PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
89 
which nature seems designedly to have placed, to deter mankind 
from all attempts to penetrate from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
ocean ; and, as various opinions have been given on the subject, 
my advice may differ from that of others in several points : but 
as my measures have proved successful in the end, and as it is 
not founded on mere conjecture and hypothesis, it is to be pre¬ 
sumed, that it may deserve the attention of seamen, for whom 
alone it is intended. 
In the first place, I must caution them against those errone¬ 
ous expectations, which the opinion of La Perouse is unhappily 
calculated to lead them into, and, perhaps, has proved fatal to 
many ships, by inducing their commanders to believe, that the 
passage around Cape Horn is attended with no other difficulties 
than those to be met with in any other high latitude; and there¬ 
by causing them to neglect taking those necessary precautions, 
which the safety of their ships, and the lives of those on board, 
require. He says, to use his own words, “ I doubled Cape Horn 
with much more ease, than I had dared to imagine; I am now 
convinced, that this navigation is like that of all high latitudes; 
the difficulties which are expected to be met with, are the effects 
of an old prejudice which should no longer exist, and which the 
reading of Anson’s voyage has not a little contributed to preserve 
among seamen.” On the 25th of January, La Perouse entered 
the Streights of Le Maire, and on the 9th of February, he was in 
the Pacific, in the parallel of the Streights of Magellan, making 
his passage in 14 days. On the 13th of February, I passed the 
Streights of La Maire, and w T as in the latitude of those of Magel¬ 
lan on the 26th, making a passage of 13 days, a little more than 
a month later in the season than he passed the cape ; and as my 
passage, against such violent gales, was made in one day less than 
his, I am at a loss to conceive what should have occasioned his 
delay. I have the utmost respect for the memory of that cele¬ 
brated navigator, and regret that I should have cause to differ 
with him in opinion in any point, and particularly on one of so 
much importance, as the doubling of Cape Horn from the east. 
Indeed, ample as has been the information he has given on every 
other subject that has come under his notice, I am almost indu* 
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