58 On the Navigation of Cape Horn. 
it was first approached. Frequently they do not clear the Cape, un- 
ul the third or fourth attempt after having been set to the eastward 
by gales from the westward. | : 
During the north west gales, vessels have been driven several hun- 
dred miles to the south east. In 1819—20, an English brig was set 
in a north wester, from the vicinity of Hermit’s Island, down to the 
south Shetland’s, which had been discovered by a Dutchman, about 
two hundred years previously : during this lapse of time, their exist- 
ence had never been confirmed to the world, by a concurrent report 
from other navigators, and the reported discovery of the Dutchman, 
had sunk into disbelief, and finally into oblivion. The brig, after a 
tedious passage, arrived at Valparaiso, and her master, (one Smith,) 
reported the discovery he had made to Capt. Sherif, R. N. who was 
in the bay of Valparaiso, in command of one of his Majesty’s men of 
war. Capt. Sherif chartered the brig, sent officers on board, and 
despatched her, to ascertain the reality of the reported discovery, 
and, the position of the Islands. ‘They were found without any diffi- 
culty, and after sailing among them for a day or two, the brig put in- 
to a harbor, where were several American vessels, lying quietly at 
anchor, some of which had been in the habit for five years, of visiting 
that place. 
When the westerly gales, become so violent as to strip the can- 
vass from the yards, the ship is liable to much injury, if they blow 
for many days, which they frequently do. By persisting in the at- 
tempt to weather out the storm, and to secure the ‘‘ inshore” passage, 
vessels have been reduced almost to the last extremity before they 
succeeded. In waiting to catch a favorable moment for passing the 
land, some are even less fortunate. After riding out gale after gale, 
and being driven from the land as often as they made it, they are at 
last, forced in distress to put back into some port on the Atlantic side. 
They are seen coming into Rio Janeiro or the La Plata, their hulls 
so completely shattered, that they scarcely keep afloat, and the crew 
unable to manage them, being exhausted by long exposure to the 
freezing winds. The delay necessarily incurred by refitting, and 
from the difficulty of shipping another crew, amounts to several 
months. Probability favors the supposition, that these misfortunes 
would have been avoided by lying to, on the starboard tack, and 
forging to the southward, out of the strength of the gale, with the 
expectation of catching an easterly wind in the icy regions. 
