lder. The gunner
who had the charge of a watch was laid up with the rheumatism: and this
was the first sicklist that appeared on board the ship. The time of full
moon which was approaching made me entertain hopes that after that period
we should experience some change of wind or weather in our favour; but
the event did not at all answer our expectations. The latitude at noon
this day was 58 degrees 9 minutes south and longitude 76 degrees 1 minute
west.

As we caught a good many birds but which were all lean and tasted fishy
we tried an experiment upon them which succeeded admirably. By keeping
them cooped up and cramming them with ground corn they improved
wonderfully in a short time; so that the pintada birds became as fine as
ducks, and the albatrosses were as fat, and not inferior in taste to,
fine geese. Some of the latter birds were caught that measured seven feet
between the extremities of the wings when spread. This unexpected supply
came very opportunely; for none of our livestock remained except hogs,
the sheep and poultry not being hardy enough to stand the severity of the
weather.

Sunday 20.

This morning the wind died away and we had a calm for a few hours which
gave us hopes that the next would be a more favourable wind. A hog was
killed for the ship's company which gave them an excellent meal. Towards
noon, to our great disappointment, the wind sprang up again from the
westward and in the afternoon blew strong with snow and hailstorms.

Monday 21.

This was the second day after the full moon but, as I have remarked
before, it had no influence on the weather. At noon our latitude was 58
degrees 31 minutes south and longitude 70 degrees 7 minutes west, which
is near seven degrees to the eastward of our situation on the morning of
the 9th instant, when we had advanced the farthest in our power to the
westward, being then in 76 degrees 58 minutes west, three degrees to the
west of Cape Deseada, the west part of the Straits of Magellan; and at
this time we were 3 degrees 52 minutes to the east of it and hourly
losing ground.

It was with much concern I saw how hopeless and even unjustifiable it was
to persist any longer in attempting a passage this way to the Society
Islands. We had been thirty days in this tempestuous ocean. At one time
we had advanced so far to the westward as to have a fair prospect of
making our passage round; but from that period hard gales of westerly
wind had continued without