LA:BRAD0K JOUKNAL 287 



d-c\ys after, and then, giving np all hopes ut' joining 

 the fleet, we carried only as mneh as prndence 

 warranted. For fear of being taken, I directed 

 that the ship shonld be kept in the latitude of the 

 Shannon; intending to land there myself; be- 

 cause, had 1 been taken, the ^jeople whom 1 left 

 behind would probably have been starved to death 

 next year, for want of a suppl}^ of provisions. We 

 had a very Ijlowing passage, with many contrary 

 winds, and much dark weather. On the evening 

 of the twentv-ninth, bv an observation of the 

 moon and a fixed star, taken by captain Kinloch 

 tlie night before, we found ourselves still thirteen 

 leagues to the westward of the Blasques, although 

 we ought to have been half way up the Shannon, 

 according to the dead reckoning. It then blowing 

 verv hard at north-west bv north, we stood under 

 (jur courses to the southward; but seeing no land, 

 at eight the next morning, by which time we knew 

 we were to the southward of the Blasques we bore 

 away right along shore till noon; when being in 

 the latitude of 51 "" 22' north, T ordered a course 

 to be shaped direct for Cape Clear, which, if the 

 longitudinal obsei'vation was right, and the wind 

 held, would cany us abreast of the island called 

 Dorses, by foui- in llie afternoon, and the length of 

 Cape Clear by midnight. The observation proved 

 so very exact that we actually made tlie foi-mer on 

 our l;irl)oai-(l bejim ;it a quarter ])efore four, and 

 at midniulit we wej-e dose in with tlie Inttei'. Tliis 

 is the thii'd time I1i;if I jiave seen tiiose ol)serva- 

 tions t.-ikcn. ;ind e;ic1i time the\- ;is('ert;iin th<^ 



