From the 16th, when we were first driven from our anchoring-ground, to this time, we suffered an uninterrupted series of danger, fatigue, and misfortunes.  The ship worked and sailed very ill, the weather was dark and tempestuous, with thunder, lightning, and rain, and the boats, which I was obliged to keep always employed, even when we were under sail, to procure us water, were in continual danger of being lost, as well by the hard gales which constantly blew, as by the sudden gusts which frequently rushed upon us with a violence that is scarcely to be conceived.  This distress was the more severe as it was unexpected, for I had experienced very different weather in these parts about two years before with Commodore Byron.  It has generally been thought, that upon this coast the winds are constantly from the S. to the S.W., though Frezier mentions his having had strong gales and high seas from the N.N.W. and N.W. quarter, which was unhappily my case.

Having once more got my people and boats safe on board, I made sail from this turbulent climate, and thought myself fortunate not to have left any thing behind me except the wood, which our people had cut for firing.

The island of Masafuero lies in latitude 33 deg.45’S., longitude 80 deg.46’W. of London.  Its situation is west of Juan Fernandes, both being nearly in the same latitude, and by the globe, it is distant about thirty-one leagues.  It is very high and mountainous, and at a distance appears like one hill or rock:  It is of a triangular form, and about seven or eight leagues in circumference.  The south part, which we saw when we first made the island, at a distance of three-and-twenty leagues, is much the highest:  On the north end there are several spots of clear ground, which perhaps might admit of cultivation.

The author of the account of Lord Anson’s voyage mentions only one part of this island as affording anchorage, which is on the north side, and in deep water, but we saw no part where there was not anchorage:  On the west side in particular, there is anchorage at about a mile from the shore in twenty fathom, and at about two miles and a half in forty and forty-five fathom, with a fine black sand at the bottom.  This author also says, that “there is a reef of rocks running off the eastern point of the island about two miles in length, which may be seen by the sea’s breaking over them;” but in this he is mistaken, there is no reef of rocks, or shoal running off the eastern point, but there is a reef of rocks and sand running off the western side, near the south end of it.  He is also mistaken as to the distance of this island from Juan Fernandes, and its direction, for he says the distance is twenty-two leagues, and the direction W. by S., but we found the distance nearly one-third more, and the direction is due west, for, as I have before observed, the latitude of both islands is nearly the same.  The goats that he mentions we found upon it in the same abundance, and equally easy to be caught.