epeat the observation on shore; and
as this would prolong the time too near dusk for moving the ship, Mr.
Thistle was sent over with a cutter to the mainland in search of an
anchoring place where water might be procured.

The _latitude_ of a small beach on the north end of Thistle's Island was
found to be 34 deg. 56'; and _longitude_, by the time-keepers corrected, 136 deg.
31/2', agreeing with thirty sets of lunar observations reduced to a place
connected with this by land bearings. The strongest _tides_ set past the
ship at the rate of two miles an hour, from the north-north-east and
south-south-west; the latter, which appeared to be the flood, ceasing to
run _at the time of the moon's passage_ over the meridian. It rose seven
feet and a half by the lead line in the night of the 20th; and there were
two tides in the twenty-four hours.

At dusk in the evening the cutter was seen under sail, returning from the
main land; but not arriving in half an hour, and the sight of it having
been lost rather suddenly, a light was shown and lieutenant Fowler went
in a boat, with a lanthorn, to see what might have happened. Two hours
passed without receiving any tidings. A gun was then fired, and Mr.
Fowler returned soon afterward, but alone. Near the situation where the
cutter had been last seen he met with so strong a rippling of tide that
he himself narrowly escaped being upset; and there was reason to fear
that it had actually happened to Mr. Thistle. Had there been daylight, it
is probable that some or all of the people might have been picked up; but
it was too dark to see anything, and no answer could be heard to the
hallooing or to the firing of muskets. The tide was setting to the
southward and ran an hour and a half after the missing boat had been last
seen, so that it would be carried to seaward in the first instance; and
no more than two out of the eight people being at all expert in swimming,
it was much to be feared that most of them would be lost.*

[* This evening, Mr. Fowler told me a circumstance which I thought
extraordinary; and it afterwards proved to be more so. Whilst we were
lying at Spithead, Mr. Thistle was one day waiting on shore, and having
nothing else to do he went to a certain old man, named Pine, to have his
fortune told. The cunning man informed him that he was going out a long
voyage, and that the ship, on arriving at her destination, would be
joined by another vessel. That such was intended, he mi