forter's joi;rnal. 



We continued our ineffectiial exertions to get to the 

 southeast, and on the 22d, discovered Wenam's Island, 

 bearing S. S. £., and Culpepper's Island bearing W. N. W» 

 I saw now that ail attempts to get to James' island were 

 useless, unless we should be favoured bj a change of cur- 

 rents. At two o'clock, being but a short distance fronni 

 Wenam's Island, I went with three boats from the Essex, 

 and one from each of the other ships, and returned before 

 sunset with them all deeply loaded with fish, which afford- 

 ed several fresh meals for our crew, and if we had been 

 provided with salt, we should have been enabled to procure 

 large quantities of them, but not having any, many were 

 thrown overboard. 



Wenam's Island, like the Gallipagos, is evidently of vol- 

 canic origin. It is thinly scattered on its summit wiili 

 withered shrubbery ; its sides are every where inaccessi- 

 ble ; it affords no anchorage; is seven or eight miles in 

 circuit, and has two small islets, one off the southeast, the 

 other off the northwest parts, but neither more than one 

 hundred yards from the island. But there is no danger, 

 except, from the rapidity of the currents, in approaching it 

 on any side, and there is every where water enough for the 

 largest ship to lie within a few yards of the shore. We 

 saw here but a few turtle, and only one seal. The only 

 birds Vie saw, were the man-of-v, ar hawk, garnets, gulls, 

 and the black petrell, all of which were very abundant. 

 On the northwest side I discovered the mouth of a cave, 

 very small at the entrance, into which I went with my boat, 

 and proceeded, as near as I can judge, about one hundred 

 yards ; and, judging from the beating of the sea against the 

 sides, and the echo from the top, I supposed it to be there, 

 forty yards v/ide, and twenty yards high. We were, how- 

 ever, in perfect obscurity, and the apprehension of not 

 finding my way out again prevented my proceeding farther. 

 The water was every where of sufncient depth to float a 

 ship of the line, and in this cavern, and at its mouth, we 

 caught the most of our fish. Bait was scarcely necessary, 

 as they were so ravenous as to bite at the bare hook, the 

 line, and at the boat-hook, with which many were caught. 

 They were of that kind called the rock-cod, and were 

 greatly relished by our crew. 



I now stood away on a wind to the southward and west- 



