^0 



Occurrences m the Navigation 



siderably in our direction; and, on the fall of a wave, our belm 

 struck on a part of it, but without doing any material damage; 

 we therefore crowded sail until we got into deep water; and, 

 at night-fall, again returned to anchor in the Bay of St.Gregorio. 

 The violence of the wnids from W. and SW. kept us in this 

 place till the morning of tlie 6th, during which time, we as- 

 certained, by observations, the latitude and longitude of Cape 

 St. Grcgorio ; but this day, the wind being fresh from the W. 

 and the heavens clear, we again set sail, to continue our course 

 to the westward. The cable which had served in this an- 

 chorage received considerable injury from the ship's bottom ; 

 •whilst the tide, whose strength never exceeded four miles, was 

 contrary to the wind. 



This circumstance added not a little to the wants of our vessel, 

 already too numerous : it was nevertheless tletermined, that we 

 should still continue in the discharge of the commission w4tb 

 •which we were intrusted. 



We ran through the second pass of St. Simon with great ease, 

 favoured by the wind, which veered round by the NW. to 

 IMNE. , and steered for the channel between the Island St. 

 £iizabeth and the little isles St. Magdalen and St. Martha, 

 which is the most difficult passage in the whole Strait of Ma- 

 gellan, on account of the many reefs of rocks which run out 

 from all these island^;. In this situation fresh labours and dangers 

 were not wanting, to us : the wand drew suddenly round to 

 WSW. and drove us over the reels running out Irom St. Mag- 

 dalen amongst the sea-weed, which is almost constantly found 

 on the shoais and sank rocks of this strait, known to the Spanish 

 seamen by the name of cachiyidlo, but by naturalists called 

 fucus giganteus antarcticits. The squalls becoming more 

 furious than before, the heavens more obscured, the bottom 

 more rocky an,d stony, and the depth of water rapidly dimi- 

 nishing even to four fathoms on each side of the vessel,— all this 

 placed us in the most critical situation we had yet experienced. 

 It was necessary to carry a press of sail, to prevent us from 

 falling still farther on the shoal ; nor could we continue long on 

 any one tack, as the danger seemed to be alike on all hands ; so 

 that w^e were obliged to change our course repeatedly, — well 

 understanding the dreadful consequences that must attend the 

 loss of the frigate in such a situation. At la-^t, fortunately, w^e 

 got into deeper w^ater on to '20 fathoms; and, although in fol- 

 lowing the same tack, we fell cigain near to another stjoal, for- 

 merly observed by Captain Wallis, we also got out of that 

 hazardous position, and soon discovered b}' the lead, that the 

 depth w^as fast increasing. Alter this, we stood over to the 

 ^ve^tward, to get in with tiie north shore of the Strait, meetmg 



