At six the next morning, the Swallow made the signal for having found anchorage; and at eight we anchored in a bay under Cape Gallant, in ten fathom, with a muddy bottom.  The east point of Cape Gallant bore S.W. by 1/4 W. the extreme point of the eastermost land E. by S. a point making the mouth of a river N. by W. and the white patch on Charles’ Island S.W.  The boats being sent out to sound, found good anchorage every-where, except within two cables’ length S.W. of the ship, where it was coral, and deepened to sixteen fathom.  In the afternoon I sent out the master to examine the bay and a large lagoon; and he reported that the lagoon was the most commodious harbour we had yet seen in the strait, having five fathom at the entrance, and from four to five in the middle; that it was capable of receiving a great number of vessels, had three large fresh-water rivers, and plenty of wood and celery.  We had here the misfortune to have a seine spoiled, by being entangled with the wood that lies sunk at the mouth of these rivers; but though we caught but little fish, we had an incredible number of wild ducks, which we found a very good succedaneum.

The mountains are here very lofty, and the master of the Swallow climbed one of the highest, hoping that from the summit he should obtain a sight of the South Sea; but he found his view intercepted by mountains still higher on the southern shore:  Before he descended, however, he erected a pyramid, within which he deposited a bottle containing a shilling, and a paper on which was written the ship’s name, and the date of the year; a memorial which possibly may remain there as long as the world endures.

In the morning of the 24th we took two boats and examined Cordes bay, which we found very much inferior to that in which the ship lay; it had indeed a larger lagoon, but the entrance of it was very narrow, and barred by a shoal, on which there was not sufficient depth of water for a ship of burden to float:  The entrance of the bay also was rocky, and within it the ground was foul.

In this place we saw an animal that resembled an ass, but it had a cloven hoof, as we discovered afterwards by tracking it, and was as swift as a deer.  This was the first animal we had seen in the streight, except at the entrance, where we found the guanicoes that we would fain have trafficked for with the Indians.  We shot at this creature, but we could not hit it; probably it is altogether unknown to the naturalists of Europe.

The country about this place has the most dreary and forlorn appearance that can be imagined; the mountains on each side the streight are of an immense height:  About one-fourth of the ascent is covered with trees of a considerable size; in the space from thence to the middle of the mountain there is nothing but withered shrubs; above these are patches of snow, and fragments of broken rock; and the summit is altogether rude and naked, towering above the clouds in vast crags that are piled upon each other, and look like the ruins of nature devoted to everlasting sterility and desolation.