were every day about the ship, and large whales were continually swimming by her.  The weather in general was fine, but very cold, and we all agreed notwithstanding the hope we had once formed, that the only difference between the middle of summer here, and the middle of winter in England, lies in the length of the days.  On Saturday the 15th, being in latitude 50 deg.33’S. longitude 66 deg.59’W. we were overtaken about six in the evening by the hardest gale at S.W. that I was ever in, with a sea still higher than any I had seen in going round Cape Horn with Lord Anson:  I expected every moment that it would fill us, our ship being much too deep-waisted for such a voyage:  It would have been safest to put before it under our bare poles, but our stock of fresh water was not sufficient, and I was afraid of being driven so far off the land as not to be able to recover it before the whole was exhausted; we therefore lay-to under a balanced mizen, and shipped many heavy seas, though we found our skreen bulk-heads of infinite service.

[Footnote 15:  For an account of his voyage, and of his supposed discovery, see vol. x. page 217.  It seems impossible to reconcile the veracity of his narration with the non-existence of the island here spoken of, which is not now allowed to hold a place in our maps.  But the reader will be better able to form a correct opinion on this subject, after he has read the 5th Section, where the discovery of Cowley is pretty fully discussed.—­E.]

[Footnote 16:  These may be considered the same as what are now called Falkland’s Islands, the name said to have been given them by Captain Strong, in 1639; but they had been frequently seen before that period, as by Sir Richard Hawkins in 1594, and Davis in 1592.  They have various other names, and are pretty well known.—­E.]

The storm continued with unabated violence the whole night, but about eight in the morning began to subside.  At ten, we made sail under our courses, and continued to steer for the land till Tuesday the 18th, when, at four in the morning, we saw it from the mast-head.  Our latitude was now 51 deg.8’S. our longitude 71 deg.4’W. and Cape Virgin Mary, the north entrance of the Streights of Magellan, bore S. 19 deg.50’W. distant nineteen leagues.  As we had little or no wind, we could not get in with the land this day; the next morning, however, it being northerly, I stood in to a deep bay, at the bottom of which there appeared to be a harbour, but I found it barred, the sea breaking quite from one side of it to the other; and at low water I could perceive that it was rocky, and almost all dry:  The water was shoal at a good distance from it, and I was in six fathom before I stood out again.  In this place there seemed to be plenty of fish, and we saw many porpoises swimming after them, that were as white as snow, with black spots; a very uncommon and beautiful sight.  The land here has the same appearance as about Port Desire, all downs, without a single tree.