394 
A VOYAGE TO 
ol 7 b ^ ort ^ 1 Weft, in which, direction, the Sonthernmoft iflands, 
feen by Spanberg, and faid to be inhabited by hairy men, 
lay at the diftance of about fifty leagues. But the wind 
not keeping pace with our wifiies, blew in fuch light airs, 
Saturday 23. that we made little way, till eight the next morning, when 
we had a frefh breeze from the South South Weft, with 
which we continued to fteer Weft North Weft till the 
evening. At noon, we were in latitude 40° 35', longitude 
146° 45'; the latter deduced from feverallunar obfervations 
taken during the night. The variation of the needle we 
found to be 17' Eaft. In the evening, we had ftrong fqually 
gales attended with rain, and having palled, in the courfe 
of the day, feveral patches of green grafs, and feen a lhag, 
many fmall land birds, and flocks of gulls, it was not 
thought prudent, with all thefe figns of the vicinity of 
land, to Hand on during the whole night. We therefore 
tacked at midnight, and fleered a few hours to the South 
Sunday 24. Eaft, and at four in the morning of the 24th, again directed 
our courfe to the Weft North Weft, and carried a prefs of 
fail till feven in the evening, when the wind drifted from 
South South Weft to North, and blew a frefh gale. At 
this time we.were in the latitude of 40° 57', and the lon¬ 
gitude of 145 0 2o\ 
This fecond difappointment in our endeavours to get to 
the North Weft, together with the boifterous weather we 
had met with, and the little likelihood, at this time of the 
year, of its becoming more favourable to our views, were 
Captain Gore’s motives for now finally giving up all farther 
fearch for the iflands to the North of Japan, and for ftiap¬ 
ing a courfe Weft South Weft, for the North part of that 
ifland. In the night, the wind fhifted to the North Eaft, 
and blew a frefh gale, with hard rain, and hazy weather, 
which, 
