AugiS doubtful. At funfet the northermoft part of it that
«------ was in fight bore from us N. by K. and was two or thrfce
vWednef. i c. , . .
leagues diftant; this however being the beft tack to'clear it,
we kept Handing to the northward with all the fail we could
fet till midnight; when, being afraid of Handing too f ir in
this direction, we tacked and flood to the fouthward, our rtih
from funfet to this time being fix leagues N. and N. by E.
When we had flood about two mites S.'S; £. it fell calm • We
had founded feveral times during the night, but had no bottom
with one hundred and forty fathom, neither had We
any ground now with the fame length of line1;’ yet, about
■ ®Mflayi«.-,four in the mornings we plainly heird the roaring of the
furf,. and at break of day faw it foaming to a vaft height, it
not more than a mile’s diftance. Our diftrefs now returned
upon us with double force; the waves which rolled in upon
‘the reef, carried us towards it very fa ll; we could reach no
ground with an anchor, and had not a breath of wind for
the fail. In this dreadful fituation, no refource was left us
but the boats; and to aggravate our misfortune the pinnace
was under repair: the longboat and yawl however were put
into the water, and fent ahead to tow, which, by the help of
■ our fwceps abaft, got the fliip’s head round to the northward;
which, if it could not prevent our deftruCtion, might
nt leaft delay it. But it was fix o’clock before this was effected,
and we were not then a hundred yards from the
rock upon which the fame billow which wafhed the
fide of the fhip, broke to a tremendous height the' very
next time it rofe ; fo that between us and deftrudlion there
was only a dreary valley, no wider than the bafe of one
wave, and even now the fea under us was unfathomable, at
leaft no bottom was to be found with a hundred and twenty
fathom. During this fcene of diftrefs the carpenter had
found means to patch up the pinnace; fo that fhe was
hoifted
hoifted out, and fent ahead, in aid of the other boats, to tow; »77°.
but all our efforts would have been ineffectual, if, juft at ■ A-,s- ‘S
this crifis of our fate, a light air of wind had not fprung up, Tturfday ,5'
fo light, that at any other time-we Ihould not have obferved
it, hut which was enough to -turn the ,-fcale in our favour,
and, in conjunction with the afliftanee which was afforded
us by the boats, to give the fhip a perceptible motion obliquely
from the reef. Our hopes now revived; but in lefs
than ten minutes it was again a dead calm, and the fhip
was again driven towards the breakers, which were not
pow two hundred yards diftant. The fame light breeze
however returned before we had loft all the ground it had
enabled us to gain, and lafted about ten minutes more.
During this time we difcovered a fmall opening in the reef,
at about the diftance of a quarter of a mile: I immediately
fent one of the Mates to examine it, who reported that its
breadth was not more than the. length of the fhip, but that
within it there was fmooth water; this difcovery feemed to
render our efcape poflible, and that was all, by pufhing the
fhip through the opening, which was immediately attempted.
It was uncertain indeed whether we could reach
it; but if we fhould fucceed thus far, we made no doubt of
being able to get through: in this however we were difap-
pointed, for having reached it by the joint afliftanee of our
boats and the breeze, we found that in the mean time it had
become high water, and to our great furprize we met the
tide of ebb ruffling out of it like a mill-ftream. We gained
however fome advantage, though in a manner direCtly contrary
to our expectations; we found it impoflible to go
through the opening, but the ftream that prevented us, carried
us out about a quarter of a mile; it was too narrow for
us to keep in it longer; yet this tide of ebb fo much alfifted
the boats that by noon we had got an offing of near two
Vo l. III. C c miles.