rwards perished. But the Gloucester, by the
loss of her mainmast, sailed so very heavily that we had seldom any more
than our topsails set, and yet were frequently obliged to lie to for her,
and I conceive that in the whole we lost little less than a month by our
attendance upon her, in consequence of the various mischances she
encountered. In all this run it was remarkable that we were rarely many
days together without seeing great numbers of birds, which is a proof
that there are many islands, or at least rocks, scattered all along at no
very considerable distance from our track. Some indeed there are marked
in Spanish charts, but the frequency of the birds seems to evince that
there are many more than have been hitherto discovered, for the greatest
part of the birds, we observed, were such as are known to roost on shore,
and the manner of their appearance sufficiently made out that they came
from some distant haunt every morning, and returned thither again in the
evening, for we never saw them early or late, and the hour of their
arrival and departure gradually varied, which we supposed was occasioned
by our running nearer their haunts or getting farther from them.

The trade wind continued to favour us without any fluctuation from the
end of June till towards the end of July, but on the 26th of July, being
then, as we esteemed, about three hundred leagues distant from the
Ladrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again to
the eastward in four days' time. This was a most dispiriting incident, as
it at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially, too, as it
was attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester, for in one part
of those four days the wind flattened to a calm, and the ships rolled
very deep, by which means the Gloucester's forecap split and her topmast
came by the board and broke her foreyard directly in the slings. As she
was hereby rendered incapable of making any sail for some time, we were
obliged, as soon as a gale sprung up, to take her in tow, and near twenty
of the healthiest and ablest of our seaman were taken from the business
of our own ship and were employed for eight or ten days together on board
the Gloucester in repairing her damages. But these things, mortifying as
we thought them, were but the beginning of our disasters, for scarce had
our people finished their business in the Gloucester before we met with a
most violent storm in the western board, whic