1767. April.

Thurid, 2.

This day two canoes came on board, with four men and three young children in each. The men were fomewhat more decently dreffed than those that we had feen before, but the children were ftark naked. They were fomewhat fairer than, the men, who seemed to pay a very tender attention to them, especially in lifting them in and out of the canoes. To these young vifitors I gave necklaces and bracelets, with which they feemed mightily pleased. It happened that while fome of these people were on board, and the reft waiting in their canoes by the ship's side, the boat was fent on fhore for wood and water. The Indians who were in the canoes, kept their eyes fixed upon the boat while she was manning, and the moment she put off from the fhip, they called out with great vociferation to thofe that were on board, who feemed to be much alarmed, and haftily handing down the children, leaped into their canoes, without uttering a word. None of us could guess at the cause of this fudden emotion, but we faw the men in the canoes pull after the boat with all their might, hallooing and shouting with great appearance of perturbation and distress. The boat outrowed them, and when she came near the fhore, the people on board discovered some women gathering muffels among the rocks. This at once explained the mystery; the poor Indians were afraid that the strangers, either by force or favour, should violate the prerogative of a husband, of which they seemed to be more jealous than the natives of fome other countries, who in their ap

pearance

April.

pearance are less savage and fordid. Our people, 1767.. to make them eafy, immediately lay upon their oars, and suffered the canoes to pass them. The Thurid 2. Indians, however, ftill continued to call out to their women, till they took the alarm and ran out of fight, and as foon as they got to land, drew their canoes upon the beach, and followed them with the utmost expedition.

We continued daily to gather muffels till the Sunday 5, 5th, when feveral of the people being feized with fluxes, the furgeon defired that no inore muffels might be brought into the fhip.

The weather being ftill tempestuous and un- Friday 10. fettled, we remained at anchor till 10 o'clock in the morning of Friday the 10th, and then, in company with the Swallow, we made fail. At noon, Cape Providence bore N. N. W. diftanɛ four or five miles; at four in the afternoon Cape Tamar bore N. W. by W. W. diftant three leagues, Cape Upright E. S. E. S, diftant three leagues, and Cape Pillar W. diftant 10 leagues. We fteered about W. N. all night, and at six o'clock

I

2

52

in the morning, had run eight and thirty miles by Saturd. 15.

the log. At this time diftant half a mile, and

Cape Pillar bore S. W.
the Swallow was about
At this time there being

three miles a-ftern of us.
but little wind, we were obliged to make all the
fail we could, to get without the Streight's mouth.
At 11 o'clock I would have fhortened fail for the
Swallow, but it was not in my power, for as a
current fet us strongly down upon the Iles of Di-
rection, and the wind came to the west, it became
VOL. I.
abfolutely

April.

1767 abfolutely neceffary for me to carry fail, that I might clear them. Soon after we loft fight of the Satard. 11. Swallow, and never faw her afterwards. At first I was inclined to have gone back into the Streight, but a fog coming on, and the fea rifing very faft, we were all of opinion that it was indifpenfably neceffary to get an offing as foon as poffible; for except we preffed the fhip with fail, before the fea rose too high, it would be impracticable either to weather Terra del Fuego on one tack, or Cape Victory on the other. At noon, the Islands of Direction bore N. 21 W. diftant three leagues, Saint Paul's cupola and Cape Victory in one, N, distant seven leagues, and Cape Pillar E. distant fix leagues.

Our latitude, by obfervation, was 52° 38', and, we computed our longitude to be 76° W,

Thus we quitted a dreary and inhospitable region, where we were in almoft perpetual danger of shipwreck for near four months, having entered the Streight on the 17th of December 1766, and quitted it on the 11th of April 1767; a region. where, in the midft of fummer, the weather was cold, gloomy, and tempeftuous, where the prospects had more the appearance of a chaos than of Nature, and where, for the most part, the vallies were without herbage, and the hills without wood.

CHAP.

CHA P. III.

A particular Account of the Places in which we anchored during our Paffage through. the Streight, and of the Shoals and Rocks that lie near them.

H

AVING cleared the Streight, we fteered.

a western courfe, But before I continue the narrative of our voyage, I fhall give a more particu lar account of the several places where we anchored, plans of which are depofited in the Admiralty Office for the ufe of future navigators, with the fhoals and rocks that lie near them, the latitude, longitude, tides, and variation of the compafs.

I. CAPE VIRGIN MARY. The bay under this Cape is a good harbour, when the wind, is wefterly. There is a fhoal lying off the Cape, but that may easily be known by the rock weed that grows upon it: the Cape is a steep white cliff, not unlike the South Foreland. Its latitude, by obfervation, is 52° 24′ S. and its longitude, by account, 68° 22′ W. The variation of the needle, by the medium of five azimuths and one amplitude, was 24° 30' E. In this place we faw no appearance either of wood or water. We anchored in 10 fathom, with coarfe fandy ground, about a mile from the shore, Cape Virgin Mary bearing N. by W. W. diftant about two miles, and Dungeness

Dungeness Point S. S. W. diftant four miles. We anchored here on the 17th of December, and failed the next day. There is good landing, on a fine sandy beach, all along the shore.

II. POSSESSION BAY. In failing into this bay, it is neceffary to give the point a good birth, because there is a reef that runs right off it about a short mile. The foundings are very irregular all over the bay, but the ground is every where a fine foft mud and clay, so that the cables can come to no damage. The Point lies in latitude 52° 23′ S., longitude, by account, 68° 57'. W. the variation is two points easterly. In the bay the tide rifes and falls between four and five fathom, and runs at the rate of about a mile an hour; in the mid-channel without the bay, it runs nearly three miles an hour. In this place we saw no appearance either of wood or water. The landing appeared to be good, but we did not go on fhore. We anchored here on the 19th of December, and failed again on the 22d.

III. PORT FAMINE. At this place, the Spaniards, in the year 1581, built a town, which they called Phillippeville, and left in it a colony, confifting of 400 perfons. When our celebrated navigator, Cavendish, arrived here in 1587, he found one of these unhappy wretches, the only one that remained, upon the beach: they had all perished for want of fubfiftence, except twenty-four; twenty-three of these fet out for the river Plata, and were never afterwards heard of. This man, whose name was Hernando, was brought to Eng.

land