eting with any thing of note, till
the 6th of October. Being then in the latitude of 35 deg. 15' S., longitude
7 deg. 45' W., we met with light airs and calms by turns, for three days
successively. We had, for some days before, seen albatrosses, pintadoes,
and other petrels; and here we saw three penguins, which occasioned us
to sound; but we found no ground with a line of one hundred and fifty
fathoms. We put a boat in the water, and shot a few birds; one of which
was a black petrel, about the size of a crow, and, except as to the bill
and feet, very like one. It had a few white feathers under the throat;
and the under-side of the quill-feathers were of an ash-colour. All the
other feathers were jet black, as also the bill and legs.

On the 8th, in the evening, one of those birds which sailors call
noddies, settled on our rigging, and was caught. It was something larger
than an English black-bird, and nearly as black, except the upper part
of the head, which was white, looking as if it were powdered; the
whitest feathers growing out from the base of the upper bill, from which
they gradually assumed a darker colour, to about the middle of the upper
part of the neck, where the white shade was lost in the black, without
being divided by any line. It was web-footed; had black legs and a black
bill, which was long, and not unlike that of a curlew. It is said these
birds never fly far from land. We knew of none nearer the station we
were in, than Gough's or Richmond Island, from which our distance could
not be less than one hundred leagues. But it must be observed that the
Atlantic Ocean, to the southward of this latitude, has been but little
frequented; so that there may be more islands there than we are
acquainted with.

We frequently, in the night, saw those luminous marine animals mentioned
and described in my first voyage. Some of them seemed to be considerably
larger than any I had before met with; and sometimes they were so
numerous, that hundreds were visible at the same moment.

This calm weather was succeeded by a fresh gale from the N.W., which
lasted two days. Then we had again variable light airs for about
twenty-four hours; when the N.W. wind returned, and blew with such
strength, that on the 17th we had sight of the Cape of Good Hope; and
the next day anchored in Table Bay, in four fathoms water, with the
church bearing S.W. 1/4 S., and Green Point N.W. 1/4 W.

As soon as we had received the usual visit fro