he south-west, were driven to the eastward by the
united force of the storm and of the currents; so that next day in the
morning we found ourselves near seven leagues to the eastward of Staten
Land. The violence of the current, which had set us with so much
precipitation to the eastward, together with the force and constancy of
the westerly winds, soon taught us to consider the doubling of Cape Horn
as an enterprise that might prove too mighty for our efforts, though some
amongst us had lately treated the difficulties which former voyagers were
said to have met with in this undertaking as little better than
chimerical, and had supposed them to arise rather from timidity and
unskilfulness than from the real embarrassments of the winds and seas.
But we were severely convinced that these censures were rash and
ill-grounded, for the distresses with which we struggled during the three
succeeding months will not easily be paralleled in the relation of any
former naval expedition.

From the storm which came on before we had well got clear of Straits le
Maire, we had a continual succession of such tempestuous weather as
surprised the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and obliged
them to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were
inconsiderable gales compared with the violence of these winds, which
raised such short and at the same time such mountainous waves as greatly
surpassed in danger all seas known in any other part of the globe. And it
was not without great reason that this unusual appearance filled us with
continual terror, for had any one of these waves broke fairly over us, it
must in all probability have sent us to the bottom.

SEAS MOUNTAINS HIGH.

It was on the 7th of March, as has been already observed, that we passed
Straits le Maire, and were immediately afterwards driven to the eastward
by a violent storm and the force of the current which set that way. For
the four or five succeeding days we had hard gales of wind from the same
quarter, with a most prodigious swell; so that though we stood, during
all that time, towards the south-west, yet we had no reason to imagine we
had made any way to the westward. In this interval we had frequent
squalls of rain and snow, and shipped great quantities of water; after
which for three or four days, though the seas ran mountains high, yet the
weather was rather more moderate. But on the 18th we had again strong
gales of wind with extreme cold. From