very hard, and the fea ran extremely high; fo that we could no longer keep our head towards the cape or head-land we had defigned for. This cape we had had a view of in one of the intervals of fair weather, during our abode on the island, from Mount Mifery; and it feemed to be diftant between twenty and thirty leagues from us. We were now obliged to bear away right before the wind. Though the yawl was not far from us, we could fee nothing of her, except now and then upon the top of a mountainous fea. In both the boats, the men were obliged to fit as clofe as posfible, to receive the feas on their backs, to prevent their filling us, which was what we every moment expected. We were obliged to throw every thing overboard to lighten the boats, all our beef, and even the grapnel, to prevent finking. Night was coming on, and we were running on a lee-fhore faft, where the fea broke in a frightful manner. Not one amongst us imagined it poffible for boats to live in fuch a fea. In this fituation, as we neared the fhore, expecting to be beat to pieces by the firft breaker, we perceived a fmall opening between the rocks, which we ftood for, and found a very narrow paffage between them, which brought us into a harbour for the boats, as calm and fmooth as a mill-pond. The yawl had got in before us, and our joy was great at meeting again after fo unexpected a deliverance. Here we fecured the boats, and afcended a rock. It rained exceffively hard all the first part of the night, and was extremely cold; and though we had not a dry thread about us, and no wood could be found for firing, we were obliged to pass the night in that uncomfortable fituation, without any covering, fhivering in our wet clothes. clothes. The froft coming on in the morning, it was impoffible for any of us to get a moment's fleep; and having flung overboard our provifion the day before, there being no prospect of finding any thing to eat on this coaft, in the morning we pulled out of the cove, but found fo great a fea without, that we could make but little of it. After tugging all day, towards night we put in among fome small islands, landed upon one of them, and found it a mere fwamp. As the weather was the fame, we paffed this night much as we had done the preceding; fea-tangle was all we could get to eat at first, but the next day we had better luck; the furgeon got a goofe, and we found materials for a good fire. We were confined here three or four days, the weather all that time proving fo bad that we could not put out. As foon as it grew moderate, we left this place, and shaped our courfe to the northward; and perceiving a large opening between very high land and a low point, we fteered for it; and when got that length, found a large bay, down which we rowed, flattering ourselves there might be a paffage that way; but towards night we came to the bottom of the bay, and finding no outlet, we were obliged to return the fame way we came, having found nothing the whole day to alleviate our hunger. · Next night we put into a little cove, which, from the great quantity of red-wood found there, we called Red-wood Cove. Leaving this place in the morning, we had the wind foutherly, blowing fresh, by which we made much way that day to the northward. Towards evening we were in with a pretty large ifland. Putting afhore on it, we found it clothed with the fineft trees we had ever feen, their ftems running up to a prodigious height, without knot or branch, and as straight as cedars: the leaf of thefe trees refembled the myrtle leaf, only fomewhat larger. I have feen trees larger than thefe, in circumference, on the coaft of Guinea, and there only; but for length of ftem, which gradually tapered, I have no where met with any to compare with them. The wood was of a hard fubftance, and if not too heavy, would have made good mafts, the dimenfion of fome of these trees being equal to a mainmaft of a first-rate man of war. The fhore was covered with drift wood of a very large fize, moft of it cedar, which makes a good fire; but is fo fubject to fnap and fly, that when we waked in the morning, after a found fleep, we found our clothes finged in many places with the sparks, and covered with splinters. The next morning being calm, we rowed out; but as foon as clear of the island, we found a great fwell from the weftward; we rowed to the bottom of a very large bay, which was to the northward of us, the land very low, and we were in hopes of finding fome inlet through, but did not; fo kept along fhore to the weftward. This part, which I take to be above fifty leagues from Wager's Ifland, is the very bottom of the large bay it lies in. Here was the only paffage to be found, which (if we could by any means have got information of it) would have faved us much fruitless labour. Of this paffage I shall have occafion to fay more hereafter. Having, at this time, an off-fhore wind, we kept the land clofe on board, till we came to a hend-land: it was near night before we got ahead of the breaft-land, and opening it, discovered a very large bay to the northward, and another head-land to the weftward, at a great diftance. We endeavoured to cut fhort our passage to it by crofing, which is very feldom to be effected in thefe overgrown feas by boats, and this we experienced now; for the wind fpringing up, and beginning to blow fresh, we were obliged to put back towards the firft head-land, into a fmall cove, juft big enough to fhelter the two boats. Here an accident happened that alarmed us much. After fecuring our boats, we climbed up a rock fcarcely large enough to contain our numbers: having nothing to eat, we betook ourselves to our ufual receipt for hunger, which was going to fleep. We accordingly made a fire, and ftowed ourselves round it as well as we could; but two of our men, being incommoded for want of room, went a little way from us, into a fmall nook, over which a great cliff hung, and ferved them for a canopy. In the middle of the night wo were awakened with a terrible rumbling, which we apprehended to be nothing less than the fhock of an earthquake, which we had before experienced in thefe parts; and this conjecture we had reafon to think not ill-founded, upon hearing hollow groans and cries as of men half swallowed up. We immediately got up, and ran to the place from whence the cries came, and then we were put out of all doubt as to the opinion we had formed of this accident; for here we found the two men almost buried under loofe ftones and earth: but, upon a little farther enquiry, we were undeceived as to the caufe we had imputed this noife to, which we found to be occafioned by the fudden giving way of the impending cliff, which fell a little beyond our people, carrying trees trees and rocks with it, and loose earth; the latter of which fell in part on our men, whom wc, with fome pains, rescued from their uneafy fituation, from which they escaped with fome bruises. The next morning we got out early, and the wind being wefterly, rowed the whole day for the headJand we had feen the night before; but when we had got that length, could find no harbour, but were obliged to go into a fandy bay, and lay the whole night upon our oars; and a mott dreadful one it proved, blowing and raining very hard. Here we were fo pinched with hunger, that we eat the fhoes off our feet, which confifted of raw feal-tkin. In the morning we got out of the bay; but the inceffant foul weather had overcome us, and we began to be indifferent as to what befel us, and the boats, in the night, making into a bay, we nearly loft the yawl, a breaker having filled her, and driven her afhore upon the beach. This, by fome of our accounts, was Christmas-day; but our accounts had fo often been interrupted by our diftreffes, that there was no depending upon them. Upon feeing the yawl in this imminent danger, the barge flood off and went into another bay to the northward of it, where it was fmoother lying; but there was no poflibility of getting on shore. In the night the yawl joined us again. The next day was fo bad, that we defpaired reaching the head-land, forowed down the bay in hopes of getting fome feals, as that animal had been seen the day before, but met with no fuccefs; fo returned to the fame bay we had been in the night before, where the turf having abated fomewhat, we went afhore and picked up a few shell-fish, In the morning we got on board early, and ran along shore to the VOL. X. weftward H |