out to their women, till they took the alarm and ran out o f
fight, and as foon as they got to land, drew their canoes
upon the beach, and followed them with the utmoft expedition.
We continued daily to gather mufcles till the 5 th, when
feveral o f the people being ferzed with fluxes, the furgeon
defiredthat no more mufcles might be brought- into the Ihip.
The weather being ftill tempeftuous and unfettled, we remained
at anchor till i o o’clock in the morning of Friday
the i oth, and then, in company with the Swallow, we made
fiuL At noon, Cape Providence bore N. N. W. diftant four
or five miles; at four in the afternoon Cape Tamer bore-
N. W. by W. i W. diftant three leagues, Cape Upright E. S. E.
| S. diftant three leagues, and Cape Pillar W. diftant 10
leagues. We fleered about W.. i N. all night» and at fix
o’clock in the morning, had run eight and thirty miles by
the log. At this time Cape Pillar bore S. W. diftant half a
mile, and the Swallow was about three miles a-ftern of us.
At this time there being 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 ftiortened fail for the
Swallow, but it was not in my power, for as a, eurrentTetus.-
ftrongly down upon the ifles of Direction, and the wind
came to the weft, it became abfolutely neceflary for me to
carry fail, that I might clear them. Soon after we loft fight-
of the S wallow, and never faw her afterwards. At firft I was
inclined: to have gone back into, the Streight, but a fog
coming on, and the fea riling very fall, we were all of opinion
that it was indifpenfibly neceflary to get an offing as
foon as poffible; for- except we preflfed the-fhip with fail, before
the fea rofc too high, it would be impracticable either
to weather Terra del Fuego. on one tack, or Cape Victory on
the
the other. At noon, the Iflands of Direction bore N. 21' W. 1767-
diftant three leagues, Saint Paul’s cupola and Cape Victory e_— — j
in one, N. diftant feven leagues, and Cape Pillar E. diftant Saturday "•
fix leagues.
Our latitude, hy obferv-ation, was 520 38' and we computed
our longitude to.be 76° W.
Thus we quitted a dreary and inhofpitable region, where
we were in almoft perpetual danger o f fhipwreck for near
four months, having entered the Streight on the 17 th of December
1766, and quitted it on the n th o f April 1767; a
region where, in the midft o f fummer, the weather was
cold, gloomy, and, tempeftuous, where the profpecfts had
more the appearance o f a chaos than of Nature, and where, .
for the moft part, the; vallies w.ere without herbage, and the..-
hills without wood»
C H A P .