of making any further attempt to double the cape.  It was night before we could get back to the bay, where we were compelled to leave four of our men, in order to save, if possible, the remainder; for we must all have certainly perished, if more than sixteen had been crowded into so small a boat:  this bay we named Marine Bay.  When we had returned to this bay, we found the surf ran so high, that we were obliged to lay upon our oars all night; and it was now resolved to go back to Wager’s island, there to linger out a miserable life, as we had not the least prospect of returning home.

But before we set out, in consequence of this resolution, it was necessary, if possible, to get some little stock of seal to support us in a passage, upon which, whenever we might put in, we were not likely to meet with any supply.  Accordingly, it was determined to go up that lagoon, in which, we had before got some seal, to provide ourselves with some more, but we did not leave the bay till we had made some search after the unhappy marines we had left on shore.  Could we have found them, we had now agreed to take them on board again, though it would have been the certain destruction of us all.  This, at another time, would have been mere madness; but we were now resigned to our fate, which we none of us thought far off; however, there was nothing to be seen of them, and no traces but a musket on the beach.

Upon returning up the lagoon, we were so fortunate as to kill some seal, which we boiled and laid in the boat for sea-stock.  While we were ranging along shore in detached parties in quest of this and whatever other eatable might come in our way, our surgeon, who was then by himself, discovered a pretty large hole, which seemed to lead to some den or repository within the rocks.  It was not so rude or natural, but that there were some signs of its having been cleared and made more accessible by industry.  The surgeon for some time hesitated whether he should venture in, from his uncertainty as to the reception he might meet with from any inhabitant; but his curiosity getting the better of his fears, he determined to go in, which he did upon his hands and knees, as the passage was too low for him to enter otherwise.

After having proceeded a considerable way thus, he arrived at a spacious chamber, but whether hollowed out by hands, or natural, he could not be positive.  The light into this chamber was conveyed through a hole at the top; in the midst was a kind of bier, made of sticks laid crossways, supported by props of about five feet in height.  Upon this bier five or six bodies were extended, which, in appearance, had been deposited there a long time, but had suffered no decay or diminution.  They were without covering, and the flesh of their bodies was become perfectly dry and hard, which whether done by any art or secret the savages may be possessed of, or occasioned by any drying virtue in the air of the cave, could not be guessed.  Indeed, the surgeon finding nothing there to eat, which was his chief inducement for his creeping into this hole, did not amuse himself with long disquisitions, or make that accurate examination which he would have done at another time; but crawling out as he came in, he went and told the first he met of what he had seen.  Some had the curiosity to go in likewise.