190 cook's SECOND VOYAGE JAN, 



CHAP. V. - 



PROCEEDINGS AFTER LEAVING STATEN ISLAND, WITH AN AC- 

 COUNT OF THE DISCOVERY OF THE ISLE OF GEORGIA, AND 

 A DESCRIPTION OF IT. 



Having left the land in the evening of the 3d, as 

 before mentioned, we saw it again next morning, at 

 three o'clock, bearing W. Wind continued to blow 

 a steady fresh breeze till six P.M. when it shifted in 

 a heavy squall to S. W. which came so suddenly upon 

 us, that we had not time to take in the sails, and was 

 the occasion of carrying away a top-gallant mast, a 

 studding-sail boom, and a fore studding-sail. The 

 squall ended in a heavy shower of rain, but the wind 

 remained at S.W. Our course was S.E. with a view 

 of discovering that extensive coast, laid down by 

 Mr. Dalrymple in his chart, in which is the Gulph 

 of St. Sebastian. I designed to make the western 

 point of that gulph, in order to have all the other 

 parts before me. Indeed, I had some doubt of the 

 existence of such a coast ; and this appeared to me 

 the best route for clearing it up, and for exploring 

 the southern part of this ocean. 



On the 5th, fresh gales, and wet and cloudy 

 weather. At noon observed in o7° 9', longitude 

 made from Cape Saint John, 5° 2' E. At six o'clock, 

 P. M. being in the latitude 57° 21', and in longitude 

 5T 45" W., the variation was 21° 28' E. 



At eight o'clock in the evening of the 6th, being 

 then in the latitude of 58° 9' S. longitude 53° 14' W., 

 we close-reefed our top-sails, and hauled to the north, 

 with a very strong gale at W., attended with a thick 

 haze and sleet. The situation just mentioned is 

 nearly the same that Mr. Dalrymple assigns for the 

 S.W. point of the Gulph of St. Sebastian. But as 

 we saw neither land, nor signs of land, I was the 

 more doubtful of its existence, and was fearful, that 



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