10 



sorter's jodknal. 



ditional horror to their dreary and inhospitable aspect; 

 But so different was the temperature of the air, the ap- 

 pearance of the heavens, and the smoothness of the sea, to 

 every thing we had expected, and pictured to ourselves, 

 that we could not but smile at our own credulity and folly, 

 in giving credit to (what we supposed) the exaggerated and 

 miraculous accounts of former voyages ; and even when 

 we admitted, for a moment, the correctness of their state- 

 ments, we could not help attributing their disasters and 

 misfortunes chiefly to their own imprudencies and misma- 

 nagement. As we had endeavoured to guard against every 

 accident that we had to apprehend, we flattered ourselves 

 \\-ith the belief, that fortune would be more favourable to 

 our enterprize than she had been to theirs. But, while 

 we were indulging ourselves in these pleasing speculations, 

 the black clouds, hanging over Cape Horn, burst upon us 

 with a fury we little expected, and reduced us in a few mi- 

 nutes to a reefed foresail, and close-reefed main-topsail, 

 and in a few hours afterwards to our storm-staysails. Nor 

 was the violence of the winds the only danger we had to 

 encounter ; for it produced an irregular and dangerous sea, 

 that threatened to jerk away our masts at every roll of the 

 ship. With this wind we steered to the southward, with a 

 view of getting an offing from the land, in expectation of 

 avoiding, in future, the sudden gusts, and the irregular 

 seas, which we supposed were owing to violent currents, 

 and confined to the neighbourhood of the coast. But in 

 this expectation we were much disappointed ; for, as we 

 receded from the coast, the gale increased ; and it was in 

 vain that we hoped for that moderate and pleasant wea- 

 ther which former navigators have generally experienced 

 in the latitude of 60" south, which we reached on the 18th. 

 From the time we lost sight of the land until this period, 

 the gales blew hard from the northwest, accompanied with 

 heavy rains, cold disagreeable weather, and a dangerous 

 sea. We were never enabled to carry more sail than a 

 close-reefed main-topsail and reefed foresail, and were fre- 

 quently under our storm-staysails. But by keeping the 

 ship a point free, she made but little lee-way, went fast 

 through the water, and gave us considerable westing, 

 though we were carrying a heavy press of sail, and were 

 frequently deluged with the sea that broke into us. We, 



