December P°*nt harbour, his anchor having ftarted before they
> < had time to fliorten in the cable. This obliged them to fet
fail, and drag the anchor after them, till they had room to
heave it up; and then they found one of its palms was
broken off.
As foon as we had anchored, I ordered all the boats to be
hoifled out; the fliip to be moored with a kedge anchor;
and the water-caiks to be got ready to fend on ihore.
In the mean time I landed, to look for the moft convenient
fpoc where they might be filled, and to fee what elfe the
place afforded.
I found the ihore, in a manner, covered with penguins
and other birds, and feals. Thefe latter were not numerous,
but fo infenfible of fear (which plainly indicated that
they were unaccuftomed to fuch vifiters), that we killed as
many as we chofe, for the fake of their fat or blubber, to
make oil for our lamps? and other ufes. Freih water Was
in no lefs plenty than were birds; for' every gully afforded
a large ftream. But not a fingle tree or ilirub, nor the leaft
fign of any, was to be difcovered, and but very little herbage
of any fort. The appearances, as we failed into the
harbour, had flattered us with the hope of meeting with
fomething confiderable growing here, as we obferved the
fides of many of the hills to be of a lively green. But I now
found that this was -occafioned by a fingle plant, which,
with the other natural productions, ihall be defcribed in
another place. Before I returned to my fhip, I afcended
the firft ridge of rocks, which rife in a kind of amphitheatre
above one another. I was in hopes,- by this means of
obtaining a view of the country; but before I reached the
top, there came on fo thick a fog, that I could hardly find
3 my
my way down again. In the evening, we hauled the feine
at the head o f the harbour, but caught only balf a dozen
fmall fifh. We had no better fuccefs next day, when we
tried with hook and line. So that our only refource here,
for freih provifions; were birds, of which there was an in-
exhauftible ftore.
The morning of the 26th proved foggy, with rain. However,
we went to work to fill water, and to cut grafs for our
cattle, which we found in fmall fpots near the head of the
harbour. The rain which fell, fwelled all the rivulets to
fuch a degree, that the fides o f the hills, bounding the harbour,
feemed to be covered with a fheet of water. For the
rain, as it fell, run into the fiflures and crags of the rocks
that compofed the interior parts of the hills, and was precipitated
down their fides in prodigious torrents.
The people having wrought hard the two preceding days,
and nearly completed our water, which we filled from a
brook at the left corner o f the beach, I allowed them the
27th as a day of reft, to celebrate Chriftmas. Upon this indulgence,
many of them went on ihore, and made excur-
fions, in different directions, into the country, which they
found barren and defolate in the higheft degree. In the
evening, one of them brought to me a quart bottle which
he had found, faftened with fome wire to a projecting rock
on the North fide of the harbour. This bottle contained a
piece of parchment, on which was written the following
infcription:
17 76.
December.
Thurfday 26»
briday 27.
Ludamm