1780. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 441 



continued in this direction till the middle of July, 

 when it began to set a little to the southward of the 

 west. 



On the 12th of August, we made the western 

 coast of Ireland, and, after a fruitless attempt to get 

 into Port Galway, from whence it was Captain 

 Gore's intention to have sent the journals and maps 

 of our voyage to London, we were obliged, by 

 strong southerly winds, to steer to the northward. 

 Our next object was to put into Lough Swilly ; but 

 the wind continuing in the same quarter, we stood 

 on to the northward of Lewis Island ; and on the 

 22d of August, at eleven in the morning, both ships 

 came to an anchor at Stromness. From hence, I was 

 dispatched by Captain Gore, to acquaint the Board 

 of Admiralty with our arrival ; and on the 4th day 

 of October the ships arrived safe at the Nore, after 

 an absence of four years, two months, and twenty- 

 two days. 



On quitting the Discovery at Stromness, I had the 

 satisfaction of leaving the whole crew in perfect 

 health ; and at the same time, the number of con- 

 valescents on board the Resolution, did not exceed 

 two or three, of whom only one was incapable of 

 service. In the course of our voyage, the Resolution 

 lost but five men by sickness, three of whom were in 

 a precarious state of health at our departure from 

 England; the Discovery did not lose a man. An 

 unremitting attention to the regulations established 

 by Captain Cook, with which the world is already 

 acquainted, may be justly considered as the principal 

 cause, under the blessing of Divine Providence, of 

 this singular success. But the baneful effects of salt 

 provisions might perhaps, in the end, have been 

 felt, notwithstanding these salutary precautions, if 

 we had not assisted them, by availing ourselves of 

 every substitute, our situation at various times af- 

 forded. These frequently consisting of articles 



