so8 A V O Y A G E T O W A R D S T H E S O U T H POLE ,
At eight o’clock in the evening of the 6th, being then in
the latitude of 58° 9' South, longitude 530 14' Weft, we clofe-
reefed our top-fails, and hauled to the North, with a very
ftrong gale at Weft, attended with a thick haze and fleet.
The fituation juft mentioned, is nearly the fame that Mr.
Dalrymple afligns for the S. W. point of the Gulph of St,
Sebaftian. But as we faw neither land, nor figns of land, I
was the more doubtful of its exiftence, and was fearful, that
by keeping to the South I might mifs the land faid to be
difcovered by La Roche iii 1675, and by the fhip Lion in
1756, which Mr. Dalrymple places in 74° 30' latitude, ancl
450 of longitude; but on looking over D’Anville’s Chart, I
found it laid down 9° or io° more to the Weft ; this difference
of fituation being to me a fign of the uncertainty of
both accounts, determined me to get into the parallel as foon
as poflible, and was the reafon of my hauling to the North
at this time.
Saturday 7. Towards the morning of the 7th, the gale abated, the
weather cleared up, and the wind veered to the W. S. W.,
where it continued till midnight, after which it veered to
N. W. Being at this time in the latitude of 36° 4'S., longitude
530 36' Weft, we founded, but found no bottom, with a
line of one «hundred and thirty fathoms. I ftill kept the
wind on the larboard-tack, having a gentle breeze and
Sunday 8. pleafant weather. On the 8th, at noon, a bed of fea-weed
palled the fhip. In the afternoon, in the latitude of
550 4', longitude 510 4s' Weft, the variation was go° 4'
Eaft.
Monday g. On the 9th, wind at N. E. attended with thick hazy weather;
faw a feal, and a piece of fea-weed. At noon, latitude
12' S„ longitude 50° 15' Weft, the wind and weather ÊÈ£'
continuing the fame till towards midnight, when the latter — J
cleared up, and the former veered to Weft, and blew a T‘,crday lo'-
gentle gale. We continued to ply till two o’clock the next
morning, when we bore away Eaft, and at eight, E. N. E.; at
noon, obferved in latitude 540 35' S., longitude 470 56'Weft,
a great many albatrofles and blue peterels about the fhip. I
now fleered Eaft,. a n d the next morning, in the latitude of Wednef. n.
540 38', longitude 450 10' Weft, the variation was 19° 25'Eaft.
In the afternoon faw feveral penguins, and fome pieces of
weed.
Having fpent the night lying to, on the 12th, at day- Tueflay it;
break, we bore away, and fleered Eaft northerly, with a fine
frefli breeze at W. S. W. ; at noon obferved in latitude 74° 28'
S., longitude in .42° 8' Weft; that is, near 30 Eaft of the fituation
in which Mr. Dalrymple places the N.jE. point of the
Gulph of St. Sebaftian; but we had. no other.figns of land
than feeing a feal and a few penguins ; on the contrary we
had a fwell from E. S.E., which would hardly have been, if
any extenfive track o f land lay in that direction. In the evening
the,gale abated, and at midnight it fell calm.
The calm, attended by a thick fog, continued till fix next
morning, when we got a wind at Eaft, but the fog ftill prej
vailed. We flood to the South till noon, when, being in the
latitude of 550 7', we tacked and ftretched to the: North with
a frefh breeze at E. by S. and E. S. E., cloudy weather ; faw
feveral penguins and a fnow peterel, which we looked on
to be figns of the vicinity of ice. The air too was much
colder than we had felt it fince we left New Zealand.
In the afternoon, the wind veered to S. E., and in the night
V olJ lI. E e to