porter's journal. 



stant struggles against strong westerly gales, in a shorter 

 time, perhaps, than it ever before was accomplished ; and 

 we now saw a speedy end to all our sufferings and anxie- 

 ties, and tasted, in pleasing anticipation, our delightful 

 cruise in the Pacific. It is true, we had had no opportuni- 

 ty of verifying our dead reckoning by lunar observations j 

 nor could we place any reliance on the chronometer, as 

 the cold had greatly changed her rate of going, which was 

 first made evident to us on our making Staten Land ; yet 

 we felt great confidence, notwithstanding, that our dead 

 reckoning was not so far wrong as to make it at all proba- 

 ble that we were not sufficiently to the west of Terra del 

 Fuego, for a north course to take us clear of it. On the 

 21st the wind shifted to the northwest, with which we 

 stood to the southward and westward, and made, during 

 the twenty-four hours, upwards of two degrees of longitude ; 

 and, on the meridian of the 22d, we were in latitude 57" 

 54' south, and longitude, by account, 79" 28' west ; which 

 is upwards of four degrees to the west of the westernmost 

 part of Terra del Fuego. Now, no doubt remained of our 

 having made sufficient westing ; and as the wind hauled to 

 the W. N. W., I stood to the northward : but an opportu- 

 nity presenting itself for taking a lunar observation, we, to 

 our great disappointment and regret, discovered that we 

 were only in the longitude of 75° 20' west, which is about 

 the longitude of Cape Pilor, the westernmost part of Terra 

 del Fuego. It therefore became necessary to stand again 

 to the southwest, and endeavour to make sufficient west- 

 ing to guard against a future disappointment of this nature. 

 We had felt apprehensive of a current setting constantly to 

 the eastward, but did not believe that it could in two days 

 have taken us four degrees to the eastward of our reckon- 

 ing. But great and mortifying as this discovery was to us, 

 it was not to be overcome but by renewed efforts and forti- 

 tude ; and as the wind hauled round to the northward, it 

 gave us a prospect of soon recovering our lost ground. I 

 therefore permitted the crew to continue to draw their in- 

 creased allowance of bread, as I did not wish them to feci 

 the extent of my disappointment ; which, perhaps, would 

 have been attended with a depression of their spirits ; and 

 might have produced that dreadful disease, the scurvy, from 

 which we have been hitherto exempt in a most extraordi- 



