ther, mufter hands enough to work the {hip on an emergency,
though we included the officers, their fervants, and the boys.
The wind being northerly when we firft made the Ifland, we
kept plying all that day, and the next night, in order to get in
with the land ; and, wearing the fhip in the middle, watch, we had
a melancholy inftance o f thealmoft incredible debility o f our
people ; for the Lieutenant could mufter no more than two Quar-
ter-mafters, and fix Fore-maft-men, capable o f working; fo that,
without the affiftance of the officers fervants and the boys, it
might have proved impoffible for us to have reaehed the Ifland,
after we had got fight.of it; and, even with this affiftance, they
were two hours in trimming the fails: to fo wretched a condition
was a fixty-gun fhip reduced, which had paffed Streights Le Maire
but three months before with between four and five hundred'
men, almoft all of them in health and vigour. i;
However, on the toth in the afternoon, we got under the lee
>of the Ifland; and kept;ranging along it, about two miles diftance,
in order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was defcribed
to be in a bay on the North-fide. Being now nearer in with the
ffiore, we could difcover that the broken craggy precipices, which
had appeared fo unpromlfing at a diftance, were far from barren,
being in moft places' covered with woods ; and that between them
there were every where interfperfed the fineft vallies, clothed .with
a moft beautiful verdure, and watered with numerous ftreams and
cafcades; no valley, o f any extent, being unprovided of its proper
rill. The water too, as we afterwards found, was not .inferior to
any we had ever tailed, and was conftantly clear. The afpeft of
this country, -thus diverfified, would, at all times, have been extremely
delightful; but, in our diftreffed fituation, languiffiing as
we were for the land and its vegetable produftions (an inclination
conftantly attending every ftageof thefea-fcurvy), it is fcarcely
credible with what eagernefs and tranfport we viewed the ffiore,
and with how much impatience we longed for the greens, and
other refreffiments, which were then in fight, and particularly the
■ water;
water- for of this we had been confined to a very fparing allowance
a confiderable time, and had then but five ton remaining on
board. Thofe only who have endured a long feries of thirft, and
who can readily recal the defire and agitation which the ideas alone
of ferings and brooks have at that time raifed in them, can judge
o f the emotion with which we eyed a large cafcade of the moft
tranfparent water, which poured itfelf from a rock near a hundred
feet high into the fea, at a fmall diftance from the ffiip. Even
thofe amongft the difeafed, who were not in the very laftftages o f
the diftemper, though they had been long confined to their hammocks
• exerted the fmall remains of ftrength that were left them,,
and crawled up to the deck, to feaft themfelves with this reviving
profpeft Thus we coafted ffie ffiore, fully employed in the contemplation
of this enchanting landlkip, which ftill improved upon
us the farther we advanced. But at laft the night doled upon us,,
before we had latisfied ourfekes which was the proper bay to
anchor in ; and, therefore, we refolved to keep in foundings all
night (we having then from fixty-four to feventy fathom), and to
fend our boat next morning to difcover the road: however, the
current ffiifted in the night, and fet us fo near the land, that we
were obliged to let go the baft bower in fifty-fix fathom, not half
a mile from the ffiore.. A t four in the morning, the Cutter was.
difpatched, with our third Lieutenant, to find out the bay we were
in fearch of, who returned again at noon, with the boat laden with,
feals and grafs ; for though the Ifland abounded with better, vegetables,.
.yet the boat’ s crew, in their ffiort ffay, had not met with,
t hemand they well knew that even grafs would prove a dainty,,
as, indeed, it was all foon and eagerly devoured. The feals too,
were confidered as freffi provifion ; but as yet were not much admired,
though they grew afterwards into more repute : for what
rendered them lefs valuable, at this juncture, was the prodigious
quantity of excellent fiffi, which the people on. board had taken,
during the abience of the boat.