PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
the description given by others, I am induced to believe, that no 
part of the world presents a more horrible aspect than Staten 
Land. The breakers appeared to lie about half a mile from the 
shore ; while we were standing off, the whole sea, from the vio¬ 
lence of the current, appeared in a foam of breakers, and nothing 
but the apprehension of immediate destruction could have in¬ 
duced me to have ventured through it; but, thanks to the excel¬ 
lent qualities of the ship, we received no material injury, although 
we were pitching our forecastle under with a heavy press of sail, 
and the violence of the sea was such, that it was impossible for 
any man to stand without grasping something to support himself. 
Those only can have an idea of our tormenting anxiety and dread, 
from the time we discovered the breakers, until we made the 
land of Terra del Fuego, who have, like us, supposed them¬ 
selves in danger of shipwreck, on a dreary, inhospitable, and iron- 
bound coast, inhabited only by savages, where there was scarcely 
a hope, that one of the crew would survive the fury of the storm, 
and waves, or, even if he succeeded in getting on shore alive, 
only to fall a victim to the merciless inhabitants of this gloomy re¬ 
gion ; nor can he conceive the excess of our joy in discovering the 
land, unless he, in an instant, has been snatched from the danger 
of destruction which seemed pending over him. Our fears and 
subsequent joys may, however, be more easily imagined than 
described. Had we been, as we supposed, to the northward of 
Cape St. Vincent, it would have required our utmost exertions, 
under the heaviest press of canvas, to have kept the ship from 
going on shore; and the loss of a single spar, or the splitting of a 
top-sail, would have sealed our destruction. Our making the 
breakers in the manner we did, proved most fortunate, for had 
we passed through the streights without discovering the land, 
(which would have been the case, had we been one mile farther 
north,) I should have supposed myself to the east of Staten Land, 
and after running the distance which I believed necessary to clear 
Cape St. John’s, I should have steered a course that would have 
entangled us in the night with the rocks and breakers about Cape 
Horn; and had this happened, thick and hazy as the weather con¬ 
tinued, our destruction would have been inevitable, as we could 1105 
K 
VOL. I, 
