I now gave up all hopes of finding any more land in this ocean, and came to
a resolution to steer directly for the west entrance of the Straits of
Magalhaeus, with a view of coasting the out, or south side of Terra del
Fuego round Cape Horn to the strait Le Maire. As the world has but a very
imperfect knowledge of this shore, I thought the coasting of it would be of
more advantage, both to navigation and to geography, than any thing I could
expect to find in a higher latitude. In the afternoon of this day, the wind
blew in squalls, and carried away the main top-gallant mast.
A very strong gale northerly, with hazy rainy weather, on the 28th, obliged
us to double-reef the fore and main top-sail to hand the mizen top-sail,
and get down the fore top-gallant yard. In the morning, the bolt rope of
the main top-sail broke, and occasioned the sail to be split. I have
observed that the ropes to all our sails, the square sails especially, are
not of a size and strength sufficient to wear out the canvass. At noon,
latitude 55 deg. 20' S., longitude 134 deg. 16' W., a great swell from N.W.:
Albatrosses and blue peterels seen.
Next day towards noon, the wind abating, we loosed all the reefs out of the
top-sails, rigged another top-gallant mast, and got the yards across.
