4f) cook's first voyage JAN. 



the equator : probably there is a small current setting 

 to the westward, which may be caused by the west- 

 erly current coming round Cape Horn, and through 

 the Streight of Le Maire, and the indraught of the 

 Streight of Magellan.* 



Having continued to range the coast, on the 14th 

 we entered the Streight of Le Maire ; but the tide 

 turning against us, drove us out with great violence, 

 and raised such a sea off Cape St. Deigo, that the 

 waves had exactly the same appearance as they 

 would have had if they had broke over a ledge of 

 rocks ; and when the ship was in this torrent, she 

 frequently pitched, so that the bowsprit was under 

 water. About noon, we got under the land between 

 Cape St. Deigo and Cape St. Vincent, where I in- 

 tended to have anchored ; but finding the ground 

 every where hard and rocky, and shallowing from 

 thirty to twelve fathoms, I sent the master to examine 

 a little cove which lay at a small distance to the east- 

 ward of Cape St. Vincent. When he returned, he 

 reported that there was anchorage in four fathom, 

 and a good bottom, close to the eastward, of the first 

 bluff point, on the east of Cape St. Vincent, at the 

 very entrance of the cove, to which I gave the name 

 of Vincent's Bay : before this anchoring ground, 

 however, lay several rocky ledges, that were covered 

 with sea-weed ; but I was told that there was not 

 less than eight and nine fathom over all of them. 

 It will probably be thought strange, that where 

 weeds, which grow at the bottom, appear above the 

 surface, there should be this depth of water ; but the 

 weeds which grow upon rocky ground in these coun- 



* The celebrated navigator who discovered this streight was a 

 native of Portugal, and his name, in the language of his country, 

 was Fernando de Magalhaens ; the Spaniards call him Hernando 

 Magalhanes, and the French Magellan^ which is the orthography 

 that has been generally adopted : a gentleman, the fifth in descent 

 from this great adventurer, is now living in or near London, and 

 communicated the true name of his ancestor to Mr. Banks, with a 

 request that it might be inserted in this work. 



