On 9th December they met with bad weather and lost their foretop-gallant mast, but the rough handling they got was credited with improving the sailing qualities of the ship, as it took some of the stiffness out of her upperworks.  A meteor was noted on the 23rd, like a small bright cloud, emitting flames, travelling rapidly westward, and disappearing slowly with two sharp explosions.  The same day an eclipse of the sun was observed.

Christmas Day, for which the men had been saving up their allowances of grog, passed in the usual manner, that is, in considerable over-indulgence.  Banks speculates as to what might have happened if they had had bad weather, whilst Cook dismisses the occurrence very shortly:  “The people none of the soberest.”  On the 27th they crossed the mouth of the River Plate, the water being very discoloured, and a good many land insects were found in it.  On 2nd January 1769, they saw some of the shoals of red lobsters like those mentioned by Dampier and Cowley, but they were not found in such quantities as those navigators reported.

On the 11th the shores of Tierra del Fuego were sighted, and on working in closer, the country was found to be less desolate in appearance than they had expected from Anson’s description.  Arriving off the entrance of the Straits of Le Maire, between Staten Island and the mainland, they were driven back by the tide and a strong adverse wind, and trying to shelter under Cape Diego they were carried past, and only after three and a half days’ hard work were they able to get through the straits.  Cook has left sailing directions for this passage which are followed to the present day.  Banks and Solander were ashore for a short time on Staten Island, and returned delighted with the addition of some hundred new plants for their collection.  Cook, with an eye to the welfare of his crew, remarks:  “They returned on board, bringing with them several plants and flowers, etc., most of them unknown in Europe, and in that consisted their whole value.”  Cook and Green made a series of observations, “the first ever made so far south in America,” and fixed the position of Cape Diego at 66 degrees West, 54 degrees 39 South; Wharton places it at 65 degrees eight minutes West, 54 degrees 40 minutes South.

On the 15th they anchored in the Bay of Success, for wood and water, and met with some of the inhabitants, with whom, by means of gifts of beads and other trifles, they established friendly relations, and three of them were persuaded to go on board the ship.  Though by no means a small race of men, they were found to be nothing like the giants reported by the early navigators in this part of the world.  They had in their possession buttons, glass, canvas, brown cloth, etc., showing conclusively they had previously some communication with Europeans.  Their clothing consisted chiefly of skins, roughly cured, and a plentiful covering of paint and dirt.  The only personal property on which they appeared to set any store were their bows and arrows, which were carefully made and always in good order.  Their food appeared to consist of seal and shell-fish; their houses, merely shelters of boughs covered with grass and leaves built to windward of a small fire.