177® The Difcovery being at fome diftance aftern, I brought
v_ -y-L. > to, till Ihe came up, and then bore away, fleering North
Weft; in w hich direftion I fuppofed the coaft to lie. T h e
wind was at South Eaft, b lew ve ry hard, and in fqualls,
w ith thick h a z y weather. At h a lf paft one in the afternoon,
it b lew a perfect h u rric an e ; fo that I ju d g ed it h ig h ly
dangerous to run any longer before it, and, therefore,
b rou ght the ihips to, with their heads to the Southward,
under the forefails and mizen-ftayfails. At this time, the
Refolution fprun g a leak, which, at firft, alarmed us not a
little. It was 'found to be under the fiarboard b u tto ck ;
where, from the bread-room, w e could both hear and fee
the water ru lh in ; and, Us w e then thought, two feet under
water. But in this we were happily miftaken ; fo r it was
afterward found to be even with the water-line, i f not above
it, when the flrip was upright. It was no fooner difcovered,
than the fifli-room was found to. be fu ll o f water, and the
cafks in it a flo a t; but this was, in a great meafure, ow in g
to the water not finding its w ay to the pumps through the
coals that la y in the bottom o f the room. For after the
water was baled out, w hich employed us till midnight, and
had found its w ay d ireffly from the leak to the pumps, it
appeared that one pump kept it under, which gave us no
fmall fatisfailion. In th e 'e v en in g , the wind veered to the
South, and its fu ry , in fome degree,-eeafed. On this, we
fet the'main-fail, and two topfails clofe-reefed, and ftretched
to the Weftward. But at eleven o’clock, the gale again in-
Creafed, and obliged us to take in the topfails, till five
Tuefday 28. o’clock the next morning, when the ftorm began to abate ;
fo that we could bear to fet them again.-.
The weather now began to clear up ; and, being able to fee
feveral leagues round us, I fleered more to the Northward.
At
A t noon, the latitude, b y obfervation, was 50' i' ; Ion- >77.8.-
gitude 229° 26'*. I now fleered North Weft b y North, w ith Ap«nl~ »
a freih ga le at South South Eaft, and fa ir weather. But
at nine in the evening, it began again to blow hard, and
in fqualls w ith rain. With fuch weather, and the wind between
South South Eaft and South Weft, I continued the
fame courfe till the 30th, at fou r in the morning, when I Thurfday39;
fleered North by Weft, in order to make the land. I re- "
gretted very much indeed that I could not do it fooner, fo r
this obvious reafon, that w e were now palling the place
where geographers f have placed the pretended lirait o f Admiral
de Fonte. F or .my own part, I g iv e no credit to fuch
va gu e and improbable ftories, that carry their own confutation
a long with them. Neverthelefs, I was ve ry defirous
o f k e ep in g the American coaft aboard, in order to clear
up this point beyond difpute. But it would have been h igh ly
imprudent in me, to have engaged with the land in w ea ther
fo exceedingly tcmpeftuoua, or to have loft the advantage
o f a fair wind, b y waiting for better weather. T h is
fame day at noon we were in the latitude o f 53° 22', and in
the longitude o f 225° I I I
T h e next morning, being the rft o f May, feeing nothing o f M
the land, I fleered North Eafterly, with a fre ih b reeze at South Fridar *•'
South Eaft and South, with fqualls and ihowers o f rain
and hail. Our latitude at noon was 54° 43',. and our Ion- ■
gitu d e 224° 44'. At feven in the evening, being in the la titude
o f 550 20', we got fight o f çhe land, extending from
* As in the" remaining, part o f this Volume,, the Latitude and Longitude are very
frequently fet down | the former being-invariably North, and the latter Eaft, the confiant
repetition o f the two words, North ^nd Eajf, has been omitted, to avoid unhe-\
ceftary preciilon.
f See D e Liile ’s Carte Générale des Découvertes de VAmiral de Fonte, & e. Paris*
1752 j and many other Maps,
North,