THIRD VOYAGE 411 



their sensiblr of the necessity of paying some attention to 

 these matters ; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, 

 their impression was so transitory that, upon our return to 

 the tropical climates, their fur jackets, and the rest of their 

 cold country clothes, were kicked about the decks as things 

 of no value, though it was generally known in both ships 

 that we were to make another voyage towards the pole. 

 They were of course picked up by the officers, and being 

 put into casks, restored about this time to the owners. 



" On the 12th the wind came gradually round to the east, 

 and increased to a strong gale. Ever since we left the 

 Sandwich Islands we had been incommoded by a leak, which 

 made twelve inches of water every hour ; but as we had 

 always been able to keep it under with the hand-pumps, 

 it gave us no great uneasiness till the 13th, when we were 

 greatly alarmed by a sudden inundation that deluged the 

 whole space between decks. The water which had lodged 

 in the coal-hole, not finding a sufficient vent into the well, 

 had forced up the platforms over it, and in a moment set 

 everything afloat. Our situation was indeed exceedingly 

 distressing, nor did we immediately see any means of re- 

 lieving ourselves. As soon as a passage was made for it, 

 the greatest part of the water emptied itself into the well, 

 and enabled us to get out the rest with buckets. But the 

 leak was now so much increased that we were obliged to 

 keep one half of the people constantly pumping and baling 

 till the noon of the 15th. Our men bore, with great cheer- 

 fulness, this excessive fatigue, which was much increased 

 by their having no dry place to sleep in, and on this account 

 we began to serve their full allowance of grog. 



" As we were now approaching the place where a great 

 extent of land is said to have been seen by De Gama, we 

 were glad of the opportunity which the course we were 

 steering gave, of contributing to remove the doubts, if any 

 should be still entertained, relative to this pretended dis- 

 covery. After standing off and on the whole of this day 

 without seeing anything 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. 



" The sudden alteration from the sultry heat which we felt 

 the beginning of this month to the extreme cold which we 

 now experienced, was attended with great inconvenience 

 to us. 



" On the 21st we saw a whale and a land-bird, and in the 

 afternoon, the water looking muddy, we sounded, but got no 

 ground with a hundred and forty fathoms of line. During 

 the three preceding days we saw large flocks of wild fowl 



