1772. July.
Monday 13.
flop to our projects *. We {hall, in the courfe of this
hiftory, find frequent inftances of impending deftrudlion,
where all human help would have been ineffectual, if our
better fortune had not prevailed under the fuperior dirediion
of h i m , without whofe knowledge not a fingle hair falls
from our heads. We are ever ready to give due applaufe
and do full juftice to the great {kill and good conduft of
our able circumnavigators, but we cannot avoid attributing
every thing to its proper fource, and that efpecially to
a higher power, which human art, though aided by effrontery
and irreligion, dares not vindicate to itfelf,
Early on Monday the 13 th, we fet fail from Plymouth
Sound, in company with the Adventure; I turned a parting
look on the fertile hills of England, and gave way ta
the natural emotions of affedtion which that profpedt
awakened; till the beauty of the morning, and the novelty
of gliding through the fmooth water attracted my
attention, and difperfed the gloominefs of former ideas.
We foon palled by Eddiflone lighthoufe, a lofty and well-
contrived tower, which is of the greateft advantage to navigation
and commerce. It was impoflible to look at it,
without {huddering with apprehenfions for the lonely
* T h a t it is not uncommon for fliips, under the fame circumftances as the
Refolution iloop, to take confiderable damage, appears from what happened to the
Aldborough, May 19, 1776, which broke from the buoys in the fame manner,
but drove aftore on Drake’ s ifland, and was bulged to pieces.
keepers,
keepers, who are often obliged to pafs three months there, '771' l“1'*'-
deprived of all communication with the main-land. The
fate of Winjlanley, who was really crulhed by the downfall
of a former ftructure, which he himfelf had built on this
rock, and the vibrations of the prefent tower, when winds
and waves affail it, muff; give them ftrong fears of a dreadful
and fudden end.
In proportion as we flood off Ihore; the wind encreafed,
the billows rofe higher, and the veffel rolled violently from
fide to fide. Thofe who were not ufed to the fea, nay
fome of the oldeft mariners, were affefted by the fea-fick-
nefs, in various; degrees of violence; It was of different
duration with different perfons, and after it- had continued
three days amongft us, we found the greateft relief , from;
red port wine mulled, with fpices and ffugar..
On the 20 th, we fell in with Cape Ortegal, on the coaft Monday w.-.
of Gallicia in Spain; the natives call it Orligiiera, and it
was probably the Promontorium Trileucum-of the ancients.
The country hereabouts is hilly ; where the naked rock appears
it is white, and the tops of-the mountains are covered
with wood. I alfo obferved fome.corn-fields almoft ripe, and
fome-fpots which feemed to be covered with heath. The
eagemefs with which every body gazed at this land, powerfully
perfuaded me, that mankind.,were not. meant to be
amphibious animals, and that; o f . courfe our prefent. fituation:;