At noon on the 26th, we had a good meridian observation, and were exactly in the parallel of Diego Ramirez; and at eight A. M. an opportunity offered, for about an hour, for taking a set of distances of the sun and moon, of which both Mr. Bradley and myself availed ourselves; the result of which was (taking the mean of both observations, which agreed within a few miles) 292 deg. 38’ east, at the time of observation; so that we must then have been very near the place in which this island is laid down, for we could rely upon the observations:  but as nothing appeared, we hauled in for the land, the looming of which we frequently saw, but the heavy black squalls which were constantly gathering upon it, rendered it too indistinct to be able to determine any particular point.

At this time several long strings of wild ducks flew past the ship:  in the evening the weather cleared a little in the horizon, and we set the extremes of Terra del Fuego from north by west to west-north-west, distant about 10 leagues.  We continued our course north-east, and I think we may safely venture to determine, that there is no island so situated from Cape Horn as this Diego Ramirez is said to be.

For several days before we made the land, and every day after we left it, until the 27th, we fell in with a great number of very high ice islands.  Here also we met with divers and seals.  We had got but a very small distance to the eastward of the cape, when the winds inclined to the northward, and from that to the north-east, and blew a fresh gale.

From the 27th of November until the 12th of December, we had the wind constantly in the north-east quarter, which I believe to be rather uncommon near Cape Horn for such a length of time; as ships in general, that are bound into the south sea, find it rather tedious getting to the westward round this cape.

The ship’s company now began to show much disposition to the scurvy, and what made it more distressing, we had nothing in the ship with which we could hope to check the progress of that destructive disease, except a little essence of malt, that we continued to serve to the ship’s company.  We had only to hope for a speedy passage to the Cape of Good Hope, where we should, without a doubt, with the good things which were to be had there, be able to re-instate their health perfectly:  I was so far from being surprised at this appearance of the scurvy amongst the company of the Sirius, so soon after leaving her port, that it was with me rather a matter of wonder that it had not shown itself sooner; and so it must be with every person who considers how they had lived since we left the Cape outward bound; during that time (about 13 or 14 months) they had not tasted a bit of fresh provisions of any kind, nor had they touched a single blade of vegetables.