1769- Admiral of this fquadron, who firft difcovered that the land
' , 0f Cape Horn confided of a number o f iflands. The account,
however, which thofe who failed in Hermit’s fleet have
given of thefe parts is extremely defective; and thofe of
Schouton and Le Maire are ftill worfe: it is therefore no
wonder that the charts hitherto publilhed ihould be erroneous,
not only in laying down the land, but in the latitude
and longitude of the places they Contain. I will, however,
venture to aflerr, that the longitude o f few parts of the world
is better ascertained than that of the Streight of Le Maire,
and Cape Horn, in the chart now offered to the public, as
it was laid down by feveral obfervations of the fun and moon,
that were made both by myfelf and Mr. Green.
The variation of the compafs on this coaft I found to be
from 230 to 250 E. except near Barnevelt’s iflands and Cape
Horn, where we found it lefs, and unfettled; probably it is
difturbed here by the land, as Hermit’s fquadron, in this
very place found all their compafles differ from each other.
The declination o f the dipping-needle, when fet up on fhore
in Succefs Bay, was 68° 15’ below the horizon.
Between Streight Le Maire and Cape Horn, we found a
current fetting, generally very ftrong, to the N. E. when we
were in with the fhore; but loft it when we were at the distance
of fifteen or twenty leagues.
Thurfday 26. On the 26th of January, we took our departure from Cape
Horn, which lies in latitude 55* 53' S. longitude (58° 13' W.
The fartheft fouthern latitude that we made was 60° 10',
our longitude was then 740 30' W .; and we found the variation
of the compafs, by the mean of eighteen azimuths, to
be 27“ 9 E. As the weather was frequently calm, Mr. Banks
went out in a fmall boat to fhoot birds, among which were
fome albatroffes and fheerwaters. The albatroffes were observed
\
ferved to be larger than thofe which had been taken north- *5^
ward of the Streight; one of them meaiured ten feet two '---- -----•
inches from the tip of one wing to that of the other, when
they were extended : the fheerwater, on the contrary, is lefs,
and darker coloured on the back. The alhatrofles we Skinned,
and having foaked them in fait water till the morning,
we parboiled them, then throwing away the liquor, ftewed
them in a very little frefh water till they were tender,
and had them ferved up with favoury fauce; thus drefled, the
difh was univerfaUy commended, and we eat o f it very heartily
even when there was frefh pork upon the table.
From a variety of obfervations which were made with
great care, it appeared probable in the higheft degree, that,
from the time o f our leaving the land to the 13th I 0 . of Febru- MFoenbdrauya r1y3..
ary, when we were inlatitude 490 32', and longitude 90” 37',
we had no current to the weft.
At this time we had advanced about 12° to the weftward,
and 3 and 4 to the northward of the Streight of Magellan :
having been juft three and thirty days in coming round the
land of Terra del Fuego, or Cape Horn, from the eaft entrance
of the Streight to this Situation. And though the
doubling of Cape Horn is fo much dreaded, that, in the g e neral
opinion, itis more eligible to pafs through the Streight
of Magellan, we were not once brought under our clofe
reef’d topfails after we left the Streight of Le Maire. The
Dolphin in her laft voyage, which fhe performed at the fame
feafon of the year with ours, was three months in getting
through the Streight of Magellan, exclufive of the time that
She lay in Port Famine; and I am perfuaded, from the winds
we had, that if we had come by that paflage, we ihould not
at this time have been in thefe feas ; that our people would
have been fatigued, and our anchors, cables, fails and rig-
V.01.. IL K ging