DOUBLING CAPE HORN. 65 
advantage to shoot some albatrosses, delayed us 
for a few hours; but on Christmas-day we 
doubled the Cape without the slightest difficulty. 
In the evening, after sailing close alongside the 
little rocky island of Diego Ramirez, inhabited 
by immense numbers of sea-birds, we found 
ourselves in the South Sea. A favourable east 
wind swelling our sails, on the 28th of December, 
we did our best to clear the island of Terra 
del Fuego, before a west wind should impede 
our progress; but in this we were disappointed, 
for a sudden storm drove us out of our course 
to latitude 594°. Here, for a New Year's 
gift, we fell in with a fresh south wind, which 
helped us forward at the rate of eleven miles an 
hour, and continued to swell our sails, till on 
the 5th we lost sight of the Terra del Fuego, 
and joyfully continued our voyage northwards. 
At Cape Horn, Reaumur’s thermometer stood at 
four degrees ; a temperature rendered very disa- 
greeable by our having so recently suffered from 
oppressive heat. We now hailed with renewed 
enjoyment the daily increasing warmth. 
My sailors had heard much of the dreadful 
storms which raged at all seasons round Cape 
