Having furnished ourselves with wood and water, and let down our guns and lumber below deck, to be better prepared for the high gales which we expected in going round Cape Horn; on the 21st of January, 1769, we weighed anchor, and left the Bay of Good Success, and proceeded on our voyage through the Straits of Le Maire, which are formed by Cape Antonio on Staten-land, and Cape Vincent on Terra del Fuego to the north; and on the south by Cape Bartholomew on Staten-land, and a high promontory on Terra del Fuego, passing between them, and are about nine leagues long, and seven broad.
The land on both sides, particularly Staten-land, affords a most dismal prospect, being made up chiefly of barren rocks and tremendous precipices, covered with snow, and uninhabited, forming one of those natural views which human nature can scarce behold without shuddering. — How amazingly diversified are the works of the Deity within the narrow limits of this globe we inhabit, which, compared with the vast aggregate of systems that compose the universe, appears but a dark speck in the creation! A curiosity, perhaps, equal to Solomon’s, though accompanied with lets wisdom than was possessed by the Royal Philosopher, induced some of us to quit our native land, to investigate the heavenly bodies minutely in distant regions, as well as to trace the signatures of the Supreme Power and Intelligence throughout several species of animals, and different genera of plants in the vegetable system, "from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth. out of the wall:" and the more we investigate, the more we ought to admire the power, wisdom, and goodness, of the Great Superintendant of the universe; which attributes are amply displayed throughout all his works; the smallest object, seen, through the microscope, declares its origin to be divine, as well as those larger ones which the unassisted eye is capable of contemplating; but to proceed [1].