It rained excessively hard all the first part of the night, and was extremely cold; and though we had not a dry thread about us, and no wood could be found for firing, we were obliged to pass the night in that uncomfortable situation, without any covering, shivering in our wet clothes.  The frost coming on with the morning, it was impossible for any of us to get a moment’s sleep; and having flung overboard our provision the day before, there being no prospect of finding any thing to eat on this coast, in the morning we pulled out of the cove, but found so great a sea without, that we could make but little of it.  After tugging all day, towards night we put in among some small islands, landed upon one of them, and found it a mere swamp.  As the weather was the same, we passed this night much as we had done the preceding; sea-tangle was all we could get to eat at first, but the next day we had better luck; the surgeon got a goose, and we found materials for a good fire.

We were confined here three or four days, the weather all that time proving so bad that we could not put out.  As soon as it grew moderate, we left this place and shaped our course to the northward; and perceiving a large opening between very high land and a low point, we steered for it, and when got that length, found a large bay, down which we rowed, flattering ourselves there might be a passage that way; but towards night we came to the bottom of the bay, and finding no outlet, we were obliged to return the same way we came, having found nothing the whole day to alleviate our hunger.

CHAPTER IV.

Occurrences on our Voyage.—­We encounter bad Weather and various Dangers and Distresses.—­Leave a Part of our Crew behind on a desert Shore.—­A strange Cemetry discovered.—­Narrow Escape from Wreck.—­Return to Mount Misery.—­We are visited by a Chanos Indian Cacique, who talks Spanish, with whom we again take our Departure from the Island.

Next night we put into a little cove, which, from the great quantity of red wood found there, we called Red-wood Cove.  Leaving this place in the morning, we had the wind southerly, blowing fresh, by which we made much way that day to the northward.  Towards evening we were in with a pretty large island.  Putting ashore on it, we found it clothed with the finest trees we had ever seen, their stems running up to a prodigious height, without knot or branch, and as straight as cedars; the leaf of these trees resembles the myrtle leaf, only somewhat larger.  I have seen trees larger than these in circumference on the coast of Guinea, and there only; but for a length of stem, which gradually tapered, I have no where met with any to compare to them.  The wood was of a hard substance, and if not too heavy, would have made good masts; the dimensions of some of these trees being equal to a main-mast of a first-rate man of war.  The shore was covered with drift wood of a very large size, most of it cedar, which makes a brisk fire; but is so subject to snap and fly, that when we waked in the morning, after a sound sleep, we found our clothes singed in many places with the sparks, and covered with splinters.