164 COOK S VOYAGE TO APRIL, 



to be observed, that no one has ever yet been able to 

 find who John de Gama was, when he lived, or what 

 year this pretended discovery w r as made. 



According to Mr. Muller, the first account of it 

 given to the public was in a chart published by 

 Texeira, a Portuguese geographer, in 1649, who 

 places it in ten or twelve degrees to the north-east of 

 Japan, between the latitudes of 44° and 45° ; and 

 announces it to be land seen by John de Gama, the 

 Indian, in a voyage from China to New Spain. On 

 what grounds the French geographers have since 

 removed it rive degrees to the eastward, does not 

 appear ; except we suppose it to have been in order 

 to make room for another discovery of the same kind 

 made by the Dutch, called Company 9 s Land; of 

 which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 



During the whole day, the wind was exceedingly 

 unsettled, being seldom steady to two or three points; 

 and blowing in fresh gusts, which were succeeded by 

 dead calms. These were not unpromising appear- 

 ances ; but, after standing off and on, the w r hole of 

 this day, without seeing any thing of the land, we 

 again steered to the northward, not thinking it worth 

 our while to lose time in search of an object, the 

 opinion of whose existence had been already pretty 

 generally exploded. Our people were employed the 

 whole of the 16th, in getting their wet things to dry, 

 and in airing the ships below. 



We now began to feel very sharply the increasing 

 inclemency of the northern climate. In the morning 

 of the 18th, our latitude being 45° 40', and our lon- 

 gitude 160° 25', we had snow and sleet, accompanied 

 with strong gales from the south-west. This circum- 

 stance will appear very remarkable, if we consider 

 the season of the year, and the quarter from which 

 the wind blew. On the 19th, the thermometer, in 

 the day-time, remained at the freezing point, and at 

 four in the morning fell to 29°. If the reader will 



