Cape Pillar to Masasuero
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From the 16th, when we were first driven from our anchoring ground, to this time, we suffered an uninterrupted series of danger, fatigue, and misfortunes. The ship worked and sailed very ill, the weather was dark and tempestuous, with thunder, lightning, and rain, and the boats, which I was obliged to keep always employed, even when we were under sail, to procure us water, were in continual danger of being lost, as well by the hard gales which constantly blew, as by the sudden gusts which frequently rushed upon us with a violence that is scarcely to be conceived. This distress was the more severe as it was unexpected, for I had experienced very different weather in these parts about two years before with Commodore Byron. It has generally been thought, that upon this coast the winds are constantly from the S. to the S.W. though Frazier mentions his having had strong gales and high seas from the N.N.W. and N.W. quarter, which was unhappily my case.
Having once more got my people and boats safe on board, I made sail from this turbulent climate, and thought myself fortunate not to have left any thing behind me except the wood, which our people had cut for firing.
The island of Masafuero lies in latitude 33° 45' S., longitude 80° 46' W. of London. Its situation is west of Juan Fernandes, both being nearly in the same latitude, and by the globe, it is distant about thirty-one leagues. It is very high and mountainous, and at a distance appears like one hill or rock: it is of a triangular form, and about seven or eight leagues in circumference. The south part, which we saw when we first made the island, at the distance of three and twenty leagues, is much the highest: on the north end there are several spots of clear ground, which perhaps might admit of cultivation.
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 553 - 554, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/553.html