1832.] 
QUA.1,LAH-BATT00. 
103 
proach to this coast must have required the utmost vigilance to 
avoid, the reefs, so common and so httle explored. 
Hog Island was made on the lee how, about forty miles distant; 
yet so light and so variable w^as the wind, with occasional calms, 
that, in despite of every effort, but little headway could be made ; 
and it was ascertained by observation, as well as from the bearing 
of the land, that the vessel was drifted not less than twenty miles 
in twenty-four hours, to the southward and westward, by quite a 
contrary current from the one named before. At this time the 
wind hauled ahead to the northeast, and it was not for seven 
days after making Hog Island, that the Potomac was brought to 
her anchorage off Quallah-Battoo. 
In relation to the approach to this place, Lieutenant Pinkham, 
in his notes, says ; " From what I myself felt, with others of my 
watch officers upon the occasion, I think I can judge somewhat 
of the intense anxiety felt by the commodore upon approaching 
a coast so little known ; the lead constantly indicating the most 
alarming changes. I remember upon one occasion, the ship not 
moving at a rate of more than half a mile an hour, the lead sud- 
denly indicated a change from thirty-five to twenty fathoms ; 
another cast was immediately made, and before the ship had pro- 
ceeded more than once her length, no bottom could be found with 
a hundred and ten fathom line !" 
The commodore was often heard to speak of this part of his 
cruise in the east as having been one of great solicitude and 
sleepless nights ; and well might he thus speak, when it is recol- 
lected the value of the cargo intrusted to his care, of not less 
than five hundred souls, that must have perished had the Potomac 
struck upon, as she must have passed near to, some of these hid- 
den and dangerous coral reefs. 
By vigilance, however (in such seas the sailor's only chart), 
perseverance, and the blessings of Divine Providence, the Poto- 
mac had now reached in safety her first anchorage in the east ; 
when the plan of operations on Quallah-Battoo was to be put 
into immediate execution. 
