\ 



Ud> . porter's journal* 



convince me, that it is a most desirable place for vessels to 

 touch at after doubling Cape Horn. 



At daylight, on the morning of the 7th, lieutenant 

 Downes went on shore to endeavour to get some more 

 fresh meat. I directed him to be on board by eight 

 o'clock, as the appearance of the weather indicated fresh 

 gales, and I intended at that time to leave the island. The 

 wind, however, freshened up, and at half past seven, the 

 ship, lying at a short scope of cable, started her anchor; I 

 consequently hove it up, and fired a gun as a signal for the 

 boat to come off, and on her return made sail to the north- 

 v/ard, along the coast. 



Lieutenant Downes had not been successful, having lull- 

 ed only one horse, and, from the great hurry he was in to get 

 on board, seeing the ship under way, could only bring with 

 him one quarter. 



I now proceeded with an intention of touching at St. 

 Maria's, where, from the freshness of the gale, I expected 

 to arrive before night. I ranged the coast within five or 

 six miles, and kept a sharp lookout, with the hope of speak- 

 ing some vessel, whereby we might be enabled to obtain 

 some information of the enemy; but was disappointed. 

 At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, we were but three leagues 

 distant from the southwest part of St. Maria's ; but the 

 gale had increased so much, and the weather had become 

 so hazy, that it would have been very unsafe to have at- 

 tempted to run in for the anchorage, particularly as I was 

 perfectly ignorant of the passage between it and the main, 

 and had no person on board who could give me any infor^ 

 mation respecting it that could be rehed on. Although 

 several of my seamen had frequently anchored there, they 

 differed so widely in their accounts of the place, and were 

 altogether so ignorant of the depth of water inside the 

 island, that I found it would be absolutely necessary to send 

 m a boat to sound before I ventured in with the ship. I 

 laboured under the great inconvenience of having only one 

 chart of the whole of the coast of America, and that on so 

 small a scale, as not to be relied on but for the direction of 

 the coast, projection of head-lands, &c. ; and on that the 

 island of St. Maria's was merely marked as a point. I had 

 no views of land, no descriptions or draughts of harbours 

 on this coast, and felt myself greatly embarrassed, from the 



