At half an hour past four in the morning of Thursday the 15th of November, we saw land, which had the appearance of an island about eight or nine leagues long, there being no land in sight either to the northward or southward, though by the charts it should be Cape Saint Helena, which projects from the coast to a considerable distance, and forms two bays, one to the north, and the other to the south. As the weather was very fine, I tacked and stood in for it about ten o’clock; but as there were many sunken rocks at about two leagues distance from it, upon which the sea broke very high, and the wind seemed to be gradually dying away, I tacked again and stood off. The land appeared to be barren and rocky, without either tree or bush: when I was nearest to it I sounded and had forty-five fathom, with black muddy ground. To my great misfortune, my three Lieutenants and the Master were at this time so ill as to be incapable of duty, though the rest of the ship’s company were in good health. Our latitude was 45° 21’S., longitude 63° 2’W.; the variation 19° 41’E.

The next day I shaped my course by the chart in the account of Lord Anson’s voyage, for Cape Blanco. In the evening it blew extremely hard at S.W. by S. so that we brought to for the night under our main sail. In the morning we made sail again, but we had a great sea; and although it

Voyaging Accounts