PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
96 
and other aquatic birds are to be found in great numbers; the 
woods are filled with birds of various descriptions; and apples 
and purslain grow on different parts of the island. Our short 
stay here did not enable me to give this interesting spot so 
thorough an examination as I could have wished ; but I saw 
enough to convince me, that it is a most desirable place for ves¬ 
sels to touch at after doubling Cape Horn. 
At day-light, on the morning of the 7th, lieut. Downes went 
on shore to endeavour to get some more fresh meat; I directed 
him to be on board by 8 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 7, the 
ship, lying at a short scope of cable, started her anchor ; I conse¬ 
quently hove it up, and fired a gun as a signal for the boat to come 
off, and on her return made sail to the northward, along the coast. 
Lieutenant Downes had not been successful, as he had only- 
killed 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 of it. 
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 tinged the coast within 5 or 6 miles, and kept a sharp 
look-out, with the hope of speaking some vessel, whereby we 
might be enabled to obtain some information of the enemy ; but 
were disappointed. At 5 o’clock in the afternoon, we were but 
three leagues distant from the S. W. 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 attempted to run in for 
the anchorage, particularly as I was perfectly ignorant of the pas¬ 
sage between it and the main, and had no person on board who 
could give me any information respecting it, that could be relied 
on ; for, 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 in a boat to 
sound before I ventured in with the ship; for I laboured under 
the great inconvenience of haying only one chart of the whole 
