76 DANGEROUS SITUATION 



1824. shoaled to nineteen *. Fearing danger, I 

 Sept. turned the hands up, but having shortly deep- 

 ened to twenty-seven and twenty-five, again 

 sent them below. At six A.M. having quickly 

 shoaled to nineteen, running n.n.w. from 

 midnight, I shortened sail, but came to seven- 

 teen at dawn, v\hen we discovered land bear- 

 ing N.N.W. and apparently not continuous to 

 the right, but a thick fog which hung over the 

 horizon limited our view. As our run had 

 been about fifty miles n.n.w., and as I expected 

 to find the American shore east of its position 

 in the charts, I conceived that this would be 

 Cape Fullerton of Middleton, and therefore 

 kept it on our larboard hand, intending to run 

 past it at five or six miles, which was its dis- 

 tance at this time. We soon, however, came 

 to fifteen fathoms, and I kept right away, but 

 had then only ten ; when being unable to see 

 far around us, and observing from the white- 

 ness of the water that we were on a bank, I 

 rounded to at seven A.M., and tried to bring 

 up with the starboard anchor, and seventy 

 fathoms chain, but the stiff breeze and heavy 



* On our return down the Welcome we discovered a 

 small island, witliin which we must at this time have 

 passed. 



