ght, in order to get in
with the land; and, while wearing ship in the middle watch, we had a
melancholy instance of the almost incredible debility of our people;
for the lieutenant could muster no more than two quarter-masters and
six foremast men capable of working; so that, without the assistance
of the officers, servants, and boys, it might have been impossible for
us to have reached the island after we got sight of it; and even
with their assistance, we were two hours in trimming the sails; to so
wretched a condition were we reduced, in a sixty-gun ship, which had
passed the Straits of Le Maire only three months before with between
four and five hundred men, most of them then in health and vigour.
In the afternoon of the 10th, we got under the lee of the island, and
kept ranging along its coast at the distance of about two miles, in
order to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to
be in a bay on its north side. Being now so near the shore, we could
perceive that the broken craggy precipices, which had appeared so
very unpromising from a distance, were far from barren, being in most
places covered by woods; and that there were every where the finest
vallies interspersed between them, cloathed with a most beautiful
verdure, and watered by numerous streams and cascades, every valley of
any extent being provided with its own rill; and we afterwards found
that the water was constantly clear, and not inferior to any we had
ever met with. The aspect of a country thus beautifully diversified
would at any time have been extremely delightful; but, in our
distressed situation, languishing as we were for the land and its
vegetable productions, an indication constantly attending every stage
of the sea-scurvy, it is scarcely credible with what eagerness and
transport we viewed the shore, and with how much impatience we longed
for the greens and other refreshments which were in sight. We were
particularly anxious for the water, as we had been confined to a very
sparing allowance for a considerable time, and had then only five
tons remaining on board. Those only who have endured a long series of
thirst, and who can readily recall the desire and agitation which
even the ideas alone of springs and brooks have at that time raised
in their minds, can judge of the emotion with which we viewed a large
cascade of the purest water, which poured into the sea at a short
distance from the ship, from a rock near a hundred fe
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