On the 25th, the wood and water being nearly completed, and the ship almost ready for the sea, I ordered every body to go on board, and the sick tents to be brought off; the people being so well recovered, that in the whole ship’s company there were but three men unable to do duty, and happily, since our leaving Batavia, we had lost but three. The next, day, and the day following, the carpenters finished caulking all the out-works, the fore-castle, and the main-deck; we got all our bread on board from the shore, with a considerable quantity of straw, and thirty-four sheep for sea-stores. In the mean time I came on board, and having unmoored, lay waiting for a wind till the evening of Thursday the 3d of March, when a breeze springing up, we got under sail. While we were on shore at Green Point, we had an opportunity of making many celestial observations, by which, we determined Table Bay to lie in latitude 34° 2’ S. longitude, from Greenwich, 18° 8’ E. The variation of the needle, at this place, was 19° 30’ W.

On the 7th, being in latitude 29° 33’ S. longitude, by account, 347° 38’ the ship was eight miles to the Northward of her dead reckoning.

On the 13th, having sailed westward 360 degrees from the meridian of London, we had lost a day; I therefore called the latter part of this day Monday, March 14th.

At six o’clock in the evening, of Wednesday the 16th, we saw the Island of Saint Helena, at the distance of about fourteen leagues; and at one the next morning, brought to. At break of day, we made sail for the island, and at nine, anchored in the bay. The fort saluted us with thirteen guns,

Voyaging Accounts