ppear at one view.

We now very frequently fell in with high islands of ice. On
the 24th, we had fresh gales with hazy and cold weather, and met
so many ice islands, that we were frequently obliged to alter our
course to avoid them. On the 25th, we had strong gales with very
heavy and frequent squalls: as we were now drawing near Cape
Horn, and in all the charts of Terra del Fuego which I had seen,
there is an island laid down, bearing from the Cape about
south-south-west, and called Diego Ramirez, distant from the land
ten or twelve leagues; and as I do not find that the existence of
such an island has ever been contradicted by any person who has
sailed round this promontory, I determined to keep as near as
possible in its parallel, the wind being from west-north-west to
west-south-west, and the weather rather hazy; if I should make
it, I could pass either within or without, as might be
convenient; and it would be as good a land-fall as the Cape
itself, as, in case the wind should incline to the southward, we
should have offing enough to clear the land, which, to us who
were upon a service that would not admit of any loss of time, was
of consequence.

At noon on the 26th, we had a good meridian observation, and
were exactly in the parallel of Diego Ramirez; and at eight A. M.
an opportunity offered, for about an hour, for taking a set of
distances of the sun and moon, of which both Mr. Bradley and myself
availed ourselves; the result of which was (taking the mean of
both observations, which agreed within a few miles) 292 deg. 38'
east, at the time of observation; so that we must then have been
very near the place in which this island is laid down, for we
could rely upon the observations: but as nothing appeared, we
hauled in for the land, the looming of which we frequently saw,
but the heavy black squalls which were constantly gathering upon
it, rendered it too indistinct to be able to determine any
particular point.

At this time several long strings of wild ducks flew past the
ship: in the evening the weather cleared a little in the horizon,
and we set the extremes of Terra del Fuego from north by west to
west-north-west, distant about 10 leagues. We continued our
course north-east, and I think we may safely venture to
determine, that there is no island so situated from Cape Horn as
this Diego Ramirez is said to be.

For several days before we made the land, and every day after
we left it, until the 27th, we