passing
Cape Horn. At this place, as I was informed by a gentleman on board
one of these ships, any quantity of hogs and poultry can be procured;
and as it is more distant from the Rio Plata, the difficulty of
sending intelligence to the Spaniards is somewhat increased, and
consequently the chance of continuing there undiscovered is so much
the greater. Other measures, which may effectually obviate all these
embarrassments, will be considered more at large hereafter.

I proceed, in the next place, to consider of the proper measures to
be pursued for doubling Cape Horn: And here, I think I am sufficiently
authorized, by our own fatal experience, and by a careful comparison
and examination of the journals of former navigators, to give the
following advice, which ought never, in prudence, to be departed from:
Which is, That all ships bound to the South Seas, instead of passing
through the Straits of Le Maire, should constantly pass by the
eastward of Staten-Land, and should be invariably bent on running as
far as the latitude of 61 deg. or 62 deg. S. before they endeavour to stand to
the westwards; and ought then to make sure of a sufficient westing
in or about that latitude, before commencing a northern course. But,
since directions diametrically opposite to these have been formerly
given by other writers, it is incumbent on me to produce my reasons
for each part of this maxim.

First then, as to the propriety of passing to the eastward of
Staten-Land. Those who have attended to the risk we ran in passing
the Straits of Le Maire, the danger we were in of being driven upon
Staten-Land by the current, when, though we happily escaped being
driven on shore, we were yet carried to the eastward of that island:
those, I say, who reflect on this and the like accidents which have
happened to other ships, will surely not esteem it prudent to
pass through these straits and run the risk of shipwreck, and find
themselves, after all, no farther to the westward, the only reason
hitherto given for this practice, than they might have been, in the
same time, by a more secure navigation in an open sea. And next, as
to the directions I have given for running into the latitude of 61 deg.
or 62 deg. S. before any endeavour is made to stand to the westward. The
reasons for this precept are, that, in all probability, the violence
of the current setting from the westward will be thereby avoided,
and the weather will prove less tempestuous and