J u n e ' of our view. The wind now veered to the' N . E . and eaft, and
<— -v— i blew a frefh gale, with which we flood to. the north, in the night to the
Sunday 7. s . E ., and on the following morning-1 to the s. s. e . and fouth, fo that we
were unable to regain the parallel of 45° without, employing more time
than I had now to appropriate to this, examination; being, from the
-extremely bad condition o f our fails and rigging, very anxious to. lofe no
opportunity of making the beft of our way to St. Helena; and for. this
reafon I gave up all further thought of fearching for' Ifla Grande, and
continued our courle towards the n . n . e .
This {hort inveftigation, however, will ferve to fhew that no fuch iliand
exifts in or about the latitude of 45° fouth, between the meridians. 312°
and 315° 20' of eaft. longitude; and that, as I have already mentioned,
Dr. Halley raoft likely determined, the fame point, namely, that there
was no fuch ifland, a degree further to the weflward.
At midnight the Chatham was clofe along fide o f us; but by four o’clock
.Monday s, the next morning flie Was nearly out o f fight a-ftern of the Difcovery, our
mainfail and topgallant-fails were1 therefore taken in to wait for her nearer
approach; atday-ligh’t flie was feeb about, three miles a-ftern, and havingat
this time a fteady frelh gale with fair weather, her fignal was made to make
more fail, and repeated with a gun feveral times until about ten o’clock,
■ when the Chatham neithermaking fail, nor exhibiting ahy reafon indicative
of her wanting afliftance, I concluded that fome caufe of no very ferious
nature had retarded her prog-refs ; and juft as we had fet our ftudding
fails, I had the pleafure to fee heremployed in the fame bufinefs alfo-.
Shortly after noon the wind veered to the s. w . and having increafed
our diftance from the Chatham very confiderably, we fhortened fail to
wait for her coming up, • concluding that Ihe would foon overtake us under
our then reduced quantity of canvas. In thefe expectations however
we were difappointed ; at ten at night,the wind had again frelhened from
the N . N . w . ; we now burnt a- falfe fire to denote our fituation to our
Tuefiby 9. confort, but this- was not anfwered; and by two- the next morning the
wind veered to the weflward, and blew a very ftrong gale, during which,
left we {hould lofe the Chatham, we hauled up the mainfail and clofe-
reefed thetopfails; but as at day-light Ihe was not in fight from the maft-
2 head.
head, and as I did not know in what direction to fearch for her, I could j79snot
but confider .the inferiprity of her failing had at length completed 1----v---->
our reparation, and in the hope that we Ihould meet all well at St.
Helena, our next rendezvous, we made the beft of our way thither;
by continuing our courfe to the,.north-eaftward. The obferved latitude
at noon was 36° 45', longitude according to Arnold’s chronometer No.
14, 324" 43', and the variation of the compafs 6° eaftwardly. The
wind continued to blow very hard at times, attended by heavy rains,
and thick cloudy fqually weather, in which pur fails frequently fplit,
and our topfail-lheets and other elfential parts of the rigging gave way,
until the 20th, when it became more moderate, and in latitude 34° 38' Saturday, so.
fouth, longitude 347010', brought forward by Arnold’s chronometer No.
14, thefhip appeared to have been fet 25 miles of latitude towards the
north, and 34 miles of longitude towards the eaft of the reckoning.
About half paft five o’clock on funday morning, Richard Jones, one S u n d a y
of the feamen, unfortunately fell overboard from the main chains and
was drowned. The accident had no fooner happened than a grating was
thrown overboard, and the fhip was inftantly hove to, for the purpofe of
affording him every afliftance; but this, was to no effeCt, for the poor
fellow funk immediately, and was never more feen. By this melancholy
event the fervice loft a very able feaman, and his comrades a good member
of their fociety. On the following day at noon, in latitude 32° 3' M o n d a y zz-
fouth, longitude 3510 15'; it appeared that the fhip was 9 miles of latitude
to the northward, and 25 miles of longitude to the eaftward of
our reckoning; and that the variation of the compafs by two fets o f
azimuths was now 1 i° 20' weftwardly. The eaftwardly variation feemed
to have ceafed about the 16th of june, as in latitude 35° 43' fouth, longitude
‘23 20 5', it had decreafed to 16', and finee that period the wefterly
variation had been, gradually increafing as we proceeded to the northward.
No circumftances of importance, or fuch as are worthy to be recorded, , •M1’1 .
took place, until about two o’clock in the afternoon of the 2d of july, T h u r f d a y s .
when after experiencing tolerably pleafant weather for the preceding ten
days, the ifland of St. Helena was difeovered bearing by compafs n . by e . ;
about