He Accordingly Coasted Them All With The Greatest Care, And Found In
Most Of Them Considerable Quantities Of Water In The Holes Of The
Rocks, But So Mixed With The Sea-Water That It Was Unfit For Use;
And Therefore They Were Obliged To Go Farther.
The first thing they
did was to make a deck to their boat, because they found it was
impracticable to navigate those seas in an open vessel.
Some of the
crew joined them by the time the work was finished; and the captain
having obtained a paper, signed by all his men, importing that it
was their desire that he should go in search of water, he
immediately put to sea, having first taken an observation by which
he found they were in the latitude of 28 degrees 13 minutes south.
They had not been long at sea before they had sight of the
continent, which appeared to them to lie about sixteen miles north
by west from the place they had suffered shipwreck. They found
about twenty-five or thirty fathoms water; and as night drew on,
they kept out to sea; and after midnight stood in for the land, that
they might be near the coast in the morning. On the 9th of June
they found themselves as they reckoned, about three miles from the
shore; on which they plied all that day, sailing sometimes north,
sometimes west; the country appearing low, naked, and the coast
excessively rocky; so that they thought it resembled the country
near Dover. At last they saw a little creek, into which they were
willing to put, because it appeared to have a sandy bottom; but when
they attempted to enter it, the sea ran so high that they were
forced to desist.
On the 10th they remained on the same coast, plying to and again, as
they had done the day before; but the weather growing worse and
worse, they were obliged to abandon their shallop, and even throw
part of their breath overboard, because it hindered them from
clearing themselves of the water, which their vessel began to make
very fast. That night it rained most terribly, which, though it
gave them much trouble, afforded them hopes that it would prove a
great relief to the people they had left behind them on the islands.
The wind began to sink on the 11th; and as it blew from the west-
south-west, they continued their course to the north, the sea
running still so high that it was impossible to approach the shore.
On the 12th, they had an observation, by which they found themselves
in the latitude of 27 degrees; they sailed with a south-east wind
all that day along the coast, which they found so steep that there
was no getting on shore, inasmuch as there was no creek or low land
without the rocks, as is commonly observed on seacoasts; which gave
them the more pain because within land the country appeared very
fruitful and pleasant.
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