THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
393 
baffled all our endeavours to make the land, and obliged 1?7g , 
us, at laft, to give up all further thoughts of difcovery to oa ° ber - 
the North of Japan. We fubmitted to this difappointment 
with, the greater reluctance, as the accounts that are given 
of the inhabitants of thefe iftands, mentioned at the end of 
the laft Chapter, had excited in us the greater curiolity to 
viftt them. 
In the afternoon, the leach-rope of the Refolution’s fore- 
top-fail gave way, and fplit the fail. As this accident had 
often happened to us in Captain Cook’s life-time, he had 
ordered the foot and leach-ropes of the topfails to be taken 
out, and larger fixed in their ftead; and as thefe alfo proved 
unequal to the ftrain that was on them, it is evident, that 
the proper proportion of ftrength between thofe ropes and 
the fail is exceedingly mifcalculated in our fervice. This 
day a land-bird perched on the rigging, and was taken; 
it was larger than a fparrow, but, in other refpebts, very 
like one. 
The gale now abated gradually; fo that, in the morning 
of the 22cl, we let out the reefs of the topfails, and made Friday 22. 
more fail. At noon, we were in latitude 40° 58J and longi¬ 
tude 148° 17 '; the variation 3 0 Eaft. In the afternoon, ano¬ 
ther little wanderer from the land pitched on the fhip, 
and was fo worn out with fatigue, that it fuffered itfelf to 
be taken immediately, and died a few hours afterward. 
It was not bigger than a wren, had a tuft of yellow fea¬ 
thers on its head, and the reft of its plumage like that of 
the linnet. The fparrow, being ftronger, lived a long time. 
Thefe birds plainly indicating, that we could not be at any 
great diftance from the land, and the wind, after varying a 
little, fixing in the evening at North, our hopes of mak¬ 
ing the land again revived, and we hauled up to the Weft 
Vol. III. 3 E North 
