1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 229 



heaved it to the bows ; by eight o'clock, we weighed 

 the other anchor, got under sail, and, with a fine 

 breeze at E. N. E., stood to the north-west. At noon, 

 our latitude, by observation, was 10 18' S., longi- 

 tude 219 39' W. At this time we had no land in 

 sight, but about two miles to the southward of us lay 

 a large shoal, upon which the sea broke with great 

 violence, and part of which, I believe, is dry at low 

 water. It extends N. W. and S. E., and is about five 

 leagues in circuit. Our depth of water, from the time 

 we weighed till now, was nine fathom, but it soon 

 shallowed to seven fathom ; and at half an hour after 

 one, having run eleven miles between noon and that 

 time, the boat which was a-head made the signal for 

 shoal water ; we immediately let go an anchor, and 

 brought the ship up with all the sails standing, for 

 the boat having just been relieved, was at but a 

 little distance : upon looking out from the ship, we 

 saw shoal water almost all round us, both wind and 

 tide at the same time setting upon it. The ship was 

 in six fathom, but upon sounding round her, at the 

 distance of half a cable's length, we found scarcely 

 two. This shoal reached from the east, round by the 

 north and west, as far as the south-west, so that there 

 was no way for us to get clear but that which we 

 came. This was another hair's-breadth escape, for it 

 was near high-water, and there run a short cockling 

 sea, which must very soon have bulged the ship if 

 she had struck ; and if her direction had been half 

 a cable's length more either to the right or left, she 

 must have struck before the signal for the shoal was 

 made. The shoals which, like these, lie a fathom or 

 two under water, are the most dangerous of any, for 

 they do not discover themselves till the vessel is just 

 upon them, and then indeed the water looks brown, 

 as if it reflected a dark cloud. Between three and 

 four o'clock, the tide of ebb began to make, and I 

 sent the master to sound to the southward and south- 

 westward, and in the mean time, as the ship tended, 



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