I ;«y. fine fleady g a k fprungup at S. E. to which I fpread all the
.. ■ fail that it was pöffible for the fhip to bear, and ran off
Twfdayg. f rom th is frightful and defolate coaft at the rate o f nine
miles an hour; fo that by eight o’clock in the evening we
had left it twenty leagues behind us. And now to make the
fhip as ftiff as poffible, I knocked down our after-bulk-head,
and got two of the boats under the half-deck, I alfo placed
my twelve oared cutter under the boom ; fo that we had nothing
upon the fkids but the jolly boat; and the alteration
which this made in the veiled is inconceivable: fdr the
weight o f the boats upon the fkids made her. crank, and in
a great fea they were alfo in danger o f being loft. >
It is probable, that whoever fhall read this account o f the
difficulties and dangers which attended our paffage through
the Streight of Magellan,' wijl conclude,' that it ought never
fo be attempted again ; but that all fhips which fhall !hëre-
after fail a weftern courfe from ‘Europe into the ïouth Seas
Ought to go round Cape Horn. I, however, who have been
twice round Cape Horn, am o f a different opinion. I think
that at a proper feafon o f the year, not only a fingle veffel,
but a large fquadron might pafs the Streight in lefs than
three we eks; and I think, to take the proper feafon, they
fhould be at the eaftem entrance fome time in the month o f
December. One great advantage o f this paffage, is the facility
with which fifh is almoft every where.to be procured,
with wild celery, feurvy-grafs, berries, and many other
vegetables in great abundance; for to this I impute the
healthinefs o f my fhip’s company, not a fingle man being
affedted with the feurvy in the flighted degree, nor upon
the fick lift for any other diforder, notwithftanding thè
hardfhip and labour which they endured in the paffage,
which coft us feven weeks and two days, as we entered
the
the Streight on Sunday the 17th o f February, and quitted it 1765-
on Tuefday the 9th o f April. Wood and water are alfo to 1 ..pr1‘ ■
be procured almoft at every anchoring-place beyond Frefh Taca^
Water Bay. Our fufferings I impute wholly to our paffing
the Streight juft as the fun approached the equinox, when,
in this high latitude, the worft weather was to be expefted
and indeed the weather we had was dreadful beyond all de-
feription.
C H A P .