At five o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 24th, we saw the peak of the Island of Pico bearing N.N.E. at the distance of about eighteen leagues. We found, by observation, that Fyal lies in latitude 38° 20' N. longitude 28° 30' W. from London.

No incident worth recording happened till about noon on the 11th of May, when, being in latitude 48° 44' N. longitude 7° 16' W. we saw a ship in chace of a sloop, at which she fired several guns. We bore away, and at three, fired a gun at the chace, and brought her to; the ship to windward, being near the chace, immediately sent a boat on board her, and soon after, Captain Hammond, of his Majesty's sloop the Savage, came on board of me, and told me that the vessel he had chaced, when he first saw her, was in company with an Irish wherry, and that as soon as they discovered him to be a man of war, they took different ways; the wherry hauled the wind, and the other vessel bore away. That he at first hauled the wind, and stood after the wherry, but finding that he gained no ground, he bore away after the other vessel, which probably would also have escaped, if I had not stopped her, for that be gained very little ground in the chace. She appeared to be laden with tea, brandy, and other goods, from Roscoe in France; and though she was steering a south-west course, pretended to be bound to Bergen in Norway. She belonged to Liverpool, was called the Jenny, and commanded by one Robert Christian. Her brandy and tea were in small kegs and bags; and all appearances being strongly against her, I detained her, in order to be sent to England.

At half an hour after five, on the 13th, we saw the Islands of Scilly; on the 19th, I landed at Hastings in Sussex; and at four the next morning, the ship anchored safely in the Downs, it being just 637 days since her weighing anchor in Plymouth Sound. To this narrative, I have only to add, that the object of the voyage being discovery, it was my constant practice, during the whole time of my navigating those parts of the sea which are not perfectly known, to lie to every night, and make sail only in the day, that nothing might escape me.

Voyaging Accounts