p. 6i.
p. 63.
p. 66.
p. 72.
p. 72.
P- 77»
P. 83-'
p. 84.
p. 86.
P* 87-
fage through the Straits.. They perceived that a «range (hip, which they had
firft feen two days before, ihaped the fame courfe they did. They found a few
days after that (he .was a French ihip, full of men, with a great number of
officers on board. On the 25th they left her in a cove near Cape Forward;
cutting wood;'and on their return to England learnt that this veffel was the
Eagle, commanded by Monfieur Bougainville, which had been fent to procure
a fupply of that necefiary article, for their new fettlement at Falkland's Iflands,-
On the 1 ft of March, at the entrance of St. Jerom’s Sound, two or three
canoes came off to them: they were of bark, very ill made, and contained
four men, two women, and a boy; the pooreft wretches they had ever feen.
And on the 14th a boat going on ihore near Cape Upright, they fell in with a
few of the natives, who gave them a dog, and one of the women offered them
a child which was fucking at the breaft.
The winter of this dreary and inhofpitable region, about the middle of March,
fet in at once. The poor feamen, not only fuffered extremely from the
cold, but had fcarcely ever a dry thread about them, there having been for
fome time one Continued ftorm, with impenetrable fogs and inceffant rain.
The Commodore therefore diftributed among the crews, officers and all, ' a
fufficient quantity of thick woollen fluff, called Fearnought, which proved both
comfortable and falutary.
After having been twice within a few leagues of the weftern entrance of the
Straits before the end of March, and as often driven back ten or twelve leagues
by the moft violent hurricanes, on the 9 th of .April they palled Cape pillar,
which, with Cape Viftory on the north fide, forms this entrance; and a fine
fteady gale fpringing up, they crouded every fail to get away as faft as they
could from fo frightful and defolate a coaft.
Having now gained the Pacific Ocean, on the 26th of April they fell in with
the Illand of Mafafuero, and bn the 28th came to an anchor within two cables
length of the north fide of it. The Ihore being rocky and there being a very great
furf the men that went in the boats for wood and water were furnilhed with
cork
cork jackets, which not only afiifted them in fwiinming, but prevented them
from being bruifed againft the rocks: by this afiiftance they got off a confider-
able quantity of both articles. But there was another fpecies of danger againft
which cork jackets afforded 110 defence; for the fea abounded with (harks of an
enormous fize, which, when they fawa.man in the water, would dart into the
very furf to feize him. The people, however, happily efcaped them, though
they were frequently very near.
This iiland, which lies in latitude 330 45* fouth,. and in longitude 80 46 weft,
not far from the Iiland of Juan Fernandez,, is very high, and moftly covered p. 86.
with wood; but fome parts towards the north end feem to have been cleared,
upon which great numbers of goats were feeding, and which had a green and
pleafant appearance. The people that went on ihore killed feveral of the goats, p. 88.
and they were thought equal in flavour to the beft venifon in England. They
found.here alfo great plenty o f fiih of various forts, all excellent in their kind,
and many of them weighed from twenty to thirty pounds each.
On the 30th they failed from hence, and fteered to the northward; which p. 9°3
courfe they continued till the 2d of May, when Commodore Byron gave orders
to fteer to the weft; intending, i f poflible, to make the land which is called
Davis’s Land in the Charts, and is laid down in latitude 270 30’ fouth, and
about 500 leagues weft .of Copiapo, on the coaft of Chili. But on the 9th,
finding little profpeft of getting to the weftward, in the latitude he had firft
propofed, being then in latitude 26° 46’ fouth, longitude 940 45’ weft, and
having a great run to make, he determined to fteer a north' weft courfe till they
got the true trade wind, and then to ftand to the weftward till they Jhould fall in
with Solomon’s Iflands, if any fuch there were, or make fome new difcovery^
They accordingly purfued this courfe; and had feveral iymptoms of land
being near; particularly on the 26th of May, when they faw two large birds P-- 9*+
about the ihip, the colour of which was black, except the neck and the beak,
which were white; they had long wings, and long feathers in their tails; and;
flying heavily, appeared to be of a fpecies that did not go far from ihore:
agreeable to this expe&ation, on the 7th of June, being in latitude 140 5’ fouth;
* G g 2 and