit down,

and

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