177^. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 315 



weather, and the wind between S.S.E. and S.W., I 

 continued the same course till the 30th, at four in the 

 morning, when I steered N. by W., in order to make 

 the land. I regretted very much indeed that I could 

 not do it sooner, for this obvious reason, that we were 

 now passing the place where geographers * have 

 placed the pretended strait of Admiral de Fonte. For 

 my own part, I give no credit to such vague and im- 

 probable stories, that carry their own confutation 

 along with them. Nevertheless, I was very desirous 

 of keeping the American coast aboard, in order to 

 clear up this point beyond dispute. But it would 

 have been highly imprudent in me to have engaged 

 with the land in weather so exceedingly tempestuous, 

 or to have lost the advantage of a fair wind by wait- 

 ing for better weather. The same day at noon we 

 were in the latitude of 53 %%', and in the longitude 

 of 225 14'. 



The next morning, being the first of May, seeing 

 nothing of the land, I steered north-easterly, with a 

 fresh breeze at S.S.E. and S., with squalls and 

 showers of rain and hail. Our latitude at noon was 

 54 43', and our longitude 224 44'. At seven in 

 the evening, being in the latitude of 55 20\ we got 

 sight of the land, extending from N.N. E. to E., or 

 E. by S., about twelve or fourteen leagues distant. 

 An hour after I steered N. by W., and at four the 

 next morning, the coast was seen from N. by W. to 

 S. E., the nearest part about six leagues distant.! 



* See De Lisle's Carte Generate des Decouvertes de V Amiral de 

 Fonte, &c. Paris, 1752 ; and many other maps. 



j- This must be very near that part of the American coast, where 

 Tscherikow anchored in 1741. For Muller places its latitude in 

 56. Had this Russian navigator been so fortunate as to proceed 

 a little farther northward along the coast, he would have found, as 

 we now learn from Captain Cook, bays, and harbours, and islands, 

 where his ship might have been sheltered, and his people protected 

 in landing. For the particulars of the misfortunes he met with 

 here, two boats crews, which he sent ashore, having never returned, 

 probably cut off by the natives, see Midler s Decouvertes des Russes, 

 p. 24-8. 254. The Spaniards, in 1775, found two good harbours on 



