qualls, with thick hazy weather. At half-past one in
the afternoon, it blew a perfect hurricane; so that I judged it highly
dangerous to run any longer before it, and therefore brought the
ships to, with their heads to the southward, under the foresails and
mizen-stay-sails. At this time the Resolution sprung a leak, which, at
first, alarmed us not a little. It was found to be under the starboard
buttock; where, from the bread-room, we could both hear and see the
water rush in; and, as we then thought, two feet under water. But in
this we were happily mistaken; for it was afterward found to be even
with the water-line, if not above it, when the ship was upright. It
was no sooner discovered, than the fish-room was found to be full of
water, and the casks in it afloat; but this was, in a great measure,
owing to the water not finding its way to the pumps through the coals
that lay in the bottom of the room. For, after the water was baled
out, which employed us till midnight, and had found its way directly
from the leak to the pumps, it appeared that one pump kept it under,
which gave us no small satisfaction. In the evening, the wind veered
to the south, and its fury, in some degree, ceased. On this we set
the main-sail, and two topsails close-reefed, and stretched to the
westward. But at eleven o'clock the gale again increased, and obliged
us to take in the topsails, till five o'clock the next morning, when
the storm began to abate, so that we could bear to set them again.

The weather now began to clear up, and being able to see several
leagues round us, I steered more to the northward. At noon, the
latitude, by observation, was 50 deg. 1'; longitude 229 deg. 26'.[1] I now
steered N.W. by N., with a fresh gale at S.S.E. and fair weather. But
at nine in the evening, it began again to blow hard, and in squalls,
with rain. With such weather, and the wind between S.S.E. and S.W. I
continued the same course till the 30th, at four in the morning, when
I steered N. by W. in order to make the land. I regretted very much
indeed that I could not do it sooner; for this obvious reason, that
we were now passing the place where geographers[2] have placed the
pretended strait of Admiral de Fonte. For my own part, I give no
credit to such vague and improbable stories, that carry their own
confutation along with them. Nevertheless, I was very desirous of
keeping the American coast aboard, in order to clear up this point
beyond dispute. B